I turned to the others. 'Where's Teal?"
They both looked as if first noticing she wasn't there themselves.
"Maybe she's so eager to get to work and start on the new vegetables, she got up and left before dawn." Mindy said.
I looked at Robin's empty bunk. "Why isn't Robin back?" I muttered. "What have they done to her?"
"Didn't you hear what Gia told Teal last night? You're better off not asking questions." Mindy smirked at me. "But you've already learned how to be better off."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I shouted at her. She turned her back on me, pulled on her shoes, and started for the door.
"If you hadn't opened your big mouth. Robin wouldn't have gotten into trouble." I screamed.
Mindy turned slowly. "How did she get sent here if she wasn't in trouble?" she retorted, and walked out.
Gia looked at me. "Just get to work. It's the only way to get out of this place."
She left. I sat there fuming. but I wasn't sure if I was fuming at Mindy for being right about me or just fuming at myself for doing what I had done,
Had Teal run oft? Was she out there in the desert, dying like Natani's squirrel? Surely, since I had told Dr. Foreman what Teal was thinking about doing, she wouldn't have let her do it.
I hurried out, hoping to find her beside Natani, planting cucumbers and carrots in the section of land he had irrigated. I saw Mindy and Gia joining him, but no sign of Teal or Robin. MLady One, looking like she was dragging herself out and about herself, came strolling toward me. She smiled when she drew closer. "Don't you look and feel better in those clothes?"
I didn't say anything. She stopped in front of me. "You're a quick learner. Phoebe. That's good. and since you're my assignment, it helps me. too. Don't screw up and we'll both be happier people." Then she nodded at the planting. "Get to work."
"Where's Teal? Don't start with that permission to speak. Just tell me what happened to her." I demanded.
Her smile faded. "Maybe you're not so smart after all." She started to turn away and I reached out and touched her arm.
"Did she run off? Does Dr. Foreman know? Is she sending someone out there to bring her back?"
She spun on me and poked me hard with her thick, right forefinger in the chest between my breasts. It threw me off-balance and I fell back, sitting on my rear and looking up at her. My chest smarted. She might as well have poked me with a pipe. I thought.
-Don't you ever touch me again, understand? Don't you put your paws on me, girl," she fired down at me. "No one touches me. The last one who touched me was a sorry rat."
She looked insane, beyond rage, like someone who had slipped into a second personality and was capable of great violence. It occurred to me that all the buddies were former Foreman wards. which meant eac
h of them had done terrible enough things to cause them to be sent here. What were my buddy's crimes and sins? Was she really cured or was she still quite capable of whatever acts of savagery had brought her to Dr. Foreman's School for Girls?
I rose quickly and turned away from her, heading out to the field.
-Don't you dare touch me again, understand?" she screamed after me..
I kept walking, my shoulders hunched up. In my neighborhood in Atlanta. I had seen people under the influence of drugs and alcohol. I had seen hard kids practically brought up in the streets, but something in my buddy's eyes I had not seen. It was as dark as death.
I stopped next to Mindy and Gia and listened to Natani's instructions about how to plant the different vegetables, trying hard to keep my attention and concentrate. Every once in a while. I looked back at the house. but I didn't see my buddy or anyone else. Instead. I started to work and desperately worked at keeping myself from thinking about any of it.
Just after we finished our morning chores and were heading toward the house for breakfast, we saw a lot of dust down the dirt road and heard the van approaching. All three of us hesitated at the fountain and watched as the van pulled up. M'Lady Three stepped out of the van. A dark-skinned man was driving. He looked like an Indian, too. He stepped out and went to the rear. They opened the door and pulled out a stretcher. Teal was lying on it, her face looking swollen and red. I saw what looked like a large circle of red on her right calf. which also looked swollen. She was grimacing with pain and looked like she had screamed herself hoarse. She didn't open her eves.
"What happened to her?" I cried, hurrying toward them.
"Get back." M'Lady Three ordered. They carried her toward a corner of the hacienda. The three of us watched until they disappeared. Then we heard the door open and looked up to see Dr. Foreman.
For a long moment, she and I fixed our gazes on each other like two combatants locked in an unrelenting grasp. Then she smiled.
-Breakfast, girls," she sang, turned, and went inside.
Mindy and Gia were looking at me. They knew what I had done. They knew why I was so shocked.