Chapter Three

CHAPTER 3

After hours of reading and practicing, little Elaine decided to head back since it was time for dinner. “There you are. Where have you been, we were worried sick about you.” Sister Ann said the moment she set eyes on her in the hallway.

“Sister Ann, I was reading in the woods at the back.” Elaine answered in a childish voice that made her even more adorable.

Seated around the long table, everyone ate quietly except Juliana, who found every possible way to bully Elaine. She kept nudging and worrying her until Elaine’s food spilled, causing everyone to look her way, some with envy, others with pity. The children at the orphanage all knew Juliana targeted her on purpose, out of jealousy, especially whenever the other kids compared the two of them in terms of beauty. Elaine’s name always came out on top, and that had planted a seed of jealousy deep in Juliana’s heart long ago.

“Sister, Elaine intentionally spilled soup on my dress.” Juliana cried as she ran to report to the sister on duty. Elaine, wrongly accused, could only stare back with wide eyes, too shocked to argue. She was used to this by now, though she never understood why Juliana was so mean to her, even after all the times she’d tried to be kind in the past.

“Elaine? What do you have to say?”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, gripping her dress tight under the table.

“Don’t let it happen again,” said Sister Emerald, the sister on duty, with a stern face.

“Yes, sister.” She answered with her head bowed.

This had been going on since she turned three. There had been a time, back when she was four, when she’d finally had enough and shoved Juliana hard into the dirt after Juliana tore up a drawing she’d spent all afternoon on. Juliana had cried loud enough to bring three sisters running, and Elaine was made to kneel in the chapel for the whole afternoon with no dinner, while Juliana walked away without so much as a scolding. Elaine remembered how unfair that had felt, how she’d cried herself to sleep that night not because her knees ached but because no one had asked her why she did it. After that day she decided fighting back only ever cost her more than it cost Juliana, so she stopped trying. Having endured all the bullying, she thought it better to just be alone and not bother making friends at all.

Juliana made a face at her in secret before walking off with Sister Emerald.

After evening class, the bell rang for bedtime. All the children filed into their bedrooms to wait for one of the sisters to come say the night prayer with them. Elaine noticed her blanket was wet. She was still standing by her bed when Sister Emerald came in for prayers.

“What’s wrong, Elaine? Why aren’t you in bed?” she asked, making her way over.

“It’s wet… my blanket,” Elaine said in a soft voice, clearly fed up with all the pranks. She didn’t want to fight back, not really, since she believed she’d leave this place one day anyway.

“Who did this?” Sister Emerald demanded, her voice strict and sharp.

Everyone went quiet. No one ratted out the culprit, though they all knew exactly who it was. That night, Sister Emerald gave her a new blanket to sleep with.

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“Chinese Herbal Medicine….” a seven year old Elaine read, sitting on her favorite rock in the backyard. She’d borrowed the book from the library because the title caught her eye.

“Are you sure you’ll understand any of what’s in there?” the librarian had asked her, surprised a girl so young would want a book most children called boring.

It had been a whole week of studying, and she loved everything she was learning. She could recite the acupuncture meridians the way other children recited nursery rhymes, could name which herbs cooled a fever and which ones settled a troubled stomach, could explain why certain roots were dried in shade instead of sun to keep their potency. Even while walking she murmured the pressure points under her breath, counting them off on her fingers like a little game. Sister Ann once overheard her reciting and had to stop and listen twice, certain she’d misheard a child so young naming meridian points most adults had never heard of.

“This girl is a prodigy,” she once told Mother Superior.

“Yes, she’s a very bright girl with a bright future, and I hope she gets adopted by a good family who’d nurture her,” Mother Superior said, seemingly lost in thought.

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“Sister Ann, I can’t find my shoe.”

“Sister Emerald, my button just came off.”

“Sister……” This was the scene Elaine came home to after studying all morning in the woods. “Never gets old,” she muttered to herself, making her way to her room, planning to catch some sleep before the chaos got worse. This was what always happened whenever a rich family came to adopt someone.

She had heard the Barnes family was coming, the richest family in city R, hoping to adopt a girl since they only had a fifteen year old son. Rumor had it their son was already known as the most handsome boy in the city despite his age, and that the mistress of the household had always longed for a daughter to raise alongside him, which was the whole reason for today’s visit.

The Barneses arrived that afternoon in a car so polished the children pressed their faces to the window just to see it. Mrs. Barnes walked the hall slowly, a gloved hand trailing over each child’s head as she passed, while her husband stood back with the kind of patient smile men wear when they’ve already decided to agree with whatever their wife wants. Juliana had made sure to stand right at the front of the line, hair brushed, dress ironed, curtsying the moment Mrs. Barnes looked her way.

“Oh, aren’t you lovely,” Mrs. Barnes said, crouching down to Juliana’s height. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

“Juliana, ma’am.” She smiled the sweetest smile she owned, the one she never wasted on the other children.

Mrs. Barnes seemed charmed enough, already turning to say something to her husband about paperwork, when a small commotion by the back door caught her eye. Elaine had just come in from the woods, hair mussed, a smudge of dirt on her cheek, a folded leaf still tucked behind her ear where she’d left it while studying. She hadn’t even noticed the visitors yet, too busy muttering something about cooling herbs under her breath.

“Who is that child?” Mrs. Barnes asked, straightening up.

Mother Superior hesitated. “That’s Elaine, ma’am. She was just…….”

“She’s beautiful,” Mrs. Barnes said, cutting her off, already crossing the hall toward her. Juliana’s smile faltered as she watched Mrs. Barnes crouch down in front of Elaine instead, tilting her head this way and that as though seeing something in her none of the other children had.

Elaine blinked up at her, startled out of her own thoughts. “Ma’am?”

“Such striking eyes,” Mrs. Barnes murmured, almost to herself.

Juliana stood frozen by the door, hands curling into fists at her sides, the sweet smile long gone from her face.