The Catholic Princess

Section One: Hello, Little Celeste

Monday, March 6th, 1995-London, England

~Anderson~

It was a rainy spring day, and I was working at the orphanage today, given that I hadn't gotten any phone calls from Maxwell to go monster hunting. I was filling out finance reports for the place, when I got a call from the front desk. 

" Hello, Father Anderson speaking." 

" Hello Father. It's Mother Margret. We have a new admission to the facility. Since we are short staffed today, would you be willing to take care of her please?" 

" Absolutely. What's the child's name?" 

" Celeste. She's in the 5-10 age group."

" What happened to have her come in?" 

" Her parents were in a crash while she was in school. The road was too slippery and they didn't survive the incident. She's only 6. Child Services had no idea what to do with her, having no other family, so they put her here."

" I see. I'll be right down to deal with the wee lass." 

I hung up, and sent a quick prayer to her parents. Poor girl, she must be in tears. I head down the stairs, and made my way down the long hall to the holding area where the kids wait to be admitted. I hated that accidents like this were often the reason kids ended up here, sometimes it was death by illness, sometimes it was straight up bad situations at home to where one or both parents lost custody, sometimes it was because of abuse, but mostly just bad weather driving accidents. I saw through the glass that there were two sister's with a tiny, very skinny little girl, her pale sun gold blonde curls held in a braid around her head as if it were her halo, her face and rich violet eyes were red from all the crying. I walked in after a quick rap on the door. 

The little girl stopped crying, her sobs calming down to little sniffles, but her eyes were wide in curious fear, no doubt due to my size. I shrink down to her level, it usually helped them get use to my massive form, and offer her a soft, gentle smile. 

" Hello, little one. My name is Father Alexander. I just heard what happened. I am so sorry about your parents. If you would like, once you are all settled in, we could go to the chapel and say a prayer for them. Would you please come with me, Celeste?" 

She nodded, her cherubic face was set in a frown so deep, you saw the crinkles in her forehead. She took my hand, her tiny, soft pink polished nailed fingers barely fit around one finger on mine, and as we walked, I told her how the scheduled for girls her age worked. 

" From Monday to Friday, you will have lessons with other kids your age from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. Since you are so young, you do not have chores outside of making your bed and keeping your part of the room clean. You will be sharing a room with three other little girls like you. On Sunday mornings you will have Mass with the rest of the orphanage, then afterwards you will have Sunday School. You are allowed to do just about anything you want to here, with in reason." 

I brought her to her room, and the other girls she was rooming with were 7, 9, and 8, and were three of the biggest little helpers I knew of. 

" Girls, this is Celeste. Celeste, these are the other girls you'll be sharing a room with. Girls, please be nice to Celeste and help her out. I'll be back in an hour to collect you for dinner."

" Yes, Father Alexander." 

" Good. Now, play nice and behave." 

I closed the door and left the girls to their own devices. I made my way back to the front desk, and talked to Mother Margret.

" I left her with Amber, Kristy, and Missy. What exactly happened in the accident?" 

" Celeste was in school when her parents left to go pick her up. Due to the rain and whatnot, they hydroplaned and lost control of the car, going over a cliff. They crashed and rolled. They had died on the way to the hospital, the injuries were just too much for anyone to survive. Since her parents were both only children, and her grandparents had passed before she was even born, she had no family, hence coming here. Poor dear." 

" Aye, wee lass looks so heartbroken. I can't imagine how she feels." 

" Well, she doesn't know they were on their way to pick her up. I think it'll be best she doesn't know that little tidbit." 

" Agreed. I don't want her to think it was her fault. She had no control or idea it would happen."

" I'll call the school and inform them that Celeste is no longer going to attend. God bless that innocent child. She needs all the help and care in the world." 

" Aye. I'm going to go see what the dinner situation is like, then go check in on her." 

" You know something, Father? She kinda looks like you, in a way." 

" Oi, just cause I'm a pale blond don't mean jack, Mother." 

" I'm just teasing. And thank you for watching that soldiers tongue you got." 

" I'm working on it."

I left with a laugh from the Mother, and I did my rounds, checked on the kids while enroute to the kitchens. Talked to the chef, found out food would be ready in 30 minutes, so I had told one of the older boys to inform the kids that dinner would be ready soon, and went to check in on Celeste. I knocked on the door, and Missy opened it. 

" Hello Father." 

" Hello Missy, how's Celeste doing?" 

" She's listening to Kristy read to her. She said her mommy would do it when she was sad, so Kristy wanted to help." 

" Good job, girls. I knew I could count on you. Now, dinners gonna be soon, alright?" 

" Ok. We'll show her where the loo and stuff are." 

" Thanks, Missy." 

" No problem, Father." 

I left the girls to help Celeste get ready for dinner, while I went back to my office. I sat down in my chair, and noticed the new file on my desk. Celeste's file. I opened it up, and noticed that apparently she had a illness that made her metabolism overactive, so she would be skinny and tiny for her age. She was on medicine for it, but she should outgrow it when she gets to her teens. I felt for the girl, knowing full well what it felt like to be different. I was always a big kid, brawny even as a young teen, and got relentlessly bullied over it until I hit my Secondary years. Once I was an adult, it went from harassment to admiration and intimidation. 

I hope the same could be said for Celeste. I'll just have to keep a close eye out for bullies and such, but most of the kids here were good mannered. I put her file away in the proper place, and finished filling out paperwork until it was time for dinner.