Once Upon a Time Official Entry Day!

Happy Sunday, everyone! First, I’d like to say thank you for reading this week’s four-day series and for taking the time to vote. I enjoyed having you be part of the process for picking my official “Once Upon a Time (OUAT) Flash Fiction Writing Contest” entry. National Flash Fiction Day is May 16th, and this flash fiction contest was set up by the lovely folks over at Yearning for Wonderland in honor of the first annual U.K. event. The rules were simple: 350 words or less on the theme of “Unexpected Fairy Tales.”

So, I offered up three flash shorts for you to pick from (you can see all three here: Flash Fiction Works), and you voted on your favorite. Your second choice pick was “Henrietta’s Love Song,” but your favorite piece, earning 57% of the votes, was “Rapunzel Had a Bad Hair Day.”

Thank you again for reading and participating. Below is my official entry, and at the bottom of this post is a link to some great entries by other authors. Be sure to check all of them out!

Rapunzel Had a Bad Hair Day

by Eva Rieder

They say Rapunzel had the longest hair. What was she in? A tower of some 73 feet?

Well naturally, I found my way to that tower, chest puffed and neck straining, and stared on up that ungodly height to the little face peering out at me. I slayed the witch yesterday, so it seemed I had a fair chance of making it up to my Princess.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your—”

“Got it,” she screamed, and down came the tangled mess of hair.

I suppose I should understand that a gal trapped in a tower with a mane almost 73 feet long is worth waiting for, but that’s a pretty long climb on a lot of split ends. I didn’t really believe it until I started climbing, Rapunzel bitching almost the entire time.

“Ow. Ow. That really hurts.”

“I’m the Prince, Rapunzel!” I said, but she kept on whining.

When I approached the top, the tension grew ever tighter, and her bemoaning of the situation ever louder. I had to ask myself, what kind of Princess gets herself trapped in a tower?

And did she bathe?

So it was as I tossed myself over the window ledge that I slowly peeled open my eyes, Rapunzel cranking her hair back onto her head with some sort of pulley system and fussing as if she had a head big enough to house this dreadlocked mess. But really she had a pinhead. A pretty little pinhead, but not one befitting that length of hair. She smoothed her hands along her dress and smiled—you know a girl trapped in a tower hasn’t seen a dentist, right?—and I just scoped it all out with a sigh.

“I’ve come to rescue you, Rapunzel.”

“Oh Prince!” she squealed. She looked a tad on the old side, really, but I guess she’d have to be to have that hair. She wrapped her gnarled hands around my neck, and when she planted her kisses over my face I resolved first thing we’d get her teeth cleaned.

“You saved me!”

Oh yeah, I sure did.

***

Thanks for reading!