Little Nicky Cubison was bored, bored, bored.
His Daddy had explained all about the quaranteen. He thought at first it was like the numbers he learned at school when he was in preschool, like seventeen. Was it a really high number, he asked?
No, his Daddy said. It means we have to stay home a lot.
Nicky had to say goodbye to his Daddy every morning. His Daddy had a job in a factory. It must be way more exciting than this, Nicky thought. He missed his kindergarten class and really wanted to go out and play with all his friends! He missed running around in the park and in the schoolyard. Staying inside wasn't very fun.
Nicky lived with his Daddy and Auntie Oxana. Auntie Oxana had been his mommy's aunt, but mommy was in heaven with the angels. She was the only person who could look after Nicky since mommy died. She had died when Nicky was three but she was tired a lot. She took lots of naps. Nicky watched television sometimes all by himself. He could watch whatever he wanted, which he heard was unusual. He watched a lot of nature shows. Sometimes he watched cops and robbers movies. For some reason he really liked stories from a long time ago, like the 70s and 80s. Daddy said those were the best movies anyway and Nicky believed him. Most kids couldn't watch what they wanted but Auntie Oxana didn't care. She was sad and Nicky felt sorry for her. But he also felt sorry for himself.
The kindergarten wasn't doing any classes on the computer but Nicky was a fast learner and learned to read really quickly. All of the teachers at the school had pointed out to his father that he was a prodigy, which meant he could learn very fast. So his father had given him plenty of books. Picture book stories, mythology, lots of science and history books. Also lots of school type workbooks that a woman helped them find at the bookstore before everything closed up. So he would practice whatever he wanted. Sometimes he did math, practicing addition and subtraction with fun puzzles. Sometimes he learned new words and did reading exercises. The workbooks were actually a lot of fun and had lots of cartoon characters in them.
But what Nicky really loved was learning about grown up men doing jobs. He loved loved loved trucks and forklifts. Forklifts were the coolest! He asked his Daddy if he worked with forklifts and Daddy said no, he just worked at a computer all day long. He said it paid more because he was one of the bosses. But it meant he had to work a lot of hours. Nicky often missed his Daddy. He was very lonely.
One day, Mal Cubison came home and surprised Nicky with a present. It was a hard hat! And it was kid sized! Nicky gasped in delight.
"Look, Daddy! I'm just like you now!"
"Yeah, well. I've got another surprise for you, champ. How would you like to come to work with me for the day?"
Nicky was over the moon, and he started jumping around all over the place. You would think he has just had a bunch of the sugar cereal that Auntie Oxana gave him only on weekends. She said too much was bad for you. Daddy picked him up in his arms.
"Oh, you're getting so big! Pretty soon you'll have a real man's job, isn't that right, slugger?"
"Yeah, that'd be great! I bet it's way more fun than staying home!" Daddy laughed.
"Well I think it'll be a nice change of pace and my boss approved it."
"I thought YOU were the boss, Daddy!"
"Well I'm a boss for some of the men. But I have a couple of bosses, too. They're at the very top of the warehouse where I work. Are you excited?"
"Yes!!"
The next day, Daddy put Nicky in his booster seat and soon the car was rumbling down the highway. They sped past most of the town and after half an hour or so of Nicky looking at his coloring book and drinking water from his sippy cup, they arrived. The warehouse was really big and had light gray walls and a big, big, really wide roof. Nicky exclaimed when he saw it. Daddy laughed.
"Yeah, it is a pretty big roof." He led Nicky by the hand through the warehouse doors. Inside there were lots of men moving big forklifts around. Nicky gaped. It was just like on construction for kids shows he had seen! They walked up a series of metal stairways, looking down on a huge warehouse full of products. Finally, they came to Daddy's office.
"Doug, Ronnie, this is my son, Nicky."
Both men were really friendly. They shook his hand warmly and asked him what he thought of the warehouse.
"It's so cool!" Nicky told them. "Can I get a job here?" The men both laughed.
"Well, maybe one day...when you're older." Ronnie replied. Ronnie had a big bushy brown beard and he had big muscles, too. He was taller than Daddy. Daddy didn't have a beard but he did have stubble that was really thick. Nicky wished he could shave just like Daddy. He couldn't wait until he was older! he thought.
Daddy showed him what he did for a few hours. Mainly he put numbers into the computer and ordered things. Then he went down to the floor to make sure certain things had been shipped. He had many checklists. He was responsible for making sure everything was sent on time. Daddy had a very important job, Doug had told him. Doug was a big muscled man but also had a big gut. He had a beard only around his face, called a goatee.
But soon watching Daddy in his office became really boring.
"Daddy, can we go on one of the trucks??"
"Sorry, sweetie. I don't think I can let you do that. Safety regulations and all."
"Actually, man, I have to go down the way to BekTek. They got one of our pallets by mistake." Ronnie told him.
"Again? Jeez, that's the third time this month."
"Can I really go??" Nicky asked. He was getting excited to do something new.
"Yeah, I suppose you can. It's only just down the street." Daddy told him.
"I have my own truck. Come on, Nicky. You can ride shotgun!"
"I'm not allowed to have guns!" Nicky told them. The men all laughed.
"No no, sweetheart. That means you get to ride up front instead of in the backseat like you usually do. Does that sound exciting?"
"Yeah!!" Nicky jumped up and down.
Inside Ronnie's truck, everything was meant for super tall men. Ronnie helped pick him up and put him into his seat and buckled the lad in. The industrial complex was filled with yards with big metal pipes the size of houses and big pallets of wooden boards large enough for heavy duty construction. Nicky thought they were the coolest thing ever.
Nicky followed Ronnie dutifully as they searched for the man who had promised to give Daddy his delivery. It was a similar warehouse to Daddy's, only with a big orange stripe going around the building like a gift ribbon. Ronnie found the man in charge and they arranged to bring out what he needed.
"And who is this?"
"My name is Nicky!"
"Is this your son?"
"My boss' son. He loves all this. He wants to work in a warehouse some day, don't you, Nicky?"
"Yes! It's so awesome! Do you get to drive the forklifts?"
Both men laughed.
"As a matter of fact, I sometimes do! How old are you?"
"I'm five years old! I'm going to be six in a few months, though."
"Wow, you're getting pretty up there," the man told him.
"Um...I'm sorry...can I go to the bathroom?"
"Yeah, we have a bathroom. Why don't I show him where that is and you can meet Paul at the truck."
"Cool, man. Will you be okay on your own, Nicky?"
"I'm not on my own. There are people everywhere!" Both men laughed again. What was so funny? he thought.
"My name is Chuck," the man said, extending a hand downward to shake Nicky's little hand. "Come this way and we'll get you to a toilet..." Chuck was very tall and had dark black hair with thick stubble.
After he was all done, Nicky came out with relief.
"Everything is so cool here!" he exclaimed to Chuck. "I wish I could work here or with my Daddy and that way I wouldn't ever be lonely again."
"You miss your dad, huh?"
"Yeah cause Mommy went to heaven to live with the angels."
"Oh. Um. I'm sorry to hear that. So...you really wouldn't mind working here, huh?"
"No, it would be super fun to work here!"
"Well. We do like excited workers, don't we? You know...maybe you can talk to the big boss in charge and uh...ask him if he wants to hire you." Chuck's eyes glinted.
"Daddy says I'm not old enough! He says I have to be grown up first!"
"Well. I have a little secret. We have a very top secret age machine and it can turn you into a grownup," Chuck confided, bending down and speaking in a hushed voice. "You wanna know how old I really am?"
"Um. 36?" Chuck laughed. "That's how old my Daddy is."
"I'm actually only 8 years old. But they made me 25. You wanna try it out?"
"Yes!!!"
"Come on. Be quick!" Chuck raced through a door that was in a small corridor filled with shiny corrugated metal temporary walls. Nicky followed him. Inside there was a hallway but it was all shiny and there were no lights. Like the walls were glowing with light. There were doors everywhere as far as the eye could see.
"This room. Don't worry. Time works differently here so no one will miss you while you're in here."
"Huh?"
"It's uh..it's like magic."
"Oh. Really??"
Chuck opened the door. Inside there was a large man with a gray beard. he was very, very muscular and his muscles strained against his white dress shirt. He had a nametag on that said "Anton Wolfe."
"Chuck! Who have you brought me and where did you find such a young lad!" The man exclaimed. He had silver hair that shone with some kind of gel. It was well groomed and his voice boomed through the air. He wore suspenders, too, like a lumberjack would wear.
"This here is Nicky. His dad works down at Voltaro. We keep getting deliveries from them."
"What a fortuitous accident. Well. Nice to meet you, young Sir. And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit!"
"Well, Sir. Nicky here really wants a job. I think we should hire him on board!"
"Well. Well well well. Is that true, Nicky?"
"I would love to have a grown up job! But I can't because I'm not a grownup. Can you really do magic?"
"Well. Something like it." Mr. Anton cast a knowing glance at Chuck. "It's more like...very secret technology that is so advanced it only looks like magic. So...let's talk about what we can do for you. But first, tell me about yourself. I'll bring up your file..."
Nicky thought it was strange they had a file on him. Maybe the school made a file and they could see it from their computers. Mr. Anton asked him questions and Nicky answered, about how lonely he was and about how he couldn't play with any of his friends anymore. He talked about his Auntie Oxana."
"Ah yes, I used to know Oxana. I knew her a very long time ago back in the old country," Anton said.
"You don't sound like her."
"No. My English accent is a lot better. But I know you must be really wanting to do something new. So I'll ask you what you'd like. Would you like to work at a factory like this with me or your Daddy? Or would you like to maybe be a policeman or a firefighter? Now, I could even put you in another time period. And your Dad would be there, too. But he wouldn't know the difference. I think the two of you would be a lot happier. There's no quarantine in the 70s or 80s. Or even the 50s or 60s. Anton listed several options.
"You can't go back in time, really...can you?? Are you fibbing?"
"Well, it's just that not a lot of people know about what we can do here. Now, we can do several things. We can make you the Dad and your daddy can be the son. Or you can both be grownups. Or you can both be little boys but allowed to work at a grown up job! Maybe you can be a construction worker making buildings or you can be a sailor on a boat."
"Wow! I would love to be on a boat! Or to be a policeman!"
"Let's just have you look over this list. I'll give you a few choices and you can decide which one you want. Now remember, if you change your mind you can always come back here and ask me for another job. The important thing is to just have fun!"
Nicky was super duper excited.
He decided he wanted to...