Chapter Thirteen Swift and Painless

The girls were lined up in a row on their knees at the front of the alter of the chapel.

Olivia held her hands together in prayer. She prayed with all her might. She prayed that their punishment would be swift and painless. She prayed that she would not burn in Hades.

Carol knelt there with her mouth hung open and her eyes glued to the stained glass window of St. George and the Dragon. She twirled a lock of her curly hair with the finger of one hand. She had a look of blissful ignorance.

Kay twiddled her thumbs and smacked a large wad of gum in her mouth. She stopped chewing to blow the occasional bubble.

Mary rapidly scribbled in her notebook.

Missy Hyde stood before them. “Repeat after me,” she said. “There are no dragons.”

“There are no dragons,” they repeated together.

“There have never been any dragons,” she went on.

“There have never been any dragons.”

“There will never be any dragons,” she continued.

“There will never be any dragons.”

“Actually,” Mary piped up, “with modern technology at it’s current state and with genetic experimentation on the move, the likelihood of a dragon being created in the near future has a probability of…”

“There will never be any dragons,” Missy Hyde said pointedly.

“There will never be any dragons,” Mary responded.

“You will scrub the floors, the pews, the windows and the organ loft,” she continued.

“You will scrub the floors, the pews, the windows and the organ loft,” they repeated

Missy Hyde glared at them. Her eyes got very narrow. She took a deep breath and continued, “No food until you’re finished. If you have to go to the bathroom, don’t.”

They all moaned.

“You will repeat this project every Saturday for the next month,” she said.

They moaned louder.

It was a very short speech. She had given up on lectures that always ended in the phrase, ”… and that’s the moral of the story,” since they never worked anyway. She handed each girl a dust rag, a very large sponge and a bucket filled with soapy water.

Her motherly duties finished, Missy Hyde wiped her hands against her apron. She walked down the main aisle of the chapel, out the entrance and down the steps headed toward the main house.

Mary picked up her pale and took her position beside the alter. She dipped the sponge into the warm sudsy water and plopped it to the floor. In a careful circular motion, she began scrubbing. She scrubbed from one end of the alter area to the other. She only paused to wipe soapy water from her face. When she completed her round, she stood up, rubbed her sore knees, and looked up to see…

Carol who lazily dusted a spot on the loft railing. The same spot she dusted for the past half hour. She stared at the ceiling and hummed a strange little tune.

Mary then looked down to see…

Kay who used one of the pews as a balance beam. She tiptoed with her arms in the air, jumped up and landed with the grace of a lame hippopotamus.

She looked over to see…

Olivia who had just tied a sponge on each foot with the yarn in her pocket. She got a running start then slid down the long aisle.

Mary shook her head in despair. She wondered how long it would take to scrub the roof, the steeple, and the great cross for surely at this rate Missy Hyde would add those to the list of things to do.

As Olivia skimmed across the floor she realized that she hadn‘t thought about brakes. She slid father than she had planned, out the door, down the steps and…