Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, and the Hunter are not in this fragment.
What happened was, since Lauren lived for years in Berlin and speaks perfect German, she speaks the language to the kid at home and we send him to a “German School” once a week. They had their “Summerfest” a couple of weeks ago in a beautiful park in North Vancouver. Along with games and food (bratwurst and pretzels, of course), there was a little pageant, the kids sang and danced, and four of them performed Little Red Riding Hood.
Here’s the picture: On your right, LRRH. She’s fair, perhaps not beautiful but striking in her crimson-and-pink cloak and hood, rough blonde locks escaping both sides of her face. She’s staring way out over your left shoulder, past the trees and mountains it seems; what vision of predators and grannies informs that distant gaze? The boy in the shag-carpet wolf suit, standing shoulder to shoulder with LRRH (he’s a bit shorter), looks almost straight right. The wolfnose covers most of his face but his eyes, too, reflect abstraction beneath their fringe of pale-brown hair. Standing separately on the left edge of the picture, the boy playing the hunter is just a kid in shorts and a Vancouver Canucks T-shirt, his costume is only a German hunter’s hat; his round face has a smug little smile and he’s staring straight into the camera. All three have their arms down, relaxed: one of LRRH’s hands holds a finger from the other.
I think it’s a remarkable picture. But, the world being what it is, I don’t think it’s ethical to publish a picture of other people’s children on a popular web-site without asking them; and were it my kid and I were asked, I’d say no. So I won’t.
Sad...
