Little Mischievous Red Riding Hood

Chapter 10 (The Slander)

GEORGETTE spent the past month with worrisome and became morose knowing Wolfram would not going to come back anytime soon. It was just spring time and the month of harvest season, which was around August to September, took about three to four months. She terribly missed her lover, and she always fantasized he was just around and silently watching her like he did before, when they were both wee lass and lad.

Smiling, Georgette remembered the first time she met him. He was, unlikely the man that she imagined to be, he was a trickster, often ploy to make her cry or shoo her away. He abhorred any kind of interaction with humans and he often did his thing alone. Like she also did before.

As a child of her carefree mother and sired by her notorious father, growing up was never easy for her. Lucinde, her grandma raised her after her mother eloped with her father, she was just two years and three weeks when her mother went on a journey, no one heard about her until she came back two years later, heavily pregnant with her brother, Caleb. Georgette was already four at that time and often heard her mother crying. Her grandmother was not talking, she didn’t know, she was just a toddler and every action of the adult was a mystery to her.

Curious enough that when she was out playing in her pen, a pack of wolves came, the one walking on two feet tried to go near her but someone shouted, running, her grandma ran toward her and took her out of her crib and carried her inside the house and didn’t come out again.

She was nine when she found out that the wolves that came to their backyard were her tribe, the Rugabaga and the black werewolf who tried to go near her was her father who probably trying to visit her.

But her grandma would not let it, she even cursed he could just pass on her over her dead body, Georgette never saw him again, nor her mother after she turned into a werewolf, or her brother, whom her grandma planned to leave in the woods to starve for days but her mother came and took him with her. It was blurry to her memories because she was too young to comprehend and too confused about who to listen to.

Her grandma often told her not to roam to the woods alone, especially at night, she taught at a tender age that all monsters were evil spirits walking on earth just to prey on the weak. She learned from grandma about her tribe who told her they were vicious and inclining on them wouldn’t give her a good future. Like she didn’t even know if she had a future in siding with mankind.

In a heavy sigh, Georgette idly took a walk to the gully to pick herbs and flowers to brew for her homemade fragrant soap when she passed on two familiar women, engrossed in their chat, laughing.

She didn’t know if she should just take a pass or greet them first. She did the last with a cheerful voice. “May good tidings come to you on morrow, have a safe walk on your way home, Madame Egrette and Madame Gracielle,”

The women paused then looked at her, and exchanged a look before giving a snooty gaze. “What good is to come if you are here?”

“You already ruined the day, little damsel, or should we say cunt!”

She was quite shocked. Taken aback and blinked twice. Stunned by their cold remarks.

“Let us go, Gracielle, before this witch throws a curse on us,” before leaving, Madame Egrette threw another disdainful look. “w***e,”

“She is no different to her mother,” Madame Gracielle agreed and they hurriedly walked hand in hand, passing through her path.

Georgette was left there bewildered. She even looked at the two old ladies who just threw her disparaging names.

Disheartened, she decided to go back to their cabin and heard a loud commotion from afar. So she hurriedly walked to reach her home just to be the center of dark look and deadly glare.

There were people, old folks who lived as their neighbors and townspeople, gathered around for a huddle in front of their houses. She was confused but recalled her grandmother’s ailing.

She took the courage to pass them and endured their mocking glare and utterance of disgust.

“w***e,” “Witch,” “Slut,” “Wanton Lass,” and many more that she didn’t pay attention to, she went to the door, she knew they would also come inside behind her to listen closely to the gossip, which was not new to her until she met her grandma’s serious and mad face.

“I told you! I saw it with my two good eyes, she was sleeping around, crawling like a leech, seducing every man she met on the street of Galeshire, I was there when a man took her inside the tavern,” an old woman she barely knew told her grandma.

“Yeah! I saw that too!” one old lady agreed, and everyone in the room nodded and kept on whispering when they saw her.

Her questioning eyes met her grandma, disappointed and upset, overall, heartbroken.

“Grandma, what is a miss?” she truthfully asked.

The room fell silent so she walked near her grandma but she shoved her hand away. “Tell me truthfully, Georgette, is it true? Did you…sleep with several men while visiting Galeshire and sneaking out on my back?”

Shocked and confused. “No, no, no! Why would you think... I would never do that,”

“Liar! I saw you a few weeks back, you seduced Fausto and spread your legs to him while in the open, I saw you! Don’t you dare tell me I’m lying, I know what I saw! You even talked to me and asked where was the path heading town, I thought you are different from your slutty mother and her impetuous lust, you are a disgrace, a shameless wanton beyond compare!”

“I didn’t, I didn’t know who that man was, Madame Bridgette, I don’t remember what happened, what are you saying? I was with my grandma the whole time,”

A slap she didn’t expect came fast and made her silence.

The room also remained silent after a gasp of shock.

“You little w***e, because of you, my Little Harriet didn’t want to eat or drink because she took it by the heart, you ruined her engagement! My daughter is suffering because of you!”

“But…” She was too stunned for words and stared at the people around her.

They were convicting her, throwing shades on her, and accusing something she didn’t do. She turned to her grandmother.

“Grandma, believe me, I didn’t do that, you can attest to that, I was with you the whole time, please, tell them,” she pleaded, almost hopelessly because of the looks on Lucinde’s face.

Alas, she finally spoke. “Leave us be, you already stated your concern and dilemma, thank you for informing me of the current mischief of my granddaughter.” she paused while eyeing her a warning look. “I will see to it that she will get her proper punishment,”

Her heart sank, feeling her defeat, her grandma believed them over her.

“You should lock her up, Lucinde so she could not roam and create more trouble, she just made this whole town in an uproar, many maidens who will soon be betrothed were crestfallen because of her!” Bridgette continued to lash out at Georgette with her scornful words.

Everyone went out of the house except them two.

Lucinde was silent when she walked past her to hold the door and shut it closed. Then she walked back to her chair and sat.

The creak from the wicker chair was the only sound that was heard. Georgette closed her eyes, still feeling the sting of Madame Bridgette’s heavy hand on her right cheek. Tears were already brimming in her eyes when she went to her grandmother’s and dropped to her knees.

“Please, believe me, Grandma, I didn’t do all of the things they are saying against me, I can prove myself, please Granny, believe in me,”

“I saw your favorite dress one day, you kept it inside the chest so I took it and decided to wash it when I saw a blotch of dried bloodstain on the skirt, it wasn’t your time of visit, was it?”

She was stunned and looked into her grandmother’s eyes full of guilt and shame.

“You have lost your maidenhead, haven’t you, dear?”

She lowered her gaze but her grandma lifted her chin to face her and slumped back to the chair. Knowing the answer. “You did,”

“Grandma, I’m sorry, I am sorry, but… I am in love with him, he is the only man I slept with,” she cried out, confessing the truth.

The loud gasp from the outside told them both that the people were still hovering, eavesdropping on their tête-à-tête. So her grandma stood, leaving her and went to the kitchen, took a basin full of water, opened the window and threw its contents vehemently outside.

The people shouted and stumbled down, dispersing in a huddle, cursing about how erratic Old Lucinde could get went mad.

“Be gone, you mongers! Tis still my house and you are all treading on my turf, be gone or I will curse you with my own!”

“Curse you, you old hag!”

“I am already cursed! Is there anything worse I could get?”

The noise from the people around was hushed, they were scrambling and hurriedly heading their way home because it was turning dark.

“Those impertinent snoot, hypocrites.” Old Lucinde said indignantly before turning to her granddaughter.

Georgette was still on the floor kneeling, with her tear-stained face. Her old heart sank, seeing it in the same pattern as a cycle, a path that her daughter had taken. As if it would always happen and she could do nothing against it. Like a curse. Indeed, she was cursed. To see all of the loved ones she kept and protected always ended up falling for the wrong man. Or wrong race.

Suddenly she lost her strength, to be angry and ask God why he let this happen to her granddaughter.

“Grandma,” her granddaughter said, standing and trying to explain herself but she dismissed her and walked a beeline to her room.

“Grandma, please talk to me,” she pleaded, crying out.

She stopped, hearing the same words, from a different person yet the same old story. She heard it once when her daughter, Blanchett tried to reason with her. She closed her weary grey eyes. She was getting old, and she could no longer take another misery if her granddaughter chose to be with that wolfman, who, just like the monster who stole her daughter away from her, would do nothing good in her life.

“I am tired, I need to get some rest,”

“I love Wolfram, granny, he’s my life, please don’t make it hard for me to choose, I love you both,”

“Yet you chose to disobey me,” she finally turned and took two steps near her.

Her precious little Georgette. It was painful for her to look at her, let alone accept the slanderous accusation against her little gal. Her pure and sweet angel. Lucinde thought she could never do that, she knew her granddaughter, but seeing her, and knowing she had slept with that young man, she was lost for words.

A teardrop fell on her old, wrinkled cheek. She had lost her daughter once, she couldn’t take this anymore, losing her granddaughter too in the same way.

“Grandma, I didn’t mean to do that, but…” her granddaughter paused, seeing her tear. “I am sorry,”

“Are you with his child? That is why you are sad. Because he left you after you… gave yourself to him?”

“No, I am sad because I know you would never accept him, Grandma, please, just hear me out, Wolfram is different—”

“If he is different, he wouldn’t allow this to happen, he would wait! He should wait until he gets my blessing, it would have been more reasonable for him to wait until I lay down and be buried under the soil of this earth, because I will never, ever accept another monster in this family!” she vehemently spoke with furious eyes.

Making her granddaughter shiver and taking a back step. “You never listen, this is a problem about you, you never tried to listen, even mom, you didn’t try—”

“Stop bringing up someone who is not here anymore! She is dead to me, I forbid you to speak about her or even say her name!”

“Grandma, stop! No one is hurting you here, I am just asking you to hear me out,” taking a deep breath, Georgette looked into her eyes, stood still and cleared her throat, collecting her courage. “I missed my visit this month, I think, I am with child,”

Old Lucinde almost fell off balance hearing it and needed to steady her by clutching the chair near her and sat up, shocked to realize, she failed to protect her. She failed as her granddaughter’s guardian.

“How long? How long have you creeping around and spreading your legs, you….slut!” she angrily hissed, throwing her staff toward her granddaughter.

It hit her side sharply but she endured it. Lucinde was fuming, she screamed out her mental anguish and physical pain. Weakened by her aching arthritis and failing eyes.

“Grandma!” Georgette exclaimed, worrying about her rather than facing her anger.

“You get out! Get out of this house! Get out!” Lucinde screamed then stood achingly weak pulling her other leg behind.

Too stunned and too out of words, immobilized by her sudden outburst, Georgette’s tears fell like rain gazing at her with a blank stare.

“You chose to lay with that lad, go and find him! You chose to disobey me, granted! Then have it your way, Georgette,”

Her granddaughter didn’t reply and continued to weep. She threw her one pity look before she grabbed the basket resting on the table, took her by the arm and dragged her to the door, shoving her granddaughter out which sent her to the ground.

She also threw the basket out, raging and panting. She gave her one last look before she closed the door with a loud bang.

When the door was finally shut, she collapsed falling to her knees while hearing her granddaughter crying outside. Begging for her to let her in.

“Go and find your man, Georgette! I had nothing to do with you anymore,”

“Grandma, please,” she pleaded.

Lucinde heard her continuous sob and rap on the door but the old woman was adamant.

She had to be stern, to teach the youngster a lesson. She knew her granddaughter could find a place to sleep, she just could not face her, seeing the same old history repeats itself. She loved her granddaughter but she was hurting and that hurt couldn’t be fixed by a simple sorry.