“Well, it’s too late for all that now, Gothel. Maleficent is dead, and we may be trapped in the dreamscape forever if Circe doesn’t stop being angry with us. So now you can deal with this on your own!”
You are destined to be alone, Gothel! Her mother’s words rang in her ears.
Gothel took a deep breath. “I will! I will deal with Rapunzel and wake my sisters on my own! Watch from your mirror if you’d like, and see for yourself.” Gothel almost chucked the mirror in anger.
“Yeah, good luck with that. And by the way, I don’t think Circe will mind if my sisters and I help the missing princess,” said Lucinda, cackling before the mirror turned black.
Gothel grumbled as she made her way to the tower. “Gods! I’m going to have to actually talk to this girl! What are we going to talk about?”
She heard the odd sisters laughing from the mirror in her pocket. “So this is how I’m to spend my days. In torment of these impossible witches and making a pretense of being this girl’s mother?”
Gothel ignored the sisters and kept grumbling to herself. “Okay, okay. Rapunzel thinks this is just any other day. You can do this, Gothel. You can make this brat believe you’re her mother. Just pretend you like her. After all, you are her mother. The only mother she has ever known.”
Finally, she reached the tower. She stood beneath the open window and called up to her flower, trying her best to sound sweet. Trying to act like this was any other day in Rapunzel’s dream life. She needed to sound like a mother. She needed to sound convincing. She needed to sound real.
“Rapunzel! Let down your hair!” She hated the way her voice sounded even as she was saying the words.
“Rapunzel, I’m not getting any younger down here!” she sang out.
“Coming, Mother!” called Rapunzel from the tower. Gothel could hear the odd sisters laughing again from the mirror in her pocket.
“Shut up, you stupid witches! She’s coming!” Gothel gasped when she saw Rapunzel’s hair cascade down the tower. It was longer than she’d thought, longer than it had looked when it was gathered around her while she slept.
Long enough to wrap around my sisters and bring them back to life!
In the land of dreams, things were chaotic and unpredictable, yet there was a rhythm to the place if you were cunning enough to find it. And for those who found it and learned to harness the magic, almost anything was possible in the dreamscape. Each inhabitant of the dreamscape lived within his or her own chamber composed of tall mirrors, each of them reflecting different images showing the dreamer events from the outside world connected to the dreamer. Some dreamers simply sat and watched the events pass by, while others learned how to control the mirrors and command what they saw in the mirrors. The odd sisters, who were already well versed in mirror magic, had no problem mastering the mirrors in the dreamworld. They found the rhythm. They harnessed the magic. For them almost anything was possible. And that was how they were able to watch Gothel.
They saw Gothel and Rapunzel standing in front of a large mirror in their tower. “Oh, look, Sisters. She’s there!” said Lucinda.
Ruby and Martha clapped their hands, stomping their feet. “Oh, let’s see what kind of mother she makes!”
“Shhh! Look! I think she’s saying something to us in the mirror!” said Lucinda, pointing at the image of Gothel and Rapunzel reflected at them in the dreamscape.
“Rapunzel, look in that mirror. You know what I see? I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady!” Gothel was smiling at her own reflection and then said, “Oh, look! You’re there, too!”
The odd sisters shook their heads. “She isn’t acting at all like the mother Rapunzel knew from her dream,” said Martha.
“We didn’t tell her to,” Lucinda said, laughing.
“Shhh! Listen! They’re talking!”
“No, no, no, can’t be. I distinctly remember, your birthday was last year.” The odd sisters laughed as Gothel tried to pretend it wasn’t Rapunzel’s birthday.
“That’s the funny thing about birthdays, they’re kind of an annual thing.” Rapunzel sighed and went on. “Mother, I’m turning eighteen, and I wanted to ask, uh, what I really want for this birthday…Actually, what I’ve wanted for quite a few birthdays…”
“Spit it out, dear!” yelled Ruby at the mirror as she watched the poor girl struggling to find the words.
“Okay, Rapunzel, please stop with the mumbling. Blah-blah-blah-blah, it’s very annoying,” said Gothel.
“She couldn’t act like a mother if she tried!” said Martha.
“This is even better than I thought it would be!” said Ruby, laughing so hard she fell to the floor and rolled around in fits. Soon Martha joined her, and the two were laughing so hard they were crying, causing their makeup to drip down their hysterical faces.
“Sisters! Sisters, please! Stop this!” screamed Lucinda. But her sisters couldn’t stop laughing at Gothel’s ridiculous mother act.
“You’re missing the entire thing, Sisters!” yelled Lucinda. “She’s singing a song, for goodness’ sake!” But her sisters couldn’t stop rolling around on the floor, laughing so hard the mirrors in their chamber were shaking.
“What would Circe think if she saw you now? Ruby! Martha! Stop this at once!” Immediately the sisters stopped.