“Do you have an idea for some place to eat?” asked Oliver. “I know some places off the highway exits, but if you want to go to some place around here, now’s the time to speak up.”
The boy remained motionless and silent, so Oliver turned onto the highway. He drove about a half hour, trying to engage the boy in conversation several times, but to no avail; he was frozen and silent. After about a half hour, Oliver exited the highway and pulled into the parking lot of McDonald’s.
“McDonald’s okay?” The boy responded in no way. Oliver parked, got out of the truck, walked around the truck and tapped on the boy’s window.
“If you want anything to eat, you’ll have to come into the restaurant. I’m not bringing it out to you. I’m eating inside.”
Oliver went into the restaurant, and after several seconds, the boy slid out of the truck and slunked behind Oliver who stood in front of a cashier.
“I’ll take two quarter pounders with cheese, a large fry, and a coke. What do you want, Preston?”
“Big Mac, fry, vanilla shake,” he grumbled.
The cashier brought the food and Oliver paid. Preston took his food and went into a play area where there was a maze of climbing tubes. Oliver followed him and sat at the same table with Preston, but Preston moved to another table. Oliver shrugged. He prayed over his food as Preston gobbled his.
Preston finished his food long before Oliver and began to crawl around in the play tubes with a few other children. Oliver smiled to see this small glimmer of normal boyhood, and ate his food as Preston climbed and crawled about.
Oliver unhurriedly finished his meal and then waited perhaps fifteen minutes before he stood and stretched. He called to the boy who was in one of the tubes.
“Alright, Preston, it’s time to go now. Come on down.”
The boy ignored him completely.
Oliver went to the opening of one of the tubes near to the boy and shouted into it, “Preston! I say it’s time to go now. Come on down.” Again, the boy ignored him completely.
Oliver puzzled his way to a woman sitting near to him and said, “Is it difficult for a child to hear in those tubes when someone calls from out here? I mean they are inside a tube and there are a bunch of kids ramming around and screaming.”
She shrugged.
“I wonder if you could do me a favor. Could you call to your child and tell him to come down here to you?”
The woman did as he asked, and soon a child of about eight came sliding out one of the tubes and walked over to her.
“Well, that rules out hearing difficulties,” said Oliver. “I wonder if I could ask one more favor, just to be sure. Could you send your boy up there to my nephew sitting in that tube and have him say to him that his Uncle says it’s time to leave and that he needs to come down now?”
The woman nodded her approval to her son, and he scurried up one of the tubes. Both the woman and Oliver watched as the boy approached Preston who was sitting in a portion of a tube that was transparent. The two boys exchanged a few muffled words and then the woman’s son scurried away from Preston and slid down a winding tube slide to his mother.
“He says he’s not coming down,” said the boy breathlessly to his mother. Then he turned to Oliver and said, “And he told me to tell you to go jump in a lake, freak!”
“Howard!” the mother exclaimed. “You apologize this instant!”
“That’s all right, ma’am,” said Oliver. “Your son is not the one who needs to apologize. Thank you for the favor, young man.” The boy shrugged and quickly shot up one of the tubes to continue his play.
Oliver paced a little, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked at the woman and asked, “Any ideas as to how to get him down out of there?”
She sighed and shook her head.
Oliver looked up at his nephew, who retreated further down the part of the tube, which was not transparent, but solid red. The tube ended in a giant red ball that rotated with the movement of the child. The ball began to rotate.
Oliver walked out of the play area and up to the front counter.
“May I help you, sir?” asked the man at the register.
“Yes. I wonder if you have a young man working here who can fit into those play tubes back there. I’m having a little difficulty, and I’d like some help.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Oh, nothing big, I just need him to retrieve something for me out of those tubes. I’m too old to crawl around in there.”
“All right, no problem…Robby!” shouted the cashier. A teenager came from the back of the store. He was short and chubby, with rosy cheeks, neatly parted dark hair, and thick glasses.
“Robby, go back to the play area with this man and help him out,” said the cashier.
“Okay,” Robby said as he followed Oliver.
They entered the play area. Oliver pointed to the giant red ball that still rotated. “My nephew is in that ball, and he refuses to come down. I need you to go up there and bring him down to me.”
“Well, I’ll try,“ said Robby uncertainly. He went over to a large, tall rectangular box structure that contained a series of ascending triangular tiers. The tiers were less than three feet apart, and each was in a different corner of the rectangular structure than the previous tier. Robby arduously climbed the tiers until he reached the top level where he stopped to sweat and gasp.
After a little rest, he made his way to the tube that ended in the giant ball and began to crawl down it. The tube was solid red on both ends with a transparent section of about eight feet in the middle. Oliver watched silently as Robby emerged from the solid red into the transparent portion of the tube. The giant ball stopped rotating, and Oliver could just make out some muffled phrases of Robby as he neared the giant ball. He heard Robby say things like “time to go” and “uncle wants you” and “come with me” in a sort of sing-song voice, like he was trying to coax a squirrel to take a nut from his hand. He slowly crawled across the transparent section and entered the solid red portion that ended in a giant ball, all the while crooning to the boy with different requests for cooperation.
Robby’s feet disappeared down the solid red section of the tube as he crawled toward the giant ball. Oliver continued to hear the crooning for several seconds, but then it ended with a loud “Whoa!” and a thump that shuddered the entire playscape. The giant ball began to rotate jerkily back and forth several times, and Oliver heard cries of “Ouch!” and “Stop that!” and “No!” from Robby. Then a pause and a softer thump with an “Ow!” from Robby sent Preston shooting across the transparent portion of the tube to hide in another part of the playscape while the giant ball rotated slowly back and forth accented by moans from Robby.
Robby slowly emerged from the solid red part of the tube and into the transparent part with rumpled clothes and mussed hair. He slowly made his way to the winding tube slide and went down head first with a long, muffled groan marking his location as he descended.
When he reached the bottom, Oliver helped him out of the slide and onto his feet. His hair stood out from his head like some bizarre cactus, his glasses were crooked, and a small drop of blood threatened to fall from his left nostril. A dirty shoe print covered the left side of his face, which was beginning to swell a little. Dirty shoe prints covered his rumpled clothes as if Preston used Robby’s body as a treadmill.
“I don’t think he wants to come down,” said Robby.
“Oh, you poor thing!” said the woman near to Oliver. She held out a napkin to him and said, “Your nose is bleeding a little.” He wiped his nose and groaned.
“You best head to the bathroom and clean yourself up,” said Oliver. “Thank you for trying, and I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you. I’ll handle it from here.”
Robby left and the woman said, “What are you going to do? That boy’s a menace.”
“I have the situation under control,” said Oliver. Then he walked out of the play area and to the front counter and asked the cashier if they had any newspapers.
The cashier pointed to a machine to his right and said, “We have the Dispatch and the Plain Dealer over there.”
Oliver thanked the man and bought a paper from each machine, then went back into the play area and sat in his same spot near to the woman. He opened one of the papers and began to read.
The woman was perplexed. She said, “This is what you’re going to do? That boy mugs an employee and you read the newspaper?”
“Ma’am, when the children of Israel complained to God about not having any meat, God gave them quail to eat until it came out their noses. I intend to follow His example.”
“I don’t know what you mean, but I’m not having my son around a boy like that. Howard!” Her son came down out of the tubes. He whined a little bit as he put his shoes on, but she ushered him out the doors just the same.
“Good day, ma’am,” said Oliver.
The woman leaned toward Oliver and gestured toward the playscape, “That boy is not supposed to have his shoes on in the tubes. He’s supposed to be in his stocking feet.” Then she left. Oliver shook out the wrinkles in the newspaper and continued reading.