I don’t remember when it was exactly that Casey first instant messaged me. I think it was shortly after I put some rather dramatic stories up on Fiction Press. Yes, that was it, thats how she got my screen name. She IM’d me out of the blue and said she was facinated by my true stories and how she couldn’t believe that could really happen.
As time went on Casey told me about herself, she was 19, a senior in highschool. Her family had just made a move from the east coast to the west coast. She was glad she had left her old school where she was teased all the time. See, she has a cleft palat, I was able to see a pictre of her and saw that she is pretty, but I could see how self-centered teens could pick on her for her crooked mouth.
We talked a bit and we got into theology. She could not believe I was a Catholic. She told me she was Jewish and had never known any nice Catholics, she said girls at her school called her “dirty Jew.” We talked about theories of angels, and she loved the idea of having saints, like me, she isn’t someone who wants to meet Brad Pitt but would enjoy a day with a famous person who lived the role he or she played. She liked the idea of the church instituting people outside the Bible who were good people, who were so ordinary they were extraordinary. That was around October and she was fearing starting school again, a terrible place for her to be. But somehow her transcripts were lost and the school system told her she didn’t have to start school until after Christmas break.
She was really frustrated becasue she was home alone during the day and couldn’t talk to her parents or sibilings. The move hadn’t been very hard on her until she felt she lost the family unit that held her together. She asked how I got through my life. I said I never was able to talk to my parents or brothers. Then I thought and thought. I had always had my mommy Mary. I told her about Mary. She told me that she was Jewish so Mary didn’t care about her. I said that Mary was Jewish, too, and she loved all children, no matter what they did or said.
Casey became facinated and wanted to know more about Mary, she had never really heard of Mary before. I told her that Mary was a young Jewish girl chosen by God to do great things, to raise Jesus.
Casey then asked how I always remembered Mary was with me even when things were bad, how I was able to call out “Mommy Mary, protect me” even if I never did see her.
I told her that one day this young lady was praying. And Mary came down from Heaven and began talking to her and showed this young lady a medal. It was a venerable “I love you THIS much” Casey immediately wanted a medal, so we looked around the internet to see her nearest Catholic bookstore. Unfortunatly it was 45 minutes away.
I thought and thought and looked online, I found a church near to her and used my calling card to call so they could give her the medal. Casey said she was too shy to go to the church and get it herself, and the secretary said that she felt awkward as a little Jew girl going to a Catholic church. Anyway, it got sent and she recieved it right before her visit to the school.
The visit went well, she liked all her teachers and said she could “accept” the librarian. That was before Christmas.
I just reacently chatted with her a bit. She told me how wonderful her classes are, and that she has friends who care about her. She told me that she was finaly able to stand up to a bully. And that she is involved in clubs and isn’t afraid to be in school shows.
Right after she said she had to go I asked her if she still wore the medal.
Her response:
“Always”
