Free Bad Wolf by Nele Neuhaus

the dress. Uncle Richard set her on his lap and helped her put on the dress and the genuine silk stockings, the kind that Mama wore. The others laughed because she was so clumsy attaching the garters, which were fastened to a belt. That was fun!
    But the most beautiful thing was the dress—a real princess dress in red. And the red shoes to go with it, with high heels.
    She looked at herself in the mirror and felt so proud. Papa was proud, too; he led her through the living room and up the stairs, as if they were at a wedding. Uncle Richard led the way and opened a door. She was amazed to see in the room a genuine princess bed with a canopy.
    “What are we going to play now?” she asked.
    “Something that’s a lot of fun,” replied Papa. “We’re going to change our clothes, too. Just wait here.”
    She nodded, then climbed onto the bed and began hopping around. They had all admired her beautiful dress and were so nice to her. The door opened, and she uttered a frightened cry when she saw the wolf. But then she had to laugh. It wasn’t a real wolf after all; it was only Papa, who had put on a costume. How lovely it was that she was the only one to share this secret with Papa. Too bad she could never remember anything afterward. That was really sad.

Friday, June 11, 2010
    Hanna Herzmann had not slept well. She’d had one nightmare after another, and in one of them Vinzenz had been on her TV show, making her look like a fool with the cameras running. Then Norman had threatened her, and in her dream he suddenly turned into that man who’d been stalking her for months, until he was picked up by the police and sentenced to two years in prison as a repeat offender.
    She finally got up at five-thirty and rinsed off the sticky sweat of anxiety in the shower. Now she was sitting at her computer with a cup of coffee. As she’d feared, the Web was full of the crazy story.
    Damn! Hanna massaged the bridge of her nose. It wasn’t too late for damage control, but it would have to be done fast, before more unhappy guests on her show started encouraging people to do the same thing as Armin V. and Bettina B. Unimaginable what the consequences might be. Even if her broadcast wasn’t yet under threat, station management wasn’t going to back her up forever. It was too early to call Wolfgang, so she decided to go for a run and come up with some new ideas. She always thought better when she was running. She put on her exercise clothes, pulled her hair into a ponytail, and slipped on her running shoes. In the past, she had run every day, but now that her foot problems had grown worse, she ran only occasionally.
    The air was still fresh and clear. Hanna did some deep-breathing exercises and stretches on the front steps, then turned on her iPod and looked for the music she wanted to hear. She walked down the street to the corner by the parking lot, then turned into the woods and began to run. Every step hurt like hell, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep running. After only a few hundred yards she had a stitch in her side, but she kept on going in spite of it. She wasn’t going to give up. Hanna Herzmann never gave up. All her life, she’d regarded any headwinds or problems as nothing but a challenge and incentive, never as a reason to stick her head in the sand. Pain was purely a mental matter, and she wasn’t going to let it affect her. If she were a different sort of person, she never would have chosen such a career for herself, or been so successful. Ambition, persistence, endurance—these qualities always got her through hard times.
    Fourteen years ago, with her investigative reporting program In Depth, Hanna had developed a completely new, revolutionary format that had caused a furor (as well as dream ratings) in the German television world. The concept was simple and inspired: a wide-ranging mixture of explosive and topical reportage that had an impact on people in the state of Hessen, including personal