Maxwell

"Maxwell, mindful and merry, sat 'round his teak table one Monday morning when he dreadfully discovered he had no butter.", the voice of a boisterous narrator rang colorfully throughout the pages of a delightful story. "His pancakes 'came bland and his waffles were dreary, but then Maxwell responded to 'self with a query, 'Why don't I just go get butter?'", the narrator had it planned, page by page. "Maxwell rose readily to triumphantly trot towards town, so he could buy some butter.", but Maxwell didn't rise. The narrator thought Maxwell couldn't hear him, so he repeated himself more loudly than before, "Maxwell rose readily to triumphantly trot towards town so he could buy some--", at that point, Maxwell had decided to eat his breakfast with syrup, not butter. The narrator had to skip the part about Maxwell going to the store and meeting a lovely girl with lovely blonde hair. "After finishing his tantalizingly tasty, syrup-slathered breakfast, Maxwell exclamatorily exclaimed—" "Not the best breakfast I've ever had, I wish I'd had butter.", Maxwell's statement was not exclaimed and his breakfast wasn't tasty. The narrator started feeling confoundingly confused, he knew every word to say, but Maxwell wouldn't follow. "Maxwell had to then hurry upstairs to get ready for work- he always arrived five minutes earl—" "Is there even a point to my job? Maybe I should quit.", Maxwell didn't get ready for work. He quit. The narrator had to skip the part about Maxwell receiving a promotion that morning. Instead, Maxwell went to bed. The narrator became furiously dumbfounded, "Maxwell arose from bed, got dressed, and went to work because he isn't sick!", Maxwell slept and slept and slept and he forgot to pay his taxes, which he had put off for a month. Past that morning, they were overdue and he hadn't filed for an extension on them. The narrator had to skip the part about Maxwell seeing the lovely girl with lovely blonde hair at his CPA's office and the part where she accepts his request for lunch. At this point, the narrator decided to be done with Maxwell. He left him abandoned in his story of blundering failure and moved on. The narrator read other stories to his heart's content and they all did what he said; he was happy. But Maxwell, oh Maxwell, he lost everything because he had no direction; he was lost. Things went on like this for a long time; Maxwell went along aimlessly, with everything that could've been good for him going wrong; and the narrator's boisterous voice rang throughout several separate stories which all obeyed him well. Then one day, for one reason or another, the narrator went to check in on Maxwell. He found Maxwell sitting on a street corner with half a loaf of day-old bread in his hands. The narrator tried his hardest at getting Maxwell back on his feet, "Maxwell got up and started to get his life together!", but Maxwell didn't move. He tried over and over and over, but every time he tried, Maxwell seemed to sink deeper into the spot he was sitting on. The narrator didn't know what he was doing wrong; why did every story obey him except for Maxwell's? Suddenly, there came a clear moment amongst this awash of confounded thoughts: the narrator saw that lovely girl with lovely blonde hair standing across the street from Maxwell and he got an idea, "The lovely girl with lovely blonde hair went across the street to introduce herself to Maxwell.". It was a long shot, but he took it, and, much to his surprise, the girl obeyed! She walked across the street and introduced herself to Maxwell. They talked and talked and talked, and they both were happy. Then, the narrator got an even better idea than the one before, "The lovely girl with lovely blonde hair invited Maxwell to go to lunch with her that afternoon.", and she did. She invited Maxwell to lunch that afternoon, Maxwell accepted, and they both were happier than before. However, Maxwell still wasn't moving, something kept him tethered to the ground. This made both the narrator and the lovely girl with lovely blonde hair unhappy, neither of them could get Maxwell to move. But the narrator hadn't tried everything, he had one final idea to get Maxwell to move, and this idea turned out to be the greatest idea the narrator had thought of, "Maxwell, please get up and go have lunch with the lovely girl with lovely blonde hair." Then, much to his surprise, Maxwell got up and went to lunch with the lovely girl with lovely blonde hair, and they were both as happy as they'd ever been in a long time.