The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Read Online Free Page B

“This one seemed to.”
    Lolly tossed Edward back on the couch. He landed face-down with his arms over his head and his dress still over his face, and he stayed that way through dinner.
    “Why have you got out that old highchair?” shouted Lolly.
    “Oh, don’t pay it no mind,” said Nellie. “Your father was just gluing on a missing piece, wasn’t you, Lawrence?”
    “That’s right,” said Lawrence, without looking up from his plate.
    Of course, after dinner Edward did not go outside and stand beneath the stars to have a smoke with Lawrence. And Nellie, for the first time since Edward had been with her, did not sing him a lullaby. In fact, Edward was ignored and forgotten about until the next morning, when Lolly picked him up again and pulled his dress down away from his face and stared him in the eye.
    “Got the old folks bewitched, don’t you?” said Lolly. “I heard the talk in town. That they’ve been treating you like a rabbit child.”
    Edward stared back at Lolly. Her lipstick was a bright and bloody red. He felt a cold breeze blow through the room.
    Was a door open somewhere?
    “Well, you don’t fool me,” she said. She gave him a shake. “We’ll be taking a trip together, you and me.”
    Holding Edward by the ears, Lolly marched into the kitchen and shoved him face-down in the garbage can.
    “Ma!” Lolly shouted, “I’m taking the truck. I’m going to head on out and do some errands.”
    “Oh,” came Nellie’s tremulous voice, “that’s wonderful, dear. Goodbye, then.”
    Goodbye, thought Edward as Lolly hauled the garbage can out to the truck.
    “Goodbye,” Nellie called again, louder this time.
    Edward felt a sharp pain somewhere deep inside his china chest.
    For the first time, his heart called out to him.
    It said two words: Nellie. Lawrence.



 
    E DWARD ENDED UP AT THE DUMP. He lay on top of orange peels, coffee grounds, rancid bacon, and rubber tires. The first night, he was at the top of the garbage heap, and so he was able to look up at the stars and find comfort in their light.
    In the morning, a short man came climbing through the trash and rubble. He stopped when he was standing on top of the highest pile. He put his hands under his armpits and flapped his elbows.
    The man crowed loudly. He shouted, “Who am I? I’m Ernest, Ernest who is king of the world. How can I be king of the world? Because I am king of garbages. And garbages is what the world is made of. Ha. Ha, ha! Therefore, I am Ernest, Ernest who is king of the world.” He crowed again.
    Edward was inclined to agree with Ernest’s assessment of the world being made of garbage, especially after his second day at the dump, when a load of trash was deposited directly on top of him. He lay there, buried alive. He could not see the sky. He could not see the stars. He could see nothing.
    What kept Edward going, what gave him hope, was thinking of how he would find Lolly and exact his revenge. He would pick her up by the ears! He would bury her under a mountain of trash!
    But after almost forty days and nights had passed, the weight and the smell of the garbage above and below him clouded Edward’s thoughts, and soon he gave up thinking about revenge and gave in to despair. It was worse, much worse, than being buried at sea. It was worse because Edward was a different rabbit now. He couldn’t say how he was different; he just knew that he was. He remembered, again, Pellegrina’s story about the princess who had loved nobody. The witch turned her into a warthog because she loved nobody. He understood that now.
    He heard Pellegrina say: “You disappoint me.”
    Why? he asked her. Why do I disappoint you?
    But he knew the answer to that question, too. It was because he had not loved Abilene enough. And now she was gone from him. And he would never be able to make it right. And Nellie and Lawrence were gone, too. He missed them terribly. He wanted to be with them.
    The rabbit wondered if that was love.
    Day after