"There was something strange about the man. Not all the fifth graders noticed it at first. They were all too busy figuring out ways to confuse and annoy the substitute teacher, who had written his name on the board in uppercase letters: HORACE CHARGER. The kids played all the usual tricks: changing seats, using one another's names, pretending there had been no homework assignment."

The teacher became irritated, as they hoped he would. But his irritation didn't take the usual form. He didn't raise his voice, glare, or threaten punishment. Instead, he tossed his head in an odd way and did something weird with his nose. His nostrils flared. Then with one foot, he, well, he scraped at the floor.

"Look at his neck," Sam Callahan whispered, when the teacher turned to write on the board again. Now they could all see it: thick, coarse hair extending down from Mr. Charger's head and disappearing under his shirt collar. It was almost as if he had a—
"It's a mane," Lindsay MacPherson gasped in a low voice. ¹

"Oh my …" Sally George gasped.

The mane on the sub's neck was spreading. His body shivered, convulsing in shudders. His shoulders thickened and he was, impossibly, a foot taller, but hunched, as if he had also aged 20 years. His face was hidden slightly now, thrown against his chest, but the students could see that it was changing, morphing, with the nose protruding longer and longer. His mouth was curling into a snarl of unbridled fury. Erin Andrews trembled, suddenly pointing at something behind him.

"Look!" she cried. "It's a …"

But she couldn't finish her sentence. The whole class could see something brown and bushy protruding from behind their sub. ²

"Whoever thought that a horse could wear a suit?" wondered Bobby Joe.

The sub started trotting around the room. Then he ate carrots out of Harry Bopkin's lunch.

"Hey, stop! That's all I have for lunch!" yelled Harry.

The sub showed no sign that he had heard Harry. He turned around after eating all the carrots. He snorted at Harry, spraying spit and slime all over Harry. Then Harry started morphing into a
horse! ³

The class watched Harry closely. His face extended, and he grew a blunt nose. He grew some large ears, which got in the face of the classmate next to him. Harry stood up, and he quickly fell to the floor as his limbs started to grow longer and his fingers formed into hooves. Harry then sneezed on Sally George. The most peculiar thing happened right at that time. No one could have guessed that she would do such a drastic thing. ⁴

Sally held out her social studies book. The snot bounced off the book and turned back and hit Harry. Then Harry became himself again. Harry blushed because a girl had saved his life.

Mr. Horace Charger sneezed again, and Sally put up her book again. The snot changed direction and hit Mr. Charger. He then morphed back into a teacher. ⁵

Mr. Horace Charger went on with the lesson as though nothing had happened. However, the class was not fooled. Under the pretense of going to get a drink, Sam Callahan went to inform the principal.

The principal, whose name was Mr. Imagine, looked over the top of his book, One Trillion and
One Crazy Tales. The principal saw Sam and slammed the tome on his desk with a rumbling thud. Mr. Imagine burst out with the same greeting he gave every student who came into his office, "Well, has anything crazy happened, or is this just another humdrum visit?"⁶

Sam shuffled his feet nervously and blinked his eyes rapidly.

"Well," he began, his voice breaking. "There is something funny going on with our new sub."

Mr. Imagine squinted his eyes suspiciously and lifted his gigantic eyebrows. Suddenly, he began flipping through his book again and ran his fat finger down one of the pages as he mumbled to himself. For a moment, he seemed to almost forget that Sam was standing in front of him.

"Oh, yes," he replied, adjusting the large spectacles on his face. "You were saying?"

"Mr. Horace Charger turned into a horse," Sam explained.

The principal smiled, and his eyes were twinkling.⁷

Mr. Imagine placed his book on his desk, open to the page he was reading. Sam glanced at it, noting the curious title of the chapter: "The Beginning."

Before he could read on, Mr. Imagine coughed impatiently. Sam jumped, then gathered himself and looked into Mr. Imagine's eyes.

"A horse, you say?" Mr. Imagine said, not even trying to hide the excitement growing on his face.

Sam nodded quickly.

"Well, my boy," Mr. Imagine continued, his grin looking too big for his face. "I do believe I have a little story to tell you."⁸

Sam shook in his boots, suddenly scared. He watched as Mr. Imagine just laughed, the sound coming from deep within his stomach. Sam sighed, waiting for the laughs to stop. Mr. Imagine calmed down, but still his excitement made his smile look bigger than it was before.

"Mr. Horace Charger did indeed transform into a horse-—and for a very good reason. You see, Mr. Horace Charger and I have been friends for a very long time …"

Sam gasped. "Then you knew that there was danger to us all!"

Mr. Imagine just laughed. "No, my boy. Not a danger. But please, don't interrupt a man when he's telling a story. It's very rude." Sam nodded and sighed.

"Good, now back to my story," Mr. Imagine laughed heartily. "You see, when I was your age, I didn't believe in fantasies and fairy tales. I thought it was all a bunch of hubbub. But now that I'm older, and I've read more books on the subject, I know."

Sam leaner in closer. "What do you know now?" he asked.

"I know …" ⁹

Sam leaned in and knocked Mr. Imagine's coffee all over his desk.

"I…I'm sorry," he stuttered.

Mr. Imagine sighed and said, "It's fine. It happens … all the time."

"Well, on with the story… Where was I?" Mr. Imagine said as he wiped up the coffee.

"You said you didn't believe in fairy tales until …"

Mr. Imagine replied in a weird voice. "Ah yes, now I know… Mr. Charger had no parents, so no one knew where he came from. He just appeared one day when I was playing at the park. Horace came up to me and introduced himself.

"From then on we would meet at the park, after I got home from school. One day I followed him from the park. As he walked, he turned into a horse and went into a stable! The next day I asked him about it. All he said was that he had a nice owner and was happy with that. I was happy for him and from that day on, we were best friends."

Sam had a shocked look on his face. But then he smiled and said, "Cool."

Sam said good-bye and waved as he left. When he got back to the classroom, he sat down in his seat and folded his hands. Mr. Charger smiled and winked at him.

Sam winked back as he thought about the strange story he heard. What crazy thing will happen next? he wondered. ¹⁰

Mr. Horace Charger clapped his hands together. "All right, class! Let's work on science. Please take out your It's All About Science book."

The children looked at each other nervously as they reached into their desks. They took out a book none of them had seen before.

"Mr. Charger," Sally George whined. "We never use this book! We usually …"

Before she could finish, Mr. Charger snapped back, "Who's the teacher right now?"

"You are," Sally replied.

"Good, now open your books," Mr. Charger continued in a not-quite-mean, but not-quite-
nice voice. ¹¹

Then Mr. Charger turned toward the window, twitching in his strange manner. He strode to the window and, with a single fist, smashed the window. Next, he transformed into a horse, nostrils flaring and mane spreading across his neck. He backed up, then galloped, and sprang through the smashed window.

Bobby Jo cried, "Mr. Charger is …" ¹²

… running away."

"Does that mean we can leave school?" screamed Sally George, in a deliriously happy tone.

The kids ran for the window. They saw Mr. Imagine running after Mr. Charger, yelling, "Where are you going?"

He answered with an ear-piercing screech. Mr. Charger was gone. The kids crept out the window so they wouldn't get caught, but that didn't work. Mr. Charger was darting straight at them from about 100 feet away.

The kids didn't know what to do, so they …¹³

Hastily and as a group, the fifth graders decided that their best chance of surviving this madness would be to follow the instructions. What was it Mr. Charger had said? Now open your books. That was it.

Some of the kids were still holding the unfamiliar books in their hands.

Facing them, Mr. Charger pawed the ground and snorted. He tossed his head restlessly and watched them. Nearby, moving slowly, Mr. Imagine was approaching the horse with some leather straps in his hands.

Sally George, who had her own horse at home, whispered, "That's a halter. If he can just get it over his head and keep a firm hold on the lead line …"

"Open your books," Sam Callahan said in an urgent voice. Nervously, the kids who held the books opened them, and those without books gathered closely so that they could read together.

Sally was watching the horse as he quivered and shook his head. "Look at his eyes," she said.

"They're not scary," Harry pointed out. "He seemed to get calmer when we opened the books. But why? What are we supposed to read?"

"Mr. Imagine," Sally called in a calm voice to the principal, "don't scare him. He's trying to tell us something. Let's all stand quietly for a minute."

Mr. Imagine paused with the halter in his hands, and together they all watched the horse. The huge head tossed, and then purposefully, Mr. Charger lifted his right front leg and stomped the ground. Once. Twice. A third time.

The children counted. The horse stomped 14 times and then was still. "Page 14," Sam said. "Turn to page 14."

There it was. The chapter title on page 14 of the unfamiliar book was "The Ending of Equine Spells." The chapter contained, surprisingly, only one sentence. The children read it aloud together: "Stroke the great beast into submission without showing fear."

Mr. Imagine dropped the leather halter on the ground and approached the horse. Gently the principal stroked the horse's back and nodded to the fifth graders to come forward one by one.

First Sam stroked the sweaty, trembling back.

Next Sally did.

Then Harry.

As each child moved forward for a turn, the horse grew smaller. Its blunt nose shrank, and its sharp hooves softened and rounded. By the time the last child, shy Emma McDonald, came timidly forward for her turn, the horse was the size of a human, and gradually, under Emma's small hand, Mr. Horace Charger, the man, reappeared. His hair was short, and his business suit was neatly buttoned.

"Thank you, class," he said with a sigh. The class stood silently, amazed at the experience they had been through.

Then Bobby Joe raised his hand. Mr. Charger nodded to him. "Do we get extra credit for this?" asked Bobby Joe.¹⁴ The weekly writers are:

1. Lois Lowry
2. Kailyn B., Grade 8
3. Alexander K., Grade 6
4. Seth F., Grade 8
5. Jordan B., Grade 4
6. Tyler M., Grade 12
7. Sekaya N., Grade 9
8. Sophie S., Grade 7
9. JoJo K., Grade 7
10. Brogan S., Grade 6
11. Carolyn Z., Grade 5
12. Rebecca T., Grade 5
13. Andrew C., Grade 6
14. Lois Lowry


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