Max, Sasha and Joy sat in the bushes with the trash bag between them. They watched as Mr. Pitt was led away by the police, kicking and shouting. Sasha tapped Max on the shoulder.
“Do you reckon he’ll go to jail?”
Max shrugged. “Probably not. But I don’t think he’ll ever be a headmaster again.”
The governors had turned up shortly after the Pitt Building collapsed, and found Mr. Pitt in the car park in his underwear. He was covered in blisters and old milk, and was raving about a tiny janitor riding a fly. By the time the builders had reappeared saying something about the school being bankrupt, the governors had heard all they needed.
“And what about the school?” said Joy. “Is St. Goliath’s going to close down now?”
Sasha patted her on the back. “They’ll think of something, Joy. In the meantime, we need to get you back to the boardinghouse. The governors will be checking the rest of the school soon!”
Joy groaned. “Can’t I come with you?”
Sasha shook his head. “Max and I have something important to do, and—”
Max put a hand on his shoulder.
“Let her come. We couldn’t have done any of this without her.”
They made their way to Mr. Darrow’s potting shed, and Max carefully placed the trash bag on the table. He reached into it and found the microscope goggles. He pulled them on and focused the lenses so he could see thousands of tiny faces peeking through the slit in the plastic.
“You can come out now,” said Max. “This is it—your new home!”
Max knew the floor people wouldn’t understand his words, but they understood enough. They started pouring out of the bag and filling the trays on the table. Max smiled.
“We did it! The floor people finally have somewhere safe to live.”
Max felt another tap on his shoulder.
“But, Max,” said Sasha, “what about you? You’re not still going to be expelled, are you?”
Joy gripped Max’s arm. “We won’t let them do it, Max! We’ll tell the governors what happened—they’re bound to let you stay!”
Max shared a glance with Sasha. They both wished Joy were right, but they knew the truth. People rarely believe children. How could they explain everything that had happened—all the damage they had caused to the school—without giving away the truth about the tiny world?
“It doesn’t matter, Joy,” said Max. “Mr. Darrow’s coming back, remember? When he does, we can work something out together and—”
“Max.”
Max froze. There was a voice in his ear that he hadn’t expected to hear. He looked at the warfly hovering in front of him….
And his heart swelled.
Standing beside Luke was a girl with red hair, and standing beside her was Mr. Darrow.
“Yes, it’s me.”
Mr. Darrow stood holding the microphone. Max stared back at him, still gobsmacked.
“I’ve been here all along, and I’ve been watching you. You did brilliantly, Max—I’m so proud of you.”
It took a while for the words to register with Max, and for the blush to spread across his cheeks like a sunset. Mr. Darrow cleared his throat.
“I’ve been trying to find you for a long time now. I needed you to help me get back to normal size. But now…”
Mr. Darrow looked at Luke and Ivy beside him and gave them a warm smile.
“Now I don’t want to go back. There’s nothing for me in the big world anymore. No wife, no family—just my models. I used to think they were everything, but I was wrong. They’re nothing compared with being around good people. The only thing I don’t want to leave behind is you.”
Mr. Darrow looked up at Max and sighed.
“Saying goodbye to you will be very, very hard, Max. But we don’t have to say goodbye. Not if you don’t want to.”
Max stared at Mr. Darrow in confusion.
“Look inside the trash bag—in the trouser pocket. There’s something you should see.”
Max reached inside the trash bag and pulled out a tiny glass bottle.
“That’s the serum that made all this happen,” said Mr. Darrow. “The secret ingredient that made me shrink to this size. I spent twenty years looking for it, and now it’s all gone…except for one drop.”
Max looked inside the bottle.
“It’s your choice, Max,” said Mr. Darrow. “If you want to stay behind, I understand completely. But if you want to join us, then drink that drop. It’ll be enough to shrink you.”
Max looked at Mr. Darrow with shock.
“I know how lonely you are,” said Mr. Darrow. “I know how miserable you were at your aunt’s. You never told me about it, but I could see it in your eyes. It was one of the reasons I agreed to teach you—I wanted to help. Of course, in the end it was you who helped me.”
Max looked at the serum. He thought about what the rest of his life would be like now—being expelled, living with his great-aunt Meredith on the other side of the country….
“If you stay with us, you’ll be tiny—but you’ll be hidden, too. You’ll be safe. We’ll have enough time to work out a way to safely return to normal size together. But it’s your choice.”
Max felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, is that Mr. Darrow on that fly?”
Sasha stood behind Max, grinning with amazement.
“No way! What’s he saying?”
Max swallowed.
“Er…just explaining how he got so small.”
Sasha smiled. “Wow! You’ll have to tell me all about it! Look, I might have to go back to the boardinghouse. Joy’s exhausted.”
He nodded to his sister, who was slumped against his leg, her eyes drooping.
“Are you coming?”
Max looked at Sasha—the nicest, kindest person he had ever met. His new friend. Then he turned to Mr. Darrow—the man who’d taught him everything he knew. The closest thing Max had ever had to a father. Max had never had to make a choice like this before. He looked between them, his face torn.
“I…I…”
Then Max saw Luke and the red-haired girl standing beside Mr. Darrow. He saw the millions of tiny people below them, gazing up at him on the table, all of them relying on him to survive. And he knew exactly what he had to do.
“No, Sasha,” he said quietly. “I’m not coming. Sorry.”
“OK—I’ll meet you at the boardinghouse later and—”
“No,” said Max. “I mean…I’m staying here. With the floor people.”
Sasha frowned. “What? Max, you can’t live in a shed, that’s weird.”
“Not like that,” said Max. “I mean live with the floor people—in their world. Mr. Darrow says there’s a way to do it. I’m going to shrink to their size and live with them.”
Sasha still didn’t understand. “Max, you’re not making any sense! If you do that, I can’t go with you—I’ve got Joy to look after!”
“I know you can’t,” said Max.
He had to watch the realization dawn across Sasha’s face. It broke his heart.
“What’s going on?”
Joy snapped awake, gazing up at them through half-shut eyes. Sasha swallowed hard and quickly regained his composure. He rubbed her head with a reassuring smile.
“Hey, Joy, can you wait outside for a second?”
She nodded sleepily. “OK. I’ll go get some of Mr. Darrow’s carrots for the girls. We’ve been taking them all year.”
“I knew it!” snapped Mr. Darrow.
Joy stepped outside, and Sasha closed the door.
“Max, you can’t go. You can’t just leave everything behind.”
“We both know I’m going to be expelled,” said Max. “I’m not like you—I don’t have family I belong to. I don’t have anyone who needs me. The only people who have ever needed me are…them.”
He held out his hand to the millions of tiny faces spread across the seedling trays.
“The floor people will never survive here without my help—they’ve never even left the bedroom! Mr. Darrow can’t do it all on his own. I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid people, and I don’t want to do it anymore. I want to help them. They need me, Sasha.”
Sasha winced. “I need you, Max.”
Sasha pulled the hood tighter around his face, but he couldn’t hide the tears that were making tiny snowflakes on the dusty floor. Max put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not for forever, Sasha. I’m going to come back. Mr. Darrow and I are going to find a way to return to normal size. Until then, I’ll be right here—we can talk anytime you want!”
Sasha looked up, his eyes wet. “How?”
Max looked at him for a while. Then, slowly, he reached up and took out his hearing aids. They whistled loudly with feedback…and then his world was silent. He knew he would have to rely on lip-reading alone from now on.
Max handed them over. When he spoke, all he could hear was his own voice deep in his chest, where his heart was.
“Take them. Listen for me—I’ll be right here.”
Sasha took the hearing aids and beamed.
“I’ll come every day—twice a day, even! Anything you need, just ask!”
Max put a hand on Sasha’s shoulder. “Thank you, Sasha.”
He paused. He hoped that what he was going to say next would come out right.
“Not just for the help, for everything. For being kind to me. For showing me what I can do. For being my friend. You’re the nicest guy I’ve ever met—and you shouldn’t let your parents leave you here. You should tell them you want to go home at the holidays and see your old friends. Joy deserves better, and so do—”
Before Max could finish the sentence, Sasha grabbed him and hugged him tight. Max stopped talking—he didn’t need to say anything more.
“Bye, Max.”
“Goodbye, Sasha.”
They reached out and crossed fingers—X. Then Max stepped back and took a deep breath.
“Oh well,” he said. “Here goes nothing….”
He held the bottle high above him, and let the last remaining drop of serum land on his tongue.
Max felt the change in his stomach first. It was like all his insides were getting smaller at the same time. The breath squeezed out of his lungs, and the muscles round his heart tensed and tightened. His legs gave way and he fell onto the table, trembling. Sasha was in front of him in seconds, his face concerned.
“Max! Are you OK?”
Sasha’s face was growing right in front of him. The shed was getting bigger and bigger too, and suddenly it felt like he was falling into himself. His T-shirt became bigger and heavier and billowed up around him like a three-ring circus. Before he knew it, Sasha’s face was disappearing faster and faster above him, his movements slowing and grinding like a film in slow motion….
And then Max was alone.
His T-shirt was spread like a landscape around him, as far as he could see. Sasha loomed over him, his face flickering with the tiniest movements, like a field of grass in the wind.
Max sat up. The entire Floor was running toward him, their lips all forming the same words.
“The Great One!”
Max had never seen so many people so happy to see him before. And right at the very front…
“MR. DARROW!”
Max leapt to his feet and ran toward him. But to his confusion, everyone started blushing and turning away. Everyone except for Ivy, who was almost senseless with laughter. Max suddenly caught sight of Luke, waving his hands to get his attention.
“Max, your clothes!”
Max looked down, and yelped. He was completely naked. He clapped a hand over his privates and glared at Mr. Darrow.
“Oh yeah!” muttered Mr. Darrow. “The serum doesn’t shrink your clothes. Sorry—should have mentioned that.”
Someone quickly handed Max a spare fly rider’s outfit and he got dressed while a million people faced the other way. Even Sasha hid his eyes. When Max was finally ready—and Ivy had stopped laughing—the Floor people fell to their knees in front of him.
“Welcome back, Great One!” cried a Blue. “We never stopped believing in you!”
“Lead us, Great One, please!”
“Remember when you found my keys?”
Max waved them all quiet—he wasn’t used to so many people talking to him at once. He cleared his throat and hoped he could make them understand him.
“Sorry,” he explained, his voice still booming in his chest. “I’m not really the Great One. That was, well…a lie.” He pointed at Mr. Darrow. “That’s the Great One, if you’re interested.”
The entire Floor shuffled round on their knees to face Mr. Darrow.
“Lead us, Great One!”
“We always believed in you!”
Mr. Darrow grumbled and tried to bat them all away, without success.
Max felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a face he recognized instantly. A face he knew like the back of his hand.
“It’s you!” said Luke.
Max smiled. “It’s you!”
Luke held out his fingers in an X, but Max hugged him instead. Luke stepped back and stared him up and down in disbelief.
“I…I don’t believe it. I’m taller than you.”
Mr. Darrow placed a hand on Max’s shoulder.
“Thank you for coming, Max,” he said. “And make sure you thank your friend, too. We couldn’t have done any of this without him.”
They looked up at the sky. Sasha stood over them, gazing down at the world. From here, you could see the exact point where happiness and sadness met in his eyes.
“You’ll be able to hear everything he says, you know,” said Mr. Darrow. “You and I can hear things at his speed. I’ll teach you how to do it. We’re going to need a lot of help from Sasha from now on….”
“Like what?”
Mr. Darrow laughed, and gave him a playful hug.
“We’ve got plenty of time to talk about that, Max. For now, let’s get this lot moving.”
He pointed to the Floor people around them. They were forming lines to the warflies, and Luke and Ivy and the Red Queen were taking charge, explaining plans and showing people where to go. Everyone was helping each other.
“Moving?” said Max. “Where to?”
Mr. Darrow gave him a look.
“Where do you think?” he said. “Paradise, of course.”
Sasha watched as Max was lost among the millions of tiny people clustering around him. He felt like his heart was ready to burst, but he wasn’t sad. He’d never seen Max so happy before.
“Sasha?”
Joy was standing at the door, rubbing her eyes.
“Where’s Max?”
Sasha smiled. He picked up the microscope goggles and gently put them over her head.
“See for yourself.”
Joy gasped with amazement. The whole world was transformed around her. The shed had become a place of wonders.
“The flies!”
They were leaving the shed. One by one they buzzed through the air, laden with families and friends and people who just moments ago had been strangers. The green glow of their torches lit their way like a string of fairy lamps. They flew out the shed door, carrying a million people a handful at a time to their new home.
They were landing in the vegetable patch.