Red Rider...The Hood
Prologue : This is a reworking of the old fairy tale for modern
times, the first of a series, hopefully. The experiment begins here...
He was a cute little boy whom the whole street used to pet. His
mother was living alone separated from his father and she had taken the boy far
away from her estranged husband. They lived, these two, in a decrepit little
apartment house in the lousiest neighborhood in town, while the mother worked
as a cook in a distant restaurant in the city. The boy was a bright student and
did well at school and his mother had great hopes of him. But because she spent
a long time traveling to and fro from work, she depended on the neighbors to
take care of him while she was at work and he was back from school. Despite the
rundown apartments they lived in, the neighbors were all good, solid families
and were glad to help out the single mother and the charming little boy.
By far the sweetest and most helpful were the two spinster ladies
who lived right next door. They were indeed great help to the single mother
offering both moral and spiritual support and even sometimes a financial hand
in her times of need. Them, she trusted more than the others to take care of
her little boy. And whenever she got something back from the kitchens she
worked at, something dainty or spicy and not commonly seen in an apartment like
theirs, she sent the boy over with the dish to the neighbors in a spirit of
share and share alike. The little boy loved nothing more than to go and
distribute this borrowed largesse to all the apartment dwellers.
And thus they lived happily till the boy began to get sick and
stay at home from school more and more frequently. The distraught mother was
worried but her job did not allow her to take leave at the risk of being fired
and she had to depend more and more on her kindly neighbors to take care of the
sick child, who was clearly wasting away under some kind of unidentified
disease. Her child, her sweet little kid, was now grown so morose and hardly
talked to anyone anymore like he did of old. And there was no reason she could
think of why. Even the costly doctor she could ill afford to take him to, was
clearly stumped to see the child grow so sickly so suddenly.
As so often happens, one day the mother came home with a large
packet of leftover food from the restaurant where she worked. She laid away
some for their use and knowing that the rest of the food would get spoiled if
not given away directly, she called the little boy to her, combed his hair
neatly and giving him the parcel she had made up, told him to take it next door
"Go give this to the kind aunties who live next door son and come back
soon". The boy who had recently gone surly even on her, took the parcel
without a word and went out the door.
He knocked at the neighboring apartment and was let in immediately
by the younger of the two old women. "Come in, come in my sweet little
child, why have you been avoiding us all these days?" The boy mumbled
something like "i have been sick" and then added "Grannny,
mother sends you this parcel of food, wont you take it and let me go? she wants
me back soon" he looked at her imploringly. But the old spinster would
have none of it, for she dragged the boy close to her and hugging him said
"my sweet child, my brave hero, whats the hurry, why don't you play here
for a little time with your granny before going home and i am sure your mother
wont mind" and dragging him by the hand went inside the house, calling out
loud for her sister to come see who had come on a visit.
"Now" she said holding out a large tub of ice-cream to
the child,"i have been keeping this for you all week, only you never came
child" she dangled it before him, "but you have to play with me
before you get your treat. Remember our little game? remember what i taught you
to do last time? But you have to do better if you want that ice cream. Here,
come here, come closer, kneel between my legs, there's a good boy, yes bend over
and yes, there, there, that's right, yes, just like i taught you to, and don't
stop if you want to go home soon"
And the boy whose favorite story was the tale of little red riding
hood, went away in his mind to the story of how the little girl went screaming
into the woods for help and how the woodsman came in with the axe and chopped
off the head of the big, bad wolf which had tried to hurt her.
Epilogue : The man with the long beard turned around and looked at
the police man seated behind him and said "I am afraid there's nothing more
we can get you from this man under hypnosis, Inspector. We know why now, don't
we? why the serial killer called The Red Rider, was killing all these old women
who lived alone in apartments? Shall we wake him up from the hypnosis?"
Post Script: Child Sexual Abuse is an ever present threat to our
children. Male children are affected equally as female children. The offenders
are often trusted people, relatives, friends or neighbors. Listen to your
instincts, if you feel somethings wrong.
