The Rapunzels ONC 2024

2: Picture it. Grimstone Manor 1992.

 My mother, Lilin's hair is silvery wisps. I can almost hear the bristles of her brush sigh as she runs them through the strands. I don't remember ever touching her hair but I know I've always wanted to.

Brush.

Brush.

Over and over.

One...two...fifteen, seventy, ninety-nine.

Her lips sculpt the numbers as a silent psalm until she's counted to one hundred. Only then does she place the ornate silver brush down on the coffee table and look over at me. "Fia. Is it nearly six?"

I'm at her feet like an animal. She briefly touches my shoulder; it's often as close as I get to any form of affection from her. She loves her brush more than me. I wish I were silver too.

"A minute to, mother," I reply as I tap on my watch. "Nearly time."

A smile decorates her doll-like features. I look like neither of my parents, unlike my sisters who look like either one respectively. Lulu is my mother's twin—apart from the fact that her hair is dark. And Lexi, in all her stern glory, is Tyrone. Thank goodness she's not as cruel as he is.

Mother claps her hands enthusiastically and the diamonds on her fingers twinkle as they echo her enthusiasm. "The best time of the day!"

This is what she says every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at six PM when she plants herself in her favourite spot on the sofa and watches TV for a full, uninterrupted hour—the hour before my father returns from his work at NASA where he builds the spaceships needed to fly to the moon. 

He says in a decade or so, the astronauts will be able to go and see if there are any wolves to bring back to Earth. With a sneer, I almost hear him add, Then there shall be more of them for the Morginstars to kill.

Pointing to the TV like an excited child, mother bounces on her seat. "Switch it on, Fia. Let's see if your grandma has any new stories from Sicily tonight."

I scramble to the set and hit the switch on both the TV set and the magic box below it called a VCR, which is short for Very Cool Relatives. All my extended family lives inside the box.

From behind the screen comes a fizzling sound before the TV turns on. A bright light burns my eyes momentarily. There are three channels. Each one houses my three sets of grandparents.

I sit back by my mother and eagerly wait for granny Petrillo to come on the set. A happy little melody plays before each visit. It's only a second or two but I wish it were longer. It's pretty and it makes the ashes in my sooty soul feel good.

My granny lives with her daughter, my mother's eldest sister, Dorothy, and their two best friends, Blanche, and Rose. I think Rose is a twit but I adore Blanche. She doesn't care about what other people think about her love life. I envy Blanche. I envy her short hair and the fact that she's loved by so many people. She makes sex sound like beauty, and power, and life.

The women's home is my dream home. Though our house is large enough to house five families and we have two guest houses on our plot, I wish I lived somewhere cozy. Grandmother Petrillo and the other women live in a place called Miami.

Father says we need a spaceship to go were we ever to visit (which is impossible). I want to go one day. I want to feel that sunshine on my face. I don't care how but someday I will make it to Miami and see the palm trees and beach up close.

When granny Sophia comes into view, I turn to my mother. "Was I really named after her?"

Mother does not look at me. She's glued to the set. "I have to repeat the question twice before she utters, "Mmm? Oh, of course, my dear. As Lulu and Lexi were named after your other grandma and great-grandma."

I nod. I have asked her the same question a thousand times. Maybe more. I like knowing I was important enough to be named after my mother's mother.

We watch the visit in silence but from time to time, I cast a glance to the brush. When I reach out to touch it, my mother slaps my hand away.

"I'll brush your hair later, Fia. I swear I will. Be a good girl and get me a glass of wine. Dorothy is threatening to send mother Petrillo back to Shady Pines and it's making me nervous."

I get up with the hope that she'll use her brush as she promised. I know it must be soft. Much softer than the horrid wooden one my sisters and I share.

There's a fully stocked cellar of alcohol tucked under the stairs of the kitchen. It's never empty. When one bottle empties, the next day it's full again. I don't know how this happens. Mother says it's magic. I say it's bullshit. I don't believe in magic—only curses and the fact that I want to know why the Morginstars kill wolves.

I open the door and shiver at the sudden temperature change. Mother says all kinds of liquor should be chilled enough they beg for a sweater. I know her favourite is white, so I get a chardonnay and pour her a generous glass. When my father is around and I fill her glass to the brim, she calls me uncouth. But when it's just the two of us, she squeals giddily and blows me a kiss before taking the glass and chugging huge mouthfuls in a very uncouth manner.

I walk back to the living room with her glass and set it on a coaster with the word Bellagio stamped on it in sparkly gold. "Have I missed anything?"

Mother does the squeal. Her hands touch her lips and kisses go flying. "Your grandmother called Rose an idiot." When she grabs the glass I see liquid slosh over the edges. Her tongue laps the drops trying to flee before coral lips wrap around the edge of the glass. She slurps and a large part of the chardonnay vanishes.

I sit down and lean against the side of the sofa. "What did Rose do this time?"

Mother takes another few sips. She leans back and draws in a deep breath. Ignoring my question, she says, "Do you know we almost named you Rose?"

I furrow my brows. Hell, my whole face scrunches up like a used tissue. "What? What?"

By now half of Lilin's wine is gone. "Mhmmm. Your father thought you'd be stupid because you're the last girl. He said," mother clears her throat and lowers her voice to imitate my father's baritone, "Lilin, m'dear. Two girls may have got some brains. But you popping out a third female? Goddamn!" Mother shakes her head vigorously as Tyrone does. "There probably aren't any brains left for another gal."

She cups her wine glass and sighs. "I told him you'd be a Grimstone and Grimstones aren't buffoons." Holding her glass as if in an embrace, mother continues her story, "I told him you'd be smart. You'd learn how to read and write. You'd know your multiplication tables and where Sicily is located."

"Far, far away in Europe," I say flatly. I am not keen on hearing how my father believed me a moron even before I was born.

I am not dumb. On the contrary, I'd learned how to read by the age of three and a half. By the time I was seven, I was going through my mother's library like the end of time was coming. Sadly, some of the books had pages ripped out, or scribbled over, or inked in black like the one I'd been looking at yesterday. When I come across a book like that, I make a story up.

I know my parents keep a stash of secret books. I know where they were hidden. They are in the attic. Mother keeps the key on a chain around her neck but she takes the chain off when she sleeps and showers and sometimes she forgets the key on her bedside table when she leaves for chores in the Outside.

"See? I knew you were a smart cookie, Fia." Mother's hand rises limply. The tips of her fingers give what resembles a pathetic pat on my head. "It's too bad you will never be able to leave this place." Delicately curling a lock of hair around her finger, she sighs. "Not unless the curse breaks or your hair somehow becomes short like mine." Mother smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "Don't worry, Fia. Life on Grimstone grounds is blessed. Safe. There are no bad people here. There are no monsters. No devils. No one but a family that loves you."

Finishing her drink, she takes hold of the brush just as grandmother's visit comes to an end. Grabbing my arm and tugging me closer, mother brings the brush to my hair and begins to count.  

 Total words till now: 2447

I diiiiiiiiiiiiiid it! I wrote my first 2000+ words! What do you think about the girl's parents so far? Do you know what their names mean? THANK YOU to all who read, voted, and commented!!!! You rock <3