The Revenant by Sonia Gensler Page B

late-night prayer circle. Their faces were not composed in prim devotion. Rather, as their heads turned sharply toward the doorway, I saw eyes wide with fear.
    “Oh, damn and blast!” cried Fannie.
    “Miss McClure, we weren’t doing anything wrong!” Lelia’s chin trembled. Alice stared at the Bible in her hands, her shoulders slumped.
    “What were you doing?”
    Fannie raised her chin defiantly, but it was Alice who spoke.
    “We were trying to lay the spirit to rest.”

Chapter 8
    I CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND ME and took a seat on the nearest bed—the one Fannie kept all to herself. I stared hard at them, almost glad for this distraction from the horrid note in my chiffonier.
    “Miss McClure,” said Lelia, her lip trembling, “every time I go into the parlor, something breaks.”
    “Don’t tell her anything more,” Fannie spat.
    “I don’t care what you say,” said Lelia, glaring at her friend. “I’m truly frightened. Every night you dream of that river water—I know you do! I hear you moaning about it in your sleep. I’ve barely slept since you told us about that night. I’m terrified of bathing in the lavatory because I imagine those faucets gushing with dark water and flooding the room.” She turned back to me. “We had to do something!”
    “You thought a séance was the answer?” I asked.
    “Actually, it was an exorcism,” said Fannie, her desperation barely cloaked by the bold words.
    “It’s Ella’s ghost that’s after us, Miss McClure!” Alice’s soft voice was sadder than I’d ever heard it.
    “Supposing for a moment there was a ghost,” I said, “why do you think she’d be after you?”
    The girls looked at each other nervously. No one spoke.
    I lifted my hand in exasperation. “Did one of you murder her?”
    Lelia gasped. “Of course not!”
    “Well, then? If Miss Crenshaw finds out what you’ve been up to, you’ll get demerits for the rest of the term.” I glared at them for a moment longer, but curiosity nagged at me. “If you can explain this to me, I might let you all get back to bed without telling our principal an exorcism was going on right under her nose.”
    Fannie kept her eyes on the candle flame, but Lelia glanced at Alice nervously. Alice’s face was hard as stone.
    Lelia swallowed. “I suppose we weren’t always as nice to Ella as we should have been.”
    “I didn’t know she was one of your group.”
    “She was our good friend. It’s just that sometimes we teased her a little.”
    “Your good friend ?” It was Alice who spoke, her eyes wide behind her spectacles.
    “Yes, our good friend,” said Fannie, turning to her. “Are you deaf, cousin?”
    Alice’s mouth tightened. “You mean like I am your good friend? The same way a beast of burden is a good friend?”
    “What are you talking about?” Fannie frowned at the girl.
    “I’m saying that Ella was your friend as long as she was useful. As long as she fawned over you and did the tasks you gave her.” She lifted her chin, her mouth trembling as she continued. “But you didn’t really like her, did you? Just as you don’t really like me!”
    Fannie and Lelia glared at Alice, saying nothing. I took a breath and tried to make my voice gentle and coaxing. “Why wouldn’t they like you, Alice?”
    “Because girls like Ella and me were poor, and they thought us backward for growing up in log cabins with parents barely scratching out a living and grandparents who only spoke Cherokee.” Tears glistened in her dark eyes. “Ella was beautiful, though. So they wanted her in their group, to keep an eye on her.” She turned to me. “Miss McClure, they hated her for her beauty!”
    “That is a lie!” Lelia spat. “Why do you say such spiteful things?”
    “I’m not lying. You teased her for being a savage and for having a savage for a beau. You told her no matter how beautiful she was, she’d never be a real lady. You know what you’ve done, and now Ella is going to make you both sorry