Black as Night: A Fairy Tale Retold (50 page)

“Did you hear what I said to you?” he asked, his words muffled by her hair.

“I did.”

“I meant it,” he said. “I meant every last word. I—”

“I know,” she pressed her cheek against his. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Her voice was husky. “I love you.”

Now that he knew she was aware, and knew he loved her, and she loved him, he put his hands on her face and kissed her once more. It was only then that they heard and realized that they had an audience.

Bear looked over his shoulders to see the uncommon and extraordinary sight of seven friars minor, young, and old, rejoicing wholeheartedly in a manner that could only be called exuberant in the extreme. He had never seen a bearded friar in full habit dancing, but several of them were, shouting and cavorting and hi-fiving one another. He could have sworn he heard someone doing a rap beat.

He looked back down at Blanche in his arms, and saw her white cheeks blush deep red, but she couldn’t keep the smile from her face.

A Little Bit About This Book:

For some time, I had wanted to do a retelling of the over-familiar tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  This famous Grimm’s tale, made more famous by the splendid landmark film by Disney, has all the marks of a folk allegory of the Fall, with the heroine representing the baptized Christian soul, the villainess her demonic counterpart, and the prince as Christ, the savior from the sleep of death.  And the seven little men can be thought to represent any number of seven sacred things: the seven virtues, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven sacraments…the number is clearly not accidental. 

I was fascinated by the repetition throughout the tale of the colors red, white, and black to represent the heroine.  As I worked and reworked the story, which underwent a full fourteen major plot changes, I tried to use images of many things that are black, white, and red, like playing cards, chess games, and tapestries.  In the end I assigned each of the three temptations of Snow White (variously interpreted as temptations of the flesh, mind, and soul) one of the three colors, and matched them with three (twisted) versions of womanhood that the mortal woman must reject.

The book turned out to have a great deal to say about vocations and life paths, which I hadn’t expected. Making the “seven little men” into seven “friars minor” was one character choice that paid off quite well.  And I enjoyed the chance to get inside Bear’s head, and flesh out the characters of Mrs. Foster, Jean, Rose, and especially Fish a little further. 

On a lighter note, I tried to pay homage to the Disney Snow White film in various subtle (and not so subtle) ways. The rambunctious and physical slapstick of the friars owes a lot to the famous Disney dwarves, and although there is no one-to-one correspondence, readers will doubtless see some similarities between the eventually heroic Grumpy and the surly Brother George, as well as between lovable Dopey and the short, (relatively) beardless, outrageous (but hardly mute) Brother Leon.  To answer queries some have made, many of the friars are based on composites of actual friars I knew while living in New York City, where I was a lay volunteer with the Community of the Friars of the Renewal.  Of course, I took liberal poetic license with their original characters when writing the book.  I’ve written two reflections about the writing of this book, both of which can be found on the book’s website,
www.blackasnight.com
.

Many people helped make this book into what it is through contributing their information and expertise on certain topics. I want to particularly thank:

Ed Childress from the Washington branch of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Liz Jordan from the New York Branch for information on agency procedure.

Captain Schiro, Captain Stephen Marchi, Sergeant Mark Werner, and Chief Dispatcher Jamie of the Front Royal, Virginia police department for their help with police procedure questions and fact checks.

For location details, Sharon Perry, Airport Airspace Analysis Specialist, of the Federal Aviation Administration and Marie Riseman of the Public Relations Department at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

 Ted Bowen from the Metro North Customer Service, for his helpful descriptions of New York trains and train tunnels and his enthusiasm.

Ellen Borakove, director of Public Affairs for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office for explaining their procedures to me.

For information about medical matters, I am indebted to my friend Ceril Khoury, pharmacist, for her advice on drugs and comas; also to Sharon Jones, ER nurse at Warren Memorial Hospital for information on medical procedures. Also to Dr. Frank, for his extremely useful information on almost all of the above.

Numerous thanks goes to my “violence experts”–Andrew O’Neill and Benjamin Hatke, for their equally numerous fact checks. Also I am in debt to my friend Jason Manak, judo practitioner and computer animator, who was invaluable in helping me “choreograph” the fight scenes, since I still would have not the least idea of what to do if confronted with a villain in a dark tunnel, or a villainess with a semi-automatic.

For language help, I want to thank Maria Hambric, Joseph Meaney, and Mariangelis Burger for translations into Spanish, my aunts Charlotte Corrigan and Pamela Spinelli for phrases in Italian, and Geoffrey Douglas and Nicole Hamilton for Jamaican translations  (And my brother David, who put me in contact with the last two).

I wish to thank Fr. Glenn Sudano, Community of the Franciscans of the Renewal, Fr. Peter Giroux of the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, Fr. Bernard Murphy, CFR, and Brother Shawn O’Connor, CFR, for their insights into religious life.

And thanks to attorney Stephen Jerome and his lovely wife Kristin for help with final legal details.

Special thanks to:

Marie Meaney for proofreading and critique, poetic advice, and refreshing my information on Santa Cecilia with postcards from Rome.

Ben and Anna Hatke for babysitting help, Italian phrases, discussions, and proofreading.

Stratford Caldecott for some poetic advice and encouragement.

Barbara Nicholosi for mentioning Emily Dickinson at precisely the right moment.

Alan Gordon, New York lawyer and mystery novelist, for his important legal advice on several questions.

Sonia Tate Cousins, Esq., for referring me to Alan Gordon.

My wonderful aunt and attorney Pamela Spinelli, who not only gave me advice on Italian and legal help, but also searched out lawyers in the precise area of law that I needed to consult. Thanks so much Aunt Pam!

Having acknowledged the contributions of all of the above, I want to claim any factual or informational errors in the book as my own, as many times I extrapolated from data that was provided to me for the purpose of the plot.

For babysitting and tutoring my children on various occasions during the long process of this book, I want to thank Mary Accetullo, Erica Zepeda, Jaimie Berger, Anna Hatke, Christin McCaffrey and Jamie Dresch.

My friends Ben and Anna Hatke, Andy and Heather O’Neill, Nick Marmalejo, and my brothers and sisters all helped me work through various snarls and problems in the plot.

A most particular thanks to my “emergency Jamies,” Jaime Berger and Jamie Dresch, for the late-night phone calls and endless debates over tea at times when I had written myself into a corner and had no idea what to do next. And also Mandy Hains and Katie von Shaijik.

Albert Zuckerman, for his very useful book
Writing the Blockbuster Novel
. Not that this will be one, necessarily, but his book was able to explain to me when others couldn’t, just what was wrong with my manuscript.

I also want to thank those who willingly read the manuscript in its various incarnations, including my mother Michele Doman, Mary and Karim Accetullo, Joe Sharpe, Alicia Van Hecke, Eileen Cummings, Elizabeth McShurley, Christine Dalessio, and my family members Jennifer Doman, Mike Schmiedicke, Gretchen Nelson, Matthew Schmiedicke, and John Doman.

And last but not least, for all those who attended my reading of the final draft over the course of two weeks, including Anna Hatke, Joseph and Marie Meaney, Kathleen Blum, Sophia Cuddeback, Jamie Dresch, Linda Antunes, Lewis Kappell, Dr. Patrick Keats of Christendom College, students Julia Peterson, Amy Raab, Elizabeth Stephens, Rita Traugott, Elizabeth Black, Emma Fritcher, and Emily Griswold, Ben Bielinski, Adrienne Smith, and Mary Akers. Also Sharon Higby for announcing it to her classes, even though she couldn’t attend.

Great thanks must go to my editors and dare I say, friends and kindred spirits: Jean Ann Sharpe, Peter Sharpe, Lydia Reynolds, and the others in the Bethlehem Community who gave me the primary support I needed to finish this book and who published the original edition. Not to mention Francis Philips, who helped me along the home stretch.

As always, a deep debt of gratitude goes to my husband Andrew, who worked with me on this project 24/7 on several occasions to see it done. And my children, Caleb, Rose, Marygrace, Joshua, and baby Thomas, who were very understanding with a constantly-occupied mommy.

And for all the fans who wrote to me to ask about the progress of the book, and who promised their prayers to see it through–thank you. This is the result of your prayers. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly.

For this second edition of the book, I want to additionally thank my daughter Joan for her patience with Mommy, and for my son Joshua, who now, I know, prays for me from heaven.  I want to thank my friend Joan Coppa Drennen, who created the lovely chapter headings. And I must especially thank my husband Andrew, my “secret weapon,” who spent much time trimming fat from the book, which had swelled disproportionately in the final days of writing the first edition.  I hope this makes for a slimmer, trimmer story that moves more quickly and is more satisfying in the end.

For the 2009 cover makeover, I am indebted to my friends Veronica Randolph, who posed for the cover, to Craig Spiering, who took the new photo, and Theodore Schleunderfritz, who made the whole thing look beautiful. Also grateful thanks to Patrick Rose who stepped in at the last minute as the model for Bear on the back cover, and to Katherine and Elizabeth Sartor who helped me find him.

Regina Doman

Shirefeld, Strasburg, Virginia

2009

About the Author

Regina Doman lives near Front Royal, Virginia with her husband and their five children.

More information about her Fairy Tale Novel series can be found at
www.fairytalenovels.com
.  Regina always welcomes email, feedback, and questions from readers.

Table of Contents

1. A girl as white as snow and red as blood with hair as black as night...

2. 'My name is Snow White,' she said. 'How have you come to our house?' they asked.

3. They gave her permission to stay and keep herself hidden from the queen.

4. So Snow White remained in the house of the seven little men and kept house for them.

5. So during the day, the girl cleaned the house for them while the little men went about their work.

6. And the mirror answered the queen, 'Alas, Snow White is more fair than thee.'

7. When the queen heard this, she turned yellow and green with jealousy, and her heart had no rest, so deeply did she hate the girl. And so she plotted.