Ah, college.....

College is seriously interfering with the blogging time, but it does supply plenty of material! Today, I'm going to post a version of Little Red Riding Hood, which was an in-class exercise during English today. It's completely unedited, and I didn't finish the story (though I got to the climactic moment), so be warned.

Riff on the LRRH fairy tale
by Constance

This morning I decided to bring Grandma some of her favorite cookies, and Mama as always warned me to stay on the path and not to talk to strangers.

"You never know when a friendly person may turn out to be some sort of predator," she warned me, like she had a million times.

"Yes, Mama, I'll be very careful," I answered like I had the other million times.

Well, my definition and her definition of careful don't precisely coincide. I mean, it's not like I go looking for strangers to pour out my life story to, but Mama raised me to be polite. So people just spontaneously come up to me and ask me things (I don't know why), and I answer them. It's the polite thing to do.

On this particular walk to Grandma's, I was walking sedately along the path and singing to myself, and suddenly a wolf, who looked just like my dog, only bigger, popped his head out of the bushes.

"Where are you going, little girl wearing red?" he asked sweetly.

"I'm going to my grandma's house, sir," I replied. It always pays to be polite to people with large, sharp teeth. "It's just down the road--quite a small cottage, but most comfortable! She made my cloak; don't you like it?" I twirled, to show it off. "I love my cloak, with its pretty red hood, and I never take it off!"

"And what are you taking her, little girl?"

"I'm taking her some of her favorite cookies! Mama only baked them this morning."

"It sounds delightful, little girl! Enjoy your visit to your grandma's, and I hope I will see you soon!"

"Goodbye, sir! It was very nice talking to you!" I called after him, and then continued my walk.

When I arrived at Grandma's house, imagine my surprise to see a very hairy, very toothy grandma cuddled into bed.

"My, Grandma, what big eyes you have," I said doubtfully.

"All the better to see you with," Grandma said raspily.

"My, Grandma, what big teeth you have," I added, even more doubtfully.

"All the better to eat you with!"

******************
That of course is not the end of the story, but it's as far as I got with it. Just in case you are anxious about the end, both Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood survive, being rescued by the lumberjack, and I'm not sure about the wolf. He did eat Grandma, after all.......

After writing the story (that represents about 20 minutes of class period), JM had us read our stories aloud and discuss how each used rhetorical devices to produce remarkably different stories from the same few plot points. After I read mine, the instant response from my classmates was that I should be a professional storyteller, because I actually read the story like it was people talking and interacting, not in a monotone. ::laughs::