One morning she was having her own personal pity party when she realized there was more she could do make her life better. Not only that, she wanted to make the lives of other better as well. She was determined to find a way to sneak out of the tower forever and never planned to see her mother again. She spent many longs nights plotting how she would escape. Eventually she found a way to hook one of her braids (now detached from her head) to a hook on the ceiling. She waited until it was getting dark outside because she knew her mother would be going to sleep soon. She always claimed she had to fall asleep the moment it got dark to get a full night of beauty rest, and believe me she needed it. Rapunzel always hoped all this beauty rest would give her some inner beauty because that was something the woman had none of. When she felt the time was right, just as the sun disappeared and the moon started to shine bright, Rapunzel opened the window and let the braid down. It reached almost all the way to the ground outside and she carefully shimmied down, carrying the second braid in her hand. She was going to need it later. When she got to the bottom, she dropped into the bushes and yanked the long hair look from the hook. Before she climbed down she strung a few strands through the windowsill so she could yank it back shut to make it less noticeable that she was gone. Rapunzel used a sharp rock to cut the remaining hair off of the window and ran far far away until she felt it was safe to stop.
She felt so happy and free for the first time in her life. Rapunzel felt like she had the whole world in her hands and her possibilities were endless. But for some reason, she still didn't feel like her mission was complete.
Rapunzel woke early the very next morning and made her way to the hospital. Although it seems like an unlikely first place to visit after spending several years locked up in a dungeon-like tower, Rapunzel knew exactly what she was doing. She approached the lady at the front desk and asked where she could find the cancer patients going through chemotherapy. She led her towards the cancer center and Rapunzel got down to business. She found all of the patients that had already lost their hair and divided up her long braids among all of them. Rapunzel even died and styled each woman's hair they well they felt the most beautiful. All of the patients were glowing with happiness and smiling from ear to ear. Rapunzel's deed gave so many patients beautiful, healthy wigs until their real hair could grow back. She continued to grow out her own hair and donate it to someone else each time it got long enough.
(Image from: Deviant Art)
Bibliography: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm
Author's Note: In the original story of Rapunzel, she escapes the tower she is trapped in mainly to spend the rest of her life with a handsome prince charming. The whole point of the story is that they overcame an obstacle together and spent the rest of their lives living happily ever after. Since it has a pretty generic ending, I decided to put a twist on how the story goes. I get tired of reading so many fairy tales where the women are so determined to find love, so I wanted to create a story with a girl who had goals to simply help others. I kept a lot of the story similar because I used the same characters and setting, but I just changed what happens in the end. Cancer is something that really hits home with me so when I was thinking of good things Rapunzel could do for others, it seemed like a perfect solution. I think of this story as more of a recreation of the original, not a sequel. Although Rapunzel doesn't run off into the sunset with a handsome man, I think leaving a bunch of cancer patients with smiles on their face is just as great.
