No Escape

Chapter 14

The following day was very rough for Ellie Maisie. There were no lectures or lessons that day. Even though she couldn't see the sky, she felt and sensed it was grey. She was summoned into the main hall. All the seats were empty. The only people there were the priest, Sister Davide, and Rosanna. Sister Davide looked at Ellie Maisie as if she wanted to kill her, and Ellie Maisie looked back at her with a wave of fiery anger rising in her chest.
"Sit!" Sister Davide demanded.
Ellie Maisie reluctantly sat in the white chair they had placed in front of them. The priest stepped forward

and looked down on her. Ellie Maisie looked back at him with a bitterness she'd never looked at anyone with. She wanted to hit him, throw him to the ground and make him bleed. He stared at her for a while before raising his hand and slapping her. Ellie Maisie's head swung backward. She looked at him with shock. He had never laid a hand on anyone, and yet he wasn't aggravated or angry. He was visibly calm and collected, and the smallest smile of pleasure formed on his face after slapping her.
"What the hell was that?" Ellie Maisie yelled, "Work for Jesus? Oh my God"
"Don't say His name in vain," the priest said. Ellie Maisie sighed.

"Care to explain?" Sister Davide asked.
"Explain what?" Ellie Maisie asked.
"Your behavior yesterday"
"You make me sound like I'm five. I'm a grown woman and I was pissed, is that such a crime?"
"Yes. It is a crime!"
"Of course because your twisted version of normalcy involves never being angry. Screw you and your messed up daydreams about reality."
"Change your tone!" Sister Davide snapped, "You will not address me or anyone like that. Stop acting like a crazy woman."
"Do you ever realize that when a man is angry, he's just being a man and taking charge?" Ellie Maisie asked,

"When a woman is angry she's crazy and out of her mind."
"Stop bringing stupid feminist ideals into this place!" Sister Davide yelled.
"If I may ma'am," Rosanna began, "Perhaps Ms. Rosenthal is just trying to say she was frustrated."
"You have no place in this!" Sister Davide yelled, "Quiet down and stay that way. Don't speak unless you're spoken to, alright? If I ask for you, you can speak, but otherwise, just shut up!"
"Are you even a woman?" Ellie Maisie asked.
"What?" Sister Davide gasped.
"Are you even a woman?"

"Of course I am, what do you take me for?"
"It just baffles me how a woman can be so sexist and misogynistic. I know for a fact you don't believe in half of the crap Keres preaches"
"I beg your pardon"
"Face it, if you weren't Sister Davide: Nun with political power, you wouldn't be scolding me for what I said to those men. You're such a hypocrite. If you were trapped in here with me or out there living as a poor, imprisoned housewife you'd be protesting too!"
"I would not! You have no right to speak to me that way"
"I speak to people however I feel like speaking to them. You would hate to be in my shoes, but because

you represent some sort of blind, bigoted, dogmatic distortion of the Bible, you stand here before me, repeating all the stupidities that come out of your boss's mouth. Am I right?"
Sister Davide lunged forward and punched Ellie Maisie in the face, not far from where the priest had stricken her a couple of minutes ago.
"I thought we'd fixed you!" she cried.
"I was never broken!" Ellie Maisie argued.
"You were devoted to your studies!" the priest said.
"I was brainwashed into somehow thinking my life would be good out there"

"It would!" Sister Davide yelled, "It would be so much better if you just kept your head down and did as told."
"Do you even hear yourself," Ellie Maisie yelled in outrage, "You disgust me! Those men at the examination waited so they could tick me off. They attacked me and everything I stand for. Are you saying I'm just supposed to deal with it? I'm just supposed to brush it off."."
"I think you misinterpreted what the men were telling you," the priest said disdainfully.
"How was I supposed to interpret it then," Ellie Maisie chuckled, "I'm laughing because I can't believe the

human mind is capable of being so incredibly dumb!"
"Alright well calm down," the priest said, "The Lord forgives it's not your fault."
"So the Lord forgives but I'm still going to hell, right? That's what you're teaching me?"
"I think the men were simply giving you suggestions on how you could improve yourself, but you got all rowdy and blew it out of proportion."
"So that's what that was, just one, big, fun critique session?" she joked.
"Exactly," the priest nodded.
"Oh my God! I was being goddamn sarcastic. You really have

absolutely no sense of humor at all!" Ellie Maisie said.
"Funny women never find husbands," Sister Davide muttered.
"Maybe I don't want a husband, maybe I'm not ready for that and I just want to enjoy life, for now, a little bit. How about that?"
"You keep thinking everyone is just going to change and everything will go back to normal, but we won, and you have to deal with that," the priest explained.
"I can't look at you right now!" Sister Davide cried, "Compose yourself, put yourself together, and in six months I really hope you do better Miss Rosenthal because you are headed towards your own death. Mark my words if you don't fix

yourself right this second, you will regret it. In five years you will be executed and delightfully I will be able to watch. Leave now!"
Ellie Maisie stood up angrily and stomped off. She was so angry, she thought she would explode from rage.