It took him less than 10 minutes to solve all the puzzles, and that included the time it took to handle toddler negotiations for toys. During one negotiation one of the boys immediately dropped the toy and grabbed his hair! In Cale’s complete surprise he didn’t want to hit the boy back, because that would just be cruel, but he did know a little about the human body, so he decided to just tickle him. Oddly enough that hadn’t worked, the kid just grabbed on tighter! He ended up having to shove his pudgy thumb into their armpit before the kid would let go.

  As the kid’s hand backed away, he felt a sharp pain on the top of his head, and he saw a few strands of his hair stuck between this child’s fingers. Ouch!! He thought, you get one kid! That had hurt! In the end Cale was able to get his hands on the toy, the last one he needed, finishing them all. He went through them so fast because he had high hopes in these toys. He had thought that maybe some of them might represent magic or even be magic! But no, they were all physical based toys that needed blocks or hammers or pushing to solve. These puzzles lacked anything new and were meant to be solved by kids his age. Even though it wasn’t that impressive, he still had a sort of baby pride that he solved them all in such short work, he smiled to himself feeling the self-praise and ignored the fact that he was in fact a lot older than he looked.

  After nap time Cale found himself checking out the different animal shaped toys. He saw animals that looked very similar to Earth's animals but had certain features that were wildly different. For example, one pillow had flying squirrels etched on it, only the squirrel's fur was black and white, like a zebra. One toy cat had a feature where you pulled its tail and little wings popped up from the back. Awesome! I wish Earth cats had wings. He continued to scour the place for items to look at and found a few more interesting creatures. There was a wolf with camouflage fur, a set of horses that had horns like a bull, and giraffes that looked… exactly like the ones on Earth. Huh. I am unsure what to think about that.

  As he moved through the toys, he was pleasantly surprised to see a few that were shaped like robots equipped with thrusters. What kind of weird place did I end up in? I have seen examples of high-level technology, but the people here don’t seem to be able to use it very well or at all. The screens in the churches, the odd signs on storefronts. The strange board my mother was scanning. How does that all add up? The people here used magic, but were studying technology with it, like an archeologist. How far down did these people fall? How high up did they fall from? The questions seemed to loom over him, his whole situation suddenly felt so much bigger than he thought possible, a silly little man baby trying to understand a mystery much larger than him.

  He felt anxiety well up in him and tears started to come down his face in response. He didn’t cry loudly; he didn’t want the others to start crying and make a whole scene. But, in typical baby fashion, as he held in his tears his head had drooped down, making him look at his feet. He saw a tear drop on the toy robot’s foot and immediately noticed how shiny it was! His baby brain saved him from his internal turmoil due to its pure curiosity and love of shiny things.

  The robot had silver shining boots with very detailed wings wrapping around the ankle. Such detail... He thought as he started to look over the robot more meticulously, his tears coming to a stop. It had giant feet like the people of this planet, which looked really cool with the shiny boots. It had wings on its back that looked like a bird's wing, only with metallic plates instead of feathers. On its head was a helmet with a red stripe on the top and a silver reflective visor. It startled Cale for a second, this wasn’t the first time he had seen himself in a reflection, but his baby brain could only handle so much at those times, and stopping to see what he looked like was a lot less of a priority than whatever else was going on.

  He looked at his arms and noticed that he had darker skin, like his father, but his hair was more of a brown color, softened by his mother’s golden curls. He had his father's green eyes, but he could see parts of his mother in his nose. He had no idea if he was attractive or not, most people love babies, but would he grow up handsome? He giggled to himself as he recalled a line from a silly show his parents on Earth used to watch. “Remember! If they don’t find you handsome, they can at least find you handy.” The memory brought him out of his stupor and put a little smile on his face. The future would come when it comes, he thought as he looked away from the robot and decided to get a snack.

  Between the realization of the size of the challenge ahead of him and him finally seeing himself for the first time, he had grown quite hungry, and he could feel a real stinker coming on. He had other more immediate priorities, and he needed some time to process what he had learned. Fortunately, the best time to do that was over some food. He slowly shuffled over toward the daycare lady. His dang feet were so big that his leg muscles were still not strong enough to lift them as high as he wanted. One step at a time. I take this life one step at a time. He was going to be ok.

  The rest of the day went by without issue. After his meal he took a good nap and let the worry from earlier fade away. He was in the same boat as everyone else, only he had some advantages that no one else did. He was going to use that advantage to figure this out and maybe help some people along the way.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  After his nap he did a few laps around the room to see what else he could use to enhance his education of this world. After the third lap, bringing up absolutely nothing of note to use, Cale started looking for a way out of the fenced in area that was keeping him locked in as a baby prisoner. It did not take him long to figure out the latch on the gate, it was a simple piece of wood that fell into a little notch. However simple it may be, it was just out of his reach. He knew he could get it open if he had the right tool, he only had to wait for the daycare lady to get distracted with a fighting or crying baby. This place may be understaffed and possibly unsafe, but he was going to use it to his benefit.

  He walked around the room again until he found the perfect lifting tool, a toy giraffe. As he walked around the area nonchalantly, he slowly waddle-stepped over toward the gate and waited until the eyes that mattered were no longer on him. Once they looked away, he used the long neck of the giraffe and its head to flip the wooden latch up. He shimmied out of the gate, then used the giraffe again to lock the gate as he closed it behind him. Just because he was having a baby’s day out didn’t mean the rest of them needed to escape.

  He still couldn’t walk fast, but his feet were so large that he found it a bit easier to balance. It was probably the reason he was able to walk at all. He thought he was so clever as he waddled down the hall, he made it about ten waddles before the daycare lady caught him. She noticed already?! I have to get faster, he thought as his eyes squinted at her as she pinched his cheeks and then set him back in the pen.

  He tried to find the right moment to sneak out again, but he noticed that every time he even looked at that gate, she was staring at him. I wonder if mother gave her some kind of warning. With nothing left to do, he practiced walking for the rest of the day and kept pretending to go for the door. If she was going to watch him like a hawk all day, he might as well have some fun with it.

  He found that using the other children to balance really helped him move faster, especially when he used the boy that had pulled his hair earlier. By the end of the day, they were playing together, and he didn’t know what making a friend at this age felt like, but he felt like he may have just made one. Even though the first day of daycare had involved a lot more drool than he had imagined, it really wasn’t that bad.

  Cale was the last child left at daycare when his father arrived to pick him up. Even worse, instead of getting to go home right away he ended up having to stay longer since the daycare lady made his father stay and talk for a while after he had dipped out so quickly earlier that morning. While the adults talked, he was allowed to roam a little bit in the main living area where they sat.

  The main living area looked a lot like the same room in his parents' house. It had a table in the middle with some chairs on the edges, this area, however, had a bookshelf with brightly colored books within reach of his little hands. He waited quietly until the adults were not paying close attention to him, then he slowly worked his way over to the bookshelf. He didn’t want to let the adults know what he was up to in case they tried to stop him. These were the first books that were in range of his little baby sausage fingers, and he didn’t want to spoil it.

  He slowly and methodically looked at each book cover. He was looking for something that told a story via pictures or ones made to help children learn to read. Most of the books looked like they were for adults, but he did find a couple that looked kid friendly, with one of them having words next to the images. He still didn’t recognize the alphabet, but this was the closest thing to a book of learning he had found so far and that made him excited. He was in the middle of looking through the book before his father came over and tried to confiscate it. Cale let out a small yell and held on to the book with everything he had. Thankfully his father didn’t want the pages torn, and after a brief negotiation between Cale’s father and the daycare lady, he was able to take the book home with him. Success, he thought as he was carried home by this father with a smug smile on his face.

  When they got home and settled in for the night, he noticed his father actually paid a decent amount of attention to him, which was vastly different than before when his mother was around. After their meal his father grabbed the book and started saying some of the words to Cale, which Cale tried his best to mimic. He was unable to do a lot of the words, but basic words like “Mom” and “Dad” were doable for him. After they had gone through a good part of the book and through many words, Cale finally nodded off. He woke up to his father tucking him into bed, he noticed his father’s eyes had a shine to them that he didn’t recognize from earlier. Before he could think about it further, he was once again asleep.

  ***

  The rest of the week went the same. Cale was the first one at daycare in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Since he knew his father was willing to entertain him and his desire to read and learn to speak without looking suspicious, he decided to start pointing at things while they walked to and from daycare, in hopes that his father would tell him what things were. It had taken a few walks, but by the end of the week his father understood that Cale wanted to know what the things were in the world around him, and he did his best to slowly say the name of items Cale wanted to know. Cale really hoped his father was not an expert on child psychology in this world, he wasn’t sure what kids his age were normally curious about, but he had yet to see any of the kids in his daycare try and learn a new word, so he hoped his father was unaware that his child was more than met the eye.

  At the end of the week his father made Cale take the book back to daycare, since Cale was the first one there and had the full attention of his Aunt, he made a big show of putting it back on the shelf by himself and saying the word he had learned for book. His pronunciation was adorably off, but he hoped it was enough to make the daycare lady proud and maybe he would be able to get her to read to him when he was the only one there at the end of the day. He would have to be more careful around her though. She most definitely had a better understanding than his father did of what children were supposed to be doing at his age, the wrong slip up could get him in the wrong kind of trouble. He would have to keep an eye on her.