The Theory of Hummingbirds by Michelle Kadarusman

Author:Michelle Kadarusman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pajama Press Inc.
Published: 2018-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Google and the Cookie Monster

The night before Cleo’s cast was due to come off, to help calm my jitters, I Googled A Brief History of Time. I read phrases like the theory of everything, big bang, black holes, and space-time until my head was spinning, my brain ached, and my stomach felt strange.

Could it be that our own Ms. Sharma had discovered something that even the world’s most brilliant scientists have not? And if she had found a wormhole, was she traveling through time, or to an alternate realm like Alice in Wonderland, or had she just found a nifty way to get home for lunch? What if the wormhole collapsed and she vanished, like Levi had said? Could a person fall in if they got too close?

I rubbed my eyes and lay my forehead down on the computer desk. The funny feelings in my stomach were butterflies about the next day, when Cleo’s cast would be taken off for the last time.

I felt Mom put her hand on top of my head. “Time for bed, Alba,” she said. “It’s a big day tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said, sitting up and stretching. I switched off the computer.

“Alba,” she said. “Let’s talk for a minute.”

I turned around to face her. She was holding Frieda. She smiled at me and tilted her head. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said, more confident than I felt. “I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

“Tomorrow is a big deal,” said Mom, stroking Frieda. “I want you to be prepared for disappointment if the operation hasn’t worked out 100 percent. Remember what we talked about, okay?”

“I will,” I said. “I promise.”

Mom just looked at me and nodded. Her eyes looked worried.

I got up and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s okay, Mom. Really.” I gave Frieda a kiss too. “I’m going to bed.”

I went to my room and saw that Alfred had beaten me into bed. He looked up at me with a guilty face but I let him stay. I rearranged his spindly whippet legs before slipping under the covers. Smelly the beagle and the cats were having a truce and were asleep together on the spare bed. I turned off the light and closed my eyes. All of the information that I had read online swam behind my eyelids.

It was hard to fall asleep. It was hard not to think about what would be under Cleo’s cast. When I finally fell asleep, I had a dream that I was falling through a hole. The hole became a tunnel and the sides of the tunnel were filled with books—shelves of books like in the school library— but every time I tried to grab hold of one, it disappeared.

I kicked my legs and flapped my arms and I heard someone say, “Are you trying to fly? Is that what you’re trying to do?” And then I was sitting in a tree, feeling foolish, wondering how I got up so high.

How am I going to get down? I wondered. I looked at Cleo.

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