Wishes

Rapunzel

a maiden with the longest hair...

A young woman with the longest golden hair sat at a small opening at the top of a tall tower. She seemed to be waiting for something.

Long ago, a mystical flower grew in the middle of the woods. It had the power to heal and restore beauty (which basically is restoring youth). No one, except for one, knew about this plant. That one person was a witch. A quite selfish witch. Every week, she would travel to this flower, old and tired. She would sing a beautiful song.

"Flower, show your glow. Listen, hear this rhyme. Heal what has been lost. Go back, reverse the time. Reverse the time."

Her hair would then turn from silver to ebony. And the wrinkles on her face would straighten out and disappear. Strange. Anyway, at the same time, the kingdom was collapsing. They needed a stronger ruler. There happened to be a baker and his wife in the village who were wonderful, strong, and promising leaders.

It was decided by the majority that they would take up the throne. But when the pregnant wife became deathly ill with her second child (she already had a boy, which will be introduced later), she had to be cured, and fast.

Thousands set out to find a cure, or in this case, a little magic. Now, that selfish witch was not the only witch out there. She had an older sister, Gothel (Gothel never was bad. Everyone only mistook her as the villain). Gothel was concerned seeing her sister young, then old, then young again week after week after week. So one day, she followed her through the woods.

Deep in the woods, a few guards suddenly spotted something shimmering in the bushes. It was the magical flower. They hurriedly uprooted it, unaware of who else was watching. It was Gothel's sister, watching the guards. It was also Gothel, watching her sister. The sister was up to something. Gothel was too.

That night, the flower's petals were shredded into a soup and fed to the baker's wife. Almost immediately after, her water broke, and she delivered a beautiful girl. The baker and his wife naturally had brown hair. But this child had abnormally radiant golden hair. Her parents had no idea about her powers. But they named her after the flower that cured the mother: Rapunzel.

Once everyone was asleep, at the stroke of midnight, a silhouette crept into the room. It was that greedy witch, coming back for her flower. She began to softly sing, "Flower, show your glow..." The sleeping infant's hair lit up, pulsing to the rhythm. The witch pulled out a small knife and cut a lock of Rapunzel's hair. The lock of hair instantly stopped glowing, changing to a shade of brown identical to her parents'.

Suddenly, another silhouette yanked the witch outside. Gothel had captured her sister. She struck the sister unconscious, using up all of her powers. She then rushed to Rapunzel, snatched her up, and hid her in a forbidden tower, where she would grow up, safe.

In time, Gothel learned to use the magical plants of the woods to substitute for the loss of her magic. Gothel never told Rapunzel this whole story, in fear that Rapunzel's curiosity would guide her to danger. Nevertheless, her curiosity would still just grow.

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" This is what Gothel would always say once she returned from the "outside world", as Rapunzel would call it. Then, a massive amount of golden hair would fall from the sky. Gothel used it as a rope to reach Rapunzel at the top of the tower.

By now, Rapunzel was almost eighteen. She spotted a cut in Gothel's hand. "Oh, mother! Where did that come from? Let me help." She carefully wrapped her hair around Gothel's hand. She sang the special song: "Flower, show your glow..." Her voice was sweet and delicate, like a flower. The first time Gothel ever heard her sing this, she was surprised. Gothel never taught her this song. Rapunzel sang from memory, as if she was that magical flower hearing Gothel's sister sing it to her weekly.

Gothel's cut cleared up, good as new. She sat down, exhausted from the day. "I ran into a strange baker. He seemed familiar with me and demanded me to remove some curse so they can have childre- oh my."

Gothel stood up. "Rapunzel dear, starting tomorrow I will be out. There's someone- I mean, something I must do. I hope you will be safe. I will come back frequently to see you. I'm very sorry about this." Rapunzel ran to Gothel, hugging her in tears.

But she wasn't crying because she wanted her mother to stay. It was actually because she wanted to see the outside world. But she knew she must do what her mother wanted. She mumbled,

"I wish..."

Gothel patted Rapunzel on the head. She knew someday Rapunzel would open her eyes and discover the dangers, possibly the hard way. So now, here too was Gothel thinking,

I wish...