Page 51 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Drosselmeir was thinking how he deserved to be punished, horse-whipped, strung-up, and other nasty ideas. Because, after all, he thought, if he hadn’t set Franz to cracking nuts, if he’d only sent him back, or better yet never brought him ... and on and on ... he must be the worst uncle in the world. And Clara! What would Clara say? “Clara,” he thought, “Clara can help. I must find Clara! Clara! Clara!”
And as if he had been running around in circles lost in the blackness of his own thoughts, Drosselmeir suddenly saw the door to the Stahlbaum’s side of the clock. When he sprang through the clock door, onto the landing at the Stahlbaum home, Drosselmeir felt hope begin to grow. If he could only get the Nutcracker to Clara, surely her love could help poor Franz.
Turning back to the large grandfather clock, Drosselmeir turned the key and locked the door, then quickly rushed down the stairs in search of Clara.
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