Hilda - Snow White revisited (10 page)

"Thank you," the boy said and drank down all the
water quickly. As he handed back the cup, that Snow-White took with
two fingers, he said: "Hey, want an apple?"

The queen, because that was of course who the
boy was, held up the basket. The cloth she had put over the apples
had protected them, they were still red and bright and shining.

Snow-White immediately lusted after one of them.
"Squeee!", she said, thrilled by the sight of such goodies. As good
as the dwarfs were with many things, this was something they had
not supplied her with. "Are you serious?"

"Sure, take one. You got me water, right? This
way I can do something back."

Snow-White picked the biggest, reddest and most
shiny apple from the basket. She looked at it, almost in awe.
"Thank you." She smelled the apple. It smelled like an apple. "You
know, I shouldn't be out here, so if you don't mind I am going back
inside and eat the apple there."

"You do that. Enjoy the apple..." The boy's
voice faltered in glee and anticipation.

Snow-White ran into the house and slammed the
door behind her. She felt proud of how she had handled the
situation. She put the cup with the black streaks on the floor and
then took in the apple. How she had missed apples. With her eyes
closed, the girl raised the apple to her mouth, opened her mouth
and slowly took a big bite.

Her teeth sank into the apple, cutting through
the outer skin and sliding through the good stuff. The juice of the
apple streamed into Snow-White's mouth. The piece of apple broke
off, as she bit down harder. This was the moment, she thought.

The black boy, who was the mean queen, was
peeking in through the window. This was the moment, she
thought.

The apple did its work. The fruit from the tree
known as Malus Domesticus or apple tree, as soon as it came in
contact with saliva, started to expand. As Snow-White was at that
moment swallowing a piece, the expanding fruit got stuck in her
throat

"Suck an elf!", Hilda screamed at her mirror.
She saw the whole thing happen and was unable to do something about
it quickly. This kind of stuff required proximity, and that was
what she did not have at this very moment. She ran through the
house, put on clothes and shoes, grabbed a hat, wondered why the
hell she did that, threw the hat back, raced to the broom-rack,
took the one she liked best for speed and with that in hand she
quickly left the house.

"Are you-", the house started, as Hilda jumped
on the broom and dashed off. "Yes. You are leaving."

Hilda pushed the broom to its limits. She knew
this was a dangerous thing. The bristles of the broom provided its
stability; riding a broom at these insane speeds could make the
bristles break off, turning the whole thing into an unstable stick,
usually with devastating endings.

Luckily the broom was a golden oldie, a tough
one that could handle a beating. By the time Hilda arrived over the
house of the dwarfs, there was no sign of the black person. Hilda
was certain that this had been the queen again.

Sharply turning, she made a perfect landing on
both feet, dropped the broom and magicked the door open. Rather
rudely the door shoved the suffocated princess to the side, but
this was an emergency and Hilda was not squeamish.

The wicked witch looked at the apple and
recognised the signature of the queen in it. The combination of
potions and poison was exactly how she would go about this.

"Right, Grimmy, quick thinking and fast acting,"
Hilda said to herself as she tapped the palm of her free her hand
with her wand. Fast she ran down the list of option she could think
of, which was rather a short list. She took the second option, as
this meant another option to get at the queen. The first option,
doing nothing, was not an option.

Hilda used a long and complicated spell. In
English, so she knew she'd get it right in one go. The few extra
seconds would not make a difference in this case. And it
worked.

The apple that was stuck in Snow-White's throat
formed microscopic holes through which a minute amount of air could
reach the girl's lungs. It would allow her to breathe and keep her
body going, but that was all.

The next part of her inpromptu plan involved
boredom: she was going to wait until the dwarfs got home...

The queen, gloating and overjoyed, had walked
back to the road where she had jumped off the coal cart. From there
she had started the walk back to the castle and had had the good
fortune to be picked up by someone with a large wagon and some
rags. She could ride along to the village, and use the rags to
clean herself up a bit, which she did with a vengeance. She had
already thrown away the blond wig, as that disguise was no longer
needed.

The cart took her to the village square where
the queen crawled off the wagon, remembered to thank the driver and
then headed back to the castle. This time she used the backdoor
again. The servants who were in her way looked at her in a state of
fright.

"My queen! What happened to you?", one of them
dared to ask.

"You don't want to know. Go and run me a bath. A
hot one. I am in dire need," she commanded.

"Certainly, my queen." Somehow the servant had
taught himself to run and bow at the same time, which made for a
very amusing view.

The queen strolled along at her leisure, giving
the man a fair chance to get her bath in order. He wasn't bad
looking, she thought, so maybe he could get something else in order
also.

Smiling she walked up the stairs, hoping that
Walt would remain out of view for a while. The remainder of the
week would be good.

Hilda was about to gnaw off the end of her
broomstick when finally she heard a number of feet shuffle about
outside. She opened the door and saw the seven dwarfs.

"Grimhilda?", Happy asked, "what're you doing
here?"

"Put a sock in it, before I do that, and come
in. All of you." Hilda's voice told them that she did not want to
wait. Before all of them had gotten inside, she was already
explaining what she had seen, pointing at the body of Snow-White
that was still on the floor, behind the door.

"So, I have a plan. And you're going to listen
and help me pull this off."

Hilda laid out her plan to the dwarfs, who all
were quite shocked about seeing their girl on the floor and hearing
Hilda's words of how this had come about, but the plan the wicked
witch had was so ingenious that they began to radiate with the idea
they were allowed to assist in it.

"So y'all got that, right? Okay, I'm off to do
my part, you do your part and we'll have a blast, I promise
you."

"Oh, certainly we will, Grimhilda," Bashful
said, trying to hide behind Doc. "We will help you. Someone did
something to our Snow-White..." He stared at the silent body behind
the door for a moment.

"Cool puppies," Hilda said. "I'm off. Good luck,
I'll check in on you when I have time. See you around, boys."

As Hilda took to the sky again, Doc wondered
what a witch, even a wicked one as Hilda, would want with dogs that
were cold.

The wicked witch set course for the castle. She
did not want the queen to notice her, so she put on the
invisibility-shield as soon as she came near. She landed in the
garden, put her broomstick against a tree and started walking
around. Hilda was looking for a specific someone.

After a few minutes, she heard him before she
saw him.

"That's good lads, I want the roses there, the
blue whatever their names are there, and then the berry-bushes
around it."

"You mean the lilacs, my king?", another voice
said.

"Yes, them." Walt the king was designing the new
flowerbed for his wife, the queen.

Hilda looked at the scene from a distance. Walt
was wearing his long red royal robe rolled up and tied around his
impressive belly. His legs were hidden in big boots as he was
walking around the gardeners in a wide circle, gesturing and
directing. The witch grinned. Then she walked up to the small group
of garden-improvers, dropping the shield as she approached.

One of the gardeners saw her fade into
existence, shrieked and fell into a rosebush. The others turned
their heads into the direction the unfortunate man's finger was
pointing.

"Hi, king," Hilda said. "Can you spare me a
moment?"

Hilda asked. And she called the king by his
title. Even wicked witches have to draw a line. Sometimes.

"Grimhilda," Walt acknowledged her. When facing
wicked witches, kings drew lines too. "I'm sort of busy here,
telling these men how to make the flowerbed look nice, you see."
His face was so serious that Hilda had to bite her tongue not to
laugh.

"I see," the wicked witch said, whipping up her
wand and temporarily petrifying the gardeners. "My information is
sort of important though. It involves your wife. And your
daughter."

"My-" Walt stared at Hilda. "Snow-White is dead.
Everybody knows that by now," he then said, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry to contradict you, king, but she's
not. Have you seen a body? Have you gotten any real evidence of
that?"

Walt twitched his lips. "Erh... no. But... my
little girl had been gone since many days! Disappeared in the
forest. She can't survive there on her own, the little innocent
one."

"Tell you what," Hilda said, hooking her arm
around on of Walt's. "Let's take a walk and we'll talk. In the
meantime we'll have the gardenboys do their thing, and if they
screw up you have a reason to yell at them. How's that?"

Walt looked at Hilda. "I don't like to yell at
them."

With a slightly disappointed look Hilda
shrugged. "Whatever you like, king."

"Walt. Call me Walt. When you say 'king' it
creates such a distance," Walt said. "Okay. Let's walk."

Hilda unpetrified the gardeners and strolled off
with Walt after throwing a spell that their conversation could not
be overheard by others.

"Right then. Walt. First off, Snow-White is not
dead."

This news made the walk come to a standstill.
"She is! My wife told me, and so did Humbert the huntsman!"

"Walt, my man, when I tell you the sky is
purple, do you believe that without looking?"

The king peeked up for a moment. "It's blue.
With white clouds."

"Zakly," Hilda nodded, pulling the king onwards
for the walk. "I have seen Snow-White several times since she
disappeared. She's in the house of the seven dwarfs. You know them?
The little guys who work the mines behind the hills?"

The king nodded. "I recall them. They're the
ones with that song, aren't they?"

"Right in one, Walt. Your kid ran away from the
huntsman, as your darling wife ordered him to kill her. She got to
the dwarf's house and found refuge there."

"Oh, no. No way my wifey would do that! You are
trying to put me up against her, aren't you, wicked witch that you
are!" Walt tried to pull his arm free, but Hilda was strong. And a
witch well versed in magic.

"You could ask Humbert, Walt. I kid you not.
Your darling wife has gone over to the house of the dwarfs to try
and kill Snow-White three more times too. And I have witnesses for
that. What reason would I have to lie to you, Walt? Tell me a good
one and I'm gone."

Walt looked the wicked witch in the eye and
searched his memories. Hilda had done many a wicked thing, as she
was supposed to do. But never, he had to conclude, had she lied to
him or anyone. She might have bent the truth here and there, but
that fell in the wicked category.

Walt sighed. "Let's assume for a wild moment
that I believe you. What do you have in mind?"

Hilda explained her plan, as she had done with
the dwarfs.

Walt nodded several times, not terribly
convinced yet. Not about the plan, and not about the background of
it, being that his daughter was still alive and that his wife was
cheating on him in that respect.

Hilda put in all her powers of convincing,
described how she had seen the mean queen on the carts, how she had
been dressed up. Slowly, she saw, she was getting through to the
king, as more and more her arguments began to make sense.

"You're quite the talker, Grimhilda. But where
is the proof in all this? You have it all figured out, the way you
are telling me about this, but so far all you let out are words,
and even from a witch that is sound and hot air."

Hilda stared at Walt. "You are accusing me of
spouting garbage? I come here with a plan how you can get your kid
back and get rid of your cheating bitch in the same go, and that is
how you thank me? What kind of person do you think I am? Have I
ever double-crossed someone?"

Walt tried to take a step back from her, but her
arm around his made that impossible. She seemed unmovable, despite
his advantage in weight. "Grimhilda, listen," he said, "how do you
think I feel? I heard from Humbert that Snow-White is dead. Killed
by some animal. I have gone round in grief and pain for days, while
nobody can tell me more about her death. Nobody can show me a
body-" he turned a bit pale "-or something she had with her that
day. I've been trying to accept her being gone, and now you tell me
she's alive and well, and that my dear wife is behind all this. Do
give me a moment to come to grips with this, okay?"

Hilda nodded and patted his hand. "Sure. When
you put it that way, Walt, take all the time you need. But hurry,
because things are moving and my plan has timing issues."

"Yes, of course," Walt nodded. "Is there a way I
can contact you?"

Hilda thought for a moment. The usual way, paper
on an arrow, would be far too conspicuous. She let go of the king's
arm, bent down and picked up a small twig. With the wand in hand
she mumbled something, then broke off a tiny part of the twig. As
she sensed a slight shiver over her shoulders, she knew the spell
had connected with the wood.