Little Red Riding Hood led a happy existence in the outskirts of the woods.

She was pretty, witty, humorous, and oh so goody-good.

It was hardly unusual therefore that she was so close to her grandma, to whom she confided everything in.

Through her occasional fruit pickings in the woods, she became good friends with Baa Baa the sheep, which appeared to be unlike other sheep she had encountered before.

“Perhaps it’s ‘cos Baa Baa is free to be itself, unlike the others I see in the pen,” she mused.

She need not have mused for long, for the truth was revealed on the oh-so-cliched fateful day contained in all melodramatic fairy tales.

Something about Baa Baa caught Red’s eye while it was at her place for lunch:

“Baa Baa, when did you ever have a brown tail? And your hooves look more like claws!”

Caught in a corner, Baa Baa had no choice.

Whites became Browns.

Wool became fur.

“OH MY GOD!!!”

Utterly terrified, Red scurried into her kitchen to grab the hunting gun as her weapon of defense.

She was confused, however, that Baa Baa, or Wolf, merely stood in its place, not poised to attack her nor her grandma, who was interestingly very calm and composed.

“Grandma, get away from Wolf now! It’s an evil, treacherous thing that can only want to devour us both!”

“Dearie, stop and look at Wolf. It has a story to tell, can’t you see it in its eyes?”

“But Grandma…”

“It is defenceless against your gun. And if Wolf really wanted to eat you up it’d have done so a long time ago, no?”

Red would have nothing of it. She was thinking back on how Baa Baa, no, Wolf, had previously helped her to gather fruits, provided care and concern, and gave her encouragement when deemed necessary. And she was thinking about how sick this Wolf was, to have done all these, knowing jolly well that wolves and humans can never live in harmony together.

“I knew, and still know, the boundaries. That was why I hinted, but never quite revealed my true self. Every action has been but a sincere gesture of friendship, but if you choose to see it otherwise, I shall not blame you.”

Red remained silent.

Grandma decided to say something: “I can see that you mean no harm, and I have no objection to you socialising with Red.”

“But make sure that there is always someone else around when you two are in the woods.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Compositions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.