In the After

in my ears. I have a flashback to my old house, the electric fence. The Floraes sparking as they touch it, trying to reach me. Trying to kill me. Tears begin to flow down my face. “I’m not going home, am I?”
    “No. Not yet, Amy.” Dr. Thorpe frowns. “We haven’t decided just yet how best to help you. But we will,” she assures me. “We will help you.”
    I nod unhappily. What if this is it? What if I have to suffer under Dr. Thorpe’s idea of help? Being drugged and tortured. Rice promised to get me out of here. Where is he? Where are my friends? Where is my mother?
    I rub my arms, trying to suppress the panic rising inside of me. If anyone is coming, they need to be quick about it. I may not live through my treatments. I may not survive the Ward .
    “Rice,” I whisper after Dr. Thorpe is gone. “Please hurry.”
    • • •
    “Amy!” Rice called. He jogged over to me, pushing up his glasses. His shaggy, blond hair disheveled. I wanted to tell him what I discovered about the Floraes, what I’m sure he already knew, but I decided against it. I trusted Rice just as I trusted Vivian, but her warning had left me spooked and cautious.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a yellow jumper. “Baby!” I yelled. She rushed into my arms. I picked her up and swung her around, relieved to see she was grinning.
    How was it? I asked, smiling.
    Amy, it was sooooo fan! We went to the farm. I saw all the animals from my farm book and I got to ride a horse, a real one. It was big and a little scary, but I want to go back. They said I could, but not for a while .
    What else did you do? I asked.
    I learned this . She shoved a piece of paper in my face and I looked at it. I wanted to cry. Scrawled across in chicken-scratch letters was B-A-B-Y. This means my name , she told me.
    I am so proud of you , I said. We didn’t have a word for proud , but happy happy at your work got the point across. Her face glowed with pleasure.
    Here, this is for you . She handed me a sealed envelope. My mother’s name was neatly typed on the outside, but I ripped it open.
    “Amy, should you be reading that?” Rice asked.
    “Sure, why not?” I scanned the page. It was Baby’s evaluation. She scored a zero for verbal, no surprise there, but was good at reasoning and information retention. At the bottom was a handwritten note. “Baby” shows a willingness to learn and gets along very well with the other children. We hope to progress quickly with her writing and we will continue to encourage verbalization, which we have yet to witness. She shows an aptitude for handling animals, which we will investigate further. She will, perhaps, in the future, be most comfortable as a farmworker or a veterinarian .
    After one day they were already discussing what Baby would do as an adult?
    “Rice, where’s my evaluation?” I asked.
    “Dr. Samuels gave it to me. I gave it to your mother unopened ,” he stressed.
    And Amy , Baby waved to get my attention, I played a game where you jump over a piece of rope and I fell on my butt. I think I’m okay except I might have a bruise .
    “She’s excited,” Rice said.
    “It was her first first day of school and she’s never been around other kids before.” I was sick with relief. I let Baby prattle on until she ran out of steam and just grinned happily. Her hair was disheveled so I fixed it, fastening it into a high ponytail. Rice watched me with a scowl and reached over to undo her hair, redoing the ponytail lower so it covered Baby’s neck.
    “Rice, what are you doing?” I asked.
    “It looked a little too tight,” he explained crisply.
    “Um, okay.” It was strange for him to snap like that.
    “Sorry, it’s just that we should head over to orientation,” Rice told me gently. “If we start soon, you can review all the recordings before dinner.”
    “Sure, sounds good,” I said, realizing I must have just annoyed him. Or maybe he was irritated I’d opened the evaluation addressed to my mother.
    I shook off my unease as we walked and explained to Baby that she was going to watch a program, then tell me what she understood about it. Baby took my hand, but her fingers were still as she processed her day.
    We walked past several white buildings until the road narrowed and we reached a cement path. The buildings started to look less alike, more quirky, and some were brick, but all were badly in need of a paint job. There weren’t many people around, and after a while I asked Rice