Sister Marķa Teresa, her friend Salome Teodoro and the two young people in their charge land in Houston 09:44. They've left a message at
Houston Party Bus Rental Services to inquire about a couple of black classic Cadillacs, Town Cars or Lincoln Continentals for a memorial service for an old man who liked classic American cars.
They are able to find one 1970 Cadillac Professional Chassis combination coach in hearse configuration, but it is only available for the Saturday. They can't rent it overnight. Sister Marķa Teresa decides that this is unacceptable and sets out to explain to the clerk who is working Saturday why she needs to be able to take the car out to show the old man's widow for her to approve before the memorial service on Sunday.
Politely, the well-bred young man tells the sister that the hearse is already booked for a funeral that Sunday. He is willing to do everything he can to help find an alternate solution and sits down with this funny, foreign nun to see if there isn't some other vehicle she could accept. He offers her coffee, she accepts, but insists on pouring for them both. They both drink coffee while poring over a computer screen with available vehicles. Suddenly, the screen flickers, then shorts out, as the nice young man starts drooling. Sister Marķa Teresa is counting jet-black rosary beads and talking to the drooling clerk in a calming, incomprehensible voice.
Without a word spoken, the young man and the very pretty teenage girl sitting in the waiting area start to make preparations. They lock the door, turn around the 'Open' sign to 'Closed' and close the curtains. Then the young man grabs a letter opener and makes a careful sweep of the office for anyone else.
In her oddly accented, but grammatically perfect English, Sister Marķa Teresa commands the drooling clerk to substitute a 1995 Lincoln Town Car for the other funeral and mark the 1970 Cadillac in the computer as unavailable. Asking careful questions, she determines that marking it unhelpfully and imprecisely as 'In the shop' is unlikely to be disproven until Monday and even then the odds are good no one would be certain that it wasn't a mistake of some sort until after New Year's. Especially if they have something else to think about.
The young man finishes his sweep and reports no other staff there, one outside camera and one inside. He has also found keys for the 1970 Caddy. The other middle-aged woman takes some black candles from her purse and lights one under the inside camera, instructing the girl to light another outside. Removing a bracelet from her wrist and a small vial from the purse, the other woman scatters the crystaline stones of the bracelet around the candle as she mutters in Latin. The two young people join hands with her, chanting with her.
Meanwhile, Sister Marķa Teresa is gently whispering to the docile clerk. She pats him on the hand, takes the two cups of coffee to the kitchen cubby where she washes them in the sink. Then she brings back an empty glass and hands it to the clerk. She tells him to cup it in his hands and repeat the words after her. He does, but the words are not Latin. She chants, he chants, the lights flicker and the three others who arrived with Sister Marķa Teresa have reached a point in their ceremony where they sprinkle drops from the vial on the inside camera.
Sister Marķa Teresa gently asks the clerk to break the glass, carefully at an angle. He does, cutting his hand. She grimaces and asks him to take the largest piece and grasp it firmly. He does. And then she thanks him, asks for his forgiveness, steps backwards and ask him to cut his carotid artery. He does.
Quietly, the two middle-aged women, the nun and the nurse, and the two young people, leave the office. On the way, the young girl sprinkles some drops from the vial on the outside camera and throws some dried flowers at it. Salome Teodoro, the middle-aged nurse, recites a short Latin chant that the others echo.
Inside, bright arterial blood sprays the desk and computer, but the clerk does not move or make any sound but the hoarse gurgle of his straining breath as he gets weaker and weaker. No one looks back at him.
The four cross the parking lot, guided by the young man to avoid the field of view of other cameras. Sister Marķa Teresa proposes that the young man and the girl take the 2017 Toyota Corolla from Avis they arrived in while she and Mrs. Teodoro take the hearse. This disappoints the teenage girl and she looks ready to cry. It takes Sister Marķa Teresa several minutes of quiet whispering and fond hugging to reconcile the girl to going with the young man and she agrees only because there are no ordinary seats in the rear of the hearse.
They drive off toward Indianola.