Chapter 10

It had been pouring the whole day. Snow liked the rain, but she was trying to finish her syllabus for her examinations.

Someone was at the door. She spoke through the microphone.

“Who is it? How can I help you?”

“Oh dearie, my name is Aphrodite. Wouldn’t you take a look at these new Apple products?”

It was a saleslady from Apple.

Snow went outside and opened the door. Snowy followed behind her and played around her ankles in its programmed cute-irritating way. The saleslady had a brochure of Apple products to show and was giving a sample product. Snow accepted the free iPod, closed the door and went inside.

She decided to take a break from her studies and check it out. She connected the iPod to the computer terminal she was working on. That was her first big mistake. Actually, deciding to use the main computer terminal on the network responsible for the maintenance of the house was the first big mistake. But it would have taken too much trouble to switch to another computer when this one was free.

A virus that Aphrodite, aka Artemis (she was wearing MaskUp virtual make up mask – it made her ‘virtually’ unrecognisable), had placed in the iPod transferred itself to the LAN and short-circuited the entire house.

Snow swore under her breath. “Why just now? Why did the electricity have to go right now?”

She wondered why the power back-ups weren’t working. She went inside the kitchen to look for a solar-powered flashlight.

Usually, given that it was still day, she shouldn’t have required the light. But it was dark outside, what with the heavy rainclouds that were leaking.

Artemis hadn’t gone away. She had decided to stay and make sure that Snow died.

She knew that Snow would go and look for the flashlights. She had made sure that she wouldn’t find them. In their place, she had kept a pile of deadly touch-sensitive heat bombs. One touch in the touch-sensitive area would release a deadly heat wave.

She could easily have handed Snow these bombs on her doorstep. It would have finished the task faster too. The only problem was that the video camera would record everything.

Snow entered the kitchen, groping in the dark. She felt above her head for the shelf with the flashlights. She couldn’t find it. She raised herself on her toes and got hold of one.

Snowy decided just then to barge into her feet.
Snow tripped and fell on the floor and hit her head.
The flashlight flew out of her hand, out of the window and towards Artemis.
Snow had got to her feet, when warm, liquid chocolate came flooding down on her.

If the bomb had been in Snow’s hands, it would have disintegrated her basic elements. Since it was not; it was near Artemis, it was her evil step-mother who faced the heat wave. Needless to say, she didn’t remain alive.

But the bomb also melted a whole portion of the house.

***

When Hansel and Gretel returned, they were not too pleased to find the house half-molten. In all their years, they had never done anything as much as Snow seemed to have done in a month.

Talking of Snow, she wasn’t in sight. What was, however, was a chocolate statue of Snow.

It did seem like a crude joke.

Here you do everything you can to save a girl from her murderous step-mother, and here she rewards you by melting down half your house. They could totally sympathise with Prince Charming at that point.

His wife of a few weeks had left him in favour of someone called Pied Piper. Pied Piper indeed!
Tch, tch, such low-class tastes. Prince Charming was too good for her tastes after all.
They had invited him over to their house to meet Snow. Too bad that she had upped and left as well. That’s what came of rubbing shoulders with the working class.
But they couldn’t exactly tell him not to come now. So what if Snow wasn’t here, they could provide him with company. Weren’t they friends, after all?

And so, he came. He came resplendent in his drop-dead gorgeous looks, that winning smile and that dashing personality.
He was a little curious to see the house looking so … dead.
One part of the house remained almost entirely dark.

When he came up the path, he saw that that part was just debris. He took in his breath a little sharply. He wondered what had happened that had caused this destruction. It looked like the house had caught fire.

But, there in the middle of the mess, stood a statue. The light from the rest of the house shone off its chocolate surface. But there was no denying it, there was a statue of a girl in the middle of the destruction. He went off the path and made his way towards the erstwhile kitchen.

He was struck by the beauty of the statue. The features of the face were not visible. But the statue was most definitely of a girl. Her head was lifted up towards the sky, a long arm was raised, as if trying to protect the face from something. A longish column fell on her back, which could only be her hair. Charming touched the statue’s face. It seemed a little warm.

He touched the hand. The fingers seemed to tighten around his.

He touched the neck. He could most certainly feel a pulse.

Charming was a little taken aback. He broke off a piece of chocolate. He broke off some more. And some more. He held the arm and tried to move it. He lowered the arm. With a crack and a splinter, the arm came down. There were patches of bare skin on the arm.

He broke away more chocolate. He used both his hands. His movements were more and more frenzied now. A chip off the body. A piece off the legs. A chunk off the arms. A segment off the waist.

And then, the statue came alive.

Its arms moved up and down, removing chocolate. Its hands moved faster and faster. It bent down, working on its legs, trying to free its legs. It worked on its face, removing chocolate from its eyes, its nose. Prince Charming was just watching now. He was watching it work.

And then, he edged closer, held Snow, and kissed.

A lot of time later, all he remembered of that kiss was that it had tasted of chocolate.