"He did what?" Max Reef's mom asked the officer at her door.
"He blew up a dog house ma'am," said the officer.
Max's mom glared at him. Max was over a foot taller than her, and a good three inches over the officer as well, but her stare made him feel about an inch high. She turned and looked back at the policeman and asked, "Whose dog house did he blow up?"
"Mr. Grand from down the street."
"Your teacher Mr. Grand?" She asked Max. All he could do was nod in shame. "So what's going to happen now?" She asked the cop.
"Well, Mr. Grand is choosing not to press charges, but has requested a consultation with you over what will be done with the boy."
"Thank you officer. We shall go do that right now."
"Good day ma'am." And the officer got in his patrol car and left.
"What in the name of Jesus were you thinking?!"
"Mom, you don't understand!"
"What's there to understand? You blew up a man's dog house!"
"He doesn't even have a dog!"
"It doesn't matter if he has a dog or not. Somebody could have been hurt."
"Nobody was going to get hurt. I knew exactly what I was doing."
"I don't want to hear it right now. We're going to Mr. Grand's right now."
"But..."
"No 'buts', march."
Max turned around and walked out the door. He wanted to argue more. She didn't understand the situation. But how could he explain that Mr. Grand deserved what he got? Mr. Grand had given him a 'B' on his last chemistry lab. The experiment had involved chemical reactions and combustion. Max had done everything perfectly, but Grand had still given him a B. His blew up the dog house to show Grand that he knew what he was doing and deserved a better grade. But his narrow minded mother would never understand that.
They arrived at the Grand's house and his mother rang the bell. Mr. Grand, a man in his 40's, answered the door. He looked back and forth between Max and his mother the stepped aside and gestured for them to come in. Grand led them to the living room and indicated they should sit down on the couch.
"Would you care for something to drink, Mrs. Reef?"
"No, thank you. I would just like to get down to business so I can punish my son accordingly."
"Actually, the reason I wanted to speak to you instead of pressing charges. I don't want you to punish Max here at all."
If she had had something to drink she would have done a spit take right just then. "Excuse me? Not punish him? He blew up you dog house. I don't understand."
"Let me explain. I believe the only reason Max did this was as revenge for me giving him a B on an experiment of his that clearly deserved an A. I did on purpose to inspire him to do something about it. I have noticed that Max is quite intelligent, but he chooses not to use his intelligence as much as he should. I gave him a B to challenge him to do something about it. I didn't expect him to go this far, but I'm happy to see that he's putting what he's learned to some use. And besides, I don't even have a dog."
Mrs. Reef just stared at him like he was crazy. Max couldn't believe it either. How could Grand have known the real reason Max had done what he did. Mrs. Reef was the first to speak. "So you don't want me to punish him at all?"
"No. All I ask is that he come over at some point and replace the grass below the dog house."
"Oh he will, don't you worry about that."
"I won't. Thank you."
"Come on Max. Let's go."
Max got up and followed her home. Even though Grand had told her not to punish him, she still sent him to his room for the night to think about what he did. And think he did. He couldn't explain what had happened. On the list of things he expected to happen, getting off the hook wasn't even on the list. Maybe Grand was just saying he was off the hook and was going to do something really bad once he got there to replace the grass. He decided to go to bed and not to worry about it.
The next morning was a Saturday so he had the whole day to go fix Grand's lawn. He headed over as soon as he ate breakfast. He wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. He didn't know weather Grand was still asleep so he just let himself into the backyard to inspect the damage he had done. When he got back there he was surprised to find that the grass was already replaced. He took this as a bad sign that Grand had something worse in store for him. He didn't want to stick around and find out. He was about to leave when he heard his name being called from the back porch. He swore to himself then walked up the steps to the back door.
"Come on in, Max. I got something I need to talk to you about."
He knew this was going to happen, but as much as he feared what Grand had in store for him, he feared what he mother would do more. So reluctantly, he followed the older man in the house. Once he was inside Grand gestured him to the couch and sat himself down in another chair. Grand sat there for a moment and stared into space like he was searching for what to say. This was the first time that Max had ever seen him think about anything. Usually, he had an answer for everything, even when the question itself was absurd.
"What I have to tell you is going to be difficult to understand and even more difficult to believe, but I assure you everything I say here is the truth. Are you ready to hear what I have to say? And keep in mind it is either this or I tell you mother that you refused to work."
"In that case, what choice do I have?" Max answered in a very spiteful tone.
"Good, then I shall begin, and please do not interrupt until I have finished. A few billion years ago, when this planet was still a lifeless mass of rock and water floating in space, a race of aliens stumbled across it. They decided to perform an experiment. You see these aliens home planet was very different from this planet. For one thing, all the oxygen in the air would kill anyone on them that wasn't protected. There also appeared to be a large amount of carbon all over the planet, which is unlike anything they had ever seen. They decided to see if it was even possible for any form of life to flourish on this planet. So they took some of their basic single-celled organisms and planted them into the vast oceans of the planet. Then they sat back and watched. Now one of these alien's years equals a proximally 100,000 years on this planet. So over the years they watched. They eventually saw that the cells were thriving, and not only thriving, they were growing in numbers. They saw that the cells were starting to group together and were becoming cell clusters. Then from there the cells were actually forming creatures. Over the next few years they watched evolution take place. They watched the fish populate the sea, they watched the first animal crawl out onto land. Then something they didn't expect to happen, happened. The animals were getting big, really big. The knew they had to intervene or the animals would get to big for the planet. So, they did something about it. Their answer was just to get rid of the large animals and make room for some of the smaller ones. That's what really happened to the dinosaurs. Don't say anything, I'm not done yet. They took an interest in what we call primates. They wanted to see what would happen if they were properly motivated. So they sent down a little help. This help was in the form of thousands of robots they called Watchers. These robots were basically a metal skeleton, but could project a solid hologram of anything so they looked more like what they were to interact with. These Watchers posed as the primates and helped them along, protecting them from predators, showing them better ways to gather food, and helping with births and pregnancy, anything they could to ensure the survival of the species. Eventually the primates started to learn what the Watchers were teaching them and were becoming very intelligent. Eventually, with the help of the Watchers, modern humans evolved. The Watchers thought their job was done, but the alien race felt they should stay there and see how much this new intelligent species could learn. So sense then, the Watchers have stayed on Earth helping with major tasks like the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Easter Island heads and so forth. They also introduced new technology when they deemed the time was right. The wheel, metal working, agriculture, medicines, the car, and much, much more. Granted humans discovered much on their own, but most were the Watchers doing. The Watchers themselves would never take credit for the inventions. They would just live normal lives among the humans taking on one identity after another, every so often changing the hologram and personality. Every now and then the Watchers get together to discuss what new technology shall be reveled next and who to reveal it to. And it's been going on like that for years now."
"That's a good story, Mr. Grand. You should write that down maybe you could make a book or a movie or something like that. I'd read it."
"Thanks, but it's not a story. As I said, it's all true."
"And how could you possibly know that any of that is true?"
"Because,' he hesitated as if he wasn't sure if he should go on, 'Because, I am one of the Watchers I was telling you about."
"I'm sure you are. Now if you'll excuse me I hear reality calling, I should really go back to it."
Max turned around and started to leave, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked down and saw that it wasn't a normal human hand, but more of a metal skeleton's hand. He turned around and saw the rest of the metal skeleton body. Max stumbled back and opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. His mind was overloading. His vision was getting blurry, he knew he was going to faint. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was, "So, do you believe me now?" Then he hit the ground.