Into the Wild(45)

Goldie was all that was left? Julie couldn’t imagine Goldie helping anyone, except herself, of course. And anyway, what was Goldilocks going to do against the essence of fairy tales?

Julie heard twittering. Sparrows ducked into the carriage. Cindy whistled at them. They sang back. “The birds will find Goldie,” Cindy said to Julie. “She can take you the last three miles.” Cindy seemed so pleased with herself that Julie could say nothing but “Thanks.”

Cindy beamed. “You know, I gave your father a ride like this once upon a time.”

Dad? Her heart lurched—the word father had caught her off guard. “You did?” Rapunzel’s prince was in a pumpkin carriage?

“He never said why.” With a faint frown, Cindy added, “You know, I think that was the last time I saw him.”

The last time . . . ? Could Cindy have seen him right before he and Mom stopped the Wild? Julie opened her mouth to ask more, but the carriage ground to a stop. The coachman opened the door and held out a gloved hand to Julie. “I’m sorry I can’t take you farther,” Cindy said. “Watch out for the seed,” she added as Julie stood. “It’s a little loose.”

Julie looked up. Above her, a three-foot pod hung from an orange thread. “That’s a seed?” Ducking under it, Julie climbed out of the carriage.

Cindy leaned on the window. “Joo-lie?” she called.

Julie looked back. “Yes?”

“Hurry,” Cinderella said. “Please, hurry.”

With a snap of the coachman’s whip, the carriage was off, bouncing over roots and moss to disappear between the trees.





Cindy had let her off in the center of Northboro. Walking quickly, Julie passed the CVS Apothecary, Bank of America Moneylenders, and Dunkin’ Donuts (unchanged except for the addition of horse troughs). Rapunzel’s Hair Salon had become an old-fashioned barbershop. Refusing to look at it, she walked faster. Where was Goldie?

Hurrying now, she continued down the road, past Shattuck’s Pharmacy, which advertised leeches and boil lancers, and past a flower shop that had transformed into a garden with rows of rapunzel greens. Only a few more blocks and she’d be out of the downtown. She passed Northboro House of Pizza, now a medieval bakery.

The street erupted in front of her, and a green sprout burst out of the ground. Leaves peeled off it as the beanstalk thickened. It soared into the clouds. Its top disappeared into white fluff. Julie stumbled backward. When she caught her balance, she moved to go around it. Instead, she found her hand on a leaf.

“Don’t climb it!” a voice shouted.

Climb it? She didn’t want to climb it. But she lifted her foot onto the base. Someone pulled her by the waist of her jeans, and she lost her grip.

“Ooh, now you’ve done it.” Hands on her hips, Goldie was scowling fiercely—an expression at odds with her curly pigtails and checkerboard frock. Julie shrank back from her scowl. “I bother to come all the way over here on the say-so of Cindy’s ridiculous birds, and you’re already in trouble,” Goldie said.

Crushed, Julie didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t her fault that the stalk had burst through the sidewalk. “I’m sorry.”

Tossing her ringlets, Goldie humphed and turned her glare on the beanstalk. “It’s a waste of my time. You’ll never make it. You’ll never be able to get me out of the Wild,” she said. “I’ll probably break a nail, and the whole town will see up my skirt. Do you at least know how to stop it?”

It had just sprouted. Julie didn’t know where it came from or how to stop it. She looked miserably up at the stalk. She’d have to climb it, and she would never make it to the motel. The Wild was right. Goldie was right.

Goldie pinched her. “Pay attention. Do you know how to stop the Wild?”

“Ow,” Julie said. “Yes. Mom told me . . .”

“Then you’re our best hope,” Goldie said. She put her hands on the beanstalk leaves. “Rapunzel owes me one. Cindy too. All of them, in fact.” She stepped onto the base and started to climb the stalk. “Oh, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I could fall. I could meet a giant . . .”

Julie couldn’t believe it either. Goldie was sacrificing herself for Julie? No, Goldie was doing it for herself. She wanted out of the Wild, and Julie was her best hope. Julie didn’t want to be anyone’s best hope. So many people were depending on her, and she was still nearly three miles from the Wishing Well Motel. “Get going, you nitwit!” Goldie called down to her. “Whatever secret Zel told you, use it!”