Helena buried her face against Samantha's neck, her sobs fading to sniffles. Prudence kept her distance, as though worried Helena might be contagious. "What happened to her?" Prudence asked.
"I'm not sure, but it was something in that food."
"You mean they could all be like this?" Samantha nodded. She and Prudence approached the dining room door with caution. Then Samantha reached out to turn the doorknob and nearly dropped little Helena in shock.
The situation was worse than Samantha had feared. Some of the children, having gorged themselves on the gruel, had now become infants unable to escape from their own clothes. Samantha's stomach twisted at the sight of three bloodstained piles of clothes with no one in them. "I don't believe it," Prudence said. "He killed them. Reverend Crane killed them."
"They weren't supposed to eat so much. There were supposed to be more people eating from these pots," Samantha said.
"This is horrible. Why would the reverend do this to us?"
"I don't know, but we have to find out." At that moment, they heard the doors to the dining room being unlocked. "Run!"
Samantha and Prudence scampered back into the dormitory, crouching behind a bed. The door opened at last. "Oh my, what a mess," Miss Brigham said. "And look at all these darling children lying around as they please."
Samantha left Helena on the bed and leaned against the doorway to the dining room. The person she saw was Miss Brigham and yet she was not. This woman-a girl really-had a body thinner than Samantha's, red hair in braids to her waist, and a face studded with even redder pimples. She knelt down to pick up one of the infants.
Phyllis, who had so effectively held Samantha back the night before, could no longer take more than two steps on her own without falling down. She made her way two steps at a time to Miss Brigham and asked, "Are you my mommy?"
"No, dear, my name is Molly Brigham. I'm here to take care of you since your mommies and daddies left."
"Left?"
"Yes, dear, that means they are gone and they are not coming back. Oh, I'm so terribly sorry about that. I know how awful you must feel." Phyllis had already started to cry, wailing even louder than Helena. This set the other children to crying as well until Samantha had to put her hands to her ears to block out the noise. Miss Brigham patted little Phyllis on the head. "I know. It's very sad, but you mustn't worry. We're going to get on very well, you and I. We're all going to be one big family, just as the reverend said."