If I Could Fly Read Online Free Page A
Author: Jill Hucklesby
colours of the arc. She makes a wish whenever she sees one. I’m panicking, trying to think of the best thing to wish for. It’s no good – I can’t think clearly and sprint at the same time.
Come on, brain, help me work out what to do next. I need to get to the hospital. Let’s just focus on that, OK? My thigh feels like it’s being attacked by a meat slicer. How did I get injured? Did it happen when I ran away? Is it something to do with the feathers? Why did I take off with no money, no phone, no ID, no plan? It would help if you could stop your little game and tell me what happened. Just give me a clue – anything.
Glimpses of bright blue sea are winking at me as I splash across roads, kerbs awash with overflow water from the drains. I’m heading west, I think, towards the setting sun and the hill in the far distance. I remember the view from the hospital ward where I was treated.It looked down over the town to the sea. This has to be the right direction.
I need to be vigilant. Now the rain has eased up, there will be patrol cars out and about again and the CCTV cameras will have a clear view.
‘Life can turn on a five-pence piece,’ Gran says. I never really understood what she meant until now. When things start spinning, they can go face up or down. Less than a day ago, I was a kid with a routine. I knew what to expect. Days were a blur of school, homework, thinking of new ways to avoid the electronic ID scan by the gates of our estate. At night, there would be Mum’s exotic stories of elephants and strange fish, and monkeys that steal food, clothes and trinkets from the night markets in Chang Mai. It didn’t matter that Dad wanted the TV and the whole front room to himself. We were happy, just the two of us.
Maybe I didn’t realise someone had flipped the coin and that things were in the balance. ‘
Mai pen rai
’ – no worries! – Mum always said, no matter what happened.Not long ago, though, I found her crying. She said she felt like the tiny Thai birds captured in nets so that they could be released during festivals. They were never truly free.
I told Mum about the Feathers; how they could scale almost any man-made barrier in their way, how they had this amazing agility. She smiled and asked if she were too old to join.
And she told me to be careful, because some people didn’t agree with that kind of crazy running without rules, even though this is a free country.
Chapter Seven
I’ve arrived in the Magic Kingdom, swear to God. In this part of town the buildings are like toy houses, leaning against one another, with chimneys and front doors all in a line and every colour you can think of. The road rises steeply and curves, coils, snakes back and forth. The castle-shaped towers at the top are raised high above the long brick structure beneath, under a deep pink and orange sky.
Any moment, there could be fireworks . . .
I don’t remember the hospital looking like this. Then again, when you’re clutching your belly and a bucket in turn, you don’t notice detail, just pain. Even if Snow White herself had appeared with the seven dwarfs, whistling a happy tune, she couldn’t have made me smile.
A church clock struck six a while ago. The sun is just a red crescent, sinking into the sea. The air smells of salt and wood smoke, incense sticks and uncollected refuse. Gulls the size of terrier dogs are picking at abandoned black sacks on the pavement, spreading their contents with yellow beaks.
Almost there. The hill is so steep my legs feel as if they are moving in slow motion. The windows are blazing in the last rays of light. This close, the hospital is less like a fairy castle and more like a fortress. I had forgotten the huge wall round its perimeter and the giant stone griffins standing on high pillars either side of the gateway to the main entrance. They have the bodies of lions and their eagle heads are thrown up in a massive roar.
Holy hummingbirds, something is terribly wrong
Come on, brain, help me work out what to do next. I need to get to the hospital. Let’s just focus on that, OK? My thigh feels like it’s being attacked by a meat slicer. How did I get injured? Did it happen when I ran away? Is it something to do with the feathers? Why did I take off with no money, no phone, no ID, no plan? It would help if you could stop your little game and tell me what happened. Just give me a clue – anything.
Glimpses of bright blue sea are winking at me as I splash across roads, kerbs awash with overflow water from the drains. I’m heading west, I think, towards the setting sun and the hill in the far distance. I remember the view from the hospital ward where I was treated.It looked down over the town to the sea. This has to be the right direction.
I need to be vigilant. Now the rain has eased up, there will be patrol cars out and about again and the CCTV cameras will have a clear view.
‘Life can turn on a five-pence piece,’ Gran says. I never really understood what she meant until now. When things start spinning, they can go face up or down. Less than a day ago, I was a kid with a routine. I knew what to expect. Days were a blur of school, homework, thinking of new ways to avoid the electronic ID scan by the gates of our estate. At night, there would be Mum’s exotic stories of elephants and strange fish, and monkeys that steal food, clothes and trinkets from the night markets in Chang Mai. It didn’t matter that Dad wanted the TV and the whole front room to himself. We were happy, just the two of us.
Maybe I didn’t realise someone had flipped the coin and that things were in the balance. ‘
Mai pen rai
’ – no worries! – Mum always said, no matter what happened.Not long ago, though, I found her crying. She said she felt like the tiny Thai birds captured in nets so that they could be released during festivals. They were never truly free.
I told Mum about the Feathers; how they could scale almost any man-made barrier in their way, how they had this amazing agility. She smiled and asked if she were too old to join.
And she told me to be careful, because some people didn’t agree with that kind of crazy running without rules, even though this is a free country.
Chapter Seven
I’ve arrived in the Magic Kingdom, swear to God. In this part of town the buildings are like toy houses, leaning against one another, with chimneys and front doors all in a line and every colour you can think of. The road rises steeply and curves, coils, snakes back and forth. The castle-shaped towers at the top are raised high above the long brick structure beneath, under a deep pink and orange sky.
Any moment, there could be fireworks . . .
I don’t remember the hospital looking like this. Then again, when you’re clutching your belly and a bucket in turn, you don’t notice detail, just pain. Even if Snow White herself had appeared with the seven dwarfs, whistling a happy tune, she couldn’t have made me smile.
A church clock struck six a while ago. The sun is just a red crescent, sinking into the sea. The air smells of salt and wood smoke, incense sticks and uncollected refuse. Gulls the size of terrier dogs are picking at abandoned black sacks on the pavement, spreading their contents with yellow beaks.
Almost there. The hill is so steep my legs feel as if they are moving in slow motion. The windows are blazing in the last rays of light. This close, the hospital is less like a fairy castle and more like a fortress. I had forgotten the huge wall round its perimeter and the giant stone griffins standing on high pillars either side of the gateway to the main entrance. They have the bodies of lions and their eagle heads are thrown up in a massive roar.
Holy hummingbirds, something is terribly wrong
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