Hilda - Snow White revisited (9 page)

"And you are going to show me how you drink
water from the well, sitting on your horse?"

The young man smiled and with a move that showed
experience he jumped off the horse. As he touched the ground, he
immediately folded himself into a bow. "My name is Jordan, and I
put myself at your service."

Snow-White grinned. "I like that idea..."

Jordan grinned also.

A few hours later Jordan was sweating all over
and rubbing his sore hands. The watercontainer in the kitchen of
the dwarf's house was full.

Snow-White carefully kissed the young man on the
cheek, as he was quite smelly and sticky. "Thank you so much, dear
Jordan. You may have saved my life!", she said. "I must go now, and
start work on the house. Maybe we will meet again!" Snow-White
skipped off, but as she reached the bend in the path she stopped
and looked back at the pretty boy who had so unselfishly offered
his help. She smiled and waved at him. Her heart jumped when he
waved back at her.

Snow-White turned and went on towards the house.
The young man, prince Jordan of the neighbouring kingdom, shook his
head, looked at his sore hands and finally had the time to drink
something. "What an extraordinary woman," he said to himself.

The day ended.

The dwarfs had been very excited, finding the
watercontainer all filled up. Snow-White had confessed that she had
enlisted the aid of the handsome young man, but did emphasised that
she had not touched the man except for the quick kiss on the
cheek.

"That is good," Doc agreed. "If someone is
useful, that is good. As long as they don't try to sell you
something, because that's bad. You never know what junk they have.
Or, in your case, in what way they will try to kill you."

Snow-White had trembled a bit after hearing
that, knowing Doc was right, but as the dwarf had hugged and patted
her in that special way, she felt better.

Dinner was a very cheerful affair, and to
celebrate the fact that the watercontainer was full again, the
dwarfs broke out their special brew of beer, and that was when the
party really started.

The night came. It worried about the noise in
the house of the dwarfs and the things that were going on in there.
It was for sure a good thing that the seven dwarfs had no
neighbours.

The night left, after a successful session
around the rest of the kingdom, and then the sun came back to do
the day-shift.

Sleepy had competition that morning. Nobody in
the small house of the seven dwarfs was eager to get up, and once
they'd achieved the upright state, there were only slow movements
and whispers going around. The brothers got ready to spend another
day at the mine, whispered their goodbye's to Snow-White and then
trotted off. Instead of their usual song of 'hi-ho, hi-ho', only
Happy was able to hum the tune for a few yards. A slap over the
painful head later he also continued walking in silence.

Snow-White waved at them until they were out of
sight. Then she held her head. "What did I do...", she asked
herself. The girl dragged herself back to her bed and carefully lay
down. Then she smiled. "And what did they do..."

King Walt was up early and enjoying his usual
breakfast when the mean queen came into the breakfast room.

"Oh. You're here," was her cold comment.

"Yes, I'm here. Come, sit down, plenty of
space," Walt offered from behind his plate of chicken. His face
glistened from the fat.

The queen eyed the table and what was on it and
repressed the revulsion. She was mean but her stomach was tender.
She could barely stand the sight of this flabbergasting amount of
food, nor the smell of it, so early in the morning.

She gave in though. "Very well." She slumped
down with a sigh. The servants brought her water, her yoghurt and
the oats and raisins that she usually had for breakfast.

Walt looked at the skimpy assortment of edibles
on her side of the table. "Is that all you eat?"

"Yes, dear. That is all I eat. Why?"

"Now I know why you're so skinny," Walt said,
charging another piece of chicken.

The queen snorted, but the sound went unnoticed
by the king. "Why are you out of bed so early?", she asked the man
with the sticky fingers, ignoring the assault on her figure that
she was so proud of..

"Oh, I am going to get you a few nice
surprises," Walt said. "A bit of things to cheer you up, and to
thank you."

The queen froze. "Thank me? For what do you want
to thank me?" Her mind raced, trying to find anything, even the
slightest, smallest and most insignificant thing that might have
given him reason for this. She liked surprises, but she would be
damned if she wasn't going to find out what they were for.

Walt got up and walked over to her. He put his
grubby, fatty hands on the expensive table and leaned over to her.
The queen instinctively leaned back. "For the things you've done
for Snow-White."

The mean queen's defenses shot up, as did her
eyebrows. "I did nothing for Snow-White!"

Walt shook his head, on his face an expression
that showed what he hoped would be a caring and loving smile. "You
are so good. You really don't want anyone to know, do you?" His
heart swelled with pride over his wifey. Going out of her way to
find the girl, and not making any deal of it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said
the mean queen, "and I hope you will not bring this up again. I
have to go. I have things to do." She pushed her chair back and ran
out of the room, her breakfast mostly untouched.

Hilda was up and at work early. She was on her
third cup of tea already, the goldfish not commenting on anything
they saw and heard. The flopping sound of the bunny-slippers on the
floor was the only thing that occasionally interrupted her humming,
muttering and giggling.

Babs and she had come up with a bundle of great
things to manifest at the witches meeting on Scary Mountain, and
she had dedicated this entire morning to preparations. The crystal
ball was on her worktop, the connection to the house of Baba Yaga
open. That way it was easy for them to exchange ideas, recipes and
gossip.

A knock on the door made Hilda grunt. "Babs,
hang for a while, someone at the door."

Gruesome cackling laughter came from the crystal
sphere as Hilda shuffled to the door.

Johan the mirror-maker almost lost his big
package as he saw Hilda in the door-opening. "Uhm... good
morning... uhm... honourable witch." He had serious trouble finding
the word 'honourable' this time. Bunny-slippers, a house-coat with
pictures of beheaded geese and a tea-cup with moving goldfish on it
was a bit too much for an honest mirror-maker on this early
morning.

"Hi, silver-face, what's that?", Hilda
pointed.

"This is your second mirror. The one you
ordered?" Johan was very careful. A wrong word could trigger the
wrong thing. And with Hilda, wrong always had a very explicit
meaning.

"Oh. Right. Ehm, come in and put it down
somewhere." She stepped aside and slurped from the cup as Johan
came in.

The mirror-maker found the nearest spot where he
could put down the heavy mirror. Then he turned to Hilda and
waited, with a smile.

"What're you smirking at?", Hilda asked, hoping
that he would scoot off fast so she could go on with the festive
preparations.

"Well, honourable witch, I had hoped that you
could, in a way, reimburse me for the mirrors?" Johan was not sure
if it was a safe thing to ask for money in a straight way.

"Reimburse?" Hilda frowned. "Oh. You mean
money?"

Johan nodded.

"Cripes, say so man, instead of throwing riddles
at me." She reached into the pocket of her house-coat and dug up a
handful of gold and silver coins. "Something like that? Come here,
pick out what you need and then leave."

Johan's hand trembled as he carefully selected
three gold and one silver coin. That would be about ten times the
price he would charge. Then he put one gold coin back. "This is
enough, honourable witch," he said, bowing.

"Sure? You seemed nervous. Here, take the lot,
it's too heavy in my pocket anyway." Hilda slapped the rest of the
coins in his hand. "Now get lost, I'm busy."

Johan did his utmost to get lost in an expedient
way.

Hilda looked at the wrapped mirror. "Not now."
Then she returned to the crystal ball. "Right, girl, I'm back.
Where were we..."

Back at the castle the mean queen sat in her
hidden room, chewing her nails and pondering over the hints that
Walt had dropped. What did he know? The pointers he had left were
too obvious, he was clearly suspecting something. Maybe he should
have an apple also...

The queen looked at the apples on her table.
They looked perfect. Snow-White would not be able to resist them.
One would be enough. Satisfied over her work, she opened her
wardrobe closet and started rummaging through the clothes...

When she was done, she was unrecognisable. A
blond wig hid her black hair. She had put something on her face to
make her look more tanned. The clothes she wore made her look a
great deal younger than she was. And boyish. The queen was certain
that this approach would be best. Twice she got to the house of the
dwarfs as a woman, and that might cause suspsicion with the child.
So a boy it would be. She took a basket and put the apples in
it.

"Now let's get this over with, the strap's
killing me." She had put a strap around her chest, otherwise her
attempt to look like a man would be completely destroyed by her
bosom. The queen stepped out of her chambers, basket in hand, and
started down the corridor when one of the more voluptuous maids saw
her. The queen's disguise worked, because the maid saw a him.

"Oy, what are you doing there? Stealing apples?"
The maid launched a charge towards the queen, who did not know how
fast she had to run down the corridor, clasping the basket against
her to make sure the apples would stay in it. At a neckbreak speed
she hurtled down the stairs and once she reached the main hall she
sped through that and out the large door as if shot from a bow.

The queen did not stop running until she was
away from the castle grounds. Finally she dared to stop and catch
her royal breath. She was not used to this kind of physical
exertion, let alone being chased through her own castle whilst
being accused of theft.

The massive maid had given up the chase already
halfway down the stairs. She was even less used to physical
exertion and had many more pounds to carry with her.

The queen caught her breath and found a place
where carts were being loaded up. One of them was being filled with
coal, one with fruit, one with pigs, and so on.

"Is anyone here going to the land of the dwarfs,
over the hill?", the queen asked.

"Yeah, I do. Why? Want a ride?", one big scruffy
man said.

"If possible, yes." The queen was proud she kept
her role as a boy so well.

"Okay. Help load up the coal and you're on."

"The... coal..." The mean queen looked at the
three black men that were slaving to get bucket after bucket of
black and dusty coal into the cart.

"Yeah. Either that or you get to ride on my knee
for a while," the man barked, "your choice."

The queen was not sure what the ride on the knee
implied, but judging from the gory laughter of the other men it did
not mean much good, so she put down the basket and started helping
the three men. Soon after that there were four black figures
loading the last bit of coal.

Some rags were handed around, so everyone could
wipe their faces and hands a bit. That was a problem for the queen,
as she would also wipe the tanning potion from her face. Very
careful she dabbed her face a bit and that was it.

Her unwillingness to clean herself up better
earnt her a place in the coal when the cart moved out.

People laughed at her as she sat in the black
rubble, coughing from the dust that was still flying around. But
the carts moved out, and she was on her way to the house where her
enemy was still alive. But, she thought with grim pleasure, not for
long.

Despite her still throbbing head and a slightly
'over-used' feeling somewhere else, Snow-White had gotten up and
had started doing her chores. The beds were made, the trash had
been thrown out, and she now sat at the table, drinking some herbal
tea. Doc had said it would help, but the healing wasn't really
kicking in yet.

She had gone through drinking a lot of water
also, even tried another beer, but that had proven to be the worst
idea yet.

As sitting for a long time gave her slight
trouble, Snow-White got up again and sauntered over to the window.
She peeked outside and was surprised to see a boy sitting there,
leaning against a tree. She giggled as she noticed how black and
dirty he was.

The boy seemed to notice her looking, because he
smiled. His teeth were clearly visible against the black
surroundings that made up his face. He even waved at her.

Snow-White waved back. After a moment of thought
she opened the door, only a small bit. "Hey, you. What are you
doing there?"

"I am sitting here," was the answer.
"Resting."

"Oh. Why are you so black?" Snow-White was a bit
curious at times.

"I worked at a cart, loading coal. Coal is
black, you know."

Snow-White nodded, she had seen that icky stuff
several times. "I know."

"Hey you, inside. Do you think you could spare
me some water? I'm thirsty." That was true. The queen had been on
the load of coal all the time, getting dust in her throat, and all
the way long she had not had a single drop of water to drink.

Snow-White was already running and less than a
minute later she was outside, a cup of water in her hand. She gave
it to the boy, very carefully to avoid becoming as black as he
was.