RAPUNZEL

 

They say that the apple don’t fall far from the tree. Listen to my sad tale and you will see the truth in that particular saying.

 

This tale starts and ends in my garden. You’d think it was the Garden of Eden to cause such a ruckus. I do keep a nice garden though and my specialty, leafy lettuces to make real tasty salads, stand out like jewels of my oasis. Of all the different ones i grew, rapunzel easily are my favorite: dark, soft, a nutty flavor, so delicious! Where I live there roam so many deer that the  normal fencing around the garden didn’t stop the deer from jumping over  like it wasn’t even there so they could graze to their hearts delight. Imagine coming out to gather my favorite rapunzel and find it nibbled right down to the ground! I felt angry and disappointed! 

 

The next day I  built a high stone wall. It was so high that the deer would stand looking up at it, but never even waste time trying to jump over it. My garden may look like a fortress but now it’s safe from the herds of deer.

 

I love my garden and almost didn’t mind the high wall and all the no trespassing signs I put up around it’s perimeter. After all, once inside the rest of the world disappears and I relax, alone with my vegetables and fruits. Their smells and shapes make me happy!

 

Since I alone planted and cared for the garden i wanted all that I could harvest. After a while, no one even knew what was behind the walls, and while I would hear people speculating, none of them knew what was inside. 

 

None, that is, except one woman, my neighbor, who had one small window high up in her house overlooking my garden. This woman, it so happened, had been trying to have a baby for years and finally found herself in the family way.

 

As everyone knows, a pregnant woman often suffers from unusual urges, in some cases an endless supply of sour pickles, eaten with ice cream. For this woman, her urge, her consuming desire, is to eat a bowl of my rapunzel lettuce. This thought consumes her, she can do nothing other than look at the reddish plant and pine for it.She wants it so deeply, so desperately, that she can do nothing else, can’t wash herself, or eat,  or do anything except think and dream and want the rapunzel., After some time passes she becomes ill.

 

Her husband, a kind man, worries. She looks so sick that he becomes afraid she will die from wanting the rapunzel.

 

He decides he must act.

 

That same night, he walks to the garden wall with a long rope attached at one end to a big claw hook. He twirls and spins the hook, then throws the hook high into the air until it falls over the garden wall. He pulls on the rope, carefully, until it hooks onto the top of the garden wall. He tugs on it and it holds tight to the wall. With a sack in his pocket, he begins climbing up the rope, hand over hand pulling himself to the top. Once at the very top, he reverses the rope so that it hangs into the garden and he quickly rappels down the wall, releases the rope once his feet hit ground, and gathers as much rapunzel as will fit into his sack. He ties this to his waist and reverses the whole process, climbing up and over the wall, rappelling down the outside of the wall, then shaking the rope until the claw releases its hold and come tumbling back down to the ground, landing at his side.

 

Carrying everything inside his house, he rushes up to his wife, Excitedly he opens the sack and pulls out the rapunzel.

 

Her eyes light up, and with a joyous cry she leaps into his arms and buries his face with kisses, telling him how much she loves him and what a good husband he is.

 

Then she makes them a meal, the best either of them have had for months, with the centerpiece the beautiful reddish lettuce she had been obsessing over for days and weeks. Her sickly pallor fades instantly into blooming health and following dinner they spend a merry night in each others arms.   

 

They eat the rapunzel for the next month before they had eaten it all. 

Within days the wife starts whining and complaining that she misses her rapunzel so. Once again she stops eating and the sickly look returns to her face.

 

After days of this, the husband decides to do one more climb over the wall, imagining that he can gather enough rapunzel to satisfy her until after she has their baby, since then the funny cravings should disappear.

 

While all this is happening in their home next door to my garden, quite a different thing occurs in the garden.

 

The day after his first climb, I enter my garden using the large key I wear on a chain around my neck. Happy as can be, I hum an eerie melody, only to turn, look at the garden , and receive the shock of my life!

 

My rapunzel? Where is it? I look carefully and see footprints in the garden soil leading to and from the wall. A thief has found a way into my garden and stole all of my favorite reddish lettuce. By the size of the footprint, it looks to be a man. How did this happen? How could anyone be so cruel?

 

I sit down on the ground and think how to handle this situation. I realize that anyone who tastes the rapunzel will so enjoy it that they will want more. Therefore, the person is certain to return in a few weeks when the next crop will have replaced the stolen rapunzel.

 

Working under cover of darkest night, I build a hidden camp in a corner of the garden, and each day go through a charade of leaving, only to return unseen and hide in the camp. 

 

One night, I sit dozing lightly, when I hear a clanging sound. I look out into the garden but see nothing. Yet I am on full alert. I ready the rope I have prepared and settle back to wait. I hear more clanging and scraping, and realize it comes from the top of the garden wall. I look out carefully, still hidden, and scan the top of the wall. After a short while, I see what I think is a dark shape atop the wall. It moves around and soon, a rope drops from the wall top and reaches the ground. Almost immediately the man begins sliding down the rope toward my feet rapunzel.

 

One fact I have yet to reveal must be exposed now.

 

I am a witch.

 

Yes, the real thing, the long pointy nose, bone thin fingers, tall black hat wearing type you have seen drawn and described in stories going back for hundreds of years. My dear Mother, before she accompanied the head warlock to that “other” place, taught me well, spells and all sorts of magick, how to change my appearance, and all manner of witchcraft. 

 

As I approach the man, I draw on my various skills and make my eyes fiery red, stretch my skeleton  to more than two meters tall so I will tower over him, and change my hands into red and black claws. I move quietly, and as he lands inside the garden, rush toward him with a fiery shriek, shouting g “TTHHHEEEIIIFFF! I knew you’d return and now I have you! Ready for a life of misery and endless toil, you miserable man?”

 

He cowers beneath me, trembling. 

 

I know I was large, imposing, and fearsome. I screamed, “Admit your crime you putrid thief!”

 

He fell to his knees and began talking. “Oh fearsome witch, please don’t hurt me! I admit my crime, yet I acted not for me, but for true love.”  

 

“True love?” I think, noticing that, though frightened close to giving up his life, he retains a certain noble ness. That impresses me as I continue to listen.

 

“My wife became entranced by your rapunzel, and after trying to have a child for years, she was with child yet withered away before my eyes for want of rapunzel. Fearing that she and our unborn child would expire, I decided to climb the high wall and gather the rapunzel so that it may nourish them both, and I fed them. They recovered quickly, the rose color returning to her face and the baby kicking away in her belly. We were happy until the sweet red lettuce was gone, and then over time she began to lose her energy, the color left her face, and she spent day and night at the top window in our house looking down on the rapunzel in your garden.”

 

I step forward. “True love, you say?”

 

He nods vigorously.

 

“Man, you may have found your only path to survival. This love, is it for your wife, the babe to be, or both of them together?”

 

Without a pause he replies, “Fearful Witch, the answer to your question is complex. Of course I love my wife unquestioningly. I have since the moment I saw her across the well from me back 7 years ago. Yet now there is this wonder babe, and feeling it kick her belly brings a surge of affection, and warmth that I, if a person may be said to love a someone still unseen, love the babe with every fiber of my body.”

 

Again, I say “True love you say?” as I pace up and down in front of him.

 

Stopping right in front of him, I look down on this shaking, quaking person and speak. “Man, you have impressed me. That you would go to such ends for another shows you to be a rare empathetic man. It would be a crime to slay you and make you fertilizer for my garden, which was my original plan. Instead, I will let you live, and bring no harm to your wife, if, once your child enters the world, you hand the babe to me, to raise as my own. Will you agree to that?”

 

“Fearsome Witch, to lose our babe will be a wrenching moment, yet I have wronged you and accept my fate. I will close the window looking into your garden so none may ever look in and covet what you grow. With my wife we will endeavor to have another child, and will wish you and the babe well.”

 

This man moved me, and I thought that, had I wanted or needed a man, he is the sort I would hope to find.

 

“Man, further, let us gather the rapunzel that grows here and split it into two piles, one for each of us. Go to your wife; care for her as you will, only do not forget our agreement.”

 

“You are as kind as you are fearsome. I promise you shall, provided the babe arrives healthy into our world, have it as your child. May I ask one thing further?”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

He paused before talking. “Witch, I should like to see this child as it grows. Could you accept me as a visitor once yearly? It would break my heart to never see the child knowing it walked the earth.”

 

“Granted. One day per year.”

 

With that, we gathered our wares and left through the door.

 

The man returns home where he and his wife eat the rapunzel. She recovers and soon songs of happiness echo through the house, leading quickly to the arrival of midwife with the babes birth near at hand. The midwife performs her duties and brings the most beautiful babe into the world.

 

However, I had instructed the midwife to not wake the babe into voice, so that we could tell my wife that the babe did not survive the passage into our world. The rigors of childbirth had exhausted my wife who slept deeply and soon I arrived for the child.

 

She was indeed a beautiful baby, full of cheek, with sparking eyes and a shock of golden hair already the length of her back.

 

I took her to my castle far away, and raised her as a young Witch. We spent day upon day together, and I endeavored to teach her all I knew. She learned eagerly, and in many subjects became very proficient quickly. Yet a problem arose. This child showed no capacity for magick, or spells, or any of the tools or ways of Witchery. 

 

Instead, she excels at cooking delightful meals, singing in a beautiful voice, and drawing pictures of the plants and animals around the castle that are so lifelike, the animals stand confused before the sketches, not knowing if they or the drawing were real. When she sings, she brushes her long long golden crown of hair with 

 

When she sings, her voice rings and bounces from tree to tree across the forest so that it could be heard by people far and near. So lovely the sound, that those who heard its fulfillment of titling melodies were drawn to find the source, and a small group of people, chiefly boys, gathered daily at the castle gate, where they ring the bell and make every type of excuse and reasoned plea to be the person to meet the obviously charmed singer.

 

Of course the Witch never allowed this, and the girl, who saw this growing crowd at the gate from high windows of the castle, wondered aloud why they gathered, and asked if she couldn’t entertain them inside the castle. Of course that was the last thing the Witch would want or allow, but, being suspicious and worrisome, the Witch decided taking action preferable to waiting for some chance event that would throw her lovely daughter among the temptations of her admirers.

 

On the far reaches of my estate I build a single tower, tall and smooth walled, with one door at the bottom. Inside I made the most comfortable home I could imagine, and, once finished, i ushered my daughter from my castle to the tower. We went inside and I settled her in her new home. While inside, I had workers standing by, and they walled over the door so that no person would ever know one existed. After several days, I had business to take care of at my castle and needed to return there.

 

I sat down with my daughter in the high room at the very top. The room was lovely and had a view through the window, where one could see for miles and miles, mountains, rolling hills, a distant lake.

 

“My love, I have something for you.”

 

She answered, “What is it Mother dear? A new dress? A brush for my long luxurious hair?”

 

“No daughter, here.” I handed her a medium sized box. “Open it carefully.’

 

She did so and pulled out the most beautiful white Balinese cat, which immediately purred as she picked it up.

 

“Oh Mother it is beautiful! And it’s hair is light and shiny like mine! Thank you so much!”

 

“Daughter, she will be your companion. I must leave today, yet will return as I am able. You will find that food will always appear in your pantry; that your water pitchers will forever refill themselves, your piano will always stay in tune, and you will be safe from all things, from storms, or evil of any type. While I must leave, I look forward to returning and a joyous reunion. Only one thing child; know this. There is no way into your tower, save the magick of your hair.”

 

“What Mother? What do you mean?”

 

“Dear, when I return, I will stand beneath your window and call out to you, ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair’. When I do, wrap your hair around this hook which will hold your hair firm, and throw it out the window. I will climb up it, in your window, and happily be with you again. Then pull it back inside and you will stay safe. With so many evils in the world, only throw down your hair when you hear me call out as I have told you. Understand?”

 

“Yes Mother. Oh Mother, thank you for my kitty, and please do hurry back. I will miss you so!”

 

With that, Rapunzel threw her hair out the window, I climbed out, watched as she pulled it back into her room, and then made my way to my castle.

 

The cat moves forward and rises until it stands erect on its back legs and speaks. “Yass, Witch here assigned me to watch over things.”

 

“Punzel had no idea that I was not your average ordinary cat.”

 

As Kitty says this, the Witch cackles, her face almost split open with a salacious mirthful grin. The Witch interrupts, “To this day she has no idea how I know what I know!”

 

Kitty again. “She sang, that one. Every day from sun up to sun down. You’d a thought we lived in a karaoke bar. At least she sang decently, though if I never hear BLEEDING LOVE again it will be too soon. All day every day Punnzie sang, played piano, we ate. Some days she pulled me onto her lap and rubbed me right here behind my ear. Right here; feel free to try!  We’d sit like that, her singin’ ‘n’ scratchin’ for hours, which I didn’t mind at all!

 

Then one day we heard a voice calling to us. We went to the window and there, down on the ground, stood this magnificent creature, calling up to us. “Hello”, it called, “May I come in? You sing so beautifully that I have followed the sound up mountains, across a lake and through the woods, where  I came upon your tower.”

 

“Come in?” Punzel asked. “I don’t know how any creature does that.”

 

“Isn’t there a door? Open it. Please Miss, for I am tired.”

 

Punzel peered over the window frame then whispered to me, “Kitty, there is something about this creature that makes my heart race. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

 

Since Witch here forbade my talking to Punzel, I simply looked at her, trying to make my eyes say ‘walk away from the window.’ I knew that would be Witch’s desire.

 

Punzel stayed, to my chagrin. She talked with the creature for some time. As they talked the room filled with lightness. After a while the sun dropped from the sky and the creature departed, yet not before promising to return the next day and the one after. 

 

It proved as good as its word, and the next day arrived early. After calling up, Punzie and the creature talked and talked, even sang songs together, all day long. This continued day after day, until one day, as they spoke, the creature said, “Someone comes. I must hide myself.”

 

It was Witch. As she arrived, she shouted out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” Punzie would untie the knots keeping her hair on her head and threw the hair out the window after anchoring it on the hook. Witch clambered up the hair, which, with its twists and tangles, provided an easy ladder to use in scaling the wall and entering the tower.

 

Witch stayed with us for two days, during that time she ignored me entirely. I tried to get her attention, but she focused on Punzie and had no time for me. As she left, I thought, “you’ll be sorry for ignoring me. This I know.”

 

The very next day, early in the morning, we heard “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, throw down your hair.”

 

As she was taught, Rapunzel did so, only to receive the shock of her life when the creature tumbled in the window.

 

It straightened up.

 

“There now, this is better.” It said. On seeing each other, the two stood open mouthed, slowly circling each other to see everything of the other.

 

“What are you?” asked Punzie. 

 

“Why I am a man. And you are a woman. And that is a kitty cat.”

 

Punzie was clearly impressed. She said “How marvelous!”

 

They talked and laughed and talked more until the end of day drew near, when the man asked Punzie to let down her hair, and he, after promising to return the next day, climbed out and went home to his own castle. All that night Punzie floated around the tower. I have never seen her so happy. She prattled on to me how nice he was, and how much fun she had, much more than with Witch. Eventually she remembered to feed me a bowl of milk, ate a little while sitting aside me, and, both sated she wandered dreamily to her bed, where she fell into a deep contented sleep. Following her, I tucked into the covers and coverlets, nestling into a warm spot next to her, where I also fell into a deep sleep.

 

The next day was much like the last, as they talked and talked. He found her charming and simple, not in a bad way, but as a naive person, one who knows so little of the world, yet with a good heart. She found him to be witty, smart, and he impressed her with how he knew the wide world from travels to distant lands. He sings songs with strange but enchanting rhythms, and told stories of great seas and high high mountains, many times those surrounding the Tower. 

 

As the sun sunk low the sky filled with bands of red and deep pinks with orange elements mixed in. The sun had nearly descended from the sky and just as the man was about to leave, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Punzie’s. They stayed like that a long time, and made many funny odd sounds as they did. When they parted, each breathed hard, standing looking at the other with widened eyes. The man left moving strangely, as if he were sleep walking. Again, before climbing down her hair,  he promised to return the next day.

 

It was on that next day, and for several days afterward, when they began by touching lips, and they would spend each day by themselves in Punzie’s bed.

 

Before long, she started acting oddly and then one day as the man approached the castle, he saw Witch and hid so she would not see him. She called out “Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair and of course, out it came”. She climbed up Punzie’s hair, took one look at her, grew immediately furious and started firing questions at the girl.

 

“Rapunzel, you seem a little heavy. Have you been eating a lot?”

 

“No Mother Witch, I have not been eating a lot. In fact, many days I am sick to my stomach for no reason and I eat very little.”

 

“Rapunzel, did you wash your clothes in hot water so that they have shrunken on you?”

 

“No Mother Witch, I wash my clothes in cold water only, but it does seem they have shrunk, because they are tight on me here, and here, and here.”

 

Looking around, Witch saw a man’s hat. “And Rapunzel, have you taken to wearing men’s clothing?” As she asked this, her voice rose to near a shriek.

 

Rapunzel trembled. She began to cry and said “No Mother Witch, I have not taken to wearing men’s clothing.”

 

At that, Witch flew into a rage. “You let someone up here? Haven’t I told you never to do that?”

 

Rapunzel started crying, though calling the gallons of tears that poured from her eyes crying does not do justice to the torrents of water washing down her face. Witch paced up and down sputtering, muttering, and listening closely you’d hear her saying things like “how could she” and “insolent girl” and other things even less nice toward Rapunzel.

 

“I treat you like a princess, with your own castle, and give you everything a girl could ever want. And you take it and break my rules? Can I put up with that?”

 

Witch towered over the still sobbing girl, who responded in a tiny voice, “No my Witch.”

 

“That’s right. I cannot put up with an insolent girl breaking my rules!” As she said that, Witch ran across the tower to the kitchen area and grabbed a sharp as they come knife. she turned back to Rapunzel, who cowered on the floor.

 

“I’m so sorry my Witch. I will never break your rules again. Please forgive me.”

 

“That’s right” Witch screeched at the top of her voice. She approached Rapunzel with the knife and I feared, as did Punzie, for her life. I started meowing to try and distract Witch, but nothing took her from what she had decided to do.

 

She ran up to Rapunzel, raised the knife high into the air, and slashed down sharply, leaving Rapunzel’s golden hair laying on the floor of the tower with only the shortest covering of hair left on her head. 

 

“MY HAIR! MY WITCH, HOW COULD YOU!” 

 

Witch knew how much Rapunzel loved her hair and stood there smiling victoriously. “Break my rules will you? Ha! I’m not finished with you yet Missy. After all I have done for you? Taking you away from that poor miller and his wife! You would have been working their farm instead of living a life of luxury in this special tower. So you DON’T DESERVE THIS. I banish you from this tower, and from all my lands.”

 

I was afraid for Punzie and climbed into her arms; she cradled me and rubbed me as she always did.

 

Witch stepped back and started speaking in sounds and noises most terrible. Angry clouds formed inside the tower, and bolts of lightening shot out and struck Rapunzel, causing her burns and shocks of pain. So terrible was this storm she could not speak or move. Witch continued to emit these horrid sounds when suddenly everything went dark and it felt as if Rapunzel and I shot from the tower and were thrown through the air a long way. It was so terrible, I clutched tight to Rapunzel’s dress as we flew at a frightening speed over trees and lakes for so long it seemed we would never come down, but keep going like this forever. Indeed if Witch wanted to punish someone, it seemed a curse she would cast on her victim.

 

Finally we slowed and then dropped quickly to the side of a mountain, landing hard, yet Rapunzel held onto me and protected me. Laying on the ground, we cried cuddled together for some time, during which we looked around at the vast forest stretching out before us. No where could we see a single house or castle and our tower was so far away we certainly could not see it, though we did look. Punzie looked me over, asking “How are you Kitty?” and I meowed softly in response. she declared, “You look fine, and I am rumpled and sore but whole nonetheless.” 

 

She looked around and I saw a look in her eyes I had never seen before.

 

“Kitty, we have some work to do. Night will come soon and we must be ready. We have little but our wits to rely upon. Perhaps Witch will rescue us, but in case she does not, we have to take care of ourselves. I will set up a place for us to rest the night, and perhaps it will be our new home. You, please see if you can find some water.” 

 

With that she turned from me. Did she know I understood her? I knew not, but had my assignment and went to carry it out. A short walk away I found a small stream of water running down the hillside. I licked it and it tasted so fresh and good that I started drinking relievedly. Rapunzel will be so happy when I show her this! After drinking my fill, I turned back toward her. Arriving at the place I left her, I saw that she had gathered many branches and sticks from the forest, along with long vines. Some of the branches were barren, others covered with leaves. She had set the 4 biggest ones into the ground and worked on tying them all together near their top with the vine. When she shook them and they did not move, she looked at me and smiled.

 

“Kitty, do you like our new home? I will have it ready for us soon. And you, did you find water?”

 

In answer I took several steps toward the stream, stopped and looked back then forward. She understood, saying under her breath “how marvelous!” and followed me. As I knew she would, she delighted in the forest water and drank and drank.

 

Looking at me she said “I needed that! Good work Kitty!  We will be the best team!”

 

She turned and we returned to the new home. She grabbed the large branches and tied several onto the large ones set into the ground. I dragged some closer to try and help and she delighted in my doing so. Before long, the sides were covered with a thick wall of branches covered with leaves. She left a hole in front so we could crawl inside, and once she felt her work almost complete, we crawled through the hole to see the home from the inside. It was quiet and calm inside and warmer than being outside. 

 

I was so proud of her, I went to her and began licking her face. She laughed and held me to her.

 

“Kitty, I believe we will be fine here.”

 

I was tired, as I am certain Rapunzel was, yet as I curled on the ground to sleep, she continued working, bringing in more leaves to make a floor and lift us off the cold ground, and fussing and tying more branches to the home so that it was warmer and a better place for us. Soon the sun began to set. Punzie cuddled with me and together we slept a long time.

 

The next days, filled with danger from animals and empty of food, we cowered in our home some days, moaning from our hunger. I caught a mouse and ate it, then caught another and brought it to Punzie. She looked at it and decided to leave it for me, saying “this gives me ideas” and the next day she set her mind to finding food for us. 

 

There were hard days, and Punzie’s baby would sometimes make it hard for her, but soon we enjoyed berries, apples, and fresh vegetables. She would use all parts of everything we found. Saving the seeds, she planted a garden, and in a few weeks we had food right at our door.

 

She amazed me every day.

 

Witch steps forward now. “That was their story. Yet there are many sides to any story.” She then relayed her tale of events at the Tower.

 

I stayed at the Tower, stomping around, seething with anger. I punished Rapunzel, now I needed to teach this man, whoever he is, a lesson he will never forget. I gather her hair up in the Tower and waited, certain he’d be returning to see Rapunzel.

 

He did not disappoint. The very next day, early in the morning, I hear a deep bass voice from outside the Tower, calling out, ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, throw down your hair.” 

 

I threw it down as I am certain Rapunzel did, only when he climbed in the window I leapt up at him shrieking as loudly and fearfully as possible.

 

The color drained from his face as he raised his hands trying to protect himself. As I advanced, he back away until his step met with no floor for he had stepped out of the Tower. As he did, he fell backward, calling out ‘help’, yet we both knew no one would be coming to save him. As he fell his body and face scraped along the sides of the Tower, and vines that circled the Tower, full of barbs and sharp long prickers, poked his eyes right out of his head.

 

He landed on the ground, a miserable lump of a human being.

 

I cackled above him from the Tower window. There! Now you will NEVER see your beloved Rapunzel again. 

 

I laughed a long, evil laugh, watching as he stood up and felt his way as he moved as far from the Tower as he could manage. He would go on to wander the forests, for he knew not the way back to his kingdom.

 

I got my revenge on him. He suffered further from the rains, and the cold, and from hunger and thirst. Several times he neared death, yet just managed to find a way to survive. Soon he wandered away from my lands and I lost track of him, thinking only ‘good riddance’.

 

But as the days passed, and I sat alone in the Tower, I remembered the nice days talking and playing with Rapunzel, how I missed them, and I grew sad and soon turned very old, almost overnight.

 

Kitty stepped up. I have more to say, because every story has an ending. 

 

Punzie sang every day, she sang songs she made up in her own head, and sometimes I would ‘Meow’ right with her. She liked that and would always pet my head afterward. She kept singing, and grew more and more huge with her child, as we looked forward to the baby to come, though we had no idea how it would happen, or when. But Rapunzel had figured out how to do many things and she was certain she would do so for this as well.

 

One day as we sang, we heard an answering call. There was another person nearby!

Punzie kept singing, and would call out “Who is out there, friend or foe? Be friend and come and we dine together on beautiful berries.”

 

The answering call sounds so familiar, yet still too far away to hear clearly. As the person moves closer, we hear the other person call out “Rapunzel, is that you?”

 

Her eyes grow wide. She looks at me. “Kitty, did you hear that?”

 

I nodded my head, my eyes wide with wonder at what I heard.

 

Rapunzel lifted me into her arms and we set off to find this person singing back to us.

 

We entered a large field, and there, across the field, stood her Prince.

 

She called out “My love, here I am.” And ran to his arms, crying tears of happiness. She saw him acting oddly and he explained that he was now blind. She embraced him again, and as she cried, her tears fell into his eyes and healed them. The first thing he saw was his beautiful very pregnant Rapunzel and he could not be happier.

 

After resting the night together, the Prince, now able to see, led them through the woods back to his kingdom, where Rapunzel had her baby and they all lived happily ever after.