Music in the Night (Logan 4)

"Thanks," Mary Beth whispered to me.

"That was pretty smart," Megan told me. "You saved her butt with quick thinking."

Lawrence smiled at me, too, his gaze steadier now and full of pride and admiration.

"You better eat something, Mary Beth, or I'll feel responsible and guilty if you get sick," I told her.

She took a forkful of fish and put it in her mouth, chewing demonstrably and turning toward Billy as she did so. He looked away with disgust.

"Billy's such a dork," Megan said. She glared back at him until he turned his back to her and kept his eye on the other patients. "He doesn't scare me with his threats. He knows if he so much as put a finger on me . ."

She turned back to me and stopped talking and eating. "What's wrong with you?" she asked.

"That girl," I said, nodding to a girl who sat across the cafeteria from us, "what is she doing?"

Megan looked.

"Oh, that's Tamatha Stuart. She's mute, She won't talk, so she does that sign language to communicate, It's so stupid. She's not deaf. I don't know why they pamper her. She should have been given shock treatment. I---what?" she asked me when she saw the expression on my face get more emphatic.

"I know what she's saying with her hands. I understand it!" I said, even surprised myself.

"Really?"

"That's awesome," Lawrence said. "Someone you know must be deaf," he added.

I looked at him. It was as if a thick, heavy door had been opened just an inch or so, and there was light streaming through. I thought I saw a face peeking out at me through the darkness. But who was it?

My eyes began to blink rapidly, uncontrollably. I wanted to see who was behind that door. I felt as if I were struggling to tug that door open just a little bit more, pulling, pulling. . I couldn't stand the effort.

"Laura?" he said. "Are you all right?"

"You're upsetting her," Megan said.

"What am I doing? I'm not doing anything," he moaned. "Laura?" he said, turning back to me.

Suddenly, it just came over me. I heard a cry, the cry that had been haunting me ever since I arrived, someone was desperately crying out for my help.

I spun around in my seat and looked behind me and to the sides.

"What is it?" Lawrence asked. "Laura?"

"Someone. . . is crying .....

The noise in the cafeteria became the roar of the sea. There was water everywhere. The wind itself was calling my name: Laura! Laura!

My heart started to pound. I felt the whole room turn. It was as if I were in a boat and not a chair, and the boat was being tossed violently. I grasped the table.

"No!" I cried. I closed my eyes and felt myself swaying.

"What's the matter with her?" I heard Lulu say. Lawrence reached over and touched my hand tentatively.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Laura?" His voice merged with the voice in my mind, especially when he repeated, "Laura?"

I felt nauseated. I started to shake my head and then my whole body began to tremble. I was holding the table so firmly that the dishes began to clank. A glass fell over.

Megan shouted to Lawrence because I was tipping over backward. He seized my chair, but I started to slide off it. My body felt as if it had turned to liquid, all my bones melted. I was pouring toward the floor. Lawrence held me, but I slipped from his grip and fell down, down, down, waving my arms about me. Billy and a female attendant came rushing over to us.

"What's wrong with her? Does she have epilepsy or something?" someone asked. It sounded like Megan.