…Mark grabbed the remote and quickly made his escape. Seconds later, he had worked his way through the bushes back to Tim not even slowing down to look behind him at the bench.
When he reached Tim, she asked him, “Did you get it?”
He held up the remote before her. “No problem.”
Tim was ecstatic. “Quick, turn me back.”
“Hold on a second,” said Mark as he started looking at the remote more closely. “This thing looks pretty complicated.” He pressed a few buttons experimentally, and saw the display screen change in response. There seemed to be an endless chain of menus to navigate to get to any actual settings.
“Well,” said Tim, who was starting to sound impatient. “Just hurry up and figure it out already.”
Mark tried navigating through a few more menus, but he didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. “I can’t,” he said, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the device. “At least, not right now. I need more time to mess with it.”
“What?” she replied with an edge of panic.
“Let’s just go back to my house,” he said, placating her. “We can figure it out there. We won’t have to worry about hiding from her at least.”
Tim sighed. She looked desperate to be back to normal. Mark could tell that the last thing she wanted was to go walking around in public anymore looking the way she did. “Fine,” she said. “Let’s just hurry up and get back. I don’t want to spend a second longer like this than I have to.”
They snuck out of the bushes then out of the park.
Only when they had reached the street did Mark remember the boy with the bike. “Wait a second. What about that kid she changed?”
Tim stopped. The conflict was visible on her face. Yes, she wanted to help the boy. No, she did not want to wait to get herself turned back to normal. And then, there was that tall woman…
“I don’t think we can help him,” she said at last.
“But,” Mark said. “Shouldn’t we try? I feel bad just leaving him there like that.”
Tim started walking. “We can’t help him. You said it yourself. We don’t even know how to use that thing yet. Anyway, I don’t want to be anywhere near there when she realizes her remote is missing.”
“I guess,” said Mark who still hesitated to leave.
“Worst comes to worst, he’ll be back to normal in a few years. I won’t be unless we can make that thing work.”
Reluctantly, Mark followed her on her way back to his house. “Sorry, kid,” he muttered as he looked back toward the park. Then, they turned a corner and were finally out of sight of the park.
***
It wasn’t until a minute later that Carrie noticed something was missing.
She had been relishing the pain on the little boy’s face as he realized that almost half his life had just been stripped from him. He would think twice about ogling girls in the park from now on that was for sure.
A small crowd of people had formed around him as he knelt next to his bicycle and cried. One woman had taken charge and was trying to get him to tell her where his parents where. “Where’s your mommy?” she asked while rubbing his back to comfort him. “Did anyone see any older kids with him or his parents? Did he come here with anybody?”
People just shook their heads.
“That kid nearly ran me over before,” said the old man, who looked at the crying boy quizzically. “Funny, he looked older before. Must be those silly baggy clothes. Trying to look older. Can’t even ride a bike straight dressed like that. Kids these days…”
A police officer arrived to take charge of the boy, and Carrie decided that it was probably time to move on. She reached over to put away the remote only to discover that it was gone. She looked under the bench, turned out every pocket she had, and even dumped out the contents of her bag. Nothing. It was gone. Stolen.
She packed up everything she had silently. She didn’t yell. She didn’t grumble. She didn’t even worry. She just calmly prepared for what was next. The vindictive attitude she had cultivated the entire day had grown to the wrathful proportions of a god. Her rage simmered in her like magma in a dormant volcano, ready to erupt and incinerate anyone in its path. That is to say, she knew what to do next: find the remote and destroy whoever it was that took it from her.
She pulled out Todd’s wallet, her last memento of his humanity, and looked for his address. If she wanted to find the remote, then she might as well start off with the guy who built it. She slung her bag over her shoulder and made sure that her new pet rested comfortably in her hand.
“Todd,” she said to her hamster as she walked purposefully toward his place. “Someone out there is in big trouble.”