THE THREE LIVES OF CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING (#53)

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

How the Duke began to hear things, and Jonathan’s dilemma

“Mercy, Christina!” Belinda sat up quickly in her rocker on the porch when I lit down in front of her.
“I’m sorry I was gone so long. Is the Duke angry?” For I was terribly worried about what he might have done to my sisters in my absence.
She laughed. “You only left yesterday, my dear.”
I was flabbergasted. It had felt like a thousand years and a split-second at the same time.
That afternoon I took up my seat next to the Duke, who made a few jokes about instant enlightenment and then embarked on his round of bureaucratic proceedings. When I looked at the all too familiar scene—him and the boys and the sleeping animals sprawled around them on the platform—the Light within me trembled and shrank, then vacated my soul. Frantically I tried to call it back. But the more I tried, the more it retreated.

(to be continued tomorrow)