All of us timidly filled our plates and poured ourselves some juice. Then we approached the table and Mindy and Gia looked up.
Robin said it first: “Excuse me. I'm sorry.”
Teal and I recited it as well and we sat.
“After breakfast, you will return to the garden. There is no lunch. You will go from the garden and be oriented to your chores on the farm, and then you will be brought back here for your first therapy session. The initial one will be a group session. I like to think of them as get-well sessions,” Dr. Foreman told us, wearing that friendly smile.
“Following all that, we will have a reality check and your buddies will give me their evaluations of your behavior. We will assign merit points as they were earned and you will be rewarded accordingly. Eat slowly, girls. Waste not, want not,” she sang, and walked away. The buddies followed her out of the dining room and we were all finally alone and together.
“Why did you tell on me last night?” I demanded immediately of Gia.
She didn't look up, but Mindy did and said, “Shereceived two plus points for that. She's close to being able to make a phone call or receiving one.”
“Golly gee, how lucky can a girl get,” Teal muttered. “A phone call.”
“You'll see how lucky that is after a while,” Mindy told her confidently.
“How long have you two been here?” I asked.
“I've been here four months. Gia's been here seven,” Mindy said.
“Seven!” Teal exclaimed. She looked at Gia. “How could you last here that long?”
“We manage. Like Natani says, a branch that doesn't bend, breaks. You learn how to bend,” Mindy said. “It's that simple.”
“Doesn't she talk, say anything except point out who has broken a rule?” Robin asked, nodding at Gia.
Gia looked up at us. Her eyes looked more ebony than mine perhaps because they were shining with such anger. However, it didn't look like anger directed just at us. She looked as though she was in a habitual rage, hated everyone and everything. A tiny, cold smile flowed into her small mouth that seemed to have forgotten how to smile.
“Oh, you're so smug and so smart now,” she said. "You still think you're stronger than they are, or someone will come charging in here and save you and tell you it's all a big mistake. They can't do these things to you. You don't have to be here. You have rights. How dare they take away your rights? You'll get so you pray for it, but all you will hear in return are the yelping coyotes or Natani's drums when he is talking to the wind and the stars.
“You see this piece of bread?” she said, holding it Up. “It's more important to me than your friendship. Think you'll never get that way yourself?”
She laughed a maddening, shrill laugh that put icicles under my breasts. Then she lost her energy again, and like a weakening lightbulb paled and lowered her head to continue eating.
None of us spoke. I saw that Mindy was staring at me curiously, waiting to see my reaction.
“I hope I never get like that,” I said.
Gia nodded her head but kept it down and kept eating. “You're eating on our plates and out of our bowls,” she muttered.
“What?” Teal asked.
Mindy turned to her. “Later today, they will take you to the pottery room in the cow barn and Natani will show you how to make dishes and bowls. They will be what you'll eat upon, and if you don't make it right, you'll eat off the table until you do. Remember, reality checks. Everything you have, you have because you've earned it, made it, provided for yourself.”
“Oh, I hated doing that in school,” Teal said. “Arts and crafts class. I never did any of it right. It's disgusting and so messy.”
Mindy smiled at her. “Wait until you clean a pigpen or shovel cow manure and then tell me pottery work is disgusting.”
Teal's lips began to tremble again. She looked as if she were going to go catatonic.
“Just eat. We don't eat again until dinner. You heard her,” I advised her.
Robin nodded. “Phoebe's right, Teal. Stop worrying about it all. You'll make it bigger and bigger in your mind and only bring pain to yourself.” Robin ate faster.
Teal did the same and we were all quiet again.
“Where you from?” Robin asked Mindy.
I thought she wasn't going to answer, but she finallylifted her head as if it were made of stone and gazed at Robin across the table. “Nowhere. I'm from nowhere.”
Before Robin or I could respond, M'Lady Two entered.
"Time to go back to work, girls. Take your dirty dishes to the sink. Mindy, you and Gia remain behind and wash them today. Tonight, Robin, Teal, and Phoebe will do the dinner dishes and silverware. Make sure the table is clean before you return to your farm chores.
“You three will return to the garden now and work until Natani says it's time to go to clean out the pigpen.”
Mindy smiled at Teal, who glared back at her.
“Get up now!” M'Lady Two commanded.
We did so and Gia and Mindy began to clear the table.
“It's proper to thank each other for the food,” M'Lady Two declared. “Do so.”
Everyone mumbled a thank-you to everyone else.
“And don't forget to add, 'God bless Dr. Foreman,' ” we were told.
We did so. Then we were marched out to put on our shoes and return to the garden.
Natani wheeled over the tomato plants, handling them as if they were babies.
Teal mumbled just that and he stopped and looked at her.
“They are babies,” he said. “Everything is born, begins, matures, and grows old in the world. I'm sure you have heard, 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap,' have you not?”
“I have,” Robin said. “My grandparents practically told that to my mother every day, and my grandfather told my grandmother the same thing every time my mother did something he didn't like, which was about always.”
“Well, I haven't,”
