Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight Andrews, C. (books for students to read TXT) 📖

invisible to me was standing there. It was weird, eerie. Sometimes, I got so I thought I saw someone standing there myself,” Gia explained.

“Maybe you're just as crazy as she is,” Robin told her.

Gia shrugged. “Maybe I am.”

“So if Dr. Foreman wanted to keep her away from people, what did she do?” I asked.

“It's just a guess. We have no real proof of anything and we would never say it loud enough for anyone to hear it,” Gia offered.

No one spoke for fear she would stop.

“That door I told you about? The one going down to the basement?”

“Yes?” I said.

“It has a lock on it now.”

“Maybe she just didn't want you sneaking down there anymore,” I said quickly.

“I thought that was it, too.” Gia eyed Mindy. “Especially after she seemed to know I had been there.”

“I never said anything!” Mindy exclaimed. Gia shot her a skeptical look. “I didn't. I swear!”

“Well, what changed your mind?” Teal asked her, ignoring Mindy.

“Occasionally, I've heard crying, coming from the basement,” Gia said. “Mindy thinks she has as well, right, Mindy?”

“Well, 1 wasn't exactly sure about that,” Mindy said cautiously.

“What are y'all saying?” Robin asked, looking like her heart had stopped. “Dr. Foreman is keeping her daughter in the basement, like a prisoner in solitary confinement?”

“Maybe,” Gia said.

“To this day?” I asked.

“What are we if not prisoners? But don't ever say it or suggest it in front of one of the buddies. Actually, never mention this again ever.”

“How long has it been since you stopped seeing her, even at night?” I questioned.

“About a week or so before Mindy arrived,” Gia said. “That's about four months, right?”

Mindy nodded.

I turned to Robin. “Locked in a basement to be kept away from people for more than four months? That would be worse than the Ice Room, wouldn't it?”

“No,” Robin said.

“Why not?”

She stared at me.

“Because you're not put into the Ice Room,” Gia answered for her. 'The Ice Room is put into you."

“Put into you?” I looked at Robin. She was nodding. “I don't understand.”

“Leave it that way, Phoebe. Sometimes, it's good here to not understand. You're better off,” Robin said.

But I was a moth drawn to fire. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Like some fatalist who knew she was headed for disaster no matter what road she took, I had no doubt in my mind that I would understand what they meant someday.

“Since Natani favored her, maybe he knows something. Have you ever asked him?” I inquired.

Gia raised her eyebrows. “Have you ever asked Natani a question about anything yet?”

“Yes.”

“So you know how he answers. He doesn't give straight answers. Instead, he tells you some Indian folk tale about animals and you're supposed to get the point.”

“Maybe that's his way to avoid reality,” Mindy suggested.

“Or maybe it's his way not to,” I said.

No one spoke again for a long moment.

“Let's do our homework. At least it's something to do and it keeps her from blaming us for something else,” Gia said in a tired voice.

Everyone returned to the books and we were soon working together, each of us every once in a while pausing to think about that locked basement door. I know that's what was on their minds. It was on mine and I could see the fear, like some sheet of thin ice sliding over their eyes.

Of all the things they told us about Posy, the story about her inventing friends and speaking to invisible people lingered in my mind more than anything else for some reason. In the working silence, our subdued voices, the turning of pages, I could imagine a sweet, petite girl like Posy sitting beside us, cheering us up with her unyielding smile, her vision of everything through rose-​colored glasses, and her stories, her fantasies. Who cared if they were true or not? They gave us all hope and made us feel better about ourselves.

Then she was plucked from our midst, stolen away because she helped us resist. Even though we had never met her, hearing about her like this put her into all our minds. I could sense it, and despite Gia's and Mindy's attempts to forget her, she was still here with them as well. In the end, hearing about her, listening to Gia's obvious affection for her and fear about what might have happened or be happening to her, appeared to mend the rift among us. Just a little while ago, we were at each other's throat in that room with Dr. Foreman. Now we sensed that we really didn't have anyone else but each other. Posy, even without Robin, Teal, and me ever having met her, gave us that, I thought. It was truly as if an invisible person stood with us, comforted us.

After we completed our work, we were permitted some free time before dinner. M'Lady Two took our homework and test papers and in a threatening tone told us she was taking it all to Dr. Foreman, who wouldgrade everything herself. Failure, we were to remember, meant demerits. No one said anything, but I could hear the same thoughts in a chorus. Piling threat after threat on us, waving fingers and sentencing us repeatedly to hard labor, lost its impact when it was done so often and so much. What's new? I thought, and so did the others. M'Lady Two must have remembered herself at our stage. I could see it in the disappointment she expressed in her smirk when we didn't look like we were shaking in our shoes.

“Don't go anywhere you're not supposed to go,” she warned, and left.

Where could we go? I thought. There were some shady places, and the breeze this late afternoon didn't feel as if it had been born in a furnace. Mindy, Gia, and Teal sat on what little grass there was under a tree. Robin and I went to look at the horses. We were told that it wouldn't be long before we would be brushing them down, cleaning their stalls, and feeding them, too. One of