The two nuns
August 3 2024
The two nuns were visible in the distance as Filly drove down the dusty road. She was going the speed limit, sixty miles per hour and it was ninety degrees outside so the two nuns must be hot, she thought. She saw them in the distance quite far away from the road, in their light blue robes and white habit around their heads.
She grew up respecting nuns, learning discipline and obedience and character formation at the catholic school she had attended since childhood. She went all the way through the ninth grade and most of her teachers had been nuns. She had a high opinion of them and now as a journalist, she could write about them from a different perspective. From the eyes of an adult instead of a child.
She was excited about interviewing the two nuns and as she got closer, she noticed that they did not look in her direction and it looked like they were working in the field. They were standing among a wild pasture and she was not sure what their purpose was in the field.
The light blue fabric that went all the way to the ground was clearly visible as well as the white habit on top. And whether they were planting seeds or pulling weeds or watering, their apparel must have been beastly hot in the dry heat. She thought about the work that they did in the convent and thought that perhaps they were growing olives, or pistachios or peaches. This was in fact a very lush and prolific place for growing produce, and the convent liked to be self sufficient.
She had learned that the nuns were visiting from Whales and England and she wondered if they were doing volunteer work here or trying to commence getting charitable donations to aid in their ministry. Their work in the field was obviously a great act of service. The nuns were very good at educating children which was their primary objective but they also helped take care of the elderly.
She was very much looking forward to talking to them but if they were very busy in the field in the middle of a project, they may not be able to keep their appointment with her. They did not turn in her direction as she got closer to them in her car, and they appeared to be facing each other and perhaps having a conversation about something.
She saw a tractor in the distance rumbling down the dirt road with a cloud of smoke behind in in the beating summer sun. She rolled down her window and leaned out a bit and waved to see if she could attract attention as she approached closer to the nuns. They still did not notice her so she continued on to try to find the road that would lead her to the appointment that was scheduled in their main building. She had no idea if they would be able to keep their appointment because of their work, but she had been driving for hours to get there.
She noticed that the sky with the sun shining was the exact color of pale cornflower blue that matched their robes, and the sky was dotted with puffy white clouds. The yellow grassy fields had rolled on for hours, punctuated by low wood fences that matched the lay of the land going up and down and up and down… for miles.
And then almost as suddenly as she had seen the nuns in the distance she saw a bright patch of lively green, beautiful perfectly shaped trees in the middle of what looked like a desert; huge because they had been cultivated and watered, a bright contrast to the dusty desiccated land.
She pulled over to the side of the road and inspected the area in front of her and saw even farther in the distance, a faint dust that looked like children playing outside in the sun. Maybe that was where the building was. She got back in her car and headed in that direction.
She made one last attempt as she drove, to attract the attention of the nuns by yelling “hello, hello” but she couldn’t get close enough to get them to look as there was no direct road in the field leading to where they were standing and there was no way to get close. She did not have the proper shoes for trodding across the dusty hot vegetation. So she continued on to where the children were. As she got close, she saw that the majority of them were ten years old or younger and appeared to be the children of migrant workers and they were being cared for during the working hours and educated by the nuns. They were delightful.
The children had a small colt with them with long legs and the name of the creature was filly which was funny because that was her nickname and she thought it was quite ironic. The children willingly gave her an interview and gave a glowing account of the nuns and how they were learning about God, and good things, and were enjoying lunch while they spoke.
They had a brown sack lunch, each of them, that had been prepared for them at the convent, with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with grape jelly, sliced apples, and a few cheese cubes and a giant chocolate chip cookie…the puffy kind that kids covet so they can have a bargaining tool for trades.
Children like to swap food sometimes, quite a normal childhood event. Filly waited a bit longer after talking to the children for the nuns to come in from the field but they never did and remained far off in the distance. As she left with all of her information, she noticed a large donation box that anyone who wished to, could make a donation to help support the work of the lovely nuns.
So she dug into her wallet and found a twenty dollar bill and pushed it into the little wooden crack in the box, and waved at the children as they ran around with the colt back to the main building with their local caretakers, who had brought them lunch, and got back in her car . She never did get too close to the blue nuns but she waved them goodbye as she left and hoped that she would have another opportunity to speak to them before they went back to their country.
This story was made wile driving on California highway five somewhere before exit 365 and the nuns were not real as they were some kind of perhaps “water pipes” but from a distance I thought they truly looked like blue nuns. I thought about how much I liked the story of Brer Rabbit and the tar baby growing up, because the tar baby fooled the rabbit who thought it was real…the same way I thought the nuns in the field were real, not believing they were tar babies, or water pipes but real ladies working out in the field. It was inspiring.
It made me laugh because I even took pictures of “the nuns” and felt awed by their labor. I did not actually have an interview and do not know if the nuns have ever actually visited the USA from Europe, but I thought it would make a good story to pretend that the nuns were here and that I made a special trip to see them and interview them.
The entire conversation and story was fiction and was held, humorously, with something that was inanimate and incapable of any conversation lol. But the difference, was that the story I was telling, was based on the belief that I had, that all the nuns I have know, had a positive effect on children and their families and provided care and education. Even though the story if fiction, it is based on that fact. The point that I am making is that the belief of the story teller matters, is actually is crucial to the value that the story has, and the choice of which details are given, has a definite editorial influence on the way readers receive the “information” being given. If I had believed that the nuns were bad, I would have not wanted to interview them, and would have not expected to see children nearby, and would not have even written about them.
Last but not least, the photo I showed above was edited because the moment where I saw what I actually thought were nuns, was driven by too fast to get a picture without blur.
