Oct 15, 2019 5 min read

Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/includes/single/strategically_placed_photos_article.php on line 412

Notice: Trying to get property 'term_id' of non-object in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/includes/single/strategically_placed_photos_article.php on line 412

The story so far: Not only has our hero Mac been threatened by a giant squirrel, met one of the mythical Little People, and leaped out of a window to be caught by a giant hawk, he has now been shrunk down to the size of a chipmunk!

n Chapter FIVe Knee-high to a woodchuck

Mac held his arms out from his body and looked at himself. Then he looked at the black metal base of the pole for the bird feeder. He and his mom had set that pole up last week.

“You’re really getting tall, Mackie,” she’d said. “A year ago the top of this would have been way over your head. Now you’re almost as tall as I am.”

Mom was five feet ten inches tall. Even though Mac hated being called Mackie, his baby name, he’d felt really good about what she’d said to him. He liked the idea of getting tall. Everybody in school wanted to be a basketball player. Even most of the girls now since the Women’s NBA had started. And this was the year when Mac had figured he’d no longer be the shrimp who only came up to the other kids’ shoulders.

Hah! Look at him now. He was knee-high to a woodchuck! He turned angrily toward Wesu.

“What did you do to me?” he said.

“I thought that was pretty obvious,” said the little man-who was no longer so little from Mac’s new perspective. In fact, Wesu was now two heads taller.

Mac looked at himself again. “How?” he said. “How did you do this?”

“The usual way,” Wesu said with a shrug. “I sang you down. Didn’t you hear the song while you were falling?” He looked down at Mac and his grin got even broader. “Next question?”

“Why?” Mac shouted. “Why did you do this to me?”

“Want the simplest answer?” Wesu said. “How about this, then? I did it to save your life. It wasn’t my magic that made you jump, but Striker’s. That old bow was so eager to lead you where you had to go that it pulled you right through that window. Then, there was no way that Keeyii and I could catch you unless you were our size, right? He may be bigger than the average goshawk, but you would have flattened him.”

Mac said nothing. He supposed that Wesu was right. His life had been saved. But now he was so small that the only thing he could ever expect to do when he grew up was to work in a circus as the world’s smallest man. Which brought him to his next question, the one he was afraid to ask. If he got the wrong answer, he didn’t know what he would do.

“Am I . . .” Mac said. Then he stopped. He couldn’t finish his question. But Wesu could.

“Are you always going to be this size?” Wesu said. “That’s what you were about to ask, right?”

“Yes,” Mac said. “How did you know that?”

“Ah,” Wesu said, looking very pleased with himself, “that is what they always ask whenever we shrink one of the big ones down.” He changed his voice to a tearful whimper. “‘Am I always going to be this size? Am I always going to be little like this? Can I ever get big again?'” Wesu stepped back a pace and did a back flip. Then he did three cartwheels in a row, ending up with another back flip.

Mac said nothing. He couldn’t think of what to say.

“Then,” Wesu said, “they usually start crying and begging. ‘Oh please, make me big again. I’ll do anything if you’ll make me big again. Anything!'” Wesu stepped close to Mac and repeated the last word very softly. “Anything?” he whispered.

Mac sighed. “Do you mean that I can only get big again if I do what you tell me?”

Wesu nodded. “That’s right.”

“That’s blackmail,” Mac said. “It’s not fair.”

Wesu looked down at Mac again. He reached out his hand and placed it on the boy’s shoulder. Wesu’s face was serious now. “Eagle Boy,” he said, “listen closely. You’re right. It isn’t fair. Making you do this is not a fair thing. But it is the only thing that will make a difference. Do you want to know why?”

Mac stood there with his arms folded so that the bow in its leather case was held tight against his chest. Feeling it in his arms reassured him. He was finally beginning to understand that the best way to find out what was going on was to be quiet and listen.

“Ah,” Wesu said, “it’s good that you’re not asking me why. You are being silent, but your eyes tell me that you want to know.”

“What I really want to know,” Mac said, “is how I can get back to my real size again. How long am I going to be little like this?”

Wesu’s face became very serious. “Forever,” he said. “You can’t go back.”

NEXT: Wesu’s story