Once upon a time there was a little boy called George. There would be nothing unusual about that, there are plenty of little boys like that in the world. But this George did everything the other way round.
His mother was the first to notice. She asked George to clean his room. Instead of cleaning up, George threw his toys all around the room, scattered the blankets in the bed, emptied the flower pot into them and threw the candy wrappers around the room. Mum got angry and asked George to clean it up immediately. Then George threw the laundry out of the wardrobes, scattered the crayons, emptied the trash can and put the trash on the table. Mummy was unhappy.
The next one to notice George’s contrary behaviour was Daddy. He took George with him to the store.
“Don’t touch anything and stay with me,” Daddy urged George.
But no sooner had Daddy turned around than George started throwing things off the shelves. He ran to fruit and vegetable shelves, where he threw oranges all over the floor, smacked one lady on the butt with a leek, and then screamed and ran all over the store. Daddy was so ashamed that he wanted to sink into the ground. It was a great shame and both Daddy and George were escorted out of the shop by the security guard.
From then on, George had to stay at home and no one took him anywhere. His parents were terrified about the day George would start school. When they asked him if he was looking forward to school, he replied that he was. Maybe the school would teach him how to behave, his parents hoped.
On the first day of school, George received a flower for his teacher. His mother reminded him not to forget to say hello politely when he entered the classroom. She wished him good luck and stayed waiting outside the school.
George entered the classroom and shouted loudly: “Hey, Grandma! You work here too?”
The teacher jerked in alarm, but said nothing. She didn’t say anything even when George threw the flower out the window. She kept calm and asked George politely to sit on the chair.
Instead, George stood on the teacher’s desk.
The teacher turned pale.
“Get down, George,” she ordered her pupil.
Instead, George climbed up onto the blackboard and sat there.
The teacher became angry. She shouted, threatened, banged the desk with a ruler, but it was all in vain. When the headmaster came to see why there was so much noise in the classroom, the teacher ran out of the classroom, almost knocked down the headmaster, and disappeared.
“Hopefully it won’t be that bad,” thought the headmaster, and he entered the classroom and immediately began to give instructions to the children. “Now, children, write today’s date in your notebooks.”
George, who was still sitting on the blackboard, jumped down, took out his pencil case and scribbled yesterday’s date on the desk with a marker.
“Don’t ruin our desks, George,” the headmaster admonished George. And that was a mistake.
George started scribbling on all the desks, kicking and hitting the desks with his hands. The frightened children ran out of the classroom. The headmaster ran after them, locked George in the classroom, and called his parents to tell them that he was expelling George from school and he should stay at home.
So George was not allowed to go to school. The parents were very unhappy. What could they do to help George? Are there any doctors for such behavior? Mom and Dad called a number of specialists, but no one dared to take on such a severe case of childhood reversal. Someone claimed that it was a helpless case, another said that it would only help to take the boy to the infamous Dr. Liontamer’s reform school.
Then my mother remembered one of her uncles who lived in a village far from people.
“That strange man? Is he the one we should entrust our son to?” Daddy wondered. But in the end he agreed.
Uncle Leo was a fat old grump with whom no one wanted to live. He was strict with everyone and was said to like only himself. George’s parents brought him George with a letter saying that he was to take care of him because they had to leave suddenly for a long trip abroad.
Uncle didn’t mind. On the contrary, he was glad to have someone to give orders to.
“Well, George, I’m going to sleep now. Sing me a lullaby. And when I get up, don’t you dare bring me a snack. I’m on a diet. Okay?!” Uncle Leo shouted.
George fell silent. For the first time in so many years he was silent. His uncle soon fell asleep and George thought he should go to the candy store to ruin his uncle’s diet as much as possible. When his uncle woke up, a snack of éclairs, cream puffs and profiteroles was waiting for him.
“Don’t you dare take a bite, you freeloader,” uncle Leo mumbled as he was already biting into the first cake.
What George heard though was a clear invitation to eat too.
“Oh, and I have chickens outside. Don’t you dare feed them, they’re so greedy. Let them find something to peck on,” said his uncle.
George ran outside, fed the chickens and cleaned their coop. Uncle will be so angry, George rejoiced.
And so the two of them lived together quite nicely. George worked, took care of the animals, helped his uncle at home and did everything his uncle told him to do, the other way round. And can you believe, dear children, that it worked for those two? In the end, they both got along quite well. But don’t try this at home. I’m sure you don’t have such a strange uncle like that and you could end up at dr. Liontamer’s.
