she combed her strands like her life depended on it, although it really does. mother calls to put down her hair, and it shall be strong.
no more, enough! this time, there's no turning back. the rogue, unfamiliar voice ordered her to come down, and her mother never asked for that, and will never ever do for the world is unkind and the grass is tricky, pricking flesh.
"but how would i know?" rapunzel thought. "how am i certain if i haven't felt it? how could people below bear it?"
"quick!" the strange man pushed disarmingly. after what seemed like a neverending crawl against the bricks of her tower, her foot touched the grass and she was held aback, for it is soft, and the sharpness could be tamed in every step.
the world, how it felt too kind not to meander around it.
the handsome man called her beautiful. she wondered why he said it while looking her in the eyes, and not at her hair like her mother usually does.
there were flowers and nature and wind. people smiled and she liked the idea that they could all be real. this man beside her, he wouldn't talk about his name, promised her wonderful things, and at the end of the day she wondered when they would happen.
but then...he began lighting cigarettes in front of her, and most of the time the storms would kill the flowers while the trees would bend and never come up again.
"living things prosper," she thought. "but why aren't they trying anymore?"
she waited for the wonderful things, even through the way he gradually drifted away. even after she cut her hair short. maybe that will make him notice and come back to look closer like he used to.
she looked at the thundering sky.
the animals scurried to hide. lightning gave its last call.
"where are the wonderful things?" she looked up at the nimbus clouds, skin harshly kissed by raindrops.
"rapunzel," mother appears out of nowhere. "they come before the rain."
"oh yes, they do. but after the rain..." rapunzel faltered. no, she didn't want to argue anymore.
she just wanted to go home, into the tower that hid her from all the weathers below it.
