One day there was just one giant left in the world – which explains why you don’t meet any giants these days, at least outside of certain sport stadiums. One day he sat in a forest, snacking on hazelnut trees, and saw a boy and girl talking. The boy got up and carved a heart in the bark of a tree and the giant asked the girl what the boy was doing and why?

“We are in love”, the girl told him, “so he is carving a heart and our initials into that tree.”

As he was the very last giant, the giant didn’t know what this thing called LOVE was, so he asked the girl to explain it to him. “Oh,” she said, “it’s wonderful! You feel as if you have butterflies in your stomach”. But just then the boy returned and looked jealously at the giant. He took the girl by the hand and they walked away.

The giant pulled up the tree the boy had been carving the heart into and ate it, but he didn’t think it tasted different from the other hazelnut trees he had been snacking on. He sighed and wondered what that thing called LOVE was… and what butterflies are too (for he was a giant and to him butterflies seemed no bigger than specks of dust appear to you).

A few days later the giant saw a little boy running about with some sort of white thing on the end of a stick. When the boy sat down, obviously tired from running about, the giant asked him what he was doing. “Been catching butterflies”, the boy said, ”with my net. See here; got a whole jar full!”

The giant asked the boy if he could please please have the jar of butterflies, if he gave the boy a gold coin in return. The boy agreed to that and went away, rolling the coin (which was almost as big as he was and twice as heavy) along the forest path.

The giant swallowed the jar of live butterflies – to him it was as small as an aspirin tablet is to you – eagerly; he SO longed to find out what this thing called LOVE is and thought that having butterflies in his stomach would make him understand.

As it turned out this was not a very good idea; the jar of butterflies landed in the giants’ stomach with a thud that made the giant hiccup. He couldn’t STOP hiccupping and with each hiccup the giant shrunk a little!

When the hiccups finally stopped the giant had shrunk way down, he was now just six feet tall. As if by magic his clothes had shrunk as well, which was good because otherwise he would have scared the lovely young lady who had come to the forest to look for her younger brother (who hadn’t come home from catching butterflies yet).

The girls’ and the boys’ eyes met and in that moment the boy who used to be a giant understood what love is. He took her hand in his and together they followed the deep rut made by her little brother rolling the huge coin away.

THE END

P.S. (typo in my previous comment – on e-mail addy – corrected)

The loneliest giant

One day there was just one giant left in the world – which explains why you don’t meet any giants these days, at least outside of certain sport stadiums. One day he sat in a forest, snacking on hazelnut trees, and saw a boy and girl talking. The boy got up and carved a heart in the bark of a tree and the giant asked the girl what the boy was doing and why?

“We are in love”, the girl told him, “so he is carving a heart and our initials into that tree.”

As he was the very last giant, the giant didn’t know what this thing called LOVE was, so he asked the girl to explain it to him. “Oh,” she said, “it’s wonderful! You feel as if you have butterflies in your stomach”. But just then the boy returned and looked jealously at the giant. He took the girl by the hand and they walked away.

The giant pulled up the tree the boy had been carving the heart into and ate it, but he didn’t think it tasted different from the other hazelnut trees he had been snacking on. He sighed and wondered what that thing called LOVE was… and what butterflies are too (for he was a giant and to him butterflies seemed no bigger than specks of dust appear to you).

A few days later the giant saw a little boy running about with some sort of white thing on the end of a stick. When the boy sat down, obviously tired from running about, the giant asked him what he was doing. “Been catching butterflies”, the boy said, ”with my net. See here; got a whole jar full!”

The giant asked the boy if he could please please have the jar of butterflies, if he gave the boy a gold coin in return. The boy agreed to that and went away, rolling the coin (which was almost as big as he was and twice as heavy) along the forest path.

The giant swallowed the jar of live butterflies – to him it was as small as an aspirin tablet is to you – eagerly; he SO longed to find out what this thing called LOVE is and thought that having butterflies in his stomach would make him understand.

As it turned out this was not a very good idea; the jar of butterflies landed in the giants’ stomach with a thud that made the giant hiccup. He couldn’t STOP hiccupping and with each hiccup the giant shrunk a little!

When the hiccups finally stopped the giant had shrunk way down, he was now just six feet tall. As if by magic his clothes had shrunk as well, which was good because otherwise he would have scared the lovely young lady who had come to the forest to look for her younger brother (who hadn’t come home from catching butterflies yet).

The girls’ and the boys’ eyes met and in that moment the boy who used to be a giant understood what love is. He took her hand in his and together they followed the deep rut made by her little brother rolling the huge coin away.

THE END