One day my friends and I had nothing to do, so I said let’s go get Benjamin Franklin, revive him, and take him on a tour of Boston. They agreed that it would be interesting so we went, dug him up, punched his chest a few times to get his heart beating, and we were on our way. At first he did not know what had happened; then we told him we were taking him to Boston, so that he could see how much it had changed. He did not mind, so we went.

The Red Sox were playing a 1 p.m. game that day so we took him to Fenway Park first. He did not understand the game of baseball, and sat there the whole time trying to figure out how much force it would take to make the ball fly over the big green wall in left field. I later told Ben that this wall was called the Green Monster, and that it was as important to Red Sox fans as the Vatican is to Catholics. He did not agree with the idea of Catholicism, because he was a deist, but he understood the comparison.

After the game, we went on the train to all the places he would recognize: Faneuil Hall, Granary Burying Ground (where his parents are buried), the site of the Boston Massacre, and other sites throughout the oldest part of Boston. He was really amazed at trains and the electricity that they run on. I explained to Ben that there are four lines that stop in the city: orange, red, blue and green, and that basically anywhere you want to go in the city or its surrounding towns, the trains can take you there.

He took a minute to let it soak in. After we got off the green line at Government Center, I took him into Quincy Market, behind Faneuil Hall to get something to eat. I ordered us both cheeseburgers, and we sat outside and ate them. Actually I ate mine while he examined his. I forced him to take a bite, and he really enjoyed it. Then we decided to go shopping after. He got some stuff for his grave: a Faneuil Hall shot glass, a Red Sox hat, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and a fake cheeseburger. Then he wanted to go to a bar, but I told him no because I cold not get in because I am not twenty-one years old. We then went to see a movie at the Lowes at Park Street. He was amazed and tried for hours to examine the screen after the movie was over.

We saw The Departed and after he was done being amazed at the technology, he could not stop talking about this Whitey Bulger guy who he had just seen in the movie, how he should be tarred and feathered and put in jail. I then had to explain the whole story of Southie and Whitey and the FBI to Ben. It fascinated him. Then when we were walking back to Copley station to get back on the train, we saw David Ortiz coming out of a store. I walked over to him and introduced Ben.

Papi was pleased to meet him, but Ben had no idea what was going on. I told him that this was one of the Red Sox whom we had seen play today. When Ben heard that he said “Oh! Then by chance do you happen to know how much force it takes to hit one of those baseballs over the fence?”