Now, the Life Spice worked in mysterious ways. It all depended upon which gender opened the bottle first. If it was a young woman, all the men immediately around her for the first few hours or so would grow younger until they were the appropriate age to be her children--which was why the old man had suggested it was great for young mothers. If a man had picked up and opened the spice, all the women around him would have likewise for the first few hours slowly shrink into his daughters. After the first few hours then the spice would begin to affect any passing by boy or girl who had yet to go through puberty and begin to affect them, transforming them into the other parent in the relationship, while at the same time affecting the opposite gender outside the original user. Considering the magic in the spice and how long ago it had been made, the spice did discriminate in favor of "traditional" relationships. Newer formulas accounted for a wider array of families, but since Emily had bought the older formula, this meant that the first prepubescent boy who now wafted in the Life Spice was going to age into the perfect father for her and her litter of little boys.
And the first boy that happened to be was the next door neighbors infant son, James, who had been brought out onto the porch to laze about with his mother Mary in the cool of the evening--and both got a big old sniff of the life spice as it dissipated out of the air of Emily's house.
Mary sneezed in response to the life spice.
"Oh lordy, whatever Em's been cooking really is effecting my sinuses. I better get my Afrin to clear them up," commented Mary to no one in particular, who had grown accustomed with Jamie around of narrating her actions so that he might listen and learn to speak as she did.
Meanwhile, Jamie, who had been falling asleep, now opened his eyes widely as he felt the baby swing belts feel a little too tight on his growing toddler body. With his newfound dexterity, he released himself from the restraints with the click of a button and hobbled out of the swing, still wearing little more than his pull ups. Strange thoughts were beginning to flood his mind of attending pre-school--no, Kindergarten now as everything on the porch seemed to shrink around him. Baby fat began to disappear as he grew ever taller and thinner, quickly aging out of the single digits of his life and into prepubescence. It was about then that his older sister Mary, who was a high schooler, came back out onto the porch.
"Still in your swim trunks, little brother? Practice was over hours ago," quipped Mary with a roll of her eyes before she lost a cup size and a few inches of height herself and James began to feel weird in his trunks--puberty beginning as he shot up to match her height--well, he'd always been somewhat the same height, they were twin siblings after all--both just trying to make it through middle school. Well, he was showing his little sister how to survive, that is.
"You're one to talk, little sis," he chided about her being in her one piece.
James was now beginning to add some lean muscle to his skinny frame as high school memories of being on the swim team brought some definition to his broadening chest and powerful calves and thighs the work of hours of kicks and laps. His kid sister was beginning to grow tired at this point and wanted to go home to Mommy, and James, knowing he'd soon have to head back to college picked her up and slipped into a well-worn pair of sandals and hurried down the porch steps and over to next-door where Mommy was waiting.
James was just adjusting to holding a pre-school aged Mary, who he now started thinking of as his daughter when Em opened the door, gloriously pregnant and with Lucas and Markie already eating their dinners.
"You're back late," tutted Emily as she stepped aside.
"This little munchkin kept losing her flip flops at the pool," teased James as he tickled his two year old daughter until she squealed with delight. He set her down in her own high chair and put a plate in front of her. Lucas and Markie both staring up at him in awestruck wonder. For good measure he tussled their hair and laughed a bit.
"She's taking to the water all right?" asked Em as she heated up his plate in the microwave, referring to the fact that he'd taken Mary out to learn how to swim on her own for his day off from work. Lucas didn't need to learn, as he was a born fish like his daddy, but Mary was more than a little hesitant to get wet at first.
"Yep, she's starting to not be afraid of the water," he proudly declared with a grin.