M'Lady One came down the steps casually and looked at the insect. "What'dya know about that, you've been stung by a scorpion. too."
"A scorpion?"
"Big deal. Put your shoe on and get back to work."
"But shouldn't I be given some medicine?"
"No. Now get moving or I'll assign you that cesspool digging instead of permitting you to return to the horses."
I looked in the shoe and shook it out and did the same with the other. The pain started to increase in my foot. It was traveling up my ankle. I felt it rising in wave after wave, the tide of it already reaching into my stomach.
"It hurts a lot!" I moaned when I stood up.
"You'll get over it. You're tough, a girl of the streets with a big mouth. What's a mere scorpion sting to you?"
"I want to see Dr. Foreman."
"I'm warning you to get moving and get moving now."
"She should know what happened to me."
I started for the stairway and she blocked me. M'Lady Three appeared in the doorway, a bottle of Coke in her hands. She sipped from it, her cheeks going in and out as she sucked on the bottle. Then she stepped down, "What's going on?"
"She's refusing to return to her work detail." M'Lady One said.
"I was stung by a scorpion. There it is." I pointed to the ground.
M'Lady Three continued down the steps, picked up the dead scorpion, put it in her pocket, and turned back to me. "Refusing to return to her work detail after you told her to do it?"
"Yes."
"That's insubordination."
"I'm not trying to be insubordinate. I want to see Dr. Foreman. I've been stung I tell you! My foot is on fire."
M'Lady Three put the bottle of Coke down on the ground and stepped beside M'Lady One. They were like a wall now between me and the steps to the house.
"Start walking," MLady One said, pointing to my right.
"I can't walk. It hurts too much." I cried.
"Stop your whining. No one cares about your little pain. You're insubordinate, That's a ten-point demerit. You're not going back to your soft chores. You're going to the Ice Room."
"No!" I screamed,
Dr. Foreman finally appeared in the doorway.
"What's going on. girls?"
"Phoebe refuses to return to her work detail," M'Lady One said.
"I was stung by a scorpion. It was in my shoe." I looked at M'Lady One. "I bet she put it there."
Dr. Foreman didn't move. "Where is it?"
"She put it in her pocket." I pointed to M'Lady Three.
"Is that true?"