SNOW WHAT?
"She poisoned me," gasped Snow White, appealing for the counsellor's understanding.
Alice had been a family relationships counsellor for over twenty years. She fancied herself as a good judge of character and liked nothing more than getting people to take responsibility for their own part in a conflict. 'Own your shit' she liked to say when not with clients.
This was her first session with Snow White and her step mother and Alice could easily see that the young girl was rebelling.
"Look I'm sure your step mother didn't poison you. You told me yourself that she didn't know where you were staying so how could she have poisoned you?"
"Because," the pale young girl continued, "her magic mirror told her where I was and then she dressed up as an old merchant lady and gave me a poisoned apple."
"Uh-huh," murmured the counsellor, glancing at Snow White's mother who was beautiful beyond her age, "and why do you think she would want to poison you?"
"Because I'm the fairest and most beautiful in the whole land. She's jealous."
Alice was used to dealing with teenage narcissism but this girl was something else.
Turning to the mother she asked "Mrs White, did you poison your daughter?"
"Of course not. We just want Snow to come home. She's mixing with a bad crowd. I think they're a gang of drug dealers..."
"They're not dealers," interrupted Snow White, shooting daggers at her step mother. "They're dwarves and they're kind to me."
"And she doesn't have any money," pleaded the step mother. "I don't even want to think about how she's paying rent."
"Look Snow," reasoned the counsellor. "It mustn't have been easy losing your birth mother, or when your father married again..."
"It's not about that," the young girl interrupted again. "Why won't anybody listen to me? My evil step mother tried to kill me. She hired a hunter to take me into the woods and bring back my heart and lungs."
"And how did that make you feel?"
"Are you kidding? Has the whole world gone mad? My step mum's a psycho."
"Let's not play the 'blame game'," suggested the counsellor, motioning inverted comas with her fingers. "Name calling isn't helpful, and I'm sure you haven't always been the perfect daughter either." She then glanced at her watch, "Oops! Time's up. Same time next week?"