Sam backed up tripping over his own feet.  The others froze.  There was a moment of silence.
     "What?" Henry finally asked as a stuttering Sam got to his feet, still backing away from the jars on the shelf
     Slowly, George took a few steps closer to the wall.  At first he could not see what made Sam scream like a girl.  Then, as he got closer, his eyes widened and he said, "Holy crap!"
     "What?!" came from the others.
     "It's Jr."  He looked back at them, and then again at the shelf. "It's JR!"  He pointed to the jars. " He's in the jar.  No, wait, he's in all the jars." George moved down the row of jars. "He's in all of them.  Look!"
    Slowly, one by one, the others moved closer to George and looked at what looked like Jr in the jars.  In all of them, he was looking out at them and mouthing something.  It was as if a thousand of them were all one and the same.  And he was mouthing something and making motions with his hands.
     George looked closer.  He actually tapped on one.  The tiny Jr backed up and mouthed something.
     "It must be an illusion." he said as he picked up a jar.  The tiny Jr. fell backwards onto his bottom.  All the tiny Jr's fell.  Henry laughed, and Sally giggled.
     "Hey Jr, come on out of there" Fred was closer to the large glowing globe.  He could see a fallen Jr sitting inside the object.  George turned around with a jar in his hand and walked over to where Fred was now standing.  They were all looking from one thing to another, and back and forth at each other.  No one knew what was going on, or what to do.
     "What the heck does this have to do with pickles I'd like to know." Fred asked.  "hey Jr can you hear us?"
    A nod and wild hand gestures, pointing at George and the jar in his hand.  George looked from the big Jr in the globe to the tiny Jr in the jar making the same motions. He looked puzzled.
    Sally finally said, "I think he wants you open the jar." her eyes were wide.
   George looked again at the jar.  He righted it so the tiny Jr could stand up.  Then he carefully took hold of the metal ringed top and began to turn, slowly.
     When the jar was open a green vapor came from inside the jar.  No Jr. He quickly looked at the globe.  The big Jr was still there, but now had a look of horror on his face.  He mouthed the word 'no' and shook his head.
     George tipped the jar over to see if anything would come out.  Nothing.  He took the lid and screwed it back on.  Now there was an empty jar.  He put it back on the shelf.  It remained empty.  Just an empty canning jar.
     "What do you think it means?" Sam asked.
     "I don't know." George answered.  "But that Jr," pointing to the Jr in the globe, " doesn't seem to have liked it.  He's freaking out in there." And Jr was wildly gesturing with his arms now.
     Fred took another jar off the shelf and quickly opened it.  Again a puff of greenish smoke and an empty jar.  He replaced the lid and took another one and quickly did the same thing.
     "Stop." George hollered and took hold of Fred's arm.  Look at Jr!" He turned Fred around to look at the Jr in the globe.
     Jr was now shaking his head.  But something was strange about him.  He seemed to be fading. 
     "Look, you can almost see through him."  Sally said and moved closer to the globe. It was true.  He was starting to fade, and the strange green light was glowing bright and then dim, bright and then dim.
    "Don't touch any more of those jars." George instructed. " I think that's what's making him fade."  Then he said, "This is too weird.  Hey, Jr, can you hear us?"  Jr nodded again.
     "What should we do?" George asked him.  Jr shrugged his shoulders.  After thinking a moment, he asked, " Do you think we should go get your dad?"
      Jr stood motionless for a moment and shrugged his shoulders again.  The others all looked at one another.
      "Lets take a vote."  George said. "Who thinks we should go get his dad?"  and he raised his hand.  Fred raised his.  Sally and Sam did not.  Henry looked at them and then raised his.  Jr was in the globe waving his hand in the air as if he were also voting.
     " Well, that answers that."
     "Wait," Sally said.  "We are going to get in a whole lot of trouble for being down here in the first place.  Bad enough we are in the factory at all.  But this is huge."
     "You got a better idea?" George looked directly at her.  She looked back at him, defiant, and then slowly her expression turned to resignation and she said, "no."
     They all turned at once to leave the room and head for the stairs. 
     "Wait!" George said again.  " I think one of us should stay here.  Just in case."
     "Just in case what?" Fred asked.
     " I don't know. Just, just in case." He said. "Fred, you stay here. We'll be right back."
     "Hey, that's not fair!.  Henry, you stay!"
     Henry shook his head and said, " No, I'm the oldest, I should go."  What being the oldest had anything to do with anything, no one really knew, but he was always saying that, and they were always agreeing.  Fred looked from one to the other. He wanted to say something, but finally went back over to an overturned crate and sat down with a huff.  The others rushed from the room.

      Finally, after what seemed forever, the door opened a crack and a very bright cheek Sally was sticking her hand out and waving for them to come in.  One by one, they climbed the stairs, looking cautiously around, and crept into the Pickle Factory.  Jr was the last one in, and as he closed the door behind him, the smell of vinegar assaulted his nose.  The others had similar expressions of distaste on their faces.
     "Oh, forget the smell." Sally said excitedly, "Wait til you see what I found!.  Come on, follow me."  She pulled hold of George's jacket and drew him into the darkened hall.  The others followed.
     Sally hurried, while the others took in the sight of the place they had never been allowed inside before.
     "Come on, look later."  She urged, and they quickly caught up with her.
     "Where are we going?"  George asked.  "What did you find?"
      "I have to show you." She kept moving. " When I came down the stairs, I went too far and ended up in the basement.  That's what took me so long.  You know how the stairs at school keep going around and around, well, it's like that.  I just went down too many."
     Realizing they were all headed to the basement, Jr paused a moment, "Hey, that's where the deliveries come in.  You know all the cucumbers and stuff from the farm. What could be so exciting down there."  Truth be known, he was a little frightened of basements.  They were always so dark and smelly.  And you could never tell what was what.
     "Just follow me."  She had reached the stairwell. Without pausing, she started down the metal steps making a lot of noise as she went.  The others followed, forgetting now the need to be quiet.  When Sally got to the bottom step she came to an abrupt stop.  There were two metal doors, with small square window too high for them to see through.
     Sally, a little more reserved now, said, "Now don't freak out." as she slowly opened the door.  It was even darker in here then the hallway had been.  And it smelled bad.  Really bad.  Like rotten vegetables.  And stinky mold or something.  But as Sally slowly opened the door wider, over to the right was something rather odd.  There was a strange green glow coming from something that looked like a human sized light bulb.
     They all stopped in the doorway and stared.  What was it?  No one moved.  No one spoke.  It certainly didn't look a machine or anything.
      After a long silence, Sally moved a bit forward, "What do you think it is?" She asked almost reverently.
      "I wouldn't get too close." Fred said.  "Let George look closer."
     Sally stepped back, "Okay, George, you go see.  Be careful though.  It looks like it might be hot."
     George looked at the others, took a gulp and inched closer to the globe.  He nudged further, slowly, until he was standing about four feet in front of it.  He bent over and looked at the bottom.  He walked around it.  He even stood up as high as he could, to see if he could see over the top of it.  He couldn't.
     " I don't know what it is.  It doesn't look like it's plugged in anywhere.  And I can't see where the light is coming from.  It doesn't look like there's anything inside it."
    "Is it hot?" Henry asked.
     "I don't think so.  It doesn't feel warm from here.  Should I get closer?"
    Henry thought a moment and then said, "No, you come back over here, you better let me get closer, I'm the biggest."
     So George stepped backwards and lined up with the others, as Henry moved closer.  He got to with two feet of it.  Tentatively he put his hand out.  Should he touch it?  It didn't seem warm.  Taking the plunge he took a finger and touched it.  He jumped back as it zapped him.
     "Geez, I coulda been electrified!" His voice squealed.  The others took in breathes of horror at what they almost did.  Henry, holding his finger, stepped back for the others to inspect his hand.
     Sally, being the girl, took Henry's hand and held up his finger.  "It's not even red.  You didn't get electrocuted!"  she pushed his hand back at him.
     " I didn't say I did, I said I ALMOST did."  Henry cradled his hand and the imagined injury.  "I think we should just leave it alone."
      Jr, who had been watching terrified, now stepped forward, a sudden need to be brave.  He was the youngest, and the smallest, and he was new to all this adventure business, but he wanted to touch that thing in the worst way.  What was the worst thing that could happen?  So he got a shock.  Big deal.
     He pushed past George and Henry and walked right up to the glowing bulb.  He lifted both his hands, and while the others yelled "NO", he firmly placed both hands on the thing.

     There was smoke.  Green smelly smoke.  The others choked and gagged.  Their eyes watered.  They couldn't see.  "Jr?"  "Jr are you okay?"  "Jr where the heck are you?" They coughed.  After several minutes and no word from Jr, the smoke had begun to clear.  They all looked around at each other.  Where was Jr?  They all collectively looked at the globe.  It had resumed its greenish glow, but now had smoke coming from the inside. 
     "What the heck?"  Sam choked out. "Where'd he go?"  He took a step closer to the globe, but not too close, he didn't want to disappear too.
     They started to panic.  They called out, "JR." and wandered around the basement looking for him. When no Jr appeared, they were in full blown panic. 
     "What do we do?" Sally, who was normally not a typical whining girl, actually almost cried.
     " Now wait." George said, "Let's think about this for a second.  He can't have really gone anywhere.  He's probably just hiding.  Besides, where would he go? " But they were all thinking the same thing. Inside the glowing monster.  "Lets look for him.  Someone find the lights."  He took charge for the moment.  Lights having been found and turned on, did nothing to make them feel any better.  This was a odd room.  On the wall across from the globe, were shelves lined with lots of canning jars.  Lots and lots of them.  But they weren't empty.  And they weren't filled with pickles.
     Sam moved closer to inspect what was inside the rows and rows of jars.
     He screamed.

     Jr was definitely not sure about this.  He didn't know where a broken window was.  He certainly didn't know how to get in the building, and really wasn't sure where anything was in the building. George was right when he said he had a 'say'.  Jr had known for some time that George dad had some sort of secret agreement about the factory.  He had heard his father and George's father, George Sr. arguing about it one time outside the kitchen door.  He couldn't really understand what exactly they were talking about, but he knew he heard his father say, "you are a silent partner, sir. A silent partner."  Whatever that meant.  He thought a silent member meant that he could  help Jr's father sometime.  He had been two years younger at the time, and wasn't sure exactly.
     As the gang traipsed to the back of the factory, it was getting lighter out.  George said, " We better go quick in case anyone sees us."  He jumped up onto a pile of dirt as the others followed him.  It was a steep pile and he grabbed  Sally's arm first and told her to follow him.  He leaned over to the building and grabbed hold of a metal bar beside a window on the second floor.
    "We're gonna have to climb down to get in.  I know that screen is broken and the window is always open a little.  If I can slide it open, I'll shove Sally in and she can open it up so the rest of us can get in easier."  Nods all around as George climbed a little higher on the pile.  Loose dirt fell as the rest of the gang followed up.  Jr and Sam held back a little, Sam because there wasn't  enough room for all of them on the pile, and Jr because he was sure this was not a good idea.
     After several minutes of struggling with the window, Sally managed to squeeze through the small opening.  Once she got inside she tried pushing up the window so the others could follow.  She couldn't get it.  She hit at it, shoved at it, and finally told George, " I can't get it. I think it's stuck."  George slid down the dirt, grabbed the metal bar and began pushing at the4 window to help it along.  There was nothing for it.  It wouldn't budge.  After some discussion among the boys, it was decided that Sally should move to the next window and try opening that.  There was no bar for George to grab on to this time, so they all waited until they could see Sally in the other window.  They could see her struggle with it.  She finally shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.  They watched as she made her way back to the first window.
     "I think it's locked."  She said and pushed her hair out of her face. " I think we need to find another way."
     Jr, having decided that this might actually be an adventure, offered some advice.
     "Why don't you go to the front door and unlock it from the inside?"  He knew there was a dead bolt.  George looked at Jr.
     "Hey, that's a good idea.  Now tell her how to get to the front of building."
     Now there was a problem.  Jr had been in the building so seldom, he didn't really know how to navigate.  Obviously Sally would have to go downstairs, but he wasn't even sure where she was now, nor how to get to the stairs.  He looked first at George, and then the rest of the fellas.  He had a blank stare on his face as George said, "Come on, give."
     "Ahem", Jr said without realizing he sounded a little to like his father. "Well, hmmm.."
      Finally, George frustrated, looked him in the eye.  "Don't tell me you don't know how to get around in that place," he thumbed the building.  " Where did you come from? Mars?"
  Jr, swallowed, "Well Father has never really let me into work with him.  He says it's a man's world, and when I become a man, I will work there."  How odd, he thought.  Just a little while ago he had thought he had reached that milestone.  He shrugged his shoulders.  "It shouldn't be too hard.  There must be door in the room where Sally is, and a hallway.  And it must lead to a staircase."
     Sally could see what was going on outside, but couldn't hear anything, as the boys had moved further back on the dirt pile.
    "find the door and go down the stairs.  Find the front door."  George instructed.  Sally nodded and quickly disappeared.  Sam leading, the rest of the crew slid back down the dirt and raced around to the front of the building.  When they reached the front door, they decided it would be safer to hide under the stairs, in case anyone was at the diner yet.  They certainly didn't want to be found out.
     They waited,  And waited some more.  Minutes ticked by as the Fred gave George a push and whispered, "Maybe she can't unlock the door."  Why exactly he was whispering was any one's guess.  It was all part of the adventure.
     "Go see." Fred shoved George again.   George was always the ring leader although he was the youngest of the three brothers.  Fred, the middle child, always pushed George around to make the decisions and Henry being the oldest was always the head of reason.
     George shoved Fred back and said, "You go."  Fred shook his head.
     Finally after some more minutes passed, Sam stood up and whispered, "I'll go."  Looking quickly both ways, and across the street to the diner, he made his way up the steps.  He squatted down, so as not to be easily seen.  He gave the door a try.  Nothing.

     "Jimmy Fish, you get your bicycle and get over here, Mrs. Smith needs this order for dinner."  Mrs. Fish had that mother tone that said get over here right now or else.
     And so it went, Friday afternoon in the middle of town.  As dusk fell, so too did the group get smaller and smaller until the only ones left now resorted to playing catch was Henry and Fred.  Their dad had gone on ahead because he had the weekly pay and their mom would be looking for it.  A typical afternoon. As the last of the day's light was disappearing the door of the pickle factory opened and Mr. Pepperson, in his black pinstripe suit with the shiny black shoes, came out, turned locked the door, checked his pocket watch against the big round lighted clock on the corner of Town Hall, clock, snapped his watch shut and proceeded down the wooden steps.
     There in the corner of the building stood Jr. and Mildred.  Jr had put his jacket back on, a bit dusty now from having been thrown on the ground.  Mildred looked as pretty as she had that morning.  She never seemed to have spot of dirt on her. No loose hair ever dangled in her face. Black patton leather shoes were neither scuffed nor lacked shine.  Her lips were now pursed into a frown.
   "Father?" her tiny voice questioned, " Will we be going to Aunt Dorothy's tomorrow?"
    Looking straight ahead as he took her hand, Jr in the rear, they began their walk home to the house on the hill.  He did not answer her.  So she asked again, "Father, ARE we going to Aunt Dorothy's tomorrow? You promised you know.  When Mother asked you last night at the dinner table you told her she could go see that old sister of hers whenever she wanted."
     Maxwell looked down at Mildred, looked straight ahead again and 'ahemed'.
     She looked up at him, expecting an answer, receiving nothing, she looked at the ground as they walked on.  Her father never seemed to quite answer any question.  He was forever 'aheming' and 'hmmming'.
     
     While they sat in the large dinning room slurping soup, Mrs. Pepperson brought up the question of Aunt Dorothy's.  She neither looked at her husband, nor either of her children.  She more or less talked into the soup.
     Maxwell 'ahemed' and then murmured, "got inventory."  He had a nasal sounding voice.  He sniffed and took a sip of soup.
     Mrs. Pepperson sighed and spoke into the soup again. "I suppose I will take little Mildred and go on by myself.  You may as well keep Jr with you.  He is old enough now."
     Mr. Pepperson looked up from his soup.  This was something new.  Jr stay here?  With him?  Why that was unheard of.  He had important work to do.  He didn't need the child hanging around underfoot.
    "No."
     Mrs. Pepperson looked up from her soup. "No?"
    "Yes.  I said no."
     Mrs. Pepperson's cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink.  She didn't often question her husband's judgement.  But she had been thinking about this for awhile now.  Jr was nine years old.  That was plenty old enough to 'help' his father.  And truth be known, the child needed a bit more of a fatherly influence.
     There was no further discussion at the table, and as the dishes were being cleared, Jr wondered if he was going to Aunt Dorothy's or staying home and getting the rare chance to go to the factory.

     Chapter 3

When morning dawned that Saturday morning, Jr still wasn't sure how his day would turn out, but his mother had come in, opened the shade and told him to get dressed in his jeans and sneakers and come down for breakfast.  That was the usual Saturday attire, so there was no clue there.  Having done a quick comb over of his very straight, very black hair, Jr tramped down the stairs nosily, jumping the last step to the floor.
     Mr. Pepperson was seated at the kitchen table with his head behind a newspaper.
   "JR." He said loudly. "Must you be so loud?"
     Jr, not having said a word, took his place at the table.  It looked like cold cereal today.  That was odd. Usually, Saturdays and Sundays were reserved for eggs or pancakes or french toast.  He looked around.  For the first time he noticed that his mother was no where to be found.  Neither was Mildred.  The table was set for just himself and his father.  It dawned on him that he must be going with his father to work.  He smiled and poured cereal into his bowl.
     There was no sound from behind the newspaper, except for the occasionally hand reaching around for the cup of coffee on the table.
    Jr ate in silence for a while. "Father, " he finally said, "what time will we be going to the factory? Do you have very much to do?  What will I do?"
   "Ahem."
     Jr shrugged and continued chewing his cereal.  When he was done, he put his bowl in the sink and stood in front of the counter, waiting.
     After several minutes, his father slowly put down the newspaper. " Ahem, well then Jr, you may go out and play."    And that was that.
     Deflated, Jr's face fell.  He supposed he should have expected this.  His father never took him to work.  Little beknownst to him, his mother had taken Mildred as soon as she had come into Jr's room, and had gone on ahead to Dorothy's.  She had never done that before.  But then, he had never been home alone with his father before either.  He wasn't sure what to do.  He stood in front of the counter as he watched his father rise and disappear into the other room.
     "I won't be going to the factory today."  Came a voice from the study.  Now Jr was confused.  If he wasn't going to the factory?  What was he going to do?
     Jr finally took his gray jacket off the coat tree by the back door and quietly let himself out of the house.  It was early.  The air was still crisp although it would undoubtedly warm up as the sun grew higher in the sky.  He shuffled down the back path, passing his brand new Schwinn bicycle, passed the unraveled hose he was suppose to roll up last night and had forgotten.  He got to the driveway and stopped.  He wondered if it was too early for the guys to be out yet.  Never having been given any sort of freedom before, he was quite uncertain about what the guys even did on the weekends.  He was usually at Aunt Dorothy's or in the city shopping with his mother.Pausing at the bottom of the driveway, looking both ways, he decided to head downtown.  He could have gone down the hill and headed over one of the side streets to see if any of the guys were out, but he figured he would have more success if he went to where they usually hung around.
  As he shuffled his feet in the leaves, he suddenly stopped.  Was someone following him?  He thought he heard some crunching leaves.  When he stopped, the crunching stopped.  He walked a little and the crunching started again.  He stopped.  Several times he repeated this.  He wasn't exactly afraid.  it was probably just one of the guys trying to scare him.
     "Hey, who's doing that?  I'm not afraid you know."  His voice sounded loud in the early morning quiet.  Of course there was no response.  He walked some more.  More crunching.
     "Stop it!" He said loudly.  He walked a little faster.  More crunching.  "I said stop it.  Come on out !!"  He walk had quickened to a jog.  He was approaching the center of town.  He spotted Fred and Sam.  His heart pounding a little harder than usual, he slowed his pace and joined up with the two, casually as if no one had been chasing him.
     "Mornin'" he mumbled.  Fred and Sam both looked at Jr as if he were a ghost.
      "Hey," they both said at once. "What're you doing here?"
      Jr. shrugged and answered, " My dad let me out."  Well, that didn't come out just right.  " I mean, my father let me come and play."
     Sam sniggered.  Let him out was more like it.  They had never seen Jr or Mildred for that matter.  He sure would like to know what went on in that big old house on the hill.  Those Peppersons were weird.

     Standing around for a few minutes, Jr's heart rate returned to normal, though he kept looking around waiting for someone to jump out at him.
      "What do you guys do on Saturdays?'  he finally asked.  The two looked at him as if he had sprouted a horn or something.
     Fred smiled finally and said, "Stuff."  Jr shrugged and stood there with the two of them.  As the minutes passed, George and Henry arrived as did Sally.  She was a tomb boy who wore jeans and was always with the guys.
     Finally when no one else showed up Henry said, "So, what's it to be today boys?"  Some looks passed among the boys.
    " We could go bike over to the farm and see if there are any pumpkins." someone offered, which was met with "nah, no".
    "How about seeing if there are any fish in the creek?'  Again, no.
    Finally, George's face lit up, "Hey, I have a great idea.  Lets go to the factory."
     Faces looked up at him. This was a new idea. Then they all looked at Jr.  He must have a key.
     "Oh, no, no, no..." he backed up, " we can't do that.  My father would kill me.  Besides I don't know how to get in."  Although he knew he shouldn't even consider the possibility, but then again.
      "Aw, we could get in the broken window in the back," George said, "besides, I can say who goes in there too you know."  The others nodded and after a quick vote, they all headed around to the back of the building.