Scene 3

The Snow Queen enters. Kai attaches his toboggan as she circles the stage.

KAI

Here comes one now. A huge white sleigh. Look how fast it's going. I'm going to tie on to it. Hey. This is really going fast. Hey, slow down. The great white sleigh went faster and faster, through the streets of the town, around the square three times, then right out of the city gates. Stop. You're going too fast. I want to untie and go home. But the driver just drove the sleigh faster. Over snow banks and frozen lakes, through the forest. Now it was going at the speed of wind. Then all at once, the sleigh stopped.

SNOW QUEEN

Are you cold, Kai?

KAI

Who are you?

SNOW QUEEN

I think you know, Kai. Don't you know who I am?

KAI

Are you...the Snow Queen?

SNOW QUEEN

Are you cold? Here, get under this bearskin. There. Still cold? We have a very long way to go.

KAI

My toboggan. Don't forget my toboggan.

SNOW QUEEN

Leave it. You won't need it. (She kisses him.) I better not give you anymore kisses or I might kiss you to death.

KAI

I can do multiplication problems in my head.

SNOW QUEEN

Really.

KAI

Eight times eight is sixtyfour.

She smiles a little sadly.

Sixteen times sixteen is two hundred and fiftysix.

SNOW QUEEN

Yes. It is. Shall we go now?

KAI

Yep. And they were off again. Faster and higher now, up into the great vast vault of the sky. They flew over forests and lakes, over land and sea. Far below them the cold blast shrieked, the wolves howled, the snow sparkled. Kai thought of Gerda and her grandmother's cookies and the red roses in the summer garden, but they seemed far away, and a rush of cold wind blew the thought right out of him. The moon shone large and bright. The great white sleigh soared across the dark winter sky toward her home, the Palace of Ice at the top of the world.