John begins to formulate a plan.
"Okay, I'm going to need a notepad and a pen. I think I've got an idea, but I would like you guys to stay out of sight and rush to my aid should things go awry. It's time to use the kryptonite of the grown-up world. Bureaucracy!""Don't have a pen or a notepad.""Neither do I."Luckily, John has a notepad! He never leaves home without it. As well as at least three working pens - he knew all that preparation would pay off some day! He displays his supplies proudly, but his new friends don't seem impressed, and simply head off into the dark after assuring John that
yes, they will come out and help him if necessary.
* * * * *
Halesey agrees with the idea of the fee and accepts the Prioress' money.
"Why, yes ma'am, and I will try to bear the necessity for morality in mind in my future dealings with any strange occurrences. I can just imagine what the sight of depraved dinosaurs roaming the streets of her home town would have done for my mother's heart, bless her. Derek, let us carefully save these eurodollars for a secure future," he says, securing these eurodollars for a safe future. It then occurs to him that two hundred dollars, while not bad in money terms, might not be quite enough to have some actual fun with at Chez Ronardo's - luckily, it's noon plus or minus one hour right now, which means he has about eight hours to get as much money as he needs. It also occurs to him that there is an important question he needs to ask the Prioress.
"Excuse, me, mother, but, I always wanted to know. Can you really exorcise people? Do nuns really have praeternatural powers?" he asks, with
Larry providing an affirmative nod to stress the essential nature of the query. The Prioress merely raises an eyebrow, then shrugs.
"Of course they do. Why else would somebody willingly segregate themselves from society and live a life of isolation and discipline? It's all those mystical powers, obviously," she says with more than a twinge of sarcasm. One of the nuns snickers at the remark, and the Prioress shakes her head.
"No, sir, we don't have preternatural powers. No nun actually does. Some may pretend they do, and some may get preternatural powers retroactively assigned to them by popular history, but no. Having anything of the sort would go against the spirit of the whole endeavor. A monastery is supposed to be a place without troubling events, a place of perspective and introspection. You know, nun things. Not god-magic or whatever."