Fair Peril Read Online Free Page B

little girl could not hear her. The little girl said, ‘Who is this woman?’ and her grandmother the witch told her, ‘That is your stepmother.’ And the little girl knew that stepmothers were supposed to be wicked and deceitful. So she took a hunk of bread and a lump of cheese and an apple in a silk kerchief and set off to find her true mother.
    â€œShe walked herself hungry, out of that kingdom and into the next, and nary a mother did she find. When she sat down in a grassy meadow to eat, the meadowlarks came and tried to peck at her bread and cheese, but she drove them away. Then she lay down where she was to sleep. But suddenly every bird in the meadow flew up and away. The little girl did not know what had disturbed them.
    â€œâ€˜MY CHILD! WHERE IS MY LITTLE GIRL?’”
    Buffy felt a lump of pesky emotion take form in her throat, but kept going.
    â€œThe loud princess was crying so loudly that every bird in the world took fright, but no one in the castle could hear her. She searched the castle from towers to dungeons, shouting all the while, and no one answered her. She cried to her mother-in-law, ‘WHERE IS MY CHILD?’ but the witch did not hear. She cried to her husband the prince, ‘WHERE IS MY LITTLE GIRL?’ but he did not hear or care. She cried out so loudly that the stones of the castle cracked, and as she ran out the gate and shouted for her little girl, every stone of the castle crashed down behind her. And then surely the witch and the prince could not hear her, for they were dead.”
    Pure, sheer wish-fulfillment fantasy, Buffy thought. But it was a good story. She could feel it curling her guts. She went on.
    â€œâ€˜WHERE IS MY LITTLE GIRL?’” the loud princess cried, and a hawk flew down from the sky and said, ‘I will show you.’
    â€œFar away, the little girl could not sleep, and got up and walked and walked, out of that kingdom and into the next, and nary a mother did she find. She walked herself hungry, and sat down in a woods to eat, and the wood thrushes flew down and tried to peck at her bread and cheese, but she drove them away. Then—” Buffy meant to stick to the formula she had set up, because things were always supposed to happen in threes, but screw it. A person could be blabbering all day. “Then she walked until all she had left to eat was her apple. She came to a lake, and when the waterbirds tried to peck at her apple, she started to cry. ‘Oh, take it,’ she said, and she gave it to a swan. ‘All I want is my mother.’
    â€œBut as she gave away the apple she could hear what she had not been able to hear before. She could hear what the birds were saying. A hawk flew over and cried, ‘Here comes your mother.’ A meadowlark flew up and sang, ‘Your true mother.’ A wood thrush called, ‘Your true mother who loves you.’ And because the birds had opened her ears, the little girl could hear the loud princess miles away, running toward her and crying, ‘MY DAUGHTER, MY BABY, WHERE IS MY LITTLE GIRL?’ And the little girl jumped up and cried out, ‘Mama! Here I am!’”
    Buffy had meant to go on, to settle the pair of them in a cottage in the woods where the birds would feed them and they could live happily ever after. But the lump in her throat made her end the story there. She sat down.
    â€œIs that all?” Adamus asked, his voice hushed and froggy.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œIt was wonderful. Please, tell another one.”
    Buffy straightened in her chair and peered at him. The pupils of his eyes glistened like black tears.
    â€œYou really liked it?”
    â€œYes! It consoled me. It charmed me back to when I was …” His voice trailed away.
    The frog’s emotion stunned Buffy. She was used to lukewarm reactions at best. Her husband had never listened to her stories, any kind of stories, whether stories she made up or stories she