The King of the Hummingbirds Read Online Free Page B

to his bed with a book.
    Weeks passed. All he did with the rose was look at it sometimes in the morning and sigh a little, thinking how he’d missed out on marrying the nicest girl in all the kingdom. The elves shook their heads.
    â€œI’d have sworn he’d take it to the princess,” said the king of the elves.
    â€œWell, you were wrong,” said the queen. “You and your ideas.”
    â€œWell, you went along with it,” said the king. “You didn’t believe me you should have said no. You think I’m God, maybe?”
    â€œ Oy vay ,” said the queen. “Always God. All he can talk about is God. He should have been a rabbi.”
    For two weeks after that they didn’t speak.
    But the rose never withered, because of the magical dewdrop, which was really the pear tree, the most beautiful pear tree in the world. Eventually Eddie noticed this. “Funny rose,” he said to himself, and interlaced his fingers. The next morning he looked again, and still no withering. He decided to give it to the princess, for no special reason. He was in love.
    He said, “Hey, Papa, I have to run over to the castle.”
    â€œCastle, Eddie?” his papa said.
    â€œOh, I got this funny rose,” Eddie said. “I thought I’d give it to the princess.”
    â€œThat’s a good boy,” Eddie’s papa said. “She’ll like it.”
    So he went to the castle, and the elves all rode in his hair, as light as feathers.
    The guards said, “You want something, man?”
    â€œI’ll tell you,” Eddie said, removing his glasses. “I picked up this funny rose somewhere. What’s interesting about it is, it never seems to wither. Funny?”
    â€œFunny, sure,” the guards said. “How we know you telling the truth?”
    Eddie thought about it, then he shrugged. “So keep it awhile,” he said. And he gave it to the guards at the gate and walked back home.
    The queen of the elves said, “This kid’s a loser. Why didn’t we leave her have the knight with the yellow-gold clothes?”
    â€œPah,” said the king of the elves, “better the merchant. Security. What do you think it would be like, living with a knight. Always away on the road someplace. No, better a good, steady merchant.”
    â€œEch,” said the queen. “He was too old. Better the poet, except he was a string bean.”
    â€œEddie’s fat,” the king said happily.
    â€œThat’s true,” said the queen, softening. “Make somebody a good husband.”
    Two or three weeks later, Eddie went back to the castle and said, “How’d it turn out, man?”
    The guards looked at each other and shrugged.
    â€œYou know,” Eddie said, “the rose.”
    Still they looked blank. “You sure it’s one of us you talked to, not the cat that works nights?”
    Eddie laughed. “Hey come on, you guys, don’t kid around. You got my rose someplace?”
    â€œMan, if there was a rose around here we’d see it, you dig? Look how clean we keep it.” They waved for him to look around the gatehouse. But the elves slipped the rose from under the visitors’ book up onto the top of the table and Eddie saw it. It was smashed a little from being under the book, but it still wasn’t withered.
    â€œOh, there it is,” Eddie said. “Good as new, too. Mind if I take it to the princess?”
    â€œYou kidding?” the guards said. “Tonight’s her wedding night.”
    Eddie looked horrified, his eyes as round as his glasses, and so the guards took pity on him.
    â€œDude came along with this pear,” the guards said. “It wasn’t much, you ask me. But the king was bored with the whole thing, so he decided to allow it. It’s a crying shame, you ask me , brother. This dude that got her, he looks like a bear in clothes.”
    â€œ Oy! ” Eddie said. He