"How?"
"We'll get into the basement."
"I thought you said the door had a lock on it. How can we get in?"
"Leave it to me. We'll get in and then we'll see if Posy is there or if she was." she said, and walked out of the horse barn.
Wind Song reached over the stall door and poked me in the back of my head.
I looked at him.
Was that meant to be a warning? Did he see something in Gia's actions?
Was I as crazy as Gia? Now I believed what Natani had told me... horses and people could talk to each other.
Meditation? Escape? What was she talking about? How was I supposed to understand any of this? More important, how had I fallen into this whirlpool of pain and confusion?
Every time Gia saw me the remainder of the day, she looked at me weirdly. She said nothing else to me about the basement and Posy, so I thought it was just something that had flown in and cut of her mind as quickly as a humming-bird. However, just before we started to the house for dinner, she stepped up beside me and whispered. "Don't tell the others anything about this. It will just be you and me, understand?"
I nodded, but it all made me nervous. The one thing I didn't want to do was get into any more trouble here. but I didn't want to anger Gia any more than I already had either. I was so anxious about it all that I didn't eat well, and sure enough, before the dinner ended. Dr. Foreman came into the dining room.
"How are my girls doing tonight?" she asked, her eyes fixed mainly on me.
We all muttered all right and thank you.
"You should make sure you eat well. Phoebe. You have to keep up your strength for the challenges that lie ahead, and believe me." she said, looking at everyone now. "there are challenges. I would like to speak with you before you return to the barracks to do your homework. Phoebe. Come to the office when you're finished with your kitchen duties."
I nodded and returned to eating, but the other girls. especially Gia, looked at me and then each other.
"What's that about, I wonder?" Mindy asked.
"I don't know," I said.
"What I don't know is why she is so worried about you eating and you getting stranger," Teal said. She didn't watch over me like that after my
horrendous episode."
"Well, then," Mindy said. "maybe your episode wasn't as horrendous as you make it out to be."
"What are you talking about? You were there when they brought me back. You saw."
Mindy shrugged. "I know how to put it on. too."
"Put it on? Listen to that. Phoebe, tell her what its like to be stung by one of those... things."
I looked up. "It's painful, makes you nauseous. I think I even had a fever."
"See?" Teal jumped on the end of my words.
"That's Phoebe, not you." Mindy said, barely looking at her.
"I wish it happens to you, that's all. Then we'll see how horrendous it is and isn't."
"And I wish you get bitten by a rattlesnake in the bathroom in your you know what," Mindy countered,
Teal flung a glob of her mashed potatoes at her, hitting her in the cheek,
"Bitch!" Mindy screamed. She was about to toss her glass of cranberry juice at her when M'Lady Three appeared in the doorway.