Where Else But Hollywood?

Simply put, she scared the daylights out of everyone who ever saw her. But that was no surprise. If you looked into the face of a three-foot female you know should have been six feet, you'd be thrown too.

The people at NASA shook their heads. "It's like this Greckle experienced 20 or 30 or 40 G's but never came out of it. Like she's squashed forever in that little body and can't get out."

"Whatta ya gonna do?" asked her father. "Put her in a formaldehyde jar and send her to Harvard Medical School or the Smithsonian?"

But like all mothers who truly love what comes out of them, Mrs. Thurston treated little -- very little -- Greckle like every other member of the family. In fact, she insisted that everyone else treat her the same too. Anyone who's experienced a deformed or disabled sibling knows that in time the external contortions are overlooked and the inner self is accepted. But still, the three-foot girl really did scare the daylights out of everyone else who saw her for the first time.

What fascinated on-lookers, if they ever became accustomed to the oddity, was that contorted Greckle could do every thing that the person she vaguely resembled could had she been of normal stature. That is, though she was only three feet short, she could touch the rim of the basketball hoop in one leap. Though short-legged, she could broad jump

with the best of them. And abbreviated as she was, the girl could run as fast as her fellow female sprinters any day. This, of course, is where the real story begins.

Greckle Thurston stood on the winners stand of the Special Olympics. She'd just won the last gold medal of her grand sweep. Not only had she won every event, she did it by making a worlds record in each. The officials realized they weren't dealing with an ordinary, special person, but a special, special athlete. What to do with her?

Naturally she become famous, and in doing so, the short one had also developed a strong self-image. She knew she wasn't a freak, though something told her she was more than a normal human. She knew that the freak thing belonged to the paradigm of the onlookers. So Greckle consciously decided to take advantage of it. She became a stunt person for Hollywood. How many movies she played in! How many stars she rubbed shoulders with -- when they were on their knees -- and, in time, what cults she came in contact with in Southern California! It was at one of the occult meetings that this very special person was introduced to the world of Elementals, of the little people, the wee folk who have Powers.

One esoteric gathering led to another, and before she was thirty, little Greckle became convinced that she could do the things she could do because she was actually one of the Elementals. Sensing that, she traveled to Scandinavia, to Northern Europe, and to the land of the ancient Druids and Celts in Ireland and Scotland.

Now, Greckle was smart. She knew that if she let any of the human family know she thought she was an Elemental, one with true, mystical powers, she would be considered a freak, indeed, and be ostracized. She didn't want that. So she used the money and connections she'd gained as a stunt person to camouflage her true, little-person reality. You see, when

Miss Thurston visited the homes of the gnomes and their cousins, she actually contacted the mystical personages. Looked at them eye-to-eye and spoke to and heard them. In other words, she didn't merely believe she was one of them, she was one, and they treated her accordingly.

In the eyes of the Elementals the famous Dwarf-Person was seen as a superstar. She'd bridged the gap between the two worlds, something most of them had wanted to do for ages. Greckle was accepted as a human by that species, yet known to be an Elemental by the little people. Truly, she had the best of both worlds. But living in two worlds wasn't enough for the girl. She sensed and they knew that she was put on earth in her form to do two jobs: To prove to humans that Elementals exist, and to inspire her little cousins to come out of the woods and live freely in the open. Because of her fame, Greckle was the perfect bridge. So she went about introducing the mystical world slowly.

What happened in time astounded both groups. Of course it wasn't accomplished without a little trickery. First, Greckle promoted herself in Hollywood as the best person to play gnomes and leprechauns and the likes in films. Having done that, she got them to hire more and more real Elementals as extras. The natural outcome was that the two groups became familiar, and once that happened the little people dropped their guard and acted more naturally. Which meant that occasionally they would become invisible, walk through scenery, or fly in the presence of the humans.

The events were gradual, and a good thing, too. If it'd been too sudden it would have blown even Hollywood away. But more and more the highjinks of the little people became second nature so the humans slowly began to take them for granted. And that meant that they didn't come to believe intellectually in leprechauns and the likes, but to know they existed.

And that, in time, what with the sexual promiscuity not uncommon in that region of America, gave rise to more and more mixtures like Greckle Thurston: Little people who could do very human and even superhuman things. So more and more people found that they had powers that no one could explain except by saying that's Hollywood for you, or California, or Show Biz. Whatever explanation was offered, Greckle was fully awarded by the Elemental Council, the time-honored board that governed the rules for the wee folk who could live for thousands of years. She was awarded by being made a Council Member for what she'd done.

Meanwhile, more and more films about magic, people with powers, Druids, leprechauns, and all forms of the mystical were made and released by Hollywood. And that meant that in time the general populace became more and more familiar with the Elementals, though at first they saw them as novelties and had no way of knowing that what they did wasn't accomplished by special effects. But we all know Hollywood. It is expert in creating trends, influencing the very thinking of America, and getting people to believe what they want them to. In short, the Elemental gained real-life stature and it became the in-thing to have an affair with one. Which meant that in time more Elementals in human form and more humans in Elemental bodies walked Hollywood and Vine, the rest of America, and throughout the world.

Now, if you think this is science fiction, you have only to open your eyes to who's inhabiting Hollywood and the upbeat world these days. They may be excused superciliously by saying that Californians and the avant-garde are weird. But look closer and you'll see what's real. Not that aliens have invaded or infiltrated, but that true inhabitants of earth, the ones who for eons the Homo Sapiens have only given lip service to but almost never seen, are here to stay. And if you look very carefully, you'll

see that the direction of mankind, beginning in Tinsel Town, is indeed taking a new direction.

And we owe it all to little Greckle Thurston, the six-footer squashed into a three-foot frame who came to realize she really was a Dwarf. That is, one with Mystical Powers. And isn't it a feather in her Elemental cap that in the beginning she couldn't have cared less if she scared the daylights out of her human counterparts?