Rose and Snow

Snow White LII

I thought about my lunch with my grandmother and her still cryptic secrets. I decided to trace my family's history through our records. 

My family's history is a long and fabled one and is told from generation to two generations later, basically grandmother to granddaughter, and the story of Rose Red and Snow White is just the start. I 

The basic story goes that Rose Red and Snow White lived in the woods with their mother. Why do all stories have to start in the woods? These woods were presumably in Germany. Why? Maybe the Black Forest is a better option? It is really pretty. Anyways, back to the story; Rose Red and Snow White go walking in the woods. Rose Red is out spoken compared to Snow White who is timid and shy. The two sisters go wandering in the woods. They walk and come across a bear. This bear talks to them and comes to stay with them. He plays with them every day and sits by the fire with them. After winter is over, the bear says that he has to go back to his cave to protect his treasure from a wicked dwarf. Well, whoopty doo. Why was the dwarf wicked? As I was saying, the dwarf cursed the prince because he had stolen some stones. One day the girls came across the dwarf, whose beard was tangled beneath a log. The girls cut him free, but the dwarf became angry. The bear came rumbling out. The dwarf begged the bear to kill the girls. The bear instead attacked and killed the dwarf. The bear became a prince and took the girls with him. The prince's brother was at the cave. Rose Red married the Bear Prince and Snow White married his brother in the end.

 What was I supposed to do? Always I was given the letters from the past to read and decipher. Frisian, to Germanic, to Norman French, to Middle English and to what is now Late Modern English. That was the evolution of the letters. I was Rose Red LII and now I was to find my Snow White, the princes and other nonsense. Why did I have to be Rose Red? How did that affect my life? What was my quest? What was my fate?

"What am I going to do?" I asked myself after reading my great-great-grandmother's letter. Could I even begin to search this quest? I was twenty-two and just graduated university. I was fine. I could search as must as I like and not be in trouble. I had all summer to find this out before grad school. My grandmother was taking me with her to a small island that the current branch of Rose Reds originated from. I needed to start my quest there.

I first had to find my Snow White in my life. Who was the person I was closest to and had the most in common with but the most differences? Easy! Margie! Boy Obsessed Margie was my best friend and the one person I could always count on her outside my family. Now I needed to find my dwarf and bears. That would be the tricky thing. Not all dwarves are dwarves. Some of them are metaphorical, if the recorded history of the previous Rose Reds were correct. The same could be said with the princes, but who knows.

I paced about my room with my feet shuffling against the cold dark colored floor. Margie's number was showing on my phone screen. I reached to press the green button with my finger. Would it stop me? Who knows? I dialed her number. Gran was downstairs and could help us understand the story.

"Hey girl! What's up?" Margie asked. She was obviously bored out of her mind and desperate to get out of her house.

"Wanna come over?" I asked.

Margie popped her gum into the phone. "Uh huh!"

"Really?" I asked.

"Sure. I'll be over there in a few!" Margie exclaimed. Luckily, she lived two doors down and could make it here rather quickly. I heard the doorbell ring. I rushed downstairs along the same wood as was in my bedroom. Mom was away in Canada giving lectures about dentistry practices or something. I didn't remember.

"Margie!" I exclaimed.

"Aneira!" She exclaimed back. "My toes are still wet. What's up?"

"I'm going to a remote island off the coast Denmark. Want to come?" I asked.

"What?"

Gran came from around the corner. She had a soft smile on her face and her blue eyes twinkled. Her peppered brown hair rested in a braided bun. "Margie, dear," Gran said, "what did Aneira just ask you?"

"She wanted me to go with her to some remote island off the coast of Denmark," Margie replied.

"Well, is she your Snow White?" Gran asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Go upstairs," Gran said. I shook my head. "Aneira! Go!" she yelled at me in German. I rolled my eyes and walked upstairs. I hated when she yelled at me in German. Flemish was the worst though. Her travels for her journey had taken her there. Thirty minutes passed before I received a text message from my grandmother to go downstairs. I hated that she was faster at texting than I was. Her texts were always in German though. I got used to it over time after being taught it behind my mother's back. She never knew the story of Rose Red and Snow White was real. She thought it was some fable from the Brothers Grimm, but it was so much more than that.

"Well, I convinced Margie to join us," Gran said. I looked over at the stone-faced Margie. Her black eyes were open wide and she was stock still. Her mouth dropped open.

"Gran?" I asked.

"She's processing."

"What did you tell her?" I asked.

"It wasn't what I told her, but what I showed her."

"What did you show her?" I asked, curious as to what she might have learnt that I hadn't. There were secrets that my grandmother kept from me. I hadn't a clue as to what the real answers might be.

"There is something for only the Snow White to know in compared to the Rose Red of each generation involved with this quest. Now come with me, we must pack and get going."

"I don't have a passport!" Margie yelled.

"I know a guy!" Gran shouted over her shoulder as she walked in the kitchen. Margie and I looked at each other and then broke out laughing. This was starting to get interesting.