Read Online Tiny Dancer by Anthony Flacco - Free Book Online Page B

respected by all the world’s other realms.
    Consensus had finally been reached at the highest levels on the idea that the government’s most powerful bureaucratic reaction to the state of the human condition was to restructure government agencies and increase their range of power.
    The situation begged for an answer to the question of whether or not there is anything of great value that America as a civilization can export to the rest of the shrinking globe, besides certain material goods and the threat of annihilation.
    In short, the highly advanced state of governmental defensiveness itself implies that the American heart is not only real, but worth preserving. It is something that can be recognized by its effect upon events at home and abroad. It is not that the people who live in the United States are any different than others around the globe, but rather that the pallet of opportunity presented by a democratic society enables and encourages the development of natural human traits that have often been repressed elsewhere by entire civilizations.
    The creation of the new federal super-bureau was a standing acknowledgement that any example of the American heart is something that is recognized and appreciated, anywhere else on the planet where individual human life is respected—but that there are still many places where individual human life is garbage.
    June 10th was also the day that Zubaida and her father landed in Los Angeles with Mike Smith, plus the NGO representative and a translator who met them at their London stop and flew with them. Smith was glad that the public in the U.S. was far less inclined to stare at her; they made it through the airport without any nastiness. All were driven to the offices of the Grossman Burn Center of Sherman Oaks, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
    Peter Grossman felt that he must be just as excited as Mohammed Hasan when the two men met for the first time. When he introduced himself to Zubaida, he was heartened to see that although she could not turn her head, she raised her eyes and looked directly at him while he spoke. When he told her his name, she quietly repeated it and made the slight twitch of a smile, all that her face would allow.
    His staff liked to avoid confusion in referring to Peter and his father, since simply saying “Dr. Grossman” wasn’t helpful. So to them, the two doctors had long since become “Dr. Richard” and “Dr. Peter,” around the office. Zubaida quickly picked up on it as began addressing him as Dr. Peter, too.
    For his part, he found that the pixilated email photos that he had received months earlier hadn’t told the full story of the extent of Zubaida’s disfigurements. With the continued growth of scar tissue in the months since they were taken, she now looked much worse. Grossman was presented with a child of ten and a half years, nearly emaciated at sixty pounds, and so badly scarred about her neck and face that she was unable to close her mouth. Even so, when he introduced himself, she said “hello” in memorized English and stuck out her good arm to shake his hand. While her immediate appearance tended to indicate some sort of unformed intelligence, such a notion was immediately dispelled by her projection of the awareness of her surroundings and of her personality with regard to them. Underneath the inevitably hesitant demeanor of a child whose self-esteem has been continually assaulted over the course of an entire year, there was the conspicuous shine of a bright and lively awareness.
    He and his staff found themselves confronted with a girl who was clearly self-conscious about her appearance, but who also made direct eye contact with everyone who dealt with her. When Peter brought in his key support to meet her, anesthesiologist Charles Neal and pediatrician Matt Young, she again stood up and walked across the room on her withered, sixty-pound frame to shake their hands in greeting.
    Zubaida presented