We both turned to the doorway. M'Lady Three was standing there, her arms folded under her small bosom, her shoulders back.
"Who did that
?" she asked, nodding at the pieces of ceramic dish splattered over the floor. "Who threw that plate?"
"Nobody threw the plate," I said. "It was an accident."
'There are no accidents at Dr. Foreman's School. You did that deliberately."
"We didn't," I insisted, "You weren't here to see it."
She smiled coldly. "I was here as a student just like you two. remember? I know what you're thinking. feeling. You're angry because you had to eat off the table. This is just your way of showing it."
"That's not true." Teal wailed.
M'Lady Two came up beside M'Lady Three and looked at the shattered dish. "I remember doing that."
They both nodded.
"We didn't do it on purpose." I shouted. "Just because it's something you two might have done doesn't mean we did. Stop saying we did."
"You won't make any progress here until you admit to your guilt, to your meanness and selfishness, and you hog-tie that anger," M'Lady Two said. "Now, finish up here, clean every piece off the floor, and come outside immediately."
They left.
"Nice work," I told Teal.
I turned back to the sink and washed the remaining silverware and pottery. Teal dried everything carefully and placed the remaining pottery so softly on the counter. I could barely hear it touching. We both picked up the pieces and put them into the garbage bin.
"What are they going to do to us now?" Teal muttered. "Put us in a scaffold?"
It sounded silly, but my eyes widened. Anything was possible in this place.
Robin was already outside, her shoes on when we walked to the front door.
"What did y'all do?" she whispered. "I heard them talking about y'all. Your buddy"-- she nodded at me--"sounded as though you let her down. I get the feeling they'll be punished if we don't do exactly as they expect and rewarded if we do. Maybe they're still under obligations of some sort to Dr. Foreman."
"I don't believe it I think they're just sadists,," Teal said. "They enjoy doing this."
"'Well, what did y'all do in there?" Robin asked.
"We broke Gia's dish, but it wasn't our fault," Teal moaned. "It was just an accident."
"Okay," M'Lady Three said, corning out of the house. "Robin, you return to the barracks and go to bed. You two, follow me."
Robin looked at us with sympathy, but also with relief that she wasn't being included in whatever new punishment we were to suffer. We were led around to the rear of the cow barn where we saw M'Ladies One and Two waiting, each holding a blanket. Behind them were what looked like coffins.
"What is this?" Teal asked. stopping.
This is the death of evil. Dr. Foreman wrote an interesting paper on the concept." M'Lady One said. She approached me and started to wrap the blanket around me.
I pushed it away and stepped to the side. "What are you doing?"
"You will want this blanket, believe me. It gets very cold in the desert before it gets warm again."
I shook my head. Teal turned to run, but her buddy was right there to seize her and hold her, screaming and kicking.
"If you cooperate, it will be so much easier," my buddy told me. She smiled. "We're doing it for your own good. You'll thank us someday, just the way we thanked our buddies and Dr. Foreman."