by Jacky Herbert
Date: October 18th, 2016. Location: Boston Massachusetts
“Dominick? Is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“Where are you?” said Calvin.
“I was at the E.M.C.”
“What’s that?”
“Electro Magnetic Company. I got their newest product; Electro Magnet.”
“Alright!”
“I need to go to the bathroom. Ahhhhh!!! What?! The... the thinga-majigy... was ... glowing... What ?!”
Calvin ran over. “I’ll go get my toolbox.” Calvin tried to fix it. “Itttsss.... nnnoooott... budging...”
“Calvin is that you?”
“Uh, yeah. Pssst... Hide it. Lunch Time.”
“Can Dominick have lunch with us?”
Calvin’s Mom - “Sure.”
“What do you want?”
“Do you have burritos?”
“Yeah.”
Calvin’s mom saw a flash of light.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
She looked in the closet.
There it was.
“MOM!!! Aaaaahh...”
“What?!”
Dominick spilled. “Get a napkin.”
“Alright.”
“Come on, let’s go.”
Calvin’s mom came in. “Where did they go? Dad is that you?”
“Not right now.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
An hour later (Dominick’s dad talking): “...blah, blah, blah, blah, new job, blah, blah, blah, blah at Electro Magnetic Company.”
“Bye.”
“Hey Dad, did you say, ‘Electro Magnetic Company’?”
“Yes... I did.” Boop. “One sec. Yello? Oh. Mm hmmm. Alright. Bye. Dominick; I need to go.” He put on his coat... and left.
“Let’s go to central Boston. I’ll take my bike you take my brothers. Deal?”
“Deal. Dude, the hat. Go get it!” He went to go get it. He came back with nothing.
“Where’d it go?”
“In my backpack.”
“Take it out.”
A bright light shined. Dominick put it on. He got zapped!
“Ahh!! Take it off of me !!!” Calvin did.
“Let’s give it back to the E.M.C.”
“No. Let’s just go to my grandpas.” He couldn’t fix it. He drove them to North Massachusetts. “Thanks Grampa.” They went to North Massachusetts Park.
“There’s the engineering camp. Let’s ask all of them to help fix it.” And they did.
“How do we get home?” “I don’t know. We’ll need to walk.”
“Ahh !!”
“What ?!”
“My ankle!”
“Here, get on my back.” They walked for miles.
“I’ll call my dad. Uhh, no cell service.”
“Have the hat?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, look, my Mom. MOOOOOOOOOOM!”
They jumped up and down yelling. “MOOOOOOOM!” She stopped the car. They went home and gave the product back. Then two other kids got it.
Their names: Mike and Will.
Then, it starts all over again. And that is my story.
This writing is part of a collection featured in the 2020 Celebrate the Arts Writing Contest, an annual contest hosted by The Arts Council of Westerville, Westerville Public Library and the ThisWeek Westerville News & Public Opinion as one of many events organized by the Arts Council to mark April as “Celebrate the Arts” month in Westerville.
