Tales of the Peculiar (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #0.5) - Ransom Riggs Page 0,43

we won’t kill it,” he said, kneeling down to comfort her.

Asgard stopped crying. “Thank you, Papa! May we keep it?”

“Only if it wants to stay,” said Edvard. “It’s a wild thing, so keeping it in a cage would be cruel.”

He opened the cage. The goose waddled out and Asgard threw her arms around its neck.

“I love you, Mister Goose!”

“Waak!” the goose replied.

That night they ate turnip soup and went to bed with their stomachs grumbling, happy as could be.

The goose became Asgard’s beloved pet. It slept in the barn, followed Asgard to school every morning, and sat honking on the schoolhouse roof all day while she was inside. She let everyone know the goose was her best friend and that no one was allowed to shoot it or make it into soup, and they let it be.

Asgard made up fantastic stories about adventures she had with her goose, like the time she rode Goose to the moon so they could see what moon-cheese tasted like, and she regaled her parents with these tales at dinnertime. That’s why they weren’t terribly surprised when Asgard woke them up one morning in a state of excitement and announced that Goose had turned into a young man.

“Go back to sleep,” Edvard said, yawning. “Even the rooster isn’t awake yet!”

“I’m serious!” Asgard cried. “Come and see for yourself!” And she tugged her tired father out of bed by his arm.

Edvard nearly fainted when he got inside barn. There, standing in a nest of straw, was his long-lost son. Ollie was grown now, six feet tall with strong features and a stubbled chin. He wore a burlap sack around his waist that he’d found on the floor of the barn.

“See, I wasn’t lying!” Asgard said, and she ran to Ollie and hugged him hard. “What are you doing, silly Goose?”

Ollie broke into a big smile. “Hello, Father,” he said. “Did you miss me?”

“Very much,” said Edvard. His heart hurt so much that he began to cry, and he went to his son and hugged him. “I hope you can forgive me,” he whispered.

“I did years ago,” Ollie replied. “It just took some time to find my way back.”

“Father?” said Asgard. “What’s happening?”

Edvard let Ollie go, wiped his tears, and turned to his daughter. “This is your older brother,” he said.

“The one I told you about.”

“Who turned into a bug?” she said, eyes growing wide. “And ran away?”

“The same,” Ollie said, and put out his hand for Asgard to shake. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Ollie.”

“No,” she said, “you’re Goose!” And she ignored Ollie’s extended hand and hugged him again.

“How’d you become a goose, anyway?”

Ollie hugged his sister back. “It’s rather a long story,” he said.

“Good!” said Asgard. “I love stories.”

“He’ll tell us over breakfast,” said Edvard. “Won’t you, son?”

Ollie grinned. “I’d love to.”

Edvard took him by one hand and Asgard by the other, and they led him into the house. After Edvard’s wife had recovered from the shock, they sat together and ate a breakfast of turnips on toast while Ollie told them all about his years as a goose. From that day forward he was a member of the family.

Edvard loved his son unconditionally, and never again did Ollie lose his human form. And they lived happily ever after.

The Boy Who Could Hold Back the Sea

There was once a peculiar young man named Fergus who could harness the power of the currents and tides. This was in Ireland during its terrible famine. He might have used his talent to catch fish to eat, but he lived in a landlocked place far from the sea, and his power was of no use in rivers or lakes. He might have set off for the coast—he’d been there once as a young boy; that’s how he knew what he could do—but his mother was too weak to travel, and Fergus couldn’t leave her alone; he was all the family she had left. Fergus gave her every bit of food he could scrounge while he survived on sawdust and boiled shoe leather. But it was sickness that finally got her, not hunger, and in the end there was nothing to be done.

As she lay dying, his mother made him promise to leave for the coast as soon as she was in the ground. “With your talent, you’ll be the best fisherman who ever lived, and you’ll never have to go hungry again. But never tell anyone what you can do, son, or people will make your life hell.” He