Highly Commended Story - Axel, The Lilliputian Man

“Axel, The Lilliputian Man” by Eleonora Enza Traversa, International School Monza, Italy, is the Highly Commended story in the junior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Eleonora was born in Milan. She has always had a lively imagination, and for this reason she likes to invent short stories of any type, most of the time unrealistic ones. She feels really relaxed and excited while writing. Eleonora also likes writing poems a lot, especially short ones like Limericks or Haikus. Her hobbies include playing tennis, swimming, playing the piano and enjoying all sorts of games with her friends and parents. All of her family is Italian, but to learn English well she was sent to the International School of Monza since the age of three and she does like this international environment!

Axel, The Lilliputian Man

Once there was a little Lilliputian man, who was as small as a tooth. He lived under a red and white mushroom in Yellowstone Park. He was called Axel. Axel had blond, incredibly short hair and deep brown eyes. He was very athletic and wore a little shirt with red and white stripes and a pair of jeans. They were his only real clothes, since there aren’t many shirts or trousers as tiny as a little tooth!

Every day he played his minuscule flute made of wood. He did this every day at eight o’clock in the evening, so that the ants would know it was story time. The ants, for him enormous creatures, were his best friends. They knew all his secrets and he knew theirs. Actually, they knew all his secrets apart from one: why he was so tiny, and not like all other men and women. That night, when he played the flute for the six hundred and thirty seventh time, he decided it was time they discovered all about his past. And so, his story began.

He once lived with a very noble woman. They lived in a high, narrow, seven floors house. Each floor had a different theme and colour: red and fire, blue and the sea, green and nature, yellow and tulips, black and the universe, pink and hearts, and last but not least, cyan like deep dark water. The woman he loved was called Coco. She was not so tall and had light brown hair. Her lips were as red as magenta paint. Her eyes were as dark and deep as the universe dark space. When someone stared at those eyes, it was like being absorbed in a mystery story for their deepness.

Coco designed clothes and she loved ice skating. She was always out for work and dinners, and Axel started thinking she betrayed him. He started wondering how to get his revenge on her. She had a lot of money, and he decided to steal it from her. She had some money in a safe. One day he entered their room and opened her safe. There were almost five thousand euros in there, all in banknotes! He took some out, but he was interrupted by a strong and powerful voice, that roared:

“You have committed a really bad act! Coco didn’t betray you just because she stayed away for a long time. She loves you as much as you love her. You didn’t even talk to her after feeling that you did not trust her any more, you just took revenge. Now you will become a tiny man until you learn the lesson completely!”

All the ants gasped. “Well, that’s all true”, said Axel, “I was really greedy. Since I met Coco and fell in love with her, I always had the temptation to get her money. Now, after all this time spent with you my loyal friends, I’ve learned the lesson. I can do nothing else but redeem my sin, now that Coco is dead” said Axel.

And so he did. The little man went back to the house where all of this had happened and asked forgiveness to all those who had been his friends. It was a long journey, since he was tiny, and the rain fell hard on his head, but he had to go. He gained everyone’s trust again and showed them that he had turned into a good person now. He became big again, just like he had become small, six hundred and forty days before.

However, the ants now had become his friends and family. Every day he went to Yellowstone Park, he brought some bread crumbs and talked to them. He was very compassionate and careful not to step on any ant or little creature. He was happy, and they all lived a good, honest, nice and happy life ever after!