Golden Read Free

could make no winter clothes.
    â€œTie your kerchief tightly around your head, Rapunzel,” she said. “I will do the same.”
    No woman or girl went with her head uncovered in those days. It simply wasn’t proper. To make sure that I had tied my own kerchief to her satisfaction, Melisande reached down and gave the knot a tug. I opened my mouth to ask why our kerchiefs needed particular attention on this particular day, then closed it again, having said nothing at all. As an interesting side benefit of learning which questions to ask and which to keep to myself, I had developed the ability to answer many on my own.
    It has to do with the fact that my head is different,
I thought. I would learn much more about what this meant before the day was done. In the meantime, however, I was excited, for, though Melisande had sometimes spoken of such places, I had never seen a town before.
    The day was fine. By the time we reached the market square, I had a crick in my neck from trying to turn it in every direction all at the same time. I had never seen so many people assembled in one place, nor imagined how many buildings it might take tohouse them all. Our horse’s shoes made an unfamiliar sound on the cobblestone streets.
    In the center of the town stood a great open square, completely filled with stalls selling goods of every imaginable kind. Through them, I could just catch a glimpse of green grass in the very center, and the tall brick sides of a well. Water was at the heart of every town, Melisande had explained as we’d ridden along. Without water, there could be no life.
    She found a place to stable the horse and cart, and we set off for the stalls.
    â€œStay close to me, Rapunzel,” Melisande said. “The town is a big place. It would be easy for you to lose yourself.”
    â€œI won’t get lost,” I replied. Which, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed for yourself, was not quite the same as giving a promise.
    For a while, though, the point was moot. I was content to stay at the sorceress’s side. Wonderful and exotic goods filled the market stalls, or so it seemed to me at the time. Only the fruit and vegetable stalls failed to tempt me. They didn’t hold a candle to what we grew at home. Eventually, however, Melisande fell to haggling over the price of needles, and I grew bored. I took one step from her side, and then another. By the time I had taken half a dozen, I had broken the invisible tether that tied me to her and been swallowed up by the crowd.
    Even then, I had no fear of getting lost. I knew right where I was going: to that patch of green at thevery center. I wanted to see what the heart of a town truly looked like. I can’t say quite what I was expecting, though I can say it wasn’t what I found. On the lush green grass in the center of the square, a group of town children were playing a game that involved running and kicking a ball. It was just a blown-up pig’s bladder, no more special than balls I had played with myself, but it was tied with a strip of cloth more blue than any sky.
    At this sight, my heart gave a great leap. I was a fast runner and knew well how to kick a ball. I had dreamed many dreams in my small warm bed at night, and wished upon many a star. The wish I had breathed most often had been for playmates. So when the ball tied with that bright cloth abruptly sailed my way, I did not hesitate, but kicked it straight to the player my eyes had gone to first and lingered on the longest: a tall lad several years older than I. Right on the cusp of being a young man. If it hadn’t been a market day, he probably wouldn’t have been playing at such games at all.
    Instantly, my action caused a great hue and cry; of joy on the part of the lad and his team, and outrage on the part of his opponents. For, until the moment I had intervened, the ball had been in their possession, and they’d looked fair to win the day.
    â€œOh,