call me Robin. You, too." she ordered me.
"Yes, Your Majesty'," I said. and Teal laughed. Robin folded her arms and turned away. "Well,
we're here together so I guess we'll have to talk to
each other decently. Where y'all from?"
"Where y'all from?" Teal laughed, "I'm from
Albany. New York. I was flown in here just a little
before y'all were. I think. I'm very unsure about the
time. They took my watch."
"Mine. too." I said, rubbing my wrist, "And my
ring. Why did they do that?"
"Maybe they're jewel thieves. They took
Robin's watch, too. right. Robin?"
"Big deal. I stole it. I'll steal another first
chance I get." she said defiantly, looking at the closed
door. "I'm supposed to be at a school, a special school.
That's what the judge said." she shouted at the door.
"Not some dumpy, smelly building."
"Judge?" I asked.
She spun her head around to me so fast, I
thought it would just keep going in circles on her
neck.
"What are you, a scholarship winner or
something? Is that why you're here?"
I stared. confused.
"Hardly," I finally replied. "My uncle and aunt
arranged all this without telling me anything about it I
was drugged, kidnapped, and brought here." Robin started to laugh and stopped. "Did you
say drugged and kidnapped?"
"I know exactly what she means. That's how I
felt." Teal said. "My father arranged for me to be
transported here. He was nice enough to tell me I was
going to a special school, but my parents didn't even
let me take a change of clothing. Daddy had a hired
goon bring me to the airport and to the plane. Next
thing I knew, I was flying away and no one told me
where I was going. They kept the windows shut. too.
They gave me something to drink, and before I knew
it. I was asleep, so I was drugged. too. When I woke
up. I was here and dressed in this rag and these stupid
clodhoppers as well as this... diaper."
"I guess I shouldn't have expected anything
better from my aunt, but why did your father do that
to you?" I asked. Even though I had had some of my
things when Daddy brought me to live with Aunt Mae
Louise and Uncle Buster. I didn't feel much different
except I knew why they'd got rid of me. There was no
surprise for me there.
"He was. I guess I can safely say, at the end of
his patience with me. I was an embarrassment to my
mother, who sits at the head of the social table of high
society."
"What did you do?"
"I robbed a bank." Teal muttered.
"What?"
"I stole money from Daddy's secret safe, his
and my brother Carson's."
"And your own father sent you away for that?" "Well, it was a little more. I guess." Teal
admitted.
"I bet," Robin muttered. "Don't be fooled by her
sweet little face."
I turned to her. "What about you?"
"I didn't rob a bank. but I was part of an armed
robbery of a supermarket where I worked." Robin
said, looking ahead. It was as if she were reminding
herself and not telling us. "This is supposed to be an
alternative to going to a real jail. My mother darling
talked me into it, and like both of you. I was
eventually put in a plane and the same things
happened to me. I fell asleep and they took my
clothing and brought me here."
She smiled and shook her head and then
shouted at the closed door. "They're just trying to
frighten us with all this.., this horror-hotel stuff, but it
doesn't scare me! Y'all just wasting your time you
might as well give me back my clothes!"
"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." Rabin 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?"
Rabin asked skeptically, "It just sounds like selfdefense 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-tatat-tat of stiletto high heels on the concrete floor. Out of the dark shadows came a tall, elegantlooking woman, statuesque with a firm figure in a ruby-red skirt suit. She had highlighted golden brown hair, about the base 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, her mouth 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, n
ot 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 filled 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 from a well of fear. You act out
because you are defensive, slightly paranoid. I'm afraid. In your present way of thinking, the world around you threatens you. You believe everyone is against you and you're just naturally antagonistic to
everything."
I guess she saw the lack of understanding in my
face. She smiled, again so softly, I felt I could relax
and listen to her for hours.
"Don't worry about any of that yet, my dear.
You'll see. You'll all see. That's what's so wonderful
about my work," she said excitedly. "at least to me,
especially the way it opens the eyes of my girls. For
me." she said, her voice rising an octave. "there is
nothing as satisfying as seeing one of my girls
suddenly come to the realization she can be as good as
anyone else out there, she can be productive and
worthwhile. She can make friends and be liked and
like others. Her heart can hold sunshine, even on rainy
days."
She did make it sound wonderful. For a
moment she paused with her face so radiant and full
of happiness. I felt some hope seep into my hardened
and crusty surface. She looked at me as if she could
sense it and gave me a special nod, a little mare of her
smile,
"People are always asking me. 'Dr. Foreman, you were a successful and renowned college professor. Why did you throw away your classroom work, your publications, your lectures, put all your fortune into this school, and go off and surround yourself with the hardest sort of challenge: girls whom everyone has given up on, girls who would
easily end up in penal institutions?'
"Well, the answer is you, my dears," she
declared with her arms out as though she were about
to embrace all three of us at once. "you and your
awakening. Nothing is more satisfying to me than to
bring someone back from the dead." she continued,
her right hand over her heart. "for that is where you
are now, in some cemetery of your own making,
burying yourselves in your disgust, your fears, your
dysfunction,"
She grew stern looking again and took another
step toward the three of us.
"Within the next twenty-four hours, fourteen
hundred teenagers like yourselves will attempt
suicide, twenty-eight hundred will get pregnant,
fifteen thousand will try alcohol for the first time, and
thirty-five hundred will run away from home." She let those facts linger in the air between us
for a moment. I glanced at Robin and then Teal.
Neither seemed impressed nor seemed to care. "But not you. No, not my girls. To me," Dr.
Foreman said, looking up at the ceiling as if she could
look right through to the heavens, "you will all be like
Lazarus, rising from the grave."
"Does that mean you're God?" Teal asked, her
mouth dripping with sarcasm.
I thought I was brave and tough, but this soft,
pretty white girl who sounded like she had been born
with a silver spoon in her mouth was sure nasty and
unafraid, even after all that had been done to her, to
us.
Dr. Foreman's eyelids fluttered. She had what
seemed unflappable poise. That smile never faltered
as she lowered her gaze at Teal like someone lowering
the barrel of a cannon at a new target.
"For you and for the others. dear Teal, as long
as you are here, that is exactly who I will be." She waited a moment for her words to settle.
Teal shook her head and looked away.
"Now,," Dr. Foreman said, turning back to
speak to all of us. "let me begin by explaining that
you're not going to a school any way like the ones you
have attended. First, my school is at my ranch. It's a
working ranch and you will all participate in the daily chores."
"Oh, so we're really a form of cheap labor, is
that it?" Robin complained.
"Hardly cheap. Robin. For your work, you will
be given full room and board."
"Isn't my father paving you?" Teal fired at her.
"I shouldn't have to do any daily chores." she declared
staunchly, her eyes burning with arrogance. "Yes, in your case, the family is paying, but
there is much more that will be given to you than you
would get anywhere else for that amount of money."
Dr. Foreman said calmly. The arrows and darts Teal
shot at her with those fiery eves seemed to bounce off
an invisible wall of protection that surrounded her. "Like what?" Teal demanded, refusing to step
back. I saw how the girls behind Dr. Foreman glared
at Teal. They all looked eager to get their hands
around her neck and shake her head off her body. "Like my expert treatment, my therapy
sess
ions, my proven techniques," Dr. Foreman said to
all of us and not just Teal. "It's off the charts when
you start computing the casts, and even Teal here,
who points out that her parents are paying the tuition,
couldn't really afford the tuition if it were equated
with the value you will all receive."
"Why are you so nice and generous to us?" Teal
muttered, the corners of her mouth folding in. "Why? I do this because I want to give back to
the science that has been so good to me, as well as my
deep desire to help young women in desperate need,
to help them find what is spiritually good in them." "Oh, brother." Teal muttered. "We're in a
nunnery."
Dr Foreman's rottweilers moved restlessly. She
glanced at them and turned back to us.
"To continue"-- Dr. Foreman glared at Teal--
"at my school you will not find a staff of teachers to
coddle and prod you into doing your homework,
studying properly, and achieving. I will assign you all
your work and you will have to master it all
yourselves."
"Huh?" Robin said. "Did you say ourselves?" "What are we going to study, basket weaving?"
Teal asked with a crooked smile,
You will be studying regular academic subjects,
of course. We want you to qualify- for high school
graduation, to be able to pass exams, even be good
enough to be admitted to institutions of higher
learning, but you will be in a different sort of
classroom. Life itself, you will see, will become the chief subject. You're all failing at that right now, and for now, that is far more important a subject than
anything else."
"I don't get it. How are we supposed to learn
anything without a teacher?" Robin asked. "It was
hard enough to learn with one."
"Oh, you'll be surprised at what you can
accomplish when you are left to your own initiative,
Robin Lyn. Of course, you will all help each other.
Cooperation in that regard is very important. I will
want you all to fully understand how important it is to
get along with each other, with others of different
backgrounds. Out there, that's what you must do to be
a contributing member of society.
"But, self-reliance is essential. too. We can
cooperate with each other, but we can't become totally
dependent upon others or we become a burden, don't
we? That is truly what the three of you are right now,