Page 86 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

secret life, for she had found the best way to get what she wanted was to do what was asked – FAST! Then disappear until the next bell called her to the duty of the hour. In all her life, Clara had never chanced a direct confrontation with ANYONE in the household, least of all HER MOTHER.
And yet, here she was, on the eve of her mother’s most important night of her life, getting ready to pull the always- doomed-from-the-start “you can’t make me” card.
This is what happens when you choose the easy way out for most of your life. You end up stuck and forced to make a split-second decision that is almost always either really stupid or really, really stupid. Sigh. You’ve got to feel for the girl.
Just as Clara had come to what she thought was an inspired Plan B, Mother Stahlbaum swept into the room. Actually, it was more of a flood than a sweep. She stopped only for a moment when her hoops, petticoats and gathers constricted her at the doorway and slowed her down for a micro- moment – before they spring-released and snapped her into the room with a rush, which only added to her headlong surge. However, all the forward rush of silks and satins came to an abrupt halt – or at least Mother Stahlbaum came to an abrupt halt, for the silks and satins were still springing forward from the release at the door jam. This resulted in a fabric wave breaking over Mother Stahlbaum like the surf on a rock – with a froth of lace cascading up and around her, covering her hair, and her now-frowning face, with the whites of her petticoats, and then falling back down, just like the sea, proclaiming its fury.
When Mother Stahlbaum recovered from this mini- tsunami, and saw the hated Clara and not the beloved Marie
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