Free I Am Margaret by Corinna Turner Page A

stop. It was over. It was over. He was at peace and with his reward promised to outweigh his sufferings a thousandfold, he was blessed indeed. But right then, with the grisly evidence before my eyes, I could think no further than his sufferings.
    Everyone was moving now, talking in hushed voices; some girls were crying and hugging each other. Many clustered at the back of the gallery, not looking. Harriet fought her way through the throng and flung herself onto my Sarah-free side; automatically, I slipped an arm around her as well. Someone had been sick—I’d not even noticed that it had happen.
    Caroline came hurtling after Harriet, followed by Annie, and I fought to yank my mind from its numbness and comfort them as best I could. Another two arms would’ve helped… of course, there were two spare ones down there, now… the thought drifted across my mind, unbidden, and I swallowed hard as my stomach heaved.
    Oh, Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter…
    “Now, gather round, girls,” our twisted jailer was saying, “come up to the glass, now.”
    Harriet wouldn’ t go nearer, still clinging to me.
    “ That’s what they’re going to do to us , isn’t it?” she whispered, staring down at the gurney, where the last few usable parts were being removed and packed up.
    “We won’t feel a thing, Harriet. We’ll be fast asleep.”
    “They’re still going to cut us up into little pieces!”
    “Well, yes.” What could I say?
    Harriet wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to go any closer and the sounds of fear and crying filled the gallery.
    “ Get up there, all of you!” snarled Captain Wallis, driving us all before her.
    “You finished, Sid?” asked Richard, down in the Lab.
    “Yeah, heart’s all packed up, you want anything else?”
    “Not from a forty-two year old. Let’s knock off.”
    And leaving their red coats with a minion, they strode out of the room.
    “Gather around, girls,” ordered Captain Wallis, “Take a good look. Very few people have an opportunity like this outside of medical school, you know.”
    Tearful and cringing, everyone tried not to look while looking like they were.
    “Isn’t it simply fascinating, girls?” Captain Wallis was saying. Her eyes were strangely hot and she kept moistening her lips. “To be able to see a human body in parts, to know this is what a human being is—mere intricacies of flesh and blood and bone…”
    Her voice hardened. “To know there is nothing more to it. That a dead body is made up of only two things—useful parts and useless parts. That the human race is made up of the same—useful people and useless people. This superstitious witch doctor is one of the useless ones—his only usefulness is in death. Rather like you girls,” she finished deliberately.
    Harriet started crying so hard I gave her a hasty hug. She wasn’t the only one to break down completely. Captain Wallis licked her lips yet again, seeming to savor the moment.
    Until a very simple girl called Bethan spoke up innocently.
    “Don’t people have a magic part or something? My great granny’s magic part went to a lovely place, Mummy said so. So hasn’t his magic part gone there too?”
    Captain Wallis reached Bethan in two strides, grabbed her by the collar and dragged her forwards, shoving her face close to the glass.
    “ Your mother lied to you, you credulous idiot,” she hissed, then went on gloatingly, “There is no such thing as a magic part. There is no lovely place. Your great granny no longer exists and nor does this fool. This is all that is left of him.”
    I stood there looking down at my friend’s warm, still remains, the warden’s twisted triumph ringing in my ears, and something I’d never really felt before bubbled up inside, hot and black and corrosive, like red-hot, poisonous teeth sinking into my soul.
    Hatred.
    I hated her. This stupid, short-sighted, sick woman. She hadn’t even killed Uncle Peter herself and yet at that moment I hated her far more than