Music in the Night (Logan 4)

"I don't know," I said with my hands. She started to smile and stopped.

"Why are you doing that?" she asked.

"Doing what?" I signed. She seemed to understand.

"Why are you doing that stuff with your hands

, sign language?" she asked. "Has something happened to your voice? Can't you talk?"

I shook my head. She just stared at me, her face so thin her eyes looked like they were floating in their sockets. I could even see the bones in her jaw and cheeks through her thin skin. A thought brought a strange, soft smile to her thin lips.

"You look like you don't remember me," she said and then asked, "Do you?" I shook my head again. "I'm Mary Beth."

"Who am I?" I asked her, pointing to myself and then raising my hands and shaking my head to make her understand my question.

"You don't know who you are?" After I shook my head emphatically, she said, "You're Laura Logan. I don't know anything else about you because you didn't remember anything to tell us when you first came here," she said. "This is terrible," she added, gazing down the hall and looking for someone, as if I were hurt and bleeding.

I rubbed my stomach and indicated my mouth.

"You're hungry?"

I nodded and she relaxed.

"Just come with me," she said. "Come on," she urged, reaching out for my hand. I took her hand and we went down the hallway together to the cafeteria.

"How's she doing?" a dark-haired girl at the table Mary Beth had brought me to asked as soon as we appeared. The handsome boy beside her looked up with interest, as did the young girl on her other side.

"She can't talk. She's using sign language and she's forgotten everything, Megan. I don't mean about herself either. Now she doesn't know who we are, where she is, everything!" Mary Beth wailed.

"Oh no," Megan said, gazing back at the attendants who were standing and talking to each other. "They'll put her in the Tower right next to Lydia Becker, for sure. Look, Laura, I'm Megan, Megan Paxton. This is Lawrence and this is Lulu. You're at the clinic. You go up there and get what you want to eat and come back. Act as if you remember everything, okay?"

I looked at Lawrence, whose look of concern impressed me. Then I nodded.

"If you tell them you forgot everything about this place, they'll want to give you some other treatment, something like electric shock maybe. That could mean you'll be going to the Tower!"

I signed question after question, but no one understood. I wanted to know how long I had been here. Why was I here? Where had I come from? And what was this Tower?

"You sure you can't talk today?" Megan asked with a grimace. I shook my head. "Great. You're in deep water, I'm afraid," she said. "It's hard enough around here to protect yourself when you can talk."

"I'll take her to the cafeteria line," Mary Beth offered.

"That's like the blind leading the blind," Megan quipped. "If you help her pick out her food, she'll starve."

"Don't worry.Ill make sure she gets what she wants to eat," Mary Beth insisted.

"I can take her," Lawrence said, rising.

"Me too," Lulu said.

Why was everyone so concerned about me?

"Remember. If you make it look like she's helpless, they'll notice and that will be it," Megan warned. "Sit down, Lulu."

"Just follow me," Lawrence said softly. "I'll do all the talking and you just nod, okay?"

"All of a sudden he can help someone. Before this, he couldn't tie his own shoelaces if someone was watching," Megan remarked with a twisted smile.

Lawrence ignored her and directed me to follow.