“The dinosaur ghosts couldn’t be here during the day. What are you talking about Sammy?” and he and Lester started heading to the flats with Sammy in tow.
“Big and yellow. They bad. You gotta help, Misser Noggy.” Sammy was obviously upset, but Nogdorf wondered if it was just his childish imagination working overtime.
When they got to the flats, there were indeed big yellow monsters, just as Sammy had said. There were bulldozers and backhoes and earth-moving machines. “We have got real trouble. It looks like the city is moving out here to the forest. We need to think of something quick or we are going to have more trouble than just a messed up dance. Our whole lives will be overturned.”
Nogdorf felt violated. How dare people come into his forest and try to take over. For once he felt almost defeated and discouraged and like giving up. It just wasn’t fair for people to assume they could just move into this land and take it from the ones who lived here and had been here for centuries. Nogdorf’s shoulders started drooping and his face looked twenty years older than it had before. He slowly sank down and sat on a stump.
Lester said, “Nogdorf, what is wrong? I’ve never seen you like this before. Are you ok?”
Nogdorf didn’t look up. Tears streamed down his face. “Why oh why can’t people leave well enough alone? Greed just ruins so many people’s lives; wanting more than you need. Sadly, the innocent are the ones who will pay, by the loss of their land and become homeless and then they are ostracized. I can't go on,” Nogdorf wept.
Lester and Sammy looked at each other. “Do something, Lester. Misser Noggy sad. This not like him.”
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Lester thought quickly and jostled Nogdorf out of his Wizard Depression by his next words.
“This is going to be fun. We are going to pack up all of these machines into a satchel and give it to them. You have got to have a shrinking spell. Also, we should have bigfoot scare them. Noooo, that is a bad idea because they will swarm our forest, looking for him so they can experiment on him. No bigfoot. What do you think, Nogdorf?”
“ Lester, that is brilliant. Yes, I do have a shrinking spell and I think we should do that as soon as they leave for the day. Then tomorrow they will be greeted by the biggest surprise they have ever seen.” Nogdorf had been at his lowest point he had ever reached, but was now flying high, not just at Lester’s suggestion, but at seeing Lester take initiative and come up with a working solution.
This encouraged Nogdorf that Lester was growing into his Wizard’s job and would truly be able to take over Nogdorf’s job when he was no longer here. What a shift of emotions.
Lester and Nogdorf watched the men leave for the day and took the suitcase they had gotten to the middle of the flats. They started with a backhoe. “Ok, Lester, concentrate. Looking straight at the backhoe, stretch out your arms so your body is in the shape of a number seven. Now, say, ‘Amatagoomis, shrinkitafola, shoomie, shamie, sham’ and tap it with your wand.
Lester did just that. He was getting much better at spells, Nogdorf thought. The backhoe shook, it shivered, it SHRANK. And just like that the backhoe was small enough to fit in your hand, like a toy car. Lester shrieked and picked it up and examined it. There was no holding him back after the backhoe shrinkage. He went to work on shrinking the bulldozers and earth-moving machines. After the last one was shrunk, Lester couldn’t resist playing with one of the earth-moving machines. “Vroom, vroom,” He said as he pushed it around.
He looked up and saw Nogdorf laughing at him and sheepishly put the machine in the satchel.
“Lester, thank you,” Nogdorf said and Lester understood what he meant. “We are going to have to come up with some kind of plan to assure us the humans won’t come back any time soon.”
