A new voice

"You don't know where we are either? Either of you?" said the girl. "But … but I don't understand."

She swallowed, then leaned forward and stuck out her little red tongue automatically, reaching out her hand to catch the food without even looking at it. "I mean," she went on, chewing, and pointedly ignoring Hanna's hungry eyes, "why did they bring me here? I didn't do anything wrong. And all these steps, what are they for?"

"Wish I could answer that one for you," said Hanna. "And, ah, by the way, next time you get a chance, toss one of those sticks over this way."

"Oh, all right," said the girl, and handed her the next one, forks were more or less useless to them. Hanna ate quickly.

"How'd you figure out how to do that, anyway?" she said when she finished, lighting a cigarette.

"You smoke?" the girl said, amazed. "But I thought only—" Suddenly she stopped.

"Sure I smoke. I'm not gonna let anybody tell me what not to do. And you thought only what?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," the girl said quickly. "I didn't mean anything."

"Mmm," said Hanna, watching her, wondering what she was trying to cover up. "Well anyway, did they put you down right here, or what?"

"No. See, I was blindfolded, and they let me off somewhere up there," she gestured vaguely. "So then, I didn't understand, and I was afraid, and I didn't know what to do, so I just waited there for awhile, but nothing happened. And then I thought, well, maybe there's a way out, so I started walking down the steps."

This babe is not nearly as helpless as she at first appears, thought Hanna.

"Then I got to this landing, and I saw this screen and thought maybe it was a way of communicating. So I kept talking into it, and then yelling and screaming into it, but nothing happened, so I got mad and stuck out my tongue. And then the meat came out. At first I couldn't figure out why, or what made it happen, and I tried everything, and it didn't work, and then I stuck my tongue out again, and more meat came out, and then I knew."

"How come you're so sure it's real meat?"

"I …" Suddenly the girl seemed confused. "I … I just know, that's all. I … My mother and father." She sighed. "They … they had it once."

"Your mother and father? You mean you have parents?"

"So what if I do? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing at all. It's just that both of us are from state homes, and I sorta figured anybody else in this place would be too."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I don't have parents." She looked down for a moment. "My mother and father …about a month ago, they died in a car crash. And since then, I've been in a weird place, this real high-security place, and they kept giving me these … these tests. It was horrible. Then today they brought me here."

Still kneeling on the landing, she leaned forward and stuck out her tongue. But this time there was no whir or click, and no more food. Hanna could not help but smile to herself at the girl's attempts to get the machine to respond, having been in the same position herself just a little while before. The girl blew and puffed, dribbling little bits of saliva down onto the screen.

"You might as well give up," Hanna said at last, tossing away her cigarette. "The machine thinks you've had enough. And it's right."

"Oh, shut up!" said the girl, who seemed close to tears. "Ever since you came along you've been saying mean things, and bossing me around, and acting like I'm pitiful, and—"

"Who said—?"

"It isn't just what you said, it was the way you acted. Because I'm fat, you think I'm not as good as you. But you'll see, you'll see who wins in the end. I hate you!"

"What the hell are you talking about, winning and stuff?" said Hanna, stunned. "You act like we're having a war or something."

"We are. And you started it."

"Oh, come off it. It's stupid to fight. What I wanna know is, what made the machine work in the first place? Why in hell sticking out your tongue should make it work…. It doesn't make any sense, no sense at all, like everything else here." She looked in frustration from one face to the other.

Peter's was glazing over again, and the girl was staring petulantly off into the distance. Once more she cursed her luck for being in here with them; and she cursed it too for being in here at all. Yes, it was a game, a challenge, and she wanted to win. But it was a game with no apparent logic or rules. For the second time, but not for the last, black fingers of doubt crept into her usually confident mind.

"Hello," said a voice from above, a gentle, musical voice. "I'm so glad I found you at last."