Queen was walking up and down in the living room, as she was expecting the doctor to come down from her step-daughter’s room. Snow White, the seed of love of her husband and his first wife, who died at childbirth, had something like a panic attack. She started jumping up and down, she was yelling unintelligible words that sounded more like the vocabulary of a caveman and, at some points, she was even slamming herself. Her father and she tried to make her stop behaving so inappropriately by telling her to calm down and that she should not do things like that, but, of course, these approaches had no effective results, as she was engaged in this activity for a whole hour. As they could not take it any longer, they called the family doctor to calm her down by the help of drugs.
“How is she doctor?” asked Queen when she saw the doctor coming out of her room.
“My dear Queen, I am afraid that I have no happy news for you,” the doctor responded as he was closing the door behind him and he was descending the stairs.
“What is it doctor? Why is she behaving like this?”
“Tell me first where your husband is?”
“He did not yet returned from the drug store, where you sent him to buy the clozapine you prescribed.”
“Queen, you must understand that Snow White’s disease is really serious and that is why I prescribed such a drug.”
“What is wrong with her?” she asked with a trembling voice.
“My dear, I think we should wait for John to return from the drug store and then inform you about her situation.”
Queen was genuinely worried about her step-daughter’s health, but she politely agreed with the physician and she offered him some liqueur chocolate.
After ten minutes of small talk, a knock on the door made Queen jump from her seat. Dana, the most recent black servant that the Mackmains acquired, went to open the door immediately and she saw a police officer.
“Hello. Is Mrs Mackmain home?” the police officer asked.
“This is she” said Queen running to the door when she saw the officer. “Is there anything wrong?”
“I am sorry Mrs, but it’s about your husband. He was robbed and murdered. My condolences.”
*
She reluctantly opened her eyes. The light that was coming from the window was not much, but it was extremely bright. It must be early in the morning, she thought. Well, it is fine I will prepare breakfast for my father. At the instant second she had that thought, the smile disappeared from her face and she became sad and desperately gloomy. She heard the voice of her step-mother saying that her father had a terrible accident and that he was no longer with them but he was looking after them from the always peaceful and happy blue sky. She was still remembering the sight of her hands, as a small pool of tears was being formed, since crying was the only thing she could do. However, she was also reminded of an uncanny noise that it looked like it was coming from hell. Now that she was thinking about the worse moment of her life she was sure that the noise it was actually a giggle, which was produced by her so-called mother, as she was laughing for the brutal passing of her father and her misfortune, since now not only was she an orphan but also she was completely dependent on her.
The rage she felt at that moment was so intense and so unbearable that she let out a scream that sounded more like a continuous, heartbreaking sob. When that outburst ceased and she looked around her she realized that something was wrong. With a second glance at her surroundings, she understood that she was not in her bedroom but in an unfamiliar room, which resembled a prison cell.
At the moment of the realization, the door of her cell open and a nurse appeared.
“Good morning, Snow White. I am Nurse Mary and I brought your breakfast.”
“Nurse Mary? Where am I? Who brought me here?” she asked in confusion.
“Don’t you remember? You had a … panic attack yesterday and Doctor Martin and your mother checked you in.”
“Doctor Martin and…”, her voice fainted as she realized how the nurse had called the woman responsible for her ruined life and she screamed: “She is not my mother,” she yelled, “SHE IS NOT MY MOTHER!!!”
*
After the nurse managed to make her patient eat and take her medicine, Snow White was taking a nap when a sudden noise woke her up. As she opened he eyes, she saw a handsome, fit and tall young man with black hair and blue eyes watching her. It was like she saw an angel and she instantly fell in love with him.
“Who are you?” she asked shyly.
“My name is Prince. I know that this is not a good time due to your father’s loss, but there was something that I wanted to ask him and I didn’t get the chance to,” he replied with his deep, masculine but melodic voice.
“What is it?”
“I saw you a few days ago at the market place with your father and I thought that you were the most beautiful girl on earth. To be honest, I felt like the god of love had thrown one of his magic arrows at me and the desire for you made my heart ache. At that moment, the only thing that I could think about was you. Nothing else could stay on my mind but your lovely looking eyes. What I am here to ask from you, as I can’t ask your father, is if you would do me the extremely great honor of becoming my wife.”
Snow White was astonished by the statement of the young man but she was also blissful, because it was a love from the first sight that brought the happiness back to her life.
“Oh my God! Yes, my beautiful Prince, I will proudly be your wife,” she responded not believing the surprising turn that her life had taken. “But my Prince I would like to ask you something and I want your answer to be truthful without worrying that I may change my mind,” she resolutely said.
“Anything, my soon to be faithful wife.”
“Who do you truly believe that is the fairest of them all?”
“Snow White,” he immediately responded and by kissing her hand he continued “you, my princess, are the fairest of them all.”
*
“I would like to see Dr. Martin immediately please,” said Queen abruptly to the first nurse she saw in front of her.
“His office is the last one in the corridor right,” the nurse replied politely.
“Hello,” Queen said as she went in the office and greeted the doctor.
“Hello, Queen. I’m glad you made it. We have to talk about Snow White,” he said as more officially as he could.
“Of course, doctor. I have to tell you that I am really concerned about her. As I went to visit her before coming to your office, I quietly opened her door, because I thought that she might be sleeping and I saw her talking lively and kissing a mirror. Tell me the truth doctor what is wrong with her?” said Queen desperately.
“Snow White has schizophrenia. That is a mental disorder and some of its main symptoms are hallucinations, delusions and disorganized speech—” he paused so that to provide a little time for Queen to absorb the tragic news and continued in a less doctor-like way:
“When you called me before John’s death to come and examine her, after I calmed her down she told me that she was screaming and hurting herself because a huge spider was wondering all over her body. I knew that that was just a hallucination, as it would be impossible for the rest of us not to be able to see as well such a big and awful creature as a spider.”
Queen started sobbing in her seat while listening to the unfortunate health state of the girl that she thought of being her own child.
“Can that disease be cured?” she asked in great agony.
“The medication that we give her can dramatically affect her situation but just that is not enough. She will need somebody to take care of her so that she can be brought to the hospital whenever it is needed and also to make sure that she joins some support groups in order to continue to be a member of the civilized society.”
“I will look after her and I will try to make her life as easy and enjoyable as I can, just like her father would do,” Queen said without a shadow of a doubt.
*
The two women returned home and Queen did everything she could so that Snow White can have a normal life despite of her disorder. They were going for a walk every day, they attended most of the culture relating events of their town and Queen learned Snow White how to play piano. However, there were times that Queen thought that she could not keep helping Snow White, as some of her outbursts were becoming dangerous and detrimental not only for herself, but also for the people around her. It was the servants who always facilitated her whenever she thought that she could not make it on her own any longer and they encouraged her to continue the good work. The people in the house were now a big family all together with no distinctions of ladies and servants.
Queen wanting to transform Snow White from a sick little girl to an independent young woman persuaded the owner of the haberdashery, in which she was the best customer, to hire her as his assistant. Snow White was always punctual, sociable and polite with the customers and because the owner understood that she was clever and good at mathematics he assigned her the job of the cashier.
There she met Peter, a young man with black hair and brown eyes, who was working at a factory. He was not the most beautiful man on earth due to his weirdly shaped nose and the injury that he had at his feet, which caused him to walk with a limp but he had a gentle heart and great sense of humor. They had seen each other a couple times at the street and when one day Peter came at the haberdashery they introduced and they decided to go out. It was not love at first sight, but after getting to know each other they soon fell in love.
After one year of dating, they married and Snow White gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl. She decided to give her the name Queen. And they lived happily ever after.
~The End~
By Panagiota X.
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