"Then come and get it, baby," one of the boys said. She jumped as high as she could, but again they snatched the ribbon away from her. She stamped her foot and began to cry.
"Little baby, little baby," the boys chanted. They tossed the ribbon to each other while she tried in vain to intercept it. When they got bored with this, they pushed her down into a puddle of mud. Molly sat there, crying and calling for help.
"Shouldn't we help her?" Joey said.
"Why?" Aunt Veronica said.
"She's crying. They're being mean to her."
"So what? It's what she deserves. I never should have thought she could handle being in charge of anyone." Aunt Veronica shook her head at Molly. "She'll be happier this way in the end. She's a weakling and she always has been."
She hauled Joey away, his eyes catching Molly's for an instant. In them he saw the same gentle soul who'd cared for him ever since he woke up in this terrible place. It's my fault this happened to her, he thought. If only he could remember whatever they wanted him to remember.
Aunt Veronica opened the door to a bakery and then shoved him to the floor. "This is the best we got. See what you can do. I'll be back to check on you later."
As Aunt Veronica opened the door, Molly rushed inside, hugging Aunt Veronica's waist. "Mama Veronica," she said. "Some mean boys stole my ribbon and pushed me in the mud."
Aunt Veronica shoved Molly away. "I'm not your mother. You don't have a mother. Neither does anyone else here. Now get out of here. You're getting mud on me."
"But-"
"Get lost. Go play with your dolls or something."
Molly ran away in tears. Aunt Veronica turned to Joey and said, "You'd better have something when I get back unless you want to end up like her." Then she slammed the door shut.
Joey sat in the middle of the bakery for a while, too horrified by what Aunt Veronica had done to Molly to work. He thought back to Aunt Veronica spanking Samantha and later screaming at him. She's a monster, he thought. Only a monster could do such things to her friends and family.
He went over to the counter, where Veronica had left jars of different chemicals. The names on the labels were so long that he needed five minutes to sound out each one. What am I supposed to do with these? he wondered.
He crawled onto a stool to think. There had to be something he could do to get rid of that algae. If he didn't, then he would end up a baby like Molly or even worse. Why had Mommy sent him to this awful place?