“Lawrence, Fox, out of line,” the matron said.“Report to your next shift.The doctor doesn’t need to see you.”
Emily sidestepped the girl in front of her for a better view.Irene and Anna smirked at June, who winked almost imperceptibly.Without another word, they scurried off together toward the staircase in June’s wide wake.
It wasn’t until Emily was prone on the infirmary table, preparing herself as Dr.Stone’s face disappeared behind the tent of her legs, that the pieces of what she had just witnessed finally fell into place, jolting her like a car crash.
All through supper that night, Emily tried to engage in conversation with her friends, but her eyes kept roving over to June Jones, Anna, and Irene.The three were laughing together as they finished their bland shepherd’s pie.The dish was mostly potato—mashed with water instead of butter—with a thin layer of beef along the bottom and a sad measure of canned peas sprinkled throughout.Emily had smothered hers in salt and pepper in an attempt to revive it, thinking longingly of her mother’s version.
Not long now, she told herself.
After supper, she found Annie and they headed upstairs together.Emily had lost track of June on the way out of the dining hall, but soon spotted her on the staircase up to the third floor, where the common room was.June liked a good time, and often held court at the card table of an evening, playing rummy and Go Fish.Emily strongly suspected that the madam could hold her own at poker like any male card sharp, but settled for easier games in the absence of other inmates who knew how to play.
“Common room tonight?”Emily asked Annie with a smile.The psychiatric inmates who ate with the general population were also permitted time in the common room on Tuesdays and Fridays.Annie nodded.
June was indeed there, playing solitaire this time as her companions gossiped at a table nearby.She looked up as Emily and Annie passed, but made no comment, turning back to her game as the other two found a pair of chairs near the pitiful little library shelf, just a dozen battered cast-offs from the local library branch and some churches.
Foot jiggling in anticipation, Emily waited until the room filled up more—the collective noise causing everyone to raise their voices to be heard over the din—before she made her move.
“I’ll be back in a few,” she told Annie, standing.“I just need to go talk to someone for a minute.”
“Who?”Annie asked, looking mildly hurt at being abandoned.
“June Jones.”
Annie stared.“The…madam?Why?You’re not…?”She gaped a little in horror at Emily.
“No, goodness, no.It’s nothing like that,” Emily said.“It’s for…you know.Myproject.I’ll be right back.”
“Emily—”
But Emily stood, a prickle of guilt tickling her gut as she turned away from Annie and walked casually over to June.She paused, then sat down across from her in the empty chair.June looked up slowly, glowered at her with a defiance laced with something like amusement.“What do you want?”
Emily leaned forward.“Did you pay off Stone to leave your girls alone?”
For the first time, she saw discomfort flash in the madam’s face, a crinkle of a frown around her mouth.
“She’s infecting inmates with VD,” Emily said confidently.“I can’t imagine that would be good for your business, if your girls brought it back to the house.”She spat out the last bit, watching to see if shock or doubt would cross June’s face, but she saw none.There was, however, an icy sheen to her eyes.
“Outside,” June said, setting down her cards with a snap and standing.Emily followed her out of the room, down the deserted hall and around a corner, stopping just beside the stairwell.After making sure no one was around, June turned to face her.
“I think you know,” Emily accused before June could speak.“Youknowwhat Stone’s doing and you’ve gotten your girls exempted from the infection.How?And why is Stone doing it?”
“Kid,” June said with a sardonic smile.“Sometimes you seem real smart.And then you ask stupid questions like that.Why does anyone do anything?Money,” she said.“It’s always about money.”
Emily’s eyes widened, mind racing.“So someone’spayingher?To infect the inmates?But why?”She thought of the endless queues, all the girls who worriedly compared experiences on the lancing and the stinging sprays, the pain.
“And then…totreatthem.”Emily’s brow crinkled.“Why?And how did you find out?”
June actually rolled her eyes.“I come back here after a summer away, and all of a sudden half the population’s got VD?What, these girls are all rubbing up on each other in the breakfast line?”She scoffed.“I knew there was more to it than that.”
“So Stone is getting paid to treat us?”Emily pressed.
June looked at Emily as though weary of reprimanding a disobedient puppy.“Well, I’ve never seen those aerosols she’s got now, I’ll tell ya that.I know VD, the usual treatments, and I’ve never seen whatever that stuff is.”
Emily recalled the label on the can.
Trichloroacetic acid—trial preparation.
“So it’s new?”Emily asked, more to herself than June.“Then…” The penny dropped with a clink.“She’stestingit.A drug trial.Right?”
