Hi, my name is Celia Chen. I am the one-year younger sister of Celeste. When I was 11 years old and Celeste was 12, when our parents decided they no longer had the expense to take care of my sister and I. So we were sent to the government caregiving department. There, both of us were made fun of by other girls due to our mental disability, only finding that there was another girl who also had autism. Her name was Elsie, she came here when she was 7 years old with her younger sister, Eva. However, she was excluded from the other girls and a social outcast.
At the age of 13, I was baptized by Sister Jess and Sister Maria, who found out I was an atheist along with my sister. Unlike the other girls who were baptized by birth into the catholic faith, both of us had to learn everything at one go. Sister Jess and Jaya helped us the most throughout the first two years, where we found it the most challenging.
Since twisting my knee about half a year ago, my legs have been getting worse. Two nights ago, I was attacked by some sort of evil force in the barn right outside of our caregiving department. I fell off the stairs and now both my legs are broken. I am currently in a wheelchair, living in a dorm with my best friend Elsie and my sister Celeste. We’re the social outcasts, the ones who the other girls reject and the strange ones. All three of us have a diagnosis of autism and learn differently to the others. Sister Jaya always says we are the ones that hold things back.
Sister Jess and I got along very well together, after all she was only 6 years older than me. Which meant she was 21 years old. She was one of the younger nuns in the caregiving department. Her faith changing her life and giving up her marriage was around the age of 19, when she took her vows. She only recently became a nun, determined to give up her life for God. Around last year, was when she formally became one. Apart from my parents, who abandoned Celeste and I during our adolescence, she was like a second parent to me. Out of all the adults in the department, Sister Jess was the only adult whom I give up full trust to.
Sister Jessalyn was the nun who Elsie, Celeste and myself don’t like. She was a grumpy old lady, who was in her 50s and criticized us for having autism. She had no kindness towards the other nuns as well as the manager. Since I was 11 years old, I’ve depicted her as a grumpy old woman who shoves children into their beds. When we were younger, Celeste used to get into trouble by her all the time, mainly because she asked her to do things that she found overwhelming.
I came back from school today, wheeling myself back into our cabin. I was groaning with exhaustion and pain, as Elsie and Celeste began to unpack their school books and start their homework.
Me (painfully): can’t this get any worse?
Elsie: you must never give up hope………..Celia. Sister Jess always says hope is our home.
Me: yeah………..if only hope wasn’t going to be this humiliating, then………..sure!!! Uhh…..first my knee and now both my legs, wonder what else am I going to break? My arms and neck?
Celeste: that would be pretty funny if that does actually happen.
Me (dramatic): shut up, Celeste!!! All I am trying to say is…...there was something in the barn and we all know it. There was a girl who died there fifty years ago, so who’s to say that………………..
Right before I got to the end of my sentence. Sister Jenna came in to switch off the lights and to remind the three of us that supper was ready. Celeste, Elsie and I looked up at her, one of the young nuns in the caregiving place. She was about 21 this year, her first vow was taken when she was around 13-14 years old. Along with Nithya and Maria, she became a nun during her teen years.
Sister Jenna: grace and dinner!!!
Celeste: coming……..just let me take this…………..
Sister Jenna (outrageous): no phones!!!!! Who uses their phones while dining on a table, manners!!!!
Celeste: fine!!