Starring Wicked Queen Squippache, Snow Waz, and the 7 Dweebs.  And, introducing for the first time in decades, the return of  Mirror! Mirror! On the Wall (as himself).

Featuring Sleazy, Slumpy, Dumb (as a rock) Doc, Dumber, Gumpy (who loves shrimp), Bonehead, and Dumpy - also known as the Seven Dweebs.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

The carriage jumped and rocked as it made its way down the long path that lead away from the 7 Dweebs Inn.  The ride would not have been so bad, except for the other passengers and prisoners inside.

Straight across from Snow sat a vile pirate-type.  His one good hand clutched a walking stick that he was pointing at the Sheriff who was sitting next to Snow.  The cane waved wildly and Snow was almost hit by it a couple of times.  

Next to the pirate sat a quiet mouse - a rather big, but quietly thin, mouse - who busied himself with the racing pages of the Daily Squawk.  Snow had not  seen a newspaper in such a long time and would have asked for the "Latest Styles" pages, but was too nervous to begin talking to anyone.  Occasionally, the mouse would look up from his paper and look over the top of his yellow-colored glasses.  Snow played the old cat and mouse game with him.  She tried to catch him looking at her, but he was always quick to look away or back down at the paper before he and Snow made actual eye contact.  Still, she knew he was looking at her from time-to-time.  More of a curiosity, she had decided, than anything to concern herself with.

A spider that seemed harmless enough busily weaved in the corner of the carriage not far from the pirate's head.  The long feather sticking out from the pirate's hat waved too close to the web for the spider's comfort.  She was getting pretty hungry (having been in the carriage for some time) and was doing her best to lure the fly who was buzzing around the mouse's ears into her trap.  Every time the fly headed for the web, that pirate would move his head, then the feather would move and that would scare the fly.

Snow had not looked at the Sheriff who was sitting next to her, except a quick glance when she first was shoved into the carriage by the mean guard.  Since then, she had been pre-occupied with watching the pirate, mouse, spider and fly.  Now that things were getting familiar she looked at the man sitting next to her.

The first thing she noticed was the badge.  Well, that's not true, the first thing she noticed was that the man behind the badge was quite handsome and wore a meticulous uniform of cobalt blue with  navy buttons over sky-blue and baby-blue sashes.  She noticed, actually, that he wasn't really handsome as much as he was pretty.  Which, of course, was the same time that she noticed that the badge was pinned to the left breast pocket of a woman - a very pretty, tall, redhead with light brown eyes and a dark complexion that showed faint signs of millions of freckles that sparkled from her cheeks like brown sugar sprinkled into a hot, lightly greased skillet.  Under a charming white cashmere Boatman's hat lay dark brown hair, cropped from the shoulders.  A pure white strip of hair cropped out from under the hat and hung in front of her left ear.  Snow guessed that the hair was probably not cut the same way on the Sheriff's right side.  Interesting, Snow thought to herself, striping hair like that.  Gotta try it someday.  She made a mental note to do just that.

"Wow!" Snow said to the Sheriff of Squippache.  "You are beautiful!"

The pirate snorted an obscenity and shook his cane between the two of them.  

The sheriff had had enough.  She grabbed the cane with the speed of a striking viper and it flashed out of existence.  No pixy dust wafting down to the carriage floor.  No flash of light - or smoke.  It was just gone.  

Snow was immediately impressed, of course.  She knew right away that the Sheriff probably could have just snapped her finger and that dirty old cane would have disappeared.  However, it was more dramatic for her to touch the cane as a sign of her power.

Snow liked power - but, it scared her.  She liked the Sheriff right away.  But, for some reason, the Sheriff scared her.

The Sheriff snarled at the pirate who returned to the business of licking his wounded spirit, then she looked over at Snow.

The snarl had been replaced by a sweet smile that reminded her of Twinkle.

"Well, Snow Waz," she said, "Thank you for that kind compliment.  I am Sheriff Sadie, at your service.  I will be escorting you back to the Queen."

Snow extended her hand to Sheriff Sadie.  Sadie extended one hand, delicately placing it under Snow's hand, then she placed her other hand on top so that she had a soft grip on Snow's hand.

Sheriff Sadie smiled at Snow.  It was a warm, yet sinister smile.  No, it wasn't sinister, Snow thought.  More like suspicious.  Or was it sly - or coy.  It might have been an aggressive smile.  No, she decided, it was a condescending smile, as if to say, I have the great Snow Waz.  That couldn't be, Snow thought, her hands are so warm and soft.  Surely, she was just smiling - that's all it was, a smile.  For the briefest moment, however, Snow was afraid to look at her hand, in fear that it had just disappeared like the pirate's cane.

Whew!  It was still there.  No matter what else she might have thought about the Sheriff of Squippache, she was thankful to still have both hands.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question, Sheriff?"

"Go ahead, dear."

"Well, I noticed your nails when you grabbed that cane.  Where do you get them done?"  

Sheriff Sadie offered both hands, turning them so that her nails showed for Snow's inspection.  The nails were painted red, but had white designs on the corner of each nail.

"Those are butterflies!" Snow said, with joyful surprise.

The Sheriff just smiled, again.  This was definitely a different smile than the previous smile, Snow thought.  No, it must have been the same............  Well, never mind.

Now Sheriff Sadie was the one getting nervous.  Twice now, since this remarkable "legend" had been captured and placed into her custody, Snow had either complemented her about her looks or had gone on about the butterfly drawings on her nails.  If anyone should be complimenting anyone else, it should be her going on about Snow Waz.  After all, Snow Waz was reported to have been the fairest of them all.  Now, here the two sat, Sadie a meager public official sitting right next to the fairest of them all.  And, now that she took a long look at Snow, sitting there so gorgeous in those wild genes and that t-shirt - her hair as golden as the setting sun and her blue eyes both deep and shallow at the same time - she had to say something to Snow.

"You are the fairest of them all!" was what came out.  It embarrassed her that that was all she could come up with - "the fairest of them all," she derided herself.  "What an idiot, Sheriff Sadie.  Say something else - anything."

Mousey look out over his glasses and stared at the Sheriff as if to say, "Ok, where do you go from here?"

Sheriff Sadie tried to shake off the intimidation.  Before she could think, however, her natural instincts kicked in.

"You are the fairest of them all," she repeated.  "And, you are under arrest."

"Okay." Snow answered. "And, thank you."

Snow and the Sheriff returned to watching the freak show across from them.  Sheriff Sadie, however, couldn't get over how she had fumbled with her words.  She just wouldn't let things like that go.  It would probably eat at her for days.  

Snow, on the other hand, couldn't help but imagine that, if Mirror! Mirror! had a good look at Sheriff Sadie out of uniform and dressed in a fairy tale-like gown, he might reconsider his last pronouncement.  

Still, as Mirror! Mirror! had taught for so many years, beauty is more than skin deep to a Mirror!.  A real Mirror! can see all the way to the heart.  Snow wondered if there was something wrong with Sheriff Sadie on the inside - something she couldn't see.  But, that sounded condescending - what right do I have, thought Snow, to think that I have everything there is to be "the fairest of them all?"  I wouldn't want to call Mirror! Mirror! a liar, but I think I should get the chance to go before him again.  Maybe, now that I have had this time away to think about life, its good and bad sides, it's ups and downs - now that I have spent time in the dark side of the forest, perhaps I could appeal to the Mirror! to reconsider his pronouncement.  I have seen some pretty dark sides of my heart.  I don't think that I truly am the fairest of them all - not anymore.

So, Snow's thoughts were more intense than the Sheriff's.  Maybe, that's why she was the fairest of them all and Sheriff Sadie - wasn't.

The intentions of the spider were more powerful than the fly's likelihood of dying before getting caught in the web, so she weaved her way across the back of the carriage, careful to not get too close to the Pirate's fur-rimmed bonnet as she started a new web above the head of the oversized, yet thin, mouse.  Her new trap was, she thought, guaranteed to catch her intended.  Of course, as a spider, she was aptly innocent looking and, indeed, appeared to be a bit flirtatious toward the poor slob about to get glued.  

For every fly caught in a web, there was a spider with intentions.  Every one in the Squippache Kingdom knew that.  They just wouldn't tell the flies.

Snow watched as the web was weaved and worried over whether the fly would wind up wounded, or worse.  She heard the sound of a whistle while she was waiting.  Where is that sound coming from, she wondered.  She looked to her left and there she saw who was whistling.

"Winkle!" she gasped.  I mean, "Twinkle!" she gasped.

-----to be continued-----

end of Chapter EIGHT (click here to go to Chapter NINE)- if link is not active, the chapter is not yet ready.  Check back later, please.

Please let me know if you have read (and enjoyed) this chapter by sending me a quick email to:  ehylandmaze@aol.com

bless you.....................................Eugene H. Maze

This chapter and all chapters related to this website book entitled "Other Shorts" (copyright 1995, 2005) was written and published by Eugene H. Maze.  No portion of this book may be copied, sold or distributed either by electronic or other means in any fashion whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author.  Permission for distribution may be obtained by contacting the author at ehylandmaze@aol.com.  Links to this and all previous and subsequent pages of this book entitled "Other Shorts" may be distributed freely without permission.

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