but
adoration and adulation from the ones around her.
It
changed that night when a drunken old man, believing Rapunzel’s hair truly was
gold, tried to cut it away with a knife. Rapunzel cried and the Enchantress
fury was unleashed when she saw the man wielding a knife near her daughter’s
face. With a gesture she threw him into a wall, her will and magic making him
appear a puppet in her complete control.
He
babbled and tried to apologize, but the Enchantress’ anger wouldn’t be sated by
mere apologies. She threw him again and again, his body hitting the inn’s
walls, the crunching of his broken bones audible by everyone inside. No one
spoke, or moved, while the Enchantress punished the one who attacked her child.
Only Rapunzel made a sound, the young girl smiling and clapping at her mother,
not understanding the harm the older woman was doing to the old man.
No
one bothered them in the town after that, and after a few days, mother and
daughter left the place and never returned.
Yet
the incident remained clear in the Enchantress memory, the moment she had seen
the man attempting to harm her daughter, the moment she saw that knife so close
to her daughter’s throat etched into her mind, burned there by the fear she
felt when she saw it happen.
Fear
lead to jealousy, and while cautious the Enchantress couldn’t stop the people
from the next village from flocking to Rapunzel’s side, eager to see her.
Rapunzel appeared to have forgotten the incident that so unsettled her mother,
but the Enchantress started thinking and planning how she would make it so Rapunzel
remained hers and hers alone.
When
Rapunzel turned eight her mother imprisoned her in a tower. She didn’t call it
that, of course, she told her daughter that the tower would become their new
home and that they wouldn’t continue to roam all over the Kingdom.
At
first Rapunzel found it strange, she had known no other life since she had
born, but as the months passed she got used to it and loved it. Her mother
taught her to read and gave her books to entertain herself, her mother also
taught her to sew and while Rapunzel struggled at it she eagerly practiced.
They
had been living in the tower for four months when the Enchantress had to leave
for the first time. Rapunzel looked confusedly at her mother when she told her
she had to go, never having been apart from the elder woman.
The
Enchantress heart leaped at the face her daughter made when she explained she
had to go away for a few days, but she was practiced in resisting her
daughter’s pouts. She left the next morning at sunrise.
Rapunzel
found herself alone for the first time in her life.
Her
mother had left everything she needed to survive prepared, so she only had to
entertain herself until the older woman returned.
When
the Enchantress came back three days later, Rapunzel was there to embrace and welcome
her, proud at taking care of herself for the time.
The
next years continued in the same trend. Rapunzel learned everything her mother
taught her, from identifying herbs and magical reagents, to singing, to
cooking, every little bit of knowledge her mother wished to impart on her she
learned.
The
Enchantress continued leaving for her visits to neighboring villages, seeking
food, clothes and supplies for her and her daughter, never letting anyone find
out where she lived, and proudly watching her child grow.
Things
started to change between the Enchantress and her daughter a few days after
Rapunzel turned thirteen.
*******
Rapunzel
couldn’t say when exactly her relationship with her mother started souring.
It
had started slowly. She could remember that.
Rapunzel
was used to share everything with her mother, they read together, they cooked
together, they slept and bathe together, and suddenly things changed and the
Enchantress forced Rapunzel to manage for herself.
The
young girl didn’t understand why her mother was shying away from her, she just
knew it was happening and so she
Lee Iacocca, Catherine Whitney