The Present Long Ago

Nearly sixty years in the future, a grandmother learns that her grandson is being teased at school. She opens an old journal and tells him about a boy in Odyssey who once faced someone he thought was a bully. The boy is Trent DeWhite, and his trouble begins when Max Hampton demands the key to the school science laboratory.

Max refuses to explain why he wants the key and repeatedly warns Trent to be careful. Trent knows that his teacher entrusted the key to him, so he will not hand it over. Instead of telling an adult what is happening, however, he keeps his fear to himself and imagines increasingly wild forms of revenge from Max, including a ruined grade, an attack by Rodney, and even a false accusation of bank robbery.

Searching for a way to defend himself, Trent imagines advice from exaggerated television personalities. An action hero tells him to become strong enough to pound the bully, but Trent can barely lift the weight he is given. A comedian advises him to make Max laugh, but Trent's jokes have no effect when he tries them.

Trent secretly studies the supplies Max has purchased: chicken wire, candy, red paint, flour, and newspapers. In the science laboratory, an imaginary detective helps him notice a new shipment of sulfur but cannot provide a sensible explanation. Their investigation ends with the ridiculous possibility that Max plans to build a gigantic living chicken and take over the world.

At last Trent recognizes that his imaginary advisers cannot know anything he does not already know. He stops listening to them, prays, and searches the Bible for wisdom. Its instructions call him toward kindness, forgiveness, reliance on God, and doing good. The words about a gentle answer turning away anger give him a new way to approach Max.

Trent goes to Max's garage without surrendering the laboratory key. He says that he is no longer controlled by fear or anger and that he forgives Max for pressuring him. Then he pulls away the covering from Max's secret project and discovers a large red heart rather than a dangerous invention.

Max has used the chicken wire to shape the heart, the flour and newspapers to make papier-mâché, the paint to color it, and the candy to fill it. He wants to place the valentine in Mandy's classroom before anyone arrives Monday morning. He has kept the plan secret because he fears Rodney and the other students will tease him.

For the first time, Trent sees that the threatening boy has been afraid too. He still refuses to misuse the key, but offers to place the valentine on Mandy's desk himself and keep Max's identity secret. Max apologizes for pushing him, and their confrontation ends in cooperation rather than violence.

The grandmother explains that the special heart began a friendship that eventually shaped her whole life. Her grandson is astonished to learn that she is Mandy and assumes Max must have become his grandfather. She corrects him: although the valentine was signed by a secret admirer, Mandy arrived early enough to see Trent delivering it.

The journal belongs to the boy who showed kindness that morning - her husband, Grandpa Trent. He and Mandy did not marry until many years later, but Max's hidden gift and Trent's gentle courage brought them together for the first time. Their grandson realizes that he can ask parents and teachers for help, seek God's wisdom, and perhaps even speak kindly to the person teasing him.