SOFI – THE NAKED NUN 4: MIRACLE

CHAPTER FOUR: MIRACLE

After that time I spent with Anton, it was as if something had shifted in the compound. There was a renewed sense of excitement and purposeful anticipation. I was given a crash course on various tribes, their needs and how the sisters had supported them. I learned that it had been some time since they made the long journeys into the jungle to visit the various tribes as the sisters got older and struggled with not only the energy for the difficult travel but their ability to assist the tribes. They seemed embarrassed, but my enthusiasm to take over quickly offset those feelings and they focused on supporting and preparing me.

I was dedicated to work as hard as the other sisters and my youthful body quickly adjusted to the heat and humidity. I also quickly adapted to the nudity. I became more and more comfortable interacting with villagers in our nudity, even meeting the men bringing supplies by canoe from villages further downstream. Many of these men wore shorts and shirts, even if filthy ones. But, even so, I joined with the other sisters and villagers in greeting them and assisting in unloading the supplies.

Soon, it was time for my first deep journey into the jungle. Anton was to be my constant companion away from the village. It seemed he was a frequent companion in the compound, too. I would often blush at the thoughts that coursed through me sometimes. The other sisters noticed, of course, and gently teased me but they were also very happy about it, too. I was going to be a perfect fit in the Order, they assured me. I wasn’t sure what that meant and they wouldn’t elaborate but I looked forward to my first journey.

The sisters were clearly nervous and not making leaving any easier for me but it was something that had to be done if the Order was to have any significance beyond the little village they shared. Mother Marie told me to remain by Anton’s side, not wander off by myself at any time, and to follow his advice. Anton wore a large sack fashion much like a backpack with two straps fitting over his shoulders. I wore a smaller one. The two sacks would be all we had for the journey. Our destination was a tribe three days away, possibly longer since I might not yet have the endurance of hiking those distances. Two days out, I was feeling good about my efforts at keeping up a decent pace with Anton when all our planning was challenged.

It was late afternoon of the second day of travel. Although I was feeling very good about keeping up, I could also feel how taxing it was for me compared to Anton. Acclimating to the jungle environs while at the compound was one thing but the exertion of hiking all day in the constant heat and humidity was much harder. I was buoyed, though, by Anton. We had fallen into a peculiar relationship, one that Mother Maria was comfortable with and even encouraged as a casual, informal connection that would work well for us since we would be the ones making the tribal visits. We all knew, including Anton, that the connection was born from our sexual connection but the physical was only the starting point that grew for us. By my teachings, nuns were supposed to be completely devoted only to One but this was apparently another way in which the Magdalenes were different. What began as lustful fucking as the sisters’ expression of gratitude between Anton and me became love-making, though equally intense.

Anton was thinking about a good place to stop for the night when we heard a sound that was completely out of place. It was so out of place that the obvious sound was confusing. What we heard was a baby fussing. And, more confusing, the sound was somehow above us. We searched the trees above us and felt silly all the while we did it. What would a baby be doing in a tree far from any known tribal village? Anton settled on a tree and climbed up with a dexterity I hadn’t witnessed before. In a hollow where a branch joined the main trunk, he carefully extracted a very small infant. When I finally had it in my arms, it looked and felt even smaller. It could only be a few weeks old. I murmured and cooed to it while gently bouncing it in my arms while Anton and I puzzled over its condition.

With my attention solely on the baby, I hadn’t noticed Anton wandering off into the thick brush until he called to me. “This is part of the explanation.” I gazed in the direction of his voice but couldn’t see him until the brush parted by his hand. I stepped closer, clutching the baby close to my body, and looked down in front of him where his eyes were focused. A very young Indian woman lay terribly mauled. Anton guessed she could have been there for days. How had the baby survived all that time? There were any number of creatures that could have reached its location in the tree. Yet, it had survived. Nothing else mattered. Where did the baby belong?

My head swiveled as I searched the surrounding jungle. I don’t know what exactly I was looking for but the baby had to eat. It had to be starving and could be the reason it was screaming right now. What do you give to an almost new-born from the jungle?

“The baby has to eat, Anton! What do we do?”

We had moved back to the place we left our packs. Now that I looked at the baby in the light of this situation, I could see how desperate its condition was. I clutched it to my shoulder. Panic was taking over me. I feared it didn’t have the extra day or two to reach the village of our destination. I was surprised when my eyes came back to Anton and found his face relaxed, a smile forming on his mouth and in his eyes. I was shocked. What could he find humorous in this situation?

With a slight head jerk and his eyes indicating down, “Look, Sister Sofi … there is your answer.”

My eyebrows furrowed. What was he talking about? Then, his smile grew and he made the sign of the cross. He jerked his head to point my attention down. I turned my head down to check the ground but my eyes stopped before then. I shifted the tiny bundle in my arm and gazed without understanding or belief. My knees gave out and I dropped to the ground. Anton rushed to my side providing support as I settled onto the dirt of the path. Drops of whitish fluid was forming on each nipple. What did that mean? How could that be? Anton, meanwhile, had shifted behind me, his legs on either side and gently pulled me back to rest against him.

He kissed my cheek from behind and softly said, “You can never again question if you belong with us. Do you now believe you were chosen?”

It seemed like too much to accept. I raise the little one in my arm and rubbed a nipple over its lips. Milk flowed from my nipple onto his lips. The mouth opened and instinctively clamped around the nipple and his suckling instinct took over. I watched for a moment as the little guy greedily sucked. Anton’s hand moved around my body and fondled my other breast. My eyes shifted away from the baby’s voracious sucking to my other breast. He lightly squeezed and milk flowed freely from the nipple.

“Your breasts are full, Sister Sofi.”

I stroked the baby’s cheek as its mouth worked my nipple. I idly asked, “But how? Why?”

He gave a soft chuckle, his arms wrapping around my stomach below the baby and held me tightly against his body. He kissed my cheek repeatedly from behind. He probably would have been kissing into my hair if not for the habit veil covering my head. “What is it you teach? We can’t understand why things happen; we can only accept them into our lives. You know this better than me, though. But I think it is also meant to show you that the path you have chosen is right.”

An overwhelming peace washed over me. I watched gratefully as the starving baby took nourishment from my body. I settled into the loving, supportive embrace of Anton. It was too much to understand. To be accepted by this small group of nuns, I had allowed myself to be mated by a dog … twice …, sucked a donkey, and repeatedly fucked … and now to love … the man behind me. There had been times when the teachings from the ‘civilized’ world intruded to question what I was doing. No longer. No more. Anton was right. I had doubts but I was still chosen. I could no longer doubt myself when doing what I would be called upon to do for these people. I accepted something else, too. I wiggled into Anton’s body, feeling his bare chest against my bare back. I turned my head and he turned his to me. I kissed him. He smiled and his arms tightened around me as if he understood. I would no longer question my relationship with him, either.

I woke to a fussing baby. It had slept between Anton and me. Several times during the night I pressed a dripping nipple to its mouth. The poor thing was ravenous. I was on my side, a hand holding my head up watching the baby suckle with slurpy, greedy sounds when Anton stirred, his eyes fluttered open and he saw me … us. He rolled to his knees, leaned to me and gave me a light kiss. As he rose, I saw it.