The Clumsy Giant's Busy Spring

Almost nobody in the village of Codswallop knows Geoff by his name. Instead he is known by everyone except his mum as the clumsy giant. All his life he’s been accident prone. He falls over his feet, even though for his size they’re not really that big and his shoes are well fitted; his breakage tally is so high there are no matching cups and plates at all in the house and he always, always, drops his toast butter side down.

Geoff’s seeming inability to be quiet, calm and collected means that sadly he gets few invites to play or to parties. Any other giant would be saddened by this but Geoff is happy enough and fills his day reading the books he loves and working in the garden. Surprisingly when pricking out seeds and weeding his vegetable patch Geoff never drops his hoe or spills the fertiliser and when harvesting his crops of luscious fruit and scrummy vegetables his wheelbarrow never tips over and every raspberry and every pea makes it to the kitchen.

So green are Geoff’s fingers that his mum almost, I say almost, doesn’t know what to do with all the colourful produce. The cupboards are full of gargantuan jars of berry jam and pickled onions and the freezer overflows with buckets full of root vegetable crumble and huge portions of leek and potato soup. Geoff’s mum loves flowers, especially tulips and hyacinths, and in spring one corner of the garden, and the whole of their home, brims with bright blooms and lovely smells.

As the garden is at the back of the cottage few in Codswallop know it exists. Busy with their own lives they spare little thought for how Geoff fills his time. His mum usually does the shopping but when she sends Geoff for flour or stamps the village shopkeeper, who is a rather nervous wizard, stands in front of the bottles and jars and heaves a heavy sigh of relief as Geoff leaves. On the odd occasion Geoff and his mum visit Grumble Tums Café (why would they go often when their own food is so fresh and so tasty?) all the other giants and the goblins stopping by for coffee and cake hold onto their dishes as Geoff walks by their tables.

Life carries on much of a muchness until one spring a strange and terrible virus comes to the land and everyone, including all the occupants of Codswallop are told that they must stay at home and save lives. Sadly Grumble Tums has to close although the magical folk that run it continue to bake fairy cakes sprinkled with grated rose petals for home delivery. The shop opens a couple of hours a day so daily essentials are easy enough to get for a while but soon enough the wizard finds that his suppliers have less to offer and everyone begins to get bored as their diet gets less and less interesting.

An unusually beautiful April weather-wise most of the village residents are out early for their once-a-day exercise and from the middle of the month they open their doors each morning to a surprise. Sometimes it’s potatoes and a cauliflower along with a jar of juicy jam or maybe enough soup for the family’s supper and some pickled veg to go with cheese and crackers. Those living alone are especially cheered by the beautiful flowers left on their steps and everyone falls in love with Geoff’s mum’s secret recipe tomato sauce.

Determined to keep everybody fed at this difficult time Geoff and his mum fall into bed each night having worked hard in the garden and kitchen respectively. Meanwhile, always carefully standing two metres apart, fairies, goblins, giants and wizards gossip and speculate over garden fences and whilst walking their dogs in the park, about who it can possibly be delivering such tasty bounty. Between them the village decide to investigate and one late April morning the goblins who live in the bungalow at the end of Sunny Corner Lane get up before the birds and keep watch behind the net curtains. Imagine their surprise when it’s the clumsy giant they see arriving with some broccoli, a dark green cabbage and what must surely be a fruit pie given the gooey purply juice oozing out of it. Other neighbours take their turn at look-out over the next few mornings and at the end of the week a zoom meeting takes place so they can discuss the results of their detective work. As well as sharing their delight in the gifts they have received they talk about how guilty they all feel for not once thinking about how the young chap they know only as the clumsy giant and his mum might be coping during lockdown. Determined to make up for this, and for the years of avoiding the clever, kind hearted but gangly, awkward big guy, they hatch a plan of their own and the next day Geoff is greeted with his own surprise as he does his daybreak rounds. In each and every window there is a poster. All of the posters contains the words ‘THANK YOU TO OUR HERO GIANT’ and as one all the doors open and the whole village start to clap, cheer and bang pots and plans. The noise reaches Geoff’s mum in her kitchen and she joins the doorstep applause for her very special son.

Overcome with shyness, Geoff goes as red as the pickled peppers in the jar he is holding but soon he is smiling too as the clapping and the banging continues. ‘Hero Giant, Hero Giant, Hero Giant’, everyone starts to loudly chant. But, this is too much and the blushing giant holds up his hand until everyone stops.

When everyone is quiet, except for the chirping birds, Geoff says; ‘Geoff, my name is Geoff, please call me Geoff, just Geoff’.

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