Rose Sayah

I mean, is this supposed to be you?

Is this how you feel?

And I didn't answer her.

So she left the room and came back in a long while with Mother Superior and came in next to me, and I think told me to stop, but I just put my arm around the painting I had.

And Mother Superior blew her whistle, and so everybody stopped and folded their hands on their desks because it was Catholic school and that's what you did.

And when they looked down at my painting, they saw that I had taken the blunt edge of some kiddie scissors, and I scratched out a rainbow and sun and flowers, and the crayon colors came popping out of the black paint.

And Ms.

Egan asked me, where did you get the idea for this?

And I said, well, I love the stained glass in the church.

I love the pictures of the saints and Jesus shining through the colors of the stained glass.

And when I looked at Mother Superior, she didn't look too happy with that answer.

And I really thought in my nine-year-old brain,

I'm in so much trouble now.

I've desecrated stained glass.

It's supposed to be saints in Jesus, and I've done flowers and a rainbow.

Oh, my God, I am in so much trouble.

And I started to shake and cry and put my head down, and my tears just fell on the paper, making a river of black.

And Miss Egan picked me up and put me in her lap and hugged me until I stopped.

And when I stopped, I saw all the other kids were gone.

Mother Superior was gone.