A soft sound told her he’d tossed in the blindfolds, and the door slammed again. “Get them on. I’m counting to twenty.”
They both darted to pick up the blindfolds. Her heart racing, Rowan held hers to her eyes and turned her back to Malcolm. She couldn’t tie it herself. His fingers fumbled with the length.
“。 . . eight, nine . . .”
It finally tightened around her head, and she touched it around her eyes, making sure there was no place for light to creep in. And then crawled back to her corner, feeling her way across the concrete.
“。 . . fifteen, sixteen . . .”
“Did you get yours on?” she whispered, worrying her heart was beating so loud the man would hear it.
“Almost.” Malcolm’s voice was panicked.
“。 . . eighteen, nineteen, twenty! Face your corners.”
Rowan was in place and prayed Malcolm was too. The door swung open, and a tiny bit of light crept under her blindfold. She gasped and squeezed her eyes as shut as possible.
“What the hell, boy! I gave you a full twenty seconds!”
Malcolm didn’t get his on in time because he had to help me.
Rowan put her hands over her ears, guilt and fear freezing her in place. She flinched at the slaps sounding across the shed.
“Get it on!” The slaps continued.
She imagined her brother trying to tie the blindfold while being hit in the face.
“Tighter!”
Rowan held her breath.
“There. See? That wasn’t hard.” The man’s voice was suddenly kind. “You’ll do better next time, right?”
“Yes, sir,” said Malcolm.
“You have to be punished now because you failed, you understand?” His tone was encouraging.
No! It wasn’t his fault.
“Yes, sir,” repeated Malcolm.
“Go over to your sister.”
Rowan sat with her legs crossed, facing her corner and hunched over.
Not again.
She heard Malcolm crawl across the floor and felt his presence behind her a split second before his hand touched her back.
“Pinch her,” the man ordered.
Rowan tensed. It’d been the same punishment yesterday.
“She didn’t do anything,” Malcolm said.
Don’t say that!
The slap to the back of her head nearly knocked her over. Rowan’s hands flew out to catch her as pain radiated from her scalp.
“Look what you made me do,” the man said. “I told you what needed to be done. Are you going to make me hit your sister again?”
“No, sir.”
“Then pinch her!”
Little pinches started on her shoulder blades. They didn’t hurt. Yet.
“Harder!”
Rowan gasped as the pinches shot pain through her nerves. She pressed her palms against her mouth to stay silent.
“You enjoy pinching her, don’t you? You secretly hate her. All brothers hate their sisters.”
“Yes, sir.” Malcolm continued to pinch Rowan’s back.
“No food until you say you hate her.”
“I hate her,” said Malcolm, his tone flat.
“Okay,” said the man. “Good job. Back to your corner.”
Rowan sagged in relief.
We made it.
“Turn around, girl,” the man told Rowan.
She slid on her bottom until she faced in his direction, her neck rigid, preparing for more slaps.
“Here.” Something was forced into her hand. “Eat.”
A sandwich. Her fingers recognized the bread and she smelled peanut butter. Starving, she immediately took a bite. No jam. The sandwich stuck to her tongue and the roof of her mouth, but it was delicious.
“Eat faster,” the man ordered her.
She heard the plastic crackle and thunk as a water bottle was set near her knee. She placed her sandwich on her other knee and felt for the bottle. The water was warm and tasted like metal but she drank. She managed to finish the sandwich and drank as much of the water as possible because she had learned he’d take the bottle with him.
“Good.” His footsteps headed to the door. “Set the blindfolds on the ground just inside the door.” He stepped outside and closed the door as the children raced to obey. “Back to your corners.” A moment later the door opened long enough for him to grab the blindfolds, and then the locks sounded again.
Rowan let out a big sigh but didn’t move. The kids always waited a few minutes in case he came back.
“Are you okay?” Malcolm whispered. “I’m sorry he made me do that.”
She turned around and crawled over to join him in his corner, tucking herself in tight next to him and leaning her head against his shoulder. “I know.”