Not So Snow

When the prince had kissed Snow White and woke her from her sleep, she had expected to live happily ever after. And they did…for awhile.

Upon the back of his beautiful stead, Snow White felt the whirlwind of a fairytale romance; a handsome prince and true loves kiss. She was intoxicated with the prospect of what their life would be like. And as his castle crested through the trees and hilltops, her excitement headed with the future of no longer being the prisoner princess, but a kind and gentle queen.

In the days that followed their arrival, they were wed. It was perfection in every detail. The days of sadness and hardships were finally over thought Snow White.

Her prince, while handsome, was very unlike her in many ways she would come to find. She was kind and compassionate and wanted to bestow that upon every person she met. Her prince, now king, was particular and rigid and demanded respect. Despite the difference, he loved her tenderness and was enamored with the queen at his side. Her demure personality and ethereal beauty stirred his passions and, like everything about their relationship, moved quickly.

Within mere months of their marriage, Snow White found she was with child. She was elated and felt she was going to burst with joy. She was also terrified. She barely remembered her own mother and the mother who raised her was a cruel and vain woman who tried to kill her time and time again. Not only did Snow White worry that she did not know how to be a mother, the intrusive thoughts hissed that she would be just like her step-mother.

Despite her fears, Snow White would carry and deliver three healthy children: Philip, James, and Elizabeth. Incredible children with their mother’s dark hair and pale complexion. And, as they grew, the fears subsided. Snow White, to no one’s surprise, was a wonderful and kind mother. She raised her children to be compassionate and humble. The royal family was a picture of perfection and were beloved by the people they ruled.

But, as the years progress, the fairytale life shifted into a living nightmare.

Snow White had an aversion to apples for many years. But, one autumn, the apples had grown in abundance in the fields and the cooks had far more apples than they knew what to do with. The smells of apple pies, tarts, cookies, and other treats wafted through the castle. It enticed the youngest prince, James, to the kitchens. Sneaking a cookie from the kitchen he ran to the courtyard to enjoy his treat unencumbered. Hours later, guards found his lifeless body and a half-eaten cookie. Physicians determined the prince had a severe allergic reaction to the apple treat that had gone undiagnosed for years due to his mother’s aversion to the fruit. The family and the entire kingdom were devastated.

In the months that followed, death would strike again.

Sweet little princess Elizabeth loved to play. She always encouraged fair play, both with the children of the court and the children of the staff. During a game of ball playing, where the ball was an unripen apple that had fallen from one of the trees, one of the children kicked the fruit to tag the princess out. The apple struck her so violently in the head that she collapsed and never rose ever again.

Prince Phillip loved to climb the trees both in roleplaying games and to best the other children in sports. During an ongoing victorious spree during tag, he missed his footing and fell from the tree. His broken neck, determined the doctors, had killed him instantly.

The king and queen slipped deeply into despair. The king threw himself deep into his role as king. He met with his people, frequented meetings, and built an empire on the foundation of grief. Snow White mourned her children and the presence of her husband. The courtyard, in which had been the final moments of all three of her children, plagued her. She found herself spending hours at the courtyard, pining for them. Her obsession with apples burned on the edges of grief. How did an apple become so maliciously tied to her fate? An apple cookie, an apple ball, and an apple tree had been linked to the death of her children. She begged her husband to rid the land of apples once and for all, but he undermined her pleas. One of his alliances and traders were apple merchants and the kingdom could not bear the loss of forfeiting their trades. She beseeched listening ears to hear her out on her aversion to the deadly fruit. But despite every sympathetic look, they all encouraged her that her grief was still new and that the pain would heal in time. Snow White felt like she was slipping into madness.

In an effort to cheer her up, her husband presented her with a beautiful ornate mirror for their bedroom as a trade deal with one of his alliances. Details of the woods and creatures from their first kiss were etched into the frame. As he uncovered her eyes to show her the gift, he smiled into the reflection and remarked how beautiful she looked. It became a romantic habit for them. Every morning when she was brushing her hair, he would kiss her from behind and remark how beautiful she looked. When they spoke in their sitting chairs, he would remark what an amazing couple they made. When they made love, he would boast at how perfectly they fit together. In a weird sort of way, the mirror reconnected Snow White with her husband and she felt herself come alive again.

The night the mirror was shattered, was by her own doing.

Her husband was waiting for her in their quarters. She knew there was something afoot when she was not greeted with affection, but sorrow. He asked her to sit with him. He confessed, that while she mourned the loss of their children, he had taken on another lover. He did not love her, but a child was conceived during their intimacies. The woman had just given birth to the child and had not survived. The child was a daughter and was named Braeburn. She would be coming to live at the castle over the next few days.

Snow White felt something shift in her. Her king had betrayed her in so many ways. Not only did he leave her to mourn for their children, he had created another one without her. He had made love to her, yet still had another lover on the side. But the most egregious transgression was to be that she would have a new daughter named after the same fruit that killed her own. Snow White screamed and slammed her fists on the mirror’s reflective surface. It caused a distinct crack in the mirror, cutting her image in two distorted forms.

Not so beautiful now, she thought to herself.

Despite it all, Braeburn was brought to the castle and Snow White dutifully took the daughter in as her own. And just as the mirror was fixed and the crack was a memory, Snow White tried to put the past behind her. She treated Braeburn like a daughter and raised her in the way she had hoped to with Elizabeth. Over time, Snow White and Braeburn were much alike a loving mother-daughter relationship as there ever was one.

As time went on, Braeburn grew into a beautiful young woman. Her personality was sweet and tart at times, and her red locks glistened…. all akin to the fruit she was named after. Snow While still dwelled on the apples that had infiltrated her life but did her best to keep them at bay. She did not want to have the same relationship with her husband’s daughter as she had had with her father’s wife. Snow White knew she genuinely loved the girl. She had not taken the place of the three children she had born, but Braeburn filled her days with love and joy as if she had. She felt relief that Braeburn would never have a mother like the step-mother that Snow White had been raised by.

On one afternoon, Snow White retired to her chambers for a rest. As she glanced into the mirror, her breath caught: there, in the reflection where hers was supposed to be, she saw her step-mother staring back at her with a cruel smile. But when Snow White looked once more, her own ace had returned to the surface. Snow White regulated her breathing and approached the mirror to study her reflection. The face was hers, the silver streaks in her ebony hair was still hers, and red lips were still hers. But she did notice she was beginning to resemble her step-mother in some of her features.

“We all start out young and beautiful. Time and circumstances age us and we are reminded of the lack of beauty we have when it is given to newer generations,” she heard her step-mother’s voice. Snow White looked around the room, sure she would see the woman. But it was still just Snow White. Snow White looked into the mirror once more and reminded herself that her step-mother had been dead for years. But how could she have heard her voice so clearly.

“I was once like you, Snow White,” she heard the former queen say again. “I was beautiful and fair. I was beloved. I loved and lost. The only difference between you and I, is that I learned who I was a long time ago. You are just beginning.”