A Fair Trade

Tommy was a giant, but he was a very little giant—just now four years old. As such, he was always forgetting things and doing things wrong.

Like his blocks. He knew it was important to pick them all up before he went to bed. The end of the giant day was the beginning of the human day, and if he left his blocks lying around, a human might find them. He knew that. But no matter how hard he tried, it seemed like there were always four or five that got away from him and he forgot to go looking for them.

“You’re going to lose those blocks, Tommy,” his mom would say. “Some human’s going to think they were made for him, and you’ll never get them back.”

“I know, Mommy,” he’d say. “I’ll be careful.”

But he was four years old, and it was hard to be careful. One day it happened just like his mom said it would. Tommy got up in the morning and found that some of his blocks were missing. He discovered them cemented to the ground by the unbreakable bond that happened when a human found a giant object and used it for himself. Humans had built a tiny playground beside Tommy’s blocks. They were lost to him forever.

“Don’t come crying to me,” his mother said. “If I told you once, I told you a thousand times.”

Late that night, Tommy snuck out of bed to spy on his blocks. A man and a little girl came to the playground. They were so tiny Tommy could crush them—except he couldn’t, of course. Giants couldn’t touch humans.

The man sat on one of Tommy’s blocks while the girl played on the swings. Then she came over and climbed around on the blocks while the man told her to be careful.

“They look like a little giant kid left his blocks lying around, don’t they Grandpa?”

Tommy made a fist. So give them back, he thought. But he couldn’t say anything.

The man laughed. “You’ve got quite an imagination there. I’d hate to be standing around when one of those block towers fell over.”

The little girl chewed on her lower lip. “I bet he’s sad we took his blocks.” She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a handful of tiny objects. “I’ll leave him some of my marbles. That way it’s fair.”

The man laughed again. “You’re a card. You sure you want to leave those?” She nodded, and he said, “Okay, then. Let’s go get some lunch.”

Once they left, Tommy snuck out and picked up the marbles she’d left. He had to pinch them between his fingernails they were so tiny, and he’d never be able to use them for anything, but having them made him happy. He went home and put them in a bowl on his display shelf.

He slept well that night. Maybe humans weren’t so bad after all.