Chapter ONE

The ?Remember me"-Scarf

Jack ran so very fast that he almost missed the woman?s skirt that peeked out from under a shrub.

It was familiar to him but he first didn?t recognize whose skirt it was.

He reached out to pull the skirt close but it was heavy –too heavy for his thin arms.

And when he looked why it was that heavy, he jerked.

"The Baker?s wife.", he whispered.

The way the woman laid on the grass, the body unusually twisted, he just knew that she was dead.

As dead as a rat in a rattrap.

There was blood in her beautiful brown-blondish hair and wounds were all over her arms.

Jack really wanted to leave her dead body in peace, but then he saw the Baker?s wife?s scarf and he had to think of the baker and how much he would probably love to have a souvenir of his wife.

So he took it from the dead woman?s neck and ran.

Jack had lost much of time at the Baker?s wife?s body. Time that was so very valuable for someone that ran away from a witch.

And when he heard the fast steps behind him, he knew that he had lost far too much time.

"Stay still!", shouted the screechy voice of the witch, "Stay still, you stupid boy! You?re the reason for all the trouble in our beautiful kingdom! Stay still or I?m gonna hex you into stone!"

But Jack wouldn?t listen.

He just ran and ran and didn?t see the large oak tree right in front of him.

There was a loud crash and everything went black.

"Humans are just blind.", someone mumbled and laughed.


Everything hurt.

Her head, her arms, her legs...just her whole body.

She couldn?t open her eyes that much hurt was in her bones –broken bones, probably.

"Shouldn?t it be over?!", she tried to say, "Shouldn?t I be dead after such a fall?!"

But she clearly wasn?t.

So there was pain. Pain as bad as she?d felt when she?d given birth to her little son.

Georgie...he must be okay. Because if he wasn?t, then she would probably die no matter how healthy she?d feel.

"John...", she whispered, "John where?re you? Where?re you?...Whe-"

She couldn?t finish the sentence before her eyes closed. She just was so tired.

The black welcomed her as if she was an old friend but behind that calming dark there were awful dreams. Dreams about how she fell down from that cliff, dreams about how her lovely son and her adorable husband would fall down from the same cliff, dreams about the Little Red Ridinghood and Jack falling from the cliff...dreams about giants and lady-giants and witches and all together.

They were nightmares.

But she wouldn?t wake up.

Well, actually she would, but she wouldn?t wake up without a heart-disturbing scream of fear and sadness.

She knew it; They all thought she was dead and when she thought of how she?d almost betrayed her husband with that sycophantic prince she really wanted to be dead.

She wanted to blame the prince for being a seducer, she wanted to blame the witch for being such an...awful witch.

But. She thought. If they all think that I am dead, then they won?t search for me. So how am I supposed to get home to my dearly house with that lovely bakery room and the warm oven?!

It was cold out here in the woods. Too cold for a crashed woman that had just given birth to a child a few weeks ago.

"I wonna get home.", she whispered, "I wonna get to my child and my husband."

And that was it; The wakeup call for her mind.

She could suddenly open her eyes and although she felt that much pain, she managed to stand up.

Then she began to go, searching for every tree and shrub to protect herself from falling to the ground.

"Just a moment...

One...peculiar, passing moment.

Must it all be either this or that

Either good or bad

Is it always "could"

Is it never "good"

I thought that?s what woods are for

For those moments in the woods."


"You shouldn?t be like that.", the Little Red Riding Hood said to the Baker.

"Like what?", he answered, a little bit angry, a little bit sad.

"Well...", the girl said, "You seem to be so...sidetracked. so sad."

The Baker swallowed hard, "Can?t I be sad about my wife?s dead?!"

"Of course you can be!", The girl said, "But I don?t think that your wife would want you to be that sad."

The Baker didn?t answer. He just stared down on his little son who slept in his arms. Safe and sound just like his wife should be too.

His thoughts always went back to her. Anne had been such a beautiful woman.

Those perfect blue eyes; large and true. Her warm and gently skin with those reddish cheeks and her wonderful, slightly curled, brown hair...

"See?", Little Red said reproachful, "Don?t be like that! It scares me. And your son too."

The Baker looked down and blinked.

George looked at him with wide opened eyes. He seemed just like he would begin to cry right now.

"I?m sorry.", the Baker said to Little Red and his son, "I just..."

He sniffed, "I just miss my wife that much."

Little Red lowered her eyes, "I?m so sorry for your lost."

Cinderella reached them and walked next to both of them, "I?m too. It?s terrible."

Slowly Jack caught their steps and all of them walked slowly and still everyone lingered at another thought.

The Baker at his wife, Cinderella at her Prince, The Little Red Riding Hood at her mother and her granny and Jack at his mother.

And everyone was a little bit melancholy and very sad.

"You know...maybe we should tell each other something about ourselves.", Cinderella started, "I mean...we?re going to live with each other but I barely know you."

Jack nodded, "Right."

But silence caught the four of them again and no one talked for at least five minutes.

One could only hear the heavy steps of the four people that wandered through the wood.

Those five minutes seemed to be the longest five minutes that had ever been there.

"You know...", Little Red began, "I actually don't come from here, or from your village."

She went a little bit more bowed down, "My mother and I used to live at the village in the valley. It's brighter and more colourful down there than it is in your village. I didn't know that there was such a big wood right in the middle of our kingdom with trees so big that people can live inside of the trunks. I didn't know anything about the life outside of my home. But when my grandfather died an my grandmother would live alone in her small house, she decided to move out and live somewhere else. Somewhere quieter, somewhere...just somewhere else. And first my mother accompanied me on the journey into the woods but then -when I visit you and your wife at the bakery- my mother had to help out on the fields and I had to go alone."

She went still.

No one spoke.

It was just as if they would play a game; One tells a story about his life and all the others fall silent until another one raises his voi-

"You know, my mother never told me about my father. He was there sometimes, like a hushing feeling or a small breeze in my thoughts, but my mother never spoke about him.", Jack mumbled, "Without a man to work, my mother had to do everything on her own. She worked really hard so she never was in a very good mood. You know; We didn't always just had Milkywhite. We first had three cows. But then everything got more expensive and my mother couldn't buy that much hay. So we must sell the two cows so that only Milkywhite was left. I wasn't as sad as I was when I sold Milkywhite but it felt like losing old friends of mine. And...well You know the rest of the story. I don't have to tell you again."

And once again, everyone fell silent.

This time the silence lingered longer than any silence before and the longer they went, the more uncomfortable they felt.

That heavy silence that laid over them like a dark cloth, only disappearing when someone talked.

"So...", The Baker started, "It's a very long story to tell but I think we've got enough time. You know...I met-" -he stopped and started again, eyes filled with tears- "I met my wife early in my life. She always was the little girl that lived next to me..."

...He sometimes saw her at school, sitting in the back of the room and watching the teacher.

She had those large, blue eyes -blue like nothing he had ever seen before- and beautiful brown hair with a slightly curl.

When she thought about the teacher's question she always wrapped one strike around her finger and bit her bottom lip so hard that he thought there would be blood. But there wasn't.

She never just was "The Shoemaker's daughter" to him. She was the world.

But to her he would never be more than "The Baker's son".

Yes, the two of them went home together, silent and never speaking a word, but they didn't really know each other.

And the older they grew, the quieter they became.

There were shy looks and small smiles, but never only one word.

There was that feeling in his deepest inner, the feeling he felt since he first saw her, but it had grew stronger from year to year.

And then...one day:

The door closed with a loud bang.

"I wanna live my own life! Can't you understand that?!", she shouted.

He never knew how her voice sounded and maybe it wasn't the best moment to find out.

Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled with anger.

She turned around.

"Aren't parents so annoying sometimes?!", she said fury and looked at him.

His eyes widened, "Well...yeah, I think."

That was all. He fell silent and just looked at her until she made a few steps forward.

"I'm Anne.", she said, "And you are?"

He was just overwhelmed.

They "knew" each other that long but he now heard her voice the first time ever.

His mouth opened and closed like a fish's mouth a few times until there were words.

"Johe.", he said, "I'm John."

Anne smiled at him, "What about leaving school today and just go out?"

He frowned, "Why should we do that?"

Anne shrugged, "I don't know. But it would be fun, wouldn't it?"

John nodded.

He followed Anne over the street, "Maybe."

She smiled at him again, took his hand and began to ran, "Come on. Or do you want to be caught by your parents?!"

...

"You know...My wife had always been the one to decide the things.", The Baker finished. He whipped his tearful eyes, "And now...Who knows what'll come."

He touched the scarf that was around his neck.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do without her."

Well...no one knew at this time.

But maybe they don't even have to know...