Ribbons

She was a girl with a ribbon in her hair. A good girl, a smart girl. When she went crazy, everyone was shocked. How could this happen to such a good, smart girl? This didn’t happen to these girls with ribbons in their hair.

She did not go crazy. She knew she wasn’t crazy. She was being hunted by a monster. Look at that monster, she told everyone. He’s right behind me. They looked over the wrong shoulder and told her nothing was there.

She could feel the monster’s breath on her neck. He was following her again. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, warning her. So far all the monster did was follow her. He was waiting. Stalking behind.

“I have to do something about this monster once and for all,” she said to herself. No one else would listen anymore. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She was, after all, a good girl. She didn’t know how to fight.

There were whispers about a woman who lived on the edge of the lake. She had gone crazy, too. She talked about the monster. Brave children dared each other to run up to her door on Halloween. She was a crazy woman, a scary woman, a witch. The girl with the ribbon in her hair was not the kind of girl to talk to a crazy woman.

But the girl with the ribbon in her hair was now a crazy girl, too. This whispers followed her along with the monster. The other children avoided her in the schoolyard. A crazy girl can talk to a crazy woman.

The girl with the ribbon in her hair went to the edge of the lake, to the dark house along the water. The monster didn’t follow her there.

“What do I do about the monster?” she asked the crazy woman.

“I don’t see any monster,” the crazy woman told the girl with the ribbon in her hair.

“He isn’t here now,” she said. “But he’ll come.”

“Yes, he’ll come,” the crazy woman agreed. “No one believes you.”

“No one believes me.”

They nodded their heads at one another. One crazy woman is just a crazy woman, but a crazy woman and a crazy girl together are a group. A group on their own that no one believes. But they had each other now.

“I will help you with the monster,” the crazy woman said.

“How do I fight him?” the girl with the ribbon in her hair asked.

“You can’t fight him,” the crazy woman said. “You can only trick him.”

“Is that how you got away?” the girl with the ribbon asked. “You tricked him?”

“I did,” the crazy woman says. “I will teach you how.”

The girl with the ribbon in her hair had to leave. She was a good girl, and she had parents waiting for her. The crazy woman told her to come back the next day.

“Where were you?” asked the parents of the girl with the ribbon in her hair. She was a smart girl. She knew her parents would not want her speaking with the crazy woman at the edge of the lake.

“I was at the library,” she lied. She was a good girl. She did not usually lie. That made her lie easier to swallow.

“Oh,” her parents said. “Good,” her parents said. “No more of this monster business?”

The monster was waiting outside the door of the house. The girl with the ribbon in her hair could hear his heavy footsteps out there. He was walking loudly to scare her.

The girl with the ribbon in her hair knew that her parents could hear the monster’s footsteps. Her mother turned her head just slightly when the monster moved. Her father looked out the window and then looked away. The girl with the ribbon in her hair could not tell why they told her she was crazy.

“No more monster business,” she lied again.

“Oh,” her parents said. “Good,” her parents said.

The next day, the girl with the ribbon in her hair went back to the dark house at the edge of the lake. The crazy woman, who the girl knew was not crazy, was waiting outside.

“You came back,” she said.

“I came back,” the girl with the ribbon in her hair agreed. “We must trick this monster. He is getting closer to me every day.”

“He will eat you soon,” the crazy woman said.

“But can’t we trick him?” the girl with the ribbon in her hair cried.

“We will trick him,” the crazy woman soothed. “Never mind what I said before.”

First the crazy woman said the girl with the ribbon in her hair needed to learn to walk with a stoop, as the crazy woman did. It would confuse the monster, the crazy woman said. So they spend the afternoon practicing. The girl with the ribbon in her hair had to learn to walk slower, hunch her back, half-close her eyes.

The girl with the ribbon in her hair had to go home again. She went home. The monster watched from the window. Her mother’s eyes looked at the window and then slid away again. She did not want to see the monster. She did not want to hear the monster. Good girls and good women did not see monsters outside the window.

“Can’t you see him there in the window?” the girl with the ribbon in her hair asked.

“There is nothing in the window,” her mother said nervously. “There is no such thing as monsters. Don’t be a crazy girl.”

The girl with the ribbon in her hair was a good girl. She did not argue. The monster came into the house that night. He stood over her bed while she quaked with fear. He did not eat her. He only wanted her to know it would happen soon. He wanted her to know he could do it.

She ran back to the house at the edge of the lake, ran to the safety of the crazy woman. She did not know if the crazy woman could keep her safe. She only knew the crazy woman knew about the monster. That was its own safety.

“Today is the day,” the crazy woman said. “We must trick the monster today. If not, he will eat you tonight for sure.”

They crazy woman gave the girl with the ribbon in her hair clothes to wear to make her look like the crazy woman. They walked out of the house and down to the water. The girl with the ribbon in her hair walked her new walk, her crazy woman walk in her crazy woman clothes.

The monster saw them at the edge of the lake and he came closer. They could hear his footsteps. Soon he was close enough for them to feel his breath on the back of their necks. They both got goosebumps all over their arms and legs.

The girl with the ribbon in her hair had thought the crazy woman was not scared of the monster. But she could see now the crazy woman shared her terror. The crazy woman looked at the girl with the ribbon in her hair. She touched her soft, young face.

“You will have to stay here,” the crazy woman said. “You will have to live at the edge of the lake.”

The monster was upon them then. His footsteps were loud and echoing. The girl with the ribbon in her hair trembled.

“How can I live here?” she asked the crazy woman. “What do you mean?”

“You will see what I mean,” the crazy woman said. “It will be okay.”

The monster reached out one hand. He was going to snatch up the girl with the ribbon in her hair. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. Her fear was paralyzing. The monster was coming. The final moment was here.

The crazy woman also reached out one hand. She pulled the ribbon from the girl’s hair and tied up her own hair. She straightened her back and walked quickly again. She was no longer an old, crazy woman. She was the girl with the ribbon in her hair.

“Walk back into the house,” she told the girl who didn’t have a ribbon in her hair anymore. “Walk the new way.”

The girl who didn’t have a ribbon in her hair was a good girl. She did not argue. She was too afraid to argue, anyway. She went back to the house and she watched at the window.

There was a girl with a ribbon in her hair at the edge of the lake. The monster reached out one hand. He grabbed at the girl with the ribbon in her hair. He brought her up to his mouth. He opened his wide jaw and he swallowed her in one bite.

The girl who didn’t have a ribbon in her hair screamed then. She covered her mouth, afraid the monster would come for her next. But he was satiated. He’d eaten a girl with a ribbon in her hair. He lumbered away from the house, away from the town, away from the lake, and over the hills.

The monster was gone. They had tricked him.

The girl who didn’t have a ribbon in her hair stayed in the house at the edge of the lake, just as she promised she would. She looked around the house and found there had been many crazy women who lived in the house before the crazy woman she knew. And now it was her turn.

She didn’t know how long the monster would stay away. But she knew he would come back, as he always did before. She heard the whispers around her house at the edge of the lake. She was a crazy woman, a scary woman, a witch. It was so sad, the people whispered. They’d all thought she’d been such a good girl, a smart girl. They hadn’t realized she was such a crazy woman. Brave children dared each other to run up to her door on Halloween.

The crazy woman who had once had a ribbon in her hair lived in a house at the edge of the lake. She’d promised she would. So she did.

There is a girl with a ribbon in her hair. A good girl, a smart girl. There is a crazy woman on the edge of the lake. The monster will find the girl with the ribbon in her hair. The girl with the ribbon in her hair will find the crazy woman. The monsters always find the girls with the ribbons in their hair. The crazy girls with ribbons in their hair always find the crazy women on the edge of the lake. So it goes.