Page 87 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

she had left, she was immensely annoyed. This was an old battle fought between the two, but it wasn’t the battle Mother Stahlbaum wanted to face tonight. No, what was important tonight was that her daughter, be it Clara or Marie, find a suitor. With that in mind, Mother Stahlbaum captured Clara’s hand and dragged her out to her private balcony, where they could look below without anyone being able to see them, thus upsetting in one quick motion, Clara’s Plan B.
Seeing Clara instead of Marie was only the first of the disappointments Mother Stahlbaum would face that night. As she surveyed the suitors in line to greet Father Stahlbaum, Mother Stahlbaum felt her heart drop. Never in her life had she seen such a disappointing collection of men – young and old, tall and short – not a prince among them, and in fact, way too many frogs. In all her years of planning Clara’s coming out party, Mother Stahlbaum had never once thought of who would actually show up. After all, there were no princes in the neighborhood – young, handsome, rich or generous.
Clara, on the other hand, was overjoyed to see no princes. For she erroneously thought the sight of this extremely motley crew would put her mother’s dreams at rest, and off Clara could go to the comfort of Leonardo and his flying machines. She hoped the night might be over before even starting, but what she didn’t reckon was the chameleon character of her mother’s determination.
Her mother’s “Well, my dear, what do you think?” took Clara by complete surprise, so much so that she told her mother just what she thought.
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