Grizz and Crick

By: Ruwen Rouhs
(© 2021 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

RRouhs@tickiestories.us

Author's Note: “Grizz and Crick” is a story for my young friends. It’s not a Christmas story because Christmas is only one day of 365 days in a year. It’s an anti-bullying story because bullying takes place all around the world for 365 days. It occurs at home, in school, in private, in public and in politics. Young and old people are bullied and threatened in all countries: in A (like Afghanistan), in B (like Brazil), in C (like China), all up the alphabet, even in remote places like in Z (like Zanzibar).

- a Fairy Tale -

Petr was a babe like a babe born at a big farm should be. At birth he was neither too small nor too big. Petr’s always smiling and his baby fat made him the proud of his father, despite he had hardly any hair on his scalp. At the end of the third month his body size had increased already two inches and his weight? He was too heavy for the infant scale! This troubled his mother Lorena and she asked the old, wise midwife, “You know all about babes Sister Lily, Petr my boy is growing by the day. You know I already have given birth to five boys and none of them grew this fast!” The midwife checked Petr from head to toe, “He is in good health, he is fit, his eyes are sparkling and his voice is strong!” she explained, keeping her ears to block out Petr’s bawling. Lorena shook her head in wonder: “This boy is hungry again! I have to feed him again! I just breast-fed him a quarter an hour ago! Oh My Good Lord!” and took to her heels

At the age of one Petr’s dark eyes sparkled below a crown of dark, curly hair. He was always hungry like a wolf. He grew and grew and grew and soon was as large as a three year old toddler. Petr was greedy! At the meals he clumsily tried to snitch off the best pieces of meat from the plates of his older brothers if they didn’t look.

At the age of three he was as big as a five year old and stamped with strong leg all around the farm looking for something to fill his ever growling belly. He even tried the food in the pig’s feeding trough. His father, a wealthy farmer, was proud of sixth son. He adored him because of his strength. In the back of his mind he already pondered to make him his heir and not his eldest son!

At his sixth birthday a widely related aunt visiting the backwoods farm figured that Petr attended middle school already, while he just had entered grade school. In school he got average grades and did well for a boy interested more in animals and farming, in horsing around with his brothers and playing football than in reading. At nine everybody thought Petr had hit puberty. But puberty was still years away and when the great change hit him like a thunder Petr was more than three feet higher than his peers. The young giant was not a bully, not at all. He still was a nice and sociable boy everyone liked. This and his good looks together with his strength could have been to his advantage, however the more he grew the more he became clumsy and his clumsiness made him shy. He was big and strong and when he embraced one of his buddies during a friendly scuffle the other boy imagined he was crunched by a grizzly. Therefore his schoolmates called him Grizz.

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At exactly at the same day, the same month and the same year Petie was born at a small farm on the other side of the sky high mountain ridge as the sixth child of the farmer’s wife Rena. At birth everybody admired his dark shock of hair, which contrasted nicely to his sky-blue eyes. He seemed to be an average baby but soon his parents became aware little Petie he didn’t grow. At the age of one he still looked like a newborn baby, however he was already talking like a three year old. His dark hair was replaced by flaxen hair fitting even better to his sparkling blue eyes as the dark ones. At three he was scurrying around like every kid of his age but neighbors still mistook him for a toddler. For fun, everybody called him Crick, because he was swift like a house cricket, the little insect living in the kitchens and warm stables. His mother Rena went to the midwife to ask for help, “Please Sister, we need something to make Petie grow! He is so clever and nice, but he will never make it through life staying a midget!” The midwife looked little Petie up and down and then told Rena, “Your farm is so small, be lucky to have such a small boy because your farm can not stuff so many hungry mouths. He is clever and sure will make his luck in the world despite his small frame!”

In grade school and middle school Petie skipped every other year and at nine he was admitted to high school, because he was bright and compensated his small body size by his brain. Good looking and clever as he was, every girl wanted to be his friend. Crick however wasn’t only gifted, he also was keen and from his earliest days on he developed the ability to assert himself. If one of the bigger boys tried to bully him he had bad luck. Despite his small frame Petie did never mind a scuffle and the bully risked a bloody nose.

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As already mentioned Grizz was clumsy. At home neither a china plate nor a drinking glass was safe. Even worse his first ride on a scooter and his first trial to ride a bike ended up as a disaster, but not for Petr but for the vehicles. Predestined because of his body size and strong muscles he was named center back of the A-football team at ten. But for one game only! In his first game he crashed with the opposing quarterback who was four years his senior. The quarterback had to be brought to the emergency department with an ambulance and Grizz was out of the team forever.

As puberty came around at thirteen he wanted to make friends with girls like all his school mates. No luck at all! Every girl he asked for a date just laughed at him and called him a clumsy or uncool or even moron. Desperate as he was, he decided to forget about girls.  Instead he asked the fairest boy in school for a date. But he was mocked: “I have seen you in the shower, Grizz! Do you really expect me to fall in love with a hairy Sasquatch?” That was it! Grizz decided to run away from home, build a little house up in mountains and stay a hermit.

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When the puberty hit Crick he looked still like a grade schooler. He was the first in Languages, Math, Sciences, Arts and whatever subjects he engaged in. In Sports however he was a total failure. The same was with girls. They didn’t ridicule him, but worse.  The girls treated him like a smaller brother convenient to write off homework, but not considered boyfriend material. A peck on the cheek was all he would get for his help. The same was with his age mates. As he tried to become friends with the jocks of the football team, they laughed him off and called him squirt.

Crick decided he wanted to grow! Not slow, but by leaps and bounds. He had heard of the giant boy named Grizz in the valley on the other side of the mountain ridge. He pondered, “Grizz knows! Sure, he has to know the secret of growing big! Sure he can tell me his secret! He is nice. I go and ask him.”

One early morning he began the demanding hike over the rough mountain ridge! Late in the evening of the same day he reached the height of the mountain. Tired and hungry tumbling downhill, he came across a high fence of heavy pickets surrounding a small house in a big garden with fruit trees and vegetable patches. The gate in the fence was secured by a heavy chain. Light was shining through the windows of the house and smoke was rising from the chimney. The smell wafting through the air promised a delicious meal. As there was neither a doorbell nor a knocker, Crick he resorted to shouting, “Hello! Hello there! I am a poor, hungry hiker, frozen to the bones! Please let me in!” As there was no answering what so ever Crick climbed across the picket fence, sneaked up to the front door and listened for noises coming from the inside.

He got alarmed, because the only noise he did hear was the anxious whining of a young voice.  Was it a boy? No, it was the cracking voice of a teen. Was boy in danger? Was he injured? Had a robber chained him and locked him up? Crick immediately decided to free him! Opening the front door with some difficulty he found a big teen crouched in the most remote corner of the kitchen, holding his arms protective over his head and whining. Crick approached bundle of misery, “Don’t be afraid, my dear friend!” I am a peaceful traveler, a teen like you! You don’t have to be afraid. Look I am Crick! Look, I am Crick, the boy small like a cricket. Please don’t be afraid!”

The big boy looked up tears running down his face, stuttering in embarrassment, “I am not afraid of you. I am afraid I could hurt you! You look so delicate, so fine, so nice and I am big and so clumsy. Go away, please! I could hurt you by just touching!”

A slime crossed Crick’s face, he tousled the hair of the crouching bundle, “Now I know who you are! You are Grizz! The clumsy Grizz, the boy I am looking for!” Crick burst out happily. “I want to meet you, because I need your help! You don’t have to be afraid of hurting me, dear Grizz. I look small but I am tough like an iron pole!” Crick took Grizz’s hand and tried to pull him up. “I was looking for you, because I need your help! I want become as strong and big as you!”

Listen to Crick’s soft voice and enjoying the tousling of his hair Grizz immediately relaxed, breathed a sigh of relieve and beamed, “You are Crick, the brainy Crick! The wizard I have adored for so long! Please stay like you are! You are so nice, so delicate and brave! I love you just the way you are.”

Later sitting at the table and enjoining the delicious meal prepared by Grizz, the two discussed their problems in all different facets. Racking their brains they finally came to the conclusion, that neither Grizz did know a way to make Crick grow, nor Crick did know a way to make Grizz less clumsy. In the end they agreed happily, “Let’s stay as we are! We are perfect this way, perfectly designed for each other. Let’s stay together forever! Together we will conquer the world.”

In the morning Crick was awakened by the sun shining through the window and bird singing in the garden. Snuggling closer to Grizz in the big, soft bed he talked in a whisper in Grizz’s ear, because he didn’t want to wake up his big friend, “I love you Grizz!”

Posted 12/24/21