The Book of Phoenix Read Online Free PDF Page A

three year old.
    â€œDo you know when I was a baby?” I asked.
    â€œI was there when they brought you,” she said. “You were so small. Like a preemie. But strong, very very strong. You never needed an incubator or antibiotics or special formula. You took easily to life.”
    The lights in the machine went off and something beeped. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Time’s up. Let’s get you to your room,” Bumi said. She didn’t say any more about first meeting me, as we walked back to my room, following the red lines. I was curious, but Bumi always had a set look on her face when she had switched back to her Big Eye self. I knew not to ask for more of my own story.
    When we arrived at my room, it was evening.
    â€œMay the day break,” Bumi said. This was how she liked to say goodnight to me every night. She said she’d once heard it in a Nigerian movie she’d watched. She only said it to me and usually when she said it, I laughed and smiled.
    Tonight, I was in too much pain to smile, but I responded as always, “May it break.”
    My body ached from the burns, but by the time I entered my room, removed my clothes and inspected myself, there wasn’t a mark left on my body. But I remembered the pain. You never forget the smell or the pain. I took a long cool shower.
    As the days progressed, I learned that when I grew hot and luminous like this, electronics died or exploded in my hands, except that cubed room. This was why they started giving me paper books, despite the risk of me setting them afire. These paper books were limited, old and difficult to read, as I couldn’t turn the pages as quickly as I could with the e-reader. And they could now easily monitor what I was reading. Although now I realize that, with the e-reader, they were probably monitoring my choices, too.
    I didn’t tell Saeed about the heating and glowing because at the time I didn’t want to worry him. I enjoyed our talks so much. I wish I had told him.
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    The door slid open and my doctors came in, Debbie and Bumi. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Though the heat did not go away, it decreased, as did the glow.
    â€œHow do you feel?” Bumi asked, as she took my wrist to check my pulse. She hissed, dropping it.
    â€œHot,” I flatly said.
    She glared at me and I glared back thinking something I had not thought until Saeed was dead—
You should have asked first.
    â€œOpen,” Debbie said. She placed the heavy-duty thermometer into my mouth.
    â€œShe’s not glowing that brightly,” Bumi said, typing something onto her portable. I resisted the urge to grab it and hold it in my hands until it exploded. Saeed was dead because of these people. I steadied myself, thinking of the cool places sometimes described in the novels I read. I once read a brief story about a man who froze to death in a forest. How nice it would have been to be in that cold place at that moment.
    â€œIt might just be menopause approaching,” Bumi said. “I believe the two factors are correlated.”
    I tuned out their talk and focused on my own thoughts.
Escape
.
How? What would they do to me? What did Saeed see?
My internal temperature was 130 degrees, but the temperature of my skin was 220. They couldn’t take my blood pressure because the equipment would melt.
    â€œWe need to get her to the lab,” Debbie said.
    Bumi nodded. “As soon as the scanner says she’s reached 300 degrees. We don’t want her any higher or things around her will start to ignite. Maybe by morning.” She looked at me and smiled. “May the day break.”
    â€œMay it break,” I responded.
    They left. I paced the room. Restless. Angry. Distraught. They would be back soon.
    How am I going to get out of here?
I wondered. As if to answer my question, Mmuo walked into my room. He came through the wall across from my bed. My heart nearly