Sister Floriana

The Dollhouse

It was a quiet Saturday evening. Floriana's bangs had nearly recovered from her fateful run-in with Sister Carmen's scissors.

Pacifica was bored, so she decided to pay a visit to Floriana and Eulalia's little cottage. It had been a while for her. Drawings still covered the walls, each bed was made neatly on either side of the room, and there were a few ducks present. 

Something new however was waiting on their desk, hidden behind the sisters.

"Hey," said Sister Pacifica casually. "Whatcha working on?"

They turned around. 

"Good evening," said Eula. "Sister Flori, show her!"

They let Pacifica come over to the desk to view the little dollhouse they'd been working on. Lying around it were little figurines and props that Pacifica recognized as people they knew around the monastery.

"Is this a scale replica of... one of the buildings?" Pacifica wasn't sure which.

"It's what we would do if we could add on to the cottage," said Floriana.

"We'd invite more people in," said Eulalia. "And we'd add a pepper garden right here!"

"Of course," Pacifica smiled. "Would this be my room?" 

"No, that's where we'd store the picked peppers," Eulalia explained. "We'd dry them, and pickle them, and then put a grist in to make chili powder, and maybe a stove to cook the chili until it's nice and hot..."

"Eula, you're drooling a little."

"Ah!" Said Eulalia, hurriedly wiping her mouth off.

"Maybe you could be up here with us!" said Flori, pointing out the upstairs bedroom they'd made. "We could even fit Carmen and Marisol, since we wouldn't need so much space there!"

"Ah, I see. Because this part's the kitchen," said Pacifica. 

"Yeah! Oh hold on, just let me fix that..." Floriana righted her little figurine, which had fallen over along with the tiny table they'd made. 

"This looks wonderful," said Pacifica. 

"Thank you! We worked really hard on it!" said Flori.

"I guess it's nice living in a cottage," said Pacifica, thinking of how messy and cluttered her own room was. That is, at least half of it. She shared it with Sister Carmen, who had to have all her ducks in a row all the time- literally and figuratively. 

"It's nice when you have someone to share it with," said Flori. Eulalia smiled at her.

"Really? I can't say the same."

Floriana grumbled, grabbing a pillow from the floor and smacking her in the face with it. Eulalia shrieked in excitement, grabbing her own pillow and hitting back. Pacifica laughed and jumped on one of the beds, avoiding getting in their way. Eventually Floriana and Eulalia tackled each other, flopping down next to Pacifica. They just lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling.

"That was fun!" said Pacifica.

"Yeah," said Eula. 

A long moment passed.

"I was just kidding, you know."

"I know."

"This place really is the best with you around, Floriana!"

Floriana blushed. 

"Aw. Thank you."

Sadly, the hour was growing late, and the sun was setting.

"Speaking of roomies, I suppose I should get back to mine," said Pacifica. "Sister Carmen will worry about me."

Floriana snorted. "Oh, she worries about everything! Once she even asked me if she belongs here."

"She is kinda insecure," remarked Eulalia. "We should show her the dollhouse and the little figurine we made of her!"

Pacifica nodded, grinning.

"That'll cheer her up! I'll bring her down tomorrow after church!"

They agreed to the plan, and Pacifica walked back over to the novice dormitories, climbing the stairs to her and Sister Carmen's room. Opening the door, she found her friend huddled over a letter, absolutely fixated on it.

"Hey," said Pacifica.

Sister Carmen jumped a bit.

"Sorry!" she cried. "You took me a bit unawares," she chuckled.

"Sorry!" said Pacifica. She went to her dresser and started pulling out nightclothes. "So who's the letter from?"

Carmen had already folded up the letter perfectly neatly, and stowed it away in her dresser. Pacifica could clearly see her clothes were folded and organized in neat columns, while her own were stuffed willy nilly into the drawer. 

"My parents," said Carmen. "My mother's gotten pregnant again."

"Oh wow, congratulations!" 

Carmen smiled. 

"Thank you. I just hope this won't be too hard on them."

Pacifica nodded. Carmen was the middle child, with six siblings. Seven, if you counted the one on the way. Two older brothers, an older sister, and three younger sisters. Four, if the new addition turned out to be a girl. While Pacifica had only her older brother, she knew raising that many couldn't be easy. Carmen's family was not of many means in the best of times, and they were in the middle of a civil war! 

The two doffed their habits and coifs and began dressing for bed. Pacifica just tossed her day clothes on the floor, while Carmen took the time to delicately fold them away. The two laid back in bed, Pacifica pulling out a book to read. 

"You know, I thought I'd have children, once." 

Pacifica looked up.

"You? Really?"

"I always wanted to be a mother." Carmen smiled to herself. "I want to be a nun too, but... I'm kind of jealous of my parents. Getting to be around children all the time."

Pacifica snorted. 

"Then you should go help Flori and Diana in the kindergarten! See what it's like."

"Well maybe not that many," Carmen admitted, chuckling. "But to have a baby to nurse, and take care of... sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out."

"Nah," said Pacifica. "First you have to give birth to them. I've read books with illustrations. It's not pretty." She actually shivered at the thought.

Carmen didn't seem deterred in the slightest, stretching and yawning as she faded off to sleep.

"To hold him... and change him... watch him while he sleeps... wonder if he'd look more like me or his father..."

Soon the sound of Carmen's light snores filled the room, soothing Pacifica to sleep herself. 

She would not remember the conversation until many weeks later.