The Wonder Read Free

daughter turned up her nose at her breakfast and shot off a telegram to London demanding not just any nurse, but one of the new, irreproachable kind:
Send a Nightingale!
    â€œHow long has it been since her birthday?” she asked.
    McBrearty plucked at his whiskers. “April, this was. Four months ago today!”
    Lib would have laughed aloud if it weren’t for her training. “Doctor, the child would be dead by now.” She waited for some sign that they agreed on the absurdity: a knowing wink, a tap of the nose.
    He only nodded. “It’s a great mystery.”
    That wasn’t the word Lib would have chosen. “Is she… bedridden, at least?”
    He shook his head. “Anna walks around like any other girl.”
    â€œEmaciated?”
    â€œShe’s always been a mite of a thing, but no, she seems hardly to have altered since April.”
    He spoke sincerely, but this was ludicrous. Were they half blind, his rheumy eyes?
    â€œAnd she’s in full possession of all her faculties,” added McBrearty. “In fact, the vital force burns so strong in Anna that the O’Donnells have become convinced she can live without food.”
    â€œIncredible.” The word came out too caustic.
    â€œI’m not surprised you’re sceptical, Mrs. Wright. I was too.”
    Was?
“Are you telling me, in all seriousness, that—”
    He interrupted, his papery hands shooting up. “The obvious interpretation is that it’s a hoax.”
    â€œYes,” said Lib in relief.
    â€œBut this child… she’s not like other children.”
    She waited for more.
    â€œI can
tell
you nothing, Mrs. Wright. I have only questions. For the past four months I’ve been burning with curiosity, as I’m sure you are now.”
    No, what Lib burnt with was a desire to end this interview and get the man out of her room. “Doctor, science tells us that to live without food is impossible.”
    â€œBut haven’t most new discoveries in the history of civilization seemed uncanny at first, almost magical?” His voice shook a little with excitement. “From Archimedes to Newton, all the greats have achieved their breakthroughs by examining the evidence of their senses without prejudice. So all I ask is for you to keep an open mind when you meet Anna O’Donnell tomorrow.”
    Lib lowered her eyes, mortified for McBrearty. How could a physician let himself be snared in a little girl’s game and fancy himself among the
greats
as a consequence? “May I ask, is the child under your sole care?” She phrased it politely, but what she meant was, had no better authority been called in?
    â€œShe is,” said McBrearty reassuringly. “In fact, it was I who took a notion to work up an account of the case and send it to the
Irish Times.
”
    Lib had never heard of it. “A national paper?”
    â€œMm, the most lately established one, so I hoped its proprietors might be somewhat less blinded by sectarian prejudice,” he added, wistful. “More open to the new and the extraordinary, wherever it may arise. I thought to share the facts with a broader public, don’t you know, in the hope that someone could explain them.”
    â€œAnd has anyone done so?”
    A stifled sigh. “There’ve been several fervent letters proclaiming Anna’s case to be an out-and-out miracle. Also a few intriguing suggestions that she might be drawing on some as-yet-undiscovered nutritive qualities of, say, magnetism, or scent.”
    Scent?
Lib sucked in her cheeks so as not to smile.
    â€œOne bold correspondent proposed that she might be converting sunlight into energy, as vegetation does. Or living on air, even, as certain plants do,” he added, his wrinkled face brightening. “Remember that crew of shipwrecked sailors said to have subsisted for several months on tobacco?”
    Lib looked down so he wouldn’t read the