Firstly I, for one, feel that this whole "Dopey Dwarf" presumption is extremely rude and utterly prejudiced, even if I am a so-called fairy tale. My name is Dover Dwarf, not Dopey Dwarf, and I wish people would stop calling me that so casually, like it's true, and like it's not even insulting. I mean, all of my brothers have nicknames, but they're not insulting - and they actually describe them well!
My signature silence is not at all due to lack of intelligence to use words, but due to injury. It has been fifteen years since I spoke my last words before the mine accident when I was eighteen years old, just starting to work in the mine with my brother, and I've lived in a little cottage with my six brothers for all that time. With them around, I don't need to speak, because they always know what I'm thinking. They've become my good friends over the years, because we all live in a one-bedroom cottage that serves as our house, so we've grown very close.
When the accident happened, it affected all of us a little bit. All of my brothers just got some scarred tissue on their faces, limbs, and backs, and some can't hear or see as well as they used to be able to. I received scars, but it also made me unable to speak. When I first lost my ability to speak, I was simply devastated. I loved to sing with my brothers on the way to the mines every day, and chatter with all my friends, but I never would again. I spent every day burying my face deep within my pillow, where I wouldn't feel the need to speak to anyone. But, after a while, I began to accept it, even become used to it. It's who I am now. I can't fix it, can't change it; I just won't be able to speak anymore.
Anyway, one day we all went to work at the coal mine with everyone else. Since my brothers and I are dwarves, our taller friends give us the lower places to mine. I, of course, am always so terrified to mine down there since the accident that destroyed the part of my brain that enables me to speak, but I have to go down there anyway, or my brothers and I would starve. At the end of the day, we are all exhausted and covered in coal dust from head to toe. All we want is to go home, take a nap, and eat dinner when we wake up.
However, when we reach our house the door is wide open. Alarmed, we all sprint inside, split up, and do a quick but meticulous search for stolen or broken items and opened cabinets which we hadn't opened ourselves this morning. When we find none, I shrug, Doc sighs, and Grumpy slams the door shut.
"Okay," yawns Sleepy. "Let's get to bed."
"Good idea!" Happy chirps. "Good night!"
"Sleep tight!" Sneezy grins for a second, but then he's interrupted by a loud, messy fit of sneezing, which he muffles by pressing his old, soiled red handkerchief, which he has kept in his right pocket for as long as anyone can remember, to his face.
"Don't let the bedbugs bite!" giggles Bashful, and we all file drowsily up the stairs to our bedroom. But when we all try clumsily to shove ourselves through the door, Sleepy and Happy shove us back.
"You guys," whispers Happy."You'd never believe this...someone's in there."
Doc gasps. "Really? Who?"
"I dunno. Some girl," Sleepy mutters, his words distorted by a yawn, but we're used to that, so we can all basically tell what he's saying.
"Well," growls Grumpy. "Someone had best tell her to get out of our house! Never mind, I can tell her with my fists." He begins rolling up his oversized sleeves so he can storm in, yell at her, probably punch her, and kick her out brutally. Alarmed, Doc and I grab him back. Grumpy glares at me, and I shake my head disapprovingly. He moans, but steps aside. We all try to go in, but Sneezy leaps in front of the door.
"Come on, Sneezy," whispers Sleepy angrily. "What's the big idea?"
"We need someone to wake her gently, so she's not too startled," explains Sneezy, sniffling.
"Someone gentle," suggests Happy.
"Someone kind," Doc decides.
I slide my finger across my lips to suggest "someone quiet." At that suggestion, we all look at Bashful, who is very quiet and gentle. He gasps, and begins a fit of nervous giggling.
"Oh – what? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, I couldn't. Maybe Dopey could?"
I roll my eyes. It's Dover, not Dopey! But they don't notice me; they just nod in agreement toward Bashful and nudge me forward. I creep up to where she's sleeping, where she's pushed our small beds, custom made for our size, so they're together making a normal-sized bed.
My first thought is that she's breathtakingly beautiful, with long black hair, a little bit curly. Since my brothers and I have lived a very long time seeing few people besides the bent-over, coal-covered, often broken or injured people working within the mine, she looks even more beautiful to me than she would to many others. She has full, bright red lips, but she's very pale, like snow. At first I'm worried that she's sick, so I gingerly place my hand on her forehead like my brothers and I do to one another if one of us feels ill. She doesn't feel warm, so I guess she's well, but the touch of my hand on her head wakes her up. She stirs a little, then her eyelids open, revealing big emerald eyes, green as the grass outside during summer, when the sunshine makes it brighter. When she realizes where she is, her eyes open wider, and her cheeks blush.
"Oh, is this your house?" she asks. She has a mildly annoying voice, very high, but it seems very kind. It makes me want to cover my ears, but it also makes me want her to keep talking. I smile timidly and nod.
"I'm so sorry but, you see, I was just so tired. I had been running through the forest all night to escape my stepmother – the queen of Aragog, where I live. She tried to have the huntsman kill me, but he let me escape. Well, I'm rested, and I'm sorry. I'll be going on my way now." She begins to get up to leave, and I can't help feeling sorry for this beautiful girl. I take her hand hesitantly, and I lead her downstairs, where my brothers are waiting. Almost all of them are glaring at the intruder, but by the time she's done with her story, only Grumpy is left pouting – but he always does that, hence the name.
"We would all be glad to let you stay here with us for a while, miss," Says Happy, and the others nod.
"Yeah, you would be," growls Grumpy.
"Oh, thank you so much!" she squeals in her annoying but adorable voice. "But what are your names? If you are to be my hosts, I must know your names so I can thank you all. I am Snow White."
We all call out our names at the same time, but finally we manage to introduce ourselves in order of oldest to youngest.
"Doc!"
"Sneezy!"
"Happy! Oh, and he's Grumpy. He doesn't like you, but he doesn't like anyone."
"B-B-Bashful, Miss White."
"Oh, please, Bashful, call me Snow," Snow says sweetly."Or Snow White. Either one!"
"My…my…my name's Sleepy," Sleepy yawns.
"And what's your name?" Snow crouches down to my height. I run my fingertips over my lips to indicate that I am unable to speak. She tilts her head to the side in confusion.
"He, uh, he can't speak. He's mute," Doc explains. "But he's named Dopey."
I nudge Doc with my shoulder. "He likes Dover," Doc adds. "But nobody calls him that."
"Oh," She stands up. "I hope we'll all be great friends!"
"Ha!" Grumpy laughs bitterly. "Not with that attitude."
"Hm? What attitude, Grumpy?" she asks.
"He doesn't like happy people very much. Or any people. That's why he's called Grumpy," explains Sleepy.
"No matter," she smiles at us. Suddenly her bright eyes widen. "Oh, but where will I sleep?" She exclaims.
"You can sleep in our room," Happy offers. "And we'll sleep in the living room."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so, so, so much!" she squeals.
"Well," Sleepy says. "It's getting late. We'd best be going to bed now."
"Okay! Good night!" Says Snow.
"Sleep tight!" laughs Sleepy.
"Don't let the bedbugs bite!" Doc grins around the room at everyone.
Snow White walks up to all of us in turn, leans down to our height, and kisses everyone on the forehead. When she kisses mine, the last of us, I feel a pleasant burning sensation flow from my forehead to everywhere else, all the way down to my toes. I look around, wondering if the odd feeling had spread from my forehead, through the floor, and to my brothers, but they're just setting up where they're going to sleep. She turns around and prances up the stairs in her light-footed, cheerful way, and I start to grin like an idiot.
When my brothers and I are all situated on the floor and couch of our living room, I try to fall asleep, but I'm still stuck in my stupid smile. Right before I do manage to sleep,Sneezy approaches me. "Whoa, Dopey. Hold on," Sneezy whispers beside me. I silently pray that he doesn't sneeze into my ear, which keeps me too busy to want to chide him through pantomime for calling me Dopey. "Do you like Snow White?"
I nod timidly, hesitantly, expecting him to laugh at me, then tell the others, who will also snicker at me. But instead he says, "Good. That must mean that the mine accident didn't mess up your eyes."
I smile, close my eyes, and fall asleep.
The next morning, I wake up to go to work, but I feel terrible. I try to stand up, but I get dizzy and fall back down onto the floor. I lift my head again, but once I get it off the ground I throw up all over the wood floor. My brothers all rush over to try to clean up the mess, and I attempt to get towels also, but that only makes me feel dizzier, and I fall unconscious to the floor again.
I wake up what must have been a few hours later. I tentatively lift my head, firmly clamping my lips together, but I feel fine. My brothers must have left to work in the mine while I was unconscious. I get up to try walking around the house, and I see that our house is sparkling clean. The windows are open to let out the smell of vomit, so there's lots of sun shining through. The mess of tableware, food, and clothes around the house is gone, and there's a fresh meal set onto the table, making the entire house smell delicious.
I look around to find Snow White, but I can't find her. I feel so depressed for a moment, wondering if she left us without even saying goodbye to me, and I walk toward the door to see if she's outside. However, when I reach the door, the door is open, and Snow White is lying lifelessly on the floor, a basket of apples spilling from her left hand, and a half-eaten apple falling from her right.
She must be dead, I think. She must be dead! I want to scream, but I can't, of course, so all that happens is I open my mouth as wide as I can and let out a very long, heavy breath of air. I feel dizzy again, so I sit down on the floor beside Snow, stroking her beautiful, curly black hair. I begin to sob quietly, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably, tears dribbling down my face and dripping onto my tunic and into her hair. Finally, after a few minutes, I hear wails – the wails of my six brothers joining in my silent mourning, giving it sound.
"What happened, Dopey?" one of them cries. I can't tell who it is because the tears are blocking my eyes and I'm too sad to think.
"Did you do it, Dopey?" someone screams, shaking my shoulders roughly. It sounds like Grumpy, which startles me, since he'd been acting so bitterly toward Snow. I suppose he really does – or, rather, did, care. I cry harder and shake my head, pointing to what I'm guessing is the general direction of the apples, which I still can't see.
"It...it was the apples?" Bashful sobs. I nod.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Grumpy yells. "Idiot!"
"W-W-W-We probably should go to bed now," Doc's voice, I know, since it has a nasal quality and a matter-of-fact tone, even through the thick crying. "It'll clear our heads."
We all walk slowly up the stairs clinging to one another, not daring to look back at the door. At the top of the stairs, we can't stand going in there, where Snow White had stayed, so we shuffle back downstairs and take a nap on the living room floor, where we slept last night.
When I wake up, I forget what happened for a moment, but then I remember - the vomit, the unconsciousness, the apples and, finally, Snow White's dead body on the floor. I see my brothers standing around her.
"We'd best be getting her buried, then, everyone," sniffs Happy.
We go out into town and buy a mahogany coffin, which is the most expensive we can afford by pooling together all the money the seven of us have earned from mining, which we work to bring over to a quiet area deep within the forest. We all carry Snow from our house to the calm little clearing, and place her in the coffin with the lid open. We adorn her in flowers, and I make a crown of flowers to place in her hair. We circle around the coffin to say our final farewells to our beautiful guest.
Grumpy stands over her and speaks. "I never really have had a friend. Everyone always thought I was mean, and I was. But I didn't really mean to, I just didn't know how else to act. But they hated me, so I hated them back. I saw you, Miss White, and I, well, I wanted to hate you so much, since you were so sweet and beautiful, while I can barely say anything nice. But I couldn't, and I never got to tell you that...I don't hate you, Miss Snow White. I'll miss you very much."
Everyone else gets up and looks down at her, but their hearts aren't as strong as Grumpy's that they could speak, so they just take one shivering breath and burst into tears. Doc, however, is temporarily driven crazy with sadness, and he blindly runs away screaming, but hits a nearby tree almost as soon as he begins to sprint, which knocks him unconscious.
When everyone else has gone up, seen her, and again retreated in a flood of tears, I leap up and peer over the edge of the mahogany coffin. She looks so beautiful, her dark curls arranged like a frame around her face, which is even paler. Her eyelashes look so graceful it looks like she could only be sleeping.
Finally, I just can't take it any longer, and I lean my head down to kiss her cold, lifeless lips. As soon as I do, her eyelids flutter open.
"D-D-Dopey?" she asks, smiling the sweet smile I thought I lost. I don't even care that she called me Dopey instead of Dover. Not at a time like this. "Where am I?" She climbs out of the coffin, brushes off the flowers, gets onto her knees, and hugs me. "Thank you for waking me up, Dopey."
Impulsively, I kiss her again. I'm terrified, since the first time I kissed her, Snow was unconscious. But she just smiles and kisses me back.
"Funny," she says. "I always figured Prince Charming would actually be a prince. But he doesn't have to be. And he's not. He's you."
The rest, it is said, is history. Snow White and I are married in the summer, and we get her stepmother, the Queen of Aragog, arrested and thrown in prison. We give her a trial, since Snow is so kind to everyone, but Queen Octavia pleads guilty for child abuse and attempted murder, and she is exiled to Coriolanus forever.
My brothers stop having to work in the filthy, dangerous underground mines, and they move out of the small, shabby, rickety little cottage, and they move into a larger house in town, which has room for everyone to fit inside more comfortably.
A few years later, Snow and I, along with our two children, attend Bashful's wedding to a timid girl who loves to read, and over the years everyone else gets married also. Even Grumpy, who meets a very tolerant, kind girl who helps to calm his angry disposition, which had subsided a bit after meeting Snow. Everyone was changed for the better after meeting Snow.
All is right in the world, and Snow never has to run from any relative out to kill her for power ever again. If they do, they have to get through me, her Prince Charming.