Red

Late yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with a friend. After lunch she wanted me to meet a guy she's dating, so we went to the restaurant he manages and had a drink. When I met him, my eyes bugged out of my head and I may have even backed away a bit. Why? Because his eyebrows meet in the middle. Besides not liking that look, it creeps me out and actually frightens me a bit. I blame that on a movie, In the Company of Wolves, I saw years ago.

It's a dark movie, adapted from a short story of the same name by Angela Carter. On the outside, it's Little Red Riding Hood gone film noir. It's actually several stories woven together, of a girl's transformation into a woman and of sexual initiation, veiled in metaphors of several fairy tales, and taking place is an other-world forest.

A particularly memorable line for me was this one: Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle. Meaning, in the context of the movie, that the brow is the sign of the wolf within the man.

My friend asked me what I thought of the guy, who honestly was nice enough, but rather than tell her that, I told her about the movie and my concerns for her, and added that since she has red hair I was particularly concerned, to which she shook her head in a way that said, You need help.

And then I recited to her my favorite lines from the movie, when Granny was explaining to Rosaleen (LRRH) brow meeting in the middle signified:

Little girls, this seems to say
Never stop upon the way
Never trust a stranger friend
No-one knows where it may end
As you're pretty, so be wise
wolves may lurk in every guise
Now as then, 'tis simple truth
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth

Unbelievably, my friend still was not afraid.