Goblin Market by Diane Zahler

Author:Diane Zahler [Zahler, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2022-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

That night, Minka climbed the ladder to the loft for the first time in weeks. But Lizzie found she didn’t want to talk about Emil, even though they were alone. She wanted to make sense of him in her own mind first. So she turned her face to the wall and feigned sleep, and though Minka tried to rouse her, she refused to talk.

Lizzie slept that night as she hadn’t in weeks. She only woke when a slant of sunlight fell across her face.

“Minka!” she cried, peering over the edge of the loft and seeing that Minka had opened the front door, a basket in her hand. Lizzie scrambled down the ladder. “Oh, it wasn’t a dream. You’re really awake!”

“I’m awake,” Minka agreed, placing the basket on the kitchen table. “And so are you. How does your hand feel?”

Lizzie looked down at her bandaged hand. She wiggled her fingers. “It doesn’t hurt a bit!”

“That’s wonderful!” Minka said. “Jakob did a good job.”

“He’s a good person,” Lizzie said. “He was so brave at the market...with Emil.” She was ready to talk about it, now that she felt rested.

“How did Emil look?” Minka asked. She tried to sound casual, but Lizzie could see from the gray that mixed with her voice’s rose colors that she was unsettled. “Did he say he missed me? Was he worried about me?”

“No, Minka,” Lizzie said bluntly. “He was horrible. I don’t like him.”

“You don’t understand,” Minka insisted. “You will someday.”

“Tell me now,” Lizzie said. “I want to understand it. Really, I do.”

Minka gave her a sidelong look. “You have to promise not to say anything mean.”

“I promise.”

“It’s just...” Minka thought for a moment. “When he looks at me, I feel alive. I feel beautiful. I feel like...like a piece of his fruit. Ripe to bursting. He makes me want...everything. Oh, never mind. I’m doing a bad job of it!”

Lizzie chewed on her lip. “No, you’re not. I can understand that he makes you feel beautiful. You are beautiful. Jakob said so. But how can you feel like fruit? You’re a person.”

Minka smiled. “Haven’t you ever felt like something other than a person? Don’t you feel free, like a bird, when school lets out for the summer?”

“Do you mean like I could fly? But people can’t fly.” This was getting more and more confusing.

“It’s a metaphor,” Minka said. “Like we learned in school, remember? A comparison.”

“Metaphors are so stupid!” Lizzie protested. “I never understood why Mistress Lena would compare people to foxes, or mice. Or being sick to being like a dog. Dogs are almost never sick!”

“Oh, Lizzie!” Minka laughed. “You are so...you.”

“Who else would I be?” Lizzie asked, bewildered. The conversation had gotten completely out of hand. “But here’s the other thing. Emil said you would rise and come to him. And I think maybe...when he said it...that’s when you woke up.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Minka sighed. “It’s as if I could sense that he wanted me to wake, isn’t it?”

That wasn’t what Lizzie had meant at all.

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