Page 146 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Clara quickly followed her up the stairs and to her room. At the door, Mother Stahlbaum looked at her sternly.
“Marie – it is time you grew up. Tomorrow all your toys – and I do mean all – will be given to the poor children in the orphanage.” Holding up a hand at Clara’s protest, Mother Stahlbaum continued, “And since you desire no match, no husband and no home of your own, you shall take on the task of managing mine – under my careful eye, of course. By five a.m. tomorrow, I shall expect my room warmed, and my tea hot. Good night.”
Clara gulped, as her bedroom door shut in upon her. She knew Mother Stahlbaum always did what she said she would. And Clara knew that now she would be even more under the tyranny of time, than ever before. But worse, much worse than her life to be, was the fact that she had failed her Godfather, even more than if she had thrown the Nutcracker over the balcony herself! For the Nutcracker was doomed, with all the rest of her toys in the curio cabinet, to suffer at the hands of a ravenous throng of toy- starved orphans! Not that she begrudged the children her toys. They had been gathering dust in that cabinet for too long. But she must save the Nutcracker!
Clara knew what she must do, and she was convinced that she would do it.
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