Nona

But then he had spoken...and his voice had been like the bells that rang from the cathedral steeple in the enclosed garden downtown. She had wandered in there once, a long time ago, when she had her first sight. It had been around noon time, and she had seen the garden with its statuaries, carvings of angels, surrounded by the winter dead blooms of jasmine and hyacinth. She had peered in, then seeing no one around, had entered the sanctuary just as the bells began to ring, the bells she now knows peal the Angelus at noon. The timbre of the bells had cut through the cold chill of that January noon, and she had stood enchanted, transcended, transformed.

The stranger's voice had sounded as beautiful as those bells. "Do you wish to see, Sister Nona?" it had pealed through her darkness, its timbre providing light where there was none. She had thought then that the Lord was finally answering her prayers.

"Yes, Lord, I wish to see again. Please." She had sat up in bed, modesty deeming that she pull the covers around her.

"I am not your Lord," he said. "Just a messenger. And what I offer you is a curse encased in a blessing. For you will see with new eyes that will not hide the truth."

"Yes, yes!" she had exclaimed.

"But once you see yourself as you truly are, you will lose this sight."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You will look upon others as they really are, not just their bodies, but their souls as well. And, I warn you, you will not like what you see. Most people cannot stand the horror of the truth."

"Jesus says to seek the truth and it shall set you free. John 3-81."

"I believe the actual quote is, 'You are truly my disciples if you live as I tell you to, and you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.' That's not the same kind of truth I'm offering here. The other One, well, He is more esoteric than I am. I offer you something that even he does not."

"That's blasphemy," she had whispered to the dark, to the stranger, suddenly not so sure she wanted to hear any more.

"But I thought you prayed to see, Sister." The voice wasn't so bell-like now. "Mine is the only physical sight that's going to be offered to you. Either, you can make your way through this world with no sight at all, prey to the sighted world, victim to the stronger, or you can take what I am offering you."

"But at what price?" She hadn't even voiced the question, but he answered as though she had.

"You know the answer to that all ready."

"But how will I not look at myself if I see."

"Your problem, isn't it?"

"Why are you offering this to me?"

He shrugged. "Got time on my hands. Thought I cause a little havoc, a little mischief..."

"I don't want to lose my soul..."

"But haven't you already...so what's the difference?"

Then she knew that he knew her secret.

"I can ask for forgiveness..." she started.

"But you also have to confess." he countered.

"I will..."

"You won't...and you'll still be blind."

"God understands."

"So does the other."

He had a point. She began to consider her options. "And I'll see as long as I don't look at myself. How will I comb my hair?"

"Are you going to dibble over minutiae? Lord, woman! How have you been combing your hair? Besides, I don't have time to bother with that. Women, you' re all so vain. What difference does it make, anyway? Looking for another husband?"

She was quiet in rumination, thinking on all he had said and what he was offering.