"I'm sure my father didn't pay all that money
for me to sleep in a stinking barn." Teal declared. M'Lady Three stepped up so closely to her,
their noses almost collided. "Okay, you're not sleeping
in the barn. I'm sick of your whining. You've just lost
the privilege."
"Privilege?" Teal started to laugh, "You call
sleeping in a barn a privilege?"
M'Ladv Three nodded at the other two buddies,
who then picked up a bunk and carried it out the door. "Follow them." Teal was told. She looked to us
desperately for same help. but neither Robin nor I had
the courage to say a word. With her head down like a
flag of surrender, she walked out of the barn. I would
never have thought sleeping in a barn was so great,
but it had to be to be better than being out there. I
thought.
At the door. M'Lady Three turned to Robin and
me. "Go to sleep. You'll need every moment of rest
you can get, believe me."
She left, closing the door behind her.
"Any moment I'm going to wake up. Tell me
that's me. Tell me I'm in a dream, a nightmare, and it's
coming to an end," Robin muttered in the tone of a
prayer.
I just shook my head and sat on the first bare
wooden cot. The surface was hard, but I didn't care. "I'm so tired," I whispered.
The lights in the barn flickered in warning that
they would soon be out, then the door opened and two girls entered. The first was a diminutive girl with a mop of hair the color of black licorice. She had large, dark, haunted eyes with a small, delicate nose and thin lips turned down in the corners. Each girl was dressed in a pair of blue coveralls with a faded white shortsleeve shirt that looked more like a man's shirt than a
woman's. They wore the same ugly shoes. too. The second girl was tall and thin with hair so
pale yellow it looked almost white. It hung down like