Shiela enjoyed telling the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" to the children at the reading group in her little library.  She would sit perched on a stool in front of the group and crouch down when she started to describe how the wolf wore grandma's clothing after he ate her up. 

      "He put on all her clothes and settled himself in bed just in time as Little Red Riding Hood was coming through the door."  She began to get the chills every time she recited this part of the story because she knew that it was describing the duplicious nature of her own grandmother. 

     Shiela had been scared by the depths to her sweet looking grandma many times as she had been growing up.   She would sidle up to her for a sweet hug and then become unraveled by her grandmother's bitter tongue.  Sheila was never the most popular or attractive child and the grandmother wanted her to look better all the time.  Her criticisms hurt Shiela deep inside.

     Today when she finished the last awed statement by Little Red Riding Hood, "Grandma, what big teeth you have!", she jumped up and growled extra loudly at all the children.  She always smiled when she heard their screams and as she growled and lunged forward off her stool she felt afraid herself for all the duplicity she had seen in her grandmother and in other people as well.  

     She settled the children down and read triumphantly about the woodsman who burst into the door just at the last moment to save Little Red Riding Hood.  She gave some extra emphasis to his handsome appearance and his strong arms as they slayed the wolf who was pretending to be grandma.  She had met such a man and yesterday she had introduced him to her own grandma.

    As she sat there between her new boyfriend and her grandma she had felt so proud as he told the grandma what a wonderful woman she was and how lucky he was to have found her.  She had watched as her grandma  sputtered a bit not knowing what to say in her favor.  She had told Sheila many times that if she didn't fix herself up no man would ever look at her.  She had even tried to grab Sheila's bun once and tear it loose to show her how much better she looked with her hair down.

    The grandma made the mistake of telling Sheila's new boyfriend that Sheila would look better if she would wear a little make up.  He looked over at Sheila and nodded that he now understood what she had been telling him about this venomous old hag.  He had gone over to Sheila and put his arms around her right in front of the grandma and kissed her fully on the mouth.

    "I couldn't do that if her lips were covered in red lipstick." he said.  "It would get all over me and her too!"   He had laughed and tried to include the grandma in the joke but she just sputtered off into the kitchen shaking her head.  Sheila and her bow embraced even more passionately in that small little living room and he had taken her to his place shortly afterwards to prove to her how much he loved every inch of her.