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It's all Carrie's fault. She's lik

e a baby. You've just got

to give me a new roomy or I'll die living so close to a

baby."

"Repeat what you just said, Miss Towers. Tell

me again what I must do."

Intimidated, Sissy smiled uneasily. "I mean, I

would like to have a new roomy; I don't feel good

living so close to someone so unnaturally small." Coldly Miss Dewhurst eyed Sissy. "Miss

Towers, you are unnaturally cruel. From now on you

will room on the first floor in the room next to mine

where I can keep an eye on you." She flashed her

sharp gaze around the room. "As for the rest of you,

I'm going to notify your parents that your weekend

leaves are canceled! Now, each of you report to Miss Littleton so she may mark your records with demerits." The girls groaned and one by one they drifted out to have their names recorded with minus marks. Only then did Miss Dewhurst advance to where Carrie was on her hands and knees, her voice faded to a whimper, but her head kept moving from side to side in a hysterical way. "Miss Dollanganger,

are you calm enough now to tell me what happened?" Carrie was beyond speech. Terror and the sight

of blood had taken her back to the locked room, to a

hungry day when she had been forced to drink blood

or starve to death. Miss Dewhurst was touched and

bewildered. Forty years she'd seen girls come and go,

and she knew girls could be just as devastatingly ugly

and cruel as boys. "Miss Dollanganger, unless you

respond to me, you will not visit your family this

weekend. I know you've had a hard time of it and I

want to be kind to you. Can't you please explain what

happened?"

Fallen fiat on the floor now, Carrie looked up.

She saw the older woman towering above her, and the

blue skirt she wore was almost gray. Gray was the

color the grandmother always wore. And the