13 October 1999

further adventures of tinyman

tinyman climbs to the top of the wobbly stepladder on the roof of the apartment building, knees knocking. with his tiny powers, his tiny vision, and his tiny sense tingling, he detects trouble on the other side of the world. he reaches up, and touches the tips of his fingers together.

knocking the ladder over, he jumps, and awkwardly manages to rise into the air, arms flailing in an attempt to stabilize and not tumble head over heels.

finally he straightens out and passes over the edge of the building over the street many stories below. trying hard to not look down, tinyman flies to iraq. he can sense that there is a kitten stuck in a tree in baghdad. his tiny instincts tell him this. over the ocean he flies, like a dodo bird.

tinyman lands in the tree and hurts himself. the kitten is silent and eyes him without interest. a child below shrieks with surprise, thinking that the tiny man in the tights is an american bomb at first, an american paratrooper second, a dinasaur third.

tinyman doesn't speak arabic but recognizes the word for "pterodactal". fuming, and slightly dizzy, he imagines how well things could have gone, if only...