She reminded me of someone, the girl from the ship. Someone from long ago, back when I was new to this world.
Me.
I was like her once. What I put out into the world, it was virtue, kindness, trust, and complicity. It was who I was then, a good girl, well-behaved, pious, doing only what was expected of me, never thinking of breaking a rule.
It was my outer face, I know that now, the one I wore out of expectation and demand. Had I lived that life forever, I might never have learned what was lurking just beneath the surface. Or maybe it was that way of living that created it.
Nature versus nurture.
It’s debatable.