It was 5 o'clock in the morning. Sun rised cheerfully to wake the children of Sherwood Orphanage up for their special day. The kids had got up from the bed as if the bed was some kind of a water shelt and they just slipped and rised to the surface. Families who want to adopt a child would come and spend time with the child they wanted to adopt on 14th day of every month. That was 14th day of August, it was very hot inside the orphanage but the walls were as if they were smiling and absorbing all the heat.
Sherwood Orphanage had only a few buildings around it: six or seven detached houses, a little hospital and a shopping market beside it. It was more colorless, serious and church-like than before because of the last restoration. But it was an another world inside. It was still a church-like because of the nuns, religious motifs and scriptures from bible on the wall but the paintings of children which made the orphanage almost a dream world were everywhere. It was only the children who cheered this orphanage up.
A child who looked to Sherwood Orphanage outside would think it was sort of a castle seen in movies which takes place in distant lands. And it was a land of Snow Queen probably, because the building was on a region which had a high elevation and snow would not let go of it.
Of course, the smaller ones of those children who think it is a castle of a Snow Queen, did not understand when they were told it was only an simple orphanage with no magic, only with children with no families. But who could except from a little child to understand some families just abandon their children and never come back again. It was too sad.
One room was customized for naos. On every Sunday, it was open to visitors. The choir had its fame in the city. And not only because of the talented children it included. Precentor of the choir was young Sister Sofia, who was a daughter of a country singer. Her mother was dead OD, and after a year, she decided to become a nun. She was kind of a teacher a child loves most, the type which gives no homework and let children experience their own journey by asking them a lot of questions. And when the sun shines, she would make all the children in her group outside. And other group of children would get jealous and would insist to their teachers to do the same thing.
Though the size of the building, it was almost empty. There were not so much children and furnitures were only enough. Two floors which had the biggest rooms of it were specialized for church. And the last floor was for choir, which was a big one again.
The children dressed up meticulously. They combed each other's hair. The old ones wear a little bit make-up to their faces. And they hurried up to dining hall for breakfast. It was a special day but they understood from the smell that the menu was not very special.
There was just one girl, still hiding in the bed, and was not as excited as expected. Her name was Beatha.
Her friend, Arlene, was trying to pull her from the bed with her both hands on the her pijamas.
Although the slim body of hers, she could be strong when necesarry. Finally, she laughed slowly and said, "You won't quit, will you?"
"Which one ?"
Arlene pointed two dresses which she had threw to bed of Beatha.
"White one, I think." Said Beatha, with a sleepy tone. Arlene slipped the blue dress to Beatha's hands.
"I thought it was for you." Said Beatha and started to dress up.
"What, are you blind now? I am already dressed up. "
Arlene was wearing a blue jean with a green belt and a sweater with red stamps on it. She was like the other days, except the earrings on her ears.
While they were going down the stairs, three girls were going the opposite one wih unhappy attitude. They were probably had sent back from the nuns because of their short dresses.
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.
After half an hour, she asked them to be ready downstairs for Family Visiting. Beatha rolled her eyes and her eyes met with Arlene standing next to the door, waiting for her. She smiled to Beatha and when they met, she touched her arm. "You'll meet my parents. You'll like them."
Beatha smiled her back. The word "My parents" echoed in her head for a while. And she knew she would not be able to sleep at night with this sound. Beatha loved too much Arlene to get jealous of her. That feeling was too special to be about other people. And that family probably will adopt her. Because if the family would come today's meeting too, that would be seventh meeting at total and this would mean, the time the orphanage gave to the family was up and the family succeed. And Beatha wanted so much for Arlene, for her sake.
A hand held her other hand in the crowd. When she looked up, she saw it was her teacher. She said Arlene to go. After seconds, Sister Sofia and Beatha were alone in the room. She opened her mouth to talk, with shining eyes. When Beathe heard what she said, she let go of Sister Sofie's hand.
Sister Sofie had said, "You have a visiter." Did she hear right? Maybe she wasn't just blind like Beatha had said. Maybe she was also deaf. But she was sure... She had a visiter.
She didn't meet a family for five months. And before that, it was not so bright either. A family would come to meet her, but it would last maximum three months. After the three visitings and couple of conversations with them on the phone, she would not see them again.
She never knew why. She started to think that the reason was she was not pretty enough. Because she was sure that she was very smart. All the teachers used to say that. Her grades were very high. But it was suspicious too. Because she never worked much to exams. Maybe she was too dumb not to understand that teachers were giving her grades high so that she wouldn't be depressed about her loneliness.
But all these thoughts did not make sense to her and melted away, because she had a new hope.
She saw a white pigeon perched on the edge of the window. Seeing a pigeon which is white was not a common thing in that area. Beatha took this as a sign of the coming of good days. But it wasn't the last time she saw that pigeon.
"Where do you come from beauty..." She got closer to the pigeon. As she got closer, she noticed a tiny blackness on its neck. It was a ribbon. Beatha smiled, "I guess you escaped from your cage."
She opened the window and caressed the neck of the pigeon. "You did the right thing... Hope you find your fellas." Then she felt a grief because she knew that wasn't gonna happen. This pigeon probably couldn't make it through the winter and die somewhere in the forest which lies in front of the orphanage. Alone, but at least free.
**
When the clock hit three pm, families started to come to the guest room. It was a room with brown, luxurious furnitures. Room didn't take so much sunshine because it was on the North side of the building. And the dark colored furnitures didn't help. Only the lambs were spreading the room weak but calming light.
There was a table and two chairs in front of it at the end of the room, with a gardrop beside it. The abbess had sit there and watch under the glasses, probably drinking green tea.
Sister Sofia's group was the second group to join the meeting. Group of abbesses went out and they went in. Hands of Beatha were shaking. She felt like crying. She was anxious. Actually she didn't even know if she wanted a family. She always escaped from this thought because she never got close this much. Sister Sofia had said the woman who wanted to see her had known her mother formerly. So she was pretty serious about taking care of Beatha.
She sat the same couch with two girls and started to wait. A woman came in, and a couple followed her. Beatha had seen that woman once, so she knew it wasn't her. But still her heart started to beat faster.
In her mind, her mother had wavy, brown hair like hers, and green eyes which Beatha didn't have but always wanted. She must have had angry face, like Beatha, but a lovely heart. She never thought her mother just left her. Her mother gave her the biggest present, life, then flied away. Like an angel.
A strange looking woman came in. She was wearing a yellow jacket with white shirt and a black ribbon on her neck. She had a brown short hair with glimmering green eyes which you can't do nothing but noticing them. It was not just her eyes, she was beautiful as whole. But she looked like a creep with that style.
When Beatha saw her, her eyes wide opened. She had the greenest eyes. Then, the probability of she may be her, made her ashamed. This woman with the creepiest looking shouldn't have been her.
But the woman smiled at her and began to approach her. And other people in the room were distracted by this woman too, now they were looking this strange moment.
"Hello Beatha. I am Tiril. An old friend of your mother."