“Which crown?” asked Ruby.
“For Hades’ sake, Ruby! Rapunzel’s crown! Remember she’s a princess!”
“Yes, yes, yes! There’s so many stories to keep track of! So many princesses! Stop getting so annoyed with us!” cried Ruby.
“Lucinda! He’s breaking into the tower! He’s there!” Martha said, pointing at one of the many mirrors in the chamber.
“Oh! She hit him in the head!” said Ruby, laughing.
“Serves him right, breaking into the tower!” said Martha.
“Martha! Please do keep up! We want Flynn to break into the tower!” Lucinda said, shaking her head.
“Do we?” asked Martha.
“Yes, we do! How else is he to get Rapunzel the crown?” Lucinda walked away from the mirror, more frustrated with her sisters than she’d been in quite some time.
“Oh gods! Look at the way Rapunzel is looking at him! Why do princesses always fall in love with the first boy they see?” asked Martha.
“Because that’s the way fairy tales are written,” said Lucinda, sighing.
“Ha! No! She hit him with the pan again! Good girl!” Ruby said, laughing. “She’s shoving him in the closet!”
“Sisters, listen! Pay attention, both of you! We want Flynn Rider in the tower! We want them to be friends. We need him to help Rapunzel find her true family again.”
“But why?”
“We don’t want Gothel to wake her sisters, now, do we?”
“Of course we don’t!” Ruby and Martha said.
“Hades! She’s on her way back with a sleeping potion! Look!” said Lucinda, pointing at Gothel in one of the mirrors.
“Is it one of ours, Lucinda? One of our sleeping potions?”
“It doesn’t matter! Flynn is in that closet, and we need Rapunzel to get rid of Gothel and talk Flynn into taking her to see the lights!”
“Yes! If she doesn’t kill him with that frying pan first.” The sisters laughed.
“And what about Gothel? What about the sleeping potion? She’s going to try to put that girl back to sleep!”
“The girl will have to get rid of her before she tries to use it!”
“Oh! Look! Look! Rapunzel has the crown! She’s trying it on! She’s trying it on!”
“Let’s just tell her now she’s the Princess!” squealed Ruby.
“We can’t talk to her through the mirror, idiot! She doesn’t have magic! And even if we could, I wouldn’t want to spoil all the fun of seeing Gothel squirm!” said Lucinda. “I want her to think she’s won. I want to fill her heart with hope and then see it destroyed!”
“She’s there! Gothel’s there! Look!” said Ruby, pointing to one of their mirrors, where Gothel was calling up to the tower window.
“Rapunzel, let down your hair.”
“One moment, Mother!” called the Princess after stashing the crown in a vase.
“I have a big surprise for you!” called Gothel
“I have one, too!” said Rapunzel.
“Why has Gothel been using that strange singsong voice? It’s ridiculous!” said Ruby.
The odd sisters were transfixed by the images in the mirror as they listened to Gothel’s and Rapunzel’s voices dancing around each other. Each was too consumed with her own plans to listen to the other.
“My surprise is bigger!” yelled Gothel as Rapunzel pulled her into the tower with her long hair. The odd sisters could see Gothel going in through the window; she was acting very animated, almost like a stage actor, or a large puppet. “I brought back parsnips! I’m going to make hazelnut soup for dinner, your favorite. Surprise!”
The odd sisters laughed. “Soup! That’s the surprise?” screeched Martha.
“Hazelnut sleeping-potion soup! Surprise!” yelled Ruby, making Martha laugh.
“Well, Mother, there is something I want to tell you,” said Rapunzel.
The odd sisters screamed. “No! No! No! Don’t tell her!” The girl couldn’t hear them, of course, but there was power in their voices, magic, and they were trying to use it to manipulate Rapunzel. “Shhh! Gothel is talking.”
“You know I hate leaving you, especially after a fight when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” said Gothel. The sisters laughed. She had no idea how to act like a mother. She’d never taken care of the child when Rapunzel was little.
“Whatever happened to Mrs. Tiddlebottom?” asked Ruby. And suddenly Mrs. Tiddlebottom appeared in one of the mirrors. She was baking a magnificent cake, bigger and more beautiful than the one she had made for Rapunzel’s eighth birthday.
“Stop it! We’re supposed to be watching Gothel! Get rid of Mrs. Tiddlepants!”
“Tiddlebottom!”
“What?”
“Her name is Tiddlebottom!”
“Well, frankly I think both names are ludicrous!” Lucinda snapped.
“Is she baking a cake for Rapunzel? Does she remember her?”
“Not quite,” said Lucinda. “But something compels her to make a cake every year on this day. Shhh! Never mind her and listen. I think that stupid girl is about to tell Gothel Flynn is in the closet!”
“Enough with the lights, Rapunzel!” yelled Gothel. “You are not leaving this tower ever!”
“Oh! Look at Gothel showing her true colors!” Ruby said. “There’s the Gothel we know!”
Gothel reclined on the nearest chair dramatically as if yelling had drained her. “She’s really hamming it up!” said Ruby, giggling as she watched Gothel put her hand on her head as if she were going to faint from the exhaustion of it all.
“This is too much!” said Ruby. “Like a badly acted melodrama!”
“Agh! Great! Now I’m the bad guy,” declared Gothel, exasperated with Rapunzel and tired of the pretense.
The odd sisters knew Gothel wanted to put Rapunzel to sleep so she could take Rapunzel’s body back to her country house and wake her sisters. And as much as it delighted the odd sisters to think of the macabre scene of Gothel wrapping that young girl’s hair around her dead sisters, they weren’t about to put another princess in danger. Not while Circe was watching their every move. If they hurt one more silly princess, then Circe would never let them out of the dreamscape. And they would never see their Circe again.
“All I was going to say was I know what I want for my birthday now,” said Rapunzel.
“And what is that?” asked Gothel, annoyed with the entire charade.
“New paint. The paint made from the white shells you once brought me.”
“That is a very long trip, Rapunzel. Almost three days’ time.”
“Long enough to check on your sisters,” said Lucinda. “I think there is something wrong with them. You’d better check.”
“Yes! You’d better check on your sisters, Gothel!” cried Ruby.
“They’re in danger, Gothel! Mrs. Tiddlebottom must be old now without her flower. So frail. Your sisters aren’t safe alone with her,” said Lucinda, binding her words with magic, using them to make Gothel afraid.
“Mrs. Tiddlebottom might go down into the cellar! You’ve never been away this long!” said Martha.
“Go! Go to your sisters!” said the odd sisters at once.
“You’re sure you will be all right on your own?” asked Gothel.
“I know I’m safe as long as I’m here,” said Rapunzel.
“I’ll be back in three days’ time,” said Gothel as she took the basket Rapunzel had put together for her journey.
“I love you very much, dear,” said Gothel.
“I love you more,” said Rapunzel.
And she did. The sisters could tell.
Rapunzel actually loved her mother Gothel.
The odd sisters watched Gothel tentatively go through the secret cave exit, to make her way through the dead woods and to her house in the country. “That’s right, Gothel. Rapunzel will be fine. Your sisters need you.”
They kept their eyes on Rapunzel, who was armed with a frying pan and cautiously approaching the wardr
obe, which had been locked tight with a green rocking chair. She quietly moved the chair away from the closet and quickly hid behind it.
“Flynn is in there!” screeched Martha. “She’s going to let him out?”
“Of course she’s going to let him out! Shhh! Let’s see what happens.”
“How did she learn to do all these tricks with her hair?” asked Martha, watching Rapunzel use her hair like a lasso to open the wardrobe door.
“We gave her free will in her dream. Everything that happened in the dream translates into real life for her. Now be quiet!”
The sisters laughed and laughed as they saw Flynn Rider fall face-first onto the floor. “Shhh! Sisters! Too loud!” Ruby said. The odd sisters looked around themselves, wondering who they might be bothering and why Ruby cared. “I don’t want Gothel to hear us!”
“Gothel can’t hear us unless we speak into her mirror! How many times do I have to explain this to you? I swear you two are becoming more featherheaded by the day!”
“Ha! Look! She tied him up!” said Ruby. “And her frog is slapping him to wake him up!”
“It’s a chameleon, Ruby. We gave it to her, remember! On her birthday! Shhh, Rapunzel is saying something.”
“We gave her a frog for her birthday?”
Lucinda sighed. “Yes. Well, no. We gave her the chameleon on her eighth birthday. Now keep up. For goodness’ sake, what’s wrong with you!”
“So the frog has been alone all this time in the tower while she slept? What did he do all day?”
“He slept, too! Now shut up!” said Lucinda. “Rapunzel is talking!”
“Struggling, struggling is pointless,” said Rapunzel.
“Oh, look at her trying to be brave!” said Lucinda. “Precious.”
The odd sisters saw the look of confusion on Flynn Rider’s face.
“Is this hair?” he said, trying to find the person the hair belonged to in the darkness.
“Oh, he’s a smart one!” said Martha sarcastically. “There’s no way we can count on this one to get Rapunzel to the castle. He’s useless. Look at him!”
“Sisters, shhh!” scolded Lucinda. “I think she’s talked him into taking her to see the lanterns in exchange for the stolen crown.”
“But that’s her crown!”
“I know! But Rapunzel doesn’t know that! He took it from the castle, remember? Keep up!”
“Wait! What? Shhh. Flynn is doing something weird, he’s about to say something!” The sisters listened as Flynn Rider spoke ominous words.
“All right, listen, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smolder….”
“Lucinda! What’s ‘the smolder’? Is it a burning spell? Is he going to kill her?”
“No, dear. His so-called charms aren’t magical,” said Lucinda, laughing.
“What is he doing with his face? What’s he doing with his face?”
The sisters laughed. “He’s ridiculous! Like a silly, harmless Gaston!”
The sisters couldn’t stop laughing. They were laughing so hard they fell onto the floor again.
When the sisters finally stopped laughing, they realized it had all been decided. Flynn Rider had agreed to take Rapunzel to see the lanterns in exchange for the crown he had stolen.
“He’s taking her to the lights! He’s taking her to the lights! He’s taking her to the lights!” they sang as they danced around their chamber.
“Oh-oh! Let’s see what Gothel is doing now!” said Lucinda, directing her attention to one of the other mirrors. “Show us Gothel!” she said, but changed her mind. “No, wait! Look at Rapunzel! She’s in the world! And she’s worried she is going to break Gothel’s heart and crush her soul!”
“Oh please! That’s so dramatic!” said Ruby.
“No, those were her words! Crush her soul!”
“And Flynn is trying to talk her into going back to the tower! Horrible man!”
But the sisters were distracted by the mirror they had conjured Gothel within. “What is that horse doing? Lucinda, look there! That horse is attacking Gothel!”
“A palace horse. Where’s your rider?” said Gothel, flying into a panic and calling Rapunzel again and again.
“She’s going back to the tower! She’s going back to the tower!” squealed Ruby.
The odd sisters watched Gothel as she raced back to the tower. It was dark and empty and full of shadows. “Your precious flower is gone!” screamed the odd sisters. “Gone, gone, gone forever!” they screeched like harpies.
“Now Gothel will know what it’s like to lose everything! She will lose her precious flower!” Lucinda said snippily, making Ruby laugh.
Martha got quiet, not joining in the celebration. “What is it, Martha?” asked her sisters.
“But she already has lost everything, hasn’t she? She’s lost her sisters. She lost her home. And now she’s losing the last chance she has to bring her sisters back.”
“What are you saying, Martha?” asked Lucinda.
“We should have told her,” Martha said in a very small voice, tears running down her face and silencing her cackling sisters.
“And we would have if she hadn’t turned on us!” snapped Lucinda. “She wouldn’t share the flower! She doesn’t deserve to know!”
Martha persisted, surprising her sisters. “We should have told her the moment we learned! Not waited.”
Lucinda shook her head as if trying to banish a terrible thought. “We don’t have time to talk about this now. I won’t waste my time feeling guilty about Gothel! If it weren’t for her, Maleficent might still be alive!”
Martha knew Lucinda was right. “I know, I know.” But the conversation was interrupted by a blood-chilling scream. It was Ruby.
“What in Hades has happened, Ruby!”
“Gothel has found the crown! She’s found the wanted poster!”
“No matter, my dear sisters. It’s all been written.”
Ruby nodded at the image in the mirror. “Is the part about Gothel carrying that large knife also written?”
“There is no fear of an unhappy ending for Rapunzel. She is not the victim in this story. That role has already been laid out for Gothel. Oh, her heart will be broken, my precious sisters, and her soul will be crushed. I have seen to that!”
“What do you mean? What do you mean?”
“You’ll see, my dears. Let Gothel take her knife and set out into the world. She knows little more of the world than Rapunzel does.”
“Show me the sisters!” screamed Gothel into her hand mirror. She was expecting to see Lucinda’s mocking face looking back at her. Instead she found her sisters—her real sisters. Primrose and Hazel. Their coffins were open.
“What? What’s this?” Gothel’s heart was racing. “Where’s Mrs. Tiddlebottom? Show me Mrs. Tiddlebottom!” she yelled. The mirror showed only her own face. “Show me the old woman!” she screamed.
Lucinda appeared in the mirror, laughing. “You’re the old woman, Gothel. Look at yourself. You’re dying without the flower. You took that girl from her family, lied to her, and made her think she’s your daughter! You’ve dedicated your life to a lie, just like your mother!”
“Shut up! You know nothing of my mother!”
“We know everything about your mother! Your mother lied to you. You’re not her daughter! Not in the way you think! Have you ever heard her talk about a father? No! That’s because she created you with magic!”
“Lies!” screamed Gothel.
“No, dear, you’re the queen of lies, not I! You and your mother both. Look into your soul, Gothel. The truth is there. She is there.” And Gothel knew Lucinda was telling the truth. She’d known it her entire life.
“So what if she did create me with magic? I’m still her daughter!”
“You’ve always been selfish, Gothel, too concerned with yourself to listen to anyone else! Even your poor sisters, who didn’t want the life you had planned. Remember when Manea said you were her? Well, y
ou are! You are your mother in more ways than one! You are her blackhearted daughter, but without any of her majesty, and without any of her powers!”
“And my sisters? What of them?”
Lucinda laughed. “They aren’t even your real sisters, Gothel! I mean, come on, look at them! Your mother had Jacob take them from nearby villages. She enchanted them to be what you needed to survive in the dead woods as queen once you took over—Primrose to entertain you, and Hazel to be your heart! But it all went wrong, horribly wrong, and now you’re alone.”
Lucinda laughed again and continued.
“Look at you! Mother Gothel! You’re no more of a mother than your own mother was. You’re exactly like her. Selfish, cruel, and manipulating, but without any of her ambition, any of her magic! You’re pathetic! You’ve wasted your life. Gods, it’s no wonder your mother could hardly stand the sight of you!”
“I don’t care if they’re not my real sisters! I love them! They’re better sisters than you ever were!”
“Do you love them? Do you really?” asked Lucinda. “If you did, then you would have given them your mother’s blood and not worried that they would be able to read your mind!”
“I didn’t want them to know my heart! I was afraid!”
“If they were your real sisters, they would have already known your heart, as we do.”
“You know my heart with magic!”
“What did Primrose say when we tried to bring her and Hazel back to life? What were the words she mustered from beyond the veil?” asked Lucinda.
“‘Let us die.’”
“Yes, ‘let us die’! Those were her words, and yet you’ve been trying to find a way to bring them back these many years. She’d rather be dead than live with you, a replica of her foul, murdering mother! A woman who killed children, blinded them, and compelled them to do her bidding! And you condoned it! You thought it was perfectly natural!”
“And so do you! I know you do!”
“You know our hearts, as we know yours. You see, Gothel, you have been focusing all your love on the wrong sisters. They didn’t understand you. Not like we do.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s all too late now, Gothel. Go after the flower. Follow your fool’s errand and see where that takes you. You will find them at the Snuggly Duckling. Go there quickly before they leave. It’s not far from where you are. We see them in our many mirrors. We are watching. Behind the mirrors. Where we always are. Where we will always be.” And the mirror went black, leaving Gothel alone. Just as her mother had said she would be.
Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch Page 18