SnowWhite and RoseRed - 3 of 3

Later that afternoon, cherry and Bianca were indulging themselves with a drive in the countryside surrounding their college town. They delighted in fields of Mamas with their babies; cows and calves, ewes and lambs, mares and foals. Just before they turned back towards campus, they came upon a tiny, dilapidated, rusted VW bug in a soft spot on the shoulder of the dirt road they were traveling.

A stocky, scruffy man was feverishly attempting to push the bug out of the Spring mud alone. Cherry pulled their car over and the sisters got out to help.

“I don’t need help from the likes of you!” spat the little man.

“Of course you do!” Cherry insisted with a smile.

Bianca stuck her head in the driver’s window to make sure it was in neutral and blinked once at the sun glinting on a Blackberry sitting on the passenger seat. Cherry and Bianca pushed with all their might while the mud-splattered man jumped up and down waving his arms and yelling at them not to help. When the car was clear of the mud, he sloshed over to it, squelched in and drove away flicking mud all over as he sped away.

With a shrug and a hug, the girls re-entered their own car and continued home with a clear conscience.

Not even a week later, the girls encountered their hapless acquaintance again as they strolled across a park in the ever warming weather. They hummed along with the jewelry box tune the carousel was playing as they neared. What met their eyes, however, made them drop their ice cream cones and run for the carousel. Their cranky friend was yelling croakily as he was dragged around the well-worn circle of compressed dirt around the carousel. The operator was frantically punching buttons on the panel in front of her as Cherry and Bianca jumped on the whirling ride. Bianca grabbed the writhing man around the waist and tried to pull him up onto the platform while Cherry was attempting to unhook his belt buckle from the bolt it was caught on just under the lip of the platform. Once free, the man grabbed a laptop case form the platform at the girls’ feet and took off running across the park shaking his fist at them.

Clear conscience or not, it was ungratifying work saving this particular ruffian.
Peter was a taboo subject as the weather continued to warm and the girls toed the line between summer jobs and a class or two here and there.

Bianca was reading a novel as she walked, determined to finis the last four pages before her shift at the shoe store started three blocks and twenty minutes away. She stopped walking at the corner to wait for the light to turn green. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a distracted couple on a moped chatting over the driver’s shoulder to each other. As she turned her head back to her book, her hand shot out and grabbed the back of the shirt of a man to pull him back onto the curb just as the moped cut the curve and sped around the corner.

“Don’t touch me! How dare… YOU?!” the last word ejaculated forth with such vehemence as Bianca’s heart fell to her knees at the sight of the dirty little man too oft spared by her. “Don’t… you… touch…”

Bianca’s eyes closed and her hands flew up to protect her face as fist collided with jaw. Bianca gasped sharply as she parted her fingers and gaped at the short form crumpled on the sidewalk at her feet.

“Peter!” Bianca’s hands went from her fact to around her hero’s neck.
Peter picked her up around the waist and swung her in a circle. “He’s been blackmailing me and stealing from my father’s company and blocking me from my family’s accounts. I’m… well, I’m actually very… my family owns several large factories here and overseas, Bianca. This bloke here,” Peter jabbed the unconscious man with his toe, “stumbled upon my Blackberry while cleaning my office in my Father’s building here in town. He stole my identity and changed my pin numbers to cut me off and has been threatening my family. The police couldn’t catch him and now here you are saving his neck!” His jolly laugh filled Bianca with joy. The police appeared out of nowhere and handcuffed the awakening double crosser. Peter slipped his hand in hers and they walked off into the sunset.

Now that you have read my version, read HERE the version of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.