One day there was a beautiful little girl who adored her grandmother, her name was Pupa but everyone called her Little Red Riding Hood because she always wore a red hooded coat and red was her favourite colour.

Her nanna adored her also and the two were inseparable until one day her mother and father decided to take her far, far away to the lucky land.

In this lucky land she was abused by her mother, who beat her with objects and called her all sorts of horrible names; names that little girls should never have to hear, which made her feel worthless.

When she was old enough, she left home and started a life of her own but had some problems relating to other women because of the abuse her mother gave her as a child and befriended mainly men who took advantage of her.

When Little Red Riding hood had her own children, she thought all her troubles were over because she loved them soooo much that it was not possible for her to imagine that she could ever feel sad again. These two little children of hers were absolutely adorable and loved their mother very much. On mother’s day, the children used to give their mother handmade gifts, which would s made their mother very happy. All three of them were very close for many years and did everything together.  

Little Red Riding Hood’s mother became very jealous of her happiness because she was a miserable person herself who suffered a lot and therefore, decided to personally attack Little Red Riding Hood by saying nasty things to her children about their mother.

One day Little Red Riding had enough and when her children were still very small she took them to the country side to live for a long time because she wanted to get as far away from her own mother’s nasty behaviour as possible, but in the country there were other problems that she did not see coming.

There were men who preyed on children and women without husbands (like her) and also police officers who were dishonest and very corrupt and abused their power over innocent people and because the country side was so far away from the city, nothing was ever done about it and all this evil flourished but Little Red Riding Hood was in love with nature and all the wild animals that run free in the country.

Little Red Riding Hood loved to watch the cows in the fields every morning munching on grass and loved the smell of the air blowing a scent of freshly cut grass through her kitchen windows and in the country, she made some really nice friends.

One day she witnessed a crime, Little Red Riding Hood saw a police officer in uniform force himself onto another women who didn’t want his attention and she got very upset and told his boss at the police station, who did nothing about it but then it happened to her.

She couldn’t keep quiet anymore and ‘blew her whistle really loud’ to try and stop this problem but it caused her more harm than good. The police station did not appreciate her big mouth and gave her a really hard time for many years trying to accuse her of things she did not do. In the end they took her children with the help of some other people in authority and she just wanted to die because she could not handle the pain in her heart. Her children were eventually turned against her and Miss Little Red Riding Hood was locked up in an institution so she couldn’t speak anymore.

She prayed to God every night to give her Justice and he heard her cry for help. God sent her a very nice and intelligent lawyer who help her for free and got her out of that terrible place that she was locked up in. God also sent her an honest doctor, who did not think that there was anything wrong with her. Miss Little Red Riding Hood was released from the system but her unfortunate run of bad luck was held against her by everyone else.

When she was set free, Little Red Riding Hood did everything in her power to get her kids back but the police officers in court told too many lies and so did her mother to make sure that Little Red Riding Hood would never, ever see her children again but she still loved both of them very much.

So Little Red Riding Hood decided to start a new life somewhere else. She remembered her grandmother that she loved very much when she was a little girl and decided to go and live there to be with her again. It’s a small island with very small people who do not have a lot of money and they are very loud and worry about everything but Little Red Riding Hood was really looking forward to see her beloved grandmother again.

When Little Red Riding Hood arrived in this land she nick named it ‘ Villa Villa Coola’ because everybody seems to walk backwards. The next day she saw her grandmother again and started to cry because it reminded her of all the love she received as a child from her and she missed it so very much.

Her grandmother was taken away from her because the police were telling her family members some very bad things about Little Red Riding Hood and her children and everybody believed them. Miss Little Red Riding Hood was sent away from the family unit and forced to live on the streets in the land of Villa Villa Coola, where everyone walked backwards.

The street was no place for her loving heart, it was hostile and no-body really cared about her because they thought she was evil and some men did some very bad things to her that she would rather forget.  

Then she met a man who felt sorry for her and paid for a hotel room where she could sleep and be safe. In that same hotel she met another man who was a lot younger than her and had a very good heart but he was weak in the mind and had a tendency to be very greedy. They fell in love and got married very quickly and she thought all her problems were finally over but little did she know, there was more trouble brewing.

This man she now called her husband abused her too and broke her heart. She did not know how much more she can take and tried to leave him times but her heart did not want to let him go straight away so she tried to fix the problems in their marriage but in the end, it was just not worth it anymore and in order to spare herself from being hurt by him any longer, she threw him out of the house and tried to start again putting all her troubles behind her. It was a very brave thing to do because Little Red Riding Hood had no friends and no body to turn to but she believed in God and prayed every day, which gave her a lot strength.

Her husband did not want anyone to see that his wife was doing very well without him because then people would start blaming him and so he stopped paying her rent, which forced her back out on the streets with winter just around the corner. Her husband didn’t care about her anymore because he had another women who was helping him to forget about his wife and this other women turned his heart very cold, which made Miss Little Red Riding Hood very, very sad because she loved him very much but cannot live with his abuse anymore.

She tried to get help from services who could give her a house to sleep in but she was denied the opportunity to be safe and forced to sleep out on the cold concrete floor and park benches most of the time and one night she got wet. She also tried to get help with food and sometime she was fed very well but other times she went very hungry. Certain people made her go hungry on purpose to trick her into eating whatever they put in front of her next time so they could be certain that she would eat the food they fix for her which was medicated because they thought she was sick; but she only had a big mouth and was simply misunderstood.

She always knew when she ate the wrong thing because if gave her head aches and made her dizzy and this is what used to happen to her when she was locked up in that institution right after she lost her kids but she didn’t want to go hungry either. She felt deceived and was sure that this behaviour was illegal and one day, she hopes to protect other women who are suffering in the same way by a system that doesn’t like them because it is not their fault.

She is now working very hard to tell everyone about her situation to encourage other people who are being hurt at home to tell someone and talk about it even though there are some very powerful people in the land of Villa Villa Coola who are not supporting her simply because they are a part of the problem to the violence against women in this small island.

It doesn’t really matter to Miss Little Red Riding Hood what people think of her because she knows that she is a good girl and has got a beautiful heart and she also knows she can win with God on her side and she will never stop talking to people when she gets hurt because to Violence against Women, she says NO MORE!

Violence is WRONG

Violence is AGAINST THE LAW

Violence is NOT ACCEPTABLE ANYMORE

 

By Anne Agius (Gelicrisio)