by Jackie Dobosy
Once up on a time Little Red Riding Hood was skipping down the path to her grandmother’s house when she tripped over Little Boy Blue. He was fast asleep next to a haystack even though he was supposed to be watching the cows. Little Red howled in pain over her poor stubbed toe and Little Blue’s hay covered head quickly popped out of the stack at the horrid wail. Alarmed, he shouted, “Where are my cows?!”
“I’m not sure sleepy head but you need to get up! Ouch ouch OUCH, watch where you sleep next time!!” Little Red yelled back. But before she could get too angry, the beauty of the soft spring morning lightened her spirits and she suddenly giggled at the silly, blue, straw-covered boy. “Why don’t you get up and come with me to my grandmother’s house for cookies and milk?”
“Ok!” said Little Blue, even though he was supposed to be watching the cows. The two friends hurried off down the path and before long, they came upon Goldilocks. She was sitting on a large rock and mumbling too herself as she kicked the ground.
“It’s NOT FAIR!” Goldilocks exclaimed when she saw Little Red and Little Blue. “My mother is SO mean! She made me go outside to play just because I tried to help her make cookies. I can’t help it if salt and sugar look exactly the same and why do eggs have to be so fragile?! I just wanted cookies.”
Little Blue and Little Red exchanged a quick glance. Red shrugged her shoulders. “Wanna come with us?” asked Little Blue. “We’re going to get some cookies from Red’s grandmother.”
“Yeah,” sniffled Goldilocks, “I guess.”
Over the River and through the woods to grandmother’s house they went. Pretty soon they came upon a small, clean cabin. There were birds and animals in the front yard looking into one of the windows and a beautiful voice drifted in and out. Little Blue, Red, and Goldi were intrigued by the lovely singing and crept forward onto the sidewalk in front of the small house.
“Snow White!” Little Blue whispered excitedly. “I know that voice anywhere. Oh she’s so beautiful!”
“You have a crush on her don’t you?” teased Goldi.
“N-n-no,” Little Blue replied blushing as bright as Little Red’s Hood. Before he could defend himself further, the cabin’s side door clicked open and the three friends saw a snow-white girl skip into the woods carrying a basket of sandwiches. “She’s probably going to take lunch to the dwarves,” said Blue.
“I’ve always wanted to see a dwarf’s house!” exclaimed Goldi.
“I dare you go in,” challenged Blue. Goldi shrugged, skipped down the sidewalk towards the small house, opened the front door, stooped down and walked inside.
“Are you crazy!?” cried Little Red. “Blue! You know she’ll do anything you dare her to do. We are going to be in so much trouble!”
“I was just kidding! I didn’t think she’d really do it. I know she’s a klutz and a little unpredictable, but I don’t think she’ll do anything stupid.” Just then they heard a series of crashes inside the small house followed by an extended period of silence. “Well,” Blue said sheepishly, “we had better go in there to see if she’s all right.”
Goldi was all right, in fact, she was ‘just right.’ “This chair is perfect!” she sighed. Scattered around her lay what seemed to be the remnants of about seven tiny wooden chairs. Blue and Red just stared.
“All I wanted to do was go to visit my grandmother and eat cookies!” cried Red.
“You’re hungry?” asked Goldi. “Let’s see what’s in the kitchen!” She reluctantly pulled herself out of her comfy chair and skipped over to the next room. Red and Blue followed her over to a big pot of some sort of bubbling brown pasty substance. “Porridge, Ewww!” Goldi exclaimed disgustedly.
“I dare you to try it,” said Little Blue.
“Blue! No Goldi, don’t…” but before Red could finish, Goldi had lifted a huge helping of porridge up to her mouth and taken a bite.
“Ouch!” yelled Goldi, dropping the rest of her porridge on the kitchen floor.
“Oh no! What a mess!” cried Red. “Snow White might come back any minute, we need to clean this up.”
“Well I’m going to find a restroom and wash this porridge off my face,” remarked Goldilocks. She disappeared into the next room and left Red and Blue staring after her.
“She’s insane,” remarked Red shaking her head. “Blue, go follow her to make sure she doesn’t break anything else! I’ll stay here and try to fix this mess.” Little Blue just grinned and walked into the next room.
Goldilocks was not in cleaning up. She was standing in the middle of a large bedroom surrounded by seven small beds. She had a mischievous look on her face. “This is wonderful!” she said with big eyes. “Seven beds! SEVEN! Can you imagine what you could do with seven beds?”
“Well, you could sleep on a different one every night,” said Little Blue, “but they are kind of small.”
“Who said anything about sleeping? I want to JUMP on them! Want to jump with me?” she asked.
“Oh no!” said Blue, “I couldn’t jump on someone else’s bed! My mother won’t even let me jump on my own bed!”
“Is your mother here?” replied Goldi. “Would you do it if I dared you?”
“No, would you do it if I dared you?” asked Blue.
“What’s that? You dare me? All right!” And with that Goldilocks hopped up onto the first bed and soon was jumping across the room, doing cartwheels from one headboard to the next. Little Blue’s jaw dropped as he watched in amazement.
Just then, Red ran into the room in a panic. “I think she’s back,” she whispered hurriedly. She gave Goldi a very disapproving glance as she yanked her off the bed she was hopping on and looked at the room around her. The covers were wrinkled and out of place on every bed, pillows had landed on the floor, and the beds were crooked in their spots. “I cannot believe this! We must leave here now before we get caught. Follow me and find a place to hide outside until it’s safe to leave.” Red directed.
When Snow White entered her small neat cottage, she let out a gasp. No longer was it clean and tidy. It was a disaster. There were pieces of wood all over the sitting room, porridge splattered onto the kitchen floor, and as she entered the bedroom she couldn’t believe her eyes.
Red and Blue were crouching outside behind a bush. A few of the friendly animals tried to hop over to them but the children waved them away. “Just stay quiet and I’ll let you know when it’s clear to leave, OK?” hissed Red.
“OK,” whispered Blue, but Goldilocks did not say anything. They frantically looked around and noticed that their troublesome friend was no where to be found. Red hurried to the bedroom window and peeked inside just in time to see Snow White approaching a large lump in the covers of one of the small beds. She jerked off the covers in one giant yank and revealed a small blonde girl, curled up in a ball. She was crying.
“I’m sorry,” sniffed Goldilocks when Snow White had helped her up off of the bed. “I wrecked your house!”
Lucky for the three friends, Snow White was a very understanding girl. She listened to Goldi’s story and then spotted Red and Blue at the window and invited them back in. They all explained how sorry they were and agreed to clean up everything. Snow White went to her room to lie down, for it had been a long day, and Red, Blue, and Goldi straightened up the little house.
As soon as they had finished, seven dwarves entered the room. Snow White returned as well and Red invited them all to her grandmother’s house for cookies. Red Riding Hood’s grandmother was a bit surprised to see all of the friends her granddaughter had brought along with her, but she always had plenty of cookies. Every one drank milk, ate cookies and laughed until Little Boy Blue remembered his cows, Goldilocks ran off to ‘help’ her mother with dinner and Snow White led the dwarves home for their baths.
Little Red Riding Hood told her grandmother all about her crazy day and her grandmother told her how very proud of her she was for trying to do the right thing. Then her grandmother began telling her a story of a little girl just like her who met a wolf in the woods. She didn’t have a chance to finish before Red fell asleep in her lap. And they all lived happily ever after.