"Why don't you come with me?" asked Eugene.
Sunflower was shocked. "What?"
Eugene looked embarrassed. "It's just, you remind me of Rapunzel, and I thought maybe..."
Sunflower shook her head. "No. I've never left this tower and I'm not going to."
Eugene looked surprised. "Never? Why not?"
"I'm not allowed to," she said.
"Overprotective mother?" asked Eugene.
Sunflower said, "It's for a good reason."
"I'm not going through this again," muttered Eugene. "You're leaving whether you like it or not."
He hooked her hair over the hook she used to pull her mother up and pushed her out the window! "Grab onto your hair and slide down!" he called.
Sunflower, who was falling quickly, did so. She began sliding down her hair, and couldn't resist letting out a whoop of delight as she felt the breeze flying past her face. But then her feet touched grass for the first time.
Wow! The grass was soft, and Sunflower had never felt anything like it. But then she looked, panicking, up at the tower. How would she ever get back up there? And, more importantly, what would happen to her mother?
Eugene, who had been climbing down the tower, jumped to the ground. "Let's go, Blondie."
He put his arm around her shoulder and began pushing her closer to the secret exit that her mother went through when she left. Sunflower had never been through the tunnel. She wondered what was out there.
She started walking. After all, she didn't really have a choice. And if they did find her mother, Sunflower had things to ask her.