A mother longed for two things in her life. She had missed the winter snow. It had been years since it snowed ; she hadn't seen it since she was a small child and her grandmother was still alive . She smiled as she remembered how she thought that snow was sugar.
The other thing she longed for was the ocean. She read stories of its vastness and of the striking blue. She saw pictures of it but they were in black and white. She had one wish , and that was for her child to have skin as white as snow and eyes as blue as the sea.
Her pregnancy was difficult as the winter came quickly and was merciless. There was hardly any food . When she gave birth, the pain was ungodly. She gave birth to a son ; his skin was white as snow , and when his eyelids slowly opened , they were as blue as the sea. But she died before she could see him.
The husband struggled to work , keep his child well - fed , and how to comfort him during his cries at midnight. He slept at the side of the bed ; half the bed was empty . He got so used to his wife being there. After years , he couldn't take it ; he was close to ending his own life from his loneliness but couldn 't due to his son , so he did what was best. He remarried.
He had another child, a daughter , with the woman. The woman loved her daughter but despised the boy ; he was not of her blood ; he was a freeloader in her house. Their relationship was distant , neither liked one another , but they ignored each other.
However, the boy had a habit of picking apples from the chest. He loved apples and would eat as many as he could get his hands on . One day , the woman had an idea.
As the boy opened the chest and dug his head inside for apples , she closed the chest , and the boy's neck broke.
During the funeral , the woman gave fake cries ; the daughter was young ; she couldn 't comprehend what was going on.
They lived happily afterwards ; the husband never figuring out the secret , and quickly he forgot the son and only focused on the daughter. The woman was happy as all the money will go to her daughter. And the daughter , she thought of her brother , the brother she never got to know.