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By the ti; she felt the city waking up Under the ashy light, she let herself into the room Amy was asleep with the television still on, an infomercial for some kind of exercise like ured she didn’t have much more than a couple of hours before soun behind, but there wasn’t any point worrying over that now She splashed so at herself in the ed into jeans and a T-shirt and took her old clothes, the little skirt and stretchy top and fringed jacket she’d worn to the highway, streaked with blood and bits of things she didn’t want to know about, behind thedumpster, where she shoved them in

It seemed as if time had compressed somehow, like an accordion; all the years she had lived and everything that had happened to her were suddenly squeezed below the weight of this one s when Amy was just a baby, how she’d held and rocked her by the , often falling asleep herself Those had been goodshe’d always res into A and rocery sack for herself Then she turned off the television and gently shook Ao"

The little girl was half asleep but allowed Jeanette to dress her She was always like this in the lad it wasn’t so and explaining She gave the girl a cereal bar and a can of warrape pop to drink, and then the two of thehhere the bus had let Jeanette off

She re stone church with its sign out front: OUR LADY OF SORROWS If she did the buses right, she figured, they’d go right by there again

She sat with Amy in the back, an arirl said nothing, except once to say she was hungry again, and Jeanette took another cereal bar from the box she’d put in A and the toothbrush and Airl, ed buses don again and rode for another thirty n for the zoo she wondered if she’d gone too far; but then she remembered that the church had been before the zoo, so it would be after the zoo now, going the other direction

Then she saw it In daylight it looked different, not as big, but it would do They exited through the rear door, and Jeanette zipped up Amy’s jacket and put the knapsack on her while the bus pulled away

She looked and saw the other sign then, the one she ree of a driveway that ran beside the church: CONVENT OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY

She took Amy’s hand and walked up the driveway It was lined with huge trees, so mossy arms that draped over the two of them She didn’t knohat a convent would look like but it turned out to be just a house, though nice: led roof and white triarden out front, and she thought that must be what the nuns did, they s She stepped up to the front door and rang the bell

The woman who answered wasn’t an old lady, like Jeanette had i a robe, whatever those things were called She was young, not much older than Jeanette, and except for the veil on her head was dressed like anybody else, in a skirt and blouse and a pair of brown penny loafers She was also black Before she’d left Iowa, Jeanette had never seen but one or two black people in her life, except on television and in thewith them She knew some folks had probleuessed a black nun would do all right

"Sorry to bother you," Jeanette began "My car broke down out there on the street, and I ondering-"

"Of course," the wo Jeanette had ever heard, like there were notes ofinside the words "Come in, come in, both of you"

The woman stepped back from the door to let Jeanette and A, Jeanette knew, there were other nuns- or praying, which she guessed nuns did a lot of, h, so she supposed that was probably right What she had to do noas get the woman to leave her and Amy alone She knew that as a fact, the way she knew she’d killed a boy last night, and all the rest of it What she was about to do hurt more, but it wasn’t any different otherwise, just more pain on the same spot

"Miss-?"

"Oh, you can just call me Lacey," the woman said "We’re pretty inforirl?" She knelt in front of Amy "Hello there, what’s your nae, alhter is very shy Perhaps it is my accent You see, I aain and took her hand "Do you knohere that is? It is very far away"

"All these nuns frohed, showing her bright teeth "Oh, goodness no! I’m afraid I a Jeanette liked this wo to her voice She liked how she ith Amy, the way she looked at her eyes when she talked to her

"I was racing to get her to school, you see," Jeanette said, "when that old car of ave out"

The woman nodded "Please This way"

She led Jeanette and Ae oak dining table and cabinets with labels on them: CHINA, CANNED GOODS, PASTA AND RICE Jeanette had never thought about nuns eating before She guessed that with all the nuns living in the building, it helped to knoas where in the kitchen The wo cord, hanging on the wall Jeanette had planned the next part well enough She dialed a nuot a plate of cookies for A somebody had actually baked-then, as the recorded voice on the other end told her that it would be cloudy today with a high te in toward evening, she pretended to talk to AAA, nodding along

"Wrecker’s coo outside and ot a ood news," the wohtly "Today is your lucky day If you wish, you can leave your daughter here with e her on a busy street"

So there it was Jeanette wouldn’t have to do anything else All she had to do was say yes

"Ain’t no bother?"