Red Angel Read Free Page A

the building. In
addition to Mira's office, there was a big kitchen with two cooks, a narrow
dining room with a long wooden table, two classrooms, an oversized living room
with communication and entertainment devices, and a study room. Upstairs had
two large bedrooms with bathrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, and
rooms for the live-in staff: one cook, Jarek, another woman, and Mira. When she
finished the tour, she had the children assembled in the living room.
    "Children," Mira began when everyone was
seated. "This is Anna. She is joining us as a full-time resident. Anna
caught the Coaca Virus—"
    "Why isn't she dead?" one of the taller boys
asked.
    "She was lucky." Mira paused, looking at me.
I didn't agree. I was alone without my mommy and daddy. I would prefer to be
with them. "A snake saved her. Anna, show the children the snake."
    I reached into my blouse and grabbed Red and pulled
him halfway out.
    "That snake feeds off Anna, and in the process it
injects her with a poison that keeps the virus in check. That snake is not a
pet. It's poisonous, and it bites. If for whatever reason you get bitten, you
must come get me or send someone to get me. I'll have to give you an injection
that will prevent you from dying … but you'll be very sick for several days. So
believe me, you want to leave that snake alone. It never leaves Anna, so you
don't have to worry about it being loose, and it is unlikely to bite you unless
you upset it." She then introduced the six girls and seven boys.
    * * *
    The first couple of weeks were the hardest. They all
wanted to see my krait. I let them see it, but I had to keep telling them not
to reach for it or bang into me. The boys were the worst, wanting to see it
moving or wanting to hold it or other dumb things. When they couldn't get their
way, they became nasty, so by the end of the month no one wanted to talk to me
or play with me. It hurt a little, but Koria Hall had its own school and
library, and most of the time, I was happy to be off in a corner reading or
studying. Besides, I had my krait for company.
    At first I found learning to read and do math hard.
Then something strange happened. I was reading when Red wound himself into my
hair and laid his head on my forehead, looking down at the book like he was
interested. Since he was my only real friend, I began reading aloud softly
while pointing to each word. It was kind of fun, and Red felt like a real
friend. Over the months the subjects got easier, and I found I could remember
more with less effort. By the end of the year I was the best student in the
class, which didn't endear me to anyone.
    My solitude made me an outsider subject to taunts,
ridicule, and jokes. It hurt, but I knew if I let it show, it would get worse.
Fortunately, by the second year the game had become tiring and mostly stopped.
By then I enjoyed being left alone. During the third year the trouble began
again. We were all three years older. I was going on for nine and the older
boys were now twelve and thirteen and full of mischief. They had been giving
the older girls a lot of grief but had left me alone except for remarks intended
for me to hear. Two or three boys would be huddled together, and when I passed,
they would raise their voices enough for me to hear.
    "Let’s steal her precious snake. I'll bet she'd
do anything for us to get it back."
    "That damn snake is dangerous. We should kill it
before it hurts someone."
    "Let’s steal that snake and throw it in Mira's
room. I'll say I saw her do it. Get that stuck-up bitch expelled." And so
it went on for months. I didn't know how much they really meant, but I was
smart enough to know eventually one or more of them would do something dumb, so
I went out of my way to be in rooms with other people. Months later, while
curled up in a corner of the living room studying and quietly reading to Red,
the room suddenly became empty. I thought that funny, as there was always
someone watching the tapes, or a