This is taking a wee bit too long, but I’m sticking to it.

—

Part V:

“Counseling?” I said, staring at Father John like he’s lost his head.  From what I’ve heard, he probably has. 

“Oh good, you agree to do it,” he said, his face forming into a cheerful smile.  I didn’t think he was serious but when he started walking towards the altar I had to scramble after him. 

“Father John, with all due respect, I hardly think that I’m qualified to do counseling.  I’ve just graduated and I don’t think I can do this,”

“But I don’t think it would be quite that bad,” he said.  My eyebrows raised on their own accord.  “Listen, I really would do it myself but I have to leave for ____ tomorrow, have you forgotten?   There is still the three-day seminar about ____ and the Bishop has granted us an audience afterwards, to discuss ___.”

I stared at him helplessly.  I couldn’t help the rising feeling of panic in me; this is just too much. 

He looked at me and sighed.  “It won’t be that complex of a case Father Jhun,” he said.  “She’s merely a child acting out in protest against her parents.  From what I gather, the most she needs is someone to watch over her and to make sure that she wouldn’t be doing anything more foolish here in the parish.”

“So you want me to babysit her?”

“Well I wouldn’t put it that way, but at the most that is exactly what you’ll be doing,” he said.  “Until I get back from the trip anyway.  She’ll be staying her for a month or so and that’ll give me plenty of time to work with her, but for the first week, I really do need you look after her,”

With a big sigh I said, “Alright, if you need me to do it.  But I still don’t think I’m fit to do this,”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he said, looking ecstatic.  “It will be just for the first few days at the most and I am just a phone call away,”

“Alright, but why is she here again anyway?  Isn’t she supposed to be still at school?  She looks like she’s in high school or something,”

“She’s actually a sophomore college student in ____ University,” Father John said.  “And the term there ended a little bit earlier for her than the rest of the students because she got into a bit of trouble with the school,”

“What sort of trouble?” I asked, intrigued.  I glanced to the girl seated on the back of the church and wondered what sort of damage this little girl was capable of doing. 

“Well,” he said, looking a bit uncomfortable.  “She sort of blew up a whole laboratory area in her school,”

“She what?” My head snapped into Rin’s direction once again, this time viewing her with a new light.  Suddenly she didn’t seem so little and so innocent anymore.  That contemptuous stance of hers just helped everything click in my mind. 

“Yeah, she confessed to doing it alone too,” Father John added.

-To Be Continued-