Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

Emerald’s barn was in shambles when she and Virginia got up the next morning. The goats and their hay were fine and the wolves had been unsuccessful at breaking into the root cellar and the cheese room. But everything else had been damaged. The bodies of the two young wolves were no longer hanging on the side of the barn either. Only a few drops of blood remained in the snow below where they had been, as a reminder of their presence the night before.

“They probably ate them,” Emerald said.

Virginia said nothing, but she didn’t believe that for a minute. They’d merely reclaimed their dead to give them the wolf equivalent of a decent burial.

As usual, Virginia did the milking. Then she left Emerald to begin preparing it for cheese. “I’m going to make some stew for supper,” she said. But that was only an excuse. Instead she went into her room and closed the door.

“Ring?” Virginia said, looking down at her hand. “I can’t take much more of this. When am I getting out of here?”

The ring picked up its little pearl head and sang,

“When Topaz comes this afternoon,
Then you’ll know the end is soon.
When she leaves, you should too.
So all can see just what is true.”

“This afternoon? Good. Because I’m ready to go right now.”

As per the ring’s words, Topaz came out of the woods in the late afternoon. Emerald was teaching Virginia how to sew at that time. The older woman was very handy with a spinning wheel and a needle. And what came easily to her, she figured should come easily to everyone else.

Topaz didn’t knock. She just opened the door and stalked in. “How could you?” she demanded of her mother. “Gerardo and Elysha were barely more than cubs.”

Emerald didn’t look up. She merely took the sewing out of Virginia’s hands and said. “Throw that animal out of my house, Virginia.”

“Mama, if this is about me, about what I did, I promise you I’ll go. I’ll leave today. Without Aesophocles. You’ll never hear from me again.”

“You won’t leave,” Emerald said without looking up. “You’re a wolf-lover and you can’t bear to leave them. And whatever you do, I don’t care anyway. You’re dead as far as I’m concerned.”

“No,” Topaz said. “You’re the one who’s dead. You have no heart or soul anymore. Just hatred and ambition. I don’t want any part of you either.”

As Topaz turned to go, Virginia said, “Wait. I’m going with you.”

Emerald’s eyes flashed green fire, but Virginia didn’t care. She grabbed her cloak and followed Topaz out the door.

“Ungrateful children!” Emerald yelled at their backs. “But you’ll learn! You WILL learn!”

The two young women walked on unhearing, pausing only slightly at the crimson spot in the snow where the bodies of Gerardo and Elysha had been thrown out of the bags the night before. Virginia noticed the snow around the spots was unblemished white. Both the goats and the wolves had avoided coming too close.

“Thank you for trying,” Topaz said. “But I see now it was impossible. She’s too eaten up with hatred to see anything clearly.”

“Maybe you should leave this area.”

“We will. Aesophocles sent all but five of the wolves further into the forest. I think you and your family should leave as well.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.”

“Your father brought us many supplies. I think we should split them. I can’t carry everything and I don’t know if I’ll have the luxury of a hut where we’re going.”

“Maybe we’ll take a few things, but we should probably travel light too. I have no idea where we’ll be going next.” Or when, Virginia added to herself. She was trying to think of something encouraging to say to Topaz, when two male voices started shouting up ahead.

“Hey wolf, hey wolf!” one strong bass voice called.

“Yo, yo, yo!” a younger male voice called.

Both men were beating the shrubs and trees as they moved and making a lot of noise.

“There he is!” the first one yelled. “He’s coming toward you.”

“The bounty hunters,” Topaz said. “I’ve got to stop them.”

“No!” Virginia said. She tried to hold Topaz back, but succeeded only in separating her friend from her rust colored shawl.

“Stop!” Topaz screamed as she ran into the brush in the direction of the men’s voices. “Stop!”

Virginia tried to follow but she slipped in the snow. Her delicate shoes simply were not made for running in the wet stuff. By the time she recovered, Topaz was well ahead.

The bounty hunters had already managed to shoot down one medium sized she-wolf and were in the act of trying to flush out Scythian from some underbrush. Topaz ran into the clearing just as the three men with the bows and arrows raised them. They seemed intent on ignoring her and her shouts. The two men with the clubs continued beating the bushes till Scythian felt he had only two choices. He could die a slow death by clubbing or risk a quicker one by arrows while running. He chose the later. He tore out of the bushes and headed for a thicket on the other side of the clearing, never looking back. Topaz threw herself in-between the men and Scythian just as the arrows took off. They found a target, but not the one originally intended.

The delicate girl with the red hair came down not far from the body of the dead she-wolf.

“Aw!” one of the bounty hunters said with disappointment. “He got away. I was hoping to get at least two today.”

“I was hoping for three,” another man said, putting away his arrows.

“Yeah, well, one is better than none,” a third said. “Where did they all go today?”

None of the men seemed concerned that they’d just hit a woman with their stray arrows. In fact, they didn’t even look at her. They packed up their supplies and bagged the she-wolf. Then they started off out of the forest in the direction of Emerald’s. Virginia, of course, had the good sense to stay hidden in the brush. She knew if they had so little regard for killing Topaz, they’d feel no guilt in killing her either. In fact, since she was a witness, they might make a point of it. So, she stood very still, barely breathing in a dark green juniper at a comfortable distance from them.

“It’s too bad we can’t count the girl as a wolf,” one man said.

“Yeah! Not officially, anyway,” another said.

And the men laughed.

Virginia waited till their laughing receded further down the path, then she ran to her fallen friend. “Topaz!” she said, scooping her up into her arms. She was still breathing. “I should get help.”

“No,” Topaz moaned. “I don’t want to die alone. Please.”

“I won’t go,” Virginia said crying. “I’ll stay right here.”

“I did the best I could,” Topaz said in a strained voice.

“I know.” Virginia rocked her back and forth, like a child in her arms, brushing her beautiful red hair back from her face. Topaz’s freckles stood out starkly against her porcelain white skin. She closed her green eyes and rested her face against Virginia’s wool cloak.

Virginia didn’t know why. But she started singing the lullaby that her ring had been singing to her so much lately.

“A fairy queen does watch you sleep,” she sang in a quivery voice.
“And will tonight your safety keep.
Have no more worries for today,
But let them all just fade away.

“Dream of flowers and of fun,
And of days played in the sun.
Dream of love and family,
And of rainbows you will see.

“Dream of stars and magic too.
All these things will come to you.
A fairy queen does watch you sleep,
And will tonight your safety keep.”

When Topaz’s breathing stopped. Virginia knew what she had to do. She didn’t have to ask the ring this time. Gently, she lowered her friend’s body to the ground and left her head resting on her rust colored shawl. Determinedly, she walked back in the direction of Emerald’s cottage.

Emerald was outside the barn, trying to shoo the goats in. But they weren’t having any of it. The fresh smell of blood coming from yet another wolf hanging outside the barn for the second day in a row was very upsetting to them. They were pretty much figuring they were next.

“They killed her!” Virginia screamed out as she advanced on the older woman. “They left her to die in the forest.”

Emerald glanced up briefly and straightened her apron under her cloak. “You’re a mess, Child. Go put on a clean dress.”

“This is her blood!” Virginia said, waving her dress in Emerald's face. “She died in my arms. This is Topaz’s blood. They killed your daughter.”

Still Emerald was unperturbed. “It was going to happen sooner or later,” she said. “I warned her. But she wouldn’t listen. Sooner or later she was going to get in the way. And sooner or later they would have to do what they did.”

Virginia was stunned. “You knew. You planned it, didn’t you? ‘Not officially’ they said. They said they couldn’t count the girl officially. Did you pay those men to kill your daughter?”

“Not officially. I just told them that if she got in the way, they shouldn’t worry about it. She was dead already.”

“And you paid them?” Virginia demanded.

“Only an extra pound of coffee.”

“That’s all she was worth to you?” Virginia started backing up.

“She was dead already. In a few years, no one will even remember that I had another daughter. And Opal won’t say anything. She knows better than that. The whole world is opening for us here. And I’m going to give it to my granddaughter.”

Virginia turned and ran for the woods, never looking back. But before she could reach the tree line, she heard her name being called.

“Virginia? Virginia!” It was Wolf.

“Where are you?” Her Dad called in tandem.

“Virginia?”

“I’m here!” she called.

Wolf bounded out into the yard with Tony close behind.

“Why did you come back?” Wolf asked. He looked toward the barn and saw Emerald shooing goats in the yard as though nothing was happening. He wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her off into the forest. “I was so worried when I scented you in this direction.”

“Scythian told his father what happened and then came to get us,” Tony said.

“I had to confront Emerald,” Virginia said. “She knew about it. She even paid the bounty hunters extra for doing it.”

“We’ve got to get you out of here,” Wolf insisted. “This place is evil.”

“I think it’s about time to leave myself,” Tony agreed. “That Emerald is a piece of work. Did you see her? Her daughter just dead and she’s acting like it’s another ordinary day with the goats.”

Suddenly the darkening woods was pierced by the long brokenhearted howl of a wolf.“It’s Aesophocles,” Wolf said. “He’s found Topaz.”

They stopped and listened to the mournful cry as it echoed through the trees, the cold of the forest floor rising up to embrace it.

“I don’t think it’s time to go yet,” Virginia said. “Not quite anyway. We can’t leave without paying our respects to Aesophocles.”

“He won’t even know we’re there,” Tony said. “At least Wolf didn’t notice any of us when he was mourning for you.”

“He’ll hear us,” Wolf said. “Even if he doesn’t act like it.”

Slowly they made their way in the direction of the grieving wolf, picking their way solemnly through snow and underbrush. When they reached the clearing near the path, they found Aesophocles howling over his wife’s body. Scythian and two other wolves close by. Aesophocles quieted as they approached and curled himself around Topaz’s body as if he were trying to keep her warm.

“We came to pay our respects,” Tony said.

“Emerald did this,” Virginia said. “She paid the bounty hunters extra and told them not to worry if she accidentally got in the way.”

“I know,” Scythian said. “If they’d really tried they could have avoided hitting her and gotten me. I think they enjoyed killing her. I think they just enjoy killing.”

“She was a wonderful friend,” Virginia said, tears coming to her eyes again. “And she tried so hard.”

“It wasn’t meant to be,” Scythian said. “Wolves and humans are not meant to be mated.”

Aesophocles started whimpering. He buried his snout in Topaz’s cold red hair and rubbed his head against hers.

Wolf pulled Virginia closer. He didn’t care what Scythian said. As far as he was concerned, he and Virginia were meant to be mated. And he had no intentions of letting his wife go away from him again. No matter what Snow White or the ring said.

“I will be taking the role of Alpha male now,” Scythian said. “We will stay away from the humans as much as we can. But if crossed, we will fight. And there will be no more matings between humans and wolves. I will forbid it. And we will forget about Topaz. She never existed.”

“Seems like everyone wanted to forget about her,” Virginia said.

“They’ll remember now,” Tony said.

“Yeah,” Wolf said. “That’s why we’re here.” He rubbed his face against Virginia’s hair and treasured the feeling of her warmth on his cheek.

“You can tell whoever you like,” Scythian said. “Here she will be forgotten.”

Aesophocles looked up at the half moon and howled long and loud.

“She won’t be forgotten by everyone, I think,” Tony said.

From behind them, they heard the sound of a squeaky wheel approaching.

“Someone’s coming,” Wolf said. His eyes were able to make out the figure of a plump girl of about fifteen in the dappled moonlight and blue shaded snow. She was pulling a wheelbarrow behind her with a heavy object in it covered by a cloth. “It’s a girl.”

Virginia peered around him and recognized the round figure as it stepped into the clearing. “Isabella.” She had been at Emerald’s meeting earlier in the week. She was the one who’d lost her wooden charm to baby Red Riding Hood. “Isabella, what are you doing here?”

Isabella turned her dark eyes on the small gathering, coming at last to rest on the figure of Topaz lying in the moonlit snow. “Emerald did this, didn’t she?” Isabella asked without emotion. There was no surprise, no grief. It was just a statement of fact.

“Yes,” Virginia said. “Anyway, she arranged it.”

Isabella nodded her dark head.

“Why are you here in the forest by yourself?” Virginia asked.

“I got fired. I was an assistant cook on one of the larger farms. They told me to pack up my things and get out. They didn’t care what time it was.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Isabella said. “They were talking up Emerald’s little princess and I told them all she was a brat.”

“Pearl, you mean?”

Isabella dark eyes hardened into slits above her pink cheeks. “Anything she wants, Emerald gives her. Even the wooden charm my father carved for me before he died. She knew how important it was to me. But she didn’t care. What does she care about an orphan like me? Or anyone else for that matter? Pearl is all she cares about. The little brat.” There was real venom in her voice. “I wish she were the one lying dead in the snow.”

“You don’t mean that,” Virginia said.

“Oh, yes I do. Everyone’s afraid to talk against her. Well, not me. Not anymore. I don’t care if it cost me my job and my home.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going east and maybe south. Somewhere where the weather’s not so severe. I’ll start again. At least I still have my mother’s mirror.” She tucked in the cloth around the bottom of the mirror with all the tenderness of a mother with a sleeping child. “If I were you, I’d take revenge against Emerald.”

“I’ll send one of my wolves to see you out of the forest,” Scythian said.

“Why?” Isabella asked.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The young wolf and the girl gazed at each other for a moment, a strange look of understanding passing between them. Isabella nodded her acceptance and headed off with her new wolf companion, one of her cart’s wheels still squeaking.

“I will take my revenge,” Aesophocles said, sitting up on his haunches. “I’ll take from Emerald what she took from me. She took the one I loved and the child she was supposed to have. So, in revenge, I’ll take the child that she treasures.”

“A fine goal, Father,” Scythian said. “But Pearl is well guarded most of the time.”

“Then I will wait,” Aesophocles said. “One day, she will be careless. And I will take my revenge.” He began howling again, one long mournful howl after the other.

Virginia’s ring shivered on her hand. She assumed it was trying to sing but couldn’t be heard over Aesophocles’s wailing. So she raised it close to her ear.

“And now it’s time for you to go,” the ring sang.
“You’ve shown them all they need to know.”

“It’s time to go,” Virginia said.

Wolf nodded his agreement.

“You can take anything you want from the hut,” Scythian said. “We won’t be going back there again.”

“Thank you,” Virginia said. “We’ll stop on the way.”

“Can’t we just leave now?” Tony asked.

“We don’t know where we’re going. So, we should bring some provisions. We can leave from the hut.”

Virginia and Wolf led the way, their arms securely locked around each other.

Tony followed behind feeling a little left out. Without knowing quite why, he picked up the mirror talisman and looked into its tiny depths. “Matilde,” he said. “If you can hear me. Why don’t you ask Snow White if she can improve our accommodations in the next place she sends us to.”