Into the Wild(61)

“She made the wish before the tears could touch your eyes,” Julie said.

“Yes,” he said simply.

So that’s what happened. The understanding felt like a wave, and Julie wanted to cry. Her father was a martyr, and her mother was a hero. In her mind’s eye, she saw it: her father falling down the well, her mother leaning over . . . the tears fell, she made the wish . . . How had she made that wish? How had she let him fall?

“It was a simple plan,” her father said. “Simple enough even for me. But so hard to do. We did not know what would happen to me when I fell into the well. We did not know if I would survive the fall. I did not know if she would forgive me if I didn’t.”

Not knowing whether he’d live or die, he had leapt, and she had wished. And the Wild had lost. “She’s missed you,” Julie said. As soon as she said it, she knew how true it was. “I’ve missed you.”

For a moment, they were silent—a silence filled with so many unspoken words that it felt loud. The castle soaked in the silence.

“You tell me now,” he said. “Why have I missed five hundred years, and why am I awake now? How can the wish have worked and Rapunzel be in the tower? Why am I not riding through the woods? Why have I not forgotten?”

Julie took a deep breath. “Um, well, you see, apparently, someone made a new wish in Grandma’s well while she was having dinner with us, and she went to stop it and then Mom went to save her. But I didn’t know anything about it until I saw the Wild on TV . . .”

“What is TV?”

Despite everything, she burst out laughing. It was, she knew, tinged with hysteria. If she didn’t laugh, she’d cry—and if she started crying, she wasn’t sure she’d stop. Confused, her father half smiled. With an effort, she got herself under control, and she told her father her story.

When she finished, he studied her for a long while. She shifted from foot to foot. Was he going to say Cindy and Goldie shouldn’t have let her into the Wild? Was he going to blame her for taking the lunch bag from Boots?

Instead, he said, “You were very brave.”

Julie beamed. “You think so?”

“You’re just like your mother,” he said.

Julie thought she’d never heard a nicer compliment. She felt her eyes fill with tears. He laid his hand on her shoulder. She could smell him. She had never imagined his scent. He smelled a little like pine and a little like dust. He had been here a long time.

Julie spent the afternoon with him, telling him her stories and describing her life, trying to bridge the long years he’d missed. He was a good listener, laughing at her jokes and sympathizing at all the appropriate moments. In the evening, they ate dinner together, delicious dishes Julie didn’t recognize that appeared on a table at the far end of the throne room. After dinner, Julie and her father explored the palace together, hand in hand.

In one room, there was an ornate carousel. Surprise made Julie laugh out loud. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it wasn’t anything so—the word that sprang to mind was happy. Unicorns and griffins rose up and down as the merry-go-round went round and round. She stepped inside the room. Overhead, the ceiling was painted blue with white fluffy clouds. The floor felt like real grass. Shyly, her father said, “Do you want to try it?”

Julie shook her head. “Let’s see what else is here first.”

Together, they opened other golden doors. One room held a ballroom with chandeliers and pillars of gold. Another held a banquet hall with suits of armor lining the walls. Another held a stable of horses. “I’ll teach you to ride,” her father said. It was her turn to smile shyly.

The next room held dozens of different instruments: pianos, harps, violins. Another held every game imaginable: Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Pictionary, and a beautiful chess set of carved marble. “Ooh, let’s play,” Julie said. She set the pawns in a row.

“There are still more doors,” her father said.

“All right,” she said. As they explored, she began drawing up lists in her head of all the things she wanted to do with her father now that she had found him.

The kitchen was stocked with cakes and breads and ice creams. The nursery held the most incredible dollhouse Julie had ever seen. The gymnasium had basketball courts, a baseball diamond, and a swimming pool. The gardens had an ice rink. There was even an entertainment room with a TV. Julie turned it on and demonstrated it to her dad. She didn’t recognize the channels, but it didn’t matter. Another room had an arcade. Another, a pool table. Another was a bowling alley. Another, a fabulous library with a shelf devoted entirely to her favorites. Everything Julie could have ever dreamed of was in this castle.