For Caitlin
We all know the story of Snow White and the seven dwarves — evil stepmother, poisoned apple, handsome prince, happily ever after. But you probably don't know the story of the other Snow White, from a couple of kingdoms over. She looked the same — dark hair, pale skin, red lips. The two kings were cousins, and they didn't have much imagination, so they just used the same name.
In this other kingdom, if a king's daughter was not married by the time she was 18, she had to go on a vision quest, a solo trip out into the wilderness to figure out what to do with her life.
A lot of princes came to court Snow White, but none of them did much for her. If they were strong and handsome, they were dumb as a stump. If they were smart, they were clumsy or misshapen. The artistic ones didn't know how to cook, and the cooks could not hold up a conversation.
So when she turned eighteen, her father set her up for the vision quest, dressing her in a white and gold traveling dress, brocade vest, and feathery hat, with plenty of food and drink. She rode off on her favorite horse, cheered by the city's crowds.
She let her horse choose his own path. After a few days of riding, she was feeling grimy and sweaty and bored, so she stopped by a lake to take a swim. She unsaddled the horse and gave him some hay. Then she took off her hat, her vest, traveling dress, and boots and neatly stacked them on the saddle. She started to run toward the water, then decided that she did not want to get her silk camisole wet, even though taking it off meant that she would be naked. She looked around to make sure nobody was looking, slipped it off, and added it to the pile of clothes.
The frigid water instantly gave her goose bumps and stiff nipples, but a few minutes of swimming warmed her up. When she felt clean and refreshed, she lay down on the soft grass in a sunny spot among the trees. The warmth lulled her to sleep, till a sudden breeze woke her up. She realized that the sun had shifted, so she was now in shade. She stretched, jumped up, and rubbed her arms to warm up, then went to get dressed.
As she put on the camisole and was reaching for the dress, something struck her as strange. It seemed very quiet. She looked around and discovered with a start that her horse was gone.
She quickly pulled on her dress and started searching, but the horse was nowhere to be seen. After several minutes, she sat down on the saddle and cried. What would she do now? If she went back home, she would be humiliated. She had no way of knowing where the horse had gone, nor did she know where she should go.
After a few minutes of crying, she decided that doing something was better than doing nothing, so she finished buttoning the dress, and pulled on her boots, her vest, and her hat. She rearranged the food and water as best she could for carrying and started walking toward the sun.
After one day, her feet were hurting her a lot, so she took off her boots. It took a little time to get used to walking barefoot, but she soon began to enjoy it.
The next day, she decided the brocade vest was too heavy and too hot, so she threw that along the side of the path.
On the third day, it was too hot for the dress, so she left it where she had slept and headed out in nothing but her silk camisole and feathered hat.
On the fourth day, when she had run out of food and water, she came to a shack in the woods with a big rocking chair on the porch. She was too exhausted to move any farther, so she sat in the chair and fell asleep.
"Here, have some water," a gentle voice said in her sleep. Then she felt herself rocking, and the same voice said, "Take a drink."
She opened her eyes and saw a nice-looking man standing over her, holding a canteen. She took a couple sips from the canteen, and he gently stroked her head with a wet cloth. As she began to revive, she realized that he was naked. "Oh," she said in surprise. "You're ..."
"I'm Bob," he said. "I live here with my brothers."
She took another sip from his canteen and tried again to comment on his nakedness. "But you're . . ."
"I'm a teacher. I like to fill people's minds with ideas."
"Oh, how do you do that?" she asked, for she had been taught to inquire politely when people started talking about their lives.
"Sometimes, I give lectures. Sometimes, I lead discussions about books the students have read. And sometimes," he said with a laugh, "I teach them by pouring ideas directly into their minds."
"Is that what this is for?" She touched his member, for that is what she had been taught to call it.
He looked a bit startled, and his voice sounded slightly strangled when he said, "That's one way."