Once upon a time there was a little girl. She was a perfectly ordinary little girl. All that separated her from any other little girl was her circumstances- she lived way up high, in a stone box. It was a tower with no doors, stairs or anything of the sort. You, by now, are thinking that you know how this is going to end. I’m afraid you’re wrong. Because unfortunately, this little girl, being normal, as I stated before, had normal length hair. Therefore, she will not escape her stone box via her hair. Oh how she wishes she could do something of the sort. She desperately wants to leave, though she barely knows what leaving means.
Yes, there is an evil witch keeping her captive. That part is familiar. The witch takes care of her basic needs and the like. Not by climbing up her hair, silly. She’s a witch. She’s got a broom, she can fly herself. The girl is thankful for the witch because the witch feeds her, but she can’t help but dread each visit. The witch’s visits leave her exhausted. Sometimes she cries for hours. Still, her lonely soul craves the visits. She doesn’t understand why. She feels guilty for disliking the witch and her visits. She never knows what to think.
But all this is nothing compared to an imminent event. The girl has no idea this event is going to happen. The witch does. This event will be the death of the girl. The witch could stop it, but she doesn’t.
It’s horribly evil of her, isn’t it? The witch doesn’t think so. Yes, she’s a little crazy, but she’s also in denial. She has a strange love for the girl. She doesn’t want this event to come about.
I suppose it isn’t really an overnight catastrophe. It’s happening now, actually. Very slowly.
You see, the tower is rotting. It is crumbling. Someday it will no longer stand. Someday it will fall, taking a poor, average lonely girl with it.
Why will the witch not repair the tower? Use her magic to fortify it?
It’s impossible, that’s why.
But didn’t I say the witch had the power to stop the girl from this horrid demise? Yes. She has the power. How would she do it?
Set her free. If only the witch would help her out of the tower.
The witch won’t, though. She’s decided that it would be good for the girl to find her own way out. She’s a clever girl.
I’m sure the girl is capable of finding a way out.
But that’s only if she knew there was an out. She knew she was discontented and she wanted things to be different, but she didn’t know how things could be.
While the witch thinks the little girl will eventually find her way out, she keeps pushing down the thought that maybe she never wants the girl to find her way out, and she’ll never actually let it happen. She could get hurt out there, in the world.
So as you can see, this is quite the predicament. For those that feel emotion for this poor trapped, naive girl- I’m sorry. It seems there is no way out.
Here come the years passing by; the little girl is not so little anymore. The tower is weaker every day… it corrodes with unnatural speed. The young lady is still no closer to freedom.
It seems she is doomed to die in her tower.
***
Once upon a time, there was a prince walking about the woods when he encountered something enormous. It was a horribly unstable tower with a rotting wooden base. The tower went farther than his eye could see. But the beautiful ghostlike lady squinting at the sky through a window did not. He could see her clearly. He got dizzy from looking up so far and gravity forced him to sit.
He called to the beautiful lonely lady from the ground.
While she did not hear him, she did happen to glance down and see him standing there.
The sight of him terrified her; frantically she closed the window.
A minute or so later, she opened it again, curiosity getting the best of her. He wasn’t sitting on the ground anymore- he was climbing up the tower, using sticks to dig into the soft wood.
She had gotten over her initial terror, and liking the sight of him, was filled with excitement.
Which then gave way to terror.
Which turned into apathy towards the situation.
She went to read a book, waiting for him to reach the top. Her thoughts were steady, but her heartbeat and hands were not. She couldn’t resist getting up every so often to check on his progress. She payed no attention to the riveting story in the book.
Finally, he reached the stone top, dropped his stick, and scaled the jagged stone surface to the window.
The girl heard scraping on the window sill. Her had snapped up.
There stood a curious, panting man.
She had never seen anything like this.
Neither human being said a word. It was probably the most awkward moment in history.
The man spoke. He asked her name. She told him. He told her his.
He asked her how long she’d been up here.
After a pause, she told him she didn’t know what he meant.
He wanted to know how long she’d been trapped up here. Was she trapped in the first place?
Trapped? She supposed she was trapped.
Did she want to leave?
She couldn’t reply.
Did she?
She started to say she didn’t really know, but then she looked around her.
“Yes.”
He had brought up rope, which made getting down much easier than going up, despite carrying another person with him.
She felt the grass, the dirt, the bark of trees. He brought her to a city where she felt cobble stones and brick walls. She petted a cat, smiled at a curious staring child.
Who knows what happened to the witch or her tower.
The girl lived on ever after. Not always happily, but she lived contentedly.
Tangents 