“I told you awready. You too big to be talking to dolls. Good Lord, Indigo, look at yourself.” Indigo tried to focus on Sister Mary’s face. But she only saw a glimmering. She tried to look at herself, and kept blinking her eyes, rubbing her palms over them, to get some focus. She saw something spreading out of her in a large scarlet pool at her feet. Sister Mary jumped up and down.

“Indigo the Lord’s called you to be a woman. Look on High for His Blessing. Look I say. Look to Jesus, who has ‘blessed you this day.’ ” Indigo fell down on her knees like Sister Mary had. And listened and swayed in her growing scarlet lake to the voice of this green-eyed woman singing for the heavens: “Trouble In Mind,” “Done Made My Vow,” and “Rise and Shine,” so that Indigo would know “among whom was Mary Magdalene.”

“Speak, child, raise your voice that the Lord May Know You as the Woman You Are.”

Then Sister Mary Louise rose, her thin body coated with Indigo’s blood. She gently took off Indigo’s clothes, dropped them in a pail of cold water. She bathed Indigo in a hot tub filled with rose petals: white, red, and yellow floating around a new woman. She made Indigo a garland of flowers, and motioned for her to go into the back yard.

“There in the garden, among God’s other beauties, you should spend these first hours. Eve’s curse threw us out the garden. But like I told you, women tend to beauty and children. Now you can do both. Take your blessing and let your blood flow among the roses. Squat like you will when you give birth. Smile like you will when God chooses to give you a woman’s pleasure. Go now, like I say. Be not afraid of your nakedness.”

Then Sister Mary shut the back door. Indigo sat bleeding among the roses, fragrant and filled with grace.

MARVELOUS MENSTRUATING MOMENTS

(As Told by Indigo to Her Dolls as She Made Each and Every One of Them a Personal Menstruation Pad of Velvet)

A. Flowing:

When you first realize your blood has come, smile; an honest smile, for you are about to have an intense union with your magic. This is a private time, a special time, for thinking and dreaming. Change your bedsheet to the ones that are your favorite. Sleep with a laurel leaf under your head. Take baths in wild hyssop, white water lilies. Listen for the voices of your visions; they are nearby. Let annoying people, draining worries, fall away as your body lets what she doesn’t need go from her. Remember that you are a river; your banks are red honey where the Moon wanders.

B. For Disturbance of the Flow: