Read Online Sleeping Beauty, the One Who Took the Really Long Nap by Wendy Mass - Free Book Online

used to be, a painting now hung.
    â€œWhat is it?” I asked.
    â€œDon’t you recognize it?” she said. “That’s your painting!”
    â€œWhat? No! It can’t be!” The painting was beautiful. It depicted a young girl lying in the grass, reading a book and gazing up at a pale blue sky. She wore a colorful bonnet.
    We all rushed to get a closer look. Mama pointed at the details. “Here is the colorful bonnet I thought I saw when I first looked at the painting in your sitting room.”
    â€œAnd I said I saw a girl who looked like you lying in the grass reading!” Sara said excitedly. “Your initials are in the corner. This is definitely your painting!”
    â€œBut how is this possible?” Papa said.
    â€œFairy magic,” I grumbled. Standing on a nearby ottoman, I reached for the painting with every intention of pulling it off the wall. I grabbed the bottom corners to lift it off the hook, but it did not move even an inch. I tried from a different angle. Nothing. I might as well have been trying to pull down the solid stone wall itself.
    I stepped back down in defeat. “It won’t come off,” I said miserably. “She must have affixed it there permanently.”
    Papa tried, too. But he could not make it budge, either. “I’m sorry, honey,” he said, patting me on the head and reaching for another plum cake. “But now everyone will believe you made this lovely painting.”
    â€œThat’s the problem,” I explained. “I don’t want to get credit anymore for things I don’t do. I wanted to do something that reflected me for a change. And if it didn’t come out well, that was fine.” I sank down into a chair.
    Mama sat next to me and took my hand. “Rose, listen to me carefully. You are not special and wonderful and admired and loved because a bunch of fairies gave you some gifts. You are special and wonderful and admired and loved because you are YOU. A funny, charming, generous, loving girl with a unique spirit all your own. True, you have some advantages others do not. But that is not why you shine. You shine because of who you are inside.”
    My eyes filled with tears. “Truly?” I whispered.
    â€œOf course,” Papa said, patting me on the head again. “Did you not know that?”
    I shook my head. “What do you think, Sara?”
    Sara smiled mischievously. “The only reason I’m your friend is because of how well you can sing opera. Without that, I don’t know….”
    We all laughed, and I felt better than I had in years. For the first time, I looked forward to finding out what my life would bring me. If I could live my life happily without needing my gifts, perhaps the curse had no hold over me, either.
    It would be a few more years before I learned how wrong I was.

After Jonathan left I spent nearly a month in the forest. He had taught me so well how to take care of myself that I was never without food and fresh water. Just being near the old castle made me feel better. It still wasn’t giving anything up, though. Every once in a while I swore I would hear a low humming sound coming from it, but other than that, nothing stirred or changed, ever.
    When I was finally ready to return home, the bailiff informed me that Mother and Father had gone to a meeting in the north with other local kings and queens. I had been left in charge. Without a second thought, I told the bailiff to invite the oldest men and women in the kingdom and the neighboring towns to tea in two days’ time. Then I alerted Cook to be prepared with tea and desserts, and told the maids to get out their rags. I wanted the place to shine. I enlisted the pages to help me raise all the windows to let the cool breeze refresh the stale air.
    On the following day I filled the mermaid fountain outside with buckets I borrowed from the stable. Though it leaked in a few places from disuse, the