Progression/Regression

“I’m sorry, Nicholas, but you are too young to visit Grandma Ellen in the hospital,” his mother told him for the tenth time.

“But it’s not fair. I wanna see my grandmother,” Nicholas begged and whined.

His mother stooped to his four-foot sized and gently explained, “Listen, Nicholas. I know you love your grandmother but as far as seeing her in the hospital, that’s against their rules. You have to be at least sixteen.”

“But what difference does my age make? I can handle seeing Grandma Ellen no matter how sick she is.”

His mother held him by the cheeks and smiled. “I know that sweetheart, but there’s nothing I can do but send her your love.” She paused as she remembered something and stood to retrieve her gift bag. She reached into her bag, pulled out a card and showed it to Nicholas. “This is a get well card for your grandmother. We already signed it. We just need your signature and when she sees it, she’ll know how much you really love and wanted to see her. Okay?”

Reluctantly, Nicholas agreed and signed his name to the card. After that, his mother extended her arms to him. “Now give your momma a kiss and a big hug. Your father and I will be back this evening. Your babysitter Angela should be here already. I want you to go downstairs and say hi.” After they embraced and kissed, his mother rose to leave the room.

Nicholas sat on the bed and tried to fathom being too young to see his grandmother. Afterwards, he went down to see Angela.

Angela was just saying goodbye to Nicholas’ parents by the time he had come downstairs. She was tall, slender, and gorgeous, with dark silky hair. She smiled when she looked upon him. “So you’re Nicholas.”

Nicholas was too bashful to answer and tried to conceal his smile.

“So what’re we gonna do tonight?”

Nicholas shrugged.

Angela stooped and rubbed his head. “Oh come on! Don’t be shy.”

He still didn’t reply so she thought of a way to break the ice. “Tell you what. Let’s just do what you wanna do tonight?”

Nicholas thought about asking her to sneak him into his grandmother’s hospital room but he knew that would be ridiculous. He figured he’d better cooperate with Angela so she wouldn’t feel bad. “Do you like to play video games? I like to.”

“Well, I’m not very good but I would love to learn.”

“Okay, follow me to the TV.” Nicholas grabbed Angela by the hand and led her to the big screen television in the family room. When they went into the family room, Nicholas had Angela sit on the couch while he turned on the television to the line 2 channel. Then he ran upstairs to retrieve his video games from his bedroom.

As he walked into his bedroom, he heard a beep from his CB radio. Knowing it was his best friend Stephen Kingsley from next door, he rushed over to respond. He turned it on and heard some static until he pressed the talk button. “What’s up, buddy?”

“Nothing much, Nick. I just heard about your sick grandmother.”

Nicholas sighed. “Yeah, my parents went to see her but I couldn’t go because I’m too young.”

“That stinks. What’s the matter with your grandmother?”

“She has cancer. I heard my parents saying how really bad it is.”

“I’m really sorry about that. I wish there was something I could do.”

“If only I could go see her.” Nicholas almost broke into sobs.

“Nick, are you all right? You sound like you’re crying.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nicholas lied.

“That’s good.”

Angela came up and distracted Nicholas before they could continue. “So this is where you were all this time. I thought you got lost up here.”

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Angela, for forgetting about you,” Nicholas said bashfully.

“Did I just here you talking to someone in here?”

“Yeah, my friend Stephen. He called me on my CB radio that he invented and we were talking about my sick grandmother.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll be downstairs waiting. Take all the time you need. “

“Thanks, I’ll be down in a few minutes,” and to Stephen, “Listen, that was my babysitter. I gotta go. We’re supposed to be playing video games but you had called me.”

“I’m sorry about that. Can you contact me in an hour?”

“I guess, but why?”

“I can’t explain it right now. Just contact me in an hour.”

“Okay, over and out.” Nicholas turned off his CB and placed it back on the lamp stand by his bed. He grabbed some video games from his dresser and ran back downstairs to play them with Angela.

“They spent an hour playing several different games among Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Tomb Raider, and Future Cop:L.A.P.D. With just a little coaching from Nicholas, Angela mastered the games and nearly beat him.

At five minutes to the next hour, Nicholas pretended to be tired so he could return upstairs and contact Stephen. Nicholas turned the game box off and collected his games.

“Have a good night’s sleep. Your parents should be home in an hour.”

“Thanks. I will.”

“You want me to tuck you in bed?”

“Nah, I’m too old for that.”

“That’s right. Your parents did tell me that. Anyway, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Nicholas ascended the stairs to his bedroom while Angela did her homework. When he stepped inside his room and turned on the light, Stephen’s dark, unexpected presence startled him. “You scared me! What are you doing here? You told me to contact you on my CB.”

“Relax, kiddo. You scare too easily and I changed my mind.”

Nicholas banged his fist on his bed. “I’m not a kid.”

Stephen winced. “All right, but at least you won’t be when you see what I have here.”

“Whadda you mean?”

Stephen pulled a remote control and digital watch.”

“Okay, so you gotta a remote control and a watch,” Nicholas responded disappointedly.

“They’re not just a remote and watch. I designed this watch to accelerate your age progression and regression. This remote control, on the other hand, can teleport you wherever you’d like to go.”

“In English,” Nicholas demanded.

“In other words, the watch can make you older and the remote can send you’d like.”

“You mean I can be as old as I want and see my grandmother in the hospital, like now?”

“Exactly,” Stephen replied.

“Cool! Stephen you’re a genius. How did you make these?”

“Now if I explained it to you, it would take all day.”

“Never mind, but can I use them now?”

“Yes, I tested these devices on myself and they worked. The remote is actually how I got over here.”

“Good, because my parents are supposed to be back in an hour.”

“Then let me show you how to use these.” Stephen paused to put the watch onto Nicholas’ left wrist. “All you do is punch in the age you want to be and hit enter. “

“I think I wanna be eighteen.” Nicholas followed Stephen’s instructions and instantly, a blue light from the watch shone up and down his body. In seconds, Nicholas grew into a tall, eighteen year old.

Stephen was shocked, but impressed with the results of his age accelerator. “I almost don’t recognize you, Nick.”

“Good, then nobody will. Not even my grandmother.”

“But how will you get in to her room without her knowing you?”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that.” Nicholas paused to think of an idea. “Wait! I know.”

“What?”

“I can pretend to be an old friend of the family.”

“That might work. Now, are you ready to teleport to the hospital?”

“Ready.”

Stephen showed Nicholas how to program the remote control to transport him. “See, all you gotta do is punch in the name, location, and area of the hospital and it’ll take you there immediately?”

“Got it!” After Nicholas put in the coordinates, they saluted each other before transport.

“Have a blessed and safe journey. I’ll hide up in here so I can beep you on my CB so you’ll know when your parents return.”

Nicholas went and retrieved his CB and placed it in his pocket. He pushed the enter button on the remote and at lightning speed, he transported to the closet of his grandmother’s hospital room. He pushed the door open a bit and saw his parents and a nurse leaving the room. His grandmother was sleeping peacefully. When everyone was gone, he snuck out and crept up to a chair by his grandmother’s bedside. The room smelled of medicine and had walls covered with health ads. Nicholas gazed curiously at the E.K.G. monitor and the fluids dripping into her I.V. He sat at her bedside for the next half hour overjoyed at how Stephen made it possible to see her.

When Nicholas saw her eyes peeling open, he braced himself for a way to explain his presence.

“Good evening there, young man,” she said in a low, weak tone.

“How are you, Gran-, I mean Mrs. Marshall?”

“Haven’t felt better since these doctors put me on all this medication.” She paused to expel a few coughs. “Who might you be?”

“I’m uh, Brian Davis, an old friend of your family. I met you a long time ago at a family gathering. I was just a little boy then so you wouldn’t remember me, but I heard you were in the hospital.”

“That makes sense, but any friend of my family’s is a dear friend of mine,” Ellen said cheerfully.

“Thank you. I was really looking forward to seeing you and letting you know I’m praying for you.”

“That’s a wonderful relief, especially since so many family and friends have already been by to see little old me.” Ellen tried to conceal her look of despair from Nicholas.

But he read her melancholic expression and asked, “Are you sure you’re all right, Mrs. Marshall?”

“Well,” she hesitated. “I’m gonna be honest. Out of all the people who visited,” she bellowed, “there was just one person missing.”

“Who’s that?” Nicholas had already suspected it was him.

Ellen looked up at the ceiling as if in a daze. “My dear grandson, Nicholas. He couldn’t visit me because he’s too young.”

Nicholas felt tears welling up to his eyelids.

“When his parents came, they gave me a get well card with his signature, hoping that would comfort me.”

Nicholas had an idea that might be risky but would still take his chances. “Mrs. Marshall?”

“Yes, dear.”

“What if I told you that . . . your grandson was waiting outside to see you?”

Suddenly, Ellen’s eyes glazed. “You mean?”

“Just one moment.” Nicholas rose from the chair and stepped outside. No one was in sight so he quickly pulled out the remote, used it to transform into his younger self again, and rushed back inside the room.

When Ellen saw him, she sat up in her bed, and spread out her wide arms. “Nicholas! Nicholas!” She shouted joyfully.

Nicholas ran up and gave her a tight hug. “Grandma Ellen! I didn’t think I was ever gonna see you again.”

“Well, it all worked out fine, didn’t it? But how?”

Quickly, Nicholas replied, “Well, God works in mysterious ways.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me.” Ellen smiled at him again. “Oh give me another hug.”

“I can do much better than that. I can give you many more!”

They embraced again and Ellen grew tired and yawned. “Well, dear, Grandma Ellen has to have her rest again and I assume your parents are still out there waiting on you?”

“Yeah, they are. It was nice seeing you again Grandma. Pleasant dreams and I’ll be praying that God makes you better so you can get out of here.”

“Thank you. See you later, Nicholas.” He watched her sleep until he heard a beep from his CB. He heard some people coming so he ran into the closet. He punched in the coordinates of his house, hit enter, and immediately transported back to his bedroom where Stephen waited.

“Did you see her?”

“Yeah, she was so happy, but no more than I am.”

“Splendid. Anyway, your parents are back so I’ll need that watch and remote so I can leave. See you later and tell me all about your visit tomorrow.”

“I will, now go, before they see you.” When Stephen disappeared from the room, Nicholas rushed out of his clothes and into his pajamas and climbed into bed.

He heard his mother crying for reasons unknown to him, as they were coming upstairs.

“I don’t know how we’re going to tell Nicholas about his grandmother, Harold.”

“Don’t worry, Joan, we’ll figure something out. He’s a tough, understanding kid.” But little did they know that Nicholas heard them and realized what had already happened. Despite that, he slept soundly, knowing that someday he’ll get to see his grandmother again.

THE END