story about her inventing friends and speaking to
invisible people lingered in my mind more than
anything else for some reason. In the working silence,
our subdued voices, the turning of pages. I could
imagine a sweet, petite girl like Posy sitting beside us,
cheering us up with her unyielding smile, her vision
of everything through rose-colored glasses, and her
stories, her fantasies. Who cared if they were true or
not? They gave us all hope and made us feel better
about ourselves.
Then she was plucked from our midst, stolen
away because she helped us resist. Even though we had never met her, hearing about her like this put her into all our minds. I could sense it, and despite Gia's and Mindy's attempts to forget her, she was still here with them as well. In the end, healing about her, listening to Gia's obvious affection for her and fear about what might have happened or be happening to her, appeared to mend the rift among us. Just a little while ago, we were at each other's throat in that room with Dr. Foreman, Now we sensed that we really didn't have anyone else but each other. Posy, even without Robin. Teal, and me ever having met her, gave us that. I thought. It was truly as if an invisible
person stood with us, comforted us.
After we completed our work, we were
permitted some free time before dinner. M'Lady Two
took our homework and test papers and in a
threatening tone told us she was taking it all to Dr.
Foreman, who would grade everything herself.
Failure, we were to remember, meant demerits. No
one said anything, but I could hear the same thoughts
in a chorus. Piling threat after threat on us, waving
fingers and sentencing us repeatedly to hard labor, lost
its impact when it was done so often and so much.
What's new? I thought, and so did the others. M'Lady
Two must have remembered herself at our stage. I could see it in the disappointment she expressed in her smirk when we didn't look like we were shaking in
our shoes.
"Don't go anywhere you're not supposed to go,"
she warned, and left.
Where could we go? I thought. There were
some shady places, and the breeze this late afternoon