Louie the Lummox Has Fallen Down

A Children's Story

Once there was a lummox named Louie who loved to eat.

One day when Louie was walking to town, he lost his balance and fell down.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, seeing as Louie could just pop right back up, but today, Louie just couldn’t manage to help himself off the ground. He had grown too large.

“Will you help me?”

A few children passed by Louie and saw that he was crying. “Why are you crying?” they asked him.

“I’ve fallen down, and now I can’t seem to get back up again. That’s what is making me cry.”

“Have you tried using your hands against the ground and pushing yourself up?” an older boy asked.

“Yes, I’ve tried that. I’ve even tried using my feet against the ground to push myself up. Nothing has worked.”

“I have an idea!” a red-headed girl exclaimed. There is some strong rope in our garage. I’ll go get it, and we’ll use it to pull you off the ground!”

“Splendid!” Louie cried.

Soon the children grabbed hold of one end of the rope while Louie held on to the other end. They pulled and pulled with all their might, but couldn’t lift Louie up off the ground.

“I’m sorry Louie, but I’m afraid we’ve failed you” the red-headed girl said sadly.

“That’s okay. I appreciate the effort,” Louie told the children.

“I’ll go get my Dad,” said the girl, “I’m sure he’ll be able to help you.”

The red-headed girl went to tell her dad about Louie’s terrible problem.

“Hmm, vexing,” her father said to himself rubbing his scratchy chin, “But I think I know what to do.”

Meanwhile, Louie the Lummox sat and waited looking gloomy as ever. “If only I didn’t let myself grow so big,” Louie said to himself, “Then this wouldn’t have happened.”

But Louie was a lummox, and all lummoxes love to eat. It wasn’t his fault that he got a little heavy.

Suddenly, Louie heard a loud mechanical engine sound growing nearer and nearer. There was the red-headed girl’s father driving a giant crane.

He lunged at Louie in his crane, trying to scoop him up. When he missed the first time, he tried again, and when he tried again and did indeed make contact with Louie’s big lummox bum, he still couldn’t bring him up off the ground.

“I’m sorry Louie, but I’m afraid I can’t help you,” the girl’s father said. “I’ll go ask my wife if she has any good ideas for you. She’s smarter than I am.”

Not only did the crane-operator’s wife come to Louie’s aid, but a whole gaggle of little women. They looked up at Louie and explained that there was only one way for him to help himself up.

“Oh, please tell me!” cried Louie, anxiously.

“You must start dieting,” said the crane-operator’s wife. The women had brought with them dieting charts so Louie could keep track of all that he was eating. They also brought baskets of fruits and vegetables for Louie to snack on between meals.

Louie dieted for an entire day, but this just made him more sad and angry. He began lashing out at his friends, when really he was just a little hungry.

So Louie stopped dieting. “I’m never going to get up again!” he sighed.

But later that day, the teeniest, tiniest, youngest little girl in town paid the lummox a very special visit.

She hadn’t heard what had happened to the lummox, being so small, and asked him, “Lummox, why are you sitting on your bum, when you could be up on your feet running through the field and playing games with me?”

Louie explained to her, “Well, you see, I fell down a few days ago, and haven’t been able to get up since.”

The teeny tiny little girl was pensive for a moment, but then asked, “Lummox, tell me something, have you been thinking about your problem and talking about your problem a lot over the past few days?”

“Yes, the fact that I can’t get up has been making me very miserable, so of course I’ve been thinking of it, and talking of only it.”

“Well, have you tried not thinking about it yet?” the little girl asked.

“Not thinking about it?” Louie pondered, “No, I guess I haven’t tried that yet.”

“Do you want to hear about a game I like to play?”

“Oh, yes, I would very much like to hear about that!”

“Well, it’s played like this: One person is the Tagger. He or she can stop being the Tagger once they touch someone else and say, 'Tag, you’re it!' Then the person who’s been tagged becomes the Tagger, and he or she then needs to touch someone else so that they can stop being the Tagger. You get it?"

“I think I do,” said the lummox, “It sounds very fun.”

“Well, in that case, TAG, YOU’RE IT!”

The lummox ran after the itty bitty little girl, forgetting that he couldn’t get up, and finally came up close enough behind her to touch her shoulder and say, “TAG, YOU’RE IT!”

The two of them played Tag together for maybe an hour, giggling and running through the field. Other people who had seen the lummox in his dreadful state earlier were happy to see him on his feet again.

When the lummox and the teensy weensy little tiny girl finally got too tired to run after each other, they stopped at the ice cream parlor for some ice cream.

“I love ice cream!” Louie cried as he stuffed his face.

“Lummox, have you noticed anything different about your current situation?”

“Um, now I’m eating ice cream? Before I wasn’t, and that was very sad.”

“No, Lummox, you’re up on your feet again!”

Louie looked down and noticed that he was relatively high off the ground. “I suppose I am!” Louie shouted excitedly.

From that day on, Louie the Lummox never worried about falling down. He knew that if he gave it just a little less thought, and focused on all the great things in his lummox life, he would be back on his feet in no time.