The sign was still hanging by the front entrance of “Anderson’s”, which was a large grocery store in the center of town. People that lived in the area of the grocery store loved to come there, because the facility offered a wide selection of goods and services, including groceries, household items, cleaning supplies, books and magazines, and video rentals. The sign read “Help Wanted”, and it had caught the immediate attention of a teenager who was about to walk through the glass sliding doors when he stopped for a moment to read the sign.
The sixteen-year-old boy walked up to the Customer Service Counter, which was located at the very front of the store, where all the cash registers were located as well. The tall, athletic, 6’3” teen was dressed in blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a black long sleeved sweater with an image of an ice hockey player and the words “Toronto Maple Leafs” on it. He had short, spiked brown hair and ice blue eyes, as the teen patiently awaited his turn in line. When he finally got up to the counter, he inquired about the job opening. The lady gave him a three-page long application to fill out and to drop off at the office, which was located next to the Customer Service Counter. When the teen went over there to drop off the application, he was greeted by a short, skinny young man who was maybe ten years older than him but 6 inches shorter.
“Alright now, what do we have here…” the man began, looking over a list of names of employees which was hanging on a bulletin board. “You’re sixteen, right?”
“Yes, Sir” the teen responded politely.
“And what’s your name?” the gentleman asked.
“Peter Karlowski” Peter replied.
“Welcome to Anderson’s, Peter. I’m Frank and I will be your supervisor. Can you start tomorrow afternoon?” Frank asked.
Peter nodded with a smile. He knew he really didn’t need the job, but he figured it would not hurt to have one so that he could earn a little extra cash on the side. Homework had taken up a lot of his time, but he was so far ahead of everyone in the classes, that he figured he could set aside enough time every day to work at the store, even if it were just part time.
When Peter showed up the following day, he was greeted by Brian, a classmate from school. Brian had been working there for a few months already, and he was the one who told Peter about the job opening the day before. Brian took Peter to the break room, where they employees could eat, play cards, read or watch TV when they were on break from work. There Peter had to write his name on a time card and punch in at the clock punch machine. Frank showed up, and assigned Peter to the front area of the store while Brian had to collect the grocery carts on the parking lot.
Peter had to get a bucket of water and a mop, and he was assigned to mop the entire front area of the supermarket before the lunch time crowd would hit the store. He thought for a moment about using his magical transformation powers to get the job done quickly, but he opted to wait awhile before using any magic since he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. He looked around and noticed that there were always a few people who were looking at him when he was at the front of the store, so he decided against using any tricks and continued to mop the floor the normal way.
When he was done with mopping the floor, he emptied out the dirty water in the back of the store and he rinsed the mop and the bucket, before storing them in the storage room for next time. He then walked up to Frank and waited for his next assignment.
“Alright, Peter, go outside and tell Brian to come back in here so he can bag for the customers. For the next two hours, I want you to collect all the empty grocery carts which are left outside on the lot and then bring them all into the store and line them up neatly be the entrance. That way, a customer and grab an empty cart as soon as he walks in to do his shopping. Is that understood?” Frank asked him, looking up to the taller teenager.
“Yes, Sir” Peter replied politely, as he quickly walked outside and began to look for Brian. When Brian saw him, he came towards him looking exhausted.
“Okay, Peter, it’s your turn to chase after the shopping carts. I hate doing it, because I can barely keep up with it. Running around the parking lot just wears me out tremendously. Well, go knock yourself out and see how much you like it!” Brian said to him, almost gasping for air as he seemed tired and out of breath.
Peter walked to one end of the parking lot and pushed a few carts to the entrance. Then he walked to the other end, where he collected a few more. But no sooner had he stashed the second group of carts away, or he saw several more carts which were located on the side of the lot where he had originally started from! Now he began to understand why Brian was so out of breath! Peter walked back to where all the carts were collected and decided that it was time to use his powers to help him out on the job.
Peter stood at the end of a row of parking spots and wished for all the empty shopping carts to magically roll towards him without hitting any of the parked cars. Immediately, the carts began to roll towards Peter, and they neatly lined up so that one would roll into the back of the cart which was directly in front of it. It worked great for one row, so Peter decided to use the technique again. After all, he had the power, so why not use it?
He walked over to the beginning of the next row of cars and wished the same thing again, making sure that there were no oncoming cars. All the carts rolled towards him as if he were a magnet! Then he would grab the handle of the last cart, and he would push them into the grocery store. He actually let his power do the pushing, but he still placed his hands on the handle because there were too many people around him.
Then he decided to try doing the same but for two rows of cars at once. He stood right in the center between the two, and made his magical wish. The carts were automatically drawn to him as if he were a living magnet. He grinned as he watched the carts neatly line up before him, not costing him any effort at all. But the grin quickly disappeared when he noticed a white limousine pull into the side entrance to the parking lot! He immediately wished for the carts to stop moving, out of fear of being caught using magic on the parking lot while he was on duty. And it was right on time; too! One cart came inches from hitting the side door of the white limousine, as it approached the entrance of the store, where Peter was standing. The driver stopped right by the entrance as a short, chubby man in a three-piece suit climbed out of the back door of the limousine. The man noticed that the cart had almost caused an additional scratch on his prized limo.
“Darn it, kid! Watch where you push those carts, will you? You almost scratched my limo! I still have scratches from the last time I came here!” the short, chubby man growled at Peter. Peter quickly pushed the carts out of the way, so that the man could make his way into the store.
“I’m sorry, mister. Did your car get scratched anywhere?” Peter asked him politely.
The man almost didn’t bother answering, as he was already late for his meeting with the owner of the grocery store. But somehow he suddenly felt obligated to answer anyway and turned around to face Peter, who knew exactly what the businessman was thinking.
“As a matter of fact, I got three scratches on that side of the limo. Go and look, they’re still there. Just look at the door on the other side. But why do you ask? What are you going to do about it, my boy?” the man asked in a serious tone of voice.
“I can get rid of all the scratches on your beautiful, white limo” Peter replied confidently, as he walked towards the other side of the car. There were indeed several scratches, and they were ugly and obvious. Peter then closed his eyes and wished for the finish and the paint on the limo to be like new again and for all the dents and scratches to completely disappear! As soon as he touched the car with his fingers, the scratches were gone, the dents had faded, and the limo looked like it was brand new again.
Just at that moment the businessman had joined Peter and gasped when he noticed how his limo was shining like new again, without the dents and the scratches.
“Holy smoke! Well I got to hand it to you, boy. I don’t know how you did it, but the limo looks like new again!” the short man said, as he removed his sunglasses from his face so he could take another look. Then he turned towards Peter.
“Thank you very much. I’m Mister Weatherspoon; I’m the owner of twelve different restaurants and two hotels which are all located right here in Orange County. You did a fine job, my boy! Do you work here? What’s your name, boy?” the short man said, as he placed his sunglasses back on his nose while extended his right hand in order to give Peter a handshake.
“My name is Peter. Today was my first day, I just started working here as a bagger” Peter replied. The short man smiled and pulled out a fifty dollar bill from his wallet and handed it to Peter. Peter immediately gasped when he saw how generous the man tipped him, and he immediately thanked him for it. Then the man turned around and rushed into the store for his meeting with the owner, as Frank just walked outside and began to look for Peter.
“Peter! Come on inside. You need to help the cashiers for awhile!” Frank shouted. Immediately Peter pushed all the carts inside and lined them up neatly in rows so that the customers could grab from them when they walked into the store.
Peter was assigned to help Gary, who was an older gentleman who worked at one of the checkout counters in the front area of the store. For every customer who came up to the counter with a cart full of groceries, Peter had to place the groceries in bags and then set the bags back into the empty carts for them. Peter waited while Gary placed each item over the barcode scanner, and he would ring up the total and accept money from the customers. Some customers would tip Peter and some wouldn’t, but Peter was just happy to be there and he was already looking forward to earning his first paycheck at the end of the week. Everything seemed to be going well, until Gary noticed that there were lots of empty carts sitting around the store, especially near the front area where all the checkout counters were. He called on Peter and pulled him aside.
“Hey, Peter, I know you’re still new at this, but I need you to pay attention. When you see a lot of carts standing around, and then go collect them and roll them to the front of the store so that it doesn’t get cluttered in here! Brian’s outside right now, so I need you to do this for me as fast as you can, okay?” Gary asked Peter. Peter immediately ran to the first aisle in the store and collected all the stray carts. Then he ran towards the back, where there were fewer people walking around, and decided to use the same trick he used earlier when he was outside on the parking lot.
Peter stood in the back of the store and wished for all the empty carts to roll towards him, without banging into customers who were walking around the store. Immediately a surge of power went through the store, causing the lights to dim for a split second. All the empty carts immediately started rolling towards him, lining up neatly in front of him so that each cart would roll into the one which came before it. Peter thought it would be perfectly safe to wish it that way, since he specified that he only wanted the empty carts. But a little girl was about to prove him wrong!
A nine-year-old girl had just grabbed an empty cart just moments ago, and was pushing it around the store while following her mother. She was now at the opposite end of the store from where Peter was standing when he made his wish. The girl had just placed both of her feet on the steel bar which was attached to the bottom part of the cart, allowing herself to roll around the store while using cart as if it were a scooter. As soon as Peter had made his wish, the cart started to race towards the other end of the store, with the girl screaming at the top of her lungs as she found herself standing on a runaway cart while her mother was running after her! People were in panic, the girl was screaming, and the mother was yelling for her daughter, who found herself trapped on a runaway grocery cart. The girl tried to make the cart stop by shifting all her weight over to one side, making the cart slam right into the shelves in the canned vegetable section. The impact of the collision caused four shelves filled with canned vegetables to come crashing onto the tiled floor, in the cart, and on the poor, little girl. The girl got the cart to stop, but she was screaming and trembling in fear, with her mother yelling right behind her, running on her high heels as fast as she could. The girl fell off the cart just when her mother got to her, and the lady picked up the girl and immediately ran out of the store to take the shaken child home. The whole incident left broken cans all over the place, with half the shelves empty and needing to be restocked again, and a huge pool of spilled green beans which covered the entire width of the aisle. When Peter realized what had happened on the other end of the store, he immediately ran towards the aisle where the little girl was, but the mother and the girl had just left the store. Peter looked down and saw the mess that was left behind, and contemplated wishing it all to be cleaned up, when he heard Frank’s voice calling out his name.
“Peter! PETER!! Come here!” Frank shouted in an angry tone of voice. Peter gulped and realized that he had just gotten himself in serious trouble, while he was on his very first day on the job. It didn’t look good, and he needed to make things right immediately. Still, he needed to do what his supervisor asked, since he was already in enough trouble as it was at that point in time.
“I’m sorry, Frank! I can fix everything! I was busy collecting all the empty carts, when…” Peter began to explain. But Frank cut him off right away.
“Peter, are you responsible for all this?” Frank asked him in a very serious tone of voice.
“I’ll clean it all up! I promise…” Peter began.
“Are you responsible? Yes or no?” Frank asked him again.
“Well, yes…” Peter replied. “But I can fix everything…”
“Don’t bother. Just go home!” Frank said to him. Peter looked at him in shock. It seemed like he was living out his greatest fear about taking the job, and that was being let go from it on his very first day.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked him calmly, fearing the worst.
“You’re fired!” Frank said calmly. Frank then turned around and started looking for Brian, calling out his name.
For Peter, it was a sad ending to his goal of having a part time job so he could earn a little extra cash. As Peter bowed his head in shame, he slowly walked out of the store. He didn’t feel any anger, because he knew it was his fault. He made his way out of the store and sat at the bench by the bus stop, which was located just outside of the main entrance and just a few hundred feet from the sliding glass doors. He had to ponder what had happened, and why it had all gone so very wrong.
Peter placed his elbows on his quads and buried his head between his hands as he needed to take the time to think things over and to ponder what he should have done different. He figured that the least he could do was to collect all the remaining carts that were on the lot for Brian, just to show him his appreciation.
He noticed several stray carts standing on the parking lot. He just pointed his finger at them, and the carts immediately rolled towards him. As soon as the carts stopped and lined up right at his feet, Peter became startled when he heard a familiar voice.
“Hey Peter, what happened to you? I thought you liked this job? How come you’re not working anymore?” Brian asked him, as he quietly sat down next to Peter at the bus stop.
“I got fired from my first job on my first day… It’s on days like this when it seems like I just can’t do anything right…” Peter began, in a sad tone.
Meanwhile, back in the store, Mister Weatherspoon had just completed his meeting with Mister Anderson, who was the store owner.
“My compliments to your staff”, Mister Weatherspoon was saying to Mr. Anderson as he was leaving his office. “One of your bag boys had erased every single scratch from my limo! That put me in a great mood, I’ll come over more often and you make sure the boy keeps his job here!”
“One of my employees did that for you? Which one? Do you remember his name?” Mr. Anderson asked him.
“I think he said his name was Peter. He just started today…” the chubby, short man replied. Mr. Anderson immediately grabbed the microphone and made an announcement over the PA system and asked for Frank to see him. Frank was still in the back of the store looking for Brian, when he heard his name mentioned over the PA system. He immediately ran towards the front, to meet his boss.
“Frank, did you hire a boy named Peter today?” Mister Anderson asked him.
“Yes, Sir! But I just fired him, Sir…” Frank replied.
“You did WHAT? Why did you fire him?” Mr. Anderson replied angrily.
“He was responsible for a cart that crashed into the shelves on the vegetable aisle. A little girl was playing with the cart when it slammed into the shelves, causing a big mess in the aisle. I’m still looking for the other boys to come and clean it up and restock the shelves…” Frank replied.
“Frank, Mr. Weatherspoon just purchased seventeen thousand dollars worth of food from us, because Peter had removed all the scratches from his limo, which put him in a very joyful mood. The sale was very important for me, because I’ve been trying to get his business for the last six months! Now, you go outside and find this Peter and hire him back and tell him to clean up the mess he made… Is that understood?” Mr. Anderson ordered him.
“Yes, Mister Anderson!” Frank replied. He immediately walked around outside, and noticed someone sitting at the bus stop.
“Peter! Peter! Is that you?” Frank shouted. He was too far away to see whether Peter was alone or not.
“Oh No! I’m in deep trouble! I’m supposed to be in the store right now! You’ve got to help me Peter, since you got this awesome gift!” Brian said in panic.
“On a day like this, it feels more like I got a horrible curse…” Peter said, as he rolled his eyes.
“It’s Frank! He’s coming this way! Do something! He can’t see me here with you!” Brian began to panic, as he grabbed Peter by the shoulders and began to shake him.
“Alright! You will shrink to nothing and you’ll grow back in exactly five minutes and you’ll find yourself back inside of the store. Your clothes will shrink with you, so you won’t get cold!” Peter replied.
Brian just looked in horror as he felt his body shrinking rapidly, while he was standing before Peter at the bus stop. Within seconds, Brian had shrunk down so much, that he was no bigger then a speck of dust. It happened just in time, too! Frank had made it to the bus stop, where Peter was sitting all by himself.
“Listen, Peter. I’m sorry about what had just happened. We’re kind of short handed right now, and Mr. Weatherspoon had mentioned to Mr. Anderson something about you having removed all the dents and scratches from his limo, which made Mr. Anderson very happy, of course. I am willing to hire you back, on the condition that you clean up the mess and you make sure that it will never happen again!” Frank said to Peter, in a calm way.
“It won’t happen again, I promise! Thank you for taking me back…” Peter replied.
“Well, you got no time to lose! Get up and go back to the store! Hurry up!” Frank shouted.
Peter immediately got up and ran into the store. He dashed to the break room where he got the bucket and the mop, and he went over to the aisle right away. He cleaned up all the spilled stuff that was on the shelves and he mopped the floor. He grabbed several cans out of storage and began to restock the shelves. When Brian suddenly appeared back at his own size, standing in the store, he saw that Peter was busy cleaning up and decided to immediately join him and help him out.
“Hey Peter. Why don’t you use a little magic right now? That could help us with cleaning up!” Brian asked him, as he was stocking the shelves with canned vegetables.
Peter just looked at him and smiled.
“I’ve used enough magic for today. Do you really want me to get in trouble again?” Peter replied with a chuckle.
It took Brian and Peter almost an hour to clean up the mess and to restock the shelves. But in Peter’s mind, it was well worth it. And he did not once use his powers during that time! Peter learned not to get too carried away and to become more careful when he was at work. He would only use his powers when he knew with absolute certainty that he couldn’t mess up anything at work. Because he was happy that he got to keep his job, and he was willing to avoid using his powers while at work, so that he could hold on to it as long as possible.