The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo Read Free Book Online

ain’t nothing but a bully. And besides, he don’t hardly ever come home.”
    Fortunately, the father did not come back that day. Bryce went out to work and Sarah Ruth spent the day in bed, holding Edward in her lap and playing with a box filled with buttons.
    “Pretty,” she said to Edward as she lined up the buttons on the bed and arranged them into different patterns.
    Sometimes, when a coughing fit was particularly bad, she squeezed Edward so tight that he was afraid he would crack in two. Also, in between coughing fits, she took to sucking on one or the other of Edward’s ears. Normally, Edward would have found intrusive, clingy behavior of this sort very annoying, but there was something about Sarah Ruth. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do more for her.
    At the end of the day, Bryce returned with a biscuit for Sarah Ruth and a ball of twine for Edward.
    Sarah Ruth held the biscuit in both hands and took small, tentative bites.
    “You eat that all up, honey. Let me hold Jangles,” said Bryce. “Him and me got a surprise for you.”
    Bryce took Edward off in a corner of the room, and with his pocketknife, he cut off lengths of twine and tied them to Edward’s arms and feet and then tied the twine to sticks of wood.
    “See, all day I been thinking about it,” Bryce said, “what we’re going to do is make you dance. Sarah Ruth loves dancing. Mama used to hold on to her and dance her around the room.
    “You eating that biscuit?” Bryce called out to Sarah Ruth.
    “Uh-huh,” said Sarah Ruth.
    “You hold on, honey. We got a surprise for you.” Bryce stood up. “Close your eyes,” he told her. He took Edward over to the bed and said, “Okay, you can open them now.”
    Sarah Ruth opened her eyes.
    “Dance, Jangles,” said Bryce. And then, moving the strings with the sticks with his one hand, Bryce made Edward dance and drop and sway. And the whole while, at the same time, with his other hand, he held on to the harmonica and played a bright and lively tune.
    Sarah Ruth laughed. She laughed until she started to cough, and then Bryce laid Edward down and took Sarah Ruth in his lap and rocked her and rubbed her back.
    “You want some fresh air?” he asked her. “Let’s get you out of this nasty old air, huh?”
    Bryce carried his sister outside. He left Edward lying on the bed, and the rabbit, staring up at the smoke-stained ceiling, thought again about having wings. If he had them, he thought, he would fly high above the world, to where the air was clear and sweet, and he would take Sarah Ruth with him. He would carry her in his arms. Surely, so high above the world, she would be able to breathe without coughing.
    After a minute, Bryce came back inside, still carrying Sarah Ruth.
    “She wants you, too,” he said.
    “Jangles,” said Sarah Ruth. She held out her arms.
    So Bryce held Sarah Ruth and Sarah Ruth held Edward and the three of them stood outside.
    Bryce said, “You got to look for falling stars. Them are the ones with magic.”
    They were quiet for a long time, all three of them looking up at the sky. Sarah Ruth stopped coughing. Edward thought that maybe she had fallen asleep.
    “There,” she said. And she pointed to a star streaking through the night sky.
    “Make a wish, honey,” Bryce said, his voice high and tight. “That’s your star. You make you a wish for anything you want.”
    And even though it was Sarah Ruth’s star, Edward wished on it, too.



 
    T HE DAYS PASSED. THE SUN ROSE and set and rose and set again and again. Sometimes the father came home and sometimes he did not. Edward’s ears became soggy and he did not care. His sweater had almost completely unraveled and it didn’t bother him. He was hugged half to death and it felt good. In the evenings, at the hands of Bryce, at the ends of the twine, Edward danced and danced.
    One month passed and then two and then three. Sarah Ruth got worse. In the fifth month, she refused to