A Perfect SEAL

Her voice kind of drifts off. I like the shower curtains too. Sometimes they have flowers. I remember when Mary used to wear a dress that had castles all over it. I wonder whatever happened to that dress.

“Oh, and Tulip is going to help you,” she says quickly, as though she just remembered. Her eyes flicker toward the front of the room and I glance back over my shoulder, the way I came. Tulip shuffles in, looking around nervously. She sees me and smiles, then hurries in my direction.

I’m not sure why, but this sort of sours the experience for me. “But Tulip hasn't had her ceremony yet,” I blurt out.

Agatha scowls at me, as though the ceremony is something we’re not supposed to mention. “Won’t be long now,” she sniffs. “You both need to be trained up, so just do these bags and try not to complain so much.”

I cough back a retort. Try not to complain so much? Since when do I complain about anything?

But then I remember she's been working with Mama for years. Who knows what she's heard. Mama doesn't really keep her dissatisfactions to herself.

“Angel will explain it all to you,” Agatha tells Tulip when she walks up next to me. “If you get through all of these bags, there are more stacked up by the back door.”

“Wow, that's a lot of bags,” Tulip breathes. Her eyes are wide with excitement.

And it is exciting, I guess. I was sort of looking forward to doing this myself. I want to see what other people think is suitable to give away. What kind of treasures are in the bags. It’s definitely kind of like opening presents. They're not presents for me, exactly, but still. I was going to enjoy the element of surprise.

“So how do we get started?” she asks me. She looks at me just like normal, like everything is fine. Then I realize I'm being cranky for no good reason. I try to smile like I would have a week ago, when we were both girls.

“So, we just go through the bags and pull out what we can use. Keep the white bags. Put everything we can't use in the black bags and stick them over there so they can be donated to the Salvation Army. Whatever.”

She shrugs. “Well, that sounds easy. Let's get started!”

She picks up a black bag and heaves it onto the long table. We untie it carefully so that it can be reused and tip out the contents. Small shoes tumble across the table in kid sizes. Stacks of dingy, formerly white dishtowels roll out in a clump.

“We keep all this?” she asks absentmindedly. She's distracted by the assortment too.

“Well, I suppose we should keep the shoes, right? Can never have too many shoes around here. What with all the babies and everything.”

She bites her lips and smiles at me as she pushes the shoes toward the other end of the table which I suppose is the keeping area.

“Maybe you'll be having a baby soon, eh? Now that you’re a woman?” she smirks at me, carefully hiding her broken tooth. She's blushing a little bit too as she’s thinking about it.

“I don't know… maybe,” I answer slowly. I hadn't even thought about that part. Baby? A baby with…

“Yeah, that's totally what's going to happen!” she continues excitedly. “We'll get our Masters and then get married and then… Who knows! Maybe we can be pregnant at the same time!”

I have to smile back. The idea is rather exciting. After all the things I've discovered in the last few days, I should have known there would be even more coming up.

“Yes, that would be pretty amazing,” I have to admit. Her excitement is infectious, and I feel my bad attitude melting away.

The hours go by quickly. We are almost to the end of the first pile of bags and have accumulated an impressive array of whites and shoes and a few sun hats. There was even a bolt of canvas cloth in one bag, something that will be easy to use. A few more woolen blankets didn't hurt either.

All of the T-shirts that have sports logos or inappropriate slogans, ladies’ blue jeans, and commercially made underwear have gone back into the black bags and are sitting by the back door, slumped like sleeping bear cubs. I hear a noise behind me and turn around to see Brother Owen walking into the room. As soon as our eyes meet, my heart leaps. A corner of his mouth curls in a familiar smile that he quickly transforms into a more serious expression.

“Brother Owen!” Tulip exclaims. “It's so nice to see you here!”

Mary scowls at him from her chair by the door. She's reading a dog-eared, tattered book that she pulled out of one of the bags and immediately took away to read. I see her lean to one side and stuff the book under her wide bottom to hide it away.

“I just want to see how you are doing with your new duties?”

“Oh, we love it!” Tulip chatters. “People have been so generous! Look at these cute little baby shoes!”

He smiles graciously at her, and I watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows. In fact, he stares at her just a moment too long. Then he looks away, as if aware I noticed it.

“Can I speak with you for just a moment?” he says to me.

I nod, biting back an acidic surge of what must be jealousy.