Free And Both Were Young by Madeleine L'Engle Page B

yell once.”
    “She has tears in her eyes,” Gloria shouted.
    “I have not,” Flip denied.
    “What are they if they aren’t tears?” Esmée Bodet asked.
    “It’s the wind,” Flip said.
    “Are you ticklish?” Esmée asked.
    “Yes.”
    Esmée rushed at her and started tickling her.
    “Stop! Oh, please, stop!” Flip cried.
    Esmée tickled even harder and Flip fell to the ground, laughing and gasping hysterically while all the girls shouted with amusement. But although Flip was laughing, it was the laughter of torture and she cried out whenever she could catch her breath, “Stop, oh, stop—” She laughed and laughed until she could scarcely breathe and tears were streaming down her face.
    Finally Erna said, “For heaven’s sake, stop, Esmée. You’ve done enough.”
    Esmée stood up while Flip lay prostrate on the ground, gasping and trying to get her breath back. She felt that now she knew what it must be like for a fish when the fisherman decides it isn’t good enough and finally throws it back into the sea.
    “Get up,” Erna said.
    Flip rolled over weakly.
    “Come on. Stand up. You’ve got to prove yourself if you want to pass the initiation.”
    Flip staggered to her feet.
    “All right,” Erna said in a businesslike manner. “Now the inoculation. All the new girls have to be inoculated, not just you, Pill. Did you get the matches, Jack?”
    Jackie nodded vigorously, so that her black curls bounced up and down. “Yes, but I only got six, one for eachof them. No extras in case of emergencies. Mathilde was in a bad mood and told me to get out of the kitchen or she’d tell Black and Midnight. She acted awfully suspicious. She wanted to know what I wanted with the matches and I told her Balmy Almy wanted them for the Bunsen burners in the lab, but it didn’t seem to satisfy her.”
    Sally Buckman gave one of the hoarse snorts that made her sound as much like a pug as she looked. “I bet she thought you were going off to smoke. Old stinker. If we could get cigarettes we could get matches.”
    “What’re you going to do with the matches?” one of the new girls asked Erna.
    “I told you. Inoculate you.”
    Jackie elaborated on it. “You might catch all kinds of dreadful things if you didn’t get inoculated. Erna, have you got the antiseptic?”
    “Right here.” Erna pulled an old tube of toothpaste out of her blazer pocket. Jackie turned up the hem of her skirt and removed a needle which she handed solemnly to Erna.
    “Hold out your arm, Gloria,” Erna said. “You’d better take off your blazer first.”
    Gloria’s freckled face had turned a little pale, but she rolled up her sleeve gamely and held out her arm. Erna smeared on a little of the toothpaste.
    “Now.” Erna waved the match. “I’ll sterilize the needle.” She struck the match on the sole of her shoe (“I know a boy who can strike a match on his teeth,” Gloria said) and held the needle in the flame until the point became red. Then she let it cool, brandishing it in the air until the red point disappeared and there was only the black left from the carbon. Gloria turned her head away.
    “It’s not so bad, Glo,” Jackie reassured her. “Erna’s going to be a doctor, so she knows what she’s doing.”
    Erna gave a quick, professional jab, squeezed, and a round drop of blood appeared on Gloria’s arm. Gloria gave a little scream and tears came to her eyes.
    “There!” Erna cried. “Now you’re all immune. And it’s beautiful blood. Look, peoples. Look, Gloria.”
    But Gloria hated the sight of blood. She glanced quickly at her arm and the small red bead, then turned away. “I have a dress that color,” she said in a shaky voice.
    “Next,” Erna said briskly. “Come on, you, Bianca Colantuono.”
    One by one the new girls were inoculated until it came to Flip’s turn. Then Gloria, completely recovered, cried, “Oh, let me do Pill.”
    Erna hesitated a moment then said, “Well, all right, if you want to.