Part 16
| Cruz and Mason are talking about Santana at the hospital hall. Mary is passing by them. Mason greets her with smile but she does not answer and comes in one of the rooms. |
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| Cruz says that Mason can forget about recruiting her for Ted's camp. Mason says He can't afford not to. The last thing he needs on the witness stand is a nun crying all for Ted's head. |
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| He goes to the room that Mary came in and asks a nurse who came out, whose room it is. The nurse answers that it is Monseigneur Hammond's room. |
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| Mason waits until she goes away and opens the door slightly, so that he could listen Mary talking. She tells to the Right Reverend that she has committed a terrible sin but how she ask for absolution when she knows she is going to do it again do it again. |
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Mason steps aside and shuts the door. He is confused.
However, Mary notices him and flies out of the room. |
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| She is indignant because Mason is always roaming about her whenever she goes. Mason guesses that it is providence. He admits that he heard Mary's words; he apologizes and offers starting over. He asks whether the Right Reverend her friend. Mary says that they are not and Mason expresses hope that his illness is not serious. |
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Mary answers that he had minor knee surgery; he's being released soon. It's just that Mother Superior thought...
"... thought you should come visit a sick. That's... kind."
"No, it wasn't that. She thinks he is a very wise man and that I should..." Mary steps and looks aside. |
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"...confess to him." Mason says. "Well, I'll tell you, Sister. I don't know what the Monseigneur would say... but I find it hard to believe you're capable of even a venial sin, much less a mortal one."
"That's not how you felt the last time you saw me."
"I was angry. So were you. That's not a sin. Neither is being misguided."
"Look, I had certain thoughts..."
"We all have thoughts..."
"... Against your brother, against you. Thoughts that go way beyond anger, that I know are sins."
"You're being too hard on yourself." Mason says in a low voice.
"The reason I am telling you this is because I have been guilty of the sin of Pride, which... you were right about." |
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Mason answers after a while. "Mary, if... if it's true that we really can sin in our thoughts then may be I've sinned against you too. Now, I am no priest, not even remotely virtuous, but I sure wish we could wipe the slate clean and start afresh. That would be something different. Don't you?"
Mary looks at Mason.
* * *
Mary is talking to her mother.
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Theda guesses perceptively that Mary is thinking about leaving the convent and says that Mary always takes every little thing hard. Mary says it is not a little thing.
"Oh, no. No, of course it isn't." Theda says. "It's tragic. It's... it's terrible what happened to Christie. But... Ted Capwell is going to be punished."
She asks Mary to trust in God or trust in Steve and not to take the role of judge, jury and prosecution. Mary answers that she has done. That's the point. She has been so arrogant and self-righteous and she has hated Ted that she has no business setting an example for anybody. Theda says that nobody will know this if Mary keeps her mouth shut about it.
"I know." Mary answers.
Theda reminds her that everybody has thoughts. If all the self-righteous people in the world stopped going to church there'd be a whole lot of empty pews and more than one or two empty altars to boot. Mary answers emotionally that she can't judge the whole world. She only knows for herself. She has been feeling left behind about the things she is supposed to believe in for a long time now.
"You stopped believing in your home life too, which is how you wound up in the convent to start with. Am I right?" Theda asks. |
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| Mary is distressed by her mother's words. Theda hugs her and says that she doesn't blame her. Life with Willard Bassett was no party. She would have joined up with Mary if she thought they'd take her. But the fact is Mary stuck with it, and made her so proud. Mary answers that the reasons she went into the convent are not the reasons people stay. Theda doesn't understand why Mary's missing in such a peaceful life. Is it men? |
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| Mary blushes and goes to the elevator. Mother follows her and says that men don't marry women who used to be nuns. Women like Mary wind up doing social work or checking up books in libraries. |
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Mason is talking over the phone not far from her: "She's tall, dark blond hair, pretty."
* * *
Private detective informs Mason that Mary is in the Orient Express all alone.
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| Mason goes to the restaurant. Mary is in the bar. |
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| Mary sees him, and she is indignant because he follows her. Mason says in an innocent voice that he couldn't know that she would be at a bar at Capwell hotel. Mary says that she thought that it was one place on Earth no one would look for her. Mason says that's pretty sneaky for a nun. Mary smiles. |
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| Mason asks whether he can sit down. Mary answers he can't. Mason quotes the Evangel of St. Matthew: "Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that use you despitefully" He thinks he is despiteful. Does she want him to pray for her? Mary approves his decision to pray and he promises he will do it after lunch. |
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| Anyway, he sits down next to Mary in spite of her discontent. He says she wants to talk to him although she doesn't know about it yet, as he wants to call her as a witness at Ted's trial. For the defense. Mary looks at him astonished. |
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| Mary says she has nothing to say in Ted's defense. So if this is some ploy on Mason's part... Mason admits that he has something up his sleeve, but he doesn't want to talk about the case now. He just feels that Mary is torn apart by a spiritual dilemma. |
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| Mason asks from whom or what Mary runs away. What makes her address to her spiritual ancestors? May be her feelings about Ted or about him make her feel like she doesn't measure up? Mason admits that he had such dilemma a while ago. It is in the past now, at least he hopes so. He tells Mary a parable about the Prodigal Son's brother. The one that stayed home. This brother labored fro his father from dawn until dark and he felt very sorry for his father. He knew how much he missed the Prodigal Son, who had... left home forever. |
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| Mary says that it was not forever; Mason reminds that it is a parable of his own. The harder this son tried to please his father and win his love, the more his father despised his and loved the one who has left. Finally, the defied his father. He refused to work for his father and fetch and carry for him. As strange and alien as it seemed he struck out on his own. And his father rained down hatred on him. But the son survived. He found work and he found lodging, and best of all he found that he didn't need his father's respect any more, because he respected himself. |
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| Having finished the parable, he offers Mary following his experience in find the answers within herself. If he could, she can. |
