Ah, now come close, little one. Closer still. Yes, just there. Let me tell you about a girl named Red. Not the one you think you know, no... This Red doesn’t walk through the forest once. She walks it again and again, each time thinking perhaps this time will be different.
She wears her hood still, though the threads are tired and the red has faded where tears and teeth have touched it. In her hand she carries a bone. A small one. Nobody asks whose it was. And slung over her shoulder is a bag, shaped like the head of the very wolf who’s made a home of her belly more times than we dare count.
You see, Red was eaten. Not once, but many times. Stitched up and set back on her path, always returning to the house, always finding Granny, always meeting the Wolf. Each time thinking she might change the ending. But endings, well... they are stubborn things.
Sometimes Granny doesn’t scream. Sometimes the Wolf doesn’t growl. Sometimes the silence is worse than either. But always, the curtain falls. Red dies. Granny dies. The Wolf dies too, in the end. And then, as if none of it mattered, they begin again.
It’s a dreadful little dance they do. But it’s not without meaning. No, not at all.
For Red has learned a thing or two, and maybe she can help you remember. She knows the woods are dark, but they are also filled with birdsong. She knows a warm cup of tea with Granny can still taste sweet, even if Granny isn’t quite herself. And she knows, even as the Wolf licks his lips, that it’s better to feel afraid than to feel nothing at all.
Life, dear one, is full of suffering. That’s just how it is. But if you only ever look at the teeth and the tearing, you’ll miss the way the leaves dance in the wind. The way the light filters through the branches just so. The way laughter sounds when you’ve forgotten to be scared.
So here she is, this Red. Scarred and stitched, soft and sorrowful. A reminder, if you’ll have her, to keep walking. To love the path for what it is. To sit with Granny while you can. And to speak kindly, even to the Wolf.
Because the story may end... but the tale, child, the tale goes on.
1x Little Red Riding Hood Rabbit (28cm from head to toes)
1x Tote Bag measures 40x37cm
1x Wolf Head's Purse (14cm tall)
1x Tiny Bone (7.5cm long)
