Bedtime Story

Once upon a time there was a man. He looked like other men and thought like other men, but he was not like other men. He was tall. Taller than other men around him. ANd he stuck out like a sore thumb. This tall man tried very hard to fit in the chairs that society had made for him. He stooped under doorways and crouched into cars. He folded himself to get on the bus and even rolled himself up to carpool with his fellow workers. But secretly he longed to be average. He looked with envy on the short little men who walked into stores and ice cream parlors without banging their heads and without slouching so far down that they had breathing problems. If only, he thought, I could stand up straight in the world. If only I didn't have to slouch just to get along.

One day as he hunkered over his computer screen on his short desk in his teeny swivel chair, a co-worker stopped by and said, "Hey man, why don't you take up biking?"

So he did. He bought the tallest bike he could (it still wasn't tall enough) and he walked slowly to the end of his street. He placed one leg on either side of his bicycle and sat. He pedalled forward and began to pick up speed. Soon he was going down a long hill, pedalling faster and faster, the wind whistling past his ears and his hair. He clung to the handlebars as the houses on either side raced by....

(How do you think the story continues?)