I often imagine.
The rest of the letter recounted the compliments Hattie had received on a new gown. She ended with a farewell and the largest flourish of all
-- HATTIE
The recto:
Deer Muther,
I hav ben feeling poarly all week. I hav hedakes espeshly wen I reed. You allways say to much reeding is bad for the iyes but Writting Mistress wont lissen. She called me littel moar than an iddiot and sed ther will be no hop for me when I am gron if I dont lern to reed better.
Hattie says Ella was bad to leeve but I think she was bad not to tak me to.
Ella did everything Hattie toled her to. I wish peepul did wat I want. Its not fare.
Yoar
mizrubbel
dawter,
Olive
The whole page was full of blots and cross-outs. Each letter was formed with a wobbly hand, as though the writer didn't know how to hold a pen. Poar Olive!
Her letter was followed by a sad tale about the genie in Aladdin's lamp. He had been forced by Aladdin's false uncle, the magician, to take up residence in the lamp and had been given power to grant everyone's wishes but his own. Before he was captured, he had been in love with a goose girl. The genie spent his years in the lamp longing for her and wondering whether she'd married someone else, whether she'd grown old, whether she'd died.
I closed the book, weeping a little. I wasn't confined to a lamp, but I too was not free.
The size of things began to grow shortly after we started out on the third morning. In the past, objects far away had always appeared smaller than objects close by. But now, the old rule stood on its head. The trees near us were dwarfed by the trees in the distance ahead. At ten o'clock, I saw a pumpkin as wide as I was tall. At eleven, we passed one as big as a carriage.
At noon, we saw a giant. He was building a stone wall out of boulders. It was already twice my height, and I shuddered to think of the livestock it would pen.
When the giant saw us, he trumpeted his pleasure. "Oooayaagik ( honk)!" he called, dropping a rock and thundering toward us, his mouth open wide in a huge smile of welcome.
Our horse reared in fright, and I struggled to keep my seat, till the giant reached down and touched the beast gently on his muzzle. He quieted instantly, and even nuzzled against the giant's thigh.
"Aaaope! Aiiiee uuu koobee ( screech) ooob payiipe aau," I said. It meant "hello"
in Abdegi. "We've come to attend the wedding of Uaaxee's daughter," I added in Kyrrian. "But are we too late?"
"You're just in time. I'll lead you there."
The farm was two hours away. Koopooduk, the giant, strolled next to our horse.
"Is Uaaxee expecting you?" he asked.
"No," I answered. "Will she mind?"
"Mind? She won't be able to thank you enough for coming. Giants love strangers." He paused. "And friends too. Lots of friends and strangers will be there."
We traveled in silence for a while, with Koopooduk smiling down at us.
"Are you tired? Hungry?" he asked presently.
"We're fine," Sir Stephan said, although I was starving.
"Everyone is polite, except giants. We say when we're hungry. Never mind.
There's lots to eat at a giant's farm."
Uaaxee's house was visible an hour before we reached it.
"That's her house," Koopooduk announced, pointing. "It's nice, isn't it?"
"Enormously nice. Hugely nice," Sir Stephan said. "Don't you think so, lass?"
I nodded. My heart began to pound so hard I thought it would catapult me backward off the horse. Soon I might find Lucinda. Soon I might be free.
17
I TIGHTENED my grip on Sir Stephan's waist.
"Do you think to be my corset" he complained.
As we approached, Uaaxee opened the door to look for new guests. We were still a distance from the house, so I was able to see her whole. Close up, giants were whatever part was nearest -- a skirt, a bodice, a trouser leg, or a face.
She was three times as tall as a grown human, but no wider. Everything about her was long and narrow: head, torso, arms, legs. However, when she saw us, the long oval of her face changed. She smiled so broadly that her cheeks became peach round, and her eyes behind her spectacles became slits of delight.
"Aiiiee koobee ( screech) deegu ( whistle)!" She lifted Sir Stephan off the horse and then saw me. "Two people! Oooayaagik ( honk) to both of you! Welcome!
The wedding