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

“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,” M'Lady 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?”

“Of course not, Dr. Foreman.”

“Make her empty her pocket,” I cried.

“We don't lie to each other here,” Dr. Foreman said. “My girls and I have an unbreakable chain of trust among us. If she says it's not in her pocket, it's not.”

“But... it is. Wait, look at my foot.” I took off the shoe and my stocking. Then I lifted my foot so she could clearly see the swelling.

“I don't see anything unusual,” she said dryly.

“What?”

“I'm like you, Phoebe. I see and I hear what I want. Insubordination means a session in the Ice Room. M'ladies, do your duty.”

“Yes, Dr. Foreman,” M'Lady One said.

Dr. Foreman glared at me a moment. I was frozen, my foot still dangling before her. She turned and went back into the house.

“Get the shoe back on and move,” M'Lady Three ordered.

I shook my head.

M'Lady Two came walking across the yard. 'Trouble?"

“Not much. Phoebe here was insubordinate and is to be spending a session in the Ice Room. She's continuing to be insubordinate, which means that session will be longer,” M'Lady One explained calmly. She could have been reporting the weather.

I turned away. I couldn't run from them, not with the pain in my foot. I was unable to put any weight on it, and where would I run to?

“You know what one of these is?” M'Lady Two asked, bringing a small, black metal thing out of her pocket. It looked like a man's electric razor. “It's called a stun gun. Ever see one used?”

I had. Willie Sturges had bought one and as a jokeused it on Dennis Hampton, a fat boy in our tenth-​grade class who was always the butt of jokes. I couldn't believe how fast he went down and how he writhed in pain. The sight made me sick and I ran. I really thought Willie had killed him. Afterward, I saw Dennis, still looking stunned, his pants showing where he peed on himself, stumbling along home. Everyone but me thought it was pretty funny.

“Please,” I said. “I really did get stung.”

“And you're about to be stung again, only this will be far worse,” M'Lady Two warned.

“Move,” M'Lady Three said, pointing.

“I can't walk,” I cried.

“Hop,” M'Lady One said. “Now.”

They closed in on me. I started to my walk, but merely putting my toe to the ground increased the pain. The tears were streaming down my cheeks. I could feel my shortened breath straining my lungs. My stomach churned.

“I'm getting sick,” I moaned.

“Poor little Phoebe bird,” M'Lady One chimed, and they all laughed. “What's happening to the tough girl we all knew and loved?”

“Where are we going?” I screamed, or at least I thought I had.

When we rounded the corner, M'Lady Two rushed ahead and opened a door. I hesitated and looked back. Where were the other girls? Where was Natani?

The room inside looked dark. All I could think about was the way Robin had been after she had been put in the Ice Room and the things Gia had said about it, too.

“Listen to me,” I pleaded. “I just found out that my mother died. I don't mean to be insubordinate. I'm upset.”

M'Lady One pretended she was playing a violin.

“I'm sorry. I'll go back to my work. I promise I won't say anything nasty to any of you.”

“It's too late for promises, Phoebe,” M'Lady Three said. “Weren't you told that? When you came here, you left all your promises and excuses behind you. You're naked here. It's reality. You are rewarded for good and punished for bad. It's simple and it never changes.”

I looked through the door. All I saw from where I was standing was the foot of a bunk. What was the room, just a solitary confinement? I'll get through it, I thought.