The Giant

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The girl stood in her steps as the trees parted,
and from behind the curtain of green,
came a very large
and very angry

giant.

He burst forth from the woodland as though he were brushing horseflies from his hips, instead of displacing deep oaks and uprooting ancient aspen.

He stood, ominous against the edge of the smitten wood,
and spotted the girl,
far out in her quaint clearing,
and began marching toward her.

Now the girl – she had never seen a giant before – was in shock.

It was as alarming as a pit bull coming at you from behind a closed gate,
with fangs baring and four legs braiding
in a splay of attack and threat.

Everything stopped.

In that split second
that contains the whirlwind of thought
of all the outcomes
of all the choices
she could ever make

the girl thought:

“If I run, he’ll surely catch me,

If I hide, he’ll surely crush me,

but if I run toward him –

straight at him –

there’s a chance I could see what’s coming at me.

There’s a chance I could dodge

There’s a chance I could dance

There’s a chance in me somewhere.

I know it.”

So with all her might, she dug the balls of her feet into the matted grass and began her clash and blitz against the giant.

It was a raindrop in defiance of the iceberg.
It was a bee in combat with the eagle.

but she ran, with
head down,
eyes up,
fists clenched,
feet pounding –

she ran

straight

into the giant.

 

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…Final Chapter tomorrow!

A side note about story-telling: I’ve recently been reading a lot of allegory, myth, and folklore. So many of these stories seem nonsensical and foreign, outlandish and (in some cases) even pointless. But as I give them breath, and space to mix in my mind, I find my attraction to “tale” is not found in the answer it gives, for rarely are things tied up in neat bows, but rather in the questions that rise up inside me while I read. More than that, these types of stories encourage a willingness in me to live with sensitivity to mystery, without needing absolutes, and in appreciation of universal truth experienced through the vehicle of the absurd.