3 years 1 day

We had just settled into our new room, which was almost exactly the same as the one we had last time. This time Magnolia and Yaupon were with us though. No more single room with Fern for Magnolia.

She had been crying and throwing tantrums all evening, but Fern didn’t come.

Yaupon tried to comfort her first, but Magnolia hit her and then Yaupon looked at her with disgust. “My mommy said that if she was important I’d have been in special education when I turned one. You’re in special education, so you failed!” She hissed at Magnolia.

My sister, who was much heavier and taller than Yaupon, started hitting her more then and Azalea and me had to pull her off the smaller girl.

We ignored Magnolia for the rest of the evening, even when she calmed down and wanted to try a puzzle we had just started. But Magnolia was mean so she wasn’t allowed to play with us.

Yaupon had never had such a nice puzzle, she said, so she was happy she could play like this with all of us.

We talked lots and lots that night. Yaupon told us all about her mommy and the cat at her old home and how she had nobody to play with her there. Only the children her mommy said she couldn’t play with.

Yaupon said her mommy made her train really hard so she’d pass the next test and could play with other children again.

She also said that she shouldn’t have been called Yaupon because only the smart or strong kids could have tree names and the pretty ones had flower names. But because she was strong she could keep her name now, as long as she passed the next test.

White Ash and me looked at each other. Finally we knew why Willow’s name changed.

Then a new Nurse came and brought us our dinner. We wouldn’t get milk anymore, she said.

Afterwards we were all tired and went to sleep.

Magnolia had been wandering about outside and was forcibly brought back to our room, still demanding that Fern come back. The nurse didn’t give in, so Magnolia finally went to sleep after waking all of us again.

So the next day we were all a bit unhappy when we were dragged from our beds really early, together with a lot of other girls. They all seemed puzzled so this probably wasn’t normal.

A woman took Magnolia and brought her away, too, but left us. We tried to follow her but there were too many girls taller than us everywhere.

Willow and Azalea and me and White Ash and Yaupon held hands so we wouldn’t lose each other when we were all herded into a very large room, where Fern was tied up in the middle, hanging off the ceiling by her hands.

I stared at the sight wide eyed.

Then Magnolia was brought to the middle, her arms and legs tied with linen. She was set down at Fern’s feet.

A large, rough looking woman walked towards Fern with a piece of paper.

She held it up so everybody could see she was reading it. There was something the color of blood stuck to the bottom of the piece of paper.

Nurses tried to hush the whispering girls with little success, but when the woman in the middle started speaking we all stopped speculating about what was going on.

“The Lady Orchid accuses this woman, Fern, of willfully ruining her expectations! The Lady Orchid further accuses the child that has been known as Magnolia of willfully ruining her expectations!” The voice was harsh and echoed in the hall. There would be a verdict.