Eight: The Lanterns
I brought Rapunzel over to the dock and paid for a boat. She stood next to ours while I bought a bag of apples and two lanterns to light. I hid the lanterns and dropped the bag of apples at the horse's hooves.
I offered her my hand and she stepped into the boat looking uneasy as it moved under her weight. I followed her, untying us from the dock. As I moved us away from the dock she looked over her shoulder at me. "Where are we going?"
"Well, best day of your life? I figured you should have a decent seat." By the time we had reached the center of the lake, the Sun had sunk and the stars were coming out. I stopped our boat and turned it so we were looking at the kingdom. Rapunzel let out a sigh and looked away from the darkened kingdom.
"You okay?" I asked gently.
"I'm terrified." She whispered, her eyes on the reflections that danced on the water.
"Why?"
"I've been looking out a window for eighteen years dreaming about what it might feel like when those lanterns rise in the night's sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?" She was looking up at the kingdom now, a sad look drawn onto her face.
"It will be." I promised.
"What if it is? What do I do then?" She asked softly, her eyes turning to me and pleading for an answer.
"Well, that's the good part I guess." I shrugged. "You get to go find a new dream." A small smile escaped onto her lips. We both looked back up at the kingdom.
"Put out your hand." She said, turning to me. I moved so I was facing her and put out my hand. She started plucking flowers from her braid and dropping them into my hand.
"Wait, don't you want those?" I asked, biting my tongue before adding They're beautiful in your hair.
"I'm not taking them all out." She reassured me. She started to pluck flowers one by one out of my hand and place them in the water to decorate it. We both looked down at the water right as the first lantern, the King and Queen's lantern, rose from the kingdom's reflection. Rapunzel froze, her eyes widening.
She lifted her head and eyes to see the lantern lifting into the sky, a single bright light in the dark sky. She jumped up, making the boat rock and sending me backwards as she raced to one end of the boat. Hundreds of lanterns began to float up from the kingdom and I watched as her shoulders released the tension of worry and stress.
As she gazed at the sky that was filling with lanterns, I pulled out our lanterns and lit them, holding onto them so they wouldn't float away yet. She turned slowly and her face lit up as she saw the two lanterns in my hands. She walked back to her seat across from me and sat down.
"I have something for you, too." She said, grabbing the satchel that I'd forgotten about. "I should have given it to you before, but I was just scared. And the thing is… I'm not scared anymore. You know what I mean?" She asked, her eyes finally meeting mine.
I pushed the satchel away from her hands and back down onto the bench she was sitting on. "I'm starting to." I confessed. She took her lantern then and we pushed them up into the sky.
All those days, chasing down a daydream. All those days, living in a blur. All that time, never truly seeing things the way they were. I watched her face as she pointed to lanterns and pushed them back up before they hit the water. Now she's here, shining in the starlight. Now she's here. Suddenly, I know if she's here, it's crystal clear, I'm where I'm meant to go.
I reached for her hands and she turned to me, blushing. "And at last I see the light." I sang aloud at the same time as her. "And it's like the fog has lifted." I sang gently to her as she beamed. "And at last I see the light." We sang in unison again.
"And it's like the sky is new." She trilled.
"And it's warm and real and bright. And the world has somehow shifted. All at once, everything is different now that I see you."
"Now that I see you." I said gently as I brushed some of her bangs out of her face. She looked beautiful and perfect. Looking at her I wanted to freeze this moment and stay with her here forever. I cupped her face with my hand and leaned in to kiss her. Her eyes fluttered closed. My heart was racing and as I started to close the distance and close my eyes, a green light on the shore made me stop cold. Every fiber of my being froze in fear and protection. I couldn't let anything happen to her.