The writing prompt for this was to reverse a Fairy Tale.
To Tell the Truth
There’s a story about a little girl who gets lost in the woods on her way to her grandma’s house. She’s carrying a basket of goodies to make her grandma, who is ill, feel better. On her travels, she runs into a devious wolf. He convinces the girl to take a shortcut to save time. Of course it’s a lie. It gives the wolf a chance to get to the granny’s house first, and as we all know, there’s nothing a carnivorous wolf likes better than to eat a sickly old woman in one bite. When the little girl arrives, the wolf eats her in one bite too. It’s at that point that a woodsman happens to come along and saves the day by killing the wolf and miraculously saving the grandmother and child before they get digested.
Sounds plausible, Right?
I looked deeper into this story to check the facts. Here’s what I uncovered:
All four of those characters did exist. However, the wolf in this story was not the bad guy. In fact, the wolf wasn’t even a meat eater. He was a vegetarian. So forget the idea that he would eat any human being. And nothing can eat an entire animal in one bite. Well, maybe a prehistoric dinosaur. But a wolf – no way.”
It turned out that the woodsman, the girl, and the grandmother were all family. And they loved meat. It was the little girl who came up with the plan. She always wore the same clothes for all her capers, a red riding cloak. Her nickname down at the station was Little Red Riding Hoodlum. She may have played the little girl act, but she was much older than she looked.
Looking innocent, she walked in the woods and crossed the path directly where she knew the wolf would be. She pretended to be sad. She carried a basket. In the basket were assorted fruits and veggies, and a bottle of cordial.
The wolf, seeing a sad girl and being an ever-helpful wolf, asked her what was wrong and if he could give her assistance. That’s what nice wolves do.
With big (fake) tears, Little Red sobbed that she was going to her grandmother’s house for a celebratory dinner party and was told to bring a friend, but her friend couldn’t make it. She wondered if the wolf would be her friend and join them for the celebration.
Seeing all that good food in the basket and an invite to a party, how could he resist those sad eyes? He said yes.
Little Red gave the wolf directions to her granny’s house. Of course, she gave him the longer route so that she could get there first. The woodsman was also there, hiding behind the house.
When the wolf arrived, the door was open, so he just walked in. He didn’t see the grandmother, because she was hiding in a closet. Little Red, however, was there unloading her basket of goodies. She said that Granny and the others would be there soon. Red offered the wolf a glass of cordial and told him to hide in the bedroom, as this was going to be a surprise party. He did exactly what he was told.
The bed was very comfy as he drank his cordial, sat and waited. It didn’t take long for the wolf to fall into a deep drug-induced sleep.
As soon as he was fast asleep, Little Red was joined by her grandmother, and they both screamed out, so all the neighbors could hear, “HELP, WE’RE BEING EATEN BY A WOLF!”
Well, you know the rest. The woodsman came in, and they all had a meat-filled dinner party.
Little Red became famous, as did the news account of her rescue “as she told it”. A Grimm tale indeed. One that I suggest you keep to yourself. Little Red is now Big Red, and you don’t want her to cross your path.
