Frederick’s house (behind the gas station)
Ben and Frederick are having lunch while watching a quiz show on TV.
Ben- A, I bet it’s A
Frederick- No, I am pretty sure this book came out in 2004.
-So Joe, what's your final answer ?
Joe, completely clueless- Hmmm…
-5 seconds - pressures the host
-D, I block D
-Very well, and for the final prize of 100k dollars the answer isssssssssss…
-C, this book was published in the US in 2004. Well Joe, your final prize is… - The electric scoreboard starts to calculate the prize…
- ZERO, congratulations (says the host without looking at the score), thank you for coming. Ladies and gentlemen, it was a pleasure, I will be back tomorrow, thank you. - he says as the credits roll.
Ben and Frederick laugh for a while , cleaning the table and talking as they walk to the front of the gas station.
Frederick reads his journal in his chair while smoking, and Ben sits on a small wooden chair feeding the lynxes. When he opens his hand to give a piece of bread to a lynx, Ben looks him in the face and remembers what he was about to do to them, sadly he looks to his grandfather asking:
-Grandpa... how did you know what to do?
Frederick smiles, without taking his eyes off the newspaper, and says: instinct.
Ben, standing up and facing Frederick, replies:
-Please, tell me, I don't want to do it again!!!
- Plain luck, never happened to me before... - he says with a smile, standing up and grabing the broom that is on the wall of the station
- Come here, help me with this - says the old man throwing the other broom in Ben's direction.
Ben catches the broom with his right hand and helps his grandfather clean the entrance, trying to discover some special ability Frederick might have.
As they clean from the centre to the sides, with Ben cleaning the east (left side) and Frederick cleaning the west (right side), Ben notices something a few feet in front of him, in the middle of the sand, shining.
Curious, he walks toward it when he feels a tremendous gust of wind, as if a tornado had passed just a few millimetres away from him.
Perplexed, he turns around and sees that Frederick's part has been completely cleared of sand. As he smiles, Ben is overcome by his fear and asks:
- How did you do that?
- ... What are you talking about? - Frederick answers completely bewildered
Ben, completely blind with fear, charges at Frederick with his broom. With a slight upward movement Frederick fends off, turns on the crossed brooms and comes behind Ben with his broom against his grandson's neck.
Ben, anticipating the move, rolls forward and breaks free.
- What did you do to the wind and the lynxes? - he shouts as he attacks Frederick
Frederick assumes a defensive stance holding the broom horizontally with both hands. Ben uses his game sense, acquired from all those years of playing, slides to the right swinging the broom to the left, hitting Frederick's legs, making the old man fall back and quickly steping forward kicking Fredericks's broom, disarming him but falling on his back.
Ben, lying on the ground holding his broom, looks at Frederick, who is disarmed but still standing as the old man reaches out his hand to lift him up, Ben begs:
- The animals and wind control, please teach me how to do it
Frederick does not understand what Ben is getting at and calmly replies:
- Hmm..., kid, I do not have superpowers...hmm, because of the mountains curve, a strong wind blows through here, that's why it cleaned up so quickly if that is what's troubling you...
- And as for the animals, I already told you, it's never happened before, I have not seen them in ages and just felt like doing it
Ben takes his grandfather's hand and stands up angrily:
-How is it possible that everything happens the way you want it to?
Beep-Beep - a customer enters the gas station
Frederick looks at Ben and answers with a smile:
- Kid... That's what being a man is all about, whatever you do has to be for the best, or else... (sighs)
-Here - Frederick takes his newspaper out of his coat and puts it in Ben's hand as he walks to the car, smiling.
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