many sad stories she told, it wouldn’t stop me from running away as soon as I could. I’d already learned that when apron strings were tied too tight, it only made the captive child fight all the harder to flee.
But Ma was a good storyteller, there was no denying that. As a baby, I was wrapped in words as snugly as I was swaddled. But they were silly stories of girls whose only desire was to wed, lonely girls who longed for husbands and homes, for expanding families to whom they could dedicate their lives. Boring stories. I tried not to roll my eyes at their beginnings and I never cared to know how they’d end. But, even though the tales were so dry their dust stuck in my throat, the way Ma told them was still enchanting, which meant I couldn’t help but listen to the words weave together, wrapping strands of sentences through my fingers and hair.
“Tell me the story of my birth instead,” I said.
“Oh, pet.” Ma laughed, pulling me into her lap. It was always a bit strange, sitting in my mother’s lap, since she was so small, almost as small as a child. As if she’d decided at thirteen that she couldn’t spare the effort to grow any taller. It wouldn’t be long before I was as tall as Ma. “I’ve told you that one a hundred times.”
“I don’t care, I love it.”
“No, tonight I have a different story,” Ma insisted.
“Okay,” I said, thinking that maybe this time it’d be different.
Ma smiled, hugging me tight. “All right then, pet. This one’s called ‘Rapunzel.’”
“I know this one,” I said.
“No,” Ma said. “Not this version you don’t.”
I shrugged, pulling away slightly, so there was still an inch of air between us.
“Once upon a time there lived a queen who longed for a child,” Ma began. “Unfortunately, though she tried every trick and spell to conceive, the queen remained barren.
“One day a dark fairy came to the kingdom promising he could give the queen what she most desired. After casting his spell the fairy issued a warning, that the queen must not try to possess that which could not be possessed. ‘Love that is craved too deeply,’ he advised, ‘love that is born of bright-white wishing and black-edged desire, will bring more sorrow than joy.’
“Within a year, the queen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom she named Rapunzel. And, happily, the queen found that the fairy had been quite wrong, for Rapunzel only brought her greater joy with every day that passed. She’d never loved another soul so completely, nor been so deeply loved in return.
“By the time the princess turned thirteen, the queen had forgotten the fairy’s warning. However, now that she was older, Rapunzel frequently left her mother’s side and began to love others. She had many friends and was courted by princes from every kingdom. Soon, the queen became scared.
“‘Do you still love me?’ she asked every night. ‘Do you still love me as I love you?’
“‘I do,’ Rapunzel always replied, for she did.
“But the queen didn’t believe her daughter and, one day, locked her up in a tower so Rapunzel could see no one else. Every night, the queen repeated her plea. Finally, Rapunzel stopped saying that she loved her mother in return, for now she found that she didn’t as she had done before. She begged her mother to free her, for she longed to see the world. But the queen could not let her daughter go.
“One night, the dark fairy visited the queen, reminding her of his warning. ‘If you do not let her go,’ he said, ‘she will soon grow to hate you.’
“‘I don’t care,’ the queen said, ‘so long as she stays.’
“‘Then you no longer love her,’ the fairy said.
“The queen was devastated. After all, had any mother ever loved her daughter more? She kept a vigil outside the tower, ensuring that the dark fairy never returned. Yet every day the queen saw that Rapunzel’s sorrow only grew and every night she heard her daughter weep louder than the night before. Until, one day, the queen was suddenly filled with regret and released Rapunzel.
“Delighted to finally be free, Rapunzel fled to the edges of the earth, leaving the queen to mourn the love she’d lost and pray every night that her daughter would one day return. As the years passed and the queen grew pale and thin with grief, still she never lost hope that her daughter would