This is my favorite part. It starts and ends here. The pebbles shine, the plan worked, Hansel Triumphant. Lesson number one: be sneaky and have a plan. But the stupid boy goes back, makes the rest of the story postscript and aftermath. He shouldnโt have gone back. And this is the second lesson I took from the story: when someone is trying to ditch you, kill you, never go back.
Richard SikenI wanted to be wanted and he was very beautiful, kissed with his eyes closed, and only felt good while moving. You could drown in those eyes, I said, so itโs summer, so itโs suicide, so weโre helpless in sleep and struggling at the bottom of the pool.
Richard SikenYou wanted happiness, I canโt blame you for that, and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy but tell me you love this, tell me youโre not miserable.
Richard SikenFor a while I thought I was the dragon. I guess I can tell you that now. And, for a while, I thought I was the princess, cotton candy pink, sitting there in my room, in the tower of the castle, young and beautiful and in love and waiting for you with confidence but the princess looks into her mirror and only sees the princess, while Iโm out here, slogging through the mud, breathing fire, and getting stabbed to death. Okay, so Iโm the dragon. Big deal. You still get to be the hero. You get magic gloves! A fish that talks! You get eyes like flashlights!
Richard Siken