I decided to try writing a modern Red Riding Hood, with the wolf being a person, and not a wolf…only, differently. I can’t explain exactly, but here the rough version, complete with bad sentences and grammer.

…

The trees at the edge of our forest are sickly and pale looking, like thin, wiry giants lying in wait at the edge of the town. My family lives just twenty feet from them, in a house built by my mother’s parents, and every day I must walk underneath those trees, on a path carved dangerously close to the forest. Whenever I walk past, I am compelled to cross my arms over my chest, for it is as though the trees are watching me move, a short, thick imposter amongst their ranks. I pull the hood of my red sweater up to cover my face so that I can only see the path ahead, and lower my eyes. There are so many stories about this forest that it is hard to know which rules to follow, and thus I have developed my own. Never look into the forest, even if you are walking towards it. Look at the ground, and pull your hood to cover either side of your face, and your forehead. Always wear bright colours, because you can be spotted easily, and the forest won’t bother you. Dark clothing helps you to blend in with the forest, which is not good.- no one will see you disappear.

Every morning, I walk to school on the path that hugs the forest, never looking. In fact, despite those who glance fearfully at it from the balcony of the white church, no one sees the forest. Over time, we have forgotten it, though it has not forgotten us.

It was early morning when the forest gave its first sign of life in over 300 years. Rain was falling in rivulets, making the normally long walk to school seem endless. There was an inescapable wind that pushed me back and forth as though I were nothing more than a leaf dangling from one of the elm trees that lined our yard. I had one gloved hand on the right side of my face, holding down the hood so I did not have to look into the forest, and another jammed into the pocket of my rain jacket to keep warm. My skirt was soaked by the time I had reached the path to school, and I was beginning to consider going back to the warm, dry house to spend my day there, when it happened. I had to stop so that I could re-button my jacket, and although I was almost successful at doing this one handed, I could not quite get the top button (which was forever undoing itself) to slip through its loop. Finally, I tucked the corner of my hood under my chin, and attacked the coat with both hands. Suddenly, the wind howled and my hood blew backwards, nearly choking me as it ballooned suddenly in the gust of cold air, and in my struggle to regain a hold of it, I found myself facing the forest. The trees looked worse than usual, because the storm made them seem like living creatures, waving their arms about to slap at me. But it was not these that caught my attention. Beyond the outer trees, the forest- which had seemed so thick before- was actually hardly as dense as I had thought- and threading between these trees was a tall, furry shape, unwavering despite the whipping branches and freezing rain. I could not look away, only follow it with my eyes as it came closer. By the time I thought to run, it had dissappeared, and broken from the spell, I raced off, forgetting my hood and the rain.