Free Hear the Children Calling by Clare McNally Page B

so Jenny came forward. She told him how the backpack had suddenly changed into a monster, but she left out the part about teasing the maintenance man.
    “Who did this?” Dr. Adams demanded, swinging around to glare at the children in the crowd.
    They all took a step back from him.
    “We don’t know, Dr. Adams,” Bambi said. “None of us kids would hurt one another.”
    Jenny’s mind replied to her: No, you little jerk, but you’d hurt a defenseless worker.
    Then Jenny wondered if he was so defenseless. She looked toward the lamppost, but he was gone.
    “No, I suppose you wouldn’t,” Dr. Adams agreed. “But I don’t know how this could have happened. You children must be in control of your thoughts at all times. This is what the clinic is all about, for those of you who seem to have developed a distaste for it.” He looked directly at Jenny when he said this. Then he put his arms around Cissy’s shoulder and led her away.
    The other children walked off and Jenny was soon standing alone. She still stared at the lamppost, wondering about the strange maintenance worker. Well, not quite alone . . . She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Michael Colpan. She smiled shyly at him.
    “That was a brave thing, knocking that monster off Cissy.”
    “Whoever did it to her,” Michael said, “she probably had it coming.”
    Jenny frowned. “That’s mean!”
    “Sorry,” Michael said, “but Cissy Critchfield’s a snob.”
    He dropped the subject. “Can I walk with you?” “Sure,” Jenny agreed.
    He looked at Jenny and smiled. Strangely, in spite of his crazy red hair and zillion freckles, he was kind of cute when he smiled. And he didn’t seem to mind that Jenny was a few inches taller. It was Jenny’s turn to stare at her own shoes.
    “You’re nice,” Michael said. “You think the same way I do, sometimes.”
    Jenny squinted at him. “I know we can talk with our minds, but stay out of mine. I don’t like that.”
    “But sometimes I can’t help it,” Michael said. “Sometimes you think words so loud that they come right to me. I know you have dreams about a lady and a dog.”
    Jenny’s heart started thumping.
    “You—you won’t tell, will you?”
    “’Course not,” Michael said. “I hate this stupid place as much as you. I know you wonder what’s on the other side of the big fence and what the Outsiders are really like. I was thinking that maybe—maybe someday we could find out.”
    “Maybe, someday,” Jenny agreed, nodding slowly. “But I don’t want to talk about it now. This is my street. Good-bye, Michael.”
    She turned and hurried away, leaving the scrawny red-haired boy alone. Thoughts raced through hermind as she headed home. Imagine, sneaking away from the clinic and seeing what was on the other side of the mountain. The thought both excited and terrified her. What if the Outsiders really were cruel? What if the woman she saw in her mind was as evil as the others?
    “She can’t be,” Jenny cried. “She’s nice. I know she is.”
    “Who is?” her mother asked.
    Alice Segal was standing in the front yard, taking pictures of a flower that had budded on her cactus. Jenny hadn’t realized she’d been speaking out loud. She thought of a quick response.
    “A girl at school,” she said. “Some of my friends don’t like her.”
    Jenny’s mother made a noise behind her lips. “We’ll have to work on you kids getting along together,” she mumbled. “Can’t have the project ruined with bickering.”
    Jenny felt her stomach tighten. Her mother had caught her in a lie. What if she tried to investigate further?
    “I—I have homework,” she said quickly. She rushed into the house.
    In the front yard, Alice Segal let her camera fall on its strap. She walked into the house herself, determined to find out who Jenny had been talking about. The girl was being entirely too recalcitrant lately. She would not allow her to misbehave. She would not allow the child to ruin