Chapter 43

Rapunzel's Story:

My earliest memory is of playing in the dust with the little boy who lived next door. He had brought his toy horses through a missing board in the fence and we had made roads for them to travel in the warm, dry dust that covered the flagstones. The invisible riders of the horses fought all kinds of improbable and invisible enemies. They always won and were always given the princess's hand in marriage. Even at my young age I thought that this was unfair. Especially since the boy told me that since I was the girl, I had to be the princess and give him a kiss for each victory.

Grandmother caught me giving the boy his kiss. Her screech was heard up and down the street and scared the neighbor's boy into gathering up his precious horses and dashing back through the hole in the fence. Grandmother grabbed my arm and dragged me into the house, all the time yelling at me. My mother appeared and grabbed my other arm.

"She was kissing a boy," yelled Grandma.