Gargo The Giant

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a little boy named Douglas. He lived in a fine old house with a huge back yard that extended into acres of cherry orchards. He loved playing outside, exploring, and just having fun.

One day, as he was playing at the edge of his back yard, he saw an enormous hole in the ground. He was amazed! There wasn't a hole there yesterday. He ran to his mother who was busy making dinner. "There's a huge hole in the ground!" he exclaimed. He thought she wasn't really paying attention when she said, "uh-huh..that's nice" but then she looked right at him and said, "Don't get too close to it. I don't want you to fall and get hurt." Maybe she was listening...

Douglas ran back to the hole. He knew he shouldn't go near it but he was curious. What was inside? How deep was it really? Would he be able to see all the way to the bottom? He sidled up just close enough to see down into the darkness. It sure was deep. He couldn't see the bottom. It was big too. You could fit a whole school bus down there. He edged closer - closer than his mom would want but he would be careful... That's when it happened. He must have gotten a little too close because, all of a sudden, whoosh! Down he went. All the way to the bottom.

His first thought was that he should have listened to his mother. His next was that his ankle really hurt. He got up and limped over to the side of hole - maybe he could climb up. Nope, there was nothing to grab on to. He looked up. The top of the hole was a long, long way up. It was a good thing the ground down here was soft or he may have been hurt much worse.

That's when he felt the ground shaking and started hearing a thump, thump, thump sound. It started getting louder and the ground shook worse. He looked over to where the noise was coming from and saw that the hole wasn't a hole at all. It was a cave and there was something, something huge, walking toward him.

Now he wasn't sure what was shaking more, him or the ground. As the shape got closer and closer, it also got bigger and bigger. That's when Douglas realized it was a giant!

So scared that he couldn't move, Douglas just stared up as the giant peered at him from underneath his huge eyebrows. "What's wrong little boy" the giant boomed out. So afraid he could hardly stand up, Douglas managed to stammer out "I - I fell down and can't get out."

"Poor boy, you must be scared to death." the giant said in a kindly voice. "My name is Gargo and I live down here. We giants keep away from you little people - I think it's because we scare you..." Gargo looked down at Douglas and smiled. "I can help you back up." he said.

Douglas, still too afraid to speak, managed a small nod. With that, Gargo gently picked the boy up and lifted him out of the cave and back on to his back yard. Douglas was so thankful to be out of the hole that he ran/limped home as fast as he could.

At home, his mother was just finishing when he ran through the door. "What happened to you?" she asked, "You're covered with dirt!" The whole story burst out as fast as Douglas could tell it. His mother didn't seem to believe what he said but he got her to follow him out to the hole. Only, the hole was gone!

His mother just smiled and said he told great stories. The she went back inside. But it had to be real, Douglas thought. Didn't it? He sat back and thought about all of the things that had happened. The fall could have killed him, the giant might not have been friendly, he may have been stuck in the hole when it disappeared. Terrible things could have happened and all because he didn't listen to his mother.

"Well," he thought to himself, "I'm not making that mistake again." and he went inside to put some ice on his ankle. Just as he was stepping inside, he looked back and thought he saw the shape of a giant walking away behind the hills. It was real!