#short 1

“Ah, ah, ah.” Maxon’s voice cooed. “I know you much prefer nudity, but you really must wear something when going in to the office in the morning. That shall be your very, very first lesson, my heir baby.”

Addy gurgled contentedly in response, limbs still waving helplessly around her.

America inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of baby powder and Maxon’s soap, and then opened her eyes. She was lying on her side facing Maxon’s side of the bed, which was empty except for the one and a half week old baby laying on her special blanket, being forced by her father into wearing a very cute little onesie. America propped her head up on her hand and smiled.

“Good morning, my love.” Maxon said, grinning. “I hope we didn’t wake you.”

“I like being woken by you two. What are you up to, today?”

“It’s ‘bring your heir to work’ day.” Maxon informed her. “I’m going to start teaching Addy the ropes, getting her ready to take over for me.”

“You don’t want to let her turn eleven days old before you start training her?” America asked, amused.

“Nah. The sooner, the better.” Maxon grinned.

“Maxon, you don’t have to take her today.”

“I want to. Kenna’s off, you’re still narrowing down the pool of nanny applicants, and I want you to have a little time to yourself. It’s been a long ten days, and we promised Dr. Ashlar that we’d take care of you, didn’t we, Addy?” He consulted the baby, who squirmed her reply. “So, my love, sleep in, take a long bath, eat a leisurely brunch, and then we’ll trade off and you can take our baby bird for the afternoon. It’s gorgeous weather outside for winter, I recommend a stroll through the gardens.”

America bit her lip as she studied the expressions on her two favorite faces. Maxon looked determined and cheerful, and Addy was making her bird face. “She’s hungry, at least let me feed her and bring her to you.”

“I still have the bottle you made me yesterday afternoon. Honestly, America, you were up four times to feed her last night, you didn’t let me take a single turn.” he almost seemed to pout about this.

“You’re going back to work full-time, Maxon, you need to be rested. It’s for the good of the Kingdom. I still have two weeks before I’m full-time again.”

“Yes, that was Dr. Ashlar’s recommendation, with the intention that you use your time off to rest.”  

America stretched under the blankets and frowned thoughtfully. Addy began to complain about her lack of breakfast, making the fussy sounds that preceded an outright fit.

“Come on, America.” Maxon implored, “Please let me take Addy to work today? We’ll have so much fun!” He scooped Addy up from the bed and cuddled her to his suit-clad chest.

America relented at the adorable sight in front of her. Maybe Addy’s cuteness would be enough to soften Jepsen a little, maybe convince him to give a little on the negotiations for the first draft of next year’s budget. “Fine. But if she gets to be too much, or she throws a fit, or anything, I want you to send for me.”

“We promise.” Maxon kissed Addy’s head, now sprouting tufts of soft, pale red hair, and began making soothing noises to keep her calm while he fetched and warmed her bottle. “Come, Adrienne, you can eat as we make our way to the first floor. That’s called efficiency, little love, and efficiency is very important in our job.”

America giggled, Addy grumbled, and Maxon nodded sagely, “Oh, I know, it would be nice to be able to take our time about things, but we are very busy people, Addy, and efficiency is how we keep this country on track. Sometimes that means eating on our way to the office, I’m afraid. Come, it’s not so bad, I’ll show you.” and with that, he and Addy left the bedroom and made their way through the family room to the nursery to pick up a chilled bottle of milk from the tiny refrigerator in the corner. Maxon quickly popped it in the bottle warmer, danced with Addy until it was ready, and then they both proceed to their very first daddy/daughter day at the office.

***

In her first week of life, Adrienne had proven to be quite the arm baby. As long as she was being held, she was mostly complacent. America theorized that Adrienne took after Maxon, if Amberly’s letter about Maxon’s temperament as a baby was any indication. Either way, Maxon had no trouble feeding a bottle to Addy on their walk to the first floor. She sucked happily away, wide, dark eyes trained on Maxon’s face. The walk from Maxon’s bedroom to his office was the perfect amount of time for Adrienne to finish off her little, newborn sized bottle, and then coo contentedly in Maxon’s arms.

It was a different kind of journey from the third floor to his office, now that Maxon was toting a diaper bag and baby girl, but it was infinitely less lonely. He found that he wasn’t agonizing over the future as he used to do on his walk to the office, nor worrying about the past. Now, he was calm and at-ease, and obsessed with his baby. His precious, precious daughter.

A guard named Richter bowed and opened the door to Maxon’s quiet, vacant office, and Maxon entered with confidence. This was that rare part of the morning before any advisers showed up, before the chaos began, when Maxon could sit and center himself.

He sank down into his desk chair, pulled out a soft, terrycloth towel from the diaper bag, and laid Addy across it on his legs. Magda had taught him this trick somewhere around Addy’s third day. It was brilliant. With her lying on his legs, all he had to do was tap her back with one hand while he began sorting through the documents awaiting his perusal. There was one mild spit-up incident, but the towel absorbed it all as it was supposed to, and Maxon pressed kisses to Addy’s content little head the rest of the time, as he finished updating himself on the relevant world events and statistics for the day.

Addy yawned widely, just as there was a knock at the door and Stavros appeared. For a moment, Maxon’s top adviser just blinked. Then his serious, professional face split into a wide, goofy grin, “Your Highness! Aren’t you a little young to be assisting your father at the office?” he said, in a silly voice.

“Not at all, Stavros.” Maxon grinned, tilting Addy slightly so that Stavros could peer happily down at her little face. “I’m starting her young, that’s all.”

“I’ll say, sir.”

“There might be something in the laws about child working conditions, but there’s nothing about baby working conditions, so we can work her as hard as we desire. However, her mother is coming for her around lunchtime, so we’d better not do anything too rash or the Princess will be telling on us.”

“That would be grim, indeed, sir. I shudder to make an enemy of your queen.”

“Me, too, Stavros. Me, too.” Maxon said, gravely.

While Stavros summarized the information Maxon would need to know going into his meetings for the the day, Maxon cuddled Addy, occasionally bouncing her in his arms. At one point, he passed her to Stavros, who was more than eager to hold the little heir. Stavros was still cooing and making absurd faces when the other advisers arrived to begin the preliminary budget discussions, but no one laughed or teased him. Several junior advisers even joined in. Adrienne already had this council, the youngest members of which would likely serve her when she became Queen in twenty-or-so-years, wrapped around her tiny, little fingers.

“Your Majesty, I’d like to start with some fresh information on the situation in the Kingdom of Romania, as it is rapidly developing.”

“I see.” Maxon said, nodding and laying Addy across his lap so that her head was near his knees and her feet were near his stomach. He rubbed her tummy gently and bounced her on his legs while he sat behind his desk.

He remembered that the Romanians had been intensely insulted by the German Federation nearly two months ago, when the German Federation was unable to uphold their end of a trade deal due to the difficult economic circumstances they’d been facing. Since then, it had been one minor insult after another swapped back and forth between the two countries, who shared borders and tensions regarding emigration and immigration among many cultural and religious differences. “Something has developed? Stavros didn’t mention anything in my briefing this morning, and I didn’t see anything in my materials.” Maxon gestured to the papers that, earlier, he’d read through to prepare himself.  

“No, sir, there was a development in the last half hour.” One of the junior advisers volunteered.

This caught Stavros’ attention, for Stavros did not at all like being out-of-the-loop. “Go on.”

“It is currently 6:30 in the evening in the Kingdom of Romania, and it gets dark there early this time of year. At sunset, we received reports of major troop movement in the western portion of Budapest.”

“Major troop movement, what does that mean?” Maxon asked. “How much is ‘major’?”

Maxon’s chief military adviser, General Corpus replied, “Your Majesty, we were informed of three infantry divisions, two armored divisions, and several tanks. Approximately 3,000 troops, sir.”

“Where are they headed?” Maxon asked, baffled.

“There are no direct pathways to any major cities within the German Federation from the Kingdom of Romania still in-tact,” Corpus replied. “But the units have taken off on what looks like the skeleton of what once was a major thoroughfare between Budapest and Vienna.”

Stavros swore and Maxon scowled, “That’s one of the German Federation’s largest cities, and you’re telling me the Kingdom of Romania is pointing 3,000 guns at it?”

“Something like that, sir.” Corpus nodded, soberly.

“It’s a show of force.” Stavros shook his head. “It’s posturing, they won’t attack. They want to scare the German Federation, show that they won’t be trifled with. No one wants a large-scale ground war right now, least of all the Romanians. It isn’t in their best interests.”

Maxon sighed, letting Addy wrap her fist around his finger. “Alright. Who is our ambassador to the Kingdom of Romania? We need to get him on the phone immediately.”

A wave of awkwardness rippled through the room and then Stavros cleared his throat, “Ah… Your Majesty… we don’t have an ambassador the Kingdom of Romania anymore.”

Maxon blinked. “What? Why not?”

“We… never replaced the last one, who retired.”

“Why not?” Maxon repeated.

“We… just didn’t get around to it, sir, we were focused on New Asia.”

Maxon frowned down at the baby in his lap, who blinked right back up at him curiously, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “You’re telling me that the Romania troops are moving toward a sovereign German border and we don’t have anyone over there who can tell us why it’s actually happening? We’re just supposed to sit over here and guess? We can’t let a full-scale ground war break out on German soil, it would send our economy into a tailspin, not to mention England, Italy, and the Federal Empire of Russia!”

“A ground war really isn’t the threat that’s on the table, sir.” Corpus objected, respectfully. “They’ve moved these troops as a show of force, Adviser Stavros is correct. But the Kingdom of Romania has a powerful arsenal, sir, they’ve had hydrogen bombs for several decades now. We don’t have the deproliferation deals with them that we have with other civilized nations.”

“Why not? And you’d better not say—“

“We just haven’t gotten around to it, yet—“

“Son of a—“

“We’ve been busy, your Majesty, we’ve spent hundreds of years focusing our attention on New Asia, other elements of our foreign policy are still in their infancy due to neglect.” Corpus defended.

Maxon frowned. “So the real threat on the table is a nuclear detonation in Vienna? Is the bomb within range?”

“Not yet. If it’s with the troops, it won’t be in range until they reach the half-way point between Budapest and Vienna, somewhere around the city of Gyor.”

“When will that happen?”

“Sometime in the next twelve hours, sir.”

“And do they have the bomb?”

“We don’t know.”

“So this could just be a show—“

“Maybe.” Stavros interjected.

Maxon traced Adrienne’s cheek delicately with his thumb as he considered this news. “Alright, Addy. This is the kind of problem we’d better take care of before Mommy gets here for lunch.”

Addy gurgled her agreement.

While Maxon and his team awaited confirmation that the military movement in the Kingdom of Romania was just a drill, he telephoned other world leaders and made sure that they were aware of the situation. Most of them were, and thanked him for looking out for them, and congratulated him on his new baby.

He and Addy had time for a quick diaper change, and a few seconds of snuggling in the bathroom, before it was time to review the tax rate and make sure it was still working for the royal treasury and for the people. Addy gurgled while Maxon discussed the possibility of allowing tax collection monthly instead of yearly, as it was an unnecessary burden on many people to pay a lump sum at the end of the year. While Addy had her mid-morning milk snack, Maxon commissioned a team to explore the logistics of such an initiative.

Then Maxon received a call from the Chancellor of the German Federation, informing him that the King of Romania had been in contact and was making veiled threats, and if there was an attack on German citizens by the Romanian military, the German Federation would have to treat it as an act of war and respond in kind.

Addy was laid out on her blanket, on a clear patch of Maxon’s desk. She couldn’t roll over or move, but she still liked to kick her arms and legs like she had in America’s stomach. As he looked down at his squirming baby girl, Maxon had to seriously consider how far he could let the Romanians go on like this when war would be an economic threat to Illéan citizens. An economic crash would have a dramatic impact, not just on his reign, but even on Addy’s reign as the Kingdom, then technically a Queendom, struggled to recover.

“That’s it.” Maxon frowned, shaking his head. “We need to have a summit.”

“Sir?” Stavros asked, surprised. Maxon still had the phone to his ear, the Chancellor on the other end.

“The major leaders of the world need to sit down in one room and talk, face to face, it’s been too long. Illéa will host, it won’t cost you a dime, Chancellor.”

The woman on the other end of the line paused, considering. “If you can convince King Borko to attend, then I will be there as well.”

That was easier said than done. It took a long phone conversation with the King of Romania to convince him to bunker down his troops and fly to Illéa for a chat with other major world leaders, and even longer to get the King of Romania on the phone in the first place. Maxon and King Borko agreed that the beginning of January would be the best time for such a summit, and Maxon thanked him for being so ‘reasonable’ and calling off his troops until after the meeting.

Stavros bowed to Maxon, tickled Addy on the cheek, and then hurried off to begin preliminary preparations for the emergency summit.

Maxon sighed, alone again, and carried his baby over to the couch, relaxing into it and nestling her close under his chin. “You were so good today, baby girl. I’ll bet you learned a lot, too, didn’t you?”

Addy yawned.

“Yeah, it’s tiring work, but you’ll get used to it.” Maxon encouraged. “Soon you’ll be ready to take over for Daddy, and Daddy will go on a long beach trip with Mommy to celebrate.”

“I like the sound of that.” America’s voice cooed. Maxon looked up and found his wife leaning against the doorway, watching them with a beautiful smile on her face.

“Hello, Love. You look well-rested.”

“I am, thanks to you.”

“You had a nice morning, then?”

“Wonderful. I took a nap, had brunch with Marlee, had a long, hot bath, and then played some piano.”

Maxon smiled, “I’m sorry I missed that. I haven’t heard you play the piano in ages.”

“I’ll play for you anytime we get the chance.” America promised.

“Good.” Maxon grinned.

“So, how was your morning?” America crossed over and joined them on the sofa. With a little baby shuffling, Maxon was able to wrap an arm around America and embrace both of his girls at the same time.

“Hectic. I’m certainly glad I didn’t try to wait until tomorrow to return to work.”

“I’m sorry. Was Addy too much?”

“Addy was the absolute least of my worries, Love, our baby bird was an absolute angel.”

“She didn’t cry?”

“She didn’t even fuss, really.” Maxon said. “I’m very impressed by our little desk baby.”

“What?”

“She took a nap right there, in the middle of my desk.” Maxon nodded over to where the baby blanket was still laid out. “I don’t think we ought to tell her that she was napping in the same place where she was conceived.”

“No, she might not like that.” America agreed.

“Little desk baby, in every way.” Maxon grinned again.

“Okay, you’re not allowed to call her that in front of other people.”

“I wouldn’t! She’s a royal princess, Ames, I have some respect.” Maxon feigned dramatically, and America giggled.

Maxon gently lowered Addy so that America could take her, and America pressed several kisses to Addy’s tiny, chubby face. “She gets more perfect every day. I know that seems impossible, but it’s true.” America sighed, happily.

“It makes perfect sense to me. She’s your daughter after all, and you are the most amazing woman in the world.”

“Should we go to lunch?”

“Yeah, I worked up quite the appetite.” Maxon nodded. “You had a relaxing morning, though?”

“Very relaxing, thank you.” America said.

“Good. I want to do that sometimes; I know you’ll be taking Addy to work with you quite a lot and I want to take her sometimes, too.”

“You definitely should. I think it will help her when she’s Queen, too, to know that she grew up in this room and has fond memories of you here and that she’s comfortable here in a way you haven’t been because of the different way your father trained you.”

Maxon scoffed, “Oh, it was different alright.”

“Hey.” America sense they were in treacherous territory, talking about Clarkson right now. “I love you a lot.”

Maxon smiled and nodded, wiping his father out of his mind. “I love you a lot, too. And I also just called an emergency summit of world leaders to Illéa, set for the beginning of January, so—“

“What??” America sat upright and Addy squawked at the sudden, jarring movement.

“I know it’s sudden—“

“Maxon!”

“It’s an emergency, Ames, and I know you can handle it. You have a strong, smart team working with you in the form of your Queen’s Council and you are an unstoppable force when you put your mind to something.”

“But Maxon—“ America softened, still objecting.

“I know you’re meant to be on maternity leave, and it’s not my intention that this should end your convalescence, but I need your help on this, Love. It’s a bad situation right now, over in the Kingdom of Romania.”

This sobered America. “…Since when?”

Maxon chuckled, darkly. “I suppose since 9:00 this morning.” he sighed heavily. “At any rate, if you want, I can ask Eoan to host. I’m sure the Queen of England is more than capable—“

“No!” America balked at the mention of her arch rival. Well, to call Waverly her arch rival really wasn’t fair, Waverly was a kind, generous, beautiful person, a commoner like America had been, who had been chosen by a Prince to become her country’s next queen. But Waverly was virtually flawless in personality and physicality, and America was constantly being compared to her in the media, in one way or another, so America liked to think of it as a great rivalry. “I can handle it.”

Maxon smiled, having anticipate this reaction to his mentioning Queen Waverly. “Alright then, Love, if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” America said, darkly. “I’ll host this summit. I’ll host this summit so well, everyone in the world will think ‘Oh, wow, Queen America is such a great hostess, we should always have summits with her and we should love her and she’s beautiful, and let’s give her flowers and chocolates…’”

“That’s what they’ll say?” Maxon was laughing at the soft, high pitched voice she’d used as the voice of ‘everyone in the world’.

“Mhmm.” America nodded and stood, shifting Adrienne in her arms. “Come on, your royal husbandness, lunch is waiting for us.”

Maxon took the hand she offered and stood up, stretching. “Thank you for making me laugh, Ames.” he said, genuinely. He’d had a brutal morning, even with his sweet daughter to keep him company. It was not nothing that America had been able to make him smile so readily after all of that. He treasured her company above all others, cherished that ability she had to ease his burden. He knew he’d be lost without her, or at the very least, miserable.

America nodded and kissed his cheek. “Clown Queen, at your service.”

Maxon laughed again, and then opened the door, content to follow just a half of a step behind his wife the whole way down to the dining room. He considered it the best view in the Palace, able to watch her lavish their daughter with affection and attention but still close enough to laugh with her when Addy made a silly face. Most of all, he was right there when America reached down and slipped her free hand in his, lacing their fingers and stroking his thumb with her own.

Despite the challenges, Maxon had his partner with him; his co-captain. When they worked together, they could do anything, even avert a major war on the other side of the ocean. He loved this woman more than reason, and he had her by his side, so, all things considered, it was a very good first morning back at work.

Here's the next part of this story. Still in abridged draft format.Enjoy

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Jack and Marv left the theater utterly exhausted. They had gotten into the movie so much they tensed every time a threat appeared. Dodged each punch and cheered every victory. They had been running at full blast for the past 2 hours and were shaking from the tension. But instead of being sleepy, they felt like they could stay awake for the next three days just from the adrenalin rush.

“That was amazing!” Marv spun around to look one more time at the poster by the exit. He continued spinning back around and kept walking without missing a beat.

“I think the last one was better for the drama, but I think this broke the odd number curse. The action was spot on and nothing felt tacked on or out of place.”

They walked to the other end of the mall and parked at a table in the food court, their normal spot to wait for Marv’s father. Marv chose Mickey D’s, since it was Jack’s turn to buy. He stayed at the table while Jack went over and ordered two cheeseburger meals. Jack picked up the tray and started walking back to the table. Still wired and hyped up from the movie, Jack wasn’t paying attention and was walking a bit too fast to stop smoothly.

A short lady in a green shirt and jeans stood up abruptly, her chair sliding back, directly into Jack’s path. He tried to stop, but the food on the trays slid to the edge and threatened to spill over onto the floor. He jerked his arms forward, trying to forestall the fall. But that sudden movement was just too much and the two large sodas started tilting and fell off the trays.

Jack felt like he was watching a slow motion video. He watched the cups slowly rotate away from him. The lids popped off from the weight of the liquid. The lids spun off and the liquid started to flow out, headed to the floor.

“No! Stop!” Jack dropped the tray, without thinking, and thrust both hands out in the classic halt gesture.

And the sodas stopped!

It switched from slow motion to pause. It looked like a new age sculpture. The lids werejust barely touching the shiny, bubbling liquid, which was still half in and half out of the cups. The fries had started to scatter when he dropped the tray, but they were also frozen in midair. Some touched the cups. Others touch the two burgers that had just lifted off the tray. And still more connected those fries to each other and to the tray. So everything was connected, but impossibly it all just floated in mid air!

Unaware of the situation behind her, the woman in green picked up her purse and walked off. Jack stared at the frozen food. He started to stand up and relax his hands.He saw the liquid sluggishly start to move and he quickly spread his fingers again. The liquid stopped.

Slowly, he kept his left hand frozen and took hold of the tray. It moved easily in his hand. He angled it and scooped the burgers and part of the fries onto the tray. Then he tried to get the cups too. But they were so light, they floated forward instead!

Under his breath, just like he had in the theater, he started chanting, “freeze, stay, stop.”

While he chanted, he relaxed his left hand. The soda and cups stayed! He reached over and grabbed the left cup and scooped the floating liquid back inside. Slowly, afraid he’d drop everything, he placed the cup on the tray and then reached for the right side cup. He repeated the scooping procedure and set the second soda beside the first. Shocked, he spent just a split second staring at the tray in his hands.

Magic. It was like magic. It was magic.

Was it?

In a bit of a fog, he continued to their table and sat down across from Marv.

“They for got the lids and straws,” commented Marv.

Jack’s eyes snapped around. The lids were still floating in the air! He had forgotten to put them back on the cups. But there were no straws to be seen.

“Uh, yeah. Let me go get those.”

“Yeah. That would help. My dad would kill us if we spilled the sodas in the car.”

Jack got up and walked over to the lids, grabbing them on the fly as he walked between them and got a pair of straws and returned to the table. As they ate their burgers and fries, his mind kept spinning what had happened over and over. Marv started a play and play recap of the movie, stating each and every part was his favorite scene.

Periodically, Jack would add, “yeah. I liked that too.” But he really wasn’t paying attention. He was thinking and examining the theater projector and the food tray.

“Marv,” Jack cut in right before Marvin could describe the High point of the movie. “Do you think magic could be real?”

Caught off guard, Marv did a double take and paused to change gears. “Uhm, you mean like in the saying ‘sufficiently advanced science is indistiguishable from magic’? I guess so. But you have to have the science, and it has to be non-natural to the people seeing it.”

“No. I don’t mean science. I mean magic. You know. The chanting, magic hand gestures, poof something happens - kind of magic.”

“No. Magic doesn’t exist.”

“But why? You’re the guy who believes that there’s life out there. You’ve convinced me we’re about 50 years from having a transporter and first contact should be anytime within the next 100 years. So why can’t magic exist?”

“Because all that is science. I can touch, analyze, and prove science. Even advanced science we don’t have will eventually be able to be touched, analyzed and explained. But magic, if it is magic, by definition can’t be explained. If there’s such a thing as laws or rules, then you’re looking at science, not magic. Just science we can’t explain.”

“Oh.” An Jack sat back in stunned silence. Maybe he had just imagined it all. Or someone was playing a HUGE practical joke.

“So what brought that up? Except for the couple of times in the first few series, they never really messed with the idea of magic. Have you heard a rumor about the next one? I thought they hadn’t even thought about a sequel, much less started tossing out story concepts.”

Before Jack could say anything else, Mr. Hightower walked up to the boys and said it was time to go. Jack’s dad had dropped him off, but Marv’s dad was going to drive him home. He wished his dad had been the return trip driver. Mr. Hightower insisted the boys didn’t talk while he was driving, so they sat in silence while the radio played elevator music. Sometimes they played rock, paper, scissors, but while still wiredfrom the movie, they tired of trying to play while staying quiet, so they ended up looking out the windows.

Jack’s eyes fell on the door lock. Could he make it move? He had stopped the food. And he suspected that he had made the projector bulb blow out. But could he make something move?

He pointed his finger at the lock. He raised his finger, and after a slight hesitation, the lock switch flipped up! He flipped his finger down. It locked.

Up, unlocked. Down, locked. Up, unlocked. Down, unlocked. It worked!

“Hey! What’s that clicking?” Mr. Hightower asked from the front seat.

Jack jumped and looked up. “I don’t know. I’m not touching anything. I’m just sitting here.”

“Me neither,” said Marv. But when Jack looked over at him, he realized Marv’s eyes were open so wide the whites were visible all the way around and his eyebrows were buried under his hairline. He was staring at the lock switch on Jack’s door.

Marv saw Jack was looking at him. He started mouthing words. Jack was pretty sure he was trying to silently say, “Did you see that.” Or maybe, “Did you do that?”

Jack pointed to Marv’s door. Marv looked at it and then back at Jack. Jack pointed again. Marv looked one more time, and when he did, jack made the up motion, pointing at Marv’s lock. The switch popped to the unlock position. And Jack quickly motioned down again and the lock closed.

When Marv swiveled back to him. Jack mouthed, “Magic. It’s real.”

Marv stared at him, motionless except for his eyelids, which were blinking away like a Morse code operator. Now his eyebrows slowly lowered in a look of confusion mixed with frustration.

“How are you doing that?” He whispered.

“I don’t know,” Jack responded. “Just all of a sudden, I can make things happen by saying or doing something. Isn’t that cool?”

Too late, he realized he’s spoken too loud. And he glanced up to see Mr. Hightower glaring at him in the rear view mirror.

“Sorry.”

“Jack, I’ve told you before that conversations in cars are dangerous. I don’t want to have to say it again, or you and Marvin will not be allowed to ride together anymore.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Hightower. The movie was just so awesome I guess I sorta got careless. I’ll be quiet now.”

He glanced over at Marv and saw something he hadn’t seen before. Marv was looking at him like he was trying to get him in trouble. He shrugged and made an ‘I’m sorry’ gesture. Marv slowly nodded and his face gradually resumed it’s more normal, carefree expression. He turned and began to watch the building sliding by as they drove back to their neighborhood. Jack assumed it was okay again and relaxed and stared mindlessly out his window.

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This is the initial draft for a short story/novelette. I'm going to publish them as episodes here, but they will be collected and edited/revised for the final story.  As with most of my writing I'll post, this is the abridged or Reader's Digest version rather than the full story. The final version will only be available as a published story. I'll circle back and add the publishing details when they are complete.

This is a draft, so any and all commentaries are welcome. I hope you enjoy it.

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Jack woke to the annoying sound of his alarm clock. He slapped randomly in it's direction several times, eventually managing to catch it with a glancing blow and sending it crashing to the floor. Luckily, it stopped ringing.

As he blinked sleep from his eyes, he sat up, still feeling the pull of sore muscles where Gerald had punched him in the back on Friday. Gerald had caught him between 3rd and 4th periods and managed to slam one of his ham-sized fists into his lower back before Jack could dodge between the other middle-school kids in the hall. Luckily, he had managed to dodge and slither between and around the other kids after 5th period and avoid a repeat punching. You’d think it wouldn’t still be sore on Sunday. But at least it was only a little discolored, not a serious bruise that his parents would notice.

After a quick hot shower, Jack skipped down the stairs and headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Today was Sunday, so it was his parent’s day to sleep in. So he was on his own for breakfast. Captain Crunch and Minute Maid sounded good. He poured a glass of juice, grabbed the cereal box and headed into the living room. On the way to the floor, he grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Jack spent the next several hours doing his best to rot his brain watching cartoons, action shows and murder mysteries.

At 2:48 that afternoon, Jack was walking as as fast as he could through the mall trying to get to the theater in time to catch the 3:00 showing of the latest Star Trek movie. Marv had called and said he had finally talked his dad into letting him go to it. Marv’s dad was a serious stick in the mud. No matter how well known a movie was, he had to wait for the parent reviews to be listed on the web before he’d let Marv go to any movie. And since Marv was his best friend, he never went to a movie they both wanted to see until Mr. Hightower had spoken. If the word was “no,” he waited for it to come out on disk and then they watched it at his house.

He just wished Marv’s dad would loosen up. Really? The three o’clock showing or wait until next week? Sometimes he felt like Mr. H got some perverse joy out of making life difficult. But then again, Jack wasn’t the one who had to make him happy. He had no clue how Marv did it. Marv was always smiling and in a good mood, no matter what stupid rule his dad had come up with, or imaginary infraction he was accused of this time around.

“Hey! Jack! Over here. I already got the tickets.”

Jack spun to his right. He’d almost passed Marv while obsessing about how bad his dad was. How messed up was that?

“Hey Marv. If you got the tickets, I’ve got the popcorn.”

They got in line and ordered two large buckets and sodas. After turning his into butter-ish with a little popcorn, Jack and Marv headed to the theater. A crowd was leaving the next theater in line, and just as they got to the doors, Gerald appeared and slapped the bottom of the bucket, sending a shower of yellow, sticky popcorn all over the two of them.

“Ha ha!Pop! There must have been some unpopped corn in the bottom of the bucket. Too bad!” Laughing, he jogged off into the crowd leaving the two of them covered in what looked like giant white dandruff. Greasy dandruff.

“No, no, no!” Jack screamed.

“What the heck! Idiot!” Marv never cussed, but that was pretty harsh coming from him.

As they turned to find the nearest restroom to get cleaned off, Jack started wishing he could freeze the clock. It was 3:01, so he had only 2 more minutes before the previews ended and the movie began. The frantic brushing off of clothes and hair lasted 6 minutes.

Frustrated and angry, the two friends walked into the theater with 2 sodas and a single bucket of popcorn. They hadn’t taken the time to get a refill of the spilled one. On screen, the Captain was asking, “How is that possible?”

Jack began screaming silently inside. He had waited three weeks to be able to see this movie and that jerk Gabriel had ruined the show. Missing a few minutes of most movies was not a big deal. But this was the final film in the series! He couldn’t miss a single minute!

Under his breath, as they walked through the darkened theater, Jack started chanting, “burn out light, burn out light.” He’d been in another film where the projector bulb had burned out. The staff had changed the bulb and started the movie over. It was his only hope.

“Burn out bulb.”

“Ahead warp 4.”

“Burn out bulb.”

“Prepare for evasive action.”

“Burn out bulb!”

At first, it looked like just another effects explosion, but the screen started getting brighter and brighter. Finally, it got so bright the entire theater was lit up by the bright light bouncing off the screen. Just as the audience started to squint and raise their hands to shade their eyes, the room was plunged into darkness.

“NO” echoed from all parts of the theater.

“YES!” yelled Jack. He couldn’t believe his luck. He had been thinking, wishing and trying to mentally force the bulb to burn out. For once, things were going his way. Now if they just started it over and didn’t keep going.

As those closest stared at him, he started to chant, “Start over.”

The older couple next to them picked up the chant at the same time as Marv.

“Start Over.”

The entire row and several people in the rows ahead and behind them joined in.

“Start Over!”

Almost the entire theater was in on it now.

“START OVER!”

And the screen lit up with the opening theme.

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A man was going home from work through a grassy plain, now arid due to the recent drought. After a while, he noticed a woman, far across the plain, walking to and from a nearby pond with every plain destination different each time. Curious, he drew closer to the woman and saw that she had a bucket in her hand. As he came even closer, he noticed that she had been pouring water upon the unfortunate, dry grasses. For the whole 10 minutes the man took to reach her, she had been continuously on her trek. 

The woman had seen the man coming for a few minutes now, so she stopped at an area of the plain. She smiled when he reached her. The man smiled back, and finally got to ask his simple question: "Hello. What is it that you are doing?"

"I'm pouring water upon the plain. I'm not sure if you are from here, but it hasn't been raining lately. As a result, the grasses have been suffering. If I don't hydrate these poor guys, they'll shrivel up and possibly die!"

The man responds, "Yes, it is indeed true that the grasses might die without water, but take a look around you." The woman looks around for a good moment and back at the man, still smiling and indifferent from what she has seen. The man, now a bit frustrated, continues: "Don't you see? There is an infinite amount of grass here; there is no way you can rejuvenate the plain. You have been wasting your time. Do you not realize that your work is negligible and that it is impossible to make a difference?"