“But, Mama, what if I need to get away from a bad person? How can I hide? I’m so big,” asked the Giant in a hesitant tone. He was very sad. The Giant was scared that he wouldn’t be able to hide if he needed to.
“Well,” answered Mama Giant, “there are three solutions,” and at this the Giant moved his ears closer. “You can pretend to be a tree, you can learn to run really fast, or you can look up.”
“What do you mean?” he asked for he was just a young Giant, and couldn’t follow his mother’s logic so fast.
“We are so large, my son, that we are easily the height of sycamore trees and the width of the centuries-old redwoods. The only thing you need to learn is tree posture. Tree posture is a little wiggly at the top where the thin branches are and strong and sturdy on the bottom, you think you can do that?”
“I can do that Mama.”
“Ok, then the second way to get away from a bad person is to learn to run really fast because each of your steps is twenty times the length of the bad person’s steps… so you can get away fast!”
“Ok, and what else, Mama?” “Well, look up,” and the Giant did. “What do you see?”
“The sky and some branches, and that hill over there.”
“That’s right, little one,” Mama said to the Giant. “That hill is your savior – you can walk to that hill in three steps while it would take regular people sixty steps, and then you can pull yourself up to that ledge in an instant, and roll on that hill and disappear from view!”
“Wow, thank you Mama!” and the Giant hugged his Mama, “I will work on my tree posture, and on running fast, and on lifting myself – yea! I’ll be saved from any bad people!” …and with that he closed his eyes, and took his afternoon quiet-time under the trees.
For a moment there I thought looking up might make the bad guys think what could a giant possibly be looking up to that’s bigger than he is :)
Interesting story! You’d think giants would be pretty confident, but maybe they’re not always. Sometimes you see very tall people who sort of hunch over, like they’re trying to be less tall. I’m kind of curious what Papa Giant would have said!
Alvin, Dave – both cool comments: what’s bigger than the Giant?, and the intro of Papa Giant. Both might be cool ideas for a future story! And in any case, both are just fun to imagine. Merci.