Chapter Twenty Three

"We seldom think of how interconnected our lives are. We don't realize, busy as we are with daily chores and little challenges that capture all our attention sometimes, that our relationships are essential ingredients of our lives. They tie events together and make sense of the things we can't understand."

"We've been together for decades, sharing work, meals, and purpose. There comes a time in your life when you have known a person longer than you haven't. This never happens by accident, you chose to keep this link alive for more than half of your life. In more ways than you know it is very important to you."

 

They started back towards the camp with backpacks full of edible samples and giving out the most divine vanilla scent to the confusion and disappointment of several butterflies and a couple of humming birds. Despite having dumped the now pointless glass beads, their backpacks were ten pounds heavier than they were when they started.

"There is a new transport coming next week", sister Mary-Francis said. "They are bringing more cows."

She didn't need to give Sarah the update, everybody knew about the transport, she just wanted to break the silence. Contrary to Sarah's initial understanding not all the sisters enjoyed the vow of silence and being in the wilderness together gave the chatty Mary-Francis an opportunity to engage in pleasant conversation.

Sarah didn't know what to answer, but she didn't want to miss the opportunity to actually communicate with another human being, so she replied.

"I know, there is going to be quite a lot more work, I wonder why they are not sending more people too, they probably forgot there are only twelve of us."

"Thirteen", sister Mary-Francis said. Sarah nodded her head in approval, even though Seth was more involved in decision making she was working as hard as the rest of them.

"Do you remember what this planet looked like when we first came here?" asked Sarah. Sister Mary-Francis remembered. Sarah glanced at her for a second. The sister was a tiny woman, deceptively strong for her constitution, with a good natured round face, dark brown hair, gently waved and sparkling blue eyes. It always seemed that all the sister's being was concentrated in her eyes whose intensity revealed extraordinary spiritual strength. It was hard to tell her age, she could have been anywhere between thirty and forty-five.

"You know, sister, we've been working together for more than ten years now and I don't know anything about you or any of the others for that matter", said Sarah in a tentative tone, careful not to intrude or offend.

"Nobody asks", said sister Mary-Francis, as if she had been waiting for this question for a long time. "I was born Kenza Banzi, in Tangiers. My father is a doctor and my mother teaches chemistry. I have two brothers and a sister, all younger than me. When I was six or seven, my mother took me on a field trip to a lavender farm to visit the perfumery lab and I knew then this was what I wanted to do in my life. I went to college and got a doctorate in biochemistry and then I got a scholarship at the farm in Perpignan."

Sarah was startled at how very similar their life stories were.

"Do you keep in touch with your siblings?", she asked.

"All the time, my brothers started an accounting firm and my sister joined my father's medical practice, she is a gerontologist."

"How long have you been in the convent?" Sarah asked.

"I spent three or four years there before I joined, one year or so before you came in." Again, Sarah was surprised, because she always assumed the sisters had been together forever, she couldn't imagine a time when they weren't functioning as a group.

She took a long time to ask what she was very curious about. She knew that sister Mary-Francis could hear her through the neural interlink, however for some reason the latter decided to wait for the question to be answered out loud.

"Why did you join the convent, sister?"

"I got the calling, dear", sister Mary-Francis answered simply.

"How about the others?" Sarah asked.

"Why don't you talk to them and find out for yourself", replied the sister.

"That would be the day", Sarah thought, laughing heartily on the inside as she imagined sister Joseph's reaction to this interview, scene reinforced by the sharp commentary the said sister offered through the neural interlink.

Her argument could be politely summed up as an imperative for everyone to mind their own business and remember first all the tasks they had left undone for the other unfortunate team members to pick up in their stead and stop the incessant and irritating chatter that disturbed the peace of decent people. The younger generation was better served by being loving, patient, hard working, respectful, and most importantly, stopping their blabber mouths long enough so that the older and wiser such as sister Joseph could hear themselves think.

"That went well", sister Mary-Francis barely managed to utter between irrepressible bursts of laughter and the effort of trying to keep up with Sarah's longer stride.

"Dare I ask about Seth?" Sarah chuckled, knowing the answer already.

"If you put half of your curiosity to better use we could have been two years ahead by now, but no, you have to waste your energy and our time gossiping like a fishwife. You should have been here already, everybody is barely drawing breath because they have to work two shifts", replied Seth through the neural interlink, irritated as always.

"Why is she always mad?" Sarah asked herself. "We're all in the same situation and I don't feel like yelling every other word." Seth didn't answer.

They had started construction on the permanent building that was going to house their activities, a light and airy crystalline structure with views to the fields and the sea. Years later Sarah would spend many hours inside it meditating and resting her eyes on the serene landscape but for now the construction created additional work, cramped their quarters even more and got on everybody's nerves. Bulldozers and cranes moved back and forth, constantly raising clouds of dust and making a terrible racket.

"Why is everybody so rude?" Sarah let out, simultaneously recognizing that to ask this question was rude too.

"Not everybody I hope", answered sister Mary-Francis gently, and Sarah realized that other than sister Joseph and lately Seth everybody was quite mild tempered and accommodating.

"You are right, I'm sorry", Sarah said. The evening was fast approaching and she was hungry but didn't want to stop, they were probably two hours away from the camp.

"What is it like being immortal?" sister Mary-Francis asked unexpectedly.

"Who says I am immortal?" answered Sarah, puzzled.

"Solomon hasn't aged a day", the sister replied. "Have you ever thought about it?"

The future would reveal that Sarah's aging process was still going on, though greatly slowed, and she was going to become an old woman eventually, but for now nobody knew what was going to happen so she had this special aura of invincibility that both intrigued and annoyed the others. She shrugged her shoulders and didn't know what to say.

"If that were true then after a while all of you will be gone and I'm going to be all alone", Sarah said.

"There are always going to be people here, you know", sister Mary-Francis answered kindly.

"Yes, but not you."

"I can't believe I have to listen to this self-defeating pity fest!" Seth ranted through the neural interlink. "Move faster, we're not going to wait for you two for another day, the rest of us don't spend our days contemplating eternity and the meaning of life, you have to get here by nightfall!"

"Maybe you should", Sarah thought, but widened her stride to make up the time.