" F O R   A   T R E E
T O   B E C O M E
T A L L
I T   M U S T   G R O W
T O U G H   R O O T S
A M O N G   T H E
R O C K S. "
Friedrich Nietzsche

" B E T T E R
T O   H A V E
L O V E D
A   S H O R T   M A N
T H A N   N E V E R
T O   H A V E   L O V E D
A   T A L L. "
G. K. Chesterton

" T O D A Y
I   H A V E
G R O W N   T A L L E R
F R O M   W A L K I N G
 W I T H
T H E   T R E E S. "
Karl Baker

This is another episode is a series about Maximilian, a short boy with magical thinking abilities who uses them to make things better. It builds upon the previous episodes.
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"I am going to a school dance," Maximilian said to his parents. "But I do not know how to dance."

"You should learn to dance in physical education class," his mother said. "The waltz is such a graceful movement."

"Dancing is something you can do for the rest of your life," his father added wisely. "Not like playing a rough sport, like football."

The Coach of the football team was also the instructor of physical education.

"Right," Maximilian said, picturing him teaching a class of boys to waltz gracefully with one another in the gymnasium.

The Coach thought push-ups would be a good thing for everyone to do for the rest of their lives.

He also thought that only sissies needed to wear pads and a helmet at football practice.

"I have played a lot of football without a helmet," he was fond of saying.

Maximilian thought the Coach had played a little too much football without a helmet.

The only way the Coach would make boys dance is if they were not hitting each other hard enough. Maximilian was sure of that.

"Ok, you bunch of sissies," he would probably say scornfully. "You are all just waltzing with each other, so you might as well pick a partner and dance. Go on, if you are not going to hit somebody hard, ask him to dance."

The dance was in the school gymnasium. The Coach was there, just inside the door, when Maximilian and his friend Horse arrived.

Maximilian was surprised. What was the Coach doing at a dance? Had he totally changed his attitude after Maximilian had made things better at football practice?

"Watch out," the Coach said with a laugh to members of the First Team, his best football players. "Here come the two stars of the Hamburger Squad."

"Hit anybody lately?" he asked, grabbing Maximilian and Horse by their necks and pretended to bang their heads together.

Horse did not think he was pretending. He tried to duck away from the Coach, his glasses flying off.

"Miss Wish is not feeling well enough to chaperone. She asked me to substitute for her," he said.

Miss Wish, the music teacher, had said, "the thought of listening to that awful music young people like these days makes me sick to my stomach."

"I just love coming off the bench into the game," the Coach continued. "You have to be ready when called upon. That is why I am here. You two boys take a lesson from me. No slivers from the bench in your behinds."

Horse was not listening. He was trying to find his glasses. He was very near-sighted and could only see his glasses if they were right in front of his face, like on his nose.

Suzy, a very smart and attractive girl, who was head cheerleader and also had the singing voice of an angel, picked them up and handed them to Horse. She did not really like Horse but she knew that it was important for others to see her being nice to the less fortunate.

She was, however, very careful not to touch him, and she walked away quickly, having done her good deed for the needy. Suzy considered Horse to be her social studies project. She had helped Maximilian stop him from cheating on tests.

"Do you think Suzy will dance with me?" Horse asked Maximilian, hopefully.

"Only if you stopped breathing, and dancing was a way to resuscitate you," Maximilian replied.

"What about mouth to mouth resuscitation?" Horse asked, with a mischievous grin.

"I am sure the Coach knows how," Maximilian said dryly. "Or Miss Wish, if she were here."

Horse pretended to gag.

Maximilian looked over the crowd of students in the gymnasium. He could easily see a girl named Willow. She had reached her full height in the last few months. Willow was at least a head taller than many of the other students, who were growing more slowly.

Maximilian was the only person who called her Willow. Everyone else called her Tree.

Maximilian felt sorry for her. He had been teased about his height. It did not matter if you were too short or too tall, just if you were too much of anything, he thought. People had stopped teasing him for being short when he helped the basketball team start winning games.

Unfortunately, her ability to coordinate her body movements had not grown has quickly as she had, so she was always tripping over things and bumping into people.

"Be careful," others would say. "The Tree might fall on you."

Willow would just smile shyly and feel the hurt inside. Maximilian knew all about that feeling.

He had given Horse a very dirty look when Horse said, "If she had gas, it would be the wind in the Willow."

"It is The Wind in the Willows," Maximilian said. "At least get the title right, even if you never read the book."

"Oh," Horse said, feeling embarrassed now that he saw his crude little joke was not the least bit funny to Maximilian. He did not want his friend to be mad at him.

Willow would eventually be coordinated. She would be both tall and graceful. She would be her namesake and no one would ever call her Tree again. Willow would be the envy of others but she or no one else could imagine it yet.

Except maybe for Maximilian who saw her differently than anyone else.

Maximilian and Horse found a bench against the wall and sat down. They were used to sitting next to each other on a bench. They watched the dance like they watched football games. They did not think they would ever be called upon to play.

"Hi Maximilian," Willow said.

Maximilian looked up quickly, surprised to see her standing there.

She smiled briefly at Horse and said, "Hello Horace." She was sensitive about names and always called people by their right ones, even if they were very near-sighted and had chronic post-nasal drip, like Horse.

"Would you like to dance?" she asked Maximilian.

"Well, uh, I, I do not really know how to dance," he stammered and flushed with embarrassment. He found himself coming off the bench anyway. He had been called upon. He would not turn Willow down.

"Hey Maximilian," someone shouted. "If you are going to dance with Tree, you will have to stand on your toes."

"Yah, and if you are not on your toes, Tree will be stepping on them," someone else added. There was laughter all around them.

He could see that Willow had tears in her eyes. He needed to make things better. He would have to use his magical ability and make people say what he was thinking. He was in the game, not on the bench. Now is when he really had to be on his toes.

Maximilian began to think very hard.

"Listen up, you bunch of clowns," everyone heard the Coach roar.

The room fell silent.

"You got a problem with people being tall?" he barked at the basketball team.

The members of the basketball team hung their heads. They felt ashamed.

They had already learned not to have a problem with short people, particularly Maximilian, who they now saw as a friend to Willow.

"You got a problem with bumping into people and falling on them?" he snarled at the First Team, his best football players.

"Not a problem for us, Coach, we like hitting hard," he heard them say quickly; especially knowing what the Coach might make them do if they didn't.

"Are you still feeling short of breath?" Suzy asked Horse sweetly after dancing with him.

He said he would need another dance with her to be fully resuscitated.

Maximilian and Willow walked together to the refreshment counter for a root beer. This is sooooo much better, he thought.




© C O P Y R I G H T   2 0 0 5.  Gary Holdgrafer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.