Child’s Play Part III
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009Utterly bewildered, Professor Bookworm held the broken cable in his hands. “These stupid mice ruined everything! How could such a thing happen? My poor machine – it’s broken.” the professor muttered in a defeated tone. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “The machine?! You changed Max into a baby forever and can only think about your machine?”
He told me then that Max’s state wouldn’t last forever. As the time passes, one gets older, and 13 years later, what do you know, he is just as old as before.
“But really,” muttered Bookworm “I will find a way to fix this. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. Come back on Monday afternoon, right after school is over. I am sure I will be able to make everything right again.”
Because he was unable to stand up on his own wobbly little panda legs, I took Max by the hand and we left the cave. Walking with the baby took forever, so our first stop was to pick up a stroller once we were in the city. Max wasn’t exactly happy with the situation and began to wiggle and fuss when I placed him inside.
“C’mon, Ella! What if we pass some girls and they see me like this?!”
I had to push him the whole way home, listening to him whining like a baby the entire time. Eventually I shoved a comforter in his mouth so he’d finally be quiet. And wouldn’t you guess, five seconds later he was fast asleep, sucking peacefully on his thumb. I guess you could say he slept like a baby.
When we arrived home, I gently picked up the sleeping Max from the stroller and noticed a horrible stench wafting from the baby. It wasn’t hard to figure out what Max needed – a new diaper. I grabbed a clothespin to put on my nose, closed my eyes as tight as I was allowed, and went through with the dirty deed. He is definitely going to owe me one…
The next morning Max got up at the lovely hour of 4:00 a.m. and began to scream more than a barrel of mashed cats. Thankfully, the comforter trick worked again and before I knew it, the formerly big, strong Max was sleeping peacefully once again.
On Monday morning, I heated up a bottle for Baby Max since he wasn’t able to eat his toast (not having any teeth and all). I really began to feel like his mother.
Education is a valuable thing and I didn’t feel comfortable with letting Max miss one day of school, so after breakfast I got him dressed, put him in his stroller and we were off! The kids at school could tell something was a bit off. “Is that your baby, Ella?” they all laughed.
“Of course not.” I replied. “This is Max. You see, something went wrong during an experiment and our professor friend is working hard to fix this machine so Max can be turned back to his normal age.”
My friends eyed me suspiciously, “Yeah, sure Ella, we believe you. But to be perfectly honest, the baby sure does look an awful lot like Max…”
Max hid his face quickly in his blanket. I could see the whole situation was embarrassing for him and I really couldn’t blame him.
After school I raced Max in his stroller to Bookworm with lightening speed.
“Finally, you arrive!” exclaimed Bookworm. “Everything is up and running again in full force! And there will be no more mice around here. You see, I have developed a secret agent to fight against them.” He was munching something in his mouth.
“What are you eating, Professor?” I asked him.
“Oh, this is just a piece of bread with cheese. My favorite food, actually.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of half-eaten bread on the floor of the laboratory. I guess the professor inadvertently dropped a piece in the corner. No wonder he had mice in the cellar with all this food about. I kept this to myself, as no one wants to be reminded of their dirty housekeeping.
“Max, please enter the machine now. Well, I guess I mean to say crawl into the machine now!”
Max didn’t exactly find Bookworm’s joke funny. Poor Max crawled slowly towards the machine and crept inside. As before, I was the chosen one to shut the door.
The door slammed shut, the machine whirred and shook and…
Ella, I think that’s enough for today. You can tell the rest to them tomorrow.
Okay, I will finish the story tomorrow then. I hope you like it!
And I have great news for you. On Thursday there will be a party for all birthday kids. Your tree house will be decorated and you can throw a great party. How about that!