There was a long moment of chilling silence. They sat quiet, staring at me trying to squeeze in the armchair, embarrassed to death. Endless number of scores run in my head. Then, finally, Sister Victoria broke the silence:
"Sisters, this is Mr. Shaw. Mr. Bernie Shaw. He exposed his private parts in front of innocent girls from Saint Anthony School. He knows what he did was wrong, and he came here to be forgiven. What do you think we should do with him?"
The other nuns looked at each other. Then Sister Victoria added: "Sister Maria, you are close in age to the girls. You must know what they feel. What do you think we should do with him?"
Sister Maria hesitated, then said: "This is very bad. If someone did it to me, I would be scared to death. I think we should hand him to Father Edward, he should know how to treat a person like him."
I felt all the blood running out of my face.
But then, Sister Victoria answered her: "Thank you very much, Sister Maria, you are right, female students in a catholic school can be very offended by this kind of act, but I think you forgot some details I told you. This gentleman didn't do it in a public place. It all happened in the men's section of the beach's shower facilities. These were the innocent students at our school who entered there to watch the man".
And she added: "Not only they went in to watch. They hit the poor naked gentleman on his behind. One of them even used a paddle until his bottom turned to black!"
"Our holy mother!" Sister Theresa crossed, "I can't believe it! Are these the girls we educate in our school?"
"Yes!" proclaimed Sister Victoria, "our students! I think we should tell Father Edward about them. What do you think, sisters?"
My heart sank again. Did I do all the way here just to send these sweet girls, who gave me heavenly pleasure, to the satanic Father Edward? I could not imagine, at that stage, the scam that was plotted around me...
I dared to jump in. "Sister Victoria," I said, "I told you I forgave them, and you promised me that you would not punish them more."