Rapunzel

By Cheyenne Bourdeau

People love to say I stole her. They whisper it in the marketplace when I pass by, gripping their basket of apples. They say it like they know the whole story. Like they were there the night her parents were pounding on the door. Except they weren’t.

The night Rapunzel was born, the wind got stronger as if it were giving a warning. I remember because I just finished my garden. The plants I had in my garden weren’t ordinary plants, but each leaf and root carried a whisper of magic.

Her father came in shaking. “My wife is dying,” he said while his voice cracked.

“The plants you have will save me,” the queen cried out.

I folded my arms. “And you think stealing from me will fix that? ”

He looked down at his boots instead of my eyes. That told me everything. They stole from me anyway. Night after night I watched them. I watched them from my window as he climbed up the wall, but magic is not free.

When I confronted them, the queen begged, “Take anything, gold and jewels.”

“I don’t want your jewels,” I said quietly. “When the child is born, she belongs to me.”

Rapunzel was small when I first held her. She gripped my fingers so tightly I almost laughed. The kingdom was no place for a child like her. There was magic in her. Her hair shimmered lightly gold. I built the tower far from the Kingdom walls. There were no doors or strangers. There were just windows and sky. She was safe.

“Why can’t I just go outside? ” Rapunzel asked while her hands were on the glass.

“Because the world is hungry,” I said. She would cross her arms.

“I’m not food,” Rapunzel said.

“You’d be surprised if you walked out of this tower and the whole world saw you,” I said to myself quietly. I would teach her how to read. Every time I brushed her hair, it would glow.

“Mother, why does it sparkle like that?” Rapunzel asked.

“Your hair has a special meaning, and anything special must be hidden,” I said.

The day he came, I felt a shift in the air. I could feel his footsteps going around the tower.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

She gasped. “Mother, someone knows my name!”

I grabbed her shoulders. “Did you speak to anyone?” She hesitated to answer, so I knew she did. “You,” I said, my voice cold. 

He walked into the tower, up the stairs, into Rapunzel’s room. “I mean no harm,” the prince said.

“That’s what they all say.” I scoffed. Rapunzel stood between us.

“He listens to me, Mother. He said he isn’t as bad as you say he is.” The prince gave his hand to her.  “Come with me, you deserve more than these walls.”

“You don’t understand what she is,” I said to the prince.

“I don’t care,” he said. But he would care. When soldiers dragged her through the palace halls. When people whispered about her glowing hair. When someone knew it healed wounds, youth, and got rid of decay. Magic will never be secret in a kingdom built on power. 

I turned to Rapunzel, “If you leave with him, they will use you.”

“They won’t, he won’t let them,” she said. 

The prince gave a look as if he was offended.“I would protect her with all my life.” 

“That’s the problem, it would take your life,” I said quietly. But she still chose him. 

I wish I had blessed her and stepped aside, but I didn’t. The prince cut her hair to free her from her mother. Her hair started to glow as if it was trying to tell him something. The vines went through the walls and even wrapped around him because he destroyed the magic of her long hair. Rapunzel fell to her knees while holding the strands of hair that were turning brown. “You ruined everything,” she whispered. 

“No, I saved you,” the prince said to her.  He looked over at her and realized he saw something he didn’t plan for. Without the glow of her hair, there was no magic.

“I’m leaving with or without you,” Rapunzel said. 

For the first time in years, I had no spell to fix the damage he did to her hair. He had no words left to say. 

People said the prince was blinded by the thorns that came out with the vines because he broke the magic her hair carried. The soldiers found her again. They used her tears to try to give the prince his vision back. 

The magic never left the kingdom she was in. Her hair started to grow and glow the same way it did before. Rapunzel and the queen used the plants to give her hair the magic it had before. Rapunzel and the prince got married behind my back, weeks after I drove them away for cutting her hair.