are especially valuable. We don’t call them pinks for nothing.” He made a pish sound, and waved his hand.
“That was truer twenty years ago than it is today,” Mrs. Sigsby replied. “Even ten.”
“But—”
“Enough, Dan. Did the Ellis boy show indications of TP, or didn’t he?”
“No, but he continued to see the lights after the projector was turned off, which we believe is an indicator. A strong indicator. Then, unfortunately, he had a seizure. Which isn’t uncommon, as you know.”
She sighed. “I have no objection to you continuing your tests with the Stasi Lights, Dan, but you need to keep perspective here. Our main purpose is to prepare the residents for Back Half. That’s the important thing, the main objective. Any side-effects are not of great concern. The management isn’t interested in the psychic equivalent of Rogaine.”
Hendricks recoiled as if she had struck at him. “A hypertension medicine that also proved able to grow hair on the skulls of bald suburbanites is hardly in the same league as a procedure that could change the course of human existence!”
“Perhaps not, and perhaps if your tests had caused more frequent results, I—and the people who pay our salaries—might be more excited. But all you have now are a few random hits.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again when she gave him her most forbidding look.
“You can continue your tests for the time being, be content with that. You should be, considering that we have lost several children as a result of them.”
“Pinks,” he said, and made that dismissive pish sound again.
“You act as though they were a dime a dozen,” she said. “Maybe once they were, but no more, Dan. No more. In the meantime, here’s a file for you.”
It was a red file. Stamped across it was RELOCATION.
16
When Luke walked into the lounge that evening, he found Kalisha sitting on the floor with her back against one of the big windows looking out on the playground. She was sipping from one of the small bottles of alcohol available for purchase in the snack machine.
“You drink that stuff?” he asked, sitting down beside her. In the playground, Avery and Helen were on the trampoline. She was apparently teaching him how to do a forward roll. Soon it would be too dark and they’d have to come in. Although never closed, the playground had no lights, and that discouraged most nighttime visits.
“First time. Used all my tokens. It’s pretty horrible. Want some?” She held out the bottle, which contained a beverage called Twisted Tea.
“I’ll pass. Sha, why didn’t you tell me that light test was so bad?”
“Call me Kalisha. You’re the only one who does, and I like it.” Her voice was the tiniest bit slurred. She couldn’t have drunk more than a few ounces of the alcoholic tea, but he supposed she wasn’t used to it.
“All right. Kalisha. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “They make you look at dancing colored lights until you get a little woozy. What’s so bad about that?” That came out tha.
“Really? Is that all that happened to you?”
“Yes. Why? What happened to you?”
“They gave me a shot first, and I had a reaction. My throat closed up. I thought for a minute I was going to die.”
“Huh. They gave me a shot before I had the test, but nothing happened. That does sound bad. I’m sorry, Lukey.”
“That was only the first bad part. I passed out while I was looking at the lights. Had a seizure, I think.” He had also wet his pants a little, but that was information he’d keep to himself. “When I woke up . . .” He paused, getting himself under control. He had no urge to cry in front of this pretty girl with her pretty brown eyes and curly black hair. “When I woke up, they slapped me around.”
She sat up straight. “Say what?”
He nodded. “Then one of the docs . . . Evans, do you know him?”
“The one with the little ’stash.” She wrinkled her nose and had another sip.
“Yeah, him. He had some cards and tried to get me to say what was on them. They were ESP cards. Pretty much had to be. You talked about them, remember?”
“Sure. They’ve tested those on me a dozen times. Two dozen. But they didn’t after the lights. They just took me back to my room.” She took another tiny sip. “They must have confused their paperwork, thought you were TP instead of TK.”