A Little Tradition, Part One

She lets the leaves blow right in to her kitchen. There's a bit of a pile forming under the cupboard. The little, fresh, yellow and green ones mix in with the brittle, old, brown ones. She doesn't seem to mind. She has a visitor on the way and lot's to do before he comes.

Once upon a time, a little girl took the long way home from school. She was a terribly naughty girl. She talked back to her teachers. She played out in the forest till very late. She'd get mud all over her nicest dresses.

And that day she had mud all over her dress out in the dark part of the forest where she was not supposed to go. She had made a whole family of dolls from bits of rags and sticks lying around the woods. She conducted silly plays and dramas with her cast of twigs. She even sung along for all the musical parts. After rehearsing for many hours, she felt she had prepared quite a great show. She was sad that no one was nearby to write it all down. But the sun had set by then, and the dark part of the forest became especially dark. The little girl tried to run home.

She scrambled through the brush and the dry branches. She climbed between bushes and over fallen logs. The forest seemed strange indeed at night and the girl ecame very lost. She could hear the scratch and patter of animals crawling around, curious to see the naughty little girl out in the dark of the woods. The girl grew very frightened indeed and fell onto her bottom. She was so scared, she hardly noticed when a great, furry arm scooped her up and carried her away.

Deep in a slimy cave, torches flared to light. In the flickering orange glow, the girl could make out stacks of greasy bones in the corners and a great stone slab, like a table right in the middle. In the shadows just beyond the torchlight, moved a terrible beast. He might have been a huge bear or gorilla, but the skin of his face had been sliced away, leaving angry red muscle twiching over a pair of eyes, burning red with hunger. His long, clawed fingers held a bleached, human skull like a bowl. He slurped some kind of putrid gruel from the inside and licked the slime from his teeth.

He leaned in to hiss, "I'm going to eat you next, little girl,"

Somehow, the fear had passed out of the girl's head. She smiled right back, "It looks like you already have your dinner,"

He looked down at the gruel, "Oh this, it's just a snack," He tapped his finger against the bowl and thought for a few seconds, "I made it this morning before I knew I'd be eating you,"

She nodded helpfully.

"I didn't want it to go to waste," he added, "But I'll be hungry in just a moment and then I'll gobble you up!" He curled his lips around his fangs and leaned in to stare at the little girl as he said those last few words.

"Well, what will we do in the meantime?"

"Hmm?" the beast sat back on his haunches.

"Who knows how long it will take to be hungry again. I'd hate to get bored,"

The beast furrowed his brow, totally unprepared for this sort of behavior.

She quickly continued, "You must have something to do around here, a game to play?"

The beast turned his great, shaggy body and looked around. He picked a chunk of mouse out of his teeth with one long, bent claw. The girl folded her hands and waited patiently. The great creature grumbled and shifted his bulk to the other side.

"I've got some cards," he mumbled finally.

"Perfect!" she beamed at her captor.

He lurched forward and dug through one of the piles of bones. After a moment, he dragged out a back pack with bits of a backpacker still sticking to the straps. He dug through the contents till he found an old pack of playing cards.

The girl clapped and smiled. She dusted off a spot on the stone slab so they could play.

The beast held the cards reluctantly, "I really must apologize. These are the only cards I have and they're a bit..." he grumbly voice trailed away.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll do fine. They're just cards,"

"Well, they're kind of rude," he tried to explain.

She rolled her eyes and marched forward, plucking the pack from his claws. Each card in the set had pictures of naked ladies.

"This is nothing, I've seen where my cousins hide a whole, big box full of magazines with naked ladies,"

"Really?" The beast seemed very interested, "Do they hide it in the woods?" he asked, his rumbling voice filled with hope.

"No, they live in New Jersey,"

The beast nodded and sighed.

The girl shuffled the cards into neat piles on the stone. She cocked her head to one side and asked, "So what do you want to play?"