The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online Page A

of those who live above the basement belongs with its own kind.
    "No," he said.
    "The king has promised that this is the last time," Katya said. "He said that if I spin this straw into gold, he will marry me."
    "No," Rumpelstiltskin repeated.
    "It's the only thing in the world that will make me happy," Katya said, knowing what a domovoi was.
    "No," Rumpelstiltskin said yet again.
    Katya covered her ears and began to scream.
    It was a terrible sound that would have been annoying to most, but it was heartbreaking to a domovoi, and it went on and on and on until Rumpelstiltskin couldn't take it anymore and he went and sat down at the spinning wheel and began to spin.
    Katya is very young,
Rumpelstiltskin thought as he spun.
And a little bit foolish. By the time she is married, by the time
she has a child, she will have forgotten her promise, and then everybody will be happy.
    And that, Rumpelstiltskin thought, was the end of that.

    Happiness filled the house in the following days as the king announced to all that he would marry Katya. Happiness filled the house in the following weeks as there were engagement parties and preparations for the marriage feast, and then the marriage feast itself, and afterward celebration parties. Happiness filled the house in the following months, for the king and Katya both loved eating and drinking and dancing and being the center of attention, so they were well suited to each other and stayed out of the affairs of others. The kingdom rejoiced.
    Rumpelstiltskin got fatter and lazier and he basked in contentment even when it was announced that Katya was with child, for Katya was happy, and that meant she had forgotten her promise, and that was fine with Rumpelstiltskin.
    And then the baby was born, a handsome boy, which made everyone happier yet.
    ... Until the child's nurse set down a saucer of cream on the floor of the new prince's room, and said, "We are
so
fortunate—here's an extra saucer of cream for the domovoi to thank him for all the luck this family has had," and then Katya's unhappiness cut through walls and ceilings and floors, straight to Rumpelstiltskin's heart so that he could hear all that was said in the room so high above him.
    "No!" Katya cried. "Oh, no, no, no! It cannot be! Send for my husband!
Send for my husband!
"
    The king did not have to be sent for; he came running into the room. "Katya, my love! What is it? What's wrong? Has something happened that we'll have to cancel tonight's ball?"
    "I promised our child away!" Katya admitted with great racking sobs. "I promised our child away!"
    "What?" the king asked. "To whom? Why? I don't understand."
    Domoviye are shy creatures. They rarely show themselves, and if they do it's to one person alone, the way Rumpelstiltskin had come to the various rooms Katya had been in.
    But there was so much unhappiness, Rumpelstiltskin couldn't help himself. He burrowed through walls, floors, ceilings, to the nursery.
    "There!" Katya shouted, her voice and her finger shaking as she pointed at him. "He made me promise our child away in return for showing me how to spin straw into gold for
you.
"
    Rumpelstiltskin would have explained that he didn't want the child, that he could get back the necklace and the ring too, if Katya and the king wanted, but the king didn't give him a chance.
    "Vile creature!" the king shouted. "Out! Get out!" He kicked over the saucer of cream, spreading a stream of white over the blue-painted floor.
    Domoviye do not stay where they are not wanted. Rumpelstiltskin burrowed down, down, down, straight down, without even caring if the people of the household he passed noticed him, straight to his place beneath the basement, and then sideways, out, out, out from beneath the castle walls, under the yard, until he found himself beneath the basement of the cottage of the family of the goat keeper.
    Rumpelstiltskin sniffed the air and found there was contentment in the house. Also a cat, which probably meant saucers of