Breath (9781439132227) by Donna Jo Napoli Read Free Book Online Page B

the floor, then jumps back with a sneeze. The look of disgust on his little face would make me laugh if I didn’t feel so awful. And I realize Großmutter didn’t scold me for letting Kuh on her floor.
    I rest on my back and listen to the rats scampering in hidden places. I’ll need a lot of rocks to kill them all today.
    This time next year I can watch Kuh hunt them down.
    God willing.
    That must be why Großmutter’s tolerating the kitten more. Rats are by far the worse evil of the two.
    Though the rain stopped last week—it comes only at night now—the rats haven’t noticed the change yet. Or else they’ve decided life indoors is superior regardless.
    Großmutter returns with a bucket of milk, hot and frothy from the cow. She pours a little in the bowl for Kuh, and the softness of her mouth tells me much: The kitten has worked his way into her affections, though I’m quite sure she’d never admit to it. Kuh puts his small tongue into the bowl. He’s lapping milk on his own. He doesn’t need my finger. A prick of jealousy comes. How silly I am—I should be glad the kitten is acting older. I should be glad he’s growing independent.
    Großmutter makes me drink a cup of the milk. Cow’s milk. It’s for cooking and making cheese, but not to drink, at least not for anyone over seven. How disgusting. But she makes me drink another. And a third. I’m likely to vomit at this rate, but maybe it’s doing its job on that awful muck, because my guts are churning now. I get to my feet with Großmutter’s help and manage to make it far enough away from the house before I squat and relieve myself. And the pain is gone.
    When I come back inside, Großmutter hands me a cloth and I wipe the sweat from my brow and chest and back. “I’m always surprised,” I say, “by how the pain can just end. It’s so huge, then it’s done. Over. It ceases.”
    â€œLike childbirth,” says Großmutter. She hadmany of her own, and she used to deliver babies when she could see well. Now she can only assist. But she’s a well-respected healer of other maladies. She can rid people of worms or sleeplessness. She can make people fall in love and she can extinguish love.
    â€œPepper came to us from the Arabs. Did you know that, Großmutter?”
    â€œHmmm.” She’s cleaning the bowl and spoon and cup.
    â€œMaybe this traveling merchant who Melis got the pepper from knows Arabs.” I touch her on the arm. “Let’s go to town.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œRemember what Pater Frederick said? I told you, you must remember. About Arab medicine?”
    â€œEven if the merchant knows Arabs, even if he knows an Arab surgeon, you can’t travel far, Salz. There’s no point in talking to him.”
    This is rational talk of the kind Pater Frederick spouts. Seductive in its severity. But fatal, as well. Is there no room for my new hope? I whisper, “You can’t be sure.”
    Großmutter doesn’t bother to concede. She simply grabs a cloth sack hanging by the door, and she’s on the path toward town, moving as fast as ayoungster. I close Kuh inside the house and race after her. Normally I can go faster than her, but the pain took all my energy. I gasp from the effort of catching up to her. She looks at me, startled, then flushes and slows down to a pace I can manage.
    Hameln town sits with the wide Weser River on its west and the narrow Hamel River coming up from the south and arcing around town to the east and north, and finally emptying into the Weser. So the town is almost entirely protected by a ring of water. In the middle of the Hamel River rises the gray stone town wall—the first wall, that is. Beyond it, on the land, stands the higher wall, the one that circles the whole town, with the tall octagonal towers at regular intervals that allow lookouts for enemies. Hameln may be small,