Chapter Three—Let Down Your Hair
"Guess what, Aunt Cordy!"
"What, honey?"
"My kindergarten class is doing a play! Rapunzel!"
"Oh, dear. You know they told that story wrong."
"Ha ha! I knew you were going to say that! Now, you have to tell me."
"But I already told you a bedtime story."
"Oh, please, Aunt Cordy?"
Cordelia sighed and looked down at the girl.
"There once was a very, very old man. He wanted to have a little baby more than anything in the whole wide world, but he and his wife knew they couldn't because they were too old. One day, they found out that his wife was actually going to have a baby."
"How?"
"I don't know, honey. Magic. The lady loved her baby very much, but she was afraid she wouldn't be able to take good care of it, because she was so old. But the old man told her everything would be okay, and he held her while she cried. Well, when ladies get pregnant, they have weird cravings, and when OLD ladies get pregnant, they get really weird cravings. The old lady was very hungry…she wanted to drink blood!"
"Like a vampire?"
"Yes, dear. How do you know about vampires?"
"Kevin, from my class, was one for Halloween."
"Good, I was going to yell at your Daddy."
"Why?"
"Never you mind.
Anyway. The old man took care of
his wife, and tried to help her the best he could. But right before the baby was born, he ran into an old enemy of
his. The old man had hurt this other
guy's family a long time ago, and while he was very, very sorry about it now,
there was nothing he could do to fix his mistake. So the other man yelled at our first guy, and tried to hurt him
back. He put a curse on the old man and
his whole family, because he was very sad about what had happened so very long
ago. The old lady finally gave birth to
the baby boy—"
"Rapunzel was a girl!"
"No, the baby was a boy."
"What's his name?"
"Um…Colin. Unfortunately, the old lady died shortly after having the baby, and the old man had to take care of it by himself. He loved Con—Colin very much, and did the best he could, with the help of his friends. But the man's curse came back to haunt them. The old man's very best friend saw a prophecy that the old man was going to hurt the baby—but that was a lie, put there by friends of the enemy. The friend was very scared, and took the baby away from the old man, who became very upset and tried to find his child. The enemy caught them first, though, and kidnapped the baby, leaving the old man's friend horribly injured. He ran away with the baby and the old man didn't see his son again for a long, long time. When he did, the boy was all grown up and he had long hair—but not long enough to climb up--and he was very sad and angry with the old man. But the dad and baby got to know and love each other, and they all lived happily ever after. The End."
"What about the old man's friend?"
"Oh, yeah. Well, he was very sad and alone for a while, because the old man was mad at him for taking away his baby without telling him, but they made up again. Later, a lady he and the old man had known a long time ago came there and she and the friend fell in love, even though they used to fight a lot and she had hurt him very badly. They were nice to each other now, and even had their own little baby girl."
"What about the enemy?"
"He and the old man talked a little, and then he died, and finally was with his family again."
"That's good. He was just sad about his own little kids. He wasn't that bad."
"I agree. But he shouldn't have taken the baby away."
"No, that was mean.
"Alright, kid. You had two stories, and now it's time for bed."
"Aunt Cordy?"
"Yeah?"
"How come you don't have any kids? Is it because they wouldn't have a daddy?"
"That's exactly why. Besides, why do I need a kid when I have two wonderful nieces?"
"Aunt Cordy?"
"Ah! Enough!
Go to bed!"