Free Black as Night: A Fairy Tale Retold by Regina Doman Page B

Leon guessed Matt had something else planned, but as they were novices, they had to obey the novice master’s orders.
    Leon, who had his hands full with the kids, said to Marisol, “ Nuh worry. And where do you live again?”
    While the woman talked and gestured, Leon found his eye caught by a white car driving slowly along the streets. Nice cars driving in this area usually were either lost or belonged to drug dealers. But the dealers he knew of didn’t drive white cars.
    He focused in on what the woman was saying, and by the time he had gotten a sense of where she lived, the car had moved on.
    “High school duty this afternoon,” Father Bernard said, closing the door after they had said their farewells. “Let’s go start Midday Prayer first.”
    After praying Midday Prayer, the friars who were in the friary gathered for lunch. Leon noticed that there wasn’t much for lunch, just bean stew. And not much of it.
    “We’re almost out,” Brother George said, scraping the last of the pan. “I think this was supposed to be dinner, too.”
    “God will provide for His poor,” Father Bernard said easily. “Someone might send a food donation soon. And we can always fast.”
    After lunch, Leon helped Brother Herman gather cleaning supplies and mops and started over to the high school to continue the massive project of cleaning the abandoned building. To Leon’s surprise, Nora emerged from the vestibule suddenly, wearing jeans and an oversized red shirt.
    “Hey, there you are!” he exclaimed. “How’d your errand go?”
    She seemed surprised at the question, and dropped her eyes. “As well as I could expect,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t get so far with the vestibule. Can I help you now?”
    “Certainly. Follow the train,” Brother Herman said, starting down the narrow hallway. “We’re working in the high school today.”
    Leon gestured for Nora to go ahead of him. “You had lunch?” he queried as they walked down the aisle of the church.
    “I’m fine. I had Danish and toast for breakfast in my room and I just had the rest for lunch,” she said. “Father Francis sent them down to me last night.”
    “Day-old bread and pastries. We usually get tons of them from the bakeries,” Brother Leon agreed. “Pretty much a staple around here. How are you feeling?”
    “I’m fine,” she said, a bit distantly.
    “You look fine,” he said, not believing her.
    She glanced over at him. “I feel alone,” she said flatly.
    “Ah,” Brother Leon said. “Well, give yourself a reality check. You’re not alone.”
    That seemed to get through to her, and she said quietly, “I suppose you’re right.”
    They followed Brother Herman out the back door of the sacristy, and walked down some steps into the courtyard linking the church, friary, and high school. Brother Herman unlocked the door to the high school.
    “You said this was a new order?” Nora queried.
    “We’re part of a reform movement of the Franciscans,” Leon explained. “I was in one of the established Franciscan orders before, as a novice. But when I heard about Father Francis and Father Bernard starting this new order, I left to join this one.”
    Brother Herman pulled open the creaking metal door, then stepped aside to let Leon, Matt, and Nora through. “We’re cleaning out the classrooms so we can partition them into bedrooms. Let’s start on the top floor and work our way down. That way, hopefully we’ll be in the lower, cooler halls by the time it starts to really get hot.”
    “It’s hot already,” Matt pointed out.
    The high school buildings had four stories, and just about all of them were in poor condition after a year of disuse. After they had trooped upstairs, Brother Herman looked around while Leon and Matt opened the windows to get some air circulating throughout the rooms. “Okay, I guess the first thing to do is get all the furniture into the hallways and stack it up. Then we’ll mop.”
    For the next half hour,