THE THREE LIVES OF CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING (#31)

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

How I went back to Sequoia, where my sister betrayed me again

So I made my way north again. This time I flew straight as an arrow, not from pride or exaltation but simply because I didn’t want to take the trouble anymore to show off my indestructible mortal body on the long and weary trail home. Thus far it had done no good at all, and possibly some harm. I hadn’t inspired a single person to learn about the world of Light and Love. To everyone I met I was a freak of their world, not a messenger from the next. I was forced to reflect that my new place in the world was not so different from the one I occupied in my childhood.
When I walked in the door of our cabin, Jocelyn hugged me. Matilda looked sour. “You put us in a real spot when you ran away,” she said. “We were nearly arrested by the Duke’s men.”
Jocelyn said, “Where have you been?”
“In the great city,” I told her, and left it at that. I knew she was eager to hear more, but I hadn’t much heart to recount my adventures.
“If you stay, you must do your part,” Matilda said. And that was certainly my intention, in the coming days, but my spirits were so low it was hard to comply. I did not want the animals to suffer, so I fed and watered them. Their thoughts told me they were glad to have me back. Then I lay down in a patch of clean hay in the barn while my soul left my body and wandered I don’t know where. At the end of each day I went back to the cabin and sat at the table without talking, consuming only vegetable broth and no more.

(to be continued tomorrow)