Conan continued to stare up at Evan, but his fearful expression faded. Conan suddenly started to laugh. “I’m glad it happened to you and not me!” he exclaimed.

“Huh? Why?” Evan demanded.

“Because I’m afraid of heights!” Conan replied. He laughed again. “I always thought you were a nerd, Evan!” Conan declared. “But now you’re a BIG nerd!”

Evan let out an angry growl and lurched forward. He tried to climb over the fence. But he didn’t step high enough. Conan’s fence splintered beneath Evan’s heavy sneaker.

“Hey—!” Conan cried in alarm.

He tried to turn and run, but Evan was too fast for him.

Evan grabbed Conan under the shoulders and lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing.

“Let go! Let go of me!” Conan screamed. He kicked his arms and legs like a baby.

“I never knew you were afraid of heights,” Evan said. Holding Conan in both hands, he raised him high in the air.

“Let me go! Let me go!” Conan cried. “What are you going to do?”

“Let’s see if you know how to fly!” Evan exclaimed.

“Noooooo!” Conan’s shrill cry rose up over the yard. He kicked and thrashed as Evan raised him even higher. “Put me down! Put me down!”

“Okay,” Evan agreed. “I’ll put you down.” He set Conan down on a high tree branch.

Conan clung to the trunk for dear life, trembling and crying. “Evan—don’t leave me up here! Please! I told you, I’m afraid of heights! Evan—come back! Evan!”

A huge grin on his huge face, Evan turned away from Conan. “That was a lot of fun!” he called down to his friends.

Conan continued to weep and wail up in the tree. Evan took a few steps toward the front yard. “That was excellent!” Evan said, still grinning. “Excellent!”

“Where are you going?” he heard Andy call up to him.

“Yeah! What are you going to do now?” Kermit asked eagerly.

“This is kind of cool!” Evan declared. Having his revenge on Conan had put him in a better mood. “Let’s go see if we can have some more fun!”

“Yaaaay!” Kermit cried, racing to keep up with Evan.

Evan ducked his head to keep from banging it on a low tree branch. He took several big steps toward the street.

“Oh!” He stopped and cried out when he felt himself step on something. He heard a cracking, then a crunch beneath his enormous sneaker.

He turned to see Kermit raise both hands to his face. “Oh, no!” Kermit shrieked. “You squashed Andy! Evan—you squashed Andy!”

Evan gasped and jerked up his foot.

Kermit let out a high-pitched laugh. “Gotcha, Evan!”

Andy came running over from the driveway. “That wasn’t funny!” she scolded Kermit. “That was a really dumb joke, Kermit. You scared Evan to death.”

“I know!” Kermit laughed, very pleased with himself.

Evan let out a sigh of relief. He bent down to see what he had stepped on. Conan’s skateboard. It lay crushed and splintered, flat on the grass.

He turned angrily to Kermit. “No more stupid jokes,” he thundered. “Or I’ll put you up in the tree with Conan.”

“Okay. Okay,” Kermit mumbled. “You think you’re tough just because you’re so big.”

Evan held up a pointer finger. “Careful, Kermit,” he warned. “I could knock you over with one finger.”

“Conan is still yelling for help back there,” Andy reported.

Evan smiled. “Let’s see who’s hanging out at the playground. Maybe we can surprise some other kids.”

Evan crossed the street, taking long, heavy strides. He felt as if he were walking on stilts. This is kind of cool, he told himself. I’m the biggest person in the world!

He passed by the neighbors’ basketball hoop, which stood on a pole at the curb. Hey—I’m at least six feet taller than the basket! he realized.

“Hey—wait up!” Andy called breathlessly. “Don’t walk so fast!”

“I can’t help it!” Evan called back.

A small blue car rolled by, then squealed to a stop. Evan could see a woman and two kids in the car. They were all staring out at him.

A little girl on a bike turned the corner. She started pedaling toward Evan. He saw the look of surprise on her face when she spotted him.

She braked her bike hard, nearly toppling over the handlebars. Then she wheeled around and sped out of sight.

Evan laughed.

Another car screeched to a halt.

As he started to cross another street, Evan turned to see who was in the car. He didn’t watch where he was going.

A loud crunch made him stop.

With a gasp, he peered down—and saw that he had stepped on a car.

“Oh, no!” Evan cried. His sneaker had crushed in the top of the car—as if it were made of tinfoil.

Evan backed away in horror. Was someone inside?

He dropped to his knees to stare in the window. “Thank goodness!” he cried when he saw that the car was empty.

“Wow!” Kermit exclaimed, walking around and around the smashed-in car. “You must weigh at least a ton, Evan!”