Lunch was called and everyone was up and at em, conversing with themselves and generally having a good meal, which consisted of a sausage sizzle and hotdogs. Leon, who had suffered through Douglas’ piercing voice had all but nullified it thanks to satiating his curiosity over the Jockey and was now in line for a hotdog.  A couple of people look ed at the little boy as he lined up, watching as he yawned, murmuring  about the strange even they witnessed, or if it was just an illusion. The kid was 7 and had already surpassed 5 feet tall supposedly. Not only that,  boys don’t get their growth spurt until early to late puberty, and this kid clearly didn’t seem to have any signs of teenage atrocities. Goodness knows what in store for that little boy’s future.

Leon had finally become first in line after a small wait, he was feeling particularly hungry today and somewhat giddy. After winning fifty dollars, he could buy just about anything he ever wanted but there was something else on his mind at that time. He looked at the food tender and was a little bit hesitant to ask looking around trying to divert his gaze before attempting to look at the hotdog man’s eyes.

“May I have three hotdogs?... Uhmm, two is for me and one is for my father.” Leon asked withan awkward smile.

“Bwahaha!” The tender laughed “ I like your style kid, but you should let others get their food first before asking for more than what you can handle!” Leon looked down with a bit of gloom, agreeing and nodding his head like a good boy but the plus sized woman managing the sausage sizzle elbowed the man in the arm.

“Now don’t be like that! He asked very politely and we have more than we can handle! “ the woman stressed, looking at little Leon, holding bread with a sausage (that’s the sausage sizzle) in a pair of tongs and gesturing it towards the boy.

“Here you go, it’s on the house! You’re a growing boy aren’tchya? You need to eat what you can to get big and strong to become a good looking man when you grow up!" The woman exclaimed.

The hotdog tender was consistently shoved until he reluctantly sighed and put three hotdogs inside paper bags inside one plastic bag for the boy to carry. As Leon took the not hotdog bread,  he thanked the woman twice and the man thrice, and  walked away from the line to the juice bar (table) chewing through the make shift sandwich as he did so.

Leon had just finished the sausage sandwich and forgot he didn’t get any serviettes, but after looking at the boggling long line for the food, he decided to compromise  by sneakily looking around to check if any …authority figures were watching and wiped his hand on the sides of his pants, they didn’t get stained but it did leave a smudged food mark on them. After “cleaning” himself, the fair headed boy grabbed a cup of orange juice …and chugged it down, gosh what a nice drink! Chucking the cup into the bin, he grabbed another, and this time he didn’t feel the need to drink this one all in one go since this was going to last him the rest of the conference.

Leon had only just walked away from the drinks table towards the entrance before that lumberjack looking guy came before him, ohh he was a one of those strong looking men a kid didn’t want to be around. Leon only looked up in a shy manner, sipping on his juice with a faint smile, self conscious and trying to divert his gaze to try and avoid a conversation.

“Saw what you did there kid, no uhh…Leon wasn’t it? “ The man asked through his mustache and beard.a not a gingerly fellow but his hair said otherwise. Leon only nodded shyly in response , to which the lumberjack stereotype gave a big hearty laugh giving big  (and quite frankly hard) pats to Leon's back. “Haaaa harr harrr harr ha! Didn’t you teach that guy a lesson? GAhhh harrr harr harr! “ Leon couldn’t help but smile, but still look away while fidgeting.

“And that moment you stood on your toes really nailed his coffin! Nyarrgh harr harr harr harr!!!” after a few hearty laughs and witty comments from the burly man, his face lightened up a little, well, his forehead did because that only what Leon could see behind all the facial hair, well the eyes and a bit of the cheeks were there but the forehead was the main focal point

“Hey, that reminds me, I feel like I recognise you somewhere, you must be errr r….. Alexander’s kid right? The buff  looking man asked. Leon looked up, feeling as if the sun had risen above the clouds

“ You know my father?” Leon surmised in surprise.

“Yoarrrr harr harr har! I knew you looked familiar! You were only knee high to a grasshopper when I last saw ya!  Now look at-chya!” The bag mahn tusseled the boys hair. “Yep that’s the smooth head I remember. Hwarrrr! Harr harrr harr har!” And another tussle ensued, Leon tried to put his hands up to stop the overwhelming man, but was far from producing any sort of counter measures, and the ‘jack stopped before Leon could get much of a grip anyway. Then the man grabbed the child’s hand with the bag  and shook it, somewhat conscious of the goods inside.

“ The name’s Dolan my boy! Yeahhhh I know your father! We go way back to around college time long before you were born sonny jim!” Leon responded with a woahhhhh, letting out air of wonder. “Say! Where is your father now anyway? Wouldn’t mind chatting up a…storm with him! Gwarr harr harr harr haa!”

Leon looked a away a little,  the clouds had set over his eyes well, was trying to anyway, his demeanor didn’t change but…

“Well, uhmm I’m waiting for him here.” The perhaps little child worded with a little angst. The bearded Dolan looked up and away from the boy.

“Still a busy one nowadays aren’t ya Alex?” He questioned the air before looking back at Leon “Say, how old did you say you were again?”

“ I’m seven turning eight this year mister Dolan “  the boy responed, to which Doalan nearly spat out his own tongue

“Pfthh what? Don’t tell me it’s only been a year since I last saw you! You’ve grown so much I could a sworn you were at least twelve or something!” Dolan inquisitively measured the boy up,  “Probably not just in height to! Jarrr harr harr harr!”

Leon couldn’t help but smile and wriggle a little bit, he always liked being complimented about how he was growing or how tall he was. He really wanted to grow up fast, and so he should, he’s in the right story for it too. Leon cheeks became a light rosy colour thinking about it.

“Well! When you do become a bigger man like me, come see me I work in the forest in the mountainside of Mink! I’m a lumberjack!” So he WAS a lumberjack, come to think of it, his red flannel shirt and his crumpled brown long pants should of given that away combined with the flannel cap. “ Maybe you might just grow tall enough to pluck the trees out for us! Byaarrhh harr harr harr harr!”

Leon’s cheeks flushed a little redder, boy his birthday wish for three years ago seemed to somehow end up in this conversation too, but he never spoke anything about it, probably just a coincidence, gosh.

“There you are!” A slightly piercing voice from behind the lumber jack came. It was the in  your ears annoying voice Douglas man. Or so Leon thought, but this dude seemed even short er than Douglas! And there man seemed to notice the difference in height too, stopping abruptly, with a confused look.

“Woah um…wrong person I guess…” the “not” Douglas was about to turn around, before he caught the boys features…same smooth hair, wearing the same clothes as that boy, but everything about him seemed….bigger? Just physically bigger without any change in proportions?

“Wait…. You’re name’s not Leon right?” Douglas asked, pointing at the larger boy, who nodded his head very slowly. Douglas had to keep his jaw from falling.

“Oh my gosh what in the world happened? Were you just bending down  to pity me or something? You’ve grown bigger!”Douglas exclaimed, and Dolan started laughing his guts out, talking down to   the jockey saying something about his jealousy because he’s a kid or something and that he ate prime meat as he grew up or about how he’s well fed and stuff. But Leon was too busy thinking about the compliments he had received, this shorter person was actually Douglas…. it was only just before he was just a smidge taller than this guy (and no he didn’t actually shrink, the boy’s a growiin!). Leon stood a little closer to Douglas he was a whole head taller now! Leon hadn’t even realised he’d been growing ever so slightly since Douglas resumed his speech! No wonder the chairs seemed a little lower!

But Leon, Leon uhh, Leon was encapsulated by his own thoughts he was taller, what was this feeling?  This pleasant surge of  a tickly sensation that was coursing through his body started to take over, his cheeks were  red by this point.

That’s when his heart  gave a  strong  pulse for that split second. The cup of juice plummeted to floor as did his bag of hotdogs, Douglas’ quick reflexes made him jump out of the way, trying to avoid the spill from the juice

“Woah woah woah! Watch the shoes kid! these were expensi-“ He looked up at the boy, who had closed his eyes and was smiling. Slowly rising higher, growing, bigger.

 “…sive….you….know……Holy..." Douglas uttered out. Even Dolan shut his mouth from the revelation.