Lil' Logan

It was hot in this new place. Logan had just turned twelve years old, and was about to start Junior High School when his father, a native Texan, had retired from the Army and moved Logan away from his home in Scotland back to the small town in Texas where he himself had grown up. Logan felt lonely, and wished he was still in a big city like the one he lived in before, but not only had he left all of his friends behind, he also had to move to the country. Logan knew nothing of the country except that there were wild animals. He knew that he would eventually have to deal with the likes of rattlesnakes and wild pigs, maybe even bears. The thought kept him awake at night. Why would his father be so careless with his safety?
Things between Logan and his father were different without his mother there. Logan felt that he let his father down with every effort to impress him. That is why he had not complained when they moved to this dreadful place. His father wanted to go back to his home and raise Logan the way he thought was right. Logan understood, at his tender young age, how his father felt. He was afraid that if he had said that he didn’t want to go that his father would be hurt or angry. After all, with that many years in the military, he wouldn’t want to hear any response other than, “Yes Master Sargent! Right away Master Sargent!” Logan was afraid of his father, Master Sargent Thomas Mitchell, because he had never seen him smile while he wore his uniform, and he had heard the stories about how hard he was on his men. The man had been in war once, then volunteered to go back. He had been in the Army more than twice as long as Logan had been alive.
Another reason that Logan was afraid of disappointing his father was that when they moved back to this place, they moved into his grandmother’s house. In his father’s old room there were trophies everywhere. All State Football, All State Wrestling, Junior Football Championships. Logan had loved football for years, but now he began to feel that his father would never have reason to be proud of him unless he were to join the football team. That prospect would be a challenge though, because at twelve years old, Logan stood only five foot three inches tall and was lucky to tip the scales at one hundred and fifteen pounds. All the other boys were three to six inches taller than Logan, and out weighed him by fifteen to thirty pounds. A full contact sport seemed very dangerous to such a boy.
One day in June, Logan was walking around the small pond on his father’s property that was home to his best friend Spike. Logan had never given thought to it before, but Spike was an unusual pet, especially in Texas. Spike was a platypus. He was about eighteen inches long, and couldn’t have weighed more than two or three pounds. While Logan talked to Spike, the boy next door made his way to the fence separating the two properties. His name was Buck, and he was quite a disagreeable person. He was also twelve years old though you would not be able to tell from looking at him. He stood almost six feet tall and had to weigh one hundred and seventy-five pounds. He looked more like a fifteen or sixteen year old than twelve.
“Hey squirt! What are you doing out here alone?” Buck had warned Logan that if he were to be caught alone Buck would beat him up just because he could. “Now I’m gonna pound your face flat while my dog does the same to that little flat faced rat.”
“You leave him alone!” Logan screamed as Buck and the dog crossed the fence. Logan scooped up Spike and began running as fast as he could from Buck.
“Get them Killer!” Buck unleashed his German Shepard to catch their prey, but it didn’t work. Logan ran the two hundred yards to the house in less than twenty seconds. Even Killer looked surprised when he was unable to catch the boy. Logan immediately called the cell phone number that his father had written on the notepad by the phone, but when he answered, Logan decided not to tell him what had happened. Logan was sure that his father would be ashamed that he could not defend himself. Instead, Logan simply asked, “How are the fish biting Dad?”
“Not doing too bad Son, we have already caught our limit. We are just doing some catch and release now to use up our worms. I thought about bringing them home and saving them, but you remember how bad it smelled the last time that I put them in the fridge and forgot about them.” Thomas paused for a second then asked, “You sound out of breath Son, is everything okay?”
“I was just out playing in the yard. I wore myself out and needed some water and decided to call you while I was inside.” The lie came easily for the boy who, until a few months ago, couldn’t imagine being dishonest to his own father.

Thomas Mitchell put the phone back in his pocket and wondered to himself why his son would be lying to him about the bully next door. He knew, from working so closely with people and in the situations that he did, when someone was lying to him. He could hear it in their voice. It upset him that his son was being dishonest, but he didn’t want to confront him just yet. Thomas was curious how his son would deal with the bully. When he first figured out that Logan had a bully, it was everything that he could do not to march right over to the neighbors’ house and give them a Drill Sargent routine that would leave them quaking in their own home, but after consideration, he decided to be polite and invite them to a barbeque instead. He thought that getting both families together would either give the boys a chance to become friends, or allow Buck’s parents to see that he was a bully. Thomas thought that the former had happened, but it was becoming more and more evident that he was wrong. Buck was smarter than Thomas had given him credit for.
Wanting to help his son, Thomas thought of everything he could. I can teach him to fight - but Logan always shied away from Thomas when the topic was brought up. I can tell Buck’s parents - but Thomas was afraid that it would embarrass Logan, or worse would just make the situation harder. I could move him to another town - but Thomas knew that there would be other bullies. Buck was not the only big kid with that idea. I could send him away to Military School - but Thomas wanted Logan to choose the military himself, not be placed there like he had been.
Thomas really didn’t know how to best help his son. He just wished that Logan would come to him and tell him the problem. Then he could ask Logan how he could help. Thomas felt that Logan didn’t trust him for some reason. He didn’t know why.

In August, school started. Logan had made a plan. “This year I am going to make Dad proud.” He would try-out for the football team and the wrestling team. No matter how bad he got hurt, he was determined to make it on one or both of them. He would stop running from bullies and find ways to make them leave him alone.
Thomas was also making a plan. “I won’t pressure Logan this year. Not a word about sports. I won’t bother him about school.” He called the coaches and asked them not to try to recruit Logan. He asked the teachers to watch out for Logan because he thought he had a bully. He was determined to protect Logan without letting him know he was involved.

On the first day of school, Logan walked tall into his home-room class. He was nervous, but determined not to let this turn out like the other school years. He would not be quietly bullied while trying to avoid physical activity. This year he left elementary school and began his trek towards High School! It would be different.
The first day was going very well. Logan was headed to his sixth and final class for the day without a single sign of a bully. He had gone to the football and wrestling coaches and set-up a try-out; there was something strange about their reluctance to talk to him, but he had accomplished his mission. His head was in the clouds. Then there was Buck. He walked into the classroom just ahead of Logan. What would Logan do? Could he just skip this class? Maybe today, but not for the rest of the year. He didn’t want to go. Suddenly Logan thought to himself, “Yeah lad, run again. You’re good at it. Let them make fun of your size, or how you talk. Make your military father proud and run away one more time!” Then Logan threw his shoulders back and expanded his little chest just as big as it would get. He walked into that class ready for anything...except an immediate direct punch to the chest. It knocked the breath right out of Logan, and he collapsed to the floor. Just then the teacher walked in and sent Logan to the nurse. He spent his last class period in the nurses office refusing to say anything about what happened, then he moped out to the bus to go home.
Thomas met Logan at the bus stop and immediately knew something was wrong. “How was your day little man? Something bad happen?”
Logan just grunted with his head hung low staring into his lap. He knew right then that his whole plan for the year was out the window. The ride home was only a few miles, but it seemed to take forever to get there. Both rode in silence the entire way. Father trying to figure out how to make his son trust him. Son trying to figure out how to make his father proud. Neither daring to ask the other for help.

“Spike, you are the only one that I can tell. I know you will keep my secret. I got beat up at school today. I didn’t even stand up for myself. It was Buck, but I didn’t tell the teachers. I should have. But that would make it worse. I don’t know what to do Spike. I wish you could tell me.” Logan was holding his little friend feeding him dog biscuits. Logan was feeling smaller than the platypus by now.
“You need to stop beating yourself up or you will never gain the respect of anyone else!” Logan slowly looked down at the animal who was staring directly in his eyes. “Trust me, I am a platypus I’ve been through it!”
Logan shoved Spike out of his lap and backed across the bed he was sitting on with almost cartoonish speed. “Get hold of yourself Logan! No way a platypus just spoke to me. Did I hit my head when I fell today?”
“Why couldn’t I speak to you? Because I have chosen not to so far? Why can’t you trust me, you did up until you found out that I could talk back.” Spike was angry and hurt by his best friend’s reaction. “Fine, I won’t help you!” Then Spike just went back to making the little squeaks he had always made before.
“No, I am sorry Spike, but you have to admit that it is strange. Everybody talks to their pets, but how many talk back?” Logan was still not sure that this was real, but he couldn’t bear the thought of hurting his friend’s feelings. “When did you know that you could speak?”
“All platypuses can learn and speak human languages, it is just that we are so rarely involved with humans no one knows that. But please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want the attention. I only let you know so that I could help you because you are my best friend.”
“Okay, so how do I stop ‘beating myself up?’”
“You always attack situations from the angle that you can’t do it or that it would be a miracle if you did.” Spike began to make sense, “You would be so much more successful if you would tell yourself that not only can you do it, but that there is no way you will fail. If you will believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything. Look at me. I am an animal that can speak to a human. Do you think that I would be able to do that if I didn’t believe first?”
The two talked for the next few hours until bed time. Logan found himself looking forward to going back to school the next day. He was confident even knowing that he had a football tryout during his fourth period gym class. This was the beginning of Logan’s “Year of Change”.

12:45. Time to tryout for the team. Logan really didn’t know where he could possibly fit on a football team, but he knew that he could impress the coaches. Finally his name was called.
“Have you ever played before son?”
“No coach, but you tell me what you want, and I will give it to you!” The coaches looked him up and down and every one of them held a face of disappointment. But they decided to let him tryout.
“Just let him try a couple of things. It would mean a lot to his father. It will give the other kids a chance to rest too.” None of the coaches really expected to see anything useful from the child but when they called Thomas to tell him that Logan wanted to try out, he asked them to be open minded. They started with tackling. “Here kid, I want you to hit this dummy as hard as you can.” Logan had watched the other kids hitting the bag. They just put their shoulder into it and the front end would leap into the air. Looked pretty easy he had thought. So Logan lowered his shoulder and ran as hard as he could. He hit the bag so hard that he saw stars. He fell on his bottom, but the bag never budged. He heard a couple of the kids laughing, he assumed at him. “Okay son, why don’t we move on. Can you catch?”
“Don’t know Coach. I sure will try though!” He didn’t fair any better here. The ball was too big for his twelve year old hands. It never settled into them, just hit and fell off, or worse bent them backwards to the point that he thought they would break.
“Okay, we’re not done just yet. Pick that ball up and throw it back over here kid. Lets see what kind of arm you got.” Logan threw the ball, and immediately the term “Lame Duck” came into his mind. The pass fell about ten yards short of the coach who was standing about fifteen yards away. Logan began to feel embarrassed and ashamed. He knew that there was little chance that he would find a place on the team with this performance. “Well kid, there is just one more thing to find out. Come over here and stand by me.” Logan stood where he was told. “See that Coach down field there?” Logan nodded. “When I say go, you get to him as fast as you can. You understand?”
“Yes Coach. I will do my absolute best!” The word came, and Logan ran so hard that he thought his legs were on fire. It seemed to take forever, but Logan finally made it to the other coach. But Logan was sure that he had taken too long to get there. He never thought of himself as fast. Logan slowly turned to look at the coach with the stopwatch, and found that his jaw was dropped open.
Suddenly the other coaches gathered around and there was a buzz among the other kids. “He ran forty yards in four point two seconds. Most professionals can’t do that and he isn’t even wearing cleats!”
“Is there a problem Coach? Did I do something wrong?”
“Not at all son. Here do something else. I want you to join a play with the practice squad as the running back. Just carry the ball as far as you can without getting tackled or fumbling. Understand?” Logan did. He took the hand off and ran around the outside. Suddenly there was a player coming toward him. Logan ducked under him and never slowed. Then someone got a hand on his arm, but Logan switched direction and left the kid in the grass. Five yards, ten yards, fifteen yards...then there was Buck. Buck was a linebacker. He caught Logan from the right side and knocked him to the ground so hard that Logan lost consciousness.
When he came too he found himself surrounded by coaches and players alike. “Can I have that son?” A coach was trying to take the ball out of Logan’s hands. Even unconscious Logan would not give up the ball.
“How did I do?” Logan asked still cloudy from the hit.
“Better than I ever did in a single carry.” The voice was familiar. Logan scrambled to his feet and came to attention in a snap. Thomas looked at him disapprovingly but with a certain pride that he could not cover. “Walk with me.” Once away from the others Thomas asked, “Why didn’t you tell me that you were trying out for the team?”
“I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me if I failed. I know that I have disappointed you so many times before.” Logan wasn’t sure how his father was going to react to his statement.
Thomas stopped and knelt in front of his son, “You listen to me Logan. You cannot disappoint me. You don’t have to play football to make me proud. All you have to do is be you and come to me for help. You are small, that is not a shameful thing. In many ways you will grow up to be better at some things because you have to challenge yourself more to accomplish the same mission. I will always be proud to call you son. Now why don’t you let the coaches know that you appreciate the tryout but you don’t really want to play.”
“To tell the truth, Dad, I am scared to play football, but it felt really good to be out there running. I finally got to feel special. I never knew before that I was fast. Now I can give my gift to the rest of the team and we can all accomplish our mission together.”
“Listen, I am sorry about how I treated you before. Lets be friends from now on.” Buck held his hand out to Logan who took it and shook it solidly.

The team went on to win the district championship that year. Logan’s trophy was placed, rightfully, next to his father’s trophies in what was now Logan’s room.



The End