THE THREE LIVES OF CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING (#17)

As Told by the Holy Woman in Her Own Words
A Hundred or So Years after the End of the World

I came to lying flat on my back with all the women gathered around me. I had twirled for six hours straight, one of them told me.
It was dark outside now and the enormous room was lit by hundreds of candles. Everything looked so beautiful I just started singing as I lay there on the floor. I don’t know what the words or music were or even if I was singing in a language I knew. I sang and I sang until an older woman with a serious face leaned over me. I knew she must be the leader of this religious house and I paused in my singing.

“What is your name, girl?”
“Christina,” I said.
“No,” she said, frowning. “You are Christina the Astonishing.”

Christina the Astonishing. Finally someone in this world had given me my true name! I opened my mouth to sing in celebration, but with a sudden brusque movement she put her finger over my lips and shook her head.
This was the first sign I had that I was not just astonishing to them, but maybe a little too astonishing. Possibly mad. So I fell silent.

(to be continued tomorrow)