Tales from the Hood (11 page)

“What should we be looking for?” Daphne said.

“Any kind of discrepancy,” Granny replied.

Daphne took out her pocket dictionary. That she didn’t just ask Sabrina was infuriating. It was easy enough to tell her sister that
discrepancy
was another word for
contradiction
, but the little girl didn’t seem to want Sabrina’s help anymore. It hurt her to feel that “grown-up” Daphne no longer needed her.

“I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be looking for,” Sabrina grumbled as she flipped through the books. “It was six hundred years ago.”

“Well, we should read them all, anyway,” Daphne said. “Maybe we’ll find that there were other eyewitnesses.”

“I think all the eyewitnesses are in the Wolf’s belly,” Sabrina said.

Granny flashed her an angry look. The old woman still had not said anything directly to her since their spat the day before.

The group went through as many books as the afternoon would allow, but Sabrina’s heart was not in the research. The memory of Canis in the courtroom kept popping into her head. His rage-filled eyes and horrible roar made her shudder. Was there anything human left in her grandmother’s friend, and if so, how long could it hold out against the monster? Even more unsettling was her family’s lack of worry. What if the Wolf were to escape his chains in court, or overpower Nottingham and bust out of jail? Would he come back to Granny’s house? What would the Grimms do if he showed up at their front door? What would they do if he lost his temper with them? It seemed as if she was the only one considering the dark possibilities.

While everyone was searching through the books, she managed to catch Boarman and Swineheart in the kitchen, rummaging in the refrigerator for more sandwiches. She carefully closed the kitchen door behind her, making double sure that no one was listening, and then turned to the men.

“Mr. Hamstead is alive,” she said.

“We know,” Swineheart said. “He wrote us a letter. You know the next time you folks leave town and want to bring along an Everafter, don’t hesitate to call.”

“Sorry,” Sabrina said. “It was a last-minute thing. He also gave us the key.”

The men shared a nervous look.

“He didn’t tell us that,” Boarman said. “Has your grandmother retrieved the weapon yet?”

Sabrina shook her head. “No, he gave the key to Daphne and me. He told us not to go get the weapon until we absolutely have to, but the way Mr. Canis is looking, I’d say it’s high time. Mr. Hamstead said you two could teach us how to use it.”

“What’s to know?” Boarman said. “It’s pretty self-explanatory. Just don’t point it at anything you don’t mean to destroy.”

Swineheart chuckled. “You remember when Ernest aimed it at his new car? I heard they found it in the next county.”

The pigs burst into laughter, both turning bright red before they got themselves under control.

“We shouldn’t laugh,” Boarman said. “His insurance premiums went through the roof. Still, we had to try it out before we used it on ol’ furball’s behind.”

“You three were the only ones to beat the Wolf, right? Mr. Hamstead told us a little and I’ve heard others mention it before, but I’ve never heard exactly what happened,” Sabrina asked.

Swineheart sighed. “Well, back before you were born the Wolf marched through this town terrorizing people, and no one could stop him. Not even your Grandpa Basil could control him, and Basil was one of the smartest and toughest human beings I ever met. Naturally, a furry lunatic running around blowing people’s houses down is the responsibility of the police department, but there was little we could do. We organized a posse from time to time, got people together to search for his den. I even had a witch fly me over the forest, hoping I would spot him from the air. All of it was a major waste of time. He was too smart and fast, and sadly, the savagery continued.”

“This drove Mayor Charming crazy,” Boarman added. “He said we looked foolish, and worse, we wasted taxpayer money. He always thought he was the answer to everyone’s problems so he went out looking himself. When we found him a week later, he was hanging upside down from a tree. The Wolf had tied him up with his own rope. Charming was humiliated.”

“That explains why Charming and Canis never liked each other,” Sabrina said.

Boarman nodded. “When we cut him down, Charming gave us a mandate: Stop the Wolf or stop coming to work. So we put our heads together. We tried to trap him, shoot him with tranquilizer darts, even poison him, but he was always a step ahead of us. Then it dawned on me that the Wolf wasn’t playing fair. Sure, he was a tough hombre on his own but he was using this magic weapon, too. It made him unstoppable. The second you got close to him, he’d turn it on you and bam! Game over! So, it seemed obvious to me that we had to get it away from him first.”

“Obvious to
you
, huh?” Swineheart said.

“Fine! We all came up with this idea,” Boarman surrendered. “The point is we had to get it away from him, and to do that we had to trick him. We spread the word that Old McDonald was concerned about how big his flock of sheep had gotten. We knew the stories of the Wolf and how much he enjoyed eating sheep, so we sat in the barn and waited for him. It wasn’t long before he showed up.”

“Unfortunately, we were dressed as sheep.”

“I was going to leave out the embarrassing parts of the story,” Boarman groaned.

“Don’t candycoat it,” Swineheart said. “It all turned out OK. Suffice it to say, the Wolf never saw us coming. When he stormed into the barn I hit him with a pickup truck.”

“You ran him over?” Sabrina gasped.

“I had to!” Swineheart said. “He’s huge and mean. If I had had a tank I would have driven over him. Luckily, the truck knocked the Wolf off his feet long enough for Hamstead to drop from the ceiling and scoop up the weapon. You should have seen it, kid. We were like three fat little ninjas. Hamstead swooped down on a rope. Boarman smacked him with a shovel. I gunned the engine. It was a big day for pigs everywhere.”

“And then you turned the weapon on him?”

“Heck no,” Boarman said. “We ran.”

“Wee-wee-wee, all the way home.” Swineheart laughed. “We had to. I’d never seen the big guy so mad. We hopped in our squad cars and hightailed it out of there. He chased us all over Ferryport Landing before he finally gave up.”

Boarman grinned from ear to ear. “Once we had the weapon, we practiced a few times, destroyed a little property accidentally, and prepared for the big showdown with the furball. The Wolf didn’t disappoint. He charged into the police station with his teeth and claws, looking to turn us all into pork chops, but he got the beating of his life. I’m telling you, kid—the Three Little Pigs laid the smackdown on his fuzzy behind.”

“But when the smoke cleared there was something none of us had expected,” Swineheart said. He took off his sunglasses, rubbed a smudge with his shirt, and put them back on.

“What? Was it the weapon? Did it break or something?” Sabrina demanded, praying that the device was still intact.

“Oh, no, the weapon was just fine. It’s just, well—we got a big surprise.”

“What?”

“Mr. Canis,” Boarman said.

“I’m confused,” Sabrina said.

“So were we. Still are to a certain degree,” Boarman explained. “All I know is that there was no such person as Mr. Canis before that fight. We didn’t know he existed until that moment. Maybe it was the weapon, maybe we just beat him so bad he split into another person, but when all was said and done there was no Wolf, only Mr. Canis, all gray-haired and skinny.

“Poor guy didn’t have any memories of who he was. He didn’t even know that he had once been a monster—he was like a full-grown man who seemed to sprout up out of the dust. We took him to your grandfather. Basil had a lot of experience with stuff like that, but it was Relda who took it upon herself to help him. Soon they discovered that Canis could tap into the Wolf’s power, and even better, he had control over the monster. Relda told me she thought that Canis could be a great ally, and he’s been living with your family ever since. For fifteen years we’ve all slept a little easier. I don’t know why he lost control, but it happened around the time you girls moved to town.”

Sabrina knew exactly what had happened. Canis and Jack the Giant Killer had come to blows and in the fight Canis had tasted Jack’s blood. After that, the bloodlust seemed to collapse the walls between their family friend and the monster inside him. Sabrina had never suspected how long those walls had taken to build.

“So, this weapon will stop the Wolf, but could it—”

“Give Mr. Canis control, again?” Swineheart interrupted. “It might.”

“And what is it? What is this weapon?”

Just then, Granny entered the kitchen with a tray of dirty dishes. “Oh, dear. I had no idea there was anyone in here. I’m afraid that we’re losing our little team. Jacob fell asleep an hour ago and Daphne just dozed off herself. Gentlemen, why don’t you two call it a night as well? We appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“Our pleasure,” the men assured her.

“Sabrina, why don’t you help your sister into bed while I say good-bye to our friends?” Granny asked.

Sabrina was eager to learn more about the weapon but she knew the time for questions was over for the night. She said her good-byes and went searching for her sister.

Daphne was asleep on the sofa. She gently shook her and the girl woke enough to walk upstairs. Once they were in their room, Sabrina took off her sister’s clothes and pearl necklace and helped her into her pajamas. A vial of Sabrina’s lip gloss slipped out of Daphne’s purse and rolled across the floor. Sabrina frowned and scooped it up. She pulled the covers up to her sister’s elbows and turned off her bedside table lamp.

“You comfy?” she asked the sleepy girl.

Daphne mumbled something unintelligible. Moments later, the little girl was sound asleep and snoring.

Sabrina lay there watching her little sister. A sliver of silver shined in Sabrina’s eyes. The moonlight was reflecting off the tiny key around Daphne’s neck.

For the second morning in a row, everyone was woken by a loud banging on the front door. Sabrina hurried out of bed and down the stairs, smoothing her hair as she went and wishing Robin Hood wasn’t such an early riser. But when she stepped into the hallway, she heard her uncle, who had beaten her downstairs, cry, “It’s here! It’s here!” to the gathering group.

“What’s here?” Daphne asked the others.

Granny shrugged.

Uncle Jake opened the door and on the other side was a small spotted rabbit wearing a blue jacket and matching ball cap. His shirt had a company logo that read thd tortoise and hare deliveries worldwide. Under his little arm he held a clipboard and ink pen and next to him on the porch was an immense wooden chest sitting on the back of a large green tortoise.

When Daphne saw the animals, she squealed. “You are so cute I could eat you!” she cried, but when she saw Sabrina’s amused smile, she straightened her face. “I mean . . . I’m pleased to meet you.”

“You Jake Grimm?” the rabbit squeaked.

“Yes,” Uncle Jake said.

“You gotta sign for this,” the rabbit said, gesturing toward the delivery.

Uncle Jake took the clipboard, found his name, and signed it.

“What you got in this thing, anyway?” the tortoise asked. “It weighs a ton.”

“Oh, this and that,” Uncle Jake replied.

The rabbit held out his paw and stared up at the family.

“Well, thanks for bringing it by,” Uncle Jake replied.

The rabbit and the tortoise didn’t budge.

“I guess you probably have other deliveries to make,” Uncle Jake continued.

“Listen, pal. Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s customary to tip for a delivery, especially a backbreaking shipment like this. We brought this thing all the way from the truck and we got it here fast. I could have had my partner deliver it but you wouldn’t have gotten it until next year. You know how long a tortoise takes to deliver a package?”

“Long time, pal,” the tortoise said.

“Real long time. That kind of express service deserves a little tip, don’t you think? I mean, I got a big family. Really, I’m talking big. So how about throwing me a couple extra bills?”

“Of course,” Uncle Jake said, digging in his pockets. He pulled out a wadded five-dollar bill and stuffed it into the rabbit’s shirt pocket. Then he took the chest off the tortoise’s back.

“Thanks, pal. Oh, there’s one more thing,” the rabbit said as he took off his ball cap. There he had hidden a long brass key, which he handed to Uncle Jake. “Have a nice day and remember to use THD. We get it there at any speed you need.” The rabbit turned, snatched the back legs of the tortoise like he was a wheelbarrow, and headed back to their truck.

“What’s this?” Granny asked.

“You’ll see,” Uncle Jake said. “Get dressed and meet me in the Mirror’s room.” When they joined him ten minutes later they found him standing in front of the chest. “So, girls, remember when we started looking for Goldilocks and I suggested we send her a letter?”

The girls nodded.

“Well, I realized early on that we weren’t going to be able to do that,” Uncle Jake said. “Goldilocks keeps moving from one place to the next, faster than we could ever get a letter to her. So, I called a few friends for some help and they sent me this.”