Sabrina frowned. "I could have told you that."
Uncle Jake grinned. "I also found this," he said, passing her a yellowing sheet with typing on it. "The little girl's history."
Little Red Riding Hood's medical history read much like her famous fairy-tale story. She was sent into the woods by her mother to take her old grandmother some food. Along the way she met a horrible beast she described as a wolf. When she got to the house she saw what she thought was her grandmother sitting in bed. Her grandmother had actually been killed and eaten by the wolf. The beast had put on her grandmother's clothing to fool the child. Just before the wolf could kill Little Red Riding Hood as well, the child discovered the disguise and ran into the woods. There she found a woodcutter who hunted the wolf, cut him open, and shoved rocks into his belly. Then
this woodcutter tossed the wolf's body into the river where it sank to the bottom. The man took the girl back to the village in hopes of returning her to her family, but her parents were never found. It was her doctors' belief that Red Riding Hood's mind was severely distressed by the events, causing her to have a break with reality. The doctors had had no success reaching her and medications were equally unsuccessful.
"The Big Bad Wolf made her crazy," Sabrina said. She thought of Mr. Canis. The old man hadn't been capable of such brutality, but his alter ego, the Wolf, was pure evil. For a moment, Sabrina felt sorry for Red Riding Hood.
"That's what her doctors thought, too, but you don't need a medical degree to figure that out. All you have to do is look at these."
He handed her a stack of papers. Sabrina flipped through them. The first few were finger paintings of a family. There was a mother and a father holding a baby, a kitten, a grandmother, and a ferocious-looking dog. As Sabrina flipped through them she found that the colors the girl used were less and less varied. The paintings got darker and darker until eventually they were entirely black and red. Looking at them made Sabrina queasy.
"That's her family," Uncle Jake said. "There's dozens more."
"She's a little obsessed," Sabrina muttered.
"No, she's a lot obsessed. She's never gotten over her loss."
"But it happened hundreds of years ago. Her grandmother is dead. Her mom and dad disappeared."
"Not in her mind," Uncle Jake said. "I think she's collecting a new family to replace the one she lost."
Sabrina felt her blood stop running in her veins. "She's got Mom and Dad and when I confronted her she said something about having a baby brother."
"Exactly," Uncle Jake said, pointing to the mother, father, and baby in the drawings.
"She said something else," Sabrina went on. "She said, 'Tell grandma and the puppy I'll see them soon. Then we can all play house.'"
"She needs them, too. And who do we know around here who is a grandma with a dog?'
Sabrina nearly cried out.
Granny Relda!
Uncle Jake took the paintings and put them back into the file. "It doesn't tell us where Red Riding Hood may have gone, but at least we know where she's headed. We're all going to have to be prepared to defend your grandmother if that girl and her freaky pet show up."
"I don't know what kind of help I'm going to be," Sabrina said as she gestured to her broken arm.
"Oh, I'll fix that," Uncle Jake said rushing into the living room and returning with his overcoat. He sat back down and started rifling through its pockets.
"Where did I put it?" he mumbled to himself. He took a bottle out of his coat. Apparently it wasn't what he was looking for and he tossed it aside. Sabrina peered down at it. The label said, EVIL EYE DROPS. A small tube labeled CURSE-B-GONE and then a tub of cream called WITCH HAZEL REPELLENT were also rejected.
"Here it is," Uncle Jake said, finally pulling out a small round tin and handing it to Sabrina. She glanced at the label. SATIN SURGEON'S SALVE--NOW WITH A LEMONY-FRESH SCENT!
"What's Satin Surgeon's Salve?" Sabrina asked as she popped the lid off. Inside was an icky black ointment that smelled like backed-up sewage. It made her gag.
"You've never heard of this stuff?" Uncle Jake said as if exasperated. "I can't believe Henry didn't even teach you the basics. Andrew Lang wrote about this in
The Olive Fairy Book.
The story is about a princess who saved the life of the man she loved. The rumor is she got the salve from Cupid himself."
"What's in this stuff?" Sabrina said as she pinched her nose.
"You don't want to know." Uncle Jake took the tin and dipped his fingers into the rancid glop, which he rubbed over