Howl's Moving Castle Part 2

In the last post, I described the beginning of Howl's Moving Castle. So now, here is part 2. Enjoy. :)

Sophie wakes up by daylight, and sees how incredibly dirty the room is. The view outside the window is of a street with an unpaved road and poor-looking houses. Michael offers her a cold breakfast, saying Howl is the only one Calcifer allows to cook food over the fire. Sophie threatens Cacifer that she'l break their bargain, and Calcifer yields. Howl arrives, and he turns out to be th blond young man in the blue and silver outfit that Sophie had run into, though Howl doesn't recognize her since she is old now. Howl remarks "Not many people can do that," when he sees Sophie cooking over the fire. This seems to hint of the hidden potential that Sophie has inside her. Howl isn't wicked as the myths about him say. Sophie tells Howl that she is the new cleaning lady and that she will be staying at the castle for about a month. Sophie learns that the front door's knob can be adjusted to go to four different places: two cities, Porthaven and Kingsbury, wherever the castle is llocated, and an unknown place. In the two cities, from the outside the castle is a magician's house.

Sophie starts cleaning, and isn't fearful of Howl getting annoyed at her. Sophie realizes that her attitude has changed a lot since the spell was cast on her. "It was odd. As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. she found that a great relief." (p. 83) Sophie is taking advantage of becoming pretty much a different person bybecoming the person she is naturally.

Howl ignores Sophie, Michael says this is because he is busy trying to make a girl fall in love with him. Howl has a foolish habit of making girls fall in love with him, then ditching them. Howl is after Lettie Hatter, though it's actually Martha in disguise, and Sophie is quite annoyed with him. She hopes to be able to tell Martha about Howl. Later, when Howl and Michael have left, Sophie hears a knock on the door. It's coming from outside the moving castle. Opening the door, Sophie sees the turnip-faced scarecrow. It's running after the castle, trying to get inside!

To be continued next week. :)