Sirene (Wattys 2014 Entrant)

Folks, I'm so sorry this chapter came out so short with nothing happening in it! I promise things will pick up! I've been real busy of late, with all sorts of doctors appointments and stuff like that, so haven't had much time to write.

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Chapter 10

"Oceana, you certainly have some nerve about you." Stephanie Alberna said with a shake of her head. "You have no idea what sort of an uproar you caused here."

"Of course I have an idea, Miss Morgan and Miss Grey gave me more than an idea on the way back to the orphanage. When we finally arrived back to this dreadful place, it was like an anthill that someone had stamped on. You'd think I robbed the city bank or something. All I did was go visiting. I had to do it. Why can't any of you understand that? Chandler saved me, he brought me up, and I owe it to him to at least visit."

"How ever did you get anyone to allow you into the prison?"

"A kind stranger helped me."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know." Oceana stated with a shrug. "I met him on the streets and he took me all the way to the prison. It seemed like everyone there knew him and after talking with several of the guards and the warden, he got them to let me in. I never did catch his name, which is a shame. I would have never gotten in without him."

Stephanie sighed and said nothing more on the subject. "I brought you something." She pulled a book out of her bag.

"Ooh, a present." Oceana squealed. "I love presents. And it's a book at that."

"It's a Bible."

"The book about God?"

"Yes, exactly. I thought we could read it together. I was going to get you a children's Bible to start with..."

"No thank you." Oceana gave a firm shake of her head. "I don't want no children's Bible. If I read Homer's The Odyssey, I think I'll be able to manage this. Chandler helped me with The Odyssey and you'll help me with the Bible"

"Only, it's nothing like The Odyssey."

"Thank goodness, one book like that is more than enough."

Stephanie giggled at Oceana's honest expression. 

"Don't get me wrong,” Oceana explained, “it was very interesting, but I don't think I could read it again. So, about the Bible, do we start at the very beginning?"

"We can..." Stephanie faltered, wondering where should they begin. "Or we could go through the Gospels first, and then go to the beginning."

"The Gospels?"

"Here, I'll show you." Stephanie flipped through the Bible till she found the Gospel of Matthew.

"Who starts a book from the middle?" Oceana lifted an eyebrow.

"It's a unique book, Oceana, so we will have a unique way of reading it."

***

"You can't expect her to just jump into religion like this." Stephanie was speaking to Miss Morgan. "You make her say prayers, but she doesn't understand why, you make her sit through church, she doesn't get the point. Calling her wicked and sinful doesn't do any good, she's been raised by wicked and sinful men."

"What do you mean?"

"Chandler is a smuggler, and I'm guessing so is Callum, there is just no evidence to prove it. These men live to break the law, and no doubt they taught Oceana that disobeying the rules is not something to get excited about. I just spent two hours with her and I think I understand why she is such a strange child. It's her upbringing."

"Or the lack of it." Miss Morgan stated in a dry voice.

"On first glance it would seem so, but when you look deeper, you find there is an ideology behind everything she does or doesn't do. She has been brought up, only in a way that goes contrary to everything we know to be good and true."

"What or who brought her up is not my concern. It is how to remake her that is the problem."

"The regular punishments and accepted methods won't work with Oceana. You must teach her the correct way to live life, but you must teach it in the language she understands. It's almost like she is from a different country, and speaks a different language. The goal is to try and find what will work for her."

"I don't have time for such nonsense." Miss Morgan rolled her eyes. "I've got an entire orphanage to run and I can't babysit some child just because she was brought up in a different way. She must learn the rules and regulations and she will learn it the way all the other children learned it."

Stephanie saw that it was futile to argue and excused herself. "You'll never get through to her that way." Stephanie spoke to the air as she walked home. "I guess the only way to help Oceana learn to adapt to 'normal' society will be for me to try and help her myself. Mother will be horrified, but then, if I am destined to be an old maid, I might as well find something useful to keep me busy, since a husband and children don't seem to be a part of my future."

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Poor Stephanie, her mom's constant reminders that she's too ugly to attract a husband have convinced her that she will be an old maid :(

will there be any romance for Stephanie....maybe...maybe not! :P