A knock on the door tears Jeff out of his thoughts, the teen lets out a sigh before getting to his feet and heads downstairs to open the front door.
Jeff’s eyes widen in surprise as he opens the door to find a friend of his mother’s standing on the porch, mister Baker, a 45-year-old man who owns a ranch. Mister Baker and Jeff’s mother have met about a year ago at a public barbeque, for which mister Baker had provided the meat.
“Mister Baker? What a surprise,” Jeff says, “my mother isn’t here, she’s visiting her sister for the weekend”.
Mister Baker nods, smiling, “I know,” he says, “she called me to have me check on you”.
Jeff rolls his eyes, “geez, my mom really should stop worrying so much,” he says, “I am 16 and no longer a child! Heck… even my 10-year-old brother Henry and my 8-year-old sister Lucy can look after themselves”.
Mister Baker chuckles, “I don’t doubt that,” he says, “still, better be safe than sorry, right? May I come in? And please… call me Mike”.
Jeff lets out a sigh, “alright, come in,” Jeff says, stepping aside to let the man in, “my siblings are upstairs in their rooms”.
Mike smiles and steps into the house, ‘so far, so good,’ he thinks to himself, unaware to Jeff, the man has something planned, “there is actually something I would like to offer,” he says.
“What is that, Mike,” Jeff asks.
“I guess you have heard of the “Chronivac”?”
Jeff tilts his head and raises an eyebrow, “I have, I even own the program,” he says, “why do you ask?”
Mike smiles wide, “I was thinking: you have two weeks holiday, what would you think about spending those weeks at my ranch as an animal… or maybe even a tractor or some other equipment?”
Jeff tilts his head, “you know… that does sound like fun,” he says, “honestly, I am rather curious what it would be like being an animal… though being a powerful tractor or other farming equipment also sounds fun”.
“Your mother already knows,” Mike says, “that you are staying at my ranch, however, she doesn’t know about the program”.
Jeff’s eyes widen before the teen grins, “I get it,” he says, “you want to see if mom would be able to figure out which animal or object we are?”
Mike nods, grinning wide, “yup,” he says.
Jeff’s grin widens, “THAT sounds like fun,” he says, “count me and my siblings in! I’ll go and get them,” he then hurries upstairs to get Henry and Lucy and explain to them what Mike had planned.
Mike grins to himself, ‘hehe… that was to easy,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I’ll have so much fun with these brats!’