The Very Little Princess: Zoey's Story Read Online Free PDF

pink dress.
    This particular giant girl made an especially obedient servant. Princess Regina was glad about that. Some of the servants she’d had in the past had not always been quite so willing.
    Regina frowned and shook her head thinking about those girls.
    But then she looked about again and smiled once more.
    At the dancing leaves.
    At the glimmering sunlight.
    At her mossy throne.
    Silence wrapped her like a comforting quilt. At least the silence would have beencomforting if she hadn’t been growing a bit uneasy.

    A light breeze riffled the lacy walls of her throne room, making only the faintest whisper. A disagreeably large bee bumbled by. It buzzed in front of Regina’s face for an instant. Then, realizing its mistake, it moved on.
    Leaving Regina alone.
    Entirely alone.
    She squirmed on her throne. Surely herservant didn’t need to take so long at her task!
    What was this giant girl’s name, anyway?
Oh … that’s right. Zoey
.
    Zoey should have been back by now.
    When the girl did come back, she was going to get a good scolding for being gone so long. Not a severe one. Regina didn’t want to see more of those messy tears. But she would certainly be firm.
    After all, why should anyone need this much time just to gather a few flowers?
    Unless …
    Unless …
    Unless she didn’t intend to come back!
    Regina frowned again and tried to peer through the wall of leaves.
    Where was Zoey, anyway? How could she be so thoughtless as to go off and leave her for so long?
    So thoughtless and so cruel.
    Now, you and I know Zoey. We know perfectly well that she would never go off and leave a doll that had just sneezed in her hand. If she is taking a long time—and she is—it’s because she wants to do an exceptional job of pleasing the princess. Or because something else has called her away for a time. Or both.
    But Princess Regina didn’t yet know Zoey as well as we do. And besides, she had her own reasons for suspicion.
    She remembered another giant girl.
    Her name was Rose, and one of the things the princess remembered about Rose was that she was a fantastic playmate.
    She carried Regina with her everywhere, and together they always had the finest adventures. Rose climbed trees and waded in thecreek in the woods and spun her bicycle in the gravel road. She danced to any music that floated by on the air, and once, under a full moon, she even slipped out of her bedroom window and scooted down the rose trellis to dance in the silent moonlight.
    Rose had been more fun than any girl the little doll had ever known, and most of the time she kept the tiny doll close … in a pocket or tied on a ribbon around her neck, or sometimes just cupped in her hand.
    Except that sometimes—Princess Regina never quite understood how it happened—sometimes, Rose forgot. About Princess Regina, that is.
    And when she forgot, she simply disappeared.
    Vanished!
    So that Princess Regina would find herself in the crack between the couch cushions, oron the damp basement floor, or even sitting on a clod of dirt in the garden … alone.
    Once the princess sat on her mossy throne beneath the weeping willow tree and watched the light fade in the lacy leaves. She watched the dark gobble up everything, the leaves, her mossy throne, even her own hands clenched in her lap.
    When such a thing happened, Princess Regina became angry. Utterly furious. Then she grew frightened.
    And then she went still.
    First she’d feel alone in the world. And then she would feel nothing at all … until she found herself again in the hands of a giant girl, a giant
weeping
girl.
    Princess Regina had never understood why being able to move and see and hear sometimes slipped away from her or what made her come awake again. But she was sure of one thing—when she was left alone for too long, it happened.
    Her breath would begin to come in short gasps.
    The way it was coming now.
    Her arms and legs would tingle.
    Just as they were tingling now.
    Her whole body would start