"Tap-tap-tap. Small pieces of ice tick against the window. I open my eyes, and look looks out through the chill gray to the line of trees far away. The wind whines a bit between the cracks, and the window glass has rattles and shivers. There—across the grounds, before the fields and the trees—a straight whiteness, standing. The wind moves the white dress in small ripples across the bones beneath. A slow dark closes around The Woman Who Wears White. She faces away looking looks out toward the far trees, and I have thinks that she must be very cold since she has no coat and no shoes. But now she turns a slow turn back around again to look with black button eyes up at the window."

Opal had to get out. But she was running out of time. She couldn’t take another ice bath. Another “shock cap.” Another lobotomy. Unfortunately, the head nurse at Napsbury Mental Hospital—“The Woman Who Wears White”—didn’t see it that way.

About the Author:

Dr. Reg Grant has authored novels and textbooks, and has written, produced, and acted for radio, television, theater, and film. His films have won two Emmy Awards, as well as numerous film festival awards, including Booklist Starred Reviews, multiple Telly Awards, and the prestigious Golden Apple Award for best educational film in America.