Caleb was excited when his son, Nathan, was born. As every father does, he watched his son grow, and Caleb was amazed at Nathan’s curiosity and fantastic ability to learn. Nathan was only eighteen months old when he was already using complete sentences.
What Caleb noticed the most was Nathan’s amazement at machinery. He loved cars, pickups, and other vehicles on the road but seemed fascinated most by large equipment. Nathan thought about how fun it would be to have something Caleb could drive, even a toy tractor. But money was tight, so he had to think of something else to satisfy his son’s curiosity.
Nathan started taking Caleb down to the local tractor store. It was a fun way to spend time with his son, and it didn’t cost anything to look. The man in charge there was kind and would even let Nathan sit in the tractor seat. Sometimes, they even allowed Caleb to drive one, with his son on his lap, showing him how it ran and how to use the loader or backhoe.
They didn’t get to do that too often since the machines had to be kept in pristine condition. But the few times they did, Nathan’s happiness rubbed off on everyone. Then, the dealer would give Nathan a key he could keep. He always said, “When you get older, you can buy yourself a tractor to go with that key.” And Nathan protected his keys. They were his most prized possessions, tucked away in a special box in his room.
One day, when Nathan was six, Caleb noticed a truck hauling a loader past their house. A few minutes later, another truck carrying an excavator went by. Other equipment followed. Caleb went outside to see where they were going since their house was on a dead-end street. He learned they were going to the field at the end of the road. A developer had purchased the fifty acres there and was building a subdivision.
Caleb was a little disappointed that the open land he often took walks through with his wife and Nathan would be filled with houses, but he decided to make the best of it. When he could, he took Nathan there to watch them work with the machinery. Most of the time, when the construction was happening, Caleb had to work, so they didn’t get to see the action too much. Still, he could take Nathan there in the evening, and they could look at the machinery from afar.
Caleb had some challenging things come up at work, so he was going to need to spend every other evening working late. He was disappointed he wouldn’t get the chance to spend those evenings with his son. The first night he came home late, he went to look in on his sleeping son. Caleb smiled as he saw Nathan clutching his keys next to him with a smile on his little face.
The next night, when they went down to look at the machinery, there were some big signs saying, “This area is being watched twenty-four-seven.”
Caleb wondered if they were having some problems with vandalism or theft. Two nights later, when he and Nathan walked down there, several cameras had been set up. The next time they came, the whole place was fenced off.
The next day was Saturday, so Nathan was off from work. To his surprise, a man came and introduced himself as the construction foreman. The man said they set up the cameras and fence because every day, when they came to work, their equipment had been moved. “Nothing was damaged, and it was all parked neatly. We always took the keys, but it still happened.”
The foreman showed Caleb some video footage, and to his surprise, it was Nathan driving the equipment. He had apparently realized his keys were generic and fit the machines. Sneaking down there, he drove them around a little, having the time of his life, and then he parked them in a row.
Caleb was disappointed to have to lock away Nathan’s keys that day, but the construction foreman was kind and promised that if Nathan was good, Caleb could bring him down for a short ride on the equipment now and then.
The post Matching Keys first appeared on Meridian Magazine.