Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel

by Megan Morrison

  “Jack, get him!” said Rapunzel. But Jack was nowhere to be seen.

  Calabaza’s daughter looked up from Prince Frog and called out to Rapunzel, “Want me to hold him for you?”

  Prince Frog gave a croak of deep satisfaction.

  “Fine,” Rapunzel shouted back. “But he likes to be wet, so if you’d dip your pocket in some water and put him in there, he’d be happier.”

  Calabaza’s daughter quirked an eyebrow, but she gestured for a goblet of water, into which she dipped the pocket of her orange dress. The crowd applauded, Calabaza’s daughter laughed, and Prince Frog wriggled into her pocket without delay.

  “BACK TO THE CONTEST!” cried Calabaza, and Rapunzel knelt at the ringside once more. She bounced her ball and scooped eight jacks.

  Soon, they had cleared elevensies. Carmella smiled again.

  “And now it gets interesting,” she said.

  Rapunzel pulled twelvesies with ease. “What does?” she asked.

  Carmella’s smile faded. She cleared twelvesies, and the champions on the platform below them murmured as they watched. They were no longer whispering or pointing.

  Rapunzel pulled thirteensies. “What does?” she repeated. “Get interesting, I mean.”

  “The game,” said Carmella, who was concentrating now. She gave her ball a hard bounce and managed to scoop thirteen jacks. The crowd gasped, then whooped and cheered.

  “Really?” asked Rapunzel. “How does it?” She bounced her ball and picked up fourteen jacks. She didn’t have to count them; she could feel the number in her hand. But fourteen was as high as she was usually able to catch. The ceiling of her tower wouldn’t allow her to bounce the ball high enough to catch fifteen jacks in time.

  Rapunzel counted her jacks and laid them in the ring. “Fourteen,” she announced, and laughed when the crowd cheered.

  “I do not appreciate your mocking me,” Carmella hissed.

  “Mocking you?” Rapunzel repeated. “What did I say?”

  Carmella shut her mouth. She glanced down at the crowd below. And then she bounced her ball, hard and high, and scooped a number of jacks into her hand. The ball bounced, and she counted her jacks aloud as she laid them in the ring.

  “Fourteen,” she said.

  The crowd roared, and Carmella’s expression relaxed into a generous smile.

  “Now,” she said. “If you miss, and I do not, I win. If we both miss, we will move on to Variations — ups, downs, double ups and double downs, and so forth.”

  Rapunzel understood. “And if I don’t miss, and you do?” she asked.

  A hush fell over the crowd below.

  Carmella’s smile tightened. “Then you win,” she said. “Go ahead.”

  Rapunzel flexed her hand. She threw her ball hard against the ground — there was no roof here, so she could get all the height she needed. The ball soared into the air, and Rapunzel swept a handful of jacks. She felt them; there were too many. She dropped one into the ring before the ball bounced.

  Rapunzel opened her hand and counted out her jacks.

  “Fifteen,” she said, setting the last silver jack down with a click.

  The crowd erupted. Carmella barely concealed a snarl. Rapunzel searched the cheering crowd until she found Jack, who had finally resurfaced near the platform. When he caught her eyes, his expression made Rapunzel feel warm. It was a little like the way Witch looked at her sometimes.

  Rapunzel’s heart gave a sudden twinge. She had barely thought of Witch at all since coming to Cornucopia. She wished that Witch could see her now, competing against a champion. Witch would have been so proud of her.

  Carmella waited until the crowd had settled. The moment their attention was on her again, she dashed her ball to the ground. It shot into the air, and she grabbed her jacks. She opened her hand and looked at them, counted under her breath, dropped one jack, shook her head and picked it up again —

  Her ball bounced. Carmella clenched her fist, and her eyes darted to Rapunzel’s. One by one, she counted out her jacks, keeping her hand clutched around them.

  Rapunzel held her breath. After laying down her thirteenth jack, Carmella tightened her fist again for a moment before slowly uncurling her fingers.

  In her palm, there was only one jack.

  A marvelous sensation, like buzzing, liquid heat, spread outward from Rapunzel’s chest, filling her limbs and head. She had won.

  Carmella placed her final jack in the ring. “Fourteen,” she said, her voice flat.

  “Challenger wins!” cried the umpire.

  “HAIL THE NEW CHAMPION!” cried Governor Calabaza.

  The park exploded in a frenzy of delirious noise as Rapunzel gathered her jacks, grinning so hard she thought her cheeks would split. Ground people weren’t so bad when they were cheering, she thought. She saw one of Calabaza’s sons collecting silver coins from the other two, and then she caught sight of Jack, who had thrown both fists into the air and was hollering himself hoarse. She laughed in delight.

  “Beaten at Commons,” said Carmella, staring at the ring, her voice low under the roar of the crowd. She raised her eyes to Rapunzel. “Where do you hail from?” she asked. “Where did you learn to play?”

  “In my tower,” said Rapunzel, still unable to stop smiling.

  “And where is that?”

  “In the Redlands.”

  Carmella’s eyes widened. She stood up. “WAIT!” she cried, and the crowd turned to her. She pointed at Rapunzel. “The challenger is not from Yellow Country; she is from a tower in the Redlands!” Her voice was triumphant. “The contest does not stand!”

  The crowd was quick to turn. Whistles and cheers became jeers and boos; people cried “Cheater!” and “Hunchback!” and threw things at the platform. Eggs, tomatoes, and even a fish splattered against Rapunzel, staining her cloak and stinging her eyes. The joy of victory evaporated, and she covered her head with her arms.

  “ENOUGH!” cried Calabaza.

  A final egg cracked against the wooden steps. The crowd fell silent.

  Calabaza leaned forward in his throne and looked across the crowd at Rapunzel. “Is it true?” he asked her, and his voice did not boom now. It was timid. “Are you from …” He hesitated. “From a tower in the Redlands?”

  “Yes,” said Rapunzel. “Why?”

  Calabaza’s dark eyes flashed. “The Bargaining,” he said.

  Everyone in attendance went silent. The Nexus looked grim, and the governor’s children gaped. All eyes turned to Rapunzel.

  “The Bargaining,” Carmella repeated in a whisper, staring at Rapunzel. She looked thunderstruck. “I was a child of nine when it happened; I lived near the house….”

  Rapunzel felt sudden, grasping hands on the back of her neck, and she cried out in alarm as Jack’s cloak was torn from her throat. Her hair was exposed, and the crowd gasped with one voice.

  “There’s a wheel of hair on her back!” shouted the man who had stripped her of her cloak. He pointed at her. “She’s no hunchback! The child has a braid as long as the tower is tall, just like the stories!”

  “She’s the witch’s child!” shrieked a woman.

  Screams went up around the park, and people scattered in every direction. Rapunzel knelt on the stage, looking down on the panicked crowd and understanding only that she was responsible for their terror. What the Bargaining was, or why they were afraid, she didn’t know. She hugged herself and wished that she could call for Witch.

  “What should I do?” she murmured.

  “You should collect your winnings,” said Carmella, still staring at her. “If you are the witch’s child, then you hail from Yellow Country.”

  CALABAZA’S guards seized Rapunzel. “Let me go!” she shouted, trying to wriggle out of their grip as they wrenched her to her feet. She nearly shook one of them off, but the guard caught her arm, twisted it behind her back, and pinned it there.

  The guards marched Rapunzel down from the wooden platform. They steered her through the thinnin
g crowd of villagers and straight to Governor Calabaza, who looked out at the fleeing crowds as though he wished he could have joined them.

  “Well, don’t hurt her,” said Calabaza’s daughter as the guards dragged a wincing Rapunzel before them. “Father,” she said sharply, “tell them to let her go.”

  “All right, Delicata — let her go, let her go.” Calabaza waved at the guards, who released Rapunzel. His daughter stepped back again.

  “What do you want?” Rapunzel demanded. “Are you going to kill me? The last time people dragged me around, it was in the Red Glade, and all the fairies wanted me dead.”

  Calabaza looked amazed. Behind him, one of his sons snickered. “No, no killing,” said Calabaza. “Certainly not.” He adjusted his hat to scratch his bald head. “I only wanted to ask: Does Envearia know you’re here?”

  “If you mean Witch,” said Rapunzel, who couldn’t help thinking that it was very strange to have heard that name again, from a new source, “then no, she doesn’t.”

  “Then she didn’t let you out of the tower.”

  “She didn’t have to let me out,” said Rapunzel. “I climbed down.”

  “You escaped,” said Calabaza. Sweat stood out on his brow.

  “I didn’t have to escape,” said Rapunzel. “I just left.”

  “You … weren’t imprisoned?” He looked bewildered. “She wasn’t cruel to you?”

  “Cruel? Witch?” Rapunzel laughed at him. “Of course not,” she said. “She loves me.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s not so bad, is it?” he asked.

  “Exactly,” said Rapunzel. “Now, can I go, please? I’m on my way to the First Wood.”

  “Certainly, you may go,” said the governor. “Accept the apology of Yellow Country, and … yes, be on your way, of course, the First Wood, whatever you like.”

  “The apology of Yellow Country?”

  “For not intervening,” said Calabaza, “at the time of the Bargaining. Your mother asked for help, and I was sorry, of course — children of my own, you know, and I felt for her, I did — but what could I do? There was nothing I could do. Envearia won you fair and square, and then she took you into another country, out of my power. Nothing I could do. Leave the magic to the magical, you understand. No good can come from interfering…. Isn’t that right, Nexus Burdock?”

  Calabaza looked up at the Nexus, who colored slightly. “Interference was not deemed prudent,” he said.

  “Give her the winnings, Nexus,” Delicata said. “You’ve got them, don’t you?”

  Nexus Burdock gave Rapunzel a lopsided smile. In spite of the amulet that shone from his breast, reminding her of his magical importance, he appeared friendly and kind. “It doesn’t make up for what you’ve endured,” he said, holding out a leather pouch. “No amount of money can erase your past. But it can help to build your future.”

  “I don’t want to erase my past,” said Rapunzel, thinking of the memories she had lost already. “And what do you mean about building my future? What am I supposed to build?”

  Nexus Burdock looked mildly surprised, but sympathetic too. “That’s up to you,” he said. “You’re free. You can choose any path you wish.”

  She took the pouch he offered her. It was heavy, and its contents clinked.

  “Well said, well said!” Calabaza clapped his hands against the arms of his chair. “Congratulations to the new Capital Champion of Cornucopia! And now, to the carriages!”

  The party began to disperse. Delicata hung back for a moment.

  “I’m glad you’ll represent Yellow at the ATC next summer,” she said warmly to Rapunzel. “You’re really good. Don’t slack off just because you’ve had a victory, all right? Keep practicing. The champion from Brown has won the last three tournaments in a row, and it’s time he got thrashed.”

  “ATC?” Rapunzel repeated.

  Delicata’s eyebrows shot up. “Of course you don’t know,” she said with a shake of her head. “The All-Tyme Championships. We’ll send an invitation and explain everything, but where should we send … That is, are you still living at that tower, or —”

  “Deli,” Calabaza barked, looking quickly around the park as if expecting someone to appear at any moment. “No more.”

  “All right — but don’t forget your friend,” she said, and she extracted Prince Frog from her pocket. He looked a bit greener than usual. Rapunzel took him, but he slipped out of her grasp and flung himself onto the platform, where he hopped once more toward Delicata’s skirt.

  “Come back, Prince Frog,” said Rapunzel. “Wait — Governor! I mean, your lordship!”

  Calabaza turned with obvious reluctance. “Yes?”

  “What’s the Bargaining?” she asked. “And what do you mean about my mother?”

  Before he could answer, one of Calabaza’s sons let out a powerful shriek. “It’s in my hair!” he screamed, batting at his head.

  Guards ran toward him. Calabaza looked terrified.

  “It’s down my back!” shrieked the boy, waving his arms in the air. “It’s in my sleeve —”

  As Rapunzel watched, Prince Frog wriggled out from between the boy’s neck and his shirt collar. The instant he appeared, one of the guards smacked him away with such force that Prince Frog flew through the air with a miserable, rasping croak.

  “Prince Frog!” cried Rapunzel, and she pelted down the steps of the platform. Calabaza’s other sons roared with laughter. She dove toward the place where Prince Frog was falling and just barely caught him in her outstretched fingers. He shuddered in her hands.

  “Ground people,” said Rapunzel, getting to her feet and snatching up the pouch of money, which she had dropped in her rush. She glanced at Calabaza, but he was paying no attention to her; guards escorted his party away in a great hurry. Prince Frog wriggled from her hands again and hopped after them.

  “Prince Frog!” Rapunzel crouched and scooped him up again. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Rapunzel!” Jack appeared out of the thinning crowd. “You won! I can’t believe you won — you get to go to the All-Tyme Championships.” He looked at her with new respect. “I’m sort of sorry you won at Commons, actually; it would’ve been great to see you beat her with some tricks. Can you do any variations? Like backhand catches, or flips, or —”

  “Yes,” Rapunzel interrupted, getting a grip on Prince Frog, who was still struggling to get out of her hands. “I can do all of it. Here — take the money, would you?”

  Jack took the pouch, unlaced it, and dug into it. He brought out a fistful of gold, bronze, and copper coins, which he let sift through his fingers and fall, clinking, back into the pouch. There was a silver piece as well, which he gazed at in wonder. He flipped it in his fingers and looked up at Rapunzel.

  “You were born here, huh?” he asked. “What’s the Bargaining? People got out of here so fast, you’d think there were giants after them.”

  Rapunzel was uneasy. She wished she knew the answers. She should have known them. It was wrong that so many strangers knew things about her that she didn’t.

  “I didn’t know I was born here,” she said. “Stop it, Prince Frog. Is that enough money to get boots?”

  Jack cinched the pouch and held it out to Rapunzel. “It’s ten times more money than I’ve ever seen in one place,” he said. “We can get all the supplies we need.”

  “You carry it.”

  He looked all too happy to stow the pouch in his knapsack.

  “Hold Prince Frog too,” Rapunzel said. His struggles had grown so desperate that she feared she would hurt him if she clutched him any harder. “Do you have a pocket that buttons? He’s being a very bad frog.”

  Jack opened a large pocket in his vest. He pulled out a handful of things and shoved them into his knapsack, then took Prince Frog, stowed him in the pocket, and buttoned it. The pocket bulged and strained, and Prince Frog croaked from within it.

  Rapunzel adjusted her wheel on her back and sighed.

  “Y
ou know what you need?” said Jack. “A wagon. It rolls, and you pull it with a handle.” He pantomimed for Rapunzel’s benefit. “You could put your hair in it.”

  The idea of putting her hair somewhere other than her back was so welcome to Rapunzel that she readily agreed, and they set off together toward the shops, which sat on the opposite bank of the river that flowed alongside the park.

  First they bought a wagon. Rapunzel laid the hair wheel in the rectangular bed with a sigh of relief, then lifted the wagon handle and pulled it along behind her through the few remaining shoppers. All of them stared at her — not particularly nice stares, but not hostile and scary ones like the fairies had given her. Rapunzel tried to smile at a few of the people who passed her, but every time she managed to meet someone’s eyes, they glanced immediately away.

  “Might as well give up,” Jack said to her, flicking back his hair. “When people don’t want to get involved in your problems, they just pretend not to see you.”

  Next, Jack bought a sword. It was sharp and light, and Rapunzel admired it as Jack buckled the scabbard to his belt. When he was finished, he straightened up and put his hand on the hilt.

  “You look more like a prince now,” said Rapunzel, thinking of the illustrations in her books. Jack lifted his chin into the air. “Should I get a sword too?” she asked.

  He helped her to find a sturdy dagger, a useful leather belt with pouches, and a water skin of her own. They also found gloves and cloaks, which Jack said they would need by the time they got to the center of Green, where it was bound to be much colder. He stowed their purchases in the wagon with her hair, paid for it all with a flourish, and led the way to the biggest shop Rapunzel had yet seen. It took up an entire street at the very top of the park, and its long, tall windowpanes glinted in the sunlight. Bright golden letters shone in an arc above the great double doors: UBIQUITOUS.

  “Ubiquitous!” said Rapunzel, running up to the shop with her wagon rattling behind her. “Oh …,” she breathed as she stared through one of the enormous windows. “Look at it all!”

  The Ubiquitous shop was enormous. Hundreds of polished barrels gleamed within, stacked sideways along every wall and all the way up to the vaulted ceilings. Tall, rolling ladders made it possible to climb to the very highest rows. In each barrel end was a little glass door with a shining copper handle, and beside each door hung a palm-size copper shovel, just the right size for scooping out a handful of something.