My Rapunzel
I had always thought you as mine. I pretended you were my daughter, my Rapunzel. I remember the first time I saw you, just a little girl, crying because your mother was drunk and your father had beat you until he finally threw you out of the house. You didn't understand it then and you didn't think anyone in the whole world would ever love you because you parents had told you that you were a horrible daughter that didn't deserve to exist. I didn't want you to ever go back into that house but I knew you had to and there was no way to keep you from those people. From that day on, I tried to be the mother you should have had, with warm cookies and milk waiting you whenever you came though my door.
I watched you grow up, every day of every year I remember. I remember when I first started calling you Rapunzel when your gold hair was so long, making you look so tiny and innocent. You played along calling me a witch and vainly tried to escape. In my mind I wondered if you would ever escape the tower your life was but it wasn't anything I could change though I was there to help when I could. I never forgot that. I watched you though junior high and into high school and after it you would tell me about your day and I it seemed like I never everything that was going on in you life. You seemed so young to have boyfriends but I thought you would make the right decisions and leave the mistakes of your parents behind.
That day will never fade from my mind. You had run into my kitchen and my arms and my first thought was that your parents were drunk again until I finally started to understand what you were trying to say. I couldn't believe you were pregnant but I was the first person you had told and I didn't want to make it worse for you then it already was. You were too scared to tell you boyfriend because you thought he would leave you and I felt anger at how much confidence your parents had given you in relationships. It frightened you out of your wits to even think about telling your parents. I was the only one you could tell and all I could do was comfort you and tell you it would be all right. I couldn't do anything and finally you had to leave my kitchen, leave my house, leave me felling so helpless.
The next day I didn't understand why there were ambulances outside your house. I asked and I all got was the answer that it was something about you. I never suspected, I just thought you had told you parents and your father had gotten into a temper and hurt you too much. It wasn't until later that I had what you had done. Your mother and father were written down as grieving parents and know one under stood why a girl like you with many friends, supportive parents and a loving boyfriend would hang themselves by their own hair.
I guess in the end that was the only way you could ever leave you doorless tower.
