Unfinished Muse Read Online Free PDF Page A

first to make a decision. He
hauled himself out of his chair, stretched, then gathered his
things. “We waited. I know it’s only three, but I’m done. See you
folks in the morning.”
    The door swung shut behind him, and we sat
frozen with indecision. One person wasn’t enough to cause a mass
exodus.
    A woman with dark hair and thick glasses
stood and gathered her purse. “My kids will be home soon. If she’s
not going to give us further instructions, I could use the time to
scrape some dinner together.” She turned to a younger woman next to
her. “You need a ride?”
    Before the two women were out the door,
three more people were packing up to go.
    I didn’t want to be the first to leave, but
I sure didn’t want to be the last, either. I waited until a group
of five was walking out and ducked into the crowd. Nobody stopped
us. It seemed ridiculous that I worried some supernatural creature
would come storming after us waving a spiked club for leaving
orientation early, but the possibility wasn’t as out there as it
would have been when I’d first arrived.
    At the lobby, I split off from the group and
grabbed Phyllis.
    “There you are!” Her leaves fluttered at me
in a disconcerting way. “What took you so long? The film should
have been finished a half hour ago.”
    I blinked. “Nobody said we could leave.”
    Her voice was worried. “Were you the first
to go?”
    “No.”
    Her leaves rustled in a sigh of relief.
“Good. You weren’t the last, either?”
    “No. Why?”
    “You did well, then. It was a psychological
assessment. There will be a lot more this week. Looks like you’re
doing great, though! Are you ready to go home?”
    I tucked her under my arm, thinking of all
the things one could do to damage a houseplant. Over-watering.
Under-watering. Chemicals. Fire.
    I bit my lip. Phyllis was a talker as long
as it suited her. But when it came to information I might find
useful, she hadn’t said a damn word.
    I could jam her down the garbage disposal.
Drop her in boiling water. Borrow a cat and let it pee in her
dirt.
    I knew I’d never do anything to harm her,
but it was comforting to think about it while I was mad at her for
holding out on me.
    Phyllis quivered with excitement. “See you
tomorrow, Sadie!”
    The rubber tree waved at us as we walked out
the door.
    ~*~
    I was not late on the second day. My hope was to get
through the entire week without being noticed again by Mrs. Moros.
I kept my thoughts as quiet as I could, took notes, and didn’t
squirm.
    Fear is the ultimate motivator.
    After another vile lunch on day two, our
tiny captor sent us to Crete for our first real assessment tests.
Not the real Crete, of course. It was a huge lecture hall with
writing surfaces that folded out of the armrests. The right
armrests, not the left.
    Which meant, as a lefty, I had to turn
halfway in my seat to use the damn thing, but that wasn’t anything
new to me. I was a little disappointed that a company as old as
Ancient Greece had the same lack of regard for the downtrodden
left-handed souls of this world as did the American school
system.
    Mr. Randall, a skinny man with a mop of
black hair on his head, controlled the room. He had an overbite,
which left his front teeth peeking from beneath an excellent ‘70s
porn ‘stache. He spaced out our group of thirty-two, presumably so
no one could cheat, and furnished us each with a thick stack of
papers and a pair of number-two pencils.
    Trying not to be too obvious, I glanced at
my lap to be sure I was fully clothed. Yesterday had proved to be
real, but today might as easily be a naked-testing dream.
Unfortunately, my black skirt was right where it was supposed to
be. Hard to believe I was actually disappointed not to be naked in
public. Nope. I was going to have to take the Ancient Greece
version of the SATs.
    The first section of the test was on the
gods, goddesses, and heroes of Greek mythology. Believe it or not,
I did pretty well on that part. Mom