Please, Sister (Part 1 of several)

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I used to live with nuns. Yes, real live nuns, the kind that dressed in long frocks, with only their faces exposed. But don’t get excited, I didn’t blossom into a lady inside a convent, I just lived in a dorm for a few years.

This was in high school, a time when parents are scared senseless by the onset of teenage hormones, so they take desperate measures to contain it. I remember it well, I was about to start sophomore year, a so-so year, but one that was marked by my entry into the lives of the Sisters.

The dormitory, a three-storied monstrosity, was newly-renovated (modernised, is how they liked to high-brow it), with several common rooms and semi-private halls. There was of course, a chapel, a kitchen, offices, the nun's quarters, and a very mysterious, constantly locked attic. Common rooms had up to 16 beds in them, and they were always noisy, crowded, unruly, and therefore, fun. Semi-private halls had a series of rooms that had only two or three beds, meant for college students or professional girls who for the life of me, I could not fathom why they would want to live in a dorm. But hey, to each his own prison, eh?

I was placed in a semi-private room, and was the first one to unpack on a Saturday. My roommate, a member of the high school faculty, would not arrive until a few weeks later. My first night there, a kindly Sister, thinking she would see to the pre-bedtime needs of the new girl, poked her costumed head in the door. It was the fashion among nuns to wear a dark gray habit that seemed to absorb all light. They also seldom knocked on doors in those days. I was halfway between dreaming and wakefulness when I saw a white face floating near the door. I must have let out a frenzied shriek, since the face immediately turned on the light. It was Sister Racquel, come to ask me how I was, and to remind me to say my prayers.

She knocked off the best of my teenage years, I believe, when she scared me like that.

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More sister stories to follow, as memory will allow.
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Comments

[Gigi]

Now I have this image of you as Hayley Mills in The Trouble With Angels, one of my favorite movies as a child. I don't know if you've seen it -- but if you haven't I think you'd get a kick out of it.

[bayi]

been reading, melissa, though not commenting.

maria, as in the wayward nun in "the sound of music". :)

[melissa]

Ooooh Lisa, I have lots more nun stories for you, some are funny, to make up for the scary bits. But yes, those sisters can sure stir you up.

Bayi! hey you are back, missed your comments here.

Kitty: I have seen nuns minus the habit. A very troubling sight, I will tell you.

[lisa]

That would be so scarey. I grew up Catholic and I have an absurd fear of nuns, even as an adult I get nervous around them. When I was little I used to have nightmares that nuns would kidnap my mother.

[bayi]

Melissa, Is your real name Maria? :lol:

[banzai cat]

Hehe at least did you get to learn how nuns fly and what they wear under their habits?

Curious cats wanna know.

:-D