“You don’t need to worry about such things,” the voice said. “You just need to behave. This school deserves your respect. It’s quite a special place.”
“What do…” Tobias couldn’t finish his sentence, due to a feeling of haziness.
“You disobeyed and caused a commotion tonight,” the voice recounted.
“Sorry,” Tobias slurred.
“You disturbed my gardens,” the voice said calmly.
“Still sorry,” Tobias admitted.
“You worried the staff and tore one of our banners. Who knows what else you’ve done.”
“Who knows,” Tobias said innocently.
“Your voice,” Charlotte tried to explain. “It’s making my head heavy and I can’t think straight.”
“Good,” the voice replied. “In a moment, your minds will be mush enough to look at me. Then we will have a real discussion.”
“That’s horrible,” Tobias said in a dreamlike state.
“What’s horrible?” the voice asked.
“What you’re doing to us,” Tobias slurred.
“I’d prefer to talk to you face-to-face, but that never seems to go well,” the voice explained. “My parents were horrified by my appearance, and they were even more horrified by what other people would think. They kept me hidden.”
“How nice,” Charlotte said, now blissfully under the spell of his voice.
“They did me no favors,” the voice snipped.
The lights in the room grew dimmer. Tobias and Charlotte could feel panic in their guts, but their minds were so dazed they couldn’t stop smiling.
“Can’t we just leave?” Tobias struggled to say. “I don’t think we belong here.”
“You can’t leave,” the voice replied. “This is your home, and it would be wise for you to stay put. You have been awarded a great gift.”
Both kids grinned. The effect of the strange man’s voice on their brains was making them feel safe to talk openly.
“Okay,” Tobias said.
The lights overhead went out, and the glow behind the mirror grew in intensity. As the glow increased, a dark silhouette behind the glass began to materialize. Tobias and Charlotte squinted and leaned closer. The image coming into view was of a man in a large leather high-back chair. He was old and bald in a way that was both disturbing and unattractive. He sat hunched with his shoulders bending forward. His ears stuck out like fleshy stalks of wheat. His lips were pink and moist, and his nose looked like a small sack of marbles—lumpy and mushed. A large feathery ball was sitting on his bent right shoulder. The ball shivered as the man smiled.
“You’re so ugly,” Charlotte said kindly.
“I’d be offended if this were the first time I’d heard that,” the ugly man said.
Charlotte giggled—she was frightened, but in her state of mind, she couldn’t express it correctly.
“My name is Marvin Withers.”
Tobias and Charlotte were baffled by the soothing voice that came out of such an ugly mouth.
“Withers like the school?” Tobias asked.
“Yes,” Marvin replied. “Like the school.”
“Home?” Charlotte blurted.
“This is your home,” Marvin informed her. “This has been and always will be. There are worse fates.”
Tobias and Charlotte looked at each other. They knew what Marvin was saying was wrong, but for some reason, they both began to clap.
“Very nice,” Marvin said. “But it looks like you’ll require additional schooling.”
The children stopped clapping.
“You like school, remember,” Marvin reminded them.
They started to clap again.
“Let me fill you in. You see, my grandparents were the first to climb this mesa. They settled on the top of it and discovered there were things … unique to its soil and water—let’s just say there’s something beneath this mesa that makes people behave in a unique manner.”
“There’s something beneath this mesa that makes people behave in a unique manner,” both kids chanted as if Marvin had told them to repeat it.
“No,” Marvin cooed. “I’m not asking you to mimic my words. I’m telling you things that will help your transition begin. You see, after my grandparents built Witherwood, strange things began to happen. The properties of the soil alone make this ground special. Years later, I was born and it was discovered when I was around seven that my voice could persuade anyone to see things my way. I could even manipulate my parents.”
“Dad,” Charlotte said, staring blankly.
“Yes,” Marvin said. “Both my mom and my dad. When I got older, they tried to tell me how I should act and what I should be. So I used my voice. Tragically, they died following some of my instructions. It’s their own fault. Everyone knows that after eating a big meal you should wait twenty minutes before swimming. Especially if you’re also unconscious and wearing stone shoes.”
Tobias half clapped.
“Thank you,” Marvin said sincerely. “Enough history. Now, you’ve started off on the wrong foot, but there is time to heal the infection you have caused. You will stay away from the second floor. You will forget what you may have seen on the third. You will attend your classes, do your jobs, and cause no more trouble. Treat Witherwood like the institution it is. I believe you will grow to love it here. Understand?”
Tobias and Charlotte nodded so hard it looked like their heads were going to fall off.
“You will forget all that happened tonight. Stick to the places you are instructed to go and eat the food that is placed before you. The food is essential to your change. There is a master plan, and if you are obedient, things will run smoothly. Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Charlotte chirped.
“Good. And you will no longer desire to leave the grounds,” Marvin added smoothly.
“Uh-huh,” Tobias insisted while nodding.
“I would hate to see what might happen to you two if we were to have another incident like the one you caused earlier,” Marvin said sweetly. “You are safe within these walls. We go to great lengths to acquire our students, and it makes me sick thinking about what would happen if you got out. Let’s just say that some of the animals that protect Witherwood can’t be trusted.”
Tobias and Charlotte just stared at him, wishing they could run or scream or, at the very least, stop smiling.
“There is a value to your lives,” Marvin practically hummed. “Great worth.”
The feathery red ball on his ugly shoulder shook as a round, velvety head rose from the top of it. The head had a beak and a six-inch neck that looked like an empty toilet paper roll. The bird opened its mouth, screeched, and then lowered its head again.
“That’s enough for tonight,” Marvin said softly. “My voice will stay with you for months before I need to speak to you again. So remember what I have said, and don’t forget we’re glad you’re here.”
“Okay,” Tobias said cheerily.
The mirror went dark, and the room quietly lit back up. A few moments later, the front door popped open and Orrin entered with the two men. The rash on his arm seemed to have spread to his right cheek, and his limp was more pronounced.
“Did you have a nice talk?” Orrin asked the children.
“Really good,” Charlotte replied.
Orrin smiled. “Marvin has such a nice way of saying things. Now, these orderlies will take you to the kitchen.”
Tobias and Charlotte were escorted to the kitchen where, for the next four hours, they scrubbed breakfast dishes and helped to prep for lunch. They had missed another night of sleep, but due to the lasting effect of Marvin’s voice, they smiled the whole time, all their thoughts and memories of the night no longer in their minds. Charlotte couldn’t even remember hating Tobias for the trouble he had put them in.
It was late afternoon when Ms. Gulp finally led them back to their room, door number seven. As usual, there was nobody around. Tobias and Charlotte stared at Ms. Gulp as she moti
oned for them to go in.
“You’re like two strong arguments for youth prison. Go in.”
“Thanks,” Charlotte said kindly.
“Don’t thank me.”
Ms. Gulp locked them in their room. Tobias didn’t bother turning on the light. He and Charlotte shuffled quickly to their beds and fell facefirst onto their cots.
Neither of them uttered a single word for nearly fifteen hours—unless of course you consider snoring a form of talking.
CHAPTER 14
A LITTLE MORE LEARNED
There is something about getting fifteen hours of sleep that makes a previously exhausted person view the world a lot more positively. There is also something sort of painful about fully understanding how bad your situation is because you are now wide awake. And there is the weird way you might feel if someone’s voice had altered your mind and made you forget all your troubles.
Ms. Gulp stepped up to Tobias’s cot and put her loud, mushy mouth a few inches away from his right ear.
“Morning!”
Tobias’s body sprang upward a few inches and then snapped back onto his cot.
“You too, Pointy Ears,” she hollered at Charlotte.
Both of them sat up slowly and yawned. They looked at each other and shrugged.
“You’ll need to wear these,” Ms. Gulp said, throwing a small pile of clothes at both of them. “I’m sick of looking at your filthy rags. You have ten minutes to wash up and change. I’ll be waiting in the hall.” Ms. Gulp creaked across the floor and left the room.
Tobias gazed at Charlotte and smiled. “I feel different.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“What happened yesterday?”
Charlotte couldn’t remember, so she just yawned again.
Tobias looked at the clothes Ms. Gulp had given him. He held up a small white shirt and a plaid skirt.
“I think those are mine,” Charlotte said.
Charlotte used the washroom first. She took a two-minute shower and then put on the plaid skirt, white blouse, kneesocks, and black flats she had been given. She tossed her old clothes into the corner of the bathroom as if she was tossing away hope. She left her blond hair wet and hanging in front of her ears. When she came out, Tobias wanted to laugh, but his head was still foggy.
Tobias took his turn. As he was taking off his clothes, he was happy to find two pens in his pocket, but he was shocked to see all the scratches on his body. He was most surprised by the large red marks on his shoulder. When he combed his hand through the back of his hair, he discovered a clump missing.
“Weird,” he said while looking at the mirror.
It took him less than five minutes to shower and change. He then joined his sister and Ms. Gulp in the hall. The uniform Tobias had been given consisted of black corduroy trousers and a collared white shirt with a gray V-neck sweater. There was a red-striped tie included, but he had no idea how to put it on, so he had just thrown it around his neck like a scarf. Seeing this, Ms. Gulp pulled it off of him and began to roughly work it around his neck. Tobias choked as she tightened the knot.
Despite her attempt to strangle him, Tobias said, “Thank you.”
Ms. Gulp stared at him with her fat eyes. Her breath smelled like wet garbage, and there were sweat stains showing beneath her armpits. A single long hair was sticking out from her right nostril. “It’s obvious Marvin talked to you. Things should run better now.”
“You seemed meaner before,” Tobias said.
“Watch your tongue,” Ms. Gulp warned, her red hair pinned back so tightly that her face looked like a blotchy plastic mask. “I’m exactly the same person. Now, come with me, or you’ll be late.”
All three of them walked through Weary Hall to the arched doors leading out into the gardens. Outside it was raining, and the trees and bushes hung their branches, seeming depressed about the weather.
Tobias glanced around as they trudged down the stone corridor that ran alongside the gardens.
“Were we here last night?” he asked, confused.
“Don’t ask me that,” Ms. Gulp barked as she marched two paces ahead of them. “I detest inquisitive children. What good can come of a child’s question?”
Tobias tried asking Charlotte. “Were we here last night?”
“Don’t ask her questions either,” Ms. Gulp snipped.
Charlotte looked at her brother and shrugged.
They entered Severe Hall.
“Just so you don’t ask me later, Severe Hall is where most of the schoolrooms are,” Ms. Gulp said. “It’s time for you to make something of yourselves—you know … give to the cause.”
It’s important to point out that some words seem to have impact beyond their consonants and vowels. Yes, sinister inflection can turn harmless little letters into statements of dread and uneasiness. Had the Eggers kids been clear minded, they would have turned and run because of the way Ms. Gulp had said “give to the cause.” But their minds were still covered in the goo of Marvin’s voice, so Charlotte said, “That sounds fun.”
Inside Severe Hall, the walls were paneled with dark wood that ran from floor to ceiling. The windows were filled with textured glass that allowed light through in thin yellow streaks. There were tree-shaped chandeliers hanging from dusty black chains. And a large painting on the wall showed the image of a child riding a lion. At the end of the hall was a single door with a small plaque that read LEARNING ANNEX.
Ms. Gulp opened the door. “Go in.”
Tobias and Charlotte stepped into the classroom, followed by Ms. Gulp. Dozens of desks filled the room, and dozens of students filled the desks. Everyone turned to stare. The other students were dressed in the same uniforms. There looked to be an even number of girls and boys.
The walls in the classroom were covered with fuzzy brown burlap that muffled any noise in the room. Two plants hung in the far corners, their long branches spilling out of their pots and touching the floor like leafy octopi.
In the front of the classroom, there was a man leaning on the edge of an old desk. Behind him was a wall-sized chalkboard with sketches of various animals and numbers on it. The man’s arms and legs were as thin as twigs, and his head was sharp and covered with scruffy bark-colored hair. He was obviously the teacher, but he didn’t look as ancient as the rest of the Witherwood staff. He had a quick smile that he displayed the second Tobias and Charlotte entered.
“Come, come.” He waved. “You must be the new students I keep hearing about. Have a seat here in the front.”
The teacher pointed to a couple of empty desks in the front row. Tobias and Charlotte shuffled over to them.
“They’re spirited, so teach them quickly,” Ms. Gulp said. “Orrin wants them on the fast track. Time matters with these two.”
“I’ll have them ready,” the teacher assured her. “Up to speed ASAP.”
Ms. Gulp slammed the door behind her, causing every student in the room to jump.
“Introductions are in order,” the teacher said in a soft voice. “I’m Professor Jacob Himzakity. If it helps, you can remember it by thinking about someone pointing at me and saying, ‘Him’s a kitty.’ Understand?”
Tobias kind of nodded, but Charlotte just stared at him.
“And your names?” he asked.
“I’m Tobias, and she’s Charlotte.”
“Well, Tobias and Charlotte, this is adaptation class. You will be brought here every day by Ms. Gulp until I feel you are ready to come on your own. Okay?”
Neither one of them nodded.
“I will teach you what you need to know. Deal?”
“Yes,” Charlotte said, her ears twitching slightly.
Tobias thought about saying yes as well, but for some reason his brain was acting up, and something wasn’t connecting right. Maybe it was the years of being mischievous, or the fact that he had never taken instruction well and now he was getting way too much of it. Maybe it was the déjà-vu–like feelings he was having, the memories of the gardens and of things
that may or may not have happened there. Or perhaps it was the odd scratches and bruises he had on his body. Whatever it was, it wasn’t sitting well with his brain.
“And you?” Professor Himzakity asked Tobias. “Will you be respectful so I can shape your mind?”
Tobias nodded.
“Fantastic!”
Tobias and Charlotte slowly looked around the room. Right behind them was a large boy with dark skin and no hair. Next to him were two girls who were obviously twins—both had long brown hair and stout pale noses. There were too many other sets of eyes and faces to take in. All the students were quiet, and only the bald-headed boy acknowledged them by giving a slight nod.
“Now,” Professor Himzakity said, “I know it’s hard to stay focused with the parade just days away, but we’ve much to learn and only … well … only your youth to learn it in.” He pulled open one of his desk drawers and withdrew a textbook. He walked over to Tobias’s desk and slapped it down. “You’ll need to share with your sister.”
Tobias stared at the front of the book. The cover was a collage of different animal pictures. In one top corner was a picture of a frog. The image jogged something in Tobias’s mind, and he spoke without thinking,
“Tadpoles.”
“Yes, yes,” Professor Himzakity said happily. “We will study the frog and its adaptive properties starting next month. For now, however, we are thinking about insects.”
Tobias looked at his smiling sister and begged his mind to kick in. He felt contented, but he knew he shouldn’t. He scooted his desk a little bit closer to Charlotte’s so they could share the book.
Professor Himzakity talked fast and repeated the same facts over and over. “Crickets can hear using their legs. Crickets can hear using their legs…” The professor then made all the students chant what he had said back at him.
After three hours of this unusual recitation, a couple of attendants wheeled in a lunch cart. The cart was filled with food—sandwiches, chocolate pudding, and drinks. One of the attendants clapped, and the students got up and began to pick what they wanted from the cart. Everyone was given two mandatory servings of pudding. Tobias was surprised to notice that his food had no smell. It hardly had any taste as well.