Preston sat quietly in the large, brown “time-out” chair. It was a recliner. He’d spent most of the day there, unreclined, for various offenses. After lunch, he wiped a glob of snot on a girl’s new dress and made her cry.
“That’s it!” cried the same worker who rolled her eyes at him that morning. “You can stay in that time-out chair until it welds to your butt, you little brat!”
“Oh no, Vicki!” he mocked. “Not the time-out chair! Oh, boo, hoo, hoo, hoo!”
She grabbed him roughly by the arm and half dragged him to the chair. He sat in it and glared at her defiantly as she left. For twenty minutes, he served his sentence quietly.
Across from him was the entrance to the nursery. Presently, one of the daycare workers came into view with a baby wrapped in a blue blanket. She sat in a rocking chair and rocked with the child. Preston drew his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around his legs as he stared at the young girl rocking the baby. The girl hummed softly to the baby as she rocked and gazed into his face. Preston sat in the chair, rocking slightly, resting his chin on his knees, watching with wide eyes as he hugged himself and hummed lowly.
Soon the girl stood from the chair and gently laid the baby in one of many bassinets, then left the nursery to attend to some other matter. Preston unfolded himself and stood from his chair. He shuffled quietly into the nursery to the bassinet where the baby lay sleeping. He rested his hand on the edge of the bassinet and looked down at the sleeping child for several moments, his eyes a little glassy, as if he were perhaps remembering himself as a baby.
A voice hissed at him and shook him from his reverie.
“Preston! You get away from those babies and get back into that chair! I didn’t say you could get up!” The large form of Vicki filled the space of the nursery doorway. His eyes fell again upon sleeping child.
“Huh. Just wait,” he muttered to the infant as he headed back to the chair.
It was an hour and a half before Vicki allowed him to leave the chair, but he napped for about an hour of it. Vicki’s footsteps awakened him.
“Are you going to be a good boy now, Preston?” asked Vicki.
Preston nodded as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.
“Good. You can get up now, but no more trouble, understand? One more episode with you, and you’re in that chair for the rest of the day, got it?”
Preston nodded and wiped again as he shuffled outside to the playground. He climbed the monkey bars and hung from them for a while, then he began to make monkey noises and to swing and climb around the bars in his best imitation of a monkey.
A young girl of about five sitting with a group of girls nearby noticed Preston and pointed to him. “Look! Look at the monkey!”
Preston climbed down from the bars and approached the young girl in a shambling monkey gait. He pressed his face close to her, just under her chin, and made soft squeaking monkey noises.
The girl petted Preston’s head and said, “Awwww, he’s a nice monkey.” She kissed Preston on the top of his head, and he responded with a squeaking sigh.
Another girl in the group, closer to Preston’s age, stood and pulled the little girl away. “Stay away from him, Laura,” she said. “He’s nothing but trouble.”
Laura pulled her arm away from the larger girl. “He’s a nice monkey. Look, he wants to play.” Preston squeaked and jumped and danced about. “See? He’s a good monkey.” She petted him. ”Awwww, isn’t he cute? Are you a hungry monkey? Do you want a banana?”
Preston bounced on his haunches in monkey excitement.
“I’ll see if I can find one.” She ran into the daycare.
After she left, the older girl shoved Preston and said, “Why don’t you go away and leave us alone?”
Preston raised his arms and flailed them at the girl with a monkey scream.
The girl stepped back a bit. “Stop it! Go away! We don’t want you here! You’re weird and mean. Get away!”
Preston began bouncing and dancing around the girl poking and jabbing her as he screamed and squeaked.
“Stop it! Get away from us!” She took a slapping swing at Preston with her left hand and missed completely, but quickly followed with her right, which connected with a loud SMACK. The loud sound surprised both of them. Preston stood motionless for a moment, wide-eyed with his hand to his cheek, apparently stunned more by the sound than any pain. Gradually, his countenance changed from stunned to angry, and the fury mounted as he began to growl and stalk the girl who struck him.
The girl backed away fearfully at first, then turned and ran with a little shriek. Preston pursued for just a short distance, until he felt she was sufficiently frightened. Then he slowly returned to the remaining girls and sat a little distance away from them. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, but soon the girls were whispering to each other, as Preston sulked and glared at the group from time to time.
Laura returned with a banana and offered it to Preston. “Here you go. Here’s a banana for the hungry monkey. Here. Take it, little monkey.”
Preston glowered at her. “Look, I don’t want to play anymore. Go give it to someone else.”
“You’re not a monkey anymore?”
“No. I wish I was, but I’m not. Just leave me alone. Go play with the other girls.”
“OK.” She skipped over to the group and offered the banana to the group, and two of the girls split it between themselves.
Preston lay back on the grass and gazed up at the clouds with a troubled look on his face as the girls continued their play.