Read Online Galdoni by Cheree Alsop - Free Book Online Page B

doctor. He closed the door and
motioned for me to sit on the bed. I lifted my splinted knee and
turned so that my back faced the doctor.
    “ I think we’ve both been
putting this off,” he said as he carefully worked the bandages from
my feathers.
    I nodded, my throat tight. I hadn’t let
myself think about what I would do if I couldn’t fly. No matter
what the Academy did to us, I wouldn’t give up my wings for a
normal life. I didn’t know if it was the bird DNA in my blood, but
the call of the wind haunted my dreams.
    I gritted my teeth as I felt the doctor
loosen the last of the bandages and lift the padding free from my
left wing, the one that had been shot. I forced myself not to ask
questions and hid a wince at his gentle prodding. He lifted the
wing joint and carefully extended it a few inches. I bit my lip at
the pain and tried to ignore the hope that rose when the motion was
even possible.
    “ Mmmhmm,” Dr. Ray said
before he applied a salve and covered it with a new set of
bandages. He then turned and checked the right wing which had been
broken just above the shoulder joint. “It’s been five weeks now,
too soon to know exactly how it’s healing. But the splint’s held
and the bones were set straight before it was bound.” He patted my
shoulder. “Keep them immobile for a few more weeks and I have
reason to believe you just might fly again after all.”
    I pushed down the hope that rose in my chest
at his words and forbade it from showing on my face when he
finished binding the wings close to my back. I turned around
slowly.
    He must have seen something in my eyes,
though, because he gave a small smile. “You know, it’s okay to hope
just a little, Kale.”
    I shook my head. “It’s better to face
reality. Right now, I can’t fly. I don’t want to let myself believe
I might again just to have it taken away.” I clenched and
unclenched my jaw against the rise of emotion in my chest.
    Dr. Ray nodded. “As you wish. But our
ability to hope is one of the things that set us apart from the
animals. Looking toward a brighter future can give us the strength
we need to get through our trials.”
    I gave him a small, ironic smile. “Well,
fortunately for you, you’re a lot further removed from those
animals than I am.” I motioned toward my wings. “The animal inside
me warns against looking toward the intangible. That way, if it
becomes unattainable, I won’t have thrown my life away for
something I could never have in the first place.”
    Dr. Ray tipped an imaginary hat. “Touché.
Maybe between the two of us, we’ll find a happy medium in this
unpredictable world.”
    “ I hope so,” I heartily
agreed.
    He grinned at me and left. I worked my
tee-shirt back on. The others had set the table by the time I made
my way back to the living room. My mouth watered at the smell of
dinner.
    “ Who would have thought a
day of sitting in classrooms would make me so hungry?” I mused out
loud.
    Jayce snorted. “Now you know why I’m always
eating.”
    “ Yeah,” Brie replied with a
smirk. “But you eat the same amount during the breaks.”
    “ Breaks make me hungry,
too,” Jayce said. As if to make his point, he scooped a generous
helping of spaghetti onto his plate, and then doubled it.
“Perfect.”
    “ Perfectly disgusting.”
Nikko sat across from Jayce and helped himself to some garlic
bread.
    “ Where’s Dr. Ray?” I
asked.
    “ He had a class to teach,”
Nikko said with a shrug.
    “ And our dad’s working late
again,” Jayce said around a mouthful of spaghetti. “So it’s another
night of ‘kids, fend for yourselves.’ We get that a
lot.”
    “ Because there’s not enough
food in the world to keep you fed,” Brie said.
    Jayce threw a piece of bread at her and she
laughed.
    I found myself watching them, the way they
bantered as if they knew each other so well no one would take
offense. Words like that would spur a usually life-threatening
fight at the Academy. I found it