He Called Me Arielle

Chapter 01

"Now, now girls! Get ready... she's almost here!" Sharlene hurriedly gathered the little girls together in the Rosemary Orphanage for Young Girls.

Situated in Avissawella, the cooler, much greener part of the Colombo district, Rosemary Orphanage sheltered twenty girls, all of them abandoned by their parents at a young age. Sharlene De Silva was the administrator of this orphanage and loved her work – even if, at times, the less than delightful task of dealing with pubescent young women made her want to tear her hair out. Greying hair at that! Despite being only thirty, the strain of her much-loved job was showing. The girls would crack jokes at her expense... their dear stout Ms. Sharlene who stood a couple of inches shorter than some of the girls in her care!

"Is she really all that?" Jayani mumbled – just loud enough for Sharlene to hear.

Counting to ten in her head, Sharlene explained to Jayani for the umpteenth time that Arielle Davidson was their biggest contributor – without her they wouldn't be able to keep the orphanage running.

She held back from declaring that Ms. Davidson was a world-famous philanthropist, extremely gifted in the arts, whose music drew people in, touching their hearts and souls. Sharlene usually kept her distance from these celebrity 'donors' because they were usually after the good publicity it brought them instead of actually caring about the children in the orphanage. Ms. Arielle Davidson was different.

She donated most of her income from her music to support orphanages and low-income single parent families. And that was not all, she actually made an effort to regularly visit the places where she gave her contributions to and took a genuine interest in the children, or so it seemed to Sharlene.

The sound of the doorbell broke Sharlene free from her momentary reverie.

"That must be HER!" she fumbled around excitedly, searching for the bouquet of flowers that the children had gathered from the garden.

"Here you go, Ms. Sharlene," Jayani timidly handed her the bouquet.

Looking kindly at Jayani, Sharlene forgot her earlier annoyance with her.

"I suppose the child has some use..." she thought as she hurried to open the door and welcome Ms. Davidson to their orphanage.

~*~*~*~

Standing outside the porch of Rosemary Orphanage for Young Girls, Arielle took a deep breath. Her jet-black curls swayed as a breeze brought in the smell of spicy dhal curry from a nearby opened window.

The big whitewashed old brick and mortar building looked inviting and there were birds perched on a nearby tree, singing in harmony. Butterflies fluttered to and fro in the wide front lawn that needed a bit of mowing. The sun was shining bright in the cloudless sky and Arielle felt her skin burn a little. She inherited her mother's rather fair skin that was prone to sun burn. Arielle shielded her dark eyes from the glare as she looked around her and took another deep breath. Rosemary was, by far, the least formidable institution she'd been to, yet it always made her a little nervous before she entered into any orphanage. Past memories sometimes threatened to flood in and take control of her emotions. As the bronze doorknob turned, Arielle took another deep breath; she was in the middle of muttering her usual power verse to herself: "I can do all things through..." when she was cut off by the loud exclamation of her name.

"Ms. Arielle Davidson!!! Welcome to Rosemary's!!!", Sharlene greeted her with a cheery smile. Suddenly a bouquet of lilies and chrysanthemums thrown in together, blocked Arielle's vision of Sharlene's pearly whites.

The scent of the flowers was a little overwhelming to her at that moment.

"The children gathered them this morning for you. They're so excited to see you!"