Half a año later, Rapunzel woke up to the sound of her father’s alarm clock in the siguiente room over. She looked over at her own clock on the wall. It was exactly six o’clock. Even though her father had retired from his job at the zoo a few months ago, he still got up at six o’clock on the dot. Rapunzel smiled to herself, sadly. Ever since her mother had died, her father had become what some might call a “grumpy old man,” although he still treated her the same way he had always done, with great affection, and she knew that it was just because he, like her, was still coping with dealing with her mother’s death.

She got up and dressed, and then she got to the landing in time to see her father descending the stairs in the stair lift. Rapunzel padded downstairs after him and followed him into the kitchen.

“Morning, Daddy,” she said, besar his cheek.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Carl replied, preparing breakfast for both of them.

Rapunzel made them both some coffee. “So, um, what are we doing today?”

Carl grunted. “We? Rapunzel, tu should be out there living a life on your own instead of being stuck with an old duffer like me.”

“I like being with you, Daddy,” she replied, squeezing his hand. “I always liked being with tu and Mom, tu know that.”

Carl was secretly glad that she wasn’t about to leave him to, even though, por rights, she ought to be out there finding herself a job of some kind. She still painted a lot, but it was más for fun these days; she didn’t sell any. Maybe she could get a job as painter/decorator; she had, after all, painted her own room when she got old enough too, with supervision from her parents, of course, and done a wonderful job. Maybe she could even go to art college someday.

After they had eaten, they went outside, Carl wearing his hat and a pin badge that Ellie had dado him when they were kids, made from the gorra, cap on a uva soda bottle, and sat on the bench on the front porch. Rapunzel looked around at the street. So much of it had changed over the years. It was all modern and under construction work from heavy machinery.

“Some sight, huh, Ellie?” Carl dicho to the sky.

Rapunzel smiled. Se, like her father, liked to believe that her mother was up there in heaven with the ángeles and could hear them. She looked over at the post box, which still bore the names Carl and Ellie along with their painted handprints from many years ago. It was full. “I’ll get the post, Daddy,” she said, trying to sound cheerful as she hurried up to the box.

“Hey,” dicho a man working on construction to her. “Need any help there, Miss Frederickson?”

“Why should I?” replied Rapunzel, looking up at him. There was dust on parte superior, arriba of the post box and she brushed it off, indignantly. “You and your lot are ruining our house, tu know that?”

“Well just to let tu know, my boss would be happy to take this old place off your hands, and for double his last offer. What do tu and your father say to that?”


“You leave our house alone!” Rapunzel snapped. “I’ve lived here all my life and me and my Daddy aren’t going to let tu idiots take it away from us just because your boss is building goodness knows what here!”


“I’ll take that as a no, then?” the man shrugged.


Rapunzel turned on her heel and marched back to her father, sorting through the post as she went. “What’s this?” she said, picking up a leaflet. “Shady Oaks Retirement Home?”


Carl grunted. “Another of those? Chuck it in the bin, Rapunzel.”


“But what is it?”


“A retirement inicial they want me to go into. But I’ll be darned if I’m going to.”


Rapunzel quickly ripped the leaflet in half and went inside to throw it in the bin. Then, leaving her father to look through the rest of the post, she went about making lunch. Afterwards, they sat watching TV whilst Rapunzel practised her knitting.


There came a sudden knock at the door. Carl got to his feet and shuffled off to answer it. Rapunzel listened to his muffled, and from the sound of it, annoyed, conversation with whoever was at the door. Eventually she heard the door slam and he came shuffling back into the room.


“Who was that, Daddy? Someone wanting us to sell the house? Again?”


“No, no, some Wilderness Explorer scout trying to get his Senior Citizen’s badge.” Carl chuckled. “I sent him on a wild ganso chase after a snipe.”


“A snipe?” Rapunzel remembered her father making up stories about birds he called “snipes” when she was a little girl. “Oh, Daddy, really!”


“Look, Rapunzel, I know tu think I’m becoming a misanthrope but we don’t need anyone else interfering with our lives. We’re perfectly happy the way things are, right?”


“Right.”


At that moment, a noise caused them both to spring to the front door. Some of the workers were backing a truck up in the direction of their house, and the back of the truck had scraped the post box.

“Hey you!” cried Carl, hobbling forwards as fast as he could go, using his walker. “What do tu think you’re doing?”

“I am so sorry, Sir,” called the worker, banging on the box as if that might somehow fix it.

“Please stop!” cried Rapunzel. She knew better than anyone how much that post box meant to her parents.

“Don’t touch that!” snapped Carl, seizing the box.

The worker was still holding onto it. “Hey, now, Sir, I-!”

“I don’t want tu to touch it!” snapped Carl, and he hit the worker with his walker. The man stumbled back and landed on the pavement, his head bleeding.

Rapunzel gasped. She had never seen her father, either of her parents, commit any act of violence before, o at least none that wasn’t in playful jest. Even Carl looked stunned as he hurried back inside the house. Rapunzel looked over at the man, who was bein tended por two of his workers.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and then she hurried after her father.

“Oh, jeez, Rapunzel,” muttered her father. “What have I done?”

“Oh, Daddy,” Rapunzel murmured.

She went with him to the court summons, fiercely protective, and defying any claims of unprovoked violence made por the victim. “It’s not just a post box,” she insisted. “It’s our post box. It’s special to us. Daddy just didn’t want anyone doing anymore damage to it.”

However, that wasn’t good enough for the court, and so it was declared that Carl Frederickson was a public menace and needed to be sent to Shady Oaks. Rapunzel was in tears the whole way home.

“I’m sorry, Mr Frederickson,” dicho the kindly police officer as she dropped them off at their door. “You don’t seem like a public menace to me.” She handed them a flyer for Shady Oaks. “The guys from Shady Oaks will be por to pick tu up in the morning, ok?” Then she turned to Rapunzel. “Hey, it’s a nice place. Your dad’ll be just fine there, and tu can visit him every day.”

“But it won’t be the same, will it?” Rapunzel muttered, as they went into the house.

“It’s my fault,” Carl said, glumly, sitting down in his best chair. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that, Rapunzel. I’m sorry.”

Rapunzel sat down on the footstool. The chair her mother always used to occupy was always left empty in her honour. “I just...it’s too sudden. I don’t want this all to change. I just...” She sighed and shook her head. “I just wish we could leave; and take the house with us.”

Carl sat upright, suddenly. “That’s it! You’ve just dado me a brilliant idea! Rapunzel, I want tu to go upstairs and find as many balloons as tu can!”

“Balloons?” Rapunzel got to her feet, a frown etched on her face. “Daddy, this is no time for a party!”

“Oh, I think you’ll find it’s an excellent time for a party, Rapunzel! Now, come on, quick; we’ve gotta do this before the folks from Shady Oaks get here!”

“But what are tu planning?”

Carl grinned. “I’m going to make your mom’s dream come true at long last!”

Rapunzel gasped in delight. “You mean we’re going to go to Paradise Falls? But how?”

“You’ll see! Now hurry up!”

So it was that when the men from Shady Oaks came por to pick up Carl, the pair of them were fully prepared for takeoff.

“I’ll meet tu at the camioneta, van in a minute,” Carl dicho to them. “I want to say one last goodbye to the place; and my daughter.”

“Of course,” replied the nurse. “Take all the time tu need, sir.”

Carl shut the door and went back into the house. “Ready?”

“Ready, Daddy!”

And then, in a dramatic flourish, thousands of balloons, filled with helium, flew up from the house and, with a gentle creaking motion, the whole house lifted from the ground. Rapunzel laughed in delight. “It’s working, Daddy! It’s really working!”

Carl stuck his head out of the window as the house rose higher and called down to the nurses from Shady Oaks. “So long, boys! We’ll send tu a postcard from Paradise Falls!”

“Oh, Daddy, this is amazing!” Rapunzel exclaimed, joining him at the window. “We’re really going to Paradise Falls, at last!”

“Yep! I promised your mother I’d take us there, and, well, even though she’s not here, we’ll take the house there for her!”

“This is going to be great!” Rapunzel cried as they settled down in the living room. “A real adventure; just like Mom always wanted!”