Once there was a young girl who lived at the edge of the forest.
On baking day, her mother said to the girl, “I’ve baked an extra loaf. Why don’t you take some fresh bread to your granny in the forest?”
So the girl placed a warm loaf of bread in her basket, wrapped herself in her bright colourful cloak and said goodbye to her mother.
Then she began to walk to her granny’s little cottage in the middle of the forest. She walked along a narrow path, through the dark shadows of the trees. Soon she came to a fork in the path, one straight path leading direct to her granny’s cottage, the other path winding the long way round.
By the fork in the path, she saw a young man leaning against a tree. He had long hair, yellow eyes, long fingernails and gleaming white teeth.
“Where are you going, young lady?” he asked.
“I’m off to visit my granny, to take her a loaf of fresh bread.”
She showed him the bread in the basket. He leant forward, towards the loaf and the girl’s hand holding the basket, and he breathed in deeply. “What a wonderful smell.”
“Would you like me to tear off a bit of crust for you? I’m sure Granny wouldn’t mind.”
“No, thank you. I don’t want to spoil my appetite before dinner.” He grinned, then asked, “So which path will you take?”
She laughed. “I’ll take the straight short path, of course.”
“Then I hope you travel safely through the forest.”
The girl said goodbye politely and walked along the straight path.
As soon as she was out of sight, the young man dropped to the ground, arched his back and became a wolf on four legs.
Then the wolf took the longer path. But he ran on four legs, while the girl walked on two legs, so he reached the cottage before her.
The wolf bounded through the door and he ate Granny up, every last little bit of her.
Then he stood up on his hind legs and changed from the four-legged furry wolf into the two-legged hairy man. He wriggled into a flowery nightdress and a frilly nightcap, jumped into bed and pulled the quilt up to his bright yellow eyes.
He waited.
And he waited.
Then the girl pushed open the door. “Granny, it’s me! I’ve brought you a loaf of bread.”
“That’s lovely, my dear. Bring it here, to the bed.”
“Granny,” said the girl, “what a deep voice you have!”
“All the better to chat to you with.”
The girl stepped closer.
“Granny, what bright eyes you have!”
“All the better to see you with.”
She went closer still.
“Granny, what hairy arms you have!”
“All the better to hug you with. Come and sit beside me on the bed.”
But the girl stayed where she was.
“I’m not daft,” she said. “I know you’re not my granny. You’re the man from the path. Where is my granny?”
“She’s somewhere warm and cosy, and she left me in charge. So come closer.”
The girl didn’t want to go any closer. But she didn’t think she could run away either. This hairy, toothy man had reached the cottage much faster than her, so if he saw her try to run, he would chase her and catch her.
She must get out of the cottage some other way.
“Come closer,” he said again.
“Not yet,” she said. “I need to go to the loo.”
“What?”
“I drank lots at breakfast-time and now I need to nip outside to go to the loo.”
“No you don’t, just come closer.”
“I do need the loo, I really do.” She crossed her legs and jiggled around a bit.
“Come and sit on the bed, girl.”
“No. If I sit on the bed, I’ll have a little accident. I’ll wet the bed, then the quilt will be all damp and stinky. Just let me go out for a minute and I’ll come straight back.”
“You’ll come straight back?”
“Oh yes.”
To make sure she did come straight back, the wolf in the bed tied one end of a long string to the girl’s ankle and he held the other end in his long fingers.
“Back in a minute…” she said, as she shuffled to the door with her legs crossed.
As soon as she stepped outside, instead of going behind a bush and squatting down, she tried to untie the string.
But it was tied very tightly and her fingers were shaking.
The wolf inside the cottage yelled, “Come on, get back in here!”
The girl was struggling to loosen the knot.
“You’re taking too long. You can’t have drunk that much. Come back in here!”
She was pulling so hard on the string that her nails were breaking and her ankle was bleeding.
“Hurry up, girl!”
She untangled the last knot, pulled the string off, tied the string round a tree, then she ran.
She ran as fast as she could, along the straight path out of the forest.
The wolf in the bed yelled, “Come back in here now!”
She ran as fast as she could, through the shadows of the forest.
And the wolf pulled on the string, but the girl didn’t come back through the door. The wolf tugged and hauled on the string, and by the time he realised he was trying to pull a tree into the cottage, the girl was half-way home.
He leapt out of bed, ripped off the nightdress and nightcap, and changed back into a wolf on four legs. Then he ran after her.
She raced.
And he chased.
The wolf was much faster on his four legs than the girl was on her two legs, even with his belly full of granny. But the girl had a head start, she didn’t slow down and she didn’t look back. She simply ran and ran and ran.
The wolf was just behind her when she reached the edge of the forest, but she didn’t turn round, she didn’t falter. She ran right out of the shadow of the trees. She reached her house, she pushed the door open and she stepped inside.
The wolf reached the edge of the forest.
The girl looked back and saw him. He saw her, just a few steps away.
But he wouldn’t leave the forest. And she never went back into the forest.
So that is how the first-ever Little Red Riding Hood escaped the first-ever wolf to wear a nightie, all on her very own, without the help of any hunters or woodcutters.
But there was no happy ever after for her granny. Because no-one has ever really come out of a wolf’s belly alive.