Little Brian woke up in the bottom bunk of the bunk-bed he had assembled for himself only mere hours earlier.
Though he was much littler now and the man turned preschooler was snuggling with a teddy bear that was his near half his size. As he laid in his new childhood bed it slowly dawned on him that in spite of his vast reduction in size, he had regained the arm that he had lost in that horrible distant place when he was a grownup.
Little Brian meant to raise the arm to study it in his new perspective, but instead his little fingers pressed themselves into Brian's mouth and he gently sucked on a couple of them. Some part of himself tried to stop little Brian from sucking his own fingers, he knew mommy and daddy could very well spank him if he was caught, but the sensation was well worth it.
"Did it feel good Brian?" he heard above him. Brian looked up to see Jack looking down on him from the top bunk.
Little Brian popped his fingers out from his mouth, "Daddy made me feel so good Jack! Can he do that again?"
Jack shock his head, "Our pee pees don't get that hard anymore. We're little kids!" Jack explained matter-of-factly to his little brother and jumped down from his top bunk, "Well I'm a big kid! You're the little kid."
Some part of Brian knew that Jack was being a silly goose. 7 year old kids in the 2nd grade were very much little kids too but Brian didn't want to get off to a bad start with his big brother.
And big he was! As Brian got out of bed himself he immediately sensed the difference in size between the two young boys. Little Brian only came midway up to Jack's chest, up to Jack's shoulders if he stood on his footed tippy toes. The two boys studied one another for a moment, each one taking the other in. It had been too many years since Brian ever felt physically inferior to another man. He was going to have to obey Jack from now on, the thought of which perplexed him. Brian never had a brother before much less a big brother. He was interested in how they would get along as they grew up together. Luckily for him, Jack seemed like a sweet big brother.
"You should check yourself out little brother!" Jack suggested to Brian as he ushered the 4 year old boy to the bathroom outside their room. The two boys stood back to back on a children's stool before the mirror. They contrasted each other in similar ways. Brian had dirty brown hair while Jack had simple brown hair. Brian wore footed Captain America jammies while Jack wore big boy Iron Man jammies. Brian's face looked babyish while Jack's looked so much more grownup in little Brian's young eyes.
"Well good morning my little boys!" Their mommy said to them as she came forward and lifted little Brian off the stool into her loving arms. "Do you like being a kid again Brian Sunderland?" she asked him.
Brian didn't really know how he was supposed to respond to his mommy's question. He felt like he was a grownup so long ago. How could the child he was now compare his new life to that old one? So he simply said, "I want to play with Jack mommy."
And they eventually did. After breakfast they walked hand in hand with their daddy into the woods outside the Sunderland's Retreat. It was the perfect training regiment for Little Brian to become acclimated to his new, much clumsier body. Jack and Brian ran and played with each other throughout the small patch of woods. When daddy took them back inside after they got too dirty from playing, Brian couldn't even remember what walking around as a grownup was like.
He told his daddy as much as he scrubbed little Brian clean in the bathtub. Daddy responded by giving him a kiss on his cheek, "Grown men make such good little boys." Daddy sang as he moved on to cleaning Jack.
Little Brian couldn't help but agree with his daddy. Two days ago, Brian had been a lonely grownup in this very bathtub. Now, he was just a carefree little boy again sharing his bathtime with his cool big brother. Plus it was a bubble bath! Life couldn't get much better than that.
Letting his playful nature take over, Brian dipped his little hands deep into the water and sent forth a massive wave towards his new daddy and big brother. He had long gotten over the high pitched laugh that echoed through the bathroom. He only stopped with Jack splashed an even larger wave his way!
In the ensuing splash battle, little Brian wondered if he was going to get another brother or sister to play with soon.