Red Madder

Chapter 2

Things started getting weird a few months ago.

To be honest, they've been weird a long time, I guess. How many people do you know with a cloak that grows with them, keeps them from getting injured, or from getting caught if they don't want to.

That last part? Well that's probably the first real weird thing that happened with this thing.

I would go hide in the forest, or in trees. Since I never took the damn thing off, I would be one of the first ones found, every single time we played. As I aged and figured out that it was the cloak, I couldn't really care, because then I could be done playing.

One day, though, I was feeling sad. Some of the kids were making fun of me wearing the cloak and always being caught out in games we played. I sat in the forest and was wishing that no one could find me. I cried, and then fell asleep.

I woke up and it was dark out! I got scared and started crying again. I could hear people calling my name, "Red, where are you?!" They were calling for Red. I was still hurting from the kids teasing about my red cloak.

Then someone was right next to me and calling my name. They got almost close enough that I could touch them. Their eyes swept left and right with their torch, but they did not see me. I was in no way that hidden that they wouldn't be able to see me. They turned and walked off in another direction.

I sat where I was with my eyes wide wondering what in the world was going on.

I began to wish that my mother or father would find me.

Soon enough, my father came through the brush, nearly from the same spot the man before had come, and he spotted me.

"Rebecca! What have you been doing out here? Did you not hear everyone calling for you? It's dangerous in the woods during the daylight hours, girl. Let's get you back home to your mother. She's worried sick."

He bundled me up and let out a yell to signal that he had found me and we went back to our home. I cried I was so happy that he found me. I tried to explain that someone had come upon me, but I hadn't said anything. They all said I must have been dreaming or some nonsense. Grown ups like to discount stories that children tell them as fiction, to make themselves feel better.

No one wanted to hear that one of the villagers that had been out looking for me stood right next to me and didn't see me... That made no sense, so of course I was making it up.

I finally stopped trying to get them to believe me, because that was just useless. So, I set about doing some tests. When I played hide and seek with the other kids, I wished that they wouldn't find me and they couldn't. They would get frustrated and called me a cheater.

I didn't care and began trying to figure out what else I could do with the cloak that made me invisible if I wanted it to. I would go around and I heard and saw things that I probably shouldn't have as a child.

Secret liaisons between young men and women. Who wanted to see boys and girls kissing? Really.

Around this time, though, my father decided that I should learn to defend myself if the need might arise.

He had given me a sword as a smaller child and I used that, but I was too big for that and had outgrown the training he had given me since then. Now, he was going into bigger stuff, like fighting and knives... things that wouldn't require that much of a long reach, something that a woman could easily accomplish.

I did very well with his teachings, and he was patient with me when there was something I was having trouble with. I had no idea why he thought it prudent for me to defend myself in this kind of a way, but I enjoyed spending time with my father.

My mother taught me practical lady things, like cooking and cleaning, sewing not only to make my own clothes but also to repair them, should anything come up.

My grandmother and her best friend taught me about herbs and things.

At one point, my grandmother took me aside after Matilde had left with her pot and basket of herbs. Even though we were alone in her house, she whispered as she told me again the story of how she came into possession of the red fabric that covered my back almost constantly. I sort of started to roll my eyes and get fussy because I had heard this story innumerable times.

"Shush, child, " She said urgently. "listen to my words, now. I tell this story, not only because it was something important that had happened to me and changed the direction not only of my own life, but of that of everyone around us. I tell you because I want you to see the fabric for yourself. Your blanket and your cloak are but pieces of the whole, and I have never cut the fabric again, once I made the cloak that somehow grew to fit you now as well as it did when you were a little girl. The fact of the matter is I have cut this fabric only on two occasions, and each time, took a significant amount of it to complete my project. Or so I thought."

She pulled the bolt of fabric from her chest that she had first hidden it in all those years ago and handed it to me. "Look for yourself girl. Look to see where I cut it."

I took the fabric in my hand and felt it's familiarity, which had always comforted me whenever I needed it. I began unfolding it, paying attention to the edges, to find the end my grandmother had cut from, first to make my beautiful blanket and then again to make my magic cloak.

I could not find it anywhere. None of the edges looked as though they had been cut by any kind of blade. It looked brand new. I couldn't figure it out. Looking up into my grandmother's eyes, I could see she was just as confused as I was. Still, there was a sparkle in her eyes when she said, "Girl, I don't think this cloth will ever disappear until it isn't needed anymore. When I touch it when I have an intention to make something for you, and idea comes to me, and then it's like I go into a trance, because the next thing I know I am holding a thing of beauty and have no idea how I came to have created it. The cloak I have made for you grows as though it doesn't want to be put aside for another to be made in it's place. It just always fits no matter how much you have grown. Your blanket, I would bet if it wasn't put away and you used it regularly, it would grow itself to fit you too. Girl, this cloth is magic that was given to me to give to you. Can't you see that?"

I probably looked at her like she was crazy. I thought maybe she was getting what people that are older sometimes get when their minds go. I kept looking in her eyes and thinking of her. She didn't ever seem like she was losing her mind. Could what she was telling me be true? If it is, why would the magic cloth be for making things for me? What could I possibly need a magic red cloth for?