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by Susan Anne Santo
Rating: PG-13
Loosely based on “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen

Copyright 2024 by Susan A. Santo

The little demon was playing carelessly with the Snow Queen’s magic mirror when he dropped it; it shattered into a million pieces. The pieces went scattering in the breeze across the world. One of them landed in Ken’s left eye as he sat outside in his flower garden with Barbie. He blinked as his eye smarted. Then it felt all right. But the scene before him had changed. Once what before was a glorious vision of blossoming flowers now appeared half wilted and tawdry. “How ugly everything is!” he exclaimed. He looked at Barbie. She had been living with him and helping him recover from his gunshot wound to the chest (see “The Story of Ken”). They were not yet married but they had been sleeping together and he had thought her the loveliest girl in the world. Now she looked tired and worn. Her long blond hair looked stripped of color. “Your hair looks awful. Why don’t you cut it?”

Tears stung her eyes. “What’s the matter with you, Ken?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I’m going inside.” He went in by himself.

 After awhile she followed. She found a pair of scissors, looked in a mirror, and clipped her hair. Her heart hurt as she heard the scissors cutting off her long beautiful locks. Then she made Ken his favorite dinner: roast beef with delicious brown gravy and mashed potatoes and zucchini and carrots. He didn’t say a word as she served it to him, just stared at her. “Do you like my hair?” she said.

“It’s fine,” he said.  “You can’t even cook very well any more, can you?”

 Afterwards she did the dishes. She found him in bed, the covers pulled up to his chin, lying on his side. When she touched him he flinched and pulled away. They lay apart. Finally she fell asleep.

Ken got up and looked out the living room window. It was snowing heavily. Ken had never seen snow before. He only knew it from his children’s storybooks that Barbie had bought him to improve his reading. For a long time he watched the scene, enchanted. The window was growing colder and colder. When he touched it he almost froze his hand. He got dressed, flung on his light blue jacket, and went outside. The snow went up to his knees. He walked down the street in awe looking at the snow-covered street around him. Everything was dusted in snow and shone in the streetlights of the night like fairyland. He heard the sound of tiny hoofs. He looked down the street to see four reindeer dragging an enormous sleigh, with bells on their necks.

Riding in the sleigh was the most beautiful woman Ken had ever seen. She had thick long black hair, ruby red lips, an incredible figure clothed in a long white gown, and an ivory complexion. When she saw Ken she stopped the sleigh. “Come into my sleigh. You look cold.  I will keep you warm.” He did not wait for another invitation but eagerly got in. She wiped off his snow-covered legs and feet and put a pair of fur-lined boots on him.  She put blankets around him and wrapped him up tightly. As she held the reins she jiggled them and the reindeer began to move forward again. The snow whirled around them in the wind.

“Who are you?” Ken asked. He felt he should know. Her beauty was so magnificent it stabbed him.

“I’m your destiny. I’m the Snow Queen.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth.

When she did so he felt a fierce pain in his heart and a deep icy cold. She kissed him again and the feeling intensified. Yet a third time and he felt the worst pain he had ever felt. He forgot about Barbie and everything he had ever known. All he knew was the beautiful woman at his side. She grasped hold of his white still hand and they rode off together.

Barbie woke up the next morning and lay there in the stillness. When she reached out her hand she found Ken wasn’t there. She got up, went into the living room, and looked out the window. She gasped as she saw the enormous white wonderland. It wasn’t snowing any more but there was snow everywhere. She noticed Ken’s jacket was missing from the closet and knew he had gone outside. Barbie flung on a light wrap, which was all she had, and went out after him. She found the tracks of the deer’s tiny feet in the snow. “Well, Barbie, what are you going to do now?” she said to herself. There was only one thing to do. She followed the tracks out of the town. She had walked for seemingly miles when she came to a lake. It seemed to be frozen solid. Carefully treading so she would not slip and fall Barbie walked across the lake. The day was still; not a bird sang. Suddenly the ice cracked and she fell through into the dark water. She struggled, panicked, and finally managed to swim in the fractured ice to the other side of the lake where she pulled herself onto the bank.

She walked forward several feet and came to a lovely cottage. There were pink roses, Ken’s favorite color, growing dusted with snow and snowdrop flowers. She knocked at the door and a white-haired lady with a sweet face opened it up. “Oh, my little girl,” she exclaimed. “Come in my little girl and I will take care of you.” The lady did not wait for a response. She held out her hand and pulled Barbie inside. She pulled off the girl’s wet clothes, took her to the bathroom, and drew her a hot bubblebath that smelled sweetly of magnolias. She put Barbie inside the tub and washed her gently with a washcloth. She drew the faucet on again and washed Barbie’s poor short hair. Then she drew her out of the tub, dried her with a big fluffy white towel, and dressed her in a yellow nightgown. In the kitchen she made Barbie pancakes with hot maple syrup, crispy bacon, and strawberries.

“This is so delicious,” Barbie said as she ate ravenously. “Why are you being so nice to me? I don’t even know you.”

“You don’t know how lonely I have been,” the woman said in a melodious voice, “and how much I have longed for a little girl like you.”

“I have to go look for Ken tomorrow,” Barbie said. “He’s my sweetheart. He’s disappeared.  I saw the tracks of reindeer and a sled.”

“The Snow Queen has taken him,” the woman said.

“Snow Queen?”

“Yes. No human male can resist her charms. She takes a young man to be her lover for a year and then kills him and takes another one.”

Barbie’s heart constricted. “I have to rescue him.”

“Tomorrow, my love. Tonight you will sleep in a feather bed and dream sweet dreams.” After Barbie finished eating the woman put her to bed. Barbie was exhausted and fell asleep fast. She dreamed of a woman with long dark hair kissing Ken and his forgetting all about Barbie. Tears drenched her cheeks in her dream. The woman went outside and waved a magic wand. The roses that had reminded Barbie of Ken sank beneath the ground. Then she went back inside and watched Barbie sleep. “Be peaceful, my darling,” she sighed.  “Tomorrow you will believe you have lived here with me forever. Ken will be gone from your thoughts.”

Barbie lived with the woman for several months without suspicion. The woman let her sleep late each morning, then they would rise and play card games and arrange flowers – never roses though. One day Barbie woke up early. She went out into the garden. Birds were singing. Snowdrops were blooming among the purple violets and crocuses. “Isn’t it a shame that Barbie doesn’t remember her Ken,” the snowdrops sang. “The time for his death grows closer.” At the sight of her the snowdrops grew still.

“Who is Ken?” Barbie asked. She was suddenly terribly afraid.

 At the sound of her voice the pink roses grew up suddenly out the ground, tall and straight and lovely as ever, sweet-smelling. Barbie remembered. She was wearing a blue dress the shade of her eyes. Snow began to fall lightly.  Barbie ran inside, grabbed a light wrap, and ran away from the house as fast as she could go. The woman had been kind to her but it had been under false pretenses. She would not even say goodbye to her. Finding Ken was now her only mission.

So what had happened to Ken? He had been bewildered and mystified at the sight of the great snow castle in the far north, the domicile of the  Snow Queen. She had taken him inside, pulled aside his furs, taken off his boots, and given him a dish of pink and white ice cream. The pink reminded him faintly of roses but Barbie was still gone from his mind. Then she took him to bed. She drew off his clothes and placed him naked in the bed. She placed herself in there beside him and covered his body with kisses. She stroked the scar where he had been shot and the scar faded. “You are mine,” she said. He slept in the arms of the Snow Queen.

When he woke Ken found himself alone. He explored the castle and found many rooms of elegant furniture but she was in none of them. She had left him more ice cream for breakfast. Apparently frozen food was all he was likely to get here. Finally, tired, he sat down in an enormous library and looked at a book of fairy tales by a writer named Hans Christian Anderson.

Hours later the Snow Queen returned. “I have been having adventures,” she said. “I flew up North on my invisible wings. I found a great sailing ship full of men. I stirred up the North wind and sank the ship. You should have heard their cries. It was magnificent.” He trembled at the sight in his mind. She told him a number of similar horror stories and ended with traveling over the sea with sea birds flying around her, cawing their tales of woe. “Do you like being here with me?”

“I want to go home,” Ken said. He vaguely remembered what home was but knew it had been filled with sunshine and flowers and a sweet little house and wasn’t here.

“Come let me show you something.” She took him to what seemed at first to be an enormous empty room. Then she pointed out the thin sheets of broken blue ice lying on the floor. “This is a puzzle. Once you have solved it you can go home.”  She smiled but her eyes held no warmth. She took him to bed. By now from being in her land so much his skin was ice cold. It matched the coldness of her own as they fondled each other and kissed.

Barbie had come to another castle in a sun-drenched land over the snow-filled landscape. She pushed open the heavy door and went inside. It was very early dawn. Servants slept draped on couches and chairs. Gray shadows covered the walls. They told the story of a battle and a prince rescuing a princess and their embracing. She found a bedroom and entered it. A young man lay asleep beside a young woman on a sweet little bed. His face was sun-tanned; he had blond hair. A lock of stray hair lay on his forehead. “Ken!” She reached out and swept the lock of hair off his forehead. He woke up and stared at her unrecognizing. It wasn’t Ken. It was the prince of the shadows. She had been observing his dreams. He spoke and awoke the princess at his side. They greeted Barbie kindly. She began to cry. They got up. The princess put her arms around her. “What’s wrong?” she said.

“I’m trying to find my boyfriend Ken. He’s been abducted by the evil Snow Queen.”

“You poor thing,” the princess said. “Let us give you some better clothes in which to find him and a horse-drawn sleigh. You will need to go far up north.” They gave her a meal and then got Barbie the supplies she needed. She hugged each of them. Hugging the prince reminded her of Ken and the tears nearly started again. She thanked them and rode off into the day on the sleigh.

Barbie had ridden nearly into the evening when a band of rogues ran out of the woods and seized the reins of her horses. A gray-haired woman grabbed hold of Barbie, pulled her out of the sleigh, and put a long knife at her throat. Barbie screamed. Immediately a young woman caught hold of Barbie and pulled her away from the older woman. “No, Mother!” she cried. “I want her to be my friend. Do not kill her. Leave her alone.” She tossled with the older woman with some degree of affection, then the older woman finally stopped her resistance and said the girl could have Barbie.

The girl pulled Barbie’s long soft silver gloves off her hands and put them on her own. She took off Barbie’s fur-lined boots and put them on her own feet. Then she pulled Barbie onto the ground and hugged her so tightly she could hardly breathe all through the long night. She stroked Barbie’s breasts and kissed her cheeks, stroked her hair that had grown out while she had lived with the woman in the cottage. The next morning the robber girl gave Barbie a dish of scrambled eggs from sparrows eggs the robbers had caught. “Tell me your story,” she said.  “I want to hear all about you.”

Barbie told about how she was searching for Ken whom she loved so much and who had been taken prisoner by the Snow Queen. The robber girl began to cry. “That is such a sad story. She will kill him when she tires of him.”

“I love Ken so much,” Barbie said, beginning to cry herself. “But he had been acting so strangely. Like he didn’t love me at all any more.”

“She’s done something to him,” the robber girl said.  “I will help you.” She gave a loud cry and a brown reindeer came up to her. It seemed afraid of her yet was still obedient. “I give you my reindeer to ride to my aunt in Lapland. She will tell you how to find Ken. I can’t give you back your gloves and boots for I am much too fond of them to part with them, but you will ride on the reindeer’s back and that will keep you warm. I will give you back your jacket.”

“You are so kind to me,” Barbie said, crying again.

“I know you will find Ken and save him. And then you must bring him back here so I can meet him before you get married.”

Barbie promised that she would. And then she rode away on the reindeer’s back. In Lapland they found the igloo where the aunt lived. She wrote directions for them on a fish’s back and gave the directions to Barbie. “That is where you will find Ken. But be warned. He may not recognize you and he may not want to go with you. The Snow Queen is an evil seductress and he may have found his time spent with her to be quite to his liking.”

“Thank you for your warning,” Barbie said. “I will make him remember me.” And she and the reindeer rode away once again into the far North. The wind howled and the snow fell. Barbie’s eyes smarted with the cold. Her hands and feet felt frozen, yet she kept going for days. Finally she saw the great snow fortress of the castle. Its turrets and spires were amazing, built of frozen ice. She pushed open the door and went inside.

Barbie walked through room after room searching for Ken. The Snow Queen did not seem to be at home, much to her relief. The reindeer padded after her. Finally Barbie found Ken in a great empty room. He was pushing sheets of thin ice around and seemed frustrated. “Ken!” He looked at her, unrecognizing. She threw her arms around his neck and began to cry.

Her warm tears fell upon his eyes and washed the fragment of mirror out of his eye. He recognized her then and began to cry too. “Barbie! Where have you been? Oh, Barbie, I’ve missed you so much. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said. “Thank god I’m not too late.”

He bent down and shoved two sheets of ice. Suddenly all the ice fell together and met in a picture of a rose. “I’ve solved the puzzle!” he exclaimed. “I can go home.”

They heard the sound of a heavy door moving. The Snow Queen entered the room. “You must not leave me,” she said.

“You promised I could leave,” Ken said.

“I have changed my mind. I am lonely here without you. I want you to stay with me forever.”

Ken took hold of Barbie’s hand. Two hands held together became warm. He leaned forward and kissed Barbie’s lips. “She is my true love. I cannot stay with you.”

The Snow Queen gave a roar of rage and dashed forward. But the reindeer was nearby. He rushed forward and his magnificent antlers went deep into the evil Snow Queen’s heart.  She fell down dead. The castle began to fall around them. Ken swung Barbie up into his arms. They ran outside followed by the brave reindeer. They managed to get away just in time as the castle crumbled into fragments in the chilly winter landscape. Snowflakes spun but began to melt. Without the influence of the Snow Queen winter transformed into spring.

Barbie and Ken found themselves at the robber girl’s camp. The girl was filled with joy to see Barbie again safe and sound. She hugged Ken and kissed him as well on the lips. “I can see you are worthy of her,” she said. They waved goodbye. The reindeer stayed with the robber girl but she was so grateful to her animal friend that she would always be kind to him from now on.

Barbie and Ken stopped to thank the kind prince and princess and then walked miles to home. When they got there it was warm beautiful summer once more. An entire year had passed. They sat in their garden, hand in hand. All around them was love.

THE END

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