“Is there a wall around your school?” she asked thoughtfully.
“A wall? No. There’s a fence, an ordinary fence, because the school is on a rather large estate, and we have our own farm animals that have to be kept in. It’s a very pretty place.”
“But not here? A long way off?”
Mr. C. smoothed down his hair. “About three hundred miles away,” he admitted. “But you’d be with other kids like yourselves. Kids who would accept you the way you are.”
It was Dale who put the next question. “Are they really like us? Do they have silver-colored eyes, too?”
“Well, no,” Mr. C. said. “Actually, only you four have silver eyes, of all the children we’ve discovered so far. We may find others, of course.”
Katie glanced at her mother. Monica had been so relieved to see her, Katie couldn’t doubt that she’d been genuinely worried. Now Monica gave her a little smile, and it made something feel funny in Katie’s middle.
“I want to know the other kids,” Katie said slowly. “But if we’re all kept apart, in a special school, won’t we still be freaks? People know the kids at your school are different, don’t they? Won’t they still be afraid of us and suspicious of us?”
There was a silence, and Monica reached for Katie’s hand. “Katie’s right. Children—at least young children—need to have a normal family life, don’t they? Even if they are . . . special. They need to know their parents and brothers and sisters, don’t they? And they need to be able to relate to other people, the people they’ll eventually have to live with and deal with, unless they’re going to be isolated from the rest of society forever. That’s not what we want, is it?”
“They’d feel more at home in a school for kids like themselves,” Mr. Casey said. “Wouldn’t they? I know Dale doesn’t fit into his school very well. It’s hard for him to make friends among ordinary kids. And I’ll have to admit it’s been very uncomfortable for us, having a kid who’s bright and different from anybody else’s kids. We have to keep pretending to our friends that he isn’t different.”
“Mrs. Michaelmas is my friend,” Katie said. “Even if she doesn’t understand what I do, or how I do it. And Jackson Jones is my friend, too. He doesn’t have special powers either, but he helped me. Maybe it would be better to learn to live with all the regular kind of people. Couldn’t we do that, and go to the school, too? Only just part of the time? Not living there all the time?”
“The school is a long way from here, Katie,” Mr. C. said gently.
“Well, there are four of us here,” Eric spoke up. He shoved his glasses back up on his nose without ever touching them, just the way Katie was used to doing. “Why couldn’t we live at home and have our own school? Sort of an extension school, the way the colleges do?”
Mrs. Casey gave a nervous laugh. “Yes, why not? We could tell people our children were in a special school, without telling them how it was special. Let’s face it, the public in general is afraid of anyone who’s different. Maybe the kids can handle it when they’re grown up, but right now they can’t, can they? Why couldn’t we tell everybody they’re in a school for especially bright children?”
“Even being in a school for slow learners would be easier to understand than the truth,” Mrs. Lamont said. “Why couldn’t we have a school here? I mean, they could go to the regular schools during the week, like the other kids do, and then on Saturdays, maybe, they could have special classes the way they do for the Gifted Children Program, where they learn Russian and advanced math and things like that. Our kids could learn—well, whatever they’d be learning at your school.”
Kerri had a soft, sweet voice. “I think at Mr. C.’s school they want to study us. As if we were bugs.”
“We do want to know more about you,” Mr. C. admitted. “But not as if you were bugs, Kerri. You’re special people, and you can probably be important leaders, or do things that will be of tremendous benefit to mankind, if you want to. We think we can help you do that, and also help you learn to be happy in a world that’s mostly filled with people who may have to be taught how to accept your differences.”
Katie felt Monica’s fingers tighten on hers. “I think Eric’s right, and Fern’s idea is good, too,” Monica said. “I can see that Katie does need to be with other children like herself, but I think she needs to learn to know ordinary kids, too. And we’ve lived apart for six years; we’re just beginning to get acquainted with each other again. I’d like to keep Katie at home, at least for a few more years, until she’s more grown up. Although I guess I’ll leave it up to her, whether she wants to stay with me or go to your school.”
“Well, I guess we’re going to have to talk about this a bit,” Mr. Casey said. “It’s too important to make a decision without some serious consideration, Mr. Cooper. And, of course, the kids will have to have a big say in it, too. I think they’d better have a chance to get acquainted with each other, and maybe we could all visit your school before we decide what to do.”
Katie could see that Mr. C. was disappointed that they didn’t all agree at once to what he wanted. The idea of living in a place with a lot of kids like herself did make her sort of excited, but it was kind of scary, too. She glanced at the others, and she didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that they all felt the same way about it.
Kerri’s father cleared his throat loudly and asked, “What does this school cost? I mean, we’re not rich people. We can’t afford private schools.”
All the grownups started talking at once, but Katie didn’t listen to them. She looked at the other silver-eyed children, and by mutual consent, without any of them saying a thing, they all moved toward the door that led out onto the deck. Dale slid the patio doors closed on the noisy voices and joined the others at the railing, looking down over the swimming pool.
They hadn’t had a chance to talk to each other very much, yet somehow they didn’t seem to need to. Considering that they were all strangers, Katie felt remarkably comfortable with them.
“Could you tell?” she asked Dale. “Read Mr. C.’s mind? Is it on the level? Or is it like Kerri said? They want to study us like bugs?”
“A little of both, I think,” Dale said thoughtfully. “I mean, I think he’s sincere in saying he wants what’s best for us, and for everybody else. I don’t know if we’d always agree with him that what he wants is what we want.” Unexpectedly, he grinned. “I think it might not be too hard to pretend we were bugs under the microscope, and that we didn’t understand what he wanted of us.”
“Things would be a lot easier,” Eric observed, “with four of us, than with each of us alone.”
Nobody responded to that. They didn’t have to.
They stood in a row, with their hands on the railing, and saw Mr. Pollard come out of the building with a towel and suntan lotion, and his newspaper. Miss Katzenburger was already there, in her electric blue bikini, and he walked up and said something to her.
Miss K. shook her head. Then Mr. P. put a hand on her arm, and Miss K. shook it off, as if she were irritated with him.
At that moment, Lobo started across the pool area. He didn’t want to drink from the pool; the chlorine in it made it taste bad. Katie guessed he was only taking a short cut.
Then suddenly, from the corner where the door opened onto the area near the back alley, a familiar figure appeared. A big Airedale, sniffing around and lifting his head.
“Toby! He must have followed me again,” Eric muttered, and started to move toward the stairs.
“Where did that mutt come from?” Mr. Pollard demanded. “Get out of here, you! Shoo!”
Toby didn’t pay any attention to Mr. P. He took one look at Lobo and barked, a great deep bark that sent poor Lobo flying. The next thing the watchers saw was Mr. P. kicking and yelling as the animals raced past him.
His suntan lotion sailed into the pool and so did his newspaper; and his towel wrapped itself around his head and face so that Mr. P. staggered, lost his balance, and went backward int
o the pool, shoes and all.
When he came to the surface, sputtering and choking and tearing away the sodden towel, Miss K. laughed. Toby and Lobo had disappeared, but Katie wasn’t worried about Lobo. He could look out for himself.
Mr. P. looked up and saw the four children above on the deck.
His face got red, and so did his bald spot.
He made a savage grab for the pages of the newspaper before the sheets floated away or sank and threw the unreadable mess onto the tiles in front of Miss K. She was still laughing.
“There are four of them now,” he said, his voice carrying clearly to the silent watchers. “There ought to be a law against kids like that.”
“You aren’t blaming them for your falling in the pool, are you?” Miss K. asked. “They weren’t anywhere near you. You know, Mr. Pollard, if that little girl bothers you so much, why don’t you consider moving? I have a friend who’s looking for an apartment. The one you have would suit her just fine.”
Mr. P. didn’t answer. He started to climb out of the water, and as if the soaked newspaper had a life of its own, it suddenly rose from the tiles and plastered itself across the man’s chest and face.
Katie hadn’t done anything at all. She wasn’t sure which of the others had. She simply waited to see what would happen, and in a way she could, almost, feel a little bit sorry for Mr. P.
“He doesn’t pay the paper boy,” Katie said softly.
“He hates dogs and cats,” Eric added.
“He uses slugs in vending machines,” Dale murmured.
“He uses nasty language,” Kerri observed.
Just then Mr. P. reached for the floating bottle of suntan lotion; as his fingers began to close around it, the plastic container spurted away, sailing halfway across the pool.
With an oath, Mr. P. plunged after it, and Miss K. laughed again.
Above on the deck, Katie turned her head to look at Kerri, whose mouth widened in a secret smile.
Whether we go off to school or stay at home, we’re going to have a lot of fun together.
Yes, Katie thought back.
And then they were all smiling, the same secret smile touching all four pair of silver eyes in the same way.
Whatever happened now, Katie thought, just for herself, she didn’t believe she was ever going to be lonesome again.
And when she looked at Kerri and Dale and Eric, she knew they were thinking the same thing.
About the Author
Willo Davis Roberts is the author of a number of mystery and suspense novels for children and young adults. Her books include The View from the Cherry Tree, Twisted Summer, Don’t Hurt Laurie, Megan’s Island, Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job, Hostage, The Girl with the Silver Eyes, The One Left Behind, Scared Stiff, Caught!, The Kidnappers, and Undercurrents.
ALADDIN
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DON’T MISS THESE OTHER BOOKS BY WILLO DAVIS ROBERTS
Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job
Caught!
Hostage
The Kidnappers
Megan’s Island
Scared Stiff
Undercurrents
The View from the Cherry Tree
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin paperback edition March 2011
Copyright © 1980 by Willo Davis Roberts
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Willo Davis.
The girl with the silver eyes.
Summary: A ten-year-old girl, who has always looked different from other children, discovers that she not only has unusual powers but that there are others like her.
[1. Psychokinesis—Fiction. 2. Science fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.R54465Gi
[Fic.]
80-12391
ISBN 978-0-689-30786-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-2170-7 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-5344-2132-5 (ebook)
The Girl with the Silver Eyes Page 15