Summary

Still at a loss as to how to teach English, Claude begins telling his students the story about Grumwald and Princess Stephanie. He and they begin exchanging fairy tales across cultures, leading to the recognition that many Western and Thai fairy tales have similar characters storylines. He discusses this with Penn, who tells him that all fairy tales are “renewed and retold and reimagined everywhere forever” (281). So does Claude’s identity, the two both realize; then, Penn admits that “I think what happened was maybe my fault” (282) because he and Rosie “waited too long to tell everyone how special you are” (282). He adds that he is rethinking magic – the magic of Cinderella turning into a princess, which “erases all the pain of her past” but is “not real” and maybe “not even desirable” (282). He no longer wishes this for Claude; rather...