“Fairness doesn’t enter into it,” Edvard told her. “In life, sometimes you have to kill in order to survive.”

“But we don’t have to kill it,” she said. “We can eat turnip soup again tonight—I don’t mind!”

And then she collapsed in front of the goose’s cage and began to weep.

At another time in Edvard’s life, he might have scolded his daughter and lectured her about the perils of softheartedness—but now he remembered his son.

“Oh, all right, 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.”