In A Dark Mirror

Three

As days passed, Aifric learned the routines of her new home. They had to get up at five-thirty in the morning and do a morning prayer, then -in rotation- two girls prepared the breakfast. After breakfast they had to go to class, where most of the lessons were given by Sister Immaculata. For some classes, such as science-class, an otherwise pensioned teacher from the nearby village came by. Mercedes had told her that she always wondered why they weren’t simply sent to a public school in the nearby village. Aifric didn’t give much thought to it, however.

She did not have many problems to catch up in school, since they all were taught together, which meant, despite Sister Immaculata’s impressive overall knowledge, the two oldest girls were at least a year behind the regular curriculum. Not that Aifric would have been able to pick up where she left eight months ago. Her school life was mostly limited to being physically present, but luckily she could answer most of the questions asked. Yet, Immaculata demanded an intimate knowledge of the bible, which Aifric didn’t have. Nor had she any strength to read and learn all the parts she was told to. This brought her new troubles.

“You either develop a thick skin, or you learn that stuff” Heather told her. “She will not let you get away with it for long.”

And indeed Aifric learned the painful way that Immaculata was serious business. When she failed to recite her scripture, she had to stand in front of the classroom and stretch out her hands. Immaculata would hit her fingers five times with a bamboo cane. Strangely, even though the whole procedure was painful and humiliating, these were the only moments Aifric could feel herself. So she didn’t even flinch.

What she didn’t get, was any psychological help. In the hospital, she had had sessions with a psychiatrist twice a week, and could call for someone anytime she felt the need to talk. To ask the sisters for help was unthinkable, and even if she did, they would only tell her, she needed to pray harder, so that God might forgive her sins.

The third sister in the house was a young nun named Sister Claire. Claire was not as harsh and unforgiving as the other two, and she even seemed to have sympathies for the girls. However, even Aifric noticed that her fear of Mother Agatha was far greater than her love for the children in her care. Mercedes said, that she was a former resident of the orphanage, or -as Heather put it- an inmate, but she could not proof that claim, and Claire never talked about herself in front of the girls.

Claire did most of the night watch, she took turns with Immaculata to oversee when dinner was prepared, and that the girls went over to the small chapel behind the house to say their evening prayers. Dinner was usually a rather thin stew, for they weren’t allowed to eat meat, except on Sundays and the sisters constantly preached austerity.

“Austerity my ass!” Heather used to say. “Mother Scrooge here is a tight-arse!”

Aifric learned the names of the two ash-blonde girls, who were indeed siblings, twins even, to be Aileen and Aislin -Mother Agatha however preferred to call them Grace and Martha. As Heather stated, who of them was Grace, and who was Martha changed on a daily basis, and was also depending on which sister addressed the girls.

Both girls were rather lively, and seemed to have a good connection to Mercedes, who always flocked them together like a mother goose. They seemed to be content with that, and held their distance to the two oldest girls of the group.

The most curious member of their little family was Mary-Jade. She was nine years old, and she hardly ever spoke to anyone but Heather, who seemed to be her surrogate mother. Usually she was quiet and did nothing more than trying to keep as close as possible to Heather, but sometimes, out of the blue, she could have such violent tantrums, that it took Heather all of her strength to hold her back. At other times the girl would start crying for no reason, and nothing in the world would calm her down, while ten minutes later, she would sit at the table with you, and laugh.

Heather went to great length to make sure that the sisters didn’t witness these episodes. If they did, they would usually give the girl the cane and make her recite the rosary 20 times. The latter was not really a punishment for Mary-Jade, for she was the only girl in the group to be deeply religious.

If she was in a good mood, she could be of great help for any of the required bible lessons, because she seemed to know at least long parts of the book by heart. She was especially good with the parts that commented on sin, which also seemed to be the favourite parts of the sisters.

Aifric fell into the daily routine surprisingly quickly, mostly because she didn’t resist anything. There were times, when she was so far away, that not even the pain of Immaculata’s bamboo cane could make her snap back into reality. On such days Heather made it a habit to sit by her bedside at night and watch over her.

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