Sirene (Wattys 2014 Entrant)

Chapter 14

“Stephanie, I’m a really wicked child, aren’t I?” Oceana asked as they walked back together from another visit to the prison.

Stephanie looked at Oceana in surprise. “What do you mean?”

"I’m hard to control and always disobeying the rules, that’s what I mean.”

“Well, yes, you do have problems with your behavior.” Stephanie said with a nod. “And when you openly disobey Miss Morgan and your other teachers, it makes it very hard for them. It also sets a bad example for the other girls.”

“I don’t mean to be wicked it is just so hard for me to live in the asylum. I’m not so good at being cooped up for so long. All my life I’ve had the open waters and blue skies, here it’s just all walls and rooftops and that makes it hard for me. I want to do better. I don’t want to be a burden for Miss Morgan and the rest. I just wish they could also show some effort. Being cooped up is like death to me. I’ll pine away here before too long.” Oceana sighed. Stephanie gazed at her sympathetically not knowing what to say.

“Stephanie, Chandler told me that it’s alright to break the rules, what do you think about that?”

Stephanie grew thoughtful. “I think it depends on the motive with which you break them. Sometimes certain rules have to be broken. If the rules hindered you from being a better person, I think it is alright to break them. However, if you break them simply for the fact of breaking them, or worse yet, do it to harm others, that is very wrong. Look at Chandler; he didn’t smuggle to help other people, did he?”

“No, not really. He did it meant he could be in the trade business without having to pay taxes, which meant there was more money for him.”

“See, it was for selfish motives, and when things are done for selfish motives no good can come from it.”

“How does one become good?” Oceana asked after a moment of silence. “because I know for a fact I’ll never be good on my own.”

“Of course you won’t; none of us will. This is why we need Christ. If you allow Him to live in your heart and follow what He teaches you will find your behavior changing for the better. And when you do wrong, you ask Him to forgive you and try to do better next time.”

“Ooooh, so you have to invite Christ to live in your heart?”

“Yes, remember like we read, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.”

“How do you invite Him in?”

“I, uh…” Stephanie bit her lip, she certainly was no expert on matter like this. If only Dr. Wilkens were here to help her out. “I guess you just ask Him to come in.” She said at last.

“Makes sense.” Oceana stated with a smile and the rest of the journey home was made in silence.

***

“And so now I have officially become a Christian.” Oceana stated in a proud voice to a not so delighted Chandler. “Just last night, when most everyone was sleeping, I asked Jesus to come in and make me a better girl. I know you don’t believe in God, Chandler, but I do and I wish you would.”

“Thank you, but no thank you.” Chandler replied in a calm yet firm voice. Oceana sighed, he really was so, so, so stubborn.

“'I've been doing some thinking!” She stated after a moment of silence, “and I’ve come to the conclusion that you and I haven’t read something together in a long time.”

“True, we haven’t.” Chandler smiled.

“That being the case I brought over a book for you to read to me.”

Chandler’s eyes grew wide when Oceana pulled out of her bag a Bible.

“You want me to read that…” his voice trailed off.

“Yup, I talked it over with Stephanie. You see, I’ve gotten past the Gospels and Romans turned out to be tricky, so Stephanie will read it with me while you and I will tackle the Old Testament. We’ve already gotten past Genesis, so we’ll just dive into Exodus and you can catch up later.”

Chandler was not at all pleased with the way things turned out, but Oceana didn’t give him any room to argue and before he knew it she had climbed onto his lap and placed the open book in front of him. “Come on, read.” She commanded and Chandler found himself obeying.

***

“What are you so down about?” Beth asked Oceana.

“Oh, it’s just Chandler, I just can’t get why he refuses to believe in God.” Oceana replied with a sigh. “It’s so obvious that God exists, why won’t he believe in him?”

Beth sat down next to her friend in silent thought. “Tell me, Oceana, why doesn’t Chandler obey the law?”

“Oh, that’s simple; he doesn’t think the law has a right to tell him what to do. See, Chandler is an extremely independent man. He just hates the idea of someone or something being able to tell him what to do or how to do it. That’s why he breaks the law, because he likes the idea that even though the law is there, it can’t make him obey it. He makes his own laws, or so he says, and no one else has a right to dictate…” Oceana’s voice suddenly trailed off.

“What is it?” Beth prodded.

“I just answered my own question. Chandler doesn’t believe in God because doesn’t like the idea of someone higher telling him what to do. It’s not that he thinks there is no God, he just doesn’t like the idea of there being one, and so he chooses not to believe in Him to keep from having to obey God’s laws. Cause God would tell him not to smuggle, not to break the law, not to drink a lot and not to run about courting women.” Oceana shook her head. “I’ve got to somehow make Chandler see how he must believe in God. Because, just like the law, God will catch up with him one day and well, it will be a lot worse than just spending five years in prison.”

“How do you plan to do that, Oceana?”

“Don’t know, but I’ll come up with something.”

“How about the other fellow?”

“Callum?”

“Yes, does he believe in God?”

“Actually…I don’t know. This may surprise you, but I don’t know hardly anything about Callum, and for that matter, neither does Chandler.”

“What do you mean?”

“People always think that because Chandler refuses to speak about who he was and what he did before meeting up with Callum and becoming a smuggler makes him the great mystery, but the true mystery is Callum, not Chandler. He has some dark past that he never talks about. Chandler and I could only guess what had happened, and we figure it must have been something really terrible. Chandler once told me that for the first couple of weeks after they pulled me out of the boat, Callum was a cold and bitter towards me. When Chandler prodded as to what could be the matter, Callum simply replied that memories bothered him. But Chandler couldn’t get Callum to tell him what exactly the memories were.”

“Was Callum ever married?”

“Yes, I know that for a fact, I once overheard him say so. Probably the only thing about his past that I truly know. She died sometime and as he told Chandler, since then he’s never looked at another woman twice.”

“How sad.”

“I know. He found his one perfect woman and when she was taken from him, no one else could replace her.”

“What about Chandler?”

“Chandler?" Oceana scoffed. "Chandler found too many of them!”

“Too many of what?”

“Too many perfect women. Said he couldn’t choose between them all and that was the reason he never married.”

“He FOUND too many perfect women?”

Oceana laughed. “Callum said it was all very French. Chandler took great offence at this and said that being French had nothing to do with it and if Callum was going to continue alluding everything Chandler did to being ‘French’ he was going to start calling Callum and Regular Scot. Callum had replied that he took pride in being a Regular Scot and the conversation really went nowhere from then on.”

“Did they argue a lot?”

“They squabbled over minor matters ALL the time. Chandler said when it came down to everyday life Callum was just too much of a Scotsman.”

“What do you mean? Chandler doesn’t like Scotsmen?”

 “Chandler hates Scots. Says they are worse than Englishmen and Irishmen combined.”

“How about Callum? He doesn’t mind Frenchmen?”

“Callum hates Frenchmen. He once said they were even worse than the English.”

“Wait, this doesn’t make sense.”

“Nope, not one bit of it makes sense. They really are the strangest two men you’ve ever seen. What is more, they are the only two people who can work with each other. Anyone else would have long gone insane from the way Chandler rules the roost, but Callum not only puts up with it, he has this sort of weird respect for Chandler, even if he doesn’t always agree with his ideology. Thing is, Callum has no ideology. Chandler said Callum lost it all once upon a time, so I guess that’s why he just listens to Chandler. As for Chandler, while he constantly complains about Callum’s ‘highlander’ ways, I know he depends on him and values Callum as a friend and partner in crime. One without the other would really be lost. Which is odd, because for the past two weeks, I haven’t seen or heard anything of Callum. He’s never at the prison anymore; I wonder where he could have gone. I should ask Chandler next time I go to visit. It’s really not like Callum to just disappear. He would have at least warned me or Chandler. Oh, it’s such a pity I only get to go there once a week.”

“Come on, Oceana, you could not go there at all.”

“Oh I know. It’s so hard to constantly count my blessings when it’s easier to complain. I don’t know how you manage to stay so positive about things.”

“Just the way I was brought up, I guess.” Beth replied with a sad smile.

“Who were your parents, Beth? I’ve never heard you speak of them.”

“My father owned a printing business here in London.”

“He owned his own printing business?”

“Yes, he was actually quite wealthy. My mother was from a family with good position in society who had hit very hard times and had gone bankrupt. My mother and father met and fell in love, but the family disapproved of the marriage and my mother married against their will. My father was rich enough to provide for my mother. She died only two years after I was born and about a year later my father married another woman. She was okay I guess, but then my father died and everything went wrong. Father left the printing business to my stepmother and her brother and they didn’t need me, so she sent me to the orphanage. Miss Morgan contacted my mother’s relatives, but they didn’t want me either, so I live here now.”

“Wait, aren’t you in your father’s will at all?”

Beth sighed. “Maybe I was, I thought I’d be, father was very good to me all the time…”

“That wicked old lady.” Oceana angrily interrupted.

“Oceana.”

“I’m serious; it’s obvious she somehow wrote you out of the will.”

“I don’t think…”

“Beth!”

“I don’t want to think of her like that.”

“Stepmothers.” Oceana snorted. “From Cinderella to Snow White.”

“Oceana, we must not say things like that.”

“Oh, you’re right again. I'm sorry for saying all that. I still think it was unfair of her.”

“Don't worry about me. This is a good place, and maybe, maybe someday I’ll get adopted.”

“I hope you will one day, by good people who will give you all the love and affection you deserve.” Oceana put her arms around Beth. “Dearest Beth, if there is anyone who deserves to have a wonderful family, it is you.”

*********************************************************

Poor little Beth, how sad that she should live in the orphanage simply because her relatives didn't want her.

And where could Callum have gotten too...and what about could his dark and mysterious past be?

Hope you are enjoying the story so far, votes and comments are greatly appreciated :)