Midnight Flight

  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,