“Grandmother,” you call from the doorway. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she calls back. “One of those kind wolves was here delivering groceries. Can you smell him?”
You relax. “So that’s what I smell,” you say. You walk into her bedroom. But lying there in her dark bedroom, she doesn’t look right. “Grandmother,” you say, “what big eyes you’ve got.”
“Yes, dear,” she replies. “The better to see you with.”
You step closer and see her hand on top of the blanket. “And what large hands you’ve got.”
“The better to hug you with.”
“My goodness, Grandmother, what big, hairy ears you’ve got.”
“The better to hear your sweet voice, my dear.” Grandmother smiles, showing all her teeth.
“And what big teeth…” you whisper.
“Those,” Grandmother says, lowering the blanket and setting foot— or paw— to the floor, “are all the better to eat you with!”
You run out of the bedroom just as the man carrying the rifle bursts in. You cower on the floor and hear a loud bang. When you open your eyes, you see Stripe lying dead on the floor.
The man grabs a long knife from the kitchen and slices open the wolf’s stomach. He reaches into the bloody guts and pulls Grandma out by the wrists. She comes up gasping for air.
While Grandmother gets cleaned up, you talk with the man over bowls of Yummy-Pops. He’s a Wolf Watch officer— part of a nonprofit organization set up to protect citizens from bad wolves. “I saw you come out of the park,” he says. “I knew there would be a wolf following you.”
“Thank goodness you saw me,” you say.
“Now,” the man says. “Do you want to know where the wolfsbane really is?”
You nod. No more wolves will push you around.
THE END