Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight, Andrews, C. [classic books for 10 year olds .TXT] 📗

“What brought you here?” Teal asked me after Robin's screams died down.

“I ran away from my uncle and aunt where I was supposed to stay.”

“So, big deal,” Robin said. “I bet we've all done that one time or another.”

“I was supposed to be in court for hitting this boy with a little brass statue.”

“Did you kill him?” Teal asked, her eyes widening with interest.

“No, but I put him in the hospital. He was part of a group of boys trying to rape me.”

“So why would they put you in jail for that?” Robin asked skeptically. “It just sounds like self-​defense to me.”

“There's more to it.”

“I bet.”

“Look,” I said, turning on her, “I don't have to defend myself to you. In fact—”

Before I could say anything else, we heard the door squeal open, followed by the machine-​gun rat-​ta-​tat-​tat of stiletto high heels on the concrete floor.

Out of the dark shadows came a tall, elegant-​looking woman, statuesque with a firm figure in a ruby-​red skirt suit. She had highlighted golden brown hair, about thebase of her neck in length, neatly styled. As she moved more into the light and drew closer, I saw she was an attractive woman with high cheekbones and a perfect nose. She was wearing a soft red lipstick, very understated. A girlfriend of mine, Louella Mason, who was determined to become a beautician, had told me when a woman wants to emphasize her eyes, she de-​emphasizes her lips, but this woman looked like she didn't need anything special to make her eyes prominent. They weren't big as much as they were striking and intense.

She paused, looked at the three of us, and smiled so warmly, I felt like getting up and rushing into her arms. It was a smile that brought a ray of sunshine to a rainy day, and, boy, did I need some sugar now.

“Hello, girls,” she said. “I'm Dr. Foreman. Welcome to my school.”

“This is a school?” Teal piped up immediately. “It's more like someone's filthy basement.”

Dr. Foreman turned to her and, holding her smile, said, “No, this isn't the actual school.” She looked about and smiled as if she didn't see what we saw. She saw a beautiful lobby or something instead. “This is my orientation center. The school is some distance from here, but I like to meet my girls as soon as they are brought and introduce them to the way things will be as soon as possible. That way, if they don't accept what I say and don't do what I say, I can put them right back on the plane and ship them somewhere else where a far worse fate awaits them. Is this plan all right with you, Teal?”

I could see Teal was both impressed and intimidated that Dr. Foreman already knew which of us she was. Teal didn't answer. She just sat looking at her, hermouth slightly open. Dr. Foreman did not turn away immediately either. She held Teal's gaze, froze that now cold smile on her lips, and only after a few beats, slowly turned back to Robin and me.

“Now then, as I was saying, welcome to my school,” she continued.

As if that was their cue, three young women, the one who had escorted me from the plane to the concrete building, and two others dressed similarly with their hair cut identically short, entered and took position just behind Dr. Foreman. They stood with military posture, their arms behind them, hands clasped, and looked forward, not at us, just forward and poised like guard dogs ready to pounce upon command. Foreman's rottweilers, all teeth and muscle, I thought.

“I created my school only five years ago, but I have, shall we say, graduated dozens of girls like you, releasing them back into society as productive young women, all of whom have kept out of any trouble with their families or with the law. Three are in fact law officers now themselves,” Dr. Foreman said, smiling wider with pride. “Two are correction officers and one is a policewoman in a big city.”

“Something for us to look forward to,” Robin muttered. “A career as a policewoman.”

Dr. Foreman looked straight ahead, but her body began to turn as if it were robotic, slowly, stiffly, her shoulders firm and straight.

“Right now, Robin Lyn Taylor, all you have to look forward to is getting yourself into more trouble and so deeply that you are eventually put away in a room without any hope of getting out. In effect, you have no future. The reason you have been sent here is to help you regain one. Until that happens, you, all of you,”

Dr. Foreman said, looking at Teal and me as well now, “are nonentities. You don't exist for your families. You don't exist for yourselves. All you've accomplished up until now is sharpened yourselves as thorns in the side of civilized society. With me, under my care, you will either develop the ability to have a future or you will be pulled out of the side of the civilized world and discarded like any nuisance. The choice is ultimately yours to make, but,” she said, smiling warmly again, "we will do our best here to help you make the right choice. In the past, whenever you were given the opportunity to do what was right and decent, you all made other choices. We expect to correct that. We will help you.

"Someone, thanks to the mercy of our court system, has decided to give you this one last chance. Rather than sit here sulking and trying to think of wisecracks, you should begin to show some appreciation.

“But,” she continued in a sweet, melodic tone, “I am the first to recognize that you are all here because you are all rilled with defiance, anger, and most of all fear.”

“Fear?” I muttered. I couldn't help it. It just slipped out between my lips. How could fear have brought us here?

“Yes, my dear Phoebe, fear. Antisocial behavior stems