Beyond the Laughing Sky Read Online Free Page A

alarmed about.” He pointed to newborn Nashville’s X-ray on the wall.
    â€œSee here,” said the doctor, pointing to Nashville’s shoulders. There seems to be a little extra something.” The doctor picked up another X-ray and put it against the light. This X-ray had the unmistakable shape of a bird’s wing.
    â€œA wing?” asked Nashville’s father.
    â€œWhere a bird’s wing attaches to the body, it attaches by the same joint that we see here in Nashville.” Nashville’s mother and father stared in silence, and soon the quiet filled up every part of the room. Why, all the cotton balls in the doctor’s glass jar were simply puffed to the poof with silence.
    â€œAre you saying,” sputtered his father, “that our son is going to grow wings? That’s impossible.”
    Dr. Larkin smiled and clicked off the light to the X-rays. “Oh, no, no, I think not. But that would be something wouldn’t it? Hoo-ee. A boy with wings.” He paused in thought, breathed on his stethoscope, and then wiped it like he was shining an apple. “But in the end,” he said, smiling, “who can say? I know I for one try my best to never use the word impossible .”

A nd so, after junebug’s checkup at the doctor, the family made their way down the street for Nashville’s checkup with Dr. Larkin, Goosepimple’s finest veterinarian.
    â€œWell hello, Nashville,” said Dr. Larkin when he walked into the checkup room. “You’re growing like a weed.”
    â€œSpeaking of growing,” said Nashville. “Will you be taking an X-ray today, like you did last time I was here?”
    â€œYes, yes, first let me have a look at you,” said the doctor. He turned on his light and looked in Nashville’s ears and eyes and beak. He breathed on his stethoscope and directed Nashville to take several deep breaths. He tapped Nashville’s knees and watched his legs kick forward.
    â€œNow can you take the X-ray? I can’t see back there too well,” Nashville explained. “And you’re the expert.”
    â€œOkay, okay,” said the doctor. “Let’s have a look.”
    The veterinary assistant came then and took Nashville into the room next door for an X-ray. After that, Nashville sat patiently waiting for the results. A few minutes later, Doctor Larkin returned, put the X-ray on the wall, and turned on the light that lit it from behind.
    â€œThings look about the same to me,” said Dr. Larkin.
    â€œI see,” said Nashville. He stared at the X-ray. “But what about the bone? The one that would connect them if I were to grow wings?”
    The doctor looked at Nashville. He turned off the light on the wall and the X-ray disappeared.
    â€œNashville,” he asked softly. “May I ask you, why do you want to grow wings?”
    â€œWell, why else would I be this way?” replied Nashville.
    The doctor spoke carefully and kindly.
    â€œNashville, you have an amazing imagination. Truly. And I don’t want to disappoint you, but . . .”
    â€œWhat’s the point of being the way I am,” Nashville interrupted. “if I’m never going to have wings?”
    â€œNow, now,” said the doctor. “None of that.” He waved his hands, and the rain clouds that had started to gather in the office dispersed. “Don’t waste time wishing to be something other than what you are.”
    â€œWhat am I?” replied Nashville. “When the world made me, it made a mistake.”
    â€œA mistake,” said the doctor, rubbing his chin. “Every year the leaves change colors and drop to the ground, right?”
    â€œRight,” said Nashville.
    â€œIs that a mistake?”
    â€œNo,” replied Nashville. “That’s just fall.”
    â€œWell, what about wrinkled elephants? And artichokes?” asked the doctor. “And blowfish and purple