Rapunzel Cut Down Your Hair!

• Elizabeth Nguyen, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2010

Once upon a time when witches were the damsels in distress and princesses were the ones who were evil, lived a girl named Rapunzel. Rapunzel was the princess of Eve and had long blonde hair that dragged all the way down past her feet, towards the Atlantic Ocean. Her hair was as thick as a forest, and often the village peasants would get entangled and lost in it for days. King Albert, Rapunzel’s father had often pleaded with his daughter to chop it off, but every time she would say ‘no’ and tell her father to ‘nick off’.

‘Rapunzel darling, it has been 17 years, it’s time to cut it,’ he hinted.
‘Father! For the 170th time I am not cutting it, it was a gift from my evil godmother and I am going to treasure my beautiful long golden valley of despair,’ she barked, while brushing as far down as she could, ‘and besides, why would I need to cut it? It does good for our village. It gives animals and basically everyone shade!’
‘Shade?!’ King Albert exploded, ‘the village people get lost in it! Once they step out of their home, all they see is blonde! How is that any good?’
‘Well, it’s their fault then, it’s not my problem that their homes are in the path of my hair!’ Rapunzel huffed, walking away from her father.
‘Rapunzel Rapunzel, please just cut down your hair, think about it!’ He begged, following her out of her room.
‘You know what, I’m sick and tired of you always asking and asking for me to cut it, I’m leaving and you will see! How much of a difference my hair does for this stupid kingdom,’ she yelled, storming out of the castle.
At that point, King Albert did not know whether to jump for joy or be sad that his only daughter had ran away. He decided he would do neither, and would wait and see if her hair, the cause of the Kingdom’s misfortune, would indeed be the only reason why the village survived.

It had been past three hours and Rapunzel had nowhere to go.
‘Stupid father, my hair is beautiful! Just look at the trees shake out leaves as I walk past,’ she muttered.
She had been walking for miles all the way towards Dune, the other kingdom nearby. With nothing but her hair on her head and a few villagers that were entangled inside, she walked towards a short tower which she would use her new home.
‘My my, look at this, it’s so short and stubby,’ she laughed.
She wasn’t laughing at the tower; she was laughing at May the witch, who had short cropped hair that framed her dark wrinkled face.
‘Excuse me! That’s not very nice,’ exclaimed May.
‘Yeah well, I’ve been walking for miles and I don’t have time to be nice,’ replied Rapunzel still laughing at the sight of the witch, ‘I’m tired and hungry, and my head feels like its being pulled all the way back to Eve!’
‘I can’t help you out I’m sorry,’ mumbled May walking away.
‘Well, if you can’t help me, I’ll help myself!’ she said walking towards the short tower that was not built for two.

May and Rapunzel had been living with each other for five whole days. In those five days, Rapunzel had somehow managed to drape her hair all over the tower, making May stuck inside. It was like being stuck in cheese. Holes lead to more yellow, and the more space that was found unaccompanied by hair, would be filled with hair the next day.

Meanwhile on the other side of the tower, a prince was trying to figure out what a bright yellow rock was doing In the middle of a paddock.
‘Isn’t it odd Prancer?’ Prince Edward asked his horse, ‘It’s almost like a giant sized hairball!’
‘I’ve got it!’ the prince exclaimed, ‘I’ll just cut through it and hopefully, there will be a beautiful witch inside just waiting to turn me into a toad!’
So, with the idea that his love was trapped inside, he got out his weapon, a stainless steel pair of scissors and proceeded in trimming the yellow rock. It took him four whole days to completely cut it all off, and once he was finished he waited, to see if anyone would come out.

Rapunzel had been sleeping for the past few days to kill time. When she woke up from her long slumber; she felt a light sensation on her head. She thought it was rather peculiar that her scalp felt so breezy.
‘Maybe I’m just getting sick,’ she sighed motioning her hand towards her scalp to massage her roots. However, when her hands were there, she felt nothing. The forest on her head had gone.
Now, some say after Rapunzel found out she had no hair, she fainted from shock, but this isn’t true. The truth was that Rapunzel was very very angry and she instantly thought it was May’s doing.
‘MAAAAAY!’ she exploded stomping outside, ‘WHAT IN THE NAME OF EVE HAVE YOU DONE!’
When Rapunzel stepped outside she saw not only May but also a prince. She immediately ran up, clenching her hand ready to punch May in the face but was stopped by the handsome prince that stood in front of the witch protecting her.
‘Ah dear Rapunzel I have heard much about you,’ he said gallantly.
‘I don’t care what you have heard; move out of the way before I punch both of you!’ Rapunzel yelled turning bright red from anger.
‘May has told me about your long hair, and it was I that cut it,’ he said proudly
‘YOU!?’ Rapunzel exclaimed, ‘I thought it was May!’
‘No it was I, who cut down your hair, and because I was the one to cut it down first I shall take May and marry her!’

Rapunzel was very angry, she was so mad that it was said steam came out of her ears. It was told that Rapunzel had punched and kicked the prince, until she was happy, but that was also not true. Rapunzel did indeed punch and kick the prince, but was never happy. She was so ashamed of her bald head that she ran far away from Eve and never came back home. It was said she went to live with Ariel in Atlantic City and set up a wig shop, using seaweed. King Albert, spent years looking for his daughter, but in the end gave up and adopted May as his daughter and Prince Edward as his son. The village was delighted that Rapunzel and her hair had disappeared. Everybody lived a happily ever after.
That was until world war one started and witches turned evil and Princesses turned good, but that’s another story.