In which Sophie expresses her feelings with weed-killer

Howl opened the door toward the end of the afternoonand sauntered in, whistling. He seemed to have got over the mandrakeroot. It did not make Sophie feel any better to find he had not goneto Wales after all. She gave him her very fiercest glare.

?Merciful heavens!? Howl said. ?I think thatturned me to stone! What?s the matter??

Sophie only snarled, ?What suit are you wearing??

Howl looked down at his black garments. ?Does itmatter??

?Yes! ? growled Sophie. ?And don?t give me that about being in mourning! Which one is it really? ?

Howl shrugged and held up one trailing sleeve as if he were notsure which it was. He stared at it, looking puzzled. The black colorof it ran downward from his shoulder into the pointed, hanging tip.His shoulder and the top of his sleeve grew brown, then gray, whilethe pointed tip turned inkier and inkier, until Howl was wearing aback suit with one blue-and-silver sleeve whose end seemed to havebeen dipped in tar. ?That one,? he said, and let theblack spread back up to his shoulder again.

Sophie was somehow more annoyed than ever. She gave a wordlessgrump of rage.

?Sophie!? Howl said in his most laughing, pleadingway.

The dog-man pushed open the yard door and shambled in. He neverwould let Howl talk to Sophie for long.

Howl stared at it. ?You?ve got an Old English sheepdognow,? he said, as if he was glad of the distraction. ?Twodogs are going to take a lot of feeding.?

?There?s only one dog,? Sophie said crossly.?He?s under a spell.?

?He is?? said Howl, and he set off toward the dog witha speed that showed he was quite glad to get away from Sophie. Thisof course was the last thing the dog-man wanted. He backed away. Howlpounced, and caught him by two handfuls of shaggy hair before hecould reach the door. ?So he is!? he said, and knelt downto look into what could be seen of the sheepdog?s eyes.?Sophie,? he said, ?what do you mean by not tellingme about this? This dog is a man! And he?s in a terriblestate!? Howl whirled round on one knee, still holding the dog.Sophie looked into Howl?s glass-marble glare and realized thatHowl was angry now, really angry.

Good. Sophie felt like a fight. ?You could have noticed foryourself,? she said, glaring back, daring Howl to do his worstwith green slime. ?Anyway, the dog didn?twant??

Howl was too angry to listen. He jumped up and hauled the dogacross the tiles. ?And so I would have done, if I hadn?thad things on my mind,? he said. ?Come on. I want you infront of Calcifer.? The dog braced all four shaggy feet. Howllugged at it, braced and sliding. ?Michael!? heyelled.

There was a particular sound to that yell which brought Michaelrunning.

?And did you know this dog was really a man??Howl asked as he and Michael dragged the reluctant mountain of a dogup the stairs.

?He?s not, is he? Michael asked, shocked andsurprised.

?Then I let you off and just blame Sophie,? Howl said,hauling the dog through the broom cupboard. ?Anything like thisis always Sophie! But you knew, didn?t youCalcifer?? he said as the two of them dragged the dog in frontof the hearth.

Calcifer retreated until he was bent backward against the chimney.?You never asked,? he said.

?Do I have to ask you?? Howl said. ?Allright, I should have noticed myself! But you disgust me, Calcifer!Compared with the way the Witch treats her demon, you live arevoltingly easy life, and all I ask in return is that you tell methings I need to know. This is twice you?ve let me down! Nowhelp me get this creature to its own shape this minute!?

Calcifer was an unusually sickly shade of blue. ?Allright,? he said sulkily.

The dog-man tried to get away, but Howl got his shoulder under itschest and shoved, so that it went up onto its hind legs, willy-nilly.Then he and Michael held it there. ?What?s the sillycreature holding out for?? Howl panted. ?This feels likeone of the Witch of the Waste?s again, doesn?tit??

?Yes. There are several layers of it,? saidCalcifer.

?Let?s get the dog part off anyway,? saidHowl.

Calcifer surged to a deep, roaring blue. Sophie, watchingprudently from the door of the broom cupboard, saw the shaggy dogshape fade away inside the man shape. It faded to dog again, thenback to man, blurred, then hardened. Finally, Howl and Michael wereeach holding the arm of a ginger-haired man in a crumpled brown suit.Sophie was not surprised she had not recognized him. Apart from hisanxious look, his face was almost totally lacking in personality.

?Now, who are you, my friend?? Howl asked him.

The man put his hands up and shakily felt his face.?I-I?m not sure.?

Calcifer said, ?The most recent name he answered to wasPercival.?

The man looked at Calcifer as if he wished Calcifer did not knowthis. ?Did I?? he said.

?Then we?ll call you Percival for now,? Howlsaid. He turned the ex-dog round and sat him in the chair. ?Sitthere and take it easy, and tell us what you do remember. By the feelof you, the Witch had you for some time.?

?Yes,? said Percival, rubbing his face again.?She took my head off. I-I remember being on a shelf, lookingat the rest of me.?

Michael was astonished. ?But you?d be dead!? heprotested.

?Not necessarily,? said Howl. ?You haven?tgotten to that sort of witchcraft yet, but I could take any piece ofyou I wanted and leave the rest of you alive, if I went about it theright way.? He frowned at the ex-dog. ?But I?m notsure the Witch put this one back together properly.?

Calcifer, who was obviously trying to prove that he was workinghard for Howl, said, ?This man is incomplete, and he has partsfrom some other man.?

Percival looked more distraught than ever.

?Don?t alarm him, Calcifer,? Howl said.?He must feel bad enough anyway. Do you know why the Witch tookyour head off, my friend?? he asked Percival.

?No,? said Percival. ?I don?t rememberanything.?

Michael was suddenly seized with the most exciting idea. He leanedover Percival and asked, ?Did you ever answer to the name ofJustin?or Your Royal Highness??

Sophie snorted again. She knew this was ridiculous even beforePercival said, ?No, the Witch called me Gaston, but thatisn?t my name.?

?Don?t crowd him, Michael,? said Howl.?And don?t make Sophie snort again. In the moodshe?s in, she?ll bring down the castle nexttime.?

Though that seemed to mean Howl was no longer angry, Sophie foundshe was angrier than ever. She stumped off into the shop, where shebanged about, shutting the shop and putting things away for thenight. She went to look at her daffodils. Something had gone horriblywrong with them. They were wet brown things trailing out of a bucketfull of the poisonous-smelling liquid she had ever come across.

?Oh, confound it all!? Sophie yelled.

?What?s all this, now?? said Howl, arriving inthe shop. He bent over the bucket and sniffed. ?You seem tohave some rather efficient weed-killer here. How about trying it onthose weeds on the drive of the mansion??

?I will,? said Sophie. ?I feel like killingsomething!? She slammed around until she had found a wateringcan, and stumped through into the castle with the can and the bucket,where she hurled open the door, orange-down, onto the mansion drive.Percival looked up anxiously. They had given him the guitar, ratheras you gave a baby a rattle, and he was sitting making horribletwangings.

?You go with her, Percival,? Howl said. ?Themood she?s in she?ll be killing all the treestoo.?

So Percival laid down the guitar and took the bucket carefully out of Sophie?s hand. Sophie stumped out into a golden summer evening at the end of the valley. Everyone had been much too busy up to now to pay much attention to the mansion. It was much grander than Sophie had realized. It had a weedy terrace with statues along the edge, and steps down to the drive. When Sophie looked back?on the pretext of telling Percival to hurry up?she saw the house was very big, with more statues along the roof, and rows of windows. But it was derelict. Green mildew ran down the peeling wall from every window. Many of the windows were broken, and the shutters that should have folded against the walls beside them were gray and blistered and hanging sideways.

?Huh!? said Sophie. ?I think the least Howlcould do is to make the place look a bit more lived in. But no!He?s far too busy gadding off to Wales! Don?t just standthere, Percival! Pour some of that stuff into the can and then comealong behind me.

Percival meekly did as she said. He was no fun at all to bully.Sophie suspected that was why Howl had sent him with her. Shesnorted, and took her anger out on the weeds. Whatever the stuff wasthat killed the daffodils, it was strong. The weeds in the drive diedas soon as it touched them. So did the grass at the sides of thedrive, until Sophie calmed down a little, the evening calmed her. Thefresh air was blowing off the distant hills, and clumps of treesplanted at the sides of the drive rustled majestically in it.

Sophie weed-killed her way down a quarter of the drive. ?Youremember a great deal more than you let on,? she accusedPercival while he refilled her can. ?What did the Witch reallywant with you? Why did she bring you into the shop with her thattime??

?She wanted to find out about Howl,? Percivalsaid.

?Howl?? said Sophie. ?But you didn?t knowhim, did you??

?No, but I must have known something. It had to do with thecurse she?d put on him,? Percival explained, ?butI?ve no idea what it was. She took it, you see, after we cameto the shop. I feel bad about that. I was trying to stop her knowing,because a curse is an evil thing, and I did it by thinking aboutLettie. Lettie was just in my head. I don?t know how I knewher, because Lettie said she?d never seen me when I went toUpper Folding. But I knew all about her?enough so that when the Witchmade me tell her about Lettie, I said she kept a hat shop in MarketChipping. So the Witch went there to teach us both a lesson. And youwere there. She thought you were Lettie. I was horrified, because Ididn?t know Lettie had a sister.?

Sophie picked up the can and weed-killed generously, wishing theweeds were the Witch. ?And she turned you into a dog straightafter that??

?Just outside the town,? said Percival. ?As soonas I?d let her know what she wanted, she opened the carriagedoor and said, ?Off you run. I?ll call you when I needyou.? And I ran, because I could feel some sort of spellfollowing me. It caught up with me just as I?d got to a farm,and the people there saw me change into a dog and thought I was awerewolf and tried to kill me. I had to bite one to get away. But Icouldn?t get rid of the stick, and it stuck in the hedge when Itried to get through.?

Sophie weed-killed her way down anther curve of the drive as shelistened. ?Then you went to Mrs. Fairfax?s??

?Yes, I was looking for Lettie. They were both very kind tome,? Percival said, ?even though they?d never seenme before. And Wizard Howl kept visiting to court Lettie. Lettiedidn?t want him, and she asked me to bite him to get rid ofhim, until Howl suddenly began asking her about you and??

Sophie narrowly missed weed-killing her shoes. Since the gravelwas smoking where the stuff met it, this was probably just as well.?What? ?

?He said, ?I know someone called Sophie who looks alittle like you.? And Lettie said, ?That?s mysister,? without thinking,? Percival said. ?And shegot terribly worried then, particularly as Howl went on asking abouther sister. Lettie said she could have bitten her tongue off. The dayyou came there, she was being nice to Howl in order to find out howhe knew you. Howl said you were an old woman. And Mrs. Fairfax saidshe?d seen you. Lettie cried and cried. She said,?Something terrible has happened to Sophie! And the worst of itis she?ll think she?s safe from Howl. Sophie?s tookind herself to see how heartless Howl is!? And she was soupset that I managed to turn into a man long enough to say I?dgo and keep an eye on you.?

Sophie spread weed-killer in a great, smoking arc. ?BotherLettie! It?s very kind of her and I love her dearly for it.I?ve been quite as worried about her. But I do not needa watch dog!?

?Yes you do,? said Percival. ?Or you did. Iarrived far too late.?

Sophie swung round, weed-killer and all. Percival had to leap intothe grass and run for his life behind the nearest tree. The grassdied in a long brown swathe behind him as he ran. ?Curseeveryone!? Sophie cried out. ?I?ve done with thelot of you!? She dumped the smoking watering can in the middleof the drive and marched off through the weeds toward the stonegateway. ?Too late!? she muttered as she marched.?What nonsense! Howl?s not only heartless, he?s impossible! Besides,? she added, ?I am an oldwoman.?

But she could not deny that something had been wrong ever sincethe moving castle moved, or even before that. And it seemed to tie upwith the way Sophie seemed to mysteriously unable to face either ofher sisters.

?And all the things I told the King are true! ?she went on. She was going to march seven leagues on her own two feetand not come back. Show everyone! Who cared that poor Mrs.Pentstemmon had relied on Sophie to stop Howl from going to the bad!Sophie was a failure anyway. It came of being the eldest. And Mrs.Pentstemmon had thought Sophie was Howl?s loving old motheranyway. Hadn?t she? Or had she? Uneasily, Sophierealized that a lady whose trained eye could detect a charm sewn intoa suit could surely even more easily detect the stronger magic of theWitch?s spell.

?Oh, confound that gray-and-scarlet suit!? Sophiesaid. ?I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caughtwith it!? The trouble was the blue-and-silver suit seemed tohave worked just the same. She stumped a few steps further.?Anyway,? she said with great relief, ?Howldoesn?t like me!?

This reassuring thought would have been enough to keep Sophiewalking all night, had not a sudden familiar uneasiness swept overher. Her ears had caught a distant tock, tock, tock. She lookedsharply under the low sun. And there, on the road which wound awaybehind the stone gate, was a distant figure with outstretched arms,hopping, hopping.

Sophie picked up her skirts, whirled around, and sped back the wayshe had come. Dust and gravel flew up round her in clouds. Percivalwas standing forlornly in the drive beside the bucket and thewatering can. Sophie seized him and dragged him behind the nearesttree.

?Is something wrong?? he said.

?Quiet! It?s that dratted scarecrow again,?Sophie gasped. She shut her eyes. ?We?re not here,?she said. ?You can?t find us. Go away. Go away fast,fast, fast!?

?But why??? said Percival.

?Shut up! Not here, not here, not here!? Sophie saiddesperately. She opened one eye. The scarecrow, almost between thegateposts, was standing still, swaying uncertainly.?That?s right,? said Sophie. ?We?re nothere. Go away fast. Twice as fast, three times as fast, ten times asfast. Go away! ?

And the scarecrow hesitantly swayed round on its stick and beganto hop back up the road. After the first few hops it was going ingiant leaps, faster and faster, just as Sophie had told it to. Sophiehardly breathed, and did not let go of Percival?s sleeve untilthe scarecrow was out of sight.

?What?s wrong with it?? said Percival.?Why didn?t you want it??

Sophie shuddered. Since the scarecrow was out on the road, she didnot dare leave now. She picked up the watering can and stumped backto the mansion. A fluttering caught her eye as she went. She lookedup at the building. The flutter was from long white curtains blowingfrom an open French window beyond the statues of the terrace. Thestatues were now clean white stone, and she could see curtains atmost of the windows, and glass too. The shutters were now foldedproperly beside them, newly painted white. Not a green stain nor ablister marked the new creamy plaster of the house front. The frontdoor was a masterpiece of black paint and gold scrollwork, centeringon a gilded lion with a ring in its mouth for a doorknocker.

?Huh!? said Sophie.

She resisted the temptation to go in through the open window andexplore. That was what Howl wanted her to do. She marched straight tothe front door, seized the golden doorknob, and threw the door openwith a crash. Howl and Michael were at the bench hastily dismantlinga spell. Part of it must have been to change the mansion, but therest, as Sophie well knew, had to be a listening-in spell of somekind. As Sophie stormed in, both their faces shot nervously roundtoward her. Calcifer instantly plunged down under his logs.

?Keep behind me, Michael,? said Howl.

?Eavesdropper!? Sophie shouted.?Snooper!?

?What?s wrong?? Howl said. ?Do you wantthe shutters black and gold too??

?You barefaced?? Sophie stuttered. ?Thatwasn?t the only thing you heard! You?you?How long have youknown I was?I am???

?Under a spell?? said Howl. ?Well,now??

?I told him,? Michael said, looking nervously roundHowl. ?My Lettie??

?You!? Sophie shrieked.

?The other Lettie let the cat out of the bag too,?Howl said quickly. ?You know she did. And Mrs. Fairfax talked agreat deal that day. There was a time when everyone seemed to betelling me. Even Calcifer did?when I asked him. But did you honestlythink I don?t know my own business well enough not to spot astrong spell like that when I see it? I had several goes at taking itoff you when you weren?t looking. But nothing seems to work. Itook you to Mrs. Pentstemmon, hoping she could do something, but sheevidently couldn?t. I came to the conclusion that you likedbeing in disguise.?

?Disguise! ?Sophie yelled.

Howl laughed at her. ?It must be, since you?re doingit yourself,? he said. ?What a strange family you are! Isyour name really Lettie too??

This was too much for Sophie. Percival edged nervously in justthen, carrying the half-full bucket of weed-killer. Sophie droppedher can, seized the bucket from him, and threw it at Howl. Howlducked. Michael dodged the bucket. The weed-killer went up in a sheetof sizzling green flame from floor to ceiling. The bucket clangedinto the sink, where all the remaining flowers died instantly.

?Ow!? said Calcifer from under his logs. ?Thatwas strong.?

Howl carefully picked the skull out from under the smoking brownremains of the flowers and dried it on one of his sleeves. ?Ofcourse it was strong,? he said. ?Sophie never does thingsby halves.? The skull, as Howl wiped it, became bright newwhite, and the sleeve he was using developed a faded blue-and-silverpatch. Howl set the skull on the bench and looked at his sleeveruefully.

Sophie had half a mind to stump straight out of the castle again,and away down the drive. But there was that scarecrow. She settledfor stumping to the chair instead, where she sat and fell into a deepsulk. I?m not going to speak to any of them! she thought.

?Sophie,? Howl said, ?I did my best.Haven?t you noticed that your aches and pains have been betterlately? Or do you enjoy having those too?? Sophie did notanswer. Howl gave her up and turned to Percival. ?I?mglad to see you have some brain after all,? he said. ?Youhad me worried.?

?I really don?t remember very much,? Percivalsaid. But he stopped behaving like a half-wit. He picked the guitarup and tuned it. He had it sounding much nicer in seconds.

?My sorrow revealed,? Howl said pathetically. ?I wasborn an unmusical Welshman. Did you tell Sophie all of it? Or do youreally know what the Witch was trying to find out??

?She wanted to know about Wales,? said Percival.

?I thought that was it,? Howl said soberly. ?Ah,well.? He went away into the bathroom, where he was gone forthe next two hours. During that time Percival played a number oftunes on the guitar in a slow, thoughtful way, as if he was teachinghimself how to, while Michael crawled about the floor with a smokingrag, trying to get rid of the weed-killer. Sophie sat in the chairand said not a word. Calcifer kept bobbing up and peeping at her, andgoing down again under his logs.

Howl came out of the bathroom with his suit glossy black, his hairglossy white, in a cloud of steam smelling of gentians. ?I maybe back quite late,? he said to Michael. ?It?sgoing to be Midsummer Day after midnight, and the Witch may well trysomething. So keep all the defenses up, and remember all I told you,please.?

?All right,? Michael said, putting the steamingremains of the rag in the sink.

Howl turned to Percival. ?I think I know what?shappened to you,? he said. ?It?s going to be a fairjob sorting you out, but I?ll have a go tomorrow after I getback.? Howl went to the door and stopped with this hand stillon the knob. ?Sophie, are you still not talking to me??he asked miserably.

Sophie knew Howl could sound unhappy in heaven if it suited him.And he had just used her to get information out of Percival.?No!? she snarled.

Howl sighed and went out. Sophie looked up and saw that the knobwas pointing black-down. That does it! she thought. I don?tcare if it is Midsummer Day tomorrow! I?m leaving.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 99