"Calm down, Novice Despina, what is
it?"
"There is a man! A man in the monastery! Three men came ..."
"Yes, yes, three men came ... Now they left? You said there was a man here … ?"
"Yes, come, Elder Agatha, come."
On a bed near the kitchen lay the comatose body of a man.
"Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!" repeated Elder Agatha and quickly gave the order to cut and remove the man's wet clothing.
Novice Despina obeyed readily. Except for around the man's neck and shoulder area where his clothes were stuck to his burned skin, Despina was able to remove most of the clothing. A bruise on the left ankle revealed a bone fracture. There was a similar injury on the right arm above the wrist. A touch of his ribs brought signs of pain to the man's badly damaged face. Elder Agatha, an expert in broken bones, put his arm and leg in a cast, administered sedative shots, checked his heartbeat, and was satisfied. Admiring her abilities, Novice Despina asked:
"Are you a doctor? You must be!"
"No, no, I am not. I just worked in a hospital during the war. How about you?"
"Oh, me?" Despina was probing the man's ribs. "Ohh, ohh ..." moaned the man. "I studied to be a nurse but I was foolish and fell in love. Then I had a calling from another place ... so here I am."
"I see," said Elder Agatha and started giving instructions. "Please mix burned stone with olive oil and apply it to the skin entangled with his clothing. We must remove the burned fibers." Agatha winced as she said, "They've melted right into the skin."
Despina tore a sheet into long strips and both women bound them around the man's apparently fractured ribs.
"This man, whoever he is, is lucky to come here ... to be brought here," remarked Novice Despina after a few minutes.
"We are the lucky ones," said Elder Agatha. "God sent this man here for a reason. But it is already 5 a.m. Go and rest now. Later, when liturgy is over, please have Father Gregorios come."
"Yes, Holy One!" Despina bent her head, kissed the Elder's hand, and walked toward the door. There, she turned around and asked, "Can I stay so you can go rest?"
"No thank you, Despina. Now please go."
With a straw from a wild reed, Elder Agatha forced cool water down the man's throat. A gentle squeeze on her finger indicated gratitude. The nun was strangely comfortable with this man, and touching him felt no shame. Agatha did not question God's plan for her or the challenges he had given her before. She was able to handle them. And now, this one! "Thy will be done!" Agatha crossed herself. "Lord have mercy on me, for having doubted for even a second."