"Tell me about it." She considered me a moment. "Maybe you were raped," she said. "And it was so traumatic, it caused you to forget everything. That's very common." She nodded, firmly convinced in her diagnosis.
I stopped eating and gazed at her. I started to shake my head.
"Why are you shaking your head? You said you don't remember anything. I bet that's it. Right, Lulu?" she asked the young girl. The small girl nodded.
"Yes, Megan," she said obediently. Megan looked satisfied.
"Her name isn't really Lulu. I named her that," Megan explained with a smile. "That's because she's a real lulu. Right, Lulu?"
The small girl laughed.
"My daddy's coming to see me today," she said.
"Oh, will you stop? She's been saying that for two years.
Her father doesn't even write her letters," Megan said. "You would think she'd understand, face reality by now."
"Yes, he does."
"Okay, Lulu. Believe what you want. Fathers are the biggest liars of all anyway," Megan said. "Can you remember your father?" she asked me.
"No," I said.
"He's the one who raped you then," Megan threw back at me.
I nearly choked on my eggs.
"I never said I was raped."
"Of course you didn't, but it's a very logical reason why you can't remember." She leaned over to whisper. "Be very careful after you've gone to bed. They all have keys to our doors," she said, leaning back, "that is how Garson Taylor got into my room. Fortunately, I was able to shout loudly enough to bring others. He claimed he wasn't even in my room. Can you imagine?"
She looked about nervously again and then turned back to me, her haunted eyes wide and full of alarm.
"If he's still here we're all in danger, especially a new girl like you. Watch the doctors, too," she added.
"The doctors? Why?"
"They like to touch you here all the time," she said, touching her small breasts, "and pretend it's necessary."
She stared at me and then bit down on her lower lip so hard, I thought she would draw blood.
"You'll be all right," she said. "We'll all be all right. Someday. Right, Lulu?"
"What? Yes. My daddy's coming today," she told me. "He's going to take me home."
"I'm happy for you," I said.
"Oh, spunks," Megan said. "Let's go to the rec room. We can listen to some music and talk."
"We can just leave and go there?" I asked.
"We can do anything we want," she declared. "We're paying the rent. At least you know this much about yourself, Laura: You're rich."
"I am?"
"Of course you are, stupid. It costs about forty thousand dollars a year to stay here."
I sat back, amazed.