Chapter 6

The Abbey tombs were comprised of several twisting passageways built underneath the library. Narrow and rough, they reminded Roni of certain sections of the caverns under the bookstore — the ones that had been carved out by hand. Like all of Ireland, the air felt damp and cold.

As Sister Ashley led the way by flashlight, Roni noticed long alcoves dug into the walls. Each one contained a gray, dusty skeleton draped in habit, wimple, tunic, and in some cases, armor.

“Are these all nuns?” she asked.

“Hush.”

“But if they’re nuns, shouldn’t we be checking —”

Sister Ashley spun around, blinding Roni with the flashlight. “You best be quiet or you’re going to get us caught.” Her eyes darted toward one of the bodies. “Besides, it’s wrong to be talking like this amongst the dead.” Without another word, she resumed leading the way.

Roni considered pressing the issue, but in the end, she had to trust that Sister Ashley knew where to go. Thankfully, the majority of the bodies were difficult to discern in the dark shadows. Though the occasional skull smiling at her was more than enough to chill her bones. Worse, the air smelled stale and left Roni’s mouth with a dry coating — she didn’t want to think about that too much.

They came upon a heavy door with an iron ring for the handle. From beneath her habit, Sister Ashley produced a key that looked as old as the church itself. It took her five tries to get the door unlocked — the results of frayed nerves and an ancient lock.

She had to put her shoulder into the door hard in order to force it open. It obliged with a long and horrible whine as if it wanted to send waves of eerie sound across the dead. Roni glanced back into the dark and dusty shadows. If she heard a deep moan or even the squeak of a rat, she thought she would be justified in letting out a sharp scream.

“Come on,” Sister Ashley whispered. “We’re not down here for a show. Let’s get this done.”

Roni nodded and followed the nun through the door. They entered a narrow, low-ceilinged room — a private study. A plain, wooden desk and an equally plain, wooden chair had been pressed up against one wall. Next to these, a wood-frame bed with three thick blankets upon a rope lattice served as a place to sleep. On the wall opposite, two columns of shelves contained bodies on the left side and books on the right. A narrow, blackened fireplace comprised the back corner. Dark stains on the ceiling suggested a lack of adequate ventilation.

Sister Ashley centered her flashlight on the bed. “Sister Agnes lived here. The legend is that after she experienced the conduit for the first time — for the only time — she sequestered herself down here to write all her musings on what she had seen. Back then, nobody dared to say the truth — that she had glimpsed Heaven. ”

“Back when? How long ago did all this happen?”

“Seventeenth century, I think.” She turned her flashlight toward the shelves of books and scrolls. “These are my favorite. They detail all kinds of things about life back then. It sounds wonderfully peaceful. I wouldn’t mind living without electricity, but not having modern plumbing is something hard to idealize. But I can imagine life without all the noise of today. Sister Agnes did more than write about the world she lived in, though. More than just her experience with the conduit, too. She took the time to talk about her own spirituality. Very inspiring.”

Roni cocked her head to the side. “I thought you hadn’t been down here before.”

“I said that I wasn’t allowed to come down here. Not that I’ve never been here.”

It sounded reasonable, but Roni did not recall the conversation going that way originally.

Woooooo. A horrible sound, like poorly played bagpipes, echoed around them. Wooooo. Roni’s skin prickled.

Sister Ashley pointed to a row of evenly-spaced holes in the ceiling, each one circled by black residue that then trailed back to the fireplace. “Ventilation. Sister Agnes would have died long before she did without a trickle of fresh air coming her way. You should hear this place when a good rainstorm blows through. You can hear that sound all throughout the tombs.”

Roni’s gaze drifted across the bare room. She thought about Sister Agnes being down here amongst the dead and how bizarre the others must have thought her. That led to thoughts about the nuns, the Church, and —

“What is it you’re thinking?” Sister Ashley asked.

With an embarrassed turn of her head, Roni said, “I’m not sure how to ask this politely.”

“Then I’d recommend being honest. ”

“In that case, how did you end up here?”

Sister Ashley laughed. “You mean how did a nice nun like me end up in a place like this?”

Chuckling, Roni nodded.

“I imagine my story is much like all the other nuns here — at least, those that came after Sister Mary. Like most, I came to it because I had a moment — a calling. I grew up on a farm in County Kilkenny. I was not a wild one, always acted a proper child, but I wasn’t particularly religious and I didn’t listen to my parents well when I was involved in something. Mostly, I loved the books, and when I got to reading, I never heard a single thing my parents would say.”

Sister Ashley’s brightness faltered. “My father — he was a stricter sort. Spare the rod and all that. The way he went at me, my sister, and my brothers, well, I suppose I could have understood it if we were fussy or causing troubles. But we were good kids. And we were smart. Smart enough not stick around and get beaten for nothing. So, we left. Well, I did, anyway.

“I ended up on the streets of Galway which is not a place you want to end up. I saw so many other kids succumb to drugs and prostitution, and I was determined that would not happen to me. I tried getting jobs, I tried begging, I tried anything — but I always ended up sleeping in an alley.

“One day I was standing by the water watching the tide, and there were other people walking around during the day. There was a man — odd-looking fellow with a crooked nose and a long face. He caught my eye and I watched him walking along. He carried this packet of papers, and I assumed he was handing out adverts for some pub or something, but he didn’t hand them out to anybody. He watched everyone and just walked right by.

“Until he came to me .

“He stopped and stared at me, and I got the strange feeling inside like he could see through all the walls I had built up from living on the streets. He handed me the paper and walked away. It was a call to church. The whole thing felt so strange that I decided to go. I walked in there and I listen to that service, and it changed me. If you’ve never had a calling, you can’t possibly know what it feels like. And if you’ve had one, then I don’t need to explain. It hit me then. I would give my life to the Lord. And I did.”

“If you felt that strongly,” Roni said, “why did you stay here when this abbey was rejected by the Church?”

“Why would I stay with a church that rejects a pathway to Heaven itself? That’s like rejecting the Lord. Why would any of us do that? The real question you should be asking is why didn’t more of our brethren join us here? That’s what I want.” Gesturing to the corpse of Sister Agnes, Sister Ashley said, “She understood. She saw that conduit and sequestered herself here and devoted her life here to the Lord. That’s what I want to do. That’s what all of us nuns want to do. We are here to serve the Lord. We are chosen, and I would give up everything to remain here. No Vatican, no Pope, no father or mother or friend could beat me or sway me because after all — what was my calling if not to serve the Lord? And He has provided us with this conduit to His Heaven.”

Roni had never seen such firm conviction blaze in the eyes of a person. It was both impressive and unnerving. “Let’s find the book we’re here for — History of Secrets . Do you know where Sister Agnes is buried? Is she one of these?”

“Wouldn’t make much sense to bring you down here if I didn’t know where to go.” She walked over to the foot of the bed and indicated that Roni should help her move the furniture. It was heavier than Roni had expected, but they managed to pull the bed out about two feet. They had revealed an alcove dug into the wall, and in the alcove, the remains of Sister Agnes waited.

With giddy excitement, Sister Ashley lowered to her knees and reached in. She pulled out a large book — it required both hands to hold and covered her like a shield from chin to waist. “See? The book as promised.”

As Sister Ashley set History of Secrets on the desk, Roni approached like a hiker discovering a venomous snake in her path. The nun sneezed and waved a hand to disperse the dust climbing up from the book. But to Roni’s eyes, the dust came from the desk, not the book. In fact, she thought the book appeared rather clean.

Unlike the books upstairs in the Abbey library, this book had a black cover with a red diamond in the middle. No title, no author, no writing of any kind. No illustrations, either. Just the red diamond.

Roni’s throat tightened. She had seen books like this before. The caverns beneath the bookstore back home were filled with them. “Have you ever opened this book?”

Sister Ashley’s face reddened. “Oh, no. I’ll admit that I’ve pulled it out from time to time. I’ve set it on the floor and looked at it, but I promise you that I have never opened it.”

“Why not? If you were so eager to read the books down here, then why not open this one?”

“I want to say that I didn’t open it out of respect for Sister Agnes. That’s true, to some extent. But the real truth is that whenever I go to open it, I feel something — a force from the book, perhaps from within myself. I assume it is the Lord telling me to obey my vows, to stop. So, I stop.”

“Until the urge to come down here strikes you again.”

“Indeed.” She stroked the cover three times before raising her hopeful eyes toward Roni. “But you are here now. From what I understand, you have no faith, so there should be no problem with you opening the book. The Lord won’t speak to you.”

“Being an atheist doesn’t mean I have no faith in anything at all.”

“You have no moral code.”

“You know, the atheists’ moral track record is far better than your own. You may not want to keep casting stones.” Roni heard Gram’s stern tones creeping into her own voice. She stepped back and took a cleansing breath. “Maybe I should take the book with me and look at it in private. That way your moral quandary won’t be a problem.”

Sister Ashley stepped in front of the book. “You cannot do that. The book belongs to Sister Agnes. It must remain here.”

“No problem. I’ll stay down here and read it. Why don’t you go upstairs and return to your library duties — I’ll come up when I’m done.”

As if in answer, the Vienna Boys Choir broke into a beautiful rendition of Silent Night . Sister Ashley dug into her robes and fished out a small phone. She tapped at the screen for a moment and the music stopped.

“My alarm,” she said. “The dinner bell is tolling. We have to go.”

“I don’t need dinner. I’ll stay and read the book.”

“We cannot be absent. And you can’t stay here alone. I promise I will bring you back down. I want you to open the book. But not right now.” She looked at the phone in her hand. “And please, not a word about this. I only have it because I can’t hear the bells from down here. You understand?”

“Oh, I understand perfectly. It’s that strong moral code at work.”

Sister Ashley’s pleading face darkened. With sharp movements, she set the book back on the bones of Sister Agnes. In an icy tone that sharpened her button nose, she said, “Being down here can be unnerving for some. I’ll assume that has led you to speak without thinking. We will go to dinner now. Don’t worry — I stand by my word. After all, honesty is part of my moral code. Tomorrow morning, you and your Gram will come by here again before heading out. I will take you down then.”

Sister Ashley gestured toward the door and waited until Roni headed out. As they walked through the twisting paths, Roni attempted to memorize each turn. She listened for sound cues and even tried to leave small marks in the old dust. Anything that would help her when she returned.

Because she would return.

After dinner, she would come down by herself and find that room. No way was she going to open the book in front of Sister Ashley — not when she felt certain the book belonged in the caverns of the Parallel Society, not when she knew it led to another universe.