The Anatomy of Wings Read Online Free PDF Page A

lead poisoning or by accidentally slipping and having the scissors they had in their mouths enter their brains. I didn't know any children who had died that way. She said there were lots of them. Whole cemeteries. Children buried on top of children. She said it was the most common cause of death apart from drowning but I could tell she was making it up.
    “It's a fact,” she said.
    “It's not a fact actually,” I said.
    “I think you're getting a little bit too big for your boots lately,” she said.
    “I'm not wearing boots actually,” I said.
    “You wait until your father comes home.”
    Because my number one passion was birds my favorite facts were facts about birds. A good fact about birds is that despite having wing bones very similar to human arm bones, birds are more closely related to reptiles. The
Merit Students Encyclopedia
said birds were only glorified reptiles, which is weird, and I think it was written by a man who was probably a herpetologist.
    The
Merit Students Encyclopedia
didn't mention the wedge-tailed eagle of Australia, which is my favorite bird, because it was written in America and they don't live there. Another fact is that I could sing. I could sing beautifully. My mother said it was a gift from heaven even though when she fought withNanna she said there was no heaven or no hell. Also when my singing voice went away she didn't notice for quite some time. It would be Nanna who first pointed her bony finger into my chest and asked me where it had gone.
    I learned all my facts about Dardanelles Court from Mrs. O'Malley, who lived opposite our house in number 3. She lived with Mr. O'Malley, who never said much but usually sang songs about the sea. He usually sang them when the sun was going down and some of the heat had gone out of his cement yard. His voice drifted through the streets. Usually I went to Mrs. O'Malley when no one would listen to me at home. For instance I may have told Danielle that a starfish broken in half can become two new starfish and she may have said do I look like I care. Mrs. O'Malley always said go on, or you wouldn't read about it, or you're pulling my leg, aren't you.
    Mrs. O'Malley was short and round and she owned one hundred colorful dresses made out of nylon that billowed outward from a puckered circle at her neck. She rocked from side to side as she walked because her hips were very bad. Her gray hair was often stuck down to her sweaty red forehead. She collected facts about people like I collected facts about birds and North American capital cities and the great disasters of the world.
    When I went to tell Mrs. O'Malley a fact she usuallysaid come round the back with me. This was so we could get away from Mr. O'Malley's singing because he usually wanted me to join in all the choruses with him. Their whole yard was cemented in except for one small square with an orange tree. There were a lot of cracks to break your father's back; you had to be careful to not accidentally step on them.
    Mrs. O'Malley knew who was married to who and who their children were and if they had any problems, for instance, a harelip or a clubfoot. She knew when they had first arrived in town and how and from which state or foreign country. She knew who was born in the new maternity wing and who was born in the old hospital and who was buried in the cemetery. But mostly she was an expert on our street.
    “The stories in this street,” she said. “The things I could tell you.”
    Mum said she was nothing but an old stickybeak but I didn't agree. We traded facts like collectors.
    “A nighthawk flies with its mouth open swallowing insects,” I said.
    “Marshall Murray in number one is dying from regret,” she replied.
    “The New York Public Library has over four million books,” I said.
    “A secret. Those Irwin girls in number two are plotting a great escape.”
    “Sunflowers turn their heads to face the sun.”
    “That Miss Schmidt lost her touchable skin when she was just a