Charm is my middle name...

This is a story about a boy named Clumsy and a girl named Snowflake.  You might be wondering how they got their peculiar names.  Well, Clumsy was born right after his mother almost had a big fall from tripping over her own feet.  “How terribly clumsy of me!”  she exclaimed, as she realized the consequences such a fall could have so late in her pregnancy.  But before she could even finish her sentence, she went into labour and gave birth to a beautiful little boy, which she then decided to call Clumsy, as a reminder of how lucky she was not to have lost her baby.

And Snowflake?  Well, her story is a little different.  During the last months of her mom’s pregnancy she started having a severe craving for frozen foods.  She constantly indulged in it, eating it without heating it, ice-cold from the freezer.  Later on, she started replacing all other food with frozen foods. She wouldn’t even drink water, but insisted on eating ice-cubes.  Her husband told her to be careful as her baby would probably be born frozen.  And sure enough, her baby came out white as snow, and cold enough to give you shivers.

And so these two somewhat peculiar children grew up in a somewhat peculiar town, called Bakerville.  Clumsy grew up…well clumsy.  He could not walk even a few meters without stumbling over something, but most of the times he just fell over his own feet.  Even when standing still, talking to somebody, he would end up knocking things over or accidentally bumping something off a table.  Even though it was a peculiar town with a lot of peculiar children, he still got teased a lot.  Love Bug, Ditzy and Violet all made fun of him. Only Snowflake kept quiet.  She never really said anything, but no-one made fun of her.  She was always handled with respect, especially since she could turn the temperature in any room to very cold if she wished to do so.  When the other children started teasing Clumsy and it got to a point where all he wanted to do was cry, he could always feel a change in the temperature.   And then the children would stop teasing and run to fetch their jackets.  He wanted to thank Snowflake, but as soon as he started walking towards her, he would fall over his own feet again.  She would just give a little smile and then walk away.

Clumsy couldn’t stop thinking about Snowflake.  He wanted to tell her that he really appreciated what she does for him every time he gets teased, and he also really wanted to tell her that he thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.  On his sixteenth birthday party, it was just him and his parents.  He didn’t really have many friends and he was too scared to ask Snowflake to come. That night at dinner, his mom could see that he was not himself.  Before bedtime, she went to sit with him for a little while.  “Do you want me to tell you the story about how you were born again Clumsy?” she asked. “No mom” he said quietly.  “Not tonight”.  His mom accepted this and then told him:  “I still didn’t give you your last present you know”.  He looked at her without much excitement “What is it?”  His mom replied:  “Well, I have decided to tell you your middle name.  I think you are old enough now to use it wisely.”  “I have another name?” he said surprised, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”   “I think sometimes in life, we just don’t see who we really are Clumsy.  You just look at your clumsiness, but you don’t see what I see.  I see who you really are… And that is so much more than just a clumsy boy.  And I guess, I hope if I tell you your middle name, that you will see a bit of who you really are too.” And she whispered something in his ear.

The next morning Clumsy walks to school differently.  He still has a few stumbles, but he seems to care less about them and get up quicker than usual.  He looks confident and doesn’t even notice the other children shouting things from the side of the road.  When he gets to school, he walks straight up to Snowflake, looks her in the eye and say:  “Hi, my name is Clumsy, but Charm is my middle name”