LYKO: Under the Birch

Chapter 1 : Woman in Yellow Jacket

As they went in the door of the dining hall, Beatha grumbled. "I am gonna vommit this time. C'mon, do something special for our day, at least."

But no one seem to care about the breakfast. Everyone was talking to each other with excited whispers. Beatha felt like they could hear all of them, the sounds she imagined blowed her mind. She felt like vommitting already, and not because of the smell of sausage.

"I love my daddy Carl."

"My mother has the cutest hair. She lives alone, she has four dogs and a huge garden. She'll have me by her side by the time she get married with her fiancee."

She wanted to close her ears, but instead, she started to walk faster and put a fake smile on her face.

"Did you forget? Tomorrow is feast." Arlene was saying.

"Wha..." said Beatha, without losing the smile.

Arlene gave her a strange look. "Tomorrow, there is a feast, I said. So who cares breakfast?"

They said good morning to Sister Sofia, their group teacher in charge; then they sat. Beatha sat right beside to her. Arlene went to the table of Sister Monica. The morning pray began.

After the breakfast, everyone hurried to their classes. They were using the classes alternately. There was only one group in every class at a time. It wasn't just because the classes were too small to have forty people at once, it was because nuns were too stubborn to compromise for timetable. They were compromised only for hours and it was already an obligation.

Sister Rachel, was the abbess of the orphanage, was not even interested in scheduling. She would do whatever the lesson she wanted to do. She would not even get upset if some children did not attent to class. But somehow she would punish the child of an another nun's group. Because of that, every children wanted to be in the abbess's class time to ttime, when they were too energetic to sit in a chair and listen to an uninteresting lesson.

While other children went to stairs on the right to reach to second, third or forth floors, group of Sister Sofia went straightly to the stairs on the left to the music class on the last floor. Beatha wished good lessons to Arlene who had botanic class on third floor. Her teacher, Sister Monica was the oldest of all nuns and she forgot almost everything she specialized in about botanics. So they had to do all the lesson in a closed area. And the reason they did not do the lesson outside was her fear of shoes. She used to walk around with her funny homemade socks all day. A girl who is now adopted by a rich family, spread peanot butter to her shoes one morning. She had a nickname among the children till that time: Sister Butter Sock.

It was one of the biggest room in the building. In the middle of the room, Pietà statue of Michelangelo, description of Mother of Mercy with Jesus in her arms was standing. In every August of 15, an unknown shadow would fall on the eyes of the Mother, giving the artwork a soul. And she couldn't take her eyes off of those eyes.

Before the lesson, children went to front of the Pietà with the nun.
" 'Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us,' said the Apostle Philip. Jesus responded, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father.' We want to see Jesus. And in the second part, after 'Eia Ergo', we say that we want Jesus to see us, his merciful eyes toward us..."

And she turned her smiling face to the children. "You all look beautiful," she said.
The children went to their seats. They did not sit, they were standing. For today's lesson, they were going to study a Marian chant. They were working for a chant named "Salve Regina" for a few days.

"Be careful to oh's." said Sister Sofia to the children chanting. "We have three sweet oh's here.."

And the children continued chanting,  "O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!" . Sister Sofia joined them time to time.
When they finished, she came closer to the group and said,"Eia is like eh-yah, think about it as a sigh." to them slightly.