I didn't respond.
Her words died like hollow threats in the dark. Gia went back to sleep and Robin turned on her side. but I sat up for awhile and listened for Teal. I heard nothing, not a cry, not a loud voice. nothing. Finally. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and lay back.
Teal wasn't there in the morning. The first thing I did after my eyes opened was sit up and look for her, but her cot was empty. Gia and Mindy were dressing silently. Robin was still asleep. I woke her.
They never brought Teal back," I said. I wondered why they had chosen her out of the three of us. Why hadn't they taken Robin and me, too?
Robin looked worried, but said nothing. We dressed and stepped outside and the buddies were there as usual, waiting to hear us recite our prayer.
"Where's Teal?" I demanded.
The prayer," M'Lady One said, stepping up to me. We did it and then I asked after Teal again.
"That girl," M'Lady Two said, shaking her head. "keeps getting hurt. She shouldn't have walked so much on that injured ankle. but we couldn't stop her from going around and around. Now she's in the infirmary again, but she'll pay for it. As you know there are no excuses for not doing your work, Dr. Foreman will give her five demerits far this."
"What will she give you when she finds out what you did?" I muttered.
"What did you say?" She stepped up to me again, her nose touching mine. I stepped back. "Well? Did you say something? Did you threaten something. Phoebe bird?"
"No."
"Very wise reply for a stupid girl. Get to work, all of you."
I looked at Robin, whose head was down the whole time. Mindy was muttering to herself and Gia was staring ahead, her eves so dark.
I took a deep breath and turned to go into my shell, chanting to myself.
From the confident way they acted. I was sure that the buddies had told Dr. Foreman what we had done, but they had given her selected information, of course, leaving out what they had been doing. To my surprise Dr. Foreman didn't ask Robin or me anything specific about it. Teal was kept in the infirmary and apparently not questioned either. Dr. Foreman didn't come charging out of the house, her eyes blazing with anger.
However, the silence made me more nervous. It was like the moments before a bomb would explode. Our days weren't any different. except Teal wasn't with us. One afternoon we saw Dr. Foreman leave in the van and I didn't see her return that day. She wasn't there at dinner either. What does all this mean? I wondered.
The next morning. I did see the van out front again, and later in the day Dr. Foreman sent M'Lady One to call Robin and me in from the garden work.
"This is it." Rabin said.
We hurried to her office, expecting now to hear her anger over our spying on the buddies. She was sitting at her desk, filling out some papers. When we entered, she looked up.
"Oh, Phoebe. Robin." she said in a friendly voice, "I want you girls to take some lessons from Natani."
"Lessons?" I asked. Was she going to make fun of his idea of the shell?
"Yes. I usually start the girls on these lessons earlier, but we've had so much orientation and setting up to do, it's just all taken a second seat. I find it more effective for Natani to work with no more than one or two at a time. He's expecting the two of you in his hogan after dinner tonight. You're excused from any other schoolwork for now I'll ask you to be polite and give him your full attention. We'll talk about it all afterward. That's all. You can return to the
gardening." She returned to her paperwork. "Oh." she added as we were leaving. "Don't discuss it with the others. I hate these petty jealousies that develop. They'll have their turn when it is their turn."
We left in a daze.
"I thought for sure we had bought it." Robin said as we walked down the steps. "What is this about, lessons from Natani? He gives us lessons in farming as it is. What else could he possibly teach us?"
"I'm not sure," I said. The way she talked, it sounded like some sort of reward or privilege, but yet. I can't help being very suspicious."
"Oh, well. No homework. I'll take whatever little gifts I get here. That's for sure."
We returned to work and, as Dr. Foreman had ordered, said nothing about Natani and the lessons. All day I waited to see if Teal was being released. I listened when the buddies talked to each other, too, to see if they would mention her and anything that had been done to her, but it was as if she had never been here. Not a word about her was spoken.
Once again, she wasn't at dinner, and once again, neither Gia nor Mindy seemed to care or be interested. What did interest and surprise them was our not returning to the barn to do our schoolwork,
-How come you're excused from that?" Mindy asked irritably,