"I’m bored out of my mind!" I thought.

That summer, I began my short-lived, but illustrious career in the hardware store. What was my position? I was the stock boy. Not stock man, or the politically-correct stock person, but stock boy. What kind of abilities did the mighty Stock Boy have? He had the power to move heavy boxes from a crate to a shelf for minimal pay. When there was a lull in sales, he morphed into the all-powerful Cleaning Boy, who used his fabulous feather duster and broom to sweep evil (and dirt) out of the store. It was such a fulfilling job.

At least my boss was nice. My mom must have told him all about me. That’s one of the things about living in a small town: the adults all know each other and talk about how great their kids are. Of course, all they tell their kids is how good their kids have it and how things were different when they were younger.

“Have a good day off, Scott,” he said as he was closing one night. Mr. Atherton always closed the store for “the Lord’s Day,” as he called it.

“Thanks, Mr. Atherton,” I said, as I hung my lovely yellow apron on my designated hook. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

Mr. Atherton locked the door behind me after I exited. I had survived my first week as an employed person. As if I were on auto-pilot, I walked over to Jeff’s house, went upstairs to his room and plopped down on his bed.

Jeff was in the middle of killing zombies or something at his desk. He paused the video game he was playing. “Hey,” he said, acknowledging my presence.

I raised a finger.

“So, how was your day?” he asked.

“I wonder what Katie’s doing now,” I said.

He groaned and then, he let me know everything he was thinking. “Dude. What are you doing? It seems clear to me that she just wants to be friends. So, why are you still pursuing her?” He wagged his fingers in front of my face. “She’s used her wily womanly ways to cast a spell on you. I mean, yes, she’s beautiful. She’s got very nice boobs. Other women have them too. Is she the only one for you? Why does it have to be her?”

I covered my face with my hands. “I don’t know. We were connecting, you know. And, then she had to go and move away. I just want to see her.”

“You really are one of those glass half full people, aren’t you? No, I take that back. The glass is completely empty, but you prefer to think that there is a possibility that it could actually be full. Okay, you know I’m your wingman. To be perfectly honest, I’m amazed you got as far with her as you did.”

“Thanks.”

“You’ve been moping around here for a month now.” He started looking through one of the piles of paper on his desk. “We are going to do something about it.” He handed me the schematics of the flying suit that we drew up the previous month.

“So, you’re giving this to me?” I asked, taking the paper.

“No. We are going to build it.”

I can only imagine the look of incredulity on my face as I sat up. “Build it? This?”

“Yes,” Jeff said with that look of self satisfaction on his face. “I have some money left over. We’ll buy the materials and build the suit.”

“And then what?” I had to ask.

“And then you fly down to NCC.” He continued as I laughed, “Once or twice to see Katie. Get the ball rolling. Keep the lines of communication open. Buy her some orange flowers. Go on a romantic date or two. Then, I don’t know, you move down there, get married, write your memoirs, have a couple of kids and everybody lives happily ever after.”

Huh. He actually painted a nice picture.

Unfortunately, he continued, “Until things go horribly wrong, the two of you separate and then you and I move in together.” He winked and gave me one thumb up.

This time, I shot him my condescending glance. “Going back to the flying thing...”

“Look, it’s basically a modified hang glider, right?” He cleared room on his desk and took the schematics from me. “So, we just tweak it a bit,” he said as he spread out the schematics on the desk. “Get rid of the lasers and stuff. The “suit” can be a heavy jacket, and you can wear jeans. You’ll have a helmet. The only thing we have to make is the housing for the wings; the housing is strapped on,” he said pointing to schematics.

“What about the rocket boots?” I asked.

He gave me the evil eye when I called them “rocket boots." "Yes, we will attach tiny rockets to the boots. Remember, though, you will only use them in the rare event that you need to make an upward take off. Then, the wings will take over. Pressure will keep you airborne."

“Wait, I got this," I said, remembering what Dad taught me when we went hang gliding. "Static pressure plus dynamic pressure equals total pressure."

"Good," Jeff said, "and, as far as air speed is concerned..."

"Air flowing from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure causes an increase in pressure behind the wings, causing acceleration."

"Nice!" Jeff said and we high-fived. I loved not being the dummy in the conversation for once!

Next Chapter: Chapter Thirteen