Rapunzel Untangled (20 page)

His room was very different than Rapunzel’s. A narrow bed, covered with a dark blue quilt dotted with white, sat against the opposite wall. His walls were covered with posters of groups of people, movies, and a couple that depicted guitars. A dresser in the corner held a few trophies on top and a stack of books. His backpack sat on the floor next to the dresser.

“Oops.” He darted in front of her and shut his closet door, flashing her an embarrassed grin.

On his desk sat his computer where they’d probably first met through Facebook and where she Skyped with him. She glanced at the area behind his computer. His bed was behind it, and a couple of the posters on the wall above that. She hadn’t ever looked close enough to notice the posters—probably because she always kept her gaze so intently on him.

“Who are the people on the posters?” she asked.

“Bands I listen to,” he said. “This one is Linkin Park, my favorite. Do you know them?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s just a travesty,” he teased sarcastically. He walked over to a white box that had speakers with a smaller square object sitting on the front. “iPod,” he said, pointing to the little square. “It holds all my music.” She thought it odd that something that small could hold all his music. He must not have much. He pushed a button a couple of times and music blasted into the room. He quickly swirled his finger on the front of it, and the volume lessened.

“Have a seat,” he said, pointing to the rolling desk chair. “You’re gonna love this.” He indicated the iPod. She sat on the chair and he sat on the bed. She turned the chair to face him, feeling shy sitting in his room. She wasn’t sure why that should be. She’d spent plenty of time alone with him in her rooms. There was just something about sitting here in
his
room.

“Nervous?” he asked.

She nodded. “It’s quieter than I thought it would be,” she admitted.

“Just wait. Once all the aunts, uncles, and cousins come, you’ll be wishing for the quiet. Enjoy it while you can.”

Rapunzel’s stomach tightened at his words. “How many are coming?”

“Let’s see,” he said, turning his gaze skyward and counting on his fingers. “I think probably around thirty.”

Rapunzel’s mouth dropped. “
Thirty
?”

Fane shrugged as if it weren’t a gigantic number. “My parents are the only ones in the family who only have one child. My dad has two brothers, and my mom has one brother and two sisters. My dad’s brothers have three and four kids, my mom’s two sisters are coming and they have three and five kids. My dad’s parents and my mom’s dad, plus the four of us is somewhere around thirty people, right?”

Rapunzel’s head spun from the numbers. She couldn’t begin to count them based on his speech. “How will I ever remember their names?” she muttered.

“My mom thought of that,” Fane said. Rapunzel blushed; she hadn’t meant to speak aloud. “She’s making everyone wear name tags that also tell you how they’re related. Should be interesting to see if my cousins actually keep the right ones on.” Fane laughed.

“Oh,” Rapunzel said, overwhelmed. She preferred to be a bit more invisible, not have everyone do something unusual to accommodate her.

“My granny—my mom’s mom—died a couple of years ago. It’s been really hard on granddad, so don’t be surprised if you see him tearing up now and then.” Then, as if he’d just thought of it, “Do you have any grandparents?”

“No.” Rapunzel shook her head. “If the stories we read are true, my mother’s parents died under suspicious circumstances, and my father’s parents died before he even married.”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” Fane sounded sorry for asking, but Rapunzel was caught up in her words. She hadn’t ever really thought of her father before. She’d never really questioned his existence—or lack of existence, until she’d read about him in the articles. It seemed strange that there had been a man who had fathered her, who would have been a big part of her life had he lived. She wondered if he truly had slipped off that cliff, or if—

“You okay?” Fane leaned forward, looking at her with concern.

“I just realized that I have—or
had
, I should say—a father. And grandparents.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be weird if you’d never known about him. Or them.” He smiled and took her hand in his. “You’ll love my grandparents. And they’ll love you as well.”

Rapunzel looked at their hands. Fane idly rubbed the back of her hand. His hand was larger, darker, compared to her thin, pale, frail-looking fingers. While she was sure the gesture didn’t mean much to him, it did funny things to her belly.

“So, why do your parents only have you?” she asked, voice trembling.

Fane shrugged. “My mom almost died when she had me. She had a stroke when she was only six months along. They managed to keep her pregnant for a couple of weeks, but then she had me. I only weighed a pound and a half.”

“Really?”

Fane lifted and flexed one arm muscle—impressively—and joked, “From a one-and-a-half pound weakling to a one-hundred-eighty-five pound Hulk in eighteen short years.” Rapunzel couldn’t tear her eyes from his arm. Finally he dropped it. “After that, they told her it was too risky to have another baby. She could’ve died. My dad said it wasn’t worth the risk. So I’m it.”

“Do you miss having siblings?”

He shook his head. “I’m pretty close to my cousins. Plus, I have a lot of friends. So I’ve never missed having brothers or sisters. Besides, I pretty much always get my way since there’s no one to argue with me.”

Rapunzel thought about that. “I don’t have anyone to argue with, either, but I don’t get my way. Everything is my mother’s way.”

Fane nodded. “Your life is definitely a little different than mine, huh?”

“You think?” Rapunzel said, using one of Fane’s phrases. They looked at each other and laughed.

“The world is a poorer place for not having you in it, Rapunzel. It’s a shame to have you locked up in that tower.”

“Thank you,” she said, meaning it. At least one person in the real world was aware of her.

 
^.*
*

I
t didn’t take long for Rapunzel to discover that Fane was right about the noise. As soon as his relatives arrived, it became very loud in his house.

“Hey, Rapunzel, when are you going to get rid of this jerk and go out with a real man?”

Rapunzel looked up at Kevin, Fane’s cousin. It wasn’t the first time he had made a similar comment. He’d been teasing Rapunzel about dating him since he’d arrived at the house. He was the same age as Fane, older by two months, a fact he never let Fane forget.

“You should date a real man, like me,” he continued.

“I’m not dating Fane. We’re just friends,” she said.

Kevin punched Fane in the shoulder. “What’s wrong with you, bro? You have a gorgeous girl like this hanging around and you’re not dating her? You must be
loco
. See what I’m talking about, Rapunzel? If you were with a real man, like me, I wouldn’t hesitate dating you.”

Rapunzel glanced at Fane to see his clenched jaw ticking and a spot of red in his cheek. Was he angry at Kevin for insinuating that he should be dating her? Rapunzel’s attention was drawn away from Fane and Kevin by Ava and Liv, Fane’s eleven- and twelve-year-old cousins who were braiding the back of her hair.

As soon as they had come into the house and spotted her hair, they squealed in delight and begged her to let them braid it. She left the crown braid in but let them loosen the back, which they had since braided into a bunch of smaller braids. They were now taking the smaller braids and twisting them into a single braid down her back.

Their mother, Sandy, came into the room. “Are you still torturing Rapunzel’s hair?” she asked the girls.

The girls completely ignored her, but Rapunzel smiled at Fane’s aunt. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It feels kind of nice having someone else do my hair for once.”

“You do your own hair?” Sandy sounded surprised.

“Yes, my mother did it when I was little of course, but she hasn’t done it for several years now. I usually just braid it in a single braid so that it doesn’t drag on the floor.”

“I’ve never seen hair that long on a person so young,” Sandy said, “In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen hair that long on anybody of any age.”

Rapunzel wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she just smiled.

“Can we put ribbons in your hair?” Ava asked.

“Where do you think you’re going to get ribbon in a house that has only one teenage boy and no young girls?” Sandy asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Fane
does
wear ribbons in his hair,” Kevin interjected, “since Fane is not even man enough to ask a girl on a decent date.”

At that, Fane tackled Kevin around the waist, pulling him to the floor. Rapunzel stood in alarm, but Fane’s Uncle David calmly walked into the room and said, “Take it outside, boys.”

Kevin took off running, slamming his way out the front door, Fane hot on his heels. Everyone scrambled to the front windows to watch the spectacle, laughing and making bets on who would win. Rapunzel wasn’t sure what to make of the whole situation. Weren’t they afraid that one of them would hurt the other? But as she looked out the window she saw that Fane and Kevin laughed as they wrestled. Finally Fane straddled Kevin, holding Kevin’s arms above his head. Kevin laughingly yelled, “Uncle! Uncle!” Rapunzel glanced over at the uncles, surprised that none of them heeded his call.

Fane stood, reaching a hand down to pull Kevin to his feet. Kevin slung an arm around Fane’s neck, scrubbing the top of his head with his knuckles. Just then, Kevin and Fane both stopped and glanced toward the sky.

“It’s snowing!” Kevin yelled. Fane’s eyes came to Rapunzel’s, and he grinned at her. In that one look she knew that he understood she’d never been outside in the snow before.

“Come out,” Fane mouthed to her, waving her out with a gesture.

Within moments the house had emptied of nearly every person as they all stood outside, looking up at the sky and the flakes drifting down. Fane came to Rapunzel and took her hand in his. His hand was icy cold. A worried look came across his face.

“You probably shouldn’t be out here. You’re going to get sick,” he said.

Before she could answer, Beth stuck her head out the door. “You all get in here, out of the cold. Dinner’s ready.”

That brought a cheer, particularly from the men, and they all stumbled over one another, pushing their way back into the house. Fane and Rapunzel held back. She lifted her hand as a snowflake landed in it and immediately melted.

“I’ve felt the snow outside my window,” she told him, “but I’ve never stood outside in it.”

Fane brought her hand to his mouth and said, “Let’s go eat until we’re sick, and then I’ll find you a decent coat and some gloves and we’ll come back out.”

“We have to eat until we’re sick? Why?”

Fane just laughed and led the way into the house.

* * *

Rapunzel was amazed at how Fane’s family had multiple, loud conversations going on throughout dinner. She wasn’t sure which conversation to follow and didn’t attempt to jump into any of them unless she was asked a direct question. It could have easily been overwhelming. Instead, Rapunzel found herself completely enjoying the chaos. She’d never been with any family members other than her mother.

There was also more food than she’d ever seen in one sitting. Fane’s uncles ate so much food, she felt sure that their bellies would explode. Rapunzel realized that Fane had only been half teasing about eating until they were sick.

While they ate, the snowstorm had increased in intensity, until the world turned white by the amount of snow falling from the sky. By the time they finished eating, there was a good base of snow on the ground. Fane kept true to his word. He placed one of his mom’s thick winter coats on her. It fell to her knees, puffy with feathers, and felt as warm as a cocoon. He gave her a knit cap and some thick gloves to wear. His mom lent her some sweatpants to put on beneath her skirt to keep her legs warm, and a pair of her boots that were only half a size too large. They went outside, followed by Kevin, Ava, Liv, and the rest of the cousins. It was colder than she’d expected, but she quickly warmed up as they all began chasing one another around in the snow. Liv taught her how to make a snow angel, and some of the other cousins attempted to build a snowman, but the snow was too wet and there wasn’t quite enough of it yet.

Soon, another of Fane’s aunts came out and called them in for hot chocolate. Rapunzel thought they would refuse since they had just eaten such a huge feast, but they all went running in as if they hadn’t eaten for days.

Rapunzel moved to follow them until Fane took her hand in his and laid a finger on his lips, indicating that she should be silent. As soon as the last cousin disappeared through the door, he led her around the side of the house. He looked furtively left and right and then quickly led her out of the front yard and down the sidewalk.

Rapunzel had no idea where he was taking her but trusted him enough to follow. After a few minutes they came to a wide expanse of snow-covered grass. Several trees populated the area as well as some benches and children’s play areas. She had seen play areas like these online and in movies but had never seen one herself.

“What is this place?” she asked in awe.

“It’s a park,” he said. He pointed. “Those are the playgrounds. I guess you’ve never been to one, huh?”

Rapunzel didn’t answer but pointed to the playground. “Can we see those closer?”

“We can do better than that.”

They walked over to the play area and Fane stopped next to a tall structure that had long chains dangling down with slices of rubber between each set of chains.

“Have you ever swung before?” he asked.

“Swung?” she echoed.

“Oh man, you’re in for the ride of your life,” he said.

He showed her how to sit on the slice of rubber and where to hold the chains, then moved to stand behind her.

“Hold on tight,” he said, placing his hands on either side of her waist and then backing up, dragging her with him until her feet were off the ground. “Keep your feet up,” he cautioned as he let her go.