Rapunzel

The next evening, as the bargeman climbed onto the bank to ascend the rope of red hair that was camouflaged against the building, he saw a small, chubby, mean-looking man in a black suit had beat him to it and was clambering inexpertly up the tower. He waited, and heard harsh words from above, followed by a strange buzzing sound that sounded like a gentleman’s razor.

After a while, all was quiet and the hair appeared again.

The bargeman was worried for the maiden in the tower but hoped the man had merely been having a shave in preparation for a night out, and had exited in a more conventional manner. He took a chance, and shinned up the surprisingly strong plait.

On reaching the top, he looked around triumphantly, but got a shock when he realised he was looking into the squinty black eyes of the factory owner, who was dangling the hair over the side of the building.

‘Ha!’ said the factory owner, ‘the hair does not belong to her, it is mine! I am the owner of this wig factory. Her hair has become long and strong enough, and now it will adorn the heads of rich old ladies who no longer have hair of their own.’ With those words, he pushed the bargeman backwards, and he fell into the canal, where he lost consciousness and floated away.

This is the part of the story where the hero would usually come back to life, take the hand of the maiden and they would live happily ever after with beautiful children. However, we all know that’s not how life works. Boy meets girl, but boy doesn’t always fancy girl and anyway, beautiful maiden doesn’t always equate to interesting girlfriend material. Even if they do become lovers, it doesn’t always work out. It’s perfectly possible boy would get bored and find another maiden.

The bargeman was dead so he never got to find out what could have been. All the maiden was left with was a cropped head and memories of a kind man stroking her hair. And a new interest in breaking out of her tower to explore the world outside.

Natalie Bradbury is an aspiring journalist. She is currently unemployed and spending her days as a daydreamer and flaneuse. http://www.theshriekingviolets.blogspot.com

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One Response to “Rapunzel”

  1. May 07, 2009 at 9:54 am, Shirley Friedman said:

    Delightful story, though at first I thought it was an article disguised as a fairy story…or a twist on what happening in Corrie at present. Lol! Well done!

 

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