Hummingbird Heart by Robin Stevenson

Author:Robin Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV013000, book
ISBN: 9781459801561
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2012-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

I stared at a bowl of cornflakes swimming in soy milk. I wasn’t hungry.

Karma slid her plate toward me. “Want some of my toast?”

I shook my head. “No, thanks.”

“Are you okay? You look kind of…funny.”

If Karma was noticing, I must really look like crap. Though maybe she was still worried because of what happened yesterday. I still hadn’t told her what Mark had said or why I’d been so upset. I tried to smile a little. “I’m fine.”

Mom put down her newspaper and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

I didn’t want to get into a conversation about it—actually, I didn’t want to talk to my mother at all, ever—but I needed to know what was going to happen next. “So, do I have to get a blood test or something?” I asked.

Karma’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to speak.

“That’s the first step.” Mom poured enough milk into her coffee to turn it almost white. “I just called Mark and told him that you’d do it.”

“You did? Was he…was he pleased?” I hated myself for asking.

Karma was practically wriggling off her chair in frustration. “What are you talking about? Pleased about what?”

Mom’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Of course he was pleased. What else would he be?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know why I’d asked that or what I’d meant, exactly.

“Anyway. He’s staying longer than he’d planned. His wife and daughter are flying out on Thursday. Apparently they’re going to take Casey to some naturopath in Vancouver.” She drank her coffee, not looking at me. “Mark says he’s probably a quack, but I guess they’re feeling they have to try everything, you know?”

“But if I’m a match, that’ll help, right? She could be all right.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Karma sounded like she was about to explode.

Mom held up one hand to tell Karma to wait. “Pickle…I don’t really know the first thing about it. I guess that’s the hope, but I don’t think there are any guarantees.”

There never were. I closed my eyes for a moment and stared at the prickles of light in the darkness. Like tiny stars. Reluctantly, I opened them again and looked at Karma. “Mark’s kid has leukemia, and he wants me to get tested to see if I can be a bone marrow donor.”

“Ohhh.” Her round face was serious. “So that was why he wanted to see you.”

I realized that I had no idea how he had found out I existed. “Yup. Exactly. That was the reason.” My voice was louder and higher pitched than usual.

There was a heavy pause. Mom ran one finger along the table edge. “He thought you might like to meet her. Casey.”

“Me? Why would I want to?”

“Maybe he thinks you’ll want to help more if you meet her. I don’t know.”

“I already said I’d do it.”

“I know. Don’t bite my head off.”

Karma looked thoughtful. “Maybe he thought you’d want to meet her because you’re, you know, sort of related.”

I looked across the table at her. It was strange: we’d

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.