Www.iamstinky.com



Timmy finds a shirtChapter One“I’m going to count to 10!” my Mom shouted from station wagon outside.“Ten.”“Mom, who goes to yard-sales these days anyway? We can get whatever we need online,” said my older sister Ruthy who was mortified by the idea of having to buy anything used.“Nine…”“Mom…please stop counting…do we really have to do this?” I begged from my seated and very comfortable position on the couch.“YES you do…EIGHT… now get-up off the couch” my Mom continued.“But Mom…what are we supposed to be looking for? I continued my line of questioning (still sitting on the couch).“Seven…You’ll never know until you look. School is starting soon. You might even find something you could use at your new school.”Let me pause here and give you some background. See - Dad lost his job last year, and we had to sell our house and move to a new part of town where I don’t know anybody. As you might have guessed, living in a new part of town means having to go a new school. Oh, and let me tell you something about my new school, Wardell Stephen Curry II Elementary. It just so happens that Curry Elementary has a well-founded reputation for being THE toughest school in town. Word is that kids who got kicked out of all the other schools all seem to end up at Curry Elementary. Not only are the kids considered “troubled youths” they also happen to be unusually large. Like huge. Three in particular - JJ, Grayson, and Hurley. Legend has it that all three boys had to repeat the fourth grade …TWICE. They call themselves “The Dukes” and patrol the school like they own the place. My mom was now pacing in front of the doorway…”SIX…”“Mom…I don’t need anything. I just need to stay home.” I pleaded.Ruthy crowed. “Yeah Mom, Timmy doesn’t need anything – he doesn’t need any new friends, or clothes that actually match or...” “Ruthy, try to be quiet for once dear and get in the car…FIVE,” said Mom holding up her hand and showing all five fingers.“Mom???”“FOUR”“But…it’s just…”“Three… and if I don’t see some movement toward that station wagon in the next second from the both of you, there are going to be some MAJOR consequences…”The short car ride to the yard-sale was, shall we say, a quiet one.Once we got to the sale the whole yard was covered with tired, old junk. It was one sad pile of papers after another. There were stacks of cracked dishes, trunks full of faded blankets with small moth holes, and a couple of odd, unmatching chairs.Sensing that I wasn’t ‘feelin’ the whole yard sale thing, my Mom said, “You know Timmy, there could be real hidden treasures here…you don’t need to be so picky, just keep your eyes open and look around…that’s how I met your father,” she said giggling to herself and waving her arms across the yard. Ew.“You found Dad at a yard-sale?” Ruthy and I said in unison.“No, I didn’t meet your father at a…Oh forget it, just look around kids,” said Mom defeated.“What exactly do you consider treasure Mom?” my sarcastic sister asked. “Would it be this porcelain Santa Clause that’s missing an eye or could it be this collection of random National Geographic magazines from the previous century?”“Ruthy, …please stay out of this. Timmy…just look around son, you might find something you like,” Mom said smiling as she sorted through a table full of bed sheets.“Mom…there’s nothing here. Anywhere. This is a giant waste of time. Can’t we just go home?” I cried.Ruthy shouted, “He’s right Mom…this is embarrassing. I’m just thankful I haven’t been recognized.” She said as she posed for another selfie with her phone. Ruthy thinks of herself as a celebrity of some sort.“Ummm guys, are we in need of an attitude adjustment?” Mom said simultaneously focusing one eye sharply at me and the other at my sister. “Having trouble finding something interesting?” said an unfamiliar voice from behind me. At first, I was scared because I didn’t know anyone was even near me. It was the old man who lived in the house. He was short, round and had kind eyes. He was sort of bent over at the waist and had a funny looking mustache that ran past the corners of his mouth that moved back and forth when he talked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. I just,..I just wish I didn’t have to be here…” I mumbled, turning eyes away from him looking down at my feet.“Well, where do you wish to be?” he said now standing in front of me.“I just wish things were like they used to be. You see, I’m not really from around here. I want my old home back. I want my friends back. I really just want my old life back…” I said looking into the distance.“I understand. Sometimes, it takes time for us to find just what we are looking for…even when it it’s often right in front of our noses …” said the shop keeper. He had a sly grin on his face and looked like he had something specific on his mind.“Have you looked over in that area? There might be something hiding in there that might just be what you need right now,” he said pointing his bumpy fingers toward the side of the house where stacks of boxes lined the side-yard.I walked over to the area he was talking about but didn’t see anything in particular. At first, all I found was more of the same, old junk - old jackets, old hats, old belts, old boots, and even an old photo album full of old pictures from a long time ago.“TIMMY…it’s time to go,” said my Mom as she began packing the back of the car with her new purchases.But there was something though - at the very bottom of the pile. I saw something that looked sort of promising. At first it looked like just an ol’raggedy t-shirt, but something about it seemed different, sort of special. It was soft, seemed clean enough, and actually fit pretty well. “Timmy, did you find something dear…what’s going on? And ‘Ruthy – Honey’, please stop taking pictures of yourself – I think we all know what you look like.”I held the shirt up to the light to take a better look.”Well…I see you’ve found something…very interesting choice,” said the old man rubbing his chin.“Interesting? I’ll say its interesting. I can smell that thing from a mile away. OMG Timmy, what’s wrong with you – that shirt stinks!” said Ruthy.“RUTHY! Please don’t open your mouth again unless you have something constructive to add….Tim, sweety, is that um, is that something you want to buy?” said Mom with a curious, questioning look. Her nose started to crinkle.The old man took the shirt in his hands and looked it over, top to bottom. His eyes grew wide and a great smile crept across his face. He folded the shirt gingerly and said, “Young man, this is a very special shirt you’ve found. Only certain people are entitled to a shirt like this.” He then smiled and handed it back to me. “Seriously, are you actually thinking about spending money on that? You…have got…to be…kidding me,” said Ruthy holding her nose and turning away.“Mom, you wanted me to find hidden treasure right? Well, this is it.” It didn’t smell bad to me and I kind of liked it.“Your sure this is what you want?” she said. She held the shirt in her hands but kept it as far away from her face as possible.“Timmy, I didn’t think you could stink any more as a brother, but somehow, you’ve found a way. Congratulations dude.”“Ruthy, I think that’s just about enough for today. Timmy, …why don’t we see if we can put this in a bag or something for the ride home, preferably one with a zipper,” said Mom trying to talk and hold her breath at the same time.As I walked back to the car with my new shirt in my hand, the old man stopped me and said, “I will tell you, my friend, you’ve made a very wise choice today. It may not make sense to you now, but if you promise to be open to possibilities, many wonderful things can happen and you just might change your mind about wanting your old life back,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Chapter 2You know how some days you wake-up knowing it’s going to be an awful day? Well, Monday was one of those days.From the moment I opened my eyes to the sound of my father yelling, “TIMMY…TIMMY…the bus is going to be here in five minutes son. What are you waiting for? Get up and get going,” I knew it was going to be a rough one.Remember the Dukes? Well, they just so happen to be in my class at school. Which makes going to class, sitting in class, and trying to get through any day in class almost impossible. Every day they pick one kid they are going to focus on bullying for the entire day. And, as you might imagine, each day, I hope and pray it’s not going to be me. Well as you might have guessed, today my prayers went unanswered – they chose me…First it started with some predictable stuff – they tore all the pages out of my notebook, they threw my backpack into the outside dumpster, and of course, they stole my lunch and took giant bites out of everything, including the pack of carrots my mom packed for me (the jokes on them though, those carrots have been sitting in my lunch box for weeks, shhh…).The day really got interesting when they held my legs down and tried to glue my feet to the carpet. If the teacher hadn’t stepped in, I am not sure if I wouldn’t still be stuck to the floor. I guess the real low point was after lunch in gym class when the Dukes surrounded me and started twirling me around in a circle faster and faster until I almost threw-up. Seeing that I was about to get sick, they ripped the shirt off my back and soaked it in toilet water and said, “Here, this will cool you off…HA, HA, HA.” There I was, alone, about to barf, and now, unfortunately shirtless. I looked around the room and noticed all the kids laughing and pointing at me. So yeah, Monday was a pretty miserable day.Tuesday started off the same way as Monday with me waking up to the sound of my Dad saying, “TIMMY…TIMMY…get up son, the bus is going to be here in five minutes. What’s taking you so long. It’s time to get going.”I guess I had stayed in bed a little longer than normal this morning, but can you blame me? I mean I wasn’t sure I could handle another day of torture. “TIMMY…,” yelled Dad. “What is with that kid these days?”Once I was out of bed, I realized that I didn’t have any clean clothes. Since my favorite shirt was still sopping wet from toilet water from yesterday’s exercise with my new mortal enemies the only shirt I had left was the old t-shirt from the yard sale.“Oh no,….no, no, no….Timmy, seriously, no,” said Ruthy looking horrified. “You can’t possibly think about wearing that shirt to school are you? The Dukes are going to smell that thing and put you through the ringer all over again – please, don’t do it.”“Leave me alone Ruthy. It doesn’t smell that bad – plus it’s the only thing clean right now.”“Let’s go kids, I can see the bus coming,” Mom yelled as she looked out the front door.“Hey, hope you kids have a gre…whoa….wow…what is that you got on their son?” said Dad looking alarmed.“Is that…is that smell coming from you Timmy?” asked Dad. “Honey, it’ll be fine…um, just, let’s just put a jacket over it okay dear…,” said Mom trying to usher us out the door.“It’s 82 degrees outside…in the morning…and I don’t need a jacket,” I complained.“Don’t care, wear the jacket…now go!” she said shoving me and my sister outside and handing us our lunch boxes.Today, the Dukes decided this kid named Isaiah was going to be their target for the day. Isaiah was kind of like me, a little quiet, kept to himself, and didn’t really have any other friends. In other words, he was easy pickings.And because the Dukes aren’t particularly creative, they started in on Isaiah the same way the did with me – you remember – first tearing pages out of the notebook, then backpack in the dumpster, followed by the whole lunch thing. Of course, I felt bad for him, but what was I supposed to do?Things got serious later in the day when our teacher had to step outside of the classroom to take an “emergency call.” The Dukes now had an opportunity to strike and didn’t waste any time. They quickly got out of their chairs and pulled Isaiah into the middle of the room – I guess they were going to do the whole twirl him around in a circle thing until he got sick…just like me the day before.Isaiah screamed, ”Please, …please,…stop.”But no one said a word or tried to help as the Dukes continued their horrifying game. We were all too scared to do anything.“Please…someone…someone help me…” Isaiah shrieked.And let me stop here for a second - Because it was at this point that I don’t exactly remember what came over me. In general, I’ve never thought of myself as particularly brave and certainly, not a hero. But there was something about the sound of Isaiah’s voice on the verge of tears, or the fact that I was still reeling from my own nightmare from the day before, that summoned a voice inside me that said– ‘THIS IS GOING TO STOP RIGHT NOW. AND YOU TIMMY, ARE GOING TO STOP IT.’Before I knew what was happening and could talk myself out of it, I felt my body rising up out of my chair, trying to help Isaiah, but the jacket that my Mom made me wear was caught in the back of the chair and I couldn’t really move. I tried to pull it loose over and over but nothing happened. In an act of desperation, I ripped off the jacket, revealing my yard-sale t-shirt, and yelled out – “Hey, CUT THAT OUT… NOW!”Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing, including the Dukes, and looked straight at me.Normally, everyone staring at me would be almost as terrifying as having my head flushed in the toilet again, but for whatever reason, as soon as I was free from that jacket, it was like I suddenly had been given a superpower. I felt strong, I felt powerful, and I was ready to take on the WORLD! Each of the Dukes immediately stopped messing with Isaiah and turned toward me – but it was like they couldn’t move, they were frozen stiff, like statues.It was the craziest thing, as I took a couple steps closer to the Dukes I could see their faces begin to turn bright red, and their eyes started to water. Grayson (he was kind of the lead one) his eyes grew wide-open like he was seeing a ghost or something. Both JJ and Hurley covered their noses and began gasping for air with loud gulps like a goldfish out of water.Now free, Isaiah ran back to the corner of the room for safety. Meanwhile, I had more work to do. “Every day you come in here and gang up on one of us. Well, those days are over.” I’ll be honest, I have no idea where these words were coming from but it felt great and somehow seemed to be working.I was now standing right beside the Dukes and looking them right in the eyes. Each of them was a good six or seven inches taller than me (but then again, they did fail 4th grade twice so they were a little bit older), but for some reason I wasn’t scared. In fact, I actually felt in control for once in my life.“Whaa…whaaa….what’s that smell?” said Grayson, looking dizzy and confused.“My skin, it’s starting to burn and itch,” said JJ rubbing his arms and his face.“Look at your hair Grayson, it’s…it’s starting to turn orange…what is happening to us right now? panicked Hurley.“I’ll tell you what’s happening, ME, Timmy, that’s what’s happening. And if you think I am going to sit back here and watch you bully my…my friend…well, you got another thing coming.”“My teeth hurt,” whimpered JJ.“Yeah, my stomach is in knots and my bottom isn’t very happy right now,” said Hurley bending over grabbing his tummy.“Look kid, I…I don’t know what’s happening here or where that stink is coming from…but …but..” and then Grayson dropped to the floor and began crying and sucking his thumb.And just like that, all three of the Dukes grabbed each other by the arms and ran out of the room, whining and crying. I actually think I heard one of them call out for his “Mommy” but I can’t be sure, I was just so wrapped up in the moment.“And another thing, you owe each of us an apology…” I yelled, but in reality it was too late since the Dukes were already long gone and frankly, I might have been piling on a little bit, but who cares. “Way to GO Stinky T!” shouted one of the kids in the class.“STINKY T!” “STINKY T!” “STINKY T!” the whole class now began to chant in celebration.Looking relieved and surprised, Isaiah came over to me holding my jacket and said, thank you. Thank you Stinky T. I don’t know what would have happened if you didn’t come to save me.”I put the jacket back on and smiled, “Hey, that’s what friends are for…right?”“Yes. Best friends,” Isaiah said happily. It was kind of a moment.And the truth is, from that day on, Isaiah and I have been the best of friends. Strangest thing, on the way home that afternoon, I saw the old man from the garage sale. He was timidly walking down the sidewalk when I got off the bus. As I started to walk toward him, our eyes met. “Hey, I see you are wearing your new shirt. It looks good on you,” said the old man with a smile. He was moving very slowly in my direction.“Yeah, it’s been a crazy day. You are never going to guess what happened…” I said eagerly. And I spent the next several minutes sharing every single detail of the day. I almost ran out of breath several times as I was still so excited. While I told him the story he kept nodding his head back and forth in approval, almost like he knew what I was going to say before I said it.As soon as I finished with story, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m so happy you were open to the possibility of power that this shirt can bring.”Scratching my head, “I’m not sure I know what you mean by that sir.”Then things got kind of weird.“The shirt you are wearing can reveal the hidden powers deep within each of us. Sometimes it takes something unusual to make us aware of the blessings that surround our lives. For example, you responded to help your friend Isaiah because you love him. Love is the most powerful force in the world,” he said.“But…uh… what? ’m not in love with Isaiah,” I said quickly.“Ah, but love a friend is different than a romantic love, like the one your parents have for one another. A friend is someone you can love like a brother or sister – someone you talk to, someone you support and trust, and certainly someone you enjoy spending time with. All of this is a form of love.”“Yeah, I guess so. I just never thought of it that way.”“I’m happy you have embraced love as a power we all possess that can make the world a better place. And I am happy that you now wear the shirt that will can guide you through a magical journey – revealing even more discoveries in the future.”And with that, he just walked away.“And one more thing I forgot to tell you (he said looking over his shoulder)…never wash the shirt. It will lose its magical power.”I looked down at my shirt to see if I could notice anything special. And get this, when I looked up…the old man was gone. Poof, just like that.That night, right before I went to bed, something even stranger happened. After I got settled into bed and just before I turned out my light, I looked down and saw my t-shirt crumpled on the floor – but it looked different. So, I got out of bed and picked it up…and here’s the weird part…somehow the word “Love” now appeared on the front of my shirt.How it got there, no one knows. It was as if it had been there all along. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download