ANNALISA AND ARABELLA TO THE RESCUE

"I know Snow White is not dead!" said Annalisa, as she and her twin flew through the forest looking for their friend.

"But I am sure that the Queen tried to have her killed.  She is a nasty piece of work who would do anything to be the fairest in the land!  As if....." said Arabella.

"As if she could be.  We are the fairest in the land; everyone knows that.  Look, there's a girl by that tree.  Maybe she's seen Snow White.  She looks somehow familiar...."

The new Snow White

"Miss, we are fairy sisters who are searching for our friend, Snow White.  She is beautiful with blue black hair.  Have you by chance seen her?  She usually wears a very ugly dress her stepmother gave her," explained Annalisa.

The girl smiled and said, "Ah, my friends, you don't recognize me, do you?  I am Snow White! I dyed my hair with plants and made new clothes with leaves and things I found here in the woods.  I was brought here by the Queen's huntsman who was told to kill me and bring her my heart."

The sisters turned toward one another in triumph.  "I knew she was alive!  I knew it!" cried the sisters in unison.

They flew close to their friend and gave her tiny fairy kisses that felt like a warm spring breeze.

"Do you live in this sweet little cottage?" said Arabella.

"And who lives in that small cottage over there?" said Annalisa, who was always quite inquisitive.

"When I was wandering in the woods and had eaten all the food the huntsman gave me, I grew quite desperate.  I dared not return to the palace lest the Queen try again to kill me.  And then I wandered here and fell asleep.  When I awoke, there were seven small men staring at me!  They invited me to dinner and were very kind.  When I told them of my sad plight, they said I could stay here in their guesthouse.  It is lovely and peaceful here and I can never return to the palace until the Queen is dead.  I do miss my father very much."

The sisters saw tears in Snow White's eyes and sought to comfort her.  They said sweet things and told her about their new baby brother, Arthur.

"He doesn't do very much at the moment," said Arabella, thoughtfully.  "Mostly he eats and sleeps."

"Someone is coming; I think it's your friends," announced Annalisa.  "There are many tiny men and one very large one."

"Yes, it is my little friends and the Huntsman!  He saved my life," said Snow White, running toward them.  "Is all well?"

"My Princess!" said the Huntsman in his deep, resonant voice.  "I have brought news, your Grace.  Everyone at the palace believes you are dead. Your father the King is heartbroken and the Queen is pretending to be.  But she has not changed, your Grace.  You must not return home until I come to the forest to tell you the Queen is dead."

"I will stay here with my friends; they are so kind.  So you recognized me even though I have tried to change my looks."

"I will always recognize you, Princess.  Your hair is different, but your heart is unchanged.  I must go.  My wife has not been well for a long time so I cannot stay.  Her mother is with her now and our son, but I need to be there, your Grace."

"Of course you do.  You must go at once, Huntsman."  Snow White hesitated and then said in a low voice, "I thank you again for saving my life.  I shall never forget you."

The Huntsman looked at Snow White with an expression she could not read.  Then he turned away and mounted his horse.
The seven small men pressed him to take water and provisions for his journey home.  Soon he disappeared into the trees.

The little men began to chatter among themselves about cooking dinner.  Would the lovely fairy twins care to join them?   They would love to but must get home lest their parents worry about them.  They said Farewell to Snow White but she seemed not to hear them  as she was intent on gazing into the darkening forest.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE

Mr. Russell took me to dinner my first night back at Wesleyan.  Downtown Macon in 1962--exciting stuff!  He was eager to hear what I had done during the summer and I was eager to tell him.  He was very reticent about his own summer so I didn't press the issue.  I regaled him with tales of living in a condemned hotel with rats the size of cats, riding borrowed bikes through the tree-lined lanes of Jekyll, sitting in the sun by the pool getting a tan (and sowing the seeds of skin cancer), dancing the twist all night and then being at work at 6:30 AM to serve breakfast, seeing Ray Charles in concert, trying to make out on the beach and getting stepped on by the turtle hunters, sinking into the ocean with Al, the exterminator's son, the waitress from New York getting fired for dating a black man, falling asleep on huge bags of flour upstairs in the restaurant storeroom after a particularly decadent night of partying--nothing was left untold.  Mr. Russell was a wonderful audience for these tales as he laughed easily and seemed to think we girls were all innocents in spite of our twisting the night away.  As I look back on that summer I realize how innocent we Wesleyan girls really were.  It was my last summer of innocence, however, as everything in my life was about to change.

At the end of my junior year my beloved roommate, Linda, would marry and move away.  Two days before her wedding our close friend, Elizabeth, would have her nuptials and move to New York City.  Our friend, Ann, would graduate and we would never see her again.  My mother would go to New York and take my brother Jim with her.  Our brilliant director, Mr. Russell, would be fired for reasons never made clear.  And I would be stricken with kidney stones and be unable to return to Wesleyan for my senior year.

But that night Mr. Russell and I knew nothing of what lay ahead and we ate and laughed and talked for hours.  I remember it still.

Wesleyan

THE FAIRY TWINS TRY TO SAVE SNOW WHITE

Snow White's castle

Although the fairy twins were thrilled by their new baby brother, it soon became clear that little Arthur didn't really do much at this stage of his short life, so it wasn't long before the sisters once again longed for adventure.  Suddenly they remembered poor Snow White and her cruel stepmother.  They had promised to help her and they had done nothing!  Quickly, they flew to the palace of the young princess and entered the kitchen as they were friends with Cook and the servants.

Alas, everyone was dressed in black and Cook was weeping.  All her helpers were red-eyed and filled with despair with the notable exception of Annie, the kitchen maid, who was stirring a huge pot of soup hanging from a hook in the fireplace.  She looked angry--very angry indeed.

"What has happened?" cried Annalisa.  "Why are you all crying?"

"Has something happened to Snow White?" said Arabella, who sometimes was wise beyond her years.  "She is unhappy, I know."

Cook tried to speak.  "The Queen told us that our sweet princess ran away in the middle of the night to the forest ....and was killed!"

"If you believe the Queen which I do not!" cried Annie sharply.  "I know she is still alive and hiding somewhere in that forest."

"One of the Queen's huntsmen brought back Snow White's heart which he found in the woods," said Cook quietly.

"How do you know it is Snow White's heart?" said Arabella.  "It could have been an animal's heart. Some woodland creature."

"Exactly what I said!  The Queen is evil. She has always hated Snow White," said Annie. "The funeral was yesterday and they had nothing to bury but someone's else's heart!"
Suddenly Annie began to sob and could not stop; she threw her arms around Cook.

"Annie has always loved the Princess," said Cook.  "She is heartbroken."

The Fairy sisters looked at one another and made a quick decision.  "We shall fly through the forest and if Snow White is alive, we shall find her," said Annalisa. "But you must know that Snow White cannot return as long as the Queen lives.  It would be dangerous."

"But you will return and tell us what you find....whatever it is," said Annie.

"Of course, we will, Annie."  Arabella spoke gently to the girl as she knew how sad and afraid Annie must be.

And the sisters flew into the dark forest.

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