The Bloodiest Rose of All

Chapter 5

A short while later, Snow White felt as though she were being shaken. It must be cook telling her to get up and help her with the bread. ‘No,’ she thought, ‘I am so tired’… she tried to turn over and go back to that lovely place of dark oblivion but someone kept shaking her. Trying to open her eyes was harder than opening the drawbridge outside of the castle. She felt as though every muscle in her body was screaming in pain. Snow managed to open her eyes a bit and when she did she saw  a funny face looking at her anxiously. He was obviously an interesting character she could see that at once. He had a scraggly beard and warm button brown eyes and lines around his eyes balanced with an enormous red and bumpy nose.

“She is still alive!” he exclaimed looking somewhere above her head. “What should we do?”

“I think we should leave her here to rot. She obviously has been left here for some reason or other and I think we should trust that the folks who left her here had good reasons. Best not to get involved in something so suspicious.” A gravelly voice answered sharply.

“Sid, mind your manners. She can hear you!” said the man beside her. Snow tried to sit up and look around her but the effort was too much. “You see? Now she is  frightened!”

“GOOD!” the other voice yelled. “She should be!”

All of a sudden a very different voice answered the two opposing forces. It was a voice that obviously held some sway with the other two for when it spoke they quieted and listened.

“We should take the girl to our home and feed her and try to make her well again. She is very ill, that much is certain.”

The one she could see smiled and she noticed that the lines around his eyes and mouth were laugh lines. “You are going to be alright…” he whispered. “Don’t you worry.”

Someone grabbed her hands and another held her head as she was hoisted onto what appeared to be a little donkey.

“Careful,” said the voice of the happy man. “Try not to jar her…” The other just grunted and they started along. As soon as the donkey began to move the strain of the day and her ever rising fever gave way to the blessed black oblivion once more.

 She awoke several times after that meeting and of those times she remembered only bits and pieces. She remembered being spoon-fed broth by a kindly man with a red beard who kept telling her over and over that she must drink it. She also remembered a grumpy old man slamming the door and stomping in the room. He was greeted by a general shushing all around at which he scowled and sat down in a huff. Both times she was so cold, shivering and wet all over that she didn’t really comprehend what she was seeing.

The third time Snow awoke was different from past times. She was more alert and aware of the things around her and for the first time she looked around her. It was an enormous one roomed cabin with a part that had been partially enclosed and fit with three beds and two dressers. It was where she lay now. When she looked straight ahead she saw a lovely kitchen area with a huge fireplace and a lovely hearth around which were three padded chairs. Two men sat in those chairs at that moment smoking pipes and talking in low voices to each other. One had brown hair and the other red.  They were both dressed in green outfits with heavy boots that were coated in mud. When she stirred in her bed one looked over and saw her.

“Why looky there, she’s awake…” he said to his companion.

“I can see that…”was the gruff rejoinder. Snow White recognized the two voices that had quarreled over whether to ‘keep her’ or not in the field.