Chapter Six -- Growing Up

He quickly picked himself up and started running away, shouting, "Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! She's throwing blocks at me! Don't let her throw blocks at me."
 
 

He tripped over and ruined an elaborate pattern of sticks. Leroy, who was playing with the sticks, broke into tears and pounded his head against the floor.
 
 

Mrs. Murphy just sat and watched, smiling and sucking her thumb.
 
 

Mike crawled up to Mrs. Murphy, buried his head in her lap, and sobbed, "She threw blocks at me."
 
 

"Yes, didn't she? Alice has a good arm."
 
 

"Alice?"
 
 

"Yes, you know Alice. Alice Grant. Mrs. Grant. Apartment 3602. She has a good arm."
 
 

Mike turned and looked. Alice, the little old lady who had been throwing blocks, was crawling away. Mike started running after her. Leroy tripped him. Mike kicked Leroy. Leroy kicked back. Mike tackled Leroy and untied his elevator shoes. Leroy fought frantically, but Mike pulled the elevator shoes off Leroy and put them on himself. He couldn't tie them. He couldn't remember how to tie shoes. But he started running, tripping, and crawling after Mrs. Grant.
 
 

"My shoes! My shoes!" screamed Leroy. "He stole my shoes!"
 
 

"Mrs. Grant!" hollered Mike. "Wait, Mrs. Grant! I have a note for you. Wait, please wait!"
 
 

Mrs. Grant got to the elevator before he could and disappeared. Then the elevator returned and Mike got back on board again -- this time alone.
 
 

When he got off the elevator, he knew it was the fifth floor.
 
 

"Hello, Jack."
 
 

"Hello, Mike. Did you forget something?"
 
 

"No, I just wanted to give it a grow again."
 
 

"Sure thing, Mike."
 
 

So they shoveled some dirt on his feet and some fertilizer.

 The sprinkler turned on, and Mike grew again. Only this time, it felt good to grow.
 
 

He went up and up, and he felt so big and strong.
 
 

Then he hopped on the elevator and went to see Dr. Gulliver again.
 
 

"I'd like to shrink again, please," said Mike politely.
 
 

The birds swooped down and Mike shrunk down and hopped aboard the elevator again and grew again and shrunk again and grew again and shrunk again. Mike loved the feel of shrinking -- it was like sliding boards and sleds.
 
 

Then he met Mrs. Murphy in the elevator again.
 
 

"Where are you growing now?" asked Mike.

 "I thought I might grow up now," she answered.
 
 

"That sounds like fun. Can I come, too?"
 
 

"Sure, sonny. You can grow wherever you please. You have elevator shoes now. You can grow up or down, big or small."
 
 

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" Mike asked Mrs. Murphy.
 
 

"Well, this time, I think I'll be a doctor. And next time I think I'll be a lawyer."
 
 

"You mean you can grow up again and again?"
 
 

"Certainly, sonny. You have elevator shoes, don't you?"
 
 

"Wow! I never knew what to answer when people asked me what I wanted to be. It was tough. If you can only be one thing, how can you ever decide? But if you can do it again and again, one thing after another ... Wow! Can I be President?"
 
 

"Of course; for however long you like. You do have elevator shoes, after all.
 
 

"And Leroy. What's Leroy going to be?"
 
 

"Oh, he's a three-year old."
 
 

"You mean he isn't tired of that by now? I thought he'd be coming along with you. I thought he'd be there already."
 
 

"Oh, but he doesn't have elevator shoes anymore."
 
 

"You mean..."
 
 

"Of course, sonny. We all can't be that fortunate."

 The elevator doors opened. Mrs. Grant got out. Suddenly she was wearing a doctor's outfit, with a stethescope around her neck and a doctor's bag in her hand.
 
 

"What are you waiting for, sonny?" she asked.
 
 

But before he could answer, the elevator doors shut.

 Mike sat in the corner.
 
 

The elevator opened at the fifth floor, but Mike didn't get out It opened at the tenth floor, where Dr. Gulliver was; but Mike didn't get out. Then it opened at the twelfth floor, where everybody acted like little kids; and Mike did get out.

 Off in a corner, in a mass of broken sticks, Leroy lay crying.
 
 

Mike did handstands and somersaults and landed right next to Leroy. Then he took off the elevator shoes, gave them to Leroy and did back flips all the way back to the elevator.
 
 

He pushed 36, and the elevator went up. When the door opened, the indicator light said 37, but Mike got off anyway. Right in front of him, across the hall, he saw 3602.
 
 

Mrs. Grant smiled when she saw him. "What a fine big boy you are coming up here all the way by yourself."
 
 

She offered him cookies and a glass of milk, but he said he had to be going. He got right back on the elevator, clutching a handful of cookies.

 Down went the elevator, right to the bottom, without any stops. Mike went running out to the car. Aunt Maggie was standing on the sidewalk, waiting for him.
 
 

"Where are your shoes?" Aunt Maggie asked in surprise.
 
 

"Oh, I don't need shoes anymore," said Mike, proudly. "I used to need them. But now I don't."
 
 

"What nonsense," said Aunt Maggie. "What's you mother going to say when she hears of this?"
 
 

Mike just smiled. "Some people need shoes more than others." 

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