"This first breakfast is a gift since you have done little to earn the food." M'Lady One said. "Consequently, from this time on, whenever you approach a m'lady or any other student at this school, you are to say, 'Excuse me, I'm sorry.' Should you forget to do it, you will be given a demerit on the spot. Is that understood? Is it?" she screamed at me.
"Yes," I said. Robin nodded.
"March out," M'Lady Two ordered, and we did so.
The sunlight made me squint. I covered my eyes and gradually got accustomed to what I was seeing. How could it be so hot so early? I wondered.
I looked for Teal. She was standing by her bunk, wavering as if drunk, her head down. The shackles were off her feet, but still attached to the cot. I looked around. The other two girls were nowhere in sight.
"Okay, let's have it." M'Lady One ordered. Robin looked at me. Teal raised her head. None of us knew what she wanted, "The prayer!" she screamed. "Our morning prayer. Are you all as stupid as you are incorrigible? Recite."
We began,
No mumbling, Loud." she commanded.
Teal, who now looked terrified of making any mistakes, did the best. Robin and I spoke a split second behind her, correcting ourselves.
"Not absolutely perfect, but passable," M'Lady One decided, just as M'Lady Three came toward us. She was carrying three shovels over her shoulder,
"Good morning, girls," she sang with exaggerated glee. "Isn't it a beautiful morning'? This is one of your tools." She distributed the three shovels to us. Teal took hers as if the handle were made of steel wool, holding it as softly as possible with just the tips of her fingers.
"From now on, you are responsible for it," M'Lady Three continued. "We will show you where the tool shed is. You will put them away neatly with every other tool. When you open the tool shed door, wait a moment or two since rattlesnakes seem to find it comfortable in there and I know we're low on antirattlesnake venom."
Teal looked up sharply and then at the two of us. I saw Robin was having trouble swallowing. She looked like she would topple any moment. My heart was pounding like a jungle drum, sending warnings to every part of my body. My blood was in a panic, rushing through my veins as if it were looking for a place to hide.
"This morning you will join Natani. He is a Navajo Indian and the farm manager. You are to give him the same respect and obedience you give to any of us. He will explain your work to you and you will work for two hours before we go to breakfast. As you have been told, you haven't done enough to earn it, but you will be given this first meal anyway, However. I assure you, anyone who doesn't do her job adequately will not be given breakfast and will remain out there working until she does."
Robin raised her hand.
"Yes, you may speak," M'Lady Two said. "Can I go to the bathroom first?"
"You all can go to the bathroom one at a time." She turned to her right to point at a narrow shack.
"What's that?" Teal asked. "I mean, permission to speak."
M'Lady Three nodded.
"What's that?"
"That's your outhouse."
"What's an outhouse?"
"It's your bathroom. stupid. Once again. I advise you to hesitate a moment or two after you open the door as rattlesnakes like to curl up and sleep around the toilet at night."
Robin froze, her eyes widening.
"We're not going to wait all day for you to go to the bathroom. girls. If you don't go now. you pee or whatever in your diapers.
Move!" M'Lady Three screamed.
With great hesitation. Robin started far the outhouse and Teal and I followed behind. As we did. I started to look around more at our surroundings. Obviously we were somewhere deep in some desert. I could see cactus and brush, but outside of the immediate property, which was fenced in, there was no grass, just long, rolling, brown, crusty dirt in every direction. The sunlight wavered over it, making it look even hotter and drier. Mountains were way off in the distance
.
To our right we could see dozens of pigs bumping and pushing at each other to get at feed. They slobbered through mud and their own excrement, their heads down, consuming themselves in eating. Farther to the right were four horses nibbling on hay. The gardens were on our left and from the looks of them were bigger than any other garden I had seen. I recognized cornstalks, but nothing else, not being much of a fanner or around farms ever.
Robin opened the outhouse door and jumped back. "Who wants to go first?" she asked Teal and me.