Zel by Donna Jo Napoli Read Free Book Online Page A

end. “Was it he who gave you the goose egg?”
    “How did you guess?” A look of pleasure spreads across Zel’s face. She leans forward, as though revealing a puzzle that I can help her decipher. She begins timidly. “I did nothing for it. I merely gave him a bit of bread.”
    Zel fed him? I know what feeding means. An animal fed comes back again and again. A man fed is no better.
    “And I held Meta’s head. . . .”
    “Who is Meta?”
    “His horse. I held her head while the smith took a tick from her ear. I did nothing. But the youth said he owed me something.” Zel stops, lost in thought. She looks at me shyly.
    I look away. I can tell from Zel’s eyes that she has not told me something. The youth is already causing her to be furtive with me. Oh, how did so much happen so fast? Zel knows his horse’s name. She tamed the beast. That youth must have been impressed with her. My blood swooshes, loud and insistent.
    I close my eyes and dare to see what I fear in anticipation: The goose sits on but four lumps. She gets up now and checks them. I see the white and gray lumps. There isno doubt: rocks all! The goose has rolled the egg from the nest. My eyes search till they find it. This time the egg has cracked. The goose cannot raise another’s child. The gosling is dead. This is the message the youth gave to Zel—as a gift. Despised gift. Cursèd youth. I would wring the goose’s neck if I could. Oh, had I only left the goose tethered to her nest with the vine!
    But geese are geese and people are people. How a goose behaves has nothing, less than nothing, to do with how people behave. Geese are stupid and smelly and hateful. Geese know nothing. Zel will realize this. Zel need not take the goose’s message, the youth’s message, to heart. I open my eyes.
    “Mother, what is it?” Zel comes around the table and hugs me. “You look as though you would cry.”
    I pull my daughter onto my lap. “The world you know here, Zel, the world of our mountains and waterfalls, of our endless skies, do you love this world, Zel?”
    Zel’s head rises slightly higher than mine. I can’t remember when she last sat on my lap. She presses my head to her and rests her chin on top. “How can you ask? You know I do.”
    I hug her. “Our alm is the best world imaginable.” As the words leave my mouth, I regret their nakedness. I know in an instant that this is the moment I have dreaded. I must talk to Zel of the most important decision she will make in her life. I must give Zel the choice betweena life with me forever and the ordinary life of stupid people who know no better. I must use the utmost care.
    “Perhaps,” Zel is saying slowly. “But I do love new places, new people.”
    I work hard to keep my arms from becoming iron like my teeth. As much as I would want to, I must not shackle Zel to me. I love her. That love must be returned freely. I cannot bear anything less. And I have a ready means of persuasion. Zel gave it to me yesterday when I made the cedar branch break and fall on the hedgehog. She wished for the gift of talking with animals. This desire resonates within her spirit. I speak with energy. I dangle the perfect hook. “If you could talk with animals, that would be much. You would give up certain things to have that gift, wouldn’t you?”
    Zel leans back so that she can look in my face. Her cheeks are red. Her eyes glow. “Oh, yes,” she says in a half whisper.
    I stroke her arms. “It would be worth choosing a life here in the country.”
    Zel smiles. “Choosing a life in the country is not giving up much, Mother.”
    I am encouraged. She is truly a mountain girl, unlike me. I dare to speak on. “It would be worth choosing a life without a husband.”
    Zel stiffens and sucks in air. I watch her eyes fightpain. Then in an instant, her face clears. “Oh, Mother, I would never abandon you. You must stop thinking that at once. When I marry, I will take you with me.” Zel claps her hands and laughs