Rapunzel By Gabriela Mendez

Gabriela Mendez
02/19/2019
Fairytale Re-Write

Rapunzel

I remember being a little girl, reading the stories about princesses and far away lands. I would fantasize about what life would be like in a castle or if I would have my prince charming come along. Mother Gothel caught me once, and she came by to me and told me to look in a mirror and to describe what I saw when I looked into it.
“I see me, a simple girl.” I said.
“You’re wrong.” Mother Gothel told me.
“What do you mean, that’s all there is there.’’
“You are everything but simple, you are beautiful, fierce, and courageous. Those arms will grow to be strong one day, and your mind will bloom like a flower, most importantly, your heart will grow to not only love someone but love yourself.”
“I will?”
“Yes my darling, now come downstairs for supper.” Mother Gothel walked out of the room.
I looked in the mirror and thought about what she said, I was my own princess. To this day, I carry that moment with me as a reminder. This afternoon’s events were a real test to it. I was listening to some toons when I heard my name being called from outside, assuming it was Mother Gothel I let my hair down out of the window. Out of nowhere, a man came up, I immediately jumped back.
“Rapunzel is it?” The man said.
“How do you know & why are you here?”
“My name is Prince Frederick, I wandered off into the forest a couple weeks ago and followed your lovely singing voice. I saw a woman calling you and how you let your blonde locks down. I’ve come by just to listen to your voice, and I felt the need to see what you look like. I think I am in love with you.” The prince leaned in to hug me but I retorted back.
“Settle down there, we don’t even know each other and you just entered my home,” I shook my head. My first interaction and I feel so uncomfortable.
“Okay then come with me, I have never seen you leave this place.”
Perhaps this was a good thing, I could get out of this tower, and finally, run my toes through the grass.
“Come back tomorrow. Oh and don’t make me regret this,” I said as I led him towards the window to let him down. Indeed, he came back the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next. I fell in love with the feeling of the sun kissing my skin and dancing with the flowers.
The prince and I layed in the grass and talked about life and I sang for him, but I don’t know if we really vibed.
After a long day, I climbed the woven silk ladder back up to my tower. To my surprise, I saw Mother Gothel sitting on my bed, staring at me like she was about to breathe fire out of her mouth.
“How dare you lie to me,” She clenched her jaw.
“Mother please, I want to get out of this place, if not for the prince but for myself.”
“But you’re MY CHILD. You are MINE.”
“I am not yours, I am not anyone’s!” I went to hug Mother Gothel in attempt to calm her down. But when she leaned in, she grabbed a handful of my hair and right then and there I heard the sound of scissors snip through it.
“My beautiful tresses! What have you done!” I fell to the ground covered in my hair crying.
“You deceived me! Now you won’t ever get to see the outside world again!”. Mother grabbed me and took me through a door I’ve never seen before. Out into the forest, she dragged me to a place that was rather ugly and empty. Nothing but a cottage in sight, in that cottage she threw me in and locked the doors behind. There were no windows or doorknob for me to open through my end. I was so scared and cold. Who was this woman? No mother would really do this to their child, was this woman even my mother? I thought to myself as I cried. I ended up falling asleep, hoping that this was all a bad nightmare. When I woke up the next day, I was confronted with the disappointing fact that it wasn’t.
I paced around the small cottage back and forth, read a bit of a book, and being bored out of my mind I resulted in singing a song.
“Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Is that you?” chanted a weary voice from outside.
“Yes, it is me! Help I am in the cottage!”
“My vision is unclear, Gothel fooled me and pushed me out of the tower, my eyes met with vicious thorns!”
“Follow my voice, I will sing louder!” I began singing as loud as I could.
“I think I found it!”
Suddenly the door beat in with Prince Frederick falling on the floor. The poor thing looked like he had escaped a pack of hyenas. He had scratches and patches all over his face and his eyes were throbbing so much he couldn’t even squint.
“Oh my goodness Fred” I reached out to pick him up from the ground.
“I don’t think I will make it,” he said in a weak voice.
As he layed in my arms, I cried and sang one last song for him to hear. A single tear fell in the middle of his forehead, as the tear rushed down his face it cleared a path of grime. His eyes were becoming smaller by the minute, his wounds were clearing, he was healing! Finally, his eyes opened.
“Fred, is that you?”
“Oh my, why, I am alive!” He jumped up.
“You are!”
He grabbed my hands, “Rapunzel, let’s get out of here. Let’s go to back to my palace where you can be protected from anyone that even thinks about harming us.
“Eric I think I would like to live a bit more. I would like to see the rest of the world I have been missing.”
“I understand, you saved me though, so please allow me to make that happen”.
“Thank you Fred.”
The two left the desert and returned to the kingdom where they were greeted with love from all of the royals and townspeople. Rapunzel and Frederick went on the travel the world and learn to love the company of their own freedom.