Goldilocks

“What are you doing here?” I asked. She was the last person I’d expected to see sitting on my living room couch, reading the latest copy of The Fairy Tale Times.

“Is that anyway to great your sister?” Goldilocks asked.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I said, rushing over to give her a hug as I sat down next to her on the couch. I hadn’t seen my sister-in-law, Goldi, in a long time. She was busy looking after my brother, Nimble Jack, as well as being President of THRT, Trespassers Have Rights Too. She was also the inspiration for the Goldilocks Guide, the pamphlet police must give to everyone they intend to arrest.

“I’ll bet you did!”

“You’ve cut your hair!” I looked it over closely. “Looks good.” She was also dressed fashionably, as usual. Pea green leggings which tapered down to her ankles, accentuating her tiny feet, clad in pale brown sheepskin leather uppers, a flowing white peasant blouse. I envied her ability to wear white. I’d have mine blotched with coffee stains immediately.

“I cut it a long time ago! Which you’d know if you ever came to visit us!” Goldi said.

“Where is my brother? Did he come, too?”

“Yeah, he’s next door, visiting with your parents. I told them I’d wait over here for you – they were talking hunting anyway.”

Hunting. They could be at it for hours. “What brings you here? Work?”

“Yes! You know about the lawsuits against the villagers?”

“Of course! And you’ll never believe that-”

“Oh, yes, I will. The defense team hired me as a consultant. Technically Maleficent was a trespasser, being uninvited, you know, and all those signs warning against her specifically and by name, but I think we have a shot at – what? You look funny.”

“Goldi, you’d better not say anything else.” How in the world would I tell her this? Probably just directly. “I’m working for Prewitt Fox, and he’s the prosecuting attorney.”

“What!” Goldi had a pretty loud voice when she was upset, and she was very upset, apparently, from the volume.

“I can’t believe it either.”

“No, that’s not all.” She cleared her throat. “I’m working for the defense team.”

“Yes, you said that.”

“You’ll never believe who it is.”

“Who?”

“Blackbird and Crow.”

The attorneys for The Evil Stepmother in her lawsuit against Snow White. After Berry O. Blackbird's defeat, she and her partner, Carrion Crow, revamped their law firm, took mainly defense clients and reestablished their reputations. Or, Carrion Crow did. Ms. Blackbird took an unexpected leave of absence and her nephew, Bob Blackbird, became a junior partner. What was weird about the whole thing was that Goldilocks had been an outspoken (and paid by Blackbird and Crow) public spokeswoman for The Evil Stepmother and I had been a legal assistant for Prewitt Fox. But that had been before she'd married my brother. We hadn't known each other during that trial.

We knew each other now. We were on opposite sides. And I was on the wrong side.

"Shit," I said, meaningfully.

Do I need to describe the living room? There doesn't seem to be a good place to insert setting. But all I've got them in is a room with a couch.

I hate setting. Crap. Was this my inner editor Ethel again?