Page 81 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

and slip and flounce and frippery was tied, trimmed and tightened over every inch of her needle-stung person.
It was all over in about an hour and forty-five minutes.
Mother Stahlbaum stepped back from her work to admire the entirely new girl left in Clara’s place. As Clara looked into the mirror, she thought, “This certainly isn’t me.”
“Oh, my darling, darling, Marie!”
Mother Stahlbaum never called Clara by her middle name, Clara, which Clara much preferred over her stuffier first name of Marie. And that pretty much says it all about their relationship. Mother Stahlbaum only saw Clara as Marie, this primped and prissy missy, the vision of her own dreams of a perfect daughter. But Marie was pretty much a stranger to Clara, and as Clara looked into the mirror, she realized that she pretty much hated Marie.
With much gushing and cooing over Marie, Mother Stahlbaum left with all the maids, to attempt a similar transformation on her own person – in other words, everybody left to try to squeeze Mother Stahlbaum into one of Mademoiselle Lesue’s torture traps of a dress.
This was a relief to Clara – as it only left Marie for her to deal with – and since Clara had been dealing with Marie all her life, she knew what to do. First, off came every bow from the dress. Then all three petticoats were assigned to the bottom of her closet. Off came the corset waist and beading, until the dress was a splendidly simple version of before. Drawing her first full intake of air since she’d been dressed, Clara attacked the mountain of hair on top of her head, which threatened to topple her over. Pin after pin fell to the floor, pinging on the fireplace hearth and landing in
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