Switch Child

by David Howells

was put in their path. That’s what you’ve done, better than anyone’s ever done before. You’re more than a person...you’re a super hero.”

  “Super hero? Me? But they help people in trouble. What can I do?”

  “Champ, that’s just what we’re going to find out. How about it? You ready to discover things with me?”

  “Sir, I’d like that. May I ask you something? It’s ok if you say no, but I don’t have a family any more. Could you be my family now? Please?”

  There was no hesitation. “Welcome to the family, Champ. Now, maybe it’s time to drop the ‘sir’. My name is Karl Hoffman. You can call me anything you want to.”

  “If it’s ok, I’d really like it if I could call you...Dad? At least, for a while?”

  Karl decided he would take on the job of weeping for two. “Sniff. Sure, Champ, I’d be honored. Dad it is. Now, it’s getting late. Tell me what you found out in your explorations this evening.”

  Talking and testing went on for an hour and a half more before fatigue began to take its toll. Karl promised Champ he’d come in early and check in on him in person. He told the boy to try and keep up with his sleep to keep his mind healthy until they could find out what his abilities and limitations were. When they said goodnight, Karl sealed the deal.

  “Good night, Son.”

  “So, Mr. Hoffman. Let me get this straight. The electronic device, um, Volt Wizard, showed fluctuations in the power supply in the child’s room. The pace of the indicator lights on the child’s monitor increased in speed of repetition, which agrees with what others have reported. You feel the fluctuations in the electrical supply affected the monitor, and actually initiated the child’s eyes to blink at the same frequency? How is that possible?”

  “I’m telling you the God’s honest truth, Detective, in that I do not know how that is possible, or how exactly I was getting odd tag lines on my diagnostic screen. As far as the techs I’ve talked to about it knew, it’s unexplainable.”

  “I...see. Hmmm. Well, why don’t you continue your narrative, please.”

  “Happy to. Well, the whole thing was so peculiar. I don’t like to let a mystery go unsolved or at least unresolved at the Facility. So, imagine my surprise when the monitor problem the next day just vanished, like it never happened.”

  Karl Hoffman was usually punctual to a fault. He came in early only on emergencies, so when the Facility’s handyman came through the front doors two hours early, six AM to be precise, it caused a brief stir. The graveyard-shift front-guard had never seen the handyman before just by virtue of misaligned shifts.

  “Sir? You can’t come in...oh, your badge. So, YOU’RE Karl Hoffman? Heard about you. People say you could repair Congress if you took a mind to. Larry Pidge.”

  “Hi Larry. Got a lot to catch up on, and wanted to get everything in order so I can take a long weekend with a clear conscience. If you hear an explosion, it’s my still in the janitor’s closet on 3W.”

  “Umm. OK?” Larry Pidge was friendly, but not one to get jokes too quickly. A few minutes after the elevator door closed, Larry got it.

  The elevator door opened, but Karl stopped. He had to play this close to the vest or lose everything. He had to have a reason to go in there. OK, there was the electrical fluctuations. That would do for a start. He’d carefully fake the rest.

  Down the hall, the time of morning made a visitor stand out. A nurse he had never met approached him, saw the ID badge, and smiled. “You’re the guy! Thanks for fixing the monitor. It was so strange with the flashing lights. How’d you do it?”

  It was fixed? Crud. Champ must not have needed the exercise anymore. “Skill, experience, good looks and luck...but mostly luck. I’m going in to check the electrical flow. We were still getting fluctuations before, and morning time is when they’re most likely to show up. Something about the temperature shift between night and day on the supply wires.”

  That made as much sense as Chinese to the RN, but the tone sounded expert enough, so she bought it with an understanding mien. “OK, um, Karl is it? Just be very quiet. He seems to be sleeping, judging from the closed eyes.”

  Dang. Asleep? Of course he was asleep. Patterns wouldn’t change on something that came deep in the brain, right? He wasn’t going to go wake the kid up, just to go back to typing the conversations. “Naah, that’s ok. I’ll come back later when I won’t disturb anything. If the lights on the monitor are settled, then maybe the whole electrical supply thing is moot. Be back in a couple hours.”

  Karl kicked himself for lack of planning and foresight. Well, he could still plug in at his office/workshop and do the in-person thing later.

  Truth be told, there were three memos he didn’t get to the day before thanks to his preoccupation with 2E. Well, while he was here, might as well clear as many things off his fixit list as possible.

  On his office desk were three work orders, and the device that spat out his honey-do list (“Ahhh, dear Sophie...”) had the inbox light blinking. Four more memos were generated, and off he went to nail down as many as possible, as quietly as possible.

  Two hours later, he went back to his office and plugged in the Volt Wizard and cell phone. It occurred to him a moment later that this was overkill. The Wizard wasn’t needed at that moment.

  “Good morning, Dad!”

  “Morning, Champ! Sleep well? Wait...do you still sleep?”

  “I think so. I remember seeing strange things like I always have. I hope you slept well.”

  Did he sleep at all? Must have, even though his brain was in high gear from all the newness and excitement. “I think so. Came in early, but the nurse said you were asleep, so I didn’t come into your room. Look, Champ, I’ve had a lot of think time and need to share things with you.”

  “OK, Dad, and then I’ll share some things with you, if that’s all right with you.”

  Karl outlined the reality of things as much as he was able to, including that bringing Colin home with him, his body that is, might be legally impossible. However, Karl felt that this was not as big a deal as all that, because they could still be with each other frequently through the cell phone or other devices, depending on the level of privacy they had. He also told him of his fears that, should Colin’s true nature be revealed, that the scientific community might absorb him into their laboratories and journal research projects, leaving little if any contact between Dad and Son. Finally, Karl felt that Colin might have potential talents and abilities yet to be discovered.

  “Dad, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Would you unplug your phone’s power cord, please?”

  Odd. Well, he still had the Wizard plugged in for communication. The phone was unplugged, and then he typed into the Wizard, ‘OK, Champ. Done deal. Now what?”

  “Nothing, Dad. I don’t need you to be plugged in any more.”

  Ronald Reagan’s Lacy Knickers! “Champ! I’m going to call you the Miracle a Minute Man if you keep this up. How’d you do this?”

  “I explored the inside of your phone and got some connections. This place, the hospital I’m at, has some kind of phone machinery. There’s a lot of phones attached to it. I found I could make them ring and people would answer. I could talk to them, but they got all weird about it, asking what a child was doing making calls on their numbers. I stopped that, but explored more and found I could make calls outside of this place’s system. I was going to call you, but I didn’t know when you woke up. Was that OK, Dad? Did I do good or bad?”

  Champ’s voice on the phone had lost its hollow, haunting quality. Now, it was more like what Pinocchio had always dreamed of being.

  “Son, like I said. Super hero. Hmmm. Hey, I got an idea. Hang on.” Karl pulled out his left top desk drawer and pulled out a bit of technology he’d only used on long trips...a Blue Tooth. He placed it in his right hear and hit the button. Dead. Rats. The batteries weren’t charged. Well, there w
as the axillary wire that connected to the phone. This he attached, and gave a check. “Testing, Champ, can you hear me?”

  “I hear you, Dad, but it sounds a little less loud.”

  “Blue Tooth technology, Son. This way, I can chat with you all day, though you’ll have to put up with me having to be clever sometimes. If I start with some tech speak, it’s because someone was looking at me funny. I’ll just tell them that I’m on a customer service call on a technical problem.”

  “I got one smart Dad. Hey, while I was at your home last night, after you hung up, I looked around for a while. I found things that I don’t understand what they were...”

  By the time Karl had to leave his office, they’d figured out that Colin had nosed around his refrigerator, thermostat (“Thought it was hot this morning!”), TV, stereo, kitchen clock, washer/dryer, junction box, garage door opener, alarm clock, and his cell phone charger. Champ was cautioned not to mess around with these structures until Karl got home, lest he return to a burnt-down house. Meanwhile, Karl added visuals of his by slipping his cell into his shirt pocket with the camera lens aimed forward. Two pen clips kept the front of the pocket down low enough for the lens height.

  Throughout the day, carefully and cautiously, Father and Son bonded and explored and shared. At the end of the day, there was still a book to be read and hair to be tousled.