Flat Stanley Visits China pt. 4 -- Flat Stanley Finds A Way To Go Home‏

Kate -

Ever since the visit to the Great Wall, Stanley had been round instead of flat.  He liked being round, but he knew that he couldn't mail himself home until he got flat again.  He looked and looked for some way to become flat again.  He thought about asking a car to run over him, but he was worried that being run over might leave him partly round, partly flat, and entirely dead.  He could see many cranes lifting heavy materials high into the air so people could build tall buildings, and he thought that maybe he could ask someone to set those heavy materials on top of him.  But he couldn't find any way to get a message to the crane operators.  Since he couldn't speak Chinese, he had to rely on hand gestures and body language to tell people what he wanted.  Maybe if he could talk directly to the crane operator, he might be able to convince the crane operator to smash him.  But he couldn't find a way to climb up and talk to the crane operator.

While Stanley looked for a way to get home, he traveled to other places in Beijing.  One night he went to see the Olympic Stadium called the "Bird's Nest", and the interesting looking "Water Cube" from the Beijing Olympic Games.  But no matter how hard he looked, Stanley couldn't find a way to get home.

One morning, Stanley was walking down the street.  The wind was very cold, and he was hungry for some breakfast.  There were many people selling different kinds of breakfast.  Some sold long, skinny pieces of fried bread.  Others sold something that looked like a thick, hard pancake.  A very busy street vendor was selling something that looked like a burrito with scrambled eggs inside.  But the thing that really caught Stanley's attention was the man selling roasted sweet potatoes.

Stanley bought a sweet potato.  It really was hot, and the inside was golden yellow.  It was very sweet.  While he ate the potato, he looked at the barrel where the man heated the sweet potatoes.  It looked like the man had wired a barrel to the back of his bike, put some coal inside, and attached some baskets for holding the potatoes to the outside of the warm barrel.  The barrel was comfortably warm.  Stanley stood as close as possible to the barrel.  After a minute he held his hands over the warm barrel.  That felt good in the cold spring air.  He wondered if the barrel would be comfortable to touch.

Suddenly, Stanley knew how he could become flat again!  He waited for the man to sell all of his potatoes, then asked him to take the barrel off the back of his bike.  He lay down on the sidewalk, and by using hand gestures, he asked the man to roll the warm barrel over him.  As the warm barrel squashed his feet, Stanley felt his feet becoming flat.  The man rolled the barrel back and forth over Stanley until he was completely flat again.  Stanley had a full stomach, he was warm, and he was flat again!  He thanked the sweet potato vendor and rushed off to mail himself home.

Since Stanley had learned how to stop a taxi, he went right to the side of the road and waved his hands at the first taxi with a red light.  The taxi slowed down, but when it pulled up next to Stanley, the driver looked around in confusion.  Since he was looking at the edge of Flat Stanley, and Flat Stanley was so thin, the driver couldn't see him there at all!  The taxi driver said something in Chinese and drove away.  Flat Stanley tried two more times, but each time the driver couldn't see him when he stopped next to Stanley.  Stanley didn't feel warm and happy anymore.  He felt cold and frustrated.

Then a man with an interesting bicycle stopped outside the building next to Flat Stanley.  This bicycle had three wheels, like a tricycle, but the back was flat like a pickup truck.  On the back platform were many flattened cardboard boxes.  Stanley guessed that the man was gathering the boxes to take them to the recycling station.  Surely the man would pass a post office while he was gathering more boxes...  Quickly Stanley jumped on the back of the bike and slid between two boxes.  In a minute, he felt the bike moving.  The boxes protected Stanley from the cold wind.  Each time they stopped, Stanley peeked out to see if he could recognize a post office.  Finally, just as Stanley was beginning to feel that he would never get home, he saw the FedEx sign!  Stanley slid out from between the boxes and jumped to the ground.  He filled out the mailing form and slid into the envelope.  He was going home!

After two days, Stanley arrived at his home.  His brother helped him out of the envelope.  As he thought about his adventure, Stanley decided that traveling by mail was a little inconvenient.  But he thought about the fun things he had seen in China and smiled to himself.  If he ever had another chance, he thought, he would certainly go there again!

Uncle Dave

The End

NOTE from me:
Thank you SO MUCH Dave for making this such a special project.  For those who don't know, Dave is my oldest brother (he's #1 of 8 and I'm #7) and I was quite young when he moved out of state to attend college.  In fact, I believe I'm closer in age to his oldest son than I am to him!  It was so fun to actually have a project in common :)
Love, Janelle

P.S. Make sure you haven't missed any episodes of "Flat Stanley"  I've been posting pretty much every day this week!