Girl-in-White

Once, far away and long ago, there was a little family, who lived just beyond the dark pine forest, and it included only a mother, dressed all in red, and a pretty little daughter of no-more than twelve, dressed all in white. They lived in a little cottage, with only room enough for two. The mother-in-red wanted no more children, but she had grown an apple tree in the garden in the front of the house, which held apples only she would pick.

One day, the pretty little girl-in-white was told to go play in the little garden outside of the house. But before she left, her mother reached down and said to her, “Do not go into the dark pine forest beyond the apple tree, as the branches and needles of the harsh pines will scrape up your little clothes and your pretty face. Stay in the garden and eat this apple." And the mother-in-red passed the girl-in-white a little red apple that was just as small as the daughter and just as red as the mother.

But the girl-in-white did not listen to the mother-in-red. She took her apple and ran past the apple tree in the garden, to the edge of the pine forest. The little red apple was clutched in one hand, while her pretty bright eyes looked on the black trees of the forest.

She was about to enter between two of the pines when a tall figure exited from behind one of them. It was so tall that when the girl-in-white looked up, all she could see were little white eyes looking out from a great black hood. It was as slim as a tree-trunk, enough that it had fit behind one without being seen. She looked past the tall figure at the dark pine forest but could not pass beyond the trunk-thin figure.

So, because she could not pass beyond, the pretty girl-in-white held up the bright red apple to the tall figure. And with branch-thin, needle-long fingers, it took the bright apple from her and stepped aside.

The pretty girl-in-white went into the dark pine forest, slipping between the trees so that she could see what was beyond. She was curious, but as her mother had warned, the needles were sharp and scraped at her face and drops of blood fell onto the waistline of her little white clothes. Her pretty face ruined, she hurried out of the dark forest, until she was back in the garden, under the safety of the kind apple tree. The pretty girl-in-white could not see if the tall figure was at the house, but the mother-in-red was, and when she saw what the girl-in-white had done, she beat the girl-in-white's arm, leaving red lines along her pretty skin. The girl-in-white cried out, but the woman-in-red said, “That is what happens to pretty girls who go into the dark forest.”

The girl-in-white looked up from the tears that had dropped onto her ruined white clothes and saw, beyond the woman-in-red, the tall dark figure. In its needle-long fingers, it was holding her dull-red apple and with the other it reached for the woman-in-red. Its needle-long fingers tangled at her large red hood but could not catch it as the woman-in-red dragged the girl-in-white back into the little cottage. As the cottage was too small for more than two, the tall figure was left at the door, only the dull-red apple visible in needle-long fingers when the girl-in-white looked back.

The girl-in-white was sent to bed without even an apple to eat.

From her bed, the girl-in-white saw the tall figure in the window and her dull-red apple in its grasp. But she could do nothing but watch it from her window. The girl-in-white, who had not gotten to eat even an apple, who had to had to look at an apple held in needle-long fingers, who had been hurt by her mother, slowly slipped out of bed to take an apple for herself.

The girl-in-white stepped out of the cottage, going to the apple tree, and reaching up to collect an apple into her small hands. She bit into it. But the cottage, big enough for only two, only had one left inside of it. So, through the open front door, the tall figure slipped. When the girl-in-white returned to the door, she could not enter. But from the door, she could see the cottage light, and the woman-in-red. And under the light was the tall figure, eating the woman-in-red, down in as many bites as it had taken for the girl-in-white to eat her stolen apple. There was not one bite left. But when it turned to look at the girl-in-white, its pin-prick eyes were now one-white and one-red and it set the dull red apple on the windowsill, with its needle thin fingers and its branch long arms.

Time passed and the apples fell from the tree and the leaves dropped from its branches, leaving them as dark and thin as the branch-thin arms of the tall figure in the cottage. The woman-in-pine-dark-mourning stood in the forest, the needle-thin branches gently brushing against her face as she gathered pine seeds into her basket. Then she returned home, where she passed the bright-red apple sitting on the windowsill of the cottage built only for two.