Free The Sands of Time by Sidney Sheldon Page A

for everyone,” Father Berrendo told her. “And I must warn you, it is the strictest order of them all. Once you walk through the gates and take the vows, you have made a promise to God never to leave.”
    Graciela sat there staring out the window, her mind filled with conflicting thoughts. The idea of shutting herself away from the world was terrifying. It would be like going to prison. But on the other hand, what did the world have to offer her? Pain and despair beyond bearing. She had often thought of suicide. This might offer a way out of her misery.
    Father Berrendo said, “It’s up to you, my child. If you like, I will take you to meet the Reverend Mother Prioress.”
    Graciela nodded. “All right.”
    The Reverend Mother studied the face of the young girl before her. Last night for the first time in many, many years she had heard the voice. A young child will come to you. Protect her. “How old are you, my dear?”
    “Fourteen.”
    She’s old enough. In the fourth century the pope decreed that girls could be permitted to become nuns at the age of twelve.
    “I’m afraid,” Graciela said to the Reverend Mother Betina.
    I’m afraid. The words rang in Betina’s mind: I’m afraid…
    That had been so many long years ago. She was speaking to her priest. “I don’t know if I have a calling for this, Father. I’m afraid.”
    “Betina, the first contact with God can be very disturbing, and the decision to dedicate your life to Him is a difficult one.”
    How did I find my calling? Betina wondered.
    She had never been even faintly interested in religion. As a young girl she had avoided church and Sunday School. In her teens she was more interested in parties and clothes and boys. If her friends in Madrid had been asked to select possible candidates to become a nun, Betina would have been at the bottom of the list. More accurately, she would not even have been on their list. But when she was nineteen, events started to happen that changed her life.
    She was in her bed, asleep, when a voice said, “Betina, get up and go outside.”
    She opened her eyes and sat up, frightened. She turned on the bedside lamp and realized she was alone. What a strange dream.
    But the voice had been so real. She lay down again, but it was impossible to go back to sleep.
    “Betina, get up and go outside.”
    It’s my subconscious, she thought. Why would I want to go outside in the middle of the night?
    She turned out the light and a moment later turned it on again. This is crazy.
    But she put on a robe and slippers and went downstairs. The household was asleep.
    She opened the kitchen door, and as she did a wave of fear swept over her, because somehow she knew that she was supposed to go out the back into the yard. She looked around in the darkness, and her eye caught a glint of moonlight shining on an old refrigerator that had been abandoned and was used to store tools.
    Betina suddenly knew why she was there. She walked over to the refrigerator as though hypnotized, and opened it. Her three-year-old brother was inside, unconscious.
    That was the first incident. In time, Betina rationalized it as a perfectly normal experience. I must have heard my brother get up and go out into the yard, and I knew the refrigerator was there, and I was worried about him, so I went outside to check.
    The next experience was not so easy to explain. It happened a month later.
    In her sleep, Betina heard a voice say, “You must put out the fire.”
    She sat up, wide awake, her pulse racing. Again, it was impossible to go back to sleep. She put on a robe and slippers and went into the hallway. No smoke. No fire. She opened her parents’ bedroom door. Everything was normal there. There was no fire in her brother’s bedroom. She went downstairs and looked through every room. There was no sign of a fire.
    I’m an idiot, Betina thought. It was only a dream.
    She went back to bed just as the house was rocked by an explosion. She and her family escaped,