Gossamer Read Online Free

right there, ready. You know how to pull up fragments?"
    "Yes. I practice, in the Heap."
    "Good. Now, for a dog, like this one, it is almost always food. I will hover near his head. Then I'll pull up fragments regarding food and bestow them. Ears are the easiest way. But do you see the problem with the dog?" He pointed.
    Littlest nodded. She giggled a little, very quietly. "Hanging-down ears," she said.
    "Yes. Many dogs have those. I will bestow through his nose instead. Actually, the nose is a dog's best entry. Watch, now."

    He fluttered over close to the dog and hovered there. She could tell that he was centering himself, making himself calm and receptive. Then he quivered slightly. She knew he was pulling up fragments now. She had felt her own self quiver when she practiced the pulling-up.
    While she watched, he leaned forward so that he was almost touching the dog's dark, moist nose. For a brief moment she saw something like tiny sparks flicker from him. It reminded her of a time when she had been gathering touches near the fireplace, which had earlier been aglow, warming the woman as she read in a rocking chair nearby. The fire was out and the woman long asleep upstairs. But suddenly, as Littlest had hovered nearby, a dark log had shifted and a tiny flurry of sparks had burst into a brief constellation. Watching Thin Elderly bestow a dream, she remembered that bright moment.
    Finished, he fluttered back to her side. They watched the dog. Toby's tongue quite suddenly emerged from his mouth and licked his own dark whiskered lips in satisfaction as he slept.
    "He's dreaming now," Thin Elderly said, "of food."
    "I saw it go from you to him," Littlest said. "Little sparkles, just for a second."

    "Yes, it's visible for a second."
    "Do the sparkles hurt? Or maybe tickle?"
    Thin Elderly frowned. "Don't think about that. I suppose there is a moment's tickle. Ignore it."
    "It's hard to ignore a tickle," Littlest said. "Sometimes in the Heap, if I'm near that plump one—what's his name? I forget his name—he likes to tickle me, and—"
    Thin Elderly looked sternly at her. She hung her head in apology, for chattering.
    "I'm going to let you try it now, on the woman," he said.
    "Into her ear?" Littlest asked. "Hers don't hang down."
    "Yes. Flutter up there. Center yourself. Pull up the fragments. You'll do the kiss, remember?"
    She nodded. "But how do I—"
    "It will just happen. You pull up the fragments and hold them there and hold them there until suddenly you can't contain them anymore, and then—"
    "It's like sneezing! " Littlest realized in amazement.
    "Shhh."
    "Sorry," she whispered.
    "You're right. Like sneezing. They'll just burst from you. Your job is aiming."

    "I'm good at that. I flutter right to things. I hardly ever miss."
    "Well, then. Here you go. Remember the sequence?"
    "Flutter up. Hover. Gather. Then—"
    "You forgot center, " he reminded her.
    "Sorry. I flutter up. I hover. I center. I gather. Then I aim. And I hold and hold and hold until I sneeze!"
    "Say 'bestow.' 'Sneeze' is rather crude."
    Littlest nodded. "Bestow," she whispered. "Here I go!"
    Silently, following the sequence exactly, Littlest One bestowed a dream for the first time.
    And there in the darkened bedroom, during a dream that by morning would be forgotten, the lonely woman became a girl and was kissed by a young soldier. At dawn she woke with a vague feeling of happiness.

8
    "Toby," she said, as she sipped her tea and turned the letter over and over in her hands, "how will we deal with an angry boy?"

    The dog, his head on his paws, simply blinked. His tail tapped the floor briefly.
    "I could say no. I had told her I'd take a little girl. I could explain that I'm not up to having a boy."
    Toby eyed a fly that had settled on the rung of a nearby chair. If it were closer, he would have made a try for it, just for the sport. But he didn't feel inclined to bother with this one.
    "I thought a little girl would brighten the house a bit. I could