"Do not announce our return," Robinson said, "or she will come after us." It had been such a long journey to get out of the desert and find that palace. But what made it all worth it was that for the first time in many many months, I had a real meal and a soft bed to sleep in. I am writing this to share my story, and so that way one day when I am older, I can look back on the unfortunate times of my past and be even more grateful for all that I now have.

I suppose l should begin my story with telling you about my parents. The day they got married, they moved into a small house at the end of a large neighborhood. I know that my mother was seventeen, but I don't know how old my father was. Their house was very small, with only three windows and two rooms. One of the windows looked out into the beautiful garden that was next to the house. Rows and rows of lovely flowers of all different colors and sweet smelling herbs grew up so tall behind the thick metal bars surrounding the garden, that you could not see the house behind it.

One day while my parents were taking an afternoon walk around the neighborhood, they saw one of their neighbor's young sons working in the yard. He was only five years old at the time. "Excuse me, do you know who the beautiful garden belongs to?" asked my father.

"Yes, it belongs to a powerful enchantress," his bright blue eyes showed fear from even mentioning her. "She uses her plants to make remedies for healing and destroying. Every one is afraid of her. Only people who are very desperate for a healing remedy will go to her. However, your chance of living will be higher by staying away from the cure. Not many people who enter those gates exit again." My parents became frightened at these words, as their house was right next to the enchantress' garden. However, a year passed and nothing happened. They became less and less afraid of the enchantress, as they never saw her come out into her beautiful garden.

During those years, my parents tried to have a child, but my mother never became pregnant. One day, she looked out the little window and saw a beautiful golden flower in the middle of the enchantress' garden. My mother had never noticed it before. A few days later her curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to write the enchantress a letter. If the enchantress really was so evil, why would she have such a beautiful garden? My mother wrote the letter with kindness and care, and slid in underneath the tall metal fence around the garden.

That evening on my father and mother's evening walk, they came across the same boy that had warned them about the enchantress. "I saw that you approached the gate of the enchantress today," he said. "What were you doing?"

"I was sliding a letter underneath the gate asking what the golden flower in her garden is for," my mother replied.

"What are you thinking writing a letter to the enchantress? I can tell you the what the golden flower is for. My father is growing some in his garden. They are to aid women in conceiving. If you dissolve a single petal from the golden flower in water and drink it, you will become pregnant."

"That's just what I need! I will go and rewrite my letter asking the enchantress for a single petal of her golden flower."

"That is not advisable. She will lure you into her garden and then strike you down. I will give you a petal from my father's golden flower at no cost. They have not fully bloomed yet though, so you will have to wait a few weeks."

"Thank you for the offer, but I will get one from the enchantress. Surely she has more wisdom in growing plants correctly than your father does." My mother ran back to the iron fence and retrieved her letter. She wrote a new one, asking for a single petal from the golden flower. Then she placed her new letter back in the garden where her previous letter had been.

The next morning when my father was walking out of the house to go to work, he saw the enchantress for the first time. She was very beautiful, and my father was intrigued by her, as neither nor my mother had ever seen her before. "Good day miss!" My father said. The enchantress looked up from the letter and smiled at my father with a mischievous visage.

"I hear your wife is wanting a petal from one of my golden flowers. I will strike you a deal. I'll give you two golden petals, if I may have your first born daughter. I am too old for the golden petals to allow me to conceive. The child will be very well taken care of," said the enchantress. My father did not know what he should do. He desperately wanted a child, and one would be better than none, he decided.

"I will accept your offer," my father said. The enchantress plucked two petals off of the golden flower and handed them to my father. Nine months later, my mother gave birth to me, and I was immediately given to the enchantress. The enchantress named me Rapunzel. I grew up in the top of a tower in the middle of a forest far away from my parents. The enchantress took good care of me. Growing up I thought that the enchantress was my mother, so all my life I've called her Mom.

As I grew older, my hair grew out into beautiful, long golden locks of hair. When I turned twelve, Mom would only stay in the tower with me every other day. She said that she had a job in the city far away from the tower and she needed to stay in town closer to her work. She always left me with more than enough food and water so I was never hungry. Whenever she came back to the tower from her work, she would call out to me and I would throw down my hair from the top of the tower and pull her up.

Whenever she wasn't home, I occupied myself with singing and painting. I loved to sit and stare out at the sky and try to replicate exactly what I saw on a canvas. Many years flew by and one day when I had just turned seventeen, I was mopping the floors of the tower and singing one of my favorite songs when I heard Mom calling. "Rapunzel, let down your hair for me!" I threw my hair out the window. I wondered why mom was home early, but I suspected that she had a late birthday surprise for me, as she hadn't been able to bake me a cake on my birthday three days ago because she was sick with a cold.

I noticed that it was much harder to pull mom up the ladder today than it was most days. "She must be bringing home a lot of groceries," I thought. But when once I had finished pulling mom up and turned around to greet her, I saw that it wasn't mom at all. It was a tall, strong man. "Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Robinson. I am a young prince. My father was appointed king when the queen died. The queen left no heir, so someone was randomly selected to rule from the kingdom. My father got selected, so now he is king. I heard your singing for the first time many weeks ago and it captivated my heart. Everyday I had come back to listen to you sing. I saw how when your mother told you to throw down your hair you threw it down and pulled her up. So today I got the courage to try and call for you, and you let down your hair for me. I am not here to hurt you, I simply wanted to meet you. And I can say that your beauty matches the beauty of your voice."

All I could think about was the fact that he was a man. I had only ever heard of them! Mom told me that they were evil, horrible people. But I could see the kindness in Robinson's bright blue eyes, and I wondered if Mom had been wrong about men. "I was just about to eat lunch. Would you like to eat with me?"

Robinson stayed for lunch and came back every day that Mom was gone. Soon enough we were great friends. He told me stories of the world outside my tower. His stories fascinated me, and one day I asked if he would take me with him to the palace. Robinson agreed. Mom had just left that morning, so I knew that she wouldn't miss me.

Robinson took me to his palace and showed me all around. It was very spacious, and it seemed everything was covered jewels. I spent the night in one of the palace's guest rooms. It was so big and beautiful furnished, and the bed was so comfortable. I didn't want to go back, so I asked Robinson if I could live in the palace with him. He told me that I could if I would be his wife and I happily agreed.

Life in the palace was luxurious, yet busy and I never thought about Mom, until she showed up at the palace. I had been married to Robinson for one week, and word had spread around the kingdom that there was a new princess. Mom had come to take me back to the palace. When I told her no, she cast an enchantment on me that didn't allow me to move. She took me back into the tower through a secret stair way. Once in the tower, she cut off all my hair and banished me to the desert.

Going from the palace to the desert was quite an adjustment. I went from having everything to nothing. It was so hot, and I had absolutely nothing, I walked for a full day before I found a very small pond. I drank until I was full of water, then I drank some more. The water was very warm, but I didn't care. A week passed. It was the slowest week of my life. I had stayed at the pond and made a small shelter for myself so I could be in the shade and not get burned.

I was starving, because I had had nothing to eat the entire time. And to make things worse, I had felt very nauseous this entire time. I decided it was time to move on from the pound. It was a risk, but I knew that I was going to die anyway. Sooner or later didn't matter. I walked all night long. The cool breeze blew sand into my eyes and into my mouth if I didn't keep it shut. Just as the sun was rising, I came across a large sand mound. It was taller than I was. In the side of it, I found a small cave, and I went inside.

It went very far underground, and I walked all the way down it. I found a cool stream running through at the bottom. Occasionally, a small fish or a frog would swim through it. I was so hungry that I caught the first fish that I saw. I wanted to cook it, but I had nothing to make a fire with, so I ate it raw.

I lived for months in this cave, living off of fish and frogs. Sometimes I walked up to the top to get some sunlight, but I always became hot very quickly and went back down. It was cold and dark in the cave and I felt very isolated. One day after what felt like an eternity, I heard footsteps coming down the path to the bottom of the cave. I grabbed a sharp rock to use as a weapon, and waited. The foot steps grew nearer, and soon I saw someone.

"Who's there?" I said with as much courage as I could muster.

"Rapunzel?"

"Robinson!" I cried. Once I could control my joy, I told him my story and he told me his. He had gone back to the tower to get me, but the enchantress had already banished me. She tricked him into climbing up to the top of the tower by hanging my hair out of the window. He expected to find me, but when he got to the top only the enchantress was there. She banished him to the desert as well. He did't have shelter or food, so he slept during the day in what shade he could find, and wandered at night.
"Oh Rapaunzel, I have missed you so much! I cannot believe that we found each other. We must find the castle again at once and go home!" We ate a dinner of small fish and frogs, and then set out. It was sunset, and the temperature was cooling down. We walked in all directions for many days, but we never made it anywhere and always ended up going back to the cave. After a week of long nights of searching, we finally found a forrest of pine trees. Overjoyed to be out of the desert, we searched through the forrest until we found a road. The road led to a small neighborhood with a beautiful garden at the very end.

"I know where we are!" Robinson said. He grabbed my hand a led me down some winding roads through a town that I recognized. A mile later, we had made it back to the castle.