Page 126 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

may take some getting used to. But sometimes, the person may look exactly the same, but they’ve changed on the inside. And it’s a little scary, and it almost always makes you sad, because your heart was set on seeing the person you remembered, and not the person they’ve become.
So Clara was in the middle of a little adjustment, for Godfather Drosselmeir was no longer the eccentric, affable and loving godfather of her memory, but a wild and worried wizard who was looking at her with flaming eyes and holding out an extremely repulsive-looking giant Nutcracker. Clara skidded to a stop, halting her headlong rush, and stared. Who was this man? It was like rushing to the door, expecting your grandpa to come through, only to have him run through the door, dressed like a grizzly bear and growling at the top of his lungs – except that would be funny, after you got over being scared. But Clara didn’t think anything about Godfather Drosselmeir was funny.
Godfather Drosselmeir, on the other hand, was even more shocked than Clara.
He had expected a gangly girl in braids, with teeth too big for her sweet little face. What he saw was a young lady and a beauty, who, at that very moment, was looking at him in what he could only describe as terror. Drosselmeir, for not the first time in his life, regretted his extremely bushy shock of hair and exceeding tall height. For he knew he was frightening at the best of times, and he could only imagine what he looked like after a year of no haircuts and only cursory shaves – when he thought of it. The poor girl must think him a lunatic.
Well, if she thought that now, Drosselmeir thought ruefully, wait until he told her about Franz! But he saw no way around that particular fact, and refusing to remain
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