Chapter 4: A Revelation
Kay sat on her favorite park bench, college books thrown all over the place. She couldn't concentrate on the assignment at home and decided to do it outside. When Kay got bored, she looked up and around the city she grew up in. The same people, with the same beliefs. The Cranes owned the town and were pure evil. The Hotchkisses were the socialite family. The Bennetts were generous and kind. No family was closer than the devout Lopez-Fitzgeralds. The Russells were the determined and goal-centered family. Tabitha was the slightly crazy old lady in the neighborhood. Nearly everyone fit in. Except for her. She had no place in the city's society. She was not like anyone in her family, all saints in the eyes of the townspeople. She and her beloved cousin were like night and day.
Kay had realized long ago that she was not what the town had expected her to be, as Sam and Grace Bennett's daughter. She was supposed to be like Charity; kind and caring, loving and just plain good. Charity was not human. Human beings make mistakes. Kay had made plenty of mistakes, and she certainly didn't need this town's forgiveness. She had gotten that already. First, when Pearl didn't condemn her for actions, and then when none of her friends did. The true end came just the other night, when Kay was asked to place the baby Jesus in the manger. It was as if Fr. Lonigan had given the poor woman a new chance, and not even her cousin's temper tantrum could destroy it.
Kay knew for a fact why she liked New York. There, one can be whatever and no one really cares. Kay's style in clothing had changed a bit. She still wore sporty outfits—hey! they were the most comfortable things ever. Yet, she started to shop vintage and fell in love with the clothes of the early seventies. She even started to let her creative sense come out, creating interesting hair ornaments. She had been complemented so many times on the street for her fashion look, but Kay knew she would receive the oddest looks if she wore them on the streets of Harmony. Her friends there didn't care what Kay had done or what Kay did. She actually had fun with them, fooling around, almost making up for her missing teenage fun. Then there was Church. When Kay was evil and felt that being good was getting her nowhere, the disillusioned girl gave up her religion and going to Church. Pearl didn't really push the teen to going to mass, but one day Kay entered into St. Patrick's Cathedral one day, just for a visit, and stayed for an hour praying.
That's when she changed. That's when she felt that she wasn't being herself, and that Miguel was wearing her down. She felt forgiven by God and had started to attend church regularly. She even volunteered to help teenagers—she didn't want anyone to make the mistakes she did. Kay had about ten teenaged girls she kept in touch with regularly. That's how she met Vincent, he was helping counsel the boys in the parish. They started to talk about the things they had done, Kay being evil and Vincent being a drunk for most of teenage years. Yet, they both survived and were over that part in their lives. Just as Vincent would never pick up a bottle of liquor again, Kay vowed to never resort to evil again. And she wouldn't. Kay bent down into her bag and took out her purple binder. She flipped through the earlier entries till she found it. Kay took the paper out and started to read it aloud:
"I, Kathleen Elizabeth Bennett, do swear from this day forward to do good. I promise to never turn to evil to help solve my problem and instead ask for help from friends. That's what they are there for. This I do swear." Kay stopped and looked at her signature, plus three other signatures: Vincent's, Pearl's, Jennifer's and Robyn's, all who were witnessed to that vow. Kay received an idea. She would copy the vow, almost word for word, and sign it in the presence of her cousin, best friend, mother, and Fr. Lonigan. That should prove she was sorry, to them at least.
Kay packed everything up and headed for the Harmony Church, to talk to Fr. Lonigan. She walked past the same shops, the same streets, the same people with the same attitudes. Before coming to the church she realized that, while she knew she didn't need to apologize to the town, it just dawned on her that the town needed to apologize to her and everyone else they had kicked out due to ignorance. No one in this town really knew Kay, not even Miguel. No one really knew Theresa either, not her family, not Ethan, not Whitney, no one. The town needed to change, needed to become more open. There were too many secrets, too many pained pasts. Harmony desperately needed a psychologist, and that's what she was going to do. She was going to become a psychologist and then come back to help Harmony. Kay started to walk again, now with a determined stride since she had a goal now.