Ortega Family Adventures: Part 9

Ortega Family Adventures
Good Night and Morning

S

heena said, as they got ready to sleep, "I like your family. Meemaw seemed nice and Poppy was fun. I am so happy he fixed my ear."
         "That is great. I didn't even know you were hurt. You are very strong," Selena said as she climbed up into her bunk bed.
         "I don't know about that but I just thought it would stop hurting."
         Sheena tucked herself into Banu's bed. They quietly talked about the day's events until Selena yawned and said, "Good night, Sheena."
         "Good night," Sheena said.
         Selena woke a little later to a unfamiliar noise. She lay quietly listening. Sheena was quietly crying. Selena laid for a few more moments then climbed out of bed and approached Banu's bed where Sheena was curled up into a tight ball sobbing into her pillow.
         "Sheena?" Selena asked quietly.
         "Here, move over a little," Selena said.
         Banu's bed was just big enough for both of them to share. Sheena moved a little and Selena crawled in and wrapped her arms around the young Hare.
         "It's going to be alright. I won't leave you," Selena said.
         Sheena slowly stopped crying and both girls fell asleep.
         
         Selena's alarm went off and she woke up, as did Sheena. It didn't stop until Selena climbed up into her bed and shut it off. She climbed back down, then sat on the floor, and yawned.
         "Is it time to get up?" Sheena asked.
         "Yeah. It's Sunday, so we need to get ready to go to the Temple," Selena answered as she laid flat and started raising her legs repeatedly.
         Sheena watched her for a few moments then sat up, and asked, "What are you doing?"
         Selena stopped and answered, "I do these exercises every morning. I like to dance and the dance instructor told us to do these exercises. So, I do them before I get ready for the day."
         "I like to dance, too. Can you show me?"
         For the next half hour Selena showed Sheena several stretching exercises she knew. Once those were done, Sheena went to the bathroom. When she came back, Selena was already dressed.
         "Max and Banu are still sleeping. Banu makes a funny snore," Sheena said.
         "Yeah, they sleep more than I do and I've gotten used to Banu's snore."
         "Ah, uh. I," Sheen started, sighed, then continued. "I am sorry about last night and thank you for what you did. I was really missing my family, especially my brothers."
         Selena just nodded.
         "How did you know to do that?"
         "Oh. I watched my parents with Banu. When he first started living with us, he would have these bad dreams where he would wake up crying. My mother or father would come in and hold him. They would say 'It's going to be alright. I won't leave you.' to him over and over until he calmed down.
         "Since then, he has stopped crying but sometimes he would still have bad nights, so he'd come up to my bunk and sleep with me."
         Mrs. Ortega stuck her head in the room and said, "Breakfast in about ten minutes. We are having pancakes."
         Selena left to go to the bathroom, she had to wait for Banu to finish when she got there. Sheena got dressed and went into the kitchen and asked, "How can I help?"
         "Oh, thank you Sheena. You can pull the plates out of that cupboard there," Mrs. Ortega pointed to a cabinet, "And put them on the table."
         Sheena set the table as the others filtered in. Banu brought out the juice and water they usually had for breakfast. Max got out the syrups. Banu liked maple but absolutely loved blueberry syrup on his pancakes.
         While eating Mr. Ortega said, "Sheena, we are going to the Temple of Mercy this morning. You are welcome to join us, if you want to. Otherwise, you can go see your family, or, you can stay here until we get back. We will leave in about forty minutes, you should go ask your parents about going to the Temple with us, though."
         "What is the Temple of Mercy?" Sheena asked.
         "We believe that we should make being merciful, kind, and helping others an integral part of our lives. And that we should balance helping other with living a full life ourselves," Mrs. Ortega said.
         "The Temple itself is a large area with multiple buildings. They hold classes of all kinds, including ones that are not directly associated with our beliefs. Like how to use crystals and testing for magic abilities. We go on Sundays because they have classes for children that Max, Banu, and Selena like to go to."
         "OK. I should talk to my parents but I think I want to go with you," Sheena said.
         "Good. Selena will come down to the Hartnu's when we are ready to leave."
         
         The Temple of Mercy was only a few minutes drive from the apartment complex where the Ortega's lived. It was several acres with a lot of buildings. The main Temple roof was shaped like an open hand with the palm up. It wasn't exactly like a hand because the thumb and fingers were square.
         Mr. Ortega pulled the van into a line of cars that were dropping people off at the front of the Temple.
         "They have Papa drop us off, so we don't walk around in the parking area. They say it's safer that way," Selena said to Sheena.
         When the all got out of the van, Mr. Ortega drove off.
         "MAX!" a boy shouted from a small group of four and five year olds standing near a young male Troll near the front of the Temple.
         He looked up, saw the group and yelled, "Don't shoot me!"
         They, of course being boys, started making finger guns and pretended to shoot at him. He pretended to dodge bullets as he ran over to them.
         "Selena, we are over here!" a young girl voice called out.
         "C'mon, Sheena, you'll be with us today," Selena said as she grabbed Sheena's arm and ran them both over to a group of eight girls. There was a pretty half-Elf teenager standing with them.
         "Banu! Banu! Banu!" a chant went up from a group of six older boys that stood around a young adult male Hobgoblin that was doing his best not to smile.
         Banu, at first pretended not to notice, then he looked surprised. He walked over bowing to everyone as he went.
         "Your brothers are really popular," Sheena said once the introductions to the group were through.
         "What? Oh! Not anymore than any other boy here."
         "But they yelled for them."
         "Oh, that. That's a boy thing. It's a rule that the last boy to show up must do something funny. Last week, in Max's cohort, Phili, that's the Gnome-boy, was the last one here. He pretended to die, so they trooped over and carried him by his arms and legs back to their meet up spot chanting 'He's dead. Poor Phili is dead. We are gonna have to eat him for lunch.'"
         "Oh! My brothers would totally do something like that!"
         "OK! That's everyone. We are going to go inside to our usual area and get the days blessing," the half-Elf teenager said, then continued. "I am Sister Li. Please use that while we are on campus, even if you are my real sister."
         A half-Elf girl blushed, nodded, and said, "Yes, Sister Li."
         "OK, Sheena, since you are new stay by me and I will guide you. Lets go," Sister Li ushered the cohort of girls into the main temple.
         The other groups of children, teenagers, and young adults were also heading in. The adults waited outside until the last group of went inside. They stood talking while they waited.
         Mr. Ortega returned and joined a group of men standing just to the right of the main door into the temple.
         "Fermin, I heard you have a full house," a Dwarf with dark black hair.
         "What? Oh, Hector, it was just one more. Sheena Hartnu. She is a Hare. Doesn't take up much room but, you are right it's getting a little crowded," Mr. Ortega replied.
         "Fermin, there is a three bedroom opening up on the first floor. Technically its for a Troll family because the ceilings are twelve foot high. But it's all we've got available on non-dwarf floors. I don't think you'd be comfortable with five and a half foot ceilings," a brown haired, half-Troll said.
         "Really, Marc? That would be great. In fact the ceilings would be required, I think," Fermin said.
         "Why?" Hector asked.
         "Banu. I just learned myself from my Father-in-Law that Banu will probably reach eleven foot at least in height."
         "OH! That's right. I almost forgot," said a Troll.
         "Forgot what, Chan?" Marc asked.
         "I served in the First Recon Group with three Bears. Those guys were huge. I'm almost nine feet tall and that pretty tall for a Troll. Those guys made me feel like a kid," Chan said then added. "Really nice people, though. They would fit right in here at the Temple. Always willing to help. One of them was named Tiller or Taller. Something like that."
         Three tones sounded and all the adults filed into the temple.
         
         Inside the floor was open in the center with many rows of wooden pews. The pews were of different sizes to accommodate different size people. On the left and right were four doors with small open nooks between them. Each nook had a different word written, in several languages, above it. On the left was Mercy, Kindness, Caring. On the right was Understanding, Forgiveness, and Purpose. In the center front was a raised stage with a podium with six pillars behind it. Each pillar had a word on it, matching the side nooks.
         A tall, lean Hobgoblin in a long blue robe with write length loose sleeves strode out on the stage and up to the podium. There was a golden symbol of an open hand on his left breast and five golden chevrons on his right sleeve. He raised his left hand and the people settled down and got quiet.
         "Welcome to the Temple of Mercy. I am Deacon Marby. I see a few new faces here, I won't give you a history right now but you can seek me out after the blessing and I will be happy to talk to you about it. You can also seek out one of our Deacons and they will also be happy to talk about it.
         "First a little house keeping. The event calendar for the next three months has been posted in the usual spot. The water pump for building 'T' is broken. That should be fixed this next week, if Brother Harold can get the parts. If you know the pump in question and have a source for part, please seek out Brother Harold. He shouldn't be hard to find. He is the grumpy Dwarf hanging around building 'T', swearing.
         "Our resident Ogres, Hoy and Toy, will be returning from their pilgrimage on Tuesday. So lets embarrass them by giving them a big welcome back," he paused as more than a few people laughed out loud.
         
         "What's an Ogre?" Sheena whispered to Selena.
         "See the Trolls? Ogres are way bigger."
         "Oh, wow."
         "They are really nice though. Toy loves Banu and it embarrasses him."
         
         "Most of you are familiar with our pillars of faith, mercy, kindness, caring, understanding, forgiveness, and purpose. We know we are supposed to help or community, our friends, our family and ourselves. We mustn't forget the last one. Do not neglect your own care to your detriment. There is also the hidden pillar. Love. We should do our best to love our neighbors and ourselves. I have a whole series of sermons on love but today I want to talk about the last pillar, purpose.
         "One of our founders, Ulta, was fond of saying 'to live without purpose is to waste a life'. He is right. A purposeful life is full. That doesn't mean every minute of every day is focused on the purpose you've chosen but that you don't have that feeling that you've nothing to do. Let me give you a personal example. I used to be an crystal installation engineer. I used to work, go home, watch TV, then go to bed. I repeated this until the weekend, then I would just hang out with my friends. I lived a life but I really didn't have a purpose. I just existed."
         He paused and took drink from a tall clear glass.
         "Two years ago I had my personal epiphany. I was driving home from work when I passed a car accident. It was bad. Four cars, one of them flipped over. I drove on passed, I figured someone else would help them. Then I realized that no, I needed to help them. That just leaving to other was not ... and that's where I stopped thinking and I acted. I pulled over and ran back. Several other people also pulled over, joined me, and we managed to get everyone out of their cars and to safety. I hadn't felt that alive in years.
         "At first I took it to mean I should change careers to EMT or something but a friend brought me here and I learned that was not what I need to do. Besides I pass out at the first sign of blood. Not what you want your EMT to do."
         That got a few more laughs.
         "So what was my purpose? It seems that it is to help others find their purpose. That sounds a little meta but it's what I find I do best. Yes, I still do crystal installations but that is just my job. This," he waved his arms around, "is my purpose. I have spoken to so many of you about your lives and, I believe, we have worked out a purpose together for you."
         He paused took a drink, then said, "One more thing on purpose, then I do the blessing and you will be free to attend your classes. Or in the case of the little boys, drive Carson, Healy, and Brett nuts."
         "Your purpose may change over your life. When you are young your purpose may be to create a family and raise up good people. In middle age it might be to help your spouse achieve their dream of becoming a teacher. In your older years, it might be to listen to others. Sometimes that is all someone really needs is another person to listen and care about them."
         "And now the blessing. Please hold your heads up, pick a pillar and focus on it. Mercy, Kindness, Caring, Understanding, Forgiveness, and Purpose please find your way into our hearts and minds to guide us. Help us understand our purpose and to find it within ourselves to forgive others. To look after each other and to show kindness to all that we meet."
         He paused, then ended with, "It is easier to hold out an open hand that to raise a closed fist."
         "Open the hand and help," the people said in unison.
         
         During his sermon six people in long blue robes had placed themselves by each door on the sided of the temple. At the end of the blessing they opened the doors. Each door led down a short hallway to the outside.
         As they came in they went out. The children left first then the adults divided into those that were leaving and those attending or teaching classes.
         Sister Li led the girls through a door, across a large grassy area, where some children were playing football, through a stone archway and into a small clearing surrounded by trees. It was shady and they all sat in a circle on the grass.
         "OK. Ladies are going to talk about helping and being helped. But first we are going to have a few moments of silence while each of you thinks about the last week and how you helped someone or how someone helped you."
         They were silent for several minutes, then Sister Li asked, "OK. Chealsea how about you go first."
         A small Troll girl stare at Sister Li wide eyed and stammered, "I ... I ... uh"
         "Chealsea focus on me and just tell me again what you told me earlier. Everyone here loves you, so just go at your own pace."
         "I don't. I don't lover her!" another Troll-girl said, then added. "She stole my cupcake at lunch on Friday."
         "I did not. I gave you two cookies in exchange, Francine."
         "Yeah, oatmeal raisin. Yuck."
         "OK, OK, OK. Let focus on today, please," Sister Li said.
         Chealsea and Francine stared daggers at each other until Chealsea faced Sister Li again.
         "I was walking on Saturday and, I ... my, uh, problem came up and I fell over and couldn't move," Chealsea said, paused then continued. "A nice Dwarf man picked me up and put me on a bench, in the shade. He didn't say anything just smiled and sat with me until I could move again."
         "I thanked him when I'd recovered. He said, 'no thanks necessary, child. I had a wife with a smiliar afict ... simlar fact ..."
         "Similiar affliction?"
         "Yeah, that. He waited with me until I could walk again. I asked him his name but he wouldn't tell me."
         "What do we learn from this?" Sister Li asked.
         The girls were silent, then Sheena spoke up, "That he helped her not expecting a reward?"
         "Yes. Very good. That man recognized what was happening, knew what to do, and took action to help. Now Francine, how have you helped someone recently?"
         Sister Li went around the circle asking each girl how they helped someone. Selena related how she and her siblings and friends gave Sheena and her family food when they were playing. She explained why, also.
         Sister Li looked at Sheena and said, "We need to see Deacon Halaa. She is our expert on helping newcomers to our world. We will go to her after this class."
         Sister Li was about to go on when Sheena piped up with "I help Banu yesterday! A bully had knocked him down."
         The girls started asking question, "is he OK?", "Was he hurt?", "Whos is the bully?", "Selena do you know the bully?"
         Sister Li called for calm and had Sheena related her story.
         "Hey, I know those guys from school," a Gnome-girl said.
         "We should go -" a Troll-girl started to say but Sister Li interrupted her.
         "Whoa! That's not what we do. Banu is fine, he wasn't hurt, so relax."
         It took a few more comments to calm the girls down and they spent the rest of the class talking about helping others. She finished the class with this, "Deacon Marby said we should tell you that you should think about your purpose but that you don't have to focus on one until you are older. He said you should start thinking about what kind of person you want to be when you get older. That is all, girls. Until next week, help when you can."
         The girls rose and thanked Sister Li and left the little grove. Sister Li said as she rose, "Selena, Sheena, lets go find Deacon Halaa."
         
         "Then I blew them all up!" Banu said to the boys in his group.
         "Banu, you didn't blow them up," the young adult male Hobgoblin that was in charge of his cohort said.
         "No, but I wanted to."
         "What really happened?"
         Banu sighed, and said, "OK, Bother Izak, before I could get up Sheena ran up and kicked Elmo and grabbed my goggles from him. She was just faster or I woulda done it."
         "Who is Sheena?" Brother Izak asked.
         "Oh. Her family came through a port-hole Saturday morning. They didn't have any food so we gave them our snacks."
         "Did they come here today?"
         "Just Sheena. She is with Selena."
         Brother Izak thought for a moment then said, "Good, good. Sister Li will take care of her. So, this is an excellent example of helping without expectation of reward. That is very good, Banu."
         "Harris?"
         "Oh, I was there too with Banu and Selena and my sister. So was Yuri and Max. They were nice and let us hug them," Harris said.
         Brother Izak looked confused.
         "They are Hares," Yuri said.
         "Ah. That makes sense. You asked first, right?"
         "Well, kind of," Yuri said quietly, then added. "Max started it."
         "OK, tell me the story," Brother Izak asked.
         Yuri related most of it with help from Banu and Harris. They told about everything they knew about up to lunch time.
         "That was certainly eventful. We are running out of time. Let's continue with how we helped or were helped. Percy?" Brother Izak asked as he looked at a Gnome-boy.
         Brother Izak had each of the other six boys in Banu's cohort talk about helping. Most struggled to remember helping but almost all could remember someone helping them. After the last one spoke, Brother Izak, said, "Deacon Marby asked us to suggest that you should think about your purpose but that you don't have to focus on one until you are older. You should, also, start thinking about what kind of person you want to be when you get older. Until next week, help when you can."
         Brother Izak rose and guided the boy back to the front of the Temple to meet up with their parents.
         They stopped in the shade of the temple and a few girls from Selena's cohort came over and talked to Banu.
         Sheena and Selena were standing a short distance away.
         "Banu seems to be really popular with your friends," Sheena said.
         "Tell me about it. 'Banu's so cute', 'I love his little ears', blah, blah, blah. I tried telling them his farts smell terrible but they don't care," Selena replied.
         Sheena laughed, then said, "I understand. It was that way with my brothers Harlo and Canlo. They are twins. All my girl friends were in love with them."
         "But Banu is cute," Sheena said.
         "Oh no. Not you too?"