Rapunzel Actually

Chapter 2

      The witch stared down at the little girl sitting on the floor. She seemed extremely amused by the head of lettuce that she was rolling around on the floor. She would occasionally pull off a piece of it and chew on it. It was a little odd and slightly disgusting, but the witch wasn't really repulsed by it. She was more fascinated that the child had been able to stay amused with such a trivial thing for over 2 hours. 

     Of course, the witch hadn't been lying to the desperate woman. That would have made no sense at all. There was a supermarket a few miles away that the witch had walked to and bought a cart load of lettuce. And a few lettuce seeds. Just for good measure.

     The girl didn't speak at all. All she had done since she arrived was hop and crawl around on the floor. Every once in a while she would scrunch her nose up like a rabbit. It almost made the witch want to smile. Just a little.

     "Hey, bunny! Aren't you going to ask me to play with you or something?" The witch asked, poking the child softly with her shoe. The girl looked up at her, tilting her head.

     "B...b...bunnies don't talk, silly. Besides, why would you....why would you want to play with me? The people next door never do."

      The witch looked down thoughtfully at the little girl. A child who could entertain herself. The witch had never really been good with children. They scared her a little. They were like smaller, faster, WAY less polite adults. Tiny little, life-sucking monsters. It wasn't like the witch didn't like them. It was more like she didn't know what to do with them. 

     But a child that could entertain herself. That was another matter entirely.

     "They don't? Then why don't you go play outside with your friends?"

     The little girl frowned and batted the lettuce away.

     "D...d...on't have any. Besides, I don't like playing with the kids. Whenever I'm around them, I just get...scared."

     "Why? Did they do mean things to you?"

     The girl paused for a moment as if she were thinking deeply. She shook her head.

     "No. They seem p....p....pretty nice with each other. Always smiling and....laughing. I just think that...that if I go talk to them, they'll s...stop smiling. I d...do...don't like it when they look at me."

    The witch's head snapped up. That was exactly how she had felt in school. Everyone had always smiled at her, waved to her in the hallways. The weird, shy girl who was always alone, looking down. It wasn't that I was bullied, but I was still...afraid.

     The little girl was rolling around on the floor with the lettuce again, scrunching up her nose. The witch didn't bother hiding her smile this time.

      "Hey, bunny. What made you this way?"

     The girl didn't even look up, she just continued rolling around with the slightly shredded up lettuce.

     "B...b...because bunnies don't...they don't talk like I do. They d...d...don't talk at all."

     The witch looked down and could see a small, glistening teardrop in the corner of the girl's eye.  Something deep inside of her made her want to wipe that tear away and made it all better. To fix all of those jittery, terrible feelings inside of her. 

     "Have I told you that I am a witch yet?"

      The girl looked up with big, sparkly, tear-filled eyes. She shook her head no slowly.

     "Don't worry. I'm not a scary witch. I just have some special magic in my blood that I can use to do special things."

     The girl looked down at the rug and ran her hands through it. 

     "Like what?"

     The witch pretended to tap her chin thoughtfully. 

     "Well, how about I turn you into a real bunny?"

     The little girl giggled and hopped up and down enthusiastically. 

     "Yes! Yes! I wanna be a bunny! I wanna be a bunny!"

     She started scrunching her nose furiously and pretending to paw at her face.

     "Cute," the witch thought to herself. Then she realized what she had just thought and that she had an extremely large, probably ridiculous-looking smile on her face. She shook her head, trying to clear sappy thoughts from her mind.

     "Alright then. Are you ready?"

     The little girl frantically nodded her head.

     "3....2....1! Alakazam!"

      The witch waved her arms dramatically. The little girl had her eyes scrunched tightly closed. She waited for a moment and slowly cracked open one of them. 

     "I'm not a r...r...rabbit, silly! I'm still a girl!"  

     The witch crossed her arms and looked down in mock anger.

     "What do you mean? You look like a tiny rabbit to me!"

     The girl stopped for a moment and scrunched her hands open and closed a few times.

     "B...b...bunnies are soft and fluffy. I'm not!"

     The witch smiled again and knelt down to the same level as the little girl. She slowly moved her hand close, waiting for the girl to flinch. Instead, the girl slowly leaned her head forward and sniffed at the witch's hand. Startled, she jerked her hand backward. The girl only giggled again.

     "You sm...smell like f...f...flowers!"

     It made the witch smile again. This time, she did not hesitate as she moved her hand forward. She slowly stroked the little girl's face and was once again shocked when the little girl leaned into her touch. Something about that tiny, little gesture made the witch feel warm inside. It was at that moment that she finally understood why all the other adults had bothered to put time and effort into raising another human being. To take care of someone who depended on them.

       The witch smiled again and then slowly moved backward. 

     "I don't know. You feel pretty soft and fluffy to me."

     The little girl smiled, and the smile seemed to shine brighter than the dawn. It melted the witch's heart, and at that moment, she knew that she could not give the little girl back to that exhausted woman next door.

     "Say, bunny, what if I was the one that took care of you? How would that make you feel?"

     The little girl paused once again as if sounding out her thoughts in her head.

     "I w....w....would like that. C....c....could I have c....c....carrots every day?"

     The witch smiled and leaned forward to ruffle the little girl's hair.

     "Yes, bunny. Every. Single. Day."

A/N

Hey guys! This chapter might seem a lot more dialoguey and fluffy than my usual writing style. Sorry. I was in a sappy mood for some reason. Also, I really wanted to write a character with a stutter, because I find people with stutters really adorable. I don't know why. I know it's a thing that a lot of people are insecure about, but I think it's really cute.

Thank you so much for reading.💜