Episode 20

Red was entering the house as Jack jumped down from the lowest
branch. "My mom would never do such a thing." He walked into the house when
Red didn't answer. "What are you looking for? The goose isn't here."

Red picked up the note from the bureau and quickly scanned it. "Is
this your mother's handwriting? I thought your mother graduated from the
eighth grade. A second grader wrote this." She sat on the corner of the
bedsprings and handed the note to Jack.

Jack read the note twice and began shaking his head. "This isn't
from her. Whoever it was didn't even spell my name correctly." He folded the
note and stuck it in his hip pocket. "Who could have done it?"

Red rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "Who do you think? It has to
be one or more of those evil trolls over at Snow White's."

Jack sat opposite her in an old rocking chair. "How could they
have gotten up to the ogre's castles to steal his beer and goose?"

She walked slowly outside to the beanstalk and looked upward
thinking about the trolls and a way to the castle. "The ogre has to have a
way down. Do you remember when we entered the castle, there was a flight of
steps going down. I'll bet he has a gondola basket on an electric winch so
he can come down when ever he wants. The trolls must have seen him come
down. While your mother was entertaining the ogre, the trolls went up in the
basket, stole the beer and the goose. They came back down before the
entertainment was over." She grinned at Jack and kept nodding her head.

"What do you meant by entertaining?" Jack raised his voice a
notch. "He's an ogre. Don't you realize that?"

Red Ridinghood ignored Jack's statements. "Your mother got up
during the night, saw the beanstalk, realized where it went and climbed up
to the castle. The trolls came back later, saw the beanstalk and knew we
would climb it. They tore up the house, left a note and hoped the ogre would
kill us for stealing his beer and goose. That's why they gave us the beer to
take home." She paused for a few seconds. "How does that sound to you?"

Jack looked up at the spiraling beanstalk and smiled weakly at
Red. "Sounds OK except for the entertaining part."

Love to All from the Farm
in Two Double-aught Six.