“The chef has to be a reject from some fast-food joint,” Teal said.
Sooner than we expected, the buddies entered and announced dinner was over. Mindy and Gia rose immediately and left the table.
“The kitchen sink is right through that door,” M'Lady One told me, and pointed.
I gathered Gia's dishes and Robin picked up the silverware and Mindy's bowl and dish. Teal stood there watching us.
“That table better be gleaming when we return,” M'Lady Three told her.
Teal followed us into the kitchen and found the sponges and cleaning liquids. “I never cleaned anything,” she moaned.
“Oh, give me that already,” Robin snapped, and took everything out of her hands. “You just dry the dishes Phoebe washes. I'm tired and I want to get out of here.”
She returned to the dining room and Teal stood beside me while I washed off the pottery.
“Don't you want to try to run away with me? You can't want to stay here a moment longer than you have to,” Teal urged.
“I do, but I'm afraid. I've lived in the city all my life. I wouldn't know a poisonous anything and I'm so tired, I don't think I'd get far anyway.”
“Maybe we just have to follow the dirt road out. Maybe they're lying to us and we're not that far from a town?”
“You see any lights out there at night? And what if they're not lying? You have any doubt that they wouldn't bother to come rescue us? I don't.”
“I won't make it through another day like this,” she moaned.
“You'll make it.”
“I don't deserve this. My parents were just very upset. My father and mother will take me back if they know I'm sorry. I've just got to be able to call them and tell them,” she said, nodding at her plan. “Maybe, maybe I can sneak in here during the night and use the phone in Dr. Foreman's office.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at her. “And if you get caught? That's the Ice Room for sure, I bet.”
“And I bet there isn't even such a thing. It's just something they say to keep us terrified.”
I tilted my head and looked at her. “Do you want to be the first one to find out if there is or isn't?”
She started to shake her head and raised her hand too quickly, knocking Gia's dish out of mine. I was just about to give it to her to dry. It flew up and away, shattering on impact with the floor, the pieces exploding in every direction. For a moment we both stared in disbelief. I felt the blood draining from my face. Teal's eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open. She looked at me.
“Why didn't you wait until I saw you were handing it to me?” she cried.
“Wait until you saw? Why didn't you watch how you were swinging your hands wildly?”
“I wasn't. I...”
We both turned to the doorway. M'Lady Three was standing there, her arms folded under her small bosom, her shoulders back.
“Who did that?” she asked, nodding at the pieces of ceramic dish splattered over the floor. “Who threw that plate?”
“Nobody threw the plate,” I said. “It was an accident.”
“There are no accidents at Dr. Foreman's School. You did that deliberately.”
“We didn't,” I insisted. “You weren't here to see it.”
She smiled coldly. “I was here as a student just like you two, remember? I know what you're thinking, feeling. You're angry because you had to eat off the table. This is just your way of showing it.”
“That's not true,” Teal wailed.
M'Lady Two came up beside M'Lady Three and looked at the shattered dish. “I remember doing that.”
They both nodded.
“We didn't do it on purpose,” I shouted. “Just because it's something you two might have done doesn't mean we did. Stop saying we did.”
“You won't make any progress here until you admit to your guilt, to your meanness and selfishness, and you hog-tie that anger,” M'Lady Two said. “Now, finish up here, clean every piece off the floor, and come outside immediately.”
They left.
“Nice work,” I told Teal.
I turned back to the sink and washed the remaining silverware and pottery. Teal dried everything carefully and placed the remaining pottery so softly on the counter, I could barely hear it touching. We both picked up the pieces and put them into the garbage bin.
“What are they going to do to us now?” Teal muttered. “Put us in a scaffold?”
It sounded silly, but my eyes widened. Anything was possible in this place.
Robin was already outside, her shoes on when we walked to the front door.
“What did y'all do?” she whispered. “I heard them talking about y'all. Your buddy”—she nodded at me— “sounded as though you let her down. I get the feeling they'll be punished if we don't do exactly as they expect and rewarded if we do. Maybe they're still under obligations of some sort to Dr. Foreman.”
“I don't believe it. I think they're just sadists,” Teal said. “They enjoy doing this.”
“Well, what did y'all do in there?” Robin asked.
“We broke Gia's dish, but it wasn't our fault,” Teal moaned. “It was just an accident.”
“Okay,” M'Lady Three said, coming out of the house. “Robin, you return to the barracks and go to bed. You two, follow me.”
Robin looked at us with sympathy, but also with relief that she wasn't being included in whatever new punishment we were to suffer. We were led around to the rear of the cow barn where we saw M'Ladies One and Two waiting, each holding a blanket. Behind them were what looked like coffins.
“What is this?” Teal asked, stopping.
“This is the death of evil. Dr. Foreman wrote an interesting paper on the concept,” M'Lady One said. She approached me and started to wrap the blanket around me.
I pushed it away and stepped
