Читать книгу Sophie and Heir to the Throne - Viktor Mück - Страница 2

A girl bearing the beautiful name of Sophie lived not far from the town of Blaubeuren. Her parents had a small farm and a large plot of land where they grew vegetables. Sophie was just twelve, but she was tall beyond her years with light-brown hair and green-gray eyes. She had a vivid imagination; her parents admired her and has no doubts that she was a gifted child. Of course, like all parents do, they saw only the best in their kid being sure of her specialness. Sophie was an only child in the family, she was bored alone, so her father would bring her from the city kids’ books with bright illustrations. Sophie could stay up all night reading and looking at the same pictures many times. She would imagine that she was a princess living in a castle, or a fairy able to fly and do wonders with a magic wand. When Sophie got tired of books, she would put her dolls on a bench next to the house and played in a theatre imagining that dolls and animals living on the farm were her audience who could understand her. Sometimes, her father and mother watched her actions from the side in silence trying not to embarrass her. Sophie’s expressions caught in the moment of impersonating fairy-tale characters made her parents laugh. And the funniest part was when Sophie talked to dolls and animals. The girl would thank them for visiting, for applause and flowers picked by herself on a lawn by the house. Sophie was not allowed to go outside the farm bounds alone. Her parents were afraid that Sophie might get lost far from home, or she might go to lake Blautopf, fall into it, and drown. Blautopf is a small blue lake. The lake never freezes in winter, even if it is very cold outside. Locals could not understand why the lake was so blue. The rumors in the village had that the lake was a portal to the fairy world, and no one was capable of approaching it. People also said that those who waded in the lake were never seen again as if they faded away.

Every night before Sophie’s sleep, her parents would put her on the bed, covered with a blanket, told her that they loved her so much and wished good night. And when the lights were off, and the door closed, Sophie would jump out of bed, take her favorite doll and magic wand, put on her arm a glowing bracelet that her dad brought her from his trip to the city, then climb into the closet, get comfortable and start telling stories to her doll Catherine.

“Catherine, are you ready for a new story?” asked the doll Sophia. “Sit down and listen carefully.”

This was a story about Patrick, the mouse, who lived on a small farm on the outskirts of the village. Patrick was a very small but shift and fast mouse. One night, the little mouse was wandering through the house and smelled fresh buns. The lights were off, and he decided that everyone was sleeping. The little mouse scarcely managed to crawl through the narrow gap between the floor and the door, looked around to make sure that the kitchen was empty. There was a large table in the middle of the kitchen. A transparent breadbox laid on it, and a towel that covered basket with buns was just near. “How come do I get on that table?” the mouse stood and thought to himself. He looked around the kitchen and realized that a branch from the tree placed on the floor next to the table was just a perfect catapult.

“But how will I arm the tree branch?” he asked himself quietly.

The little mouse saw huge shoes with very long laces next to the door and set out towards them. He removed the laces from the shoes, made a small loop, spun it over his head like a lasso, and threw it on the largest branch. He struck the aim with his first attempt, then started looking a place for tying it up. Then he saw a cupboard standing near, the mousy began retreating to pull the lace and attach it to the cupboard leg. He barely managed to tie the lace to the cupboard leg, then he climbed to the branch tip and untied the knot of the loop. The branch unbent and threw him straight onto the breadbox on the table. The mouse rolled off the breadbox onto the table, embraced the basket and started drooling thinking of how he will be eating a bun. He almost made it to the bun when he heard someone stomping feet in the living room. The landlords came into the kitchen awaken from the noise. The hostess saw the mouse, screamed and jumped on a chair, her husband grabbed a broom and began to beat on the table.

“Kill that gross mouse!!!” shouted the landlady.

When the father hit the table, the mouse grabbed the broom bars and, having caught the swing momentum, flew over the mother. Patrick fell down on the floor in the living room, he looked back, saw the stairs and ran up without a flick of hesitation. Having ducked behind a flowerpot placed in the corner of a flight of stairs, holding his heart, he could hear the landlady below shouting at the top of her lungs:

“Where is this mouse? Find it!!!”

The landlord replied

“Calm down, sweetheart!! It ran away. Tomorrow I’ll put the mousetraps, and now let’s go to bed, or we’ll wake Sophie up.”

The little mouse waited until mom and dad went to bed, looked around and saw that a room door had been slightly open. And the mouse got so interested what could be behind that door that he tiptoed to the door and peeked inside. The room was very beautifully decorated with a lot of toys in it. Pictures of a smiling girl were hung everywhere, and she was so happy in all the pictures. The light was on, it came from a night lamp near the bed and beamed to the ceiling reflecting the sky full of stars. A little blonde girl lay in the bed, hugging her doll she slept so sweetly. The mousy decided to step closer to get a good look at the girl. Holding his breathe Patrick climbed up the bedpost and slowly walked on the blanket. When he got very close, he accidentally touched the doll that Sophie held. The doll slipped out of the girl’s hands, fell down and went boom. Lots of noise from the doll falling made Sophie jump up. She saw a white mouse on her stomach with a black spot on the ear, she was just about to scream, but the little mouse stopped her.

“Please, be quiet. I’m sorry,” said the little mouse.

“You can talk?” asked Sophie.

“And you understand me?” the mouse asked in turn.

“It seems so,” the girl replied thoughtfully. “But how is it possible?” Sophie asked the mouse, “I have never talked to a mouse before.”

“I have no idea, I have never talked to people too,” said the little mouse.

“What’s your name?” Sophie asked the mousy.

“Patrick,” answered he.

“And what is your name?”

“I am Sophie.” “How did you get in my room?” she asked Patrick.

“I was on the street, when I smelled freshly baked buns, this smell came from your house, so I decided to take one of the buns.”

“Don’t you know that it is very bad to steal?”

“Yes, I know, I apologize,” lowering his head said Patrick.

“Wait for me here on the bed, I will go down to the kitchen and bring you a bun.”

Sophie quietly took the stairs trying not to wake her parents up. She made it to the kitchen, approached the table, and took away the towel from the basket with buns. She picked up a napkin, wrapped a couple of buns, and quietly went back to her room. The little mouse was sitting quietly on the bed, waiting for a tasty bun.

“Here you are, take it,” said Sophie.

“Thank you very much!” “You are a very kind girl,” said Patrick.

“Where do you live?” Sophie asked.

“I do not have a house, I live in a barn and sleep on straw,” said the little mouse.

“Where’s your family?” asked Sophie again.

“I do not know anything about my real parents,” the mouse lowered his head and shed a tear. “Other mice raised me – my Aunt Mary and Uncle Timo. They told me that they found me when I was very small, near an old oak tree on the other side of the blue lake. Do you want me to share this story with you?” Patrick asked Sophie.

– “Of course, do tell me, I love stories,” the girl replied.

Once in a warm, early morning, when the sun is just about to rise, and the rays give light to drops of dew on the flowers and tree leaves, and fledglings chirp in their nests asking their parents to feed them, Aunt Mary and Uncle Timo set out to take a stroll and pick some berries to have them dried for a winter fragrant berry tea. They were running out of supplies, and it has come the time to replenish them for the winter. Following the path along the blue lake, they took a small boat and travelled to another bank. Walking past an old oak, they heard what sounded like a baby crying. As they got closer to the old oak, they saw a tiny bundle on the ground. It turned out that someone had been crying inside. The bundle on the ground started moving, Uncle Timo picked it up and saw a small, tiny mouse, it was white with a black spot on the tip of its ear.

“What a beautiful baby!” “Where are his parents?” “How could they leave such an angel here?!” Uncle Timo said. “What are we going to do with him?” he asked Aunt Mary.

“We will it keep,” she said, ‘until his parents are found.”

It was embroidered “Take care of him’ with blue thread on the blanket that the tiny mouse was wrapped in. Uncle Timo and Aunt Mary had no children. They were already old and have not succeeded in having their own babies. Aunt Mary took off her shawl and wrapped it around the baby, then they went home. Patrick grew by leaps and bounds. He was very agile, and sometimes out of hand. He was so vigor that neither Aunt Mary nor Uncle Timo could keep up with him because they were old. It was especially difficult when Uncle Timo taught him to write, read, and count. Patrick would not stay put and never had an interest in studying. All he wanted was jumping, running, tinkering or inventing something.

As years passed, Patrick manned up and became an assistant and support for his Aunt Mary and Uncle Timo. Once, the little mouse noticed that his Uncle Timo had been struggling with taking winter stocks of grain and berries down the hole and lifting them up. Patrick decided to come up with something that could easily raise and lower these stocks. In a shed, Patrick found a long rope, a couple of small metal boxes, and an old kid’s bicycle. He disassembled the bicycle having removed its pedals and hub, tied a rope to the hub, hung metal boxes on the ropes, rigged wires to the tree opposite to the hole. He let the other end down the hole and fastened everything to the roots of the tree growing straight in the hole. He realized that the hole dwelling would sooner or later collapse and get covered with earth making all the supplies trapped under the fall, he decided to nail some small logs together to reinforce floor and ceiling. He found four strong boards of almost the same size and used them to prop the logs against the ceiling and floor. This way he bolstered the hole against destruction. When Aunt Mary and Uncle Timo came home from their morning walk and saw what Patrick had come up with, they wept with joy and hugged the little mouse.

“Patrick, you are such a smart boy! And you helped us so much by thinking through the way for taking our winter supplies down the hole without the tireless efforts. We can’t thank you enough!” Uncle Timo said.

“That is how I gained my new family, but I was not happy for a long time. One night I woke up to a loud noise. I got out of bed and ran outside. It was raining cats and dogs, and it was windy, so I dashed to close the doors to the hole with winter supplies to prevent the water getting inside. Then, I closed the doors and ran straight back to the hole where we lived. I almost made it to the entrance, when I saw that the dam built by Uncle Timo got broken, and I saw a big wave coming towards me. The wave threw me far away from the hole, and I bumped a big rock. When I came to my senses on the rock with vision blurred, I looked at the hole and saw uncle Timo and aunt Mary trying to get out of the hole, but they failed as they got sucked into a water funnel, the logs could not bear the load, so the roof and walls collapsed. I was too weak to get up to help them, and I fainted. When I woke up in the morning lying on a rock, I looked around and realized that it was not a dream. In a blink, I was deprived of my home and family, I do not have Aunt Mary, and Uncle Timo anymore. This is how I ended up living in a barn. And when I lost my chances to find something to eat, I figured I could find food at your house. But I was unlucky, I have not managed to take anything from the table, your mom and dad heard a noise in the kitchen and chased me away, I started running away and then you found me in your room.”

“I’m so sorry for you,” said Sophie and hugged Patrick. Patrick’s story about his loss of home and family brought Sophie to tears.

“I think we should go to bed. You can sleep with me tonight, and tomorrow we will figure out what we are going to do,” said Sophie.

Patrick lay down on the pillow next to Sophie’s head, covered himself with a blanket corner, and looked up at the ceiling with stairs. He could not believe that he was sleeping in a warm soft bed.

In the morning, Sophie woke up from bright sunlight beaming at her face. Sophie turned back and saw the asleep mouse and thought to herself, “Hooray! This is not a dream; the talking mouse is real.” The girl quietly got out of bed as she did not want to disturb Patrick’s sleep, Sophie took the stairs to go down to the kitchen, she called for her mother and father, but no one answered. “That means they’re on the farm,” thought Sophie. She opened a fridge, pulled up a chair, and took out the milk. Sophie took two glasses, poured them with milk and filled pockets of her pajamas with buns and a couple of gingerbread cookies. She put the chair back where it belonged to, picked up the glasses of milk and headed for the stairs that led up to her room. Sophie returned to her room. The little mouse was still sleeping on the pillow. “It must have been a long time since he’d slept so well,” Sophie thought to herself.

“Patrick,” said Sophie in a hushed voice, “Get up, it’s morning time! I brought you some milk, buns and gingerbread cookies.” Patrick yawned, stretched out his legs and arms in different directions, folded back the blanket, and was seated next to Sophie.

“My Aunt Mary used to bring me breakfast in bed. It was milk as well, but with cheese crackers, which I didn’t like much to be honest, but I didn’t want to offend Aunt Mary. What are we supposed to do now?” Patrick asked Sophie. “I can’t always share a bed with you. If your parents see me, they will kill me for sure! I think it would be better for me to go back to the barn,” said Patrick with his head low.

“I have an idea!” said Sophie cheerfully. “I have a big dollhouse, a Christmas present from my mother. The house is very spacious, and you will definitely fit in there. Moreover, there are doors and blinds. Nobody will see you there. All day long we will be outside, and you will sleep in the dollhouse. What do you think of this idea?” Sophie asked.

“It’s a great idea,” said Patrick and yelled, “Hooray!! Thank you a lot!” Patrick jumped on Sophie’s neck and gave her a hug, the little mouse’s eyes filled with tears of happiness. “Am I going to have a family again?” the little mouse said out loud.

“Yes, of course,” said Sophie. “Let’s go for a walk, shan’t we?” Sophie asked Patrick.

“Why not,” he replied.

I will quickly put on my dress and we will go.

When Sophie changed into a dress, she offered Patrick get into her dress pocket so that no one would see him. Patrick quickly got himself into her dress pocket, they took the stairs down and went outside. Patrick stuck his head out of his pocket a bit and looked around to check whether anyone was near.

“So, what shall we do?” asked Patrick.

“We can catch some butterflies, or I can read you a book,” answered Sophie.

“No, it’s boring. How about taking a stroll?” suggested the little mouse. “I’ll show you the oak where I was found by Aunt Mary and Uncle Timo.”

“My mother and father do not allow me leaving the farm. If they see me gone and found out that I’d broken the rules, they will punish me,” replied Sophie.

“We’ll be quick, just back and forth,” said Patrick.

“All right then,” said Sophie.

Once Sophie disobeyed her parents. Holly and Leon, Sophie’s mom and dad, go to town every year for the fall festival, the biggest fair that attracts all the farmers in the region. Her mother makes jokes about it teasing Father Leon that this fair is just for boasters who come there to brag about their crops.

“Didn’t your parents tell you that it is not good to brag?” Holly asked Leon, “Your crop might die, for example, because of a drought or locust infestation. You’re setting a bad example for Sophie.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. I know, my love,” Leon replied, “You have told me many times that it is not good to brag, it is disrespectful.” Leon got up from the table, came to Holly, embraced her, gave her a kiss and said, “What would I do without you?” Leon approached the table at which Sophie was seated eating an omelet and drinking milk. Leon squatted down, took Sophie by the hand, and told her, “My princess,” (he always called Sophie that way), ‘your mum is right, never forget that it is very bad to brag.”

“Why?” asked Sophie.

“Let me explain you,” Leon said. “Imagine that you have a lot of candies or cookies, or, for example, you have a lot of your favorite books about the magical world that you are in such a deep love with, but the other girl does not have such books, maybe she, as you, loves fairy tales, but her parents cannot afford buying her books, because they are very expensive for them. If you are going to boast of your books to this girl, she will turn very sad and start crying.”

“Maybe I could present a book to this girl since she doesn’t have any books of her own?” Sophie asked piteously with her big blue eyes raised to her father.

“My princess, you are the smartest girl in the world!” said Dad with a smile on his face. “You have learned two lessons: the first one is that it is very bad to brag, and the second one is that you should be generous to people who don’t have things that you do. Well now, we shall be going,” Sophie’s dad picked her up and headed to the door leading outside. Leon closed the door behind him and said, “Holly, honey, we will be waiting for you in the car, please, hurry up, I don’t want arrive at the fair late.”

Leon and Holly met at Uni; they were classmates. In the beginning, Holly didn’t like Leon because she considered him rude and arrogant. But, anyway, she liked how he looked like – tall, slender, with dark eyes and hair. But Leon liked Holly at first sight, as she always wore beautiful dresses, was very smart and insanely gorgeous. In a little more than a month, Leon proposed to Holly, and of course she said yes.

“I’m on my way, dear,” said Holly.

The farm workers loaded all the boxes of vegetables into the van. Holly got into the car, put on Sophie’s belt first, then put on her own belt.

“Leon,” Holly said to her husband, “Don’t forget to fasten your seat belt.”

“I am already doing it, my love,” he said.

Sophie loved visiting the city with her father and mother, the nature was very beautiful in these places in the warmer months: green meadows, plenty of flowers and trees lush and full of green leaves. But it was often foggy in the autumn. On their way, Sophie liked to watch mountains, they barely could be seen, but she liked it, light fog and clouds covered the tops of the mountains, they looked very mysterious, and she always wanted to climb up these mountains and see what they conceal behind the clouds. Leon turned on the radio right at the moment when their favorite band Modern Talking was on air, Leon and Holly started singing loudly. Whey they listened to Modern Talking, the memories of their bright youth always popped up in their heads, the way they used to dance to this band when they were young. Although Sophie did not know the performers, she was sure that they were popular when her parents were young.

Three hours later they arrived at Stuttgart. It was a large, beautiful and very modern city. With her parents Sophie often came to Stuttgart for big holidays, and the holiday she loved the most was Christmas. Her father and mother always bring vegetables to the fair during the last Christmas week. They grow vegetables in greenhouses in winter months. While they were unloading vegetables, milk, eggs, and meat from the car, Sophie decided to take a walk around the square, but her father strictly forbade her to go far, because he was afraid that she might be lost. Sophie took her bag with her and walked along the other farmers’ tents to see what they had brought to the fair. The square that hosted the fair was very pleasant. There were small houses, three or four floors high on its area. The first floors of these houses accommodated shops with beautifully decorated windows. They had a lot of cafes with tables, all occupied, mostly by elderly people, someone was seating and telling jokes making everyone laugh tears, and someone was seating alone with coffee deep in their thoughts. Walking and looking around, Sophie did not realize that she had already left the fair and found herself close to a park. When she stopped and looked back, she understood that she is not at the fair, but somewhere in a strange place, she trembled with fear, tears rained down her cheeks, she realized she was lost. Sophie burst out crying. An old man passing by saw Sophie crying. He went up to her. The old man was wearing a strange hat and a trench coat.

“Girl, why are you crying?” asked the old man.

“I was walking around the fair and did not even realize that I lost my way,” said Sophie.

“What’s your name?” the old man wondered.

“Sophie,” asked the girl.

“And my name is Merle,” the old man introduced himself. “Where are you parents, don’t you know?” asked Merle.

“Yes, they are at the city fair,” replied she.

“Then let me take you to them,” Merle suggested.

“My mom and dad always taught me not to go out with strangers,” Sophie said.

“Your parents are good people since they teach you the right things, and it is good of you that you remember it. But didn’t they tell you not to go far from them?” Merle asked.

Sophie lowered her head and started crying.

“All right, stop crying,” said Merle. “You are not that far from the fair, we will quickly get there and, perhaps, your parents still do not know that you are missing,” Merle took Sophie’s hand and they headed to the fair. Sophie got puzzled with a question, and she decided to address it to Merle.

“Why are you wearing such a strange outfit? Is it carnival going on right now? And your name reminds me the name of the wizard from the books I read.”

“Really?” asked Merle smiling.

“And you also have very kind blue eyes, I like them.”

“Thank you for your kind words,” said Merle smiling. “Maybe you will tell me about yourself during our stroll?”

“As I told you before, my name is Sophie and I’m twelve, next year I will be in the seventh form, my dad’s name is Leon, and my mom’s is Holly. My parents are farmers. Also, I like reading books, my father often brings them to me from the city.”

“What do you like to read?” asked Merle.

“I like reading kid’s books about magic and adventure.”

“I think that your life will be full of adventure and magic,” said Merle. “By the way, we’ve come to the fair. Do you remember where your parents’ tent is?” asked Merle.

“Yes, there it is, right behind the ice cream store,” replied Sophie.

“Your parents are unloading boxes in a hurry, so I don’t think they’ve noticed your absence yet. I guess you shouldn’t tell them that you got lost. I also have a gift for you. Here you are, take this locket, never take it off, and do not show it to anyone.”

“Thank you!” said Sophie and went in the direction of her parents’ tent. Merle shouted after her,

“See you soon, Princess!”

When Sophie turned around, Merle was already gone, she did not understand where he had disappeared. As well, it was strange that Merle called her a princess, because that’s the way her dad calls her.

When Sophie and her parents were on their way back home, she was sitting quietly in the car thinking about the day. She was reflecting on that it was bad of her to go so far from the fair and not telling her parents anything about it when she came back. She felt very ashamed of it, she also met an old man in an unusual outfit peculiar to a book wizard, he helped her find her way to the fair and gifted her a very beautiful locket.

Sophie and Patrick went out the gate and headed toward the lake. It was sunny and warm outside; birds were singing and butterflies flying.

“Where should we go?” Sophie asked Patrick.

“Along the path by the lake,” he answered. Sophie and Patrick came closer to the lake.

“I remembered this lake, my dad and I often come here’ Sophie told Patrick. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful blue lake. Where is the tree you were found at?” asked Sophie.

“That oak is on the other side of the lake, and we’ll have to cross it in that boat,” said Patrick.

“But how do we do that?” asked Sophie. “I’m small and can’t row.”

Patrick climbed out of Sophie’s pocket, jumped to the ground, looked around and saw two small flat boards on the grass.

“Look what I found!” Patrick exclaimed. “You can use these boards to row, and I’ll help you row with my hands.”

Sophie took two flat boards, put the little mouse on her shoulder, went down to the lake and sat into a small boat on the shore of the lake. The boat did not look anything like safe, and it was quite clear that it had been put still on the bank for a long time. But, anyway, Patrick and Sophie got into this boat. Sophie and Patrick used the boards to kick off from the bank and slowly headed to the other side of the lake. To move faster they decided to row harder. They reached the middle of the lake, suddenly the sun faded, thick black clouds appeared out of the blue, and the wind started blowing with a dreadful force. The boat started rocking back and forth, Sophie got frightened, and Patrick jumped into her pocket having his ears covered. Suddenly, the wind stroke so powerfully that the boat overturned, and Sophie and Patrick found themselves in the water