into the locker room. It was empty except for Hildie Kramer, who stood up as Amy came into the humid room.
“I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up at all,” Hildie said, smiling. “Dr. Engersol wants you to put on a bathing suit and go out by the pool.”
Amy’s lips pursed. “The pool? Is that where the experiment is?”
Hildie nodded. “Do you have your own bathing suit here?”
Amy shook her head. “It’s in my room. Nobody said I should bring it. Should I go get it?”
She had already started toward the door when Hildie stopped her. “It’s all right, Amy. We have plenty of bathing suits. I’ll bring you one.”
Amy went to her locker and started undressing, and a minute later Hildie reappeared, carrying with her one of the shapeless maroon tank suits with which the gym was stocked. “Yuck,” Amy said, eyeing the suit with distaste. “I hate those things!”
Hildie chuckled. “Doesn’t everyone? But I tried to find one that doesn’t look too worn-out.”
Amy took the suit from Hildie, then finished stripping off her clothes and pulled it on. Poking her arms through the straps and wriggling, she pulled the piece of material over her body, then looked hopefully up at Hildie. “Is it really awful?”
Hildie cocked her head critically. “Well, I don’t suppose you’d win the Little Miss America contest, but it could be a lot worse. At least it fits, and it doesn’t have any holes in it. Ready?”
“I guess,” Amy agreed. She followed Hildie through the locker room to the showers, then into the foot bath that filled a shallow pan sunk into the concrete in front of the door to the pool. Suddenly Amy’s nerves got the best of her. She gazed pleadingly up at Hildie. “Can’t you please tell me what the experiment is?” she begged.
Hildie’s warm laugh filled the locker room, the sound itself making Amy feel a little bit better. “Why don’t you just stop worrying about it?” she asked. “You know I’m not going to tell you anything about it, except that it’s not going to hurt you at all. And if you don’t want to take part in it, you don’t have to. As soon as you know what it is, you can turn around and walk away, if that’s what you want to do.”
Amy took a deep breath and considered the situation. Should she trust Hildie? Hildie had been on her side over the animal experiments, after all. So whatever this experiment was, it couldn’t be too bad. She stepped through the door to the pool.
And stopped, startled by what she saw.
At the far end of the pool, a curtain had been hung, so the diving boards were completely invisible.
Ten feet away from her, sitting near the pool, was a chair. Next to the chair was a table on which sat a computer and what looked like some kind of headset.
There were video cameras in various places around the pool, all of them trained on the empty chair.
Dr. Engersol was sitting in a second chair, facing the computer screen. Seated around him were the other members of the seminar.
Did they all know what was going to happen? Was she the only one who wasn’t in on it?
She felt betrayed.
Her first impulse was to turn around and run back through the door, but her friends were already watching her, staring at her as if they were sure she was going to chicken out before it even began.
And it wasn’t just her friends.
Her eyes shifted away from the group of children gathered around the computer to the small grandstand that faced the pool from the other side.
Sitting on the benches were at least fifty of the college students, and they were watching her, too.
Amy felt herself burning with embarrassment. Were all these people really here just to watch her? But why? What was going to happen?
Behind her, she heard Hildie’s voice. “Are you all right, Amy? Do you want to go ahead?”
What Amy wanted to do was fall through the concrete and have the earth swallow her up. Why were all these people here? Why wasn’t it just the kids in the seminar, who were at least people she knew? And what would happen if she turned around and ran back into the locker room?
They would laugh at her.
All of them. They would know she was a coward, and even though they might not laugh out loud, inside they would be laughing at her.