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D.S.PAIS

RESCUE SERIES: VOLUME ONE

A Novel

Copyright 2017 D.S.Pais

Second Edition

ALSO BY D.S.PAIS

Fiction:

Rescue Series:

Volume One

Volume Two

Diane

Tiene

Matters of the Heart

An Unlikely Christmas

Self - Help:

You Can Lose Weight Just Like Me

How to Identify My Greatest Passion in Life

A PRAGMATIC Method to face repeated failures

Poetry:

Poems Book 1

Poems Book 2

Acknowledgements:

I dedicate this book to my beloved husband, Brayan and my lovely children Gavin and Glen. You are amazing, gifted and much-loved and give me the inspiration to write.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

RESCUE SERIES: VOLUME ONE

Peace prevailed despite on-going wars only in this remote city. Will serenity be restored in the chapel that has been flourishing peacefully, perpetually? Will Zulu destroy the city or are there patrons in the city who can fight him back. Read on.

RESCUE SERIES:

VOLUME ONE

Chapter One

The serene chapel rested quietly away from city life. It was carved out of simple stone and vertical arches. There were stained glass windows along both side walls depicting a life of peace and tranquillity. Built thousands of years ago, it was originally a museum, but at some point it was converted to a chapel. It seemed like a tiny flat building indistinguishable from any others nearby.

Strict rules were enforced for visitors to the chapel. Even priests were only allowed to serve a few months at a time. The calmness here was open to the whispers of the wind and chirping of the birds. Muted chant music flowed in the background and bright flowers in the garden adorned the simple stones.

Adjoining the chapel was an innocuous convent built for the life of solitude accepted and encouraged there. Fields and greenery surrounded the buildings and barns of the convent. For those passing by, or entering the convent, it seemed like a mini-village which could replenish itself. The convent was open only to women and was completely run by them. Some were young girls who locked their door and were willing to lead a life of dedication and prayer. They were given years of training to their sheltered life.

The convent housed more than fifty nuns, living a life of peace and meditation. They cherished the life of isolation because everything within the establishment was simple. Rules were simple, but were strictly enforced. The nuns were disciplined and prayed and worked hard. In this mini-village they had a museum –turned chapel, a residential convent, domestic animals, fields, gardens for growing their own food. They made their own bread, bred chickens and grew vegetables and paddy.

There was even a hospital, where skilled doctors and nurses from among the nuns treated their own and nearby civilians. A daily religious service offered at the chapel by a visiting priest. The convent was not a place of total isolation, for they served the near-by villagers.

It had generous help from the civilians around them. They were self-sustaining and incurred few expenses. They slept on the floor on thin mattresses in their own Spartan rooms. In the mornings they awoke by five for an hour of prayer before attending the daily service at the chapel. They ate simple food and lived a simple life. Money earned was kept in a centralised fund. They never faced any money scarcity except once when money was quite scarce and the nuns were forced to sell a small portion of their land.

They seldom ventured outside the convent and found humble ways of dealing with food scarcity either by skipping meals, eating less or fasting the whole day. Each nun was assigned multiple tasks. The tasks included cooking, teaching, cleaning, praying, buying necessities for the convent, selling produce from the convent including milk, eggs, pork, poultry, fruits, rice and vegetables. Theirs was a peaceful and serene existence. Past lives beyond the convent were forgotten.

The nuns performed a variety of chores and only rested for prayer, meals and sleep. The unskilled domestic task was assigned in turns. Nuns who were trained as skilled nurses and doctors rendered their services at the hospital every day. There was integrity, mutual respect and complete silence. It was a rule in the convent that there would be absolute silence.

Sign Boards and Instructions suggested everything they needed to know. They generally walked looking down because it was felt that in silence they experienced a closer tie to God. They did not know a life beyond the convent. When nuns became sick, they catered to them on their own and if the condition required medical help, they had their own stream of physicians and surgeons.

The convent hospital cared for laymen who were sick and the nuns looked after them too. God's love was generous and unselfish and could not be contained in any object. They followed the principles strictly and each nun minded their own sub conscience. There was no finger pointing or blaming. They were not to talk unnecessarily and concentrated on prayer and their assigned task.

Directions were provided through written instructions and were pasted at appropriate sites. There was no scope for gossip or need for any verbal conversation. They believed God would speak and they would listen and follow the will of God. This was their mission in life. The peace found at the convent was known throughout the world and its strength was indestructible. In time, the convent came under the eyes of evil that would attempt to destroy its integrity and only time would tell if its peace and serenity would stand the test of time.

Chapter Two

Of all the nuns, Angela was the most diligent. She was calm and innocent and had smooth olive skin. She was always punctual attending the chapel prayer sessions and was the quickest of all the nuns to complete assigned task. When she was not praying, she would work in the kitchen. If kitchen work was over, she continued with gardening.

An incredible thing about Angela was that she couldn't be still. She had to be active and productive. Angela loved to cook and enjoyed preparing meals for all the nuns at the convent. She brewed coffee for them in the early mornings and also brewed the evening tea.

Agnes was a quiet nun. She occupied herself with prayers during the day and vespers in the evening and when her schedule permitted studied the religious books in depth. She was a trained nurse and strived for perfection in all tasks she accomplished. She could spend all her waking hours reading and notes taking. For those observing her, it would appear she was preparing for an examination every single day. Agnes was meticulous at her work and was a caring person. She cared for her patients and nursed them back to health.

Despite her primary responsibilities, Agnes was very dedicated to the hospital and often worked late into the night.

Giselle was a beauty, who possessed youthful features with hazel eyes, high arched brows and a strong jawline. She was the prettiest of all the nuns. Giselle had a deep voice that enchanted people around her. However, there usually was a blank expression on her face.

She was mostly interested in preparing the songs for the church choir and decorating the altar. Each day the nuns performed a series of repetitious actions – Morning lauds were followed by mass at the convent chapel. The chapel service was held every morning to begin their spiritual day. At the end of their day, an evening rosary service was held before the nuns retired to their rooms.

Ailing nuns were allowed a siesta in the afternoons, if it was required for their health conditions.

The nuns had their own way of life. Most of the necessities of life like food, shelter and clothing were available within the convent campus. Only if something had to be procured from outside sources, would they collectively arrange for it. Otherwise, they were completely shut out of worldly existence.

Each year a few days were allocated as vacation so that the nuns could visit their respective families. It was especially utilized by those nuns who had family members suffering from grave illness or those who had old parents.

Angela, Agnes and Giselle did not seem to long for vacations. It seemed that they weren't interested to visit their families at all. No family member ever visited them. Due to the discipline observed, the nuns never spoke anything more than work. It was against the rules to talk anything personal.

Chapter Three

Angela grew up independently feeling quite neglected at home. Her step father did not seem to acknowledge her as his own child. He seemed to be an aloof sort of a person who was not interested in anything in life. Angela often wondered what made her mother marry someone so clumsy. Was it that she married for the sake of marriage or she simply could not live all by herself? Angela's step-father had his own life outside his family. She never knew what his profession was, nor would she even want to know.

Life threw challenges at her at every step. With passing days, she transformed into a mature and self-dependent woman. One fine day on the pretext of finding a job, she left home never to return. There was no one waiting for her at home though, as her mother too lost interest in her life and perished soon after. She travelled west and did different odd jobs to make a living, but always looked withdrawn.

She did not trust anyone easily and kept herself busy every breathing minute. She felt that she would get into depression if she stopped working, so she never stopped. She had spotted an establishment run by the nuns and thought of a way to get into it. She felt safe there and for reasons of her own wanted to stay there. It felt rather strange for someone who saw so much of boredom in her family to choose a life of monastery. There had to be a strong reason.

Angela was everything that a woman was, but clearly was a misfit to a sedentary life. She thus undergoes an Aspirancy for a period of four weeks after which the nuns of the order deem her to be a fit. After being accepted at the convent, Angela progresses to the next levels with much ease. She continues staying with the nuns and lives a life of prayer and service but there are still doubts in her mind if she has to take her final vows. She looked as though she was waiting for her life to take a new course.