“Where am I?" Ben wondered aloud. "Brad!"
His voice! It sounded like Brad's.
“Dad? What is… what 's happ—“ His voice cracked much lower “—ening to me?”
Ben heard his own voice. "Brad, something's happened...to us..."
“Dad! Where’s your beard?”
Ben raised his hand to touch a smooth cheek. "No!"
Brad continued to smoke the cigarette naturally like he has been doing so for years.
Ben ran into the kitchen, to the table, and grabbed the artifact. "It did this to us!" Ben stared at the relic from a bygone age.
"Dad, everything...is bigger!" Brad exclaimed. “Dad, I itch all over! Make it stop!”
At the same time, he continued dragging on the cigarette like it was natural for him to do so.
Ben fumbled with the artifact. His hands…they’re not his big hands. "Did you do something! Think! Brad, what did you do to us?"
“It’s not my fault!” Brad began to cry in his still developing 37-year-old body.
"I sure as hell didn't cause this!" But Ben’s normally loud voice is higher.
As Brad raised his hands to his mouth to continue smoking his dad’s...now his own...cigarette, he felt his beard against his hands. “Dad! My face. It has got hair all over it...I have a beard! Just like…just like you.”
Ben watched his big hands move across his...or rather his son’s...beard.
In dismay, he ran his hands over his face. “It's so smooth,” he whispered. And, he noticed, he had to look up when he watched Brad touch his beard.
“Daddy, why am I so big?” Brad began to sob. “Make it stop! Please, daddy, do something.”
Ben felt only panic. “Oh fuck! Calm down,” Ben said savagely in his squeaky voice. “Just don't cry.”
Between sobs, his new huge body shook. “I can’t help it,” Brad wailed. “Look at me! I'm...I'm... you!”
Now that his son had voiced the undeniable truth of the situation, Ben almost felt like crying. "And I...I...I'm you!" Ben said. “I have got to have a cigarette.” He ran to the table and took one from his pack. His small hands trembled as he attempted to light up.
“Are you all right, Dad?”
Brad, in his huge, adult body, continued sobbing.
"Do I look okay! Jesus! What are we going to do?" Ben hated the high-pitched sound of his son’s voice producing the words he spoke.
“Don't yell at me, Dad! Please! I didn't do anything.”
“You had to do something, Brad," Ben argued. "Think back. We've got to figure this out."
Ben felt almost afraid to look down at his body. It's so scrawny and under-developed. Hands still shaking, he took a drag on the cigarette he had managed to light. He began to cough violently. He continued coughing for a long time.
His son watched concerned as his father coughed.
“What…the hell?” Ben cried in a strangled voice. He hadn’t expected that. His new 12-year-old lungs were certainly not ready for that.
“I figured it out, Dad," Brad said, somewhat smugly. "You can't smoke in my body...you'll get busted.”
At the same time, Brad grabbed the cigarette from his father’s hand, put it to his mouth, inhaled deeply and let out a satisfying exhale. “AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Cool,” Brad said. “I can smoke now.”
"Stop that!" Ben ordered. "What are you doing!"
“But Dad...I'm...like...YOU now,” Brad said in a husky, excited voice. “And you smoke, right? Well, I kind of like smoking, too!”
"You're not really me, Brad,” Ben said. “Stop fooling around."
“Sorry,” Brad said. “But can I can smoke some more...it feels really good to me.”
"Stop!" Ben said as he watched Brad, now in his former adult body, take deep puffs.
“Why Dad? It's no fair!”
Ben, in a rage, stepped forward and grabbed Brad’s arm and tried to pull it down. The immediate failure caused him to quickly realize he is too weak to even budge his son’s arm.
“What are you doing, Dad?” Brad asked. “You wanna wrestle or something?”
“What?” Ben asked, continually caught off guard by his son's random questions. “No, I don't want to.”
“I thought you wanted to wrestle with me.”
“No, I don’t,” Ben repeated as calmly as he could manage. “You may be in my body, but I'm still in charge.”
“ I always let you win, remember?” Brad asked, laughing hard afterwards.
"Brad, take this seriously," Ben pleaded.
“Okay.” Brad took a deep inhalation from his cigarette. He began to feel much more comfortable with the cigarette, and he began to thoroughly enjoy the sensation.
Ben tried to grab his son’s arm again, with both hands this time.
“Dad, I thought you said I had to be serious and that you didn't want to wrestle,” Brad said.
“What?” Ben began to back away as his son, now in Ben’s former adult body, advanced on him.
“I'm just doing what you told me.” He made a deep inhalation on his cigarette. “ JEEZ!”
"Put that damn cigarette down!”
“Oh, but Dad!” Brad said. “It's so cool and it feels so good and it tastes so good. Come on. You never let me have any fun.”
"This isn't a time for fun,” Ben insisted. “Where's that artifact?"
“I think you left it in the kitchen,” Brad said.
"Get it!" Ben exclaimed in an embarrassingly shrill voice. "We need to study it!"
“All right, Dad,” Brad said. “Hey, Dad. I'm thirsty. Can I have something to drink when I'm in the kitchen?”
"Sure." Ben answered. He wanted to have a good look at that artifact. There had to be a way to get him back into his adult body.
In the kitchen, Brad reached into the fridge and absent-mindedly pulled out a can of beer, opened it and started drinking it. Almost as an afterthought, he realized how good it tasted.
“Here's the artifact, Dad,” Brad said, returning to the living room and giving the object to his father. He began to notice now how silly his dad looked in his old body.
“Brad!" Ben reacted to seeing the can in his son's hands. "Put that beer back!”
“Beer? But I don't drink...WHOA...I got a ...got a ...can of beer...and I was drinking it,” Brad said, his eyes lighting up. “Hmmm, it tastes real good. Dad, can I have a little more? Please?”
“No!” Ben exclaimed.
“Jeez! I can't smoke and I can't have a beer when I'm you,” Brad argued. “Why can you do all those things when you were in your adult body?”
“Because it was my adult body,” Ben replied. “You're still only 12 years old!”
“Yeah, but I’ll be 13 next month,” Brad said. “Dad, don't I have like an adult body? Your body?”
“Yes,” Ben admitted uneasily. “But we need to change that. That weird artifact you brought home must be the key. Where did the school get it?”
“Some of my buddies in the Boy Scouts said they found it on a camping trip near the old Indian burial grounds.”
“Your buds!” Ben screamed. “I thought a teacher gave it to you!”
Brad became evasive. “Ahhh, well, you see Dad... uhhhh..”
“You shouldn't mess with things like that!” Ben shouted in an angry tone that would have been more effective if it hadn't been delivered as a near tantrum.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” To Ben’s dismay, he had to watch his son, now in his huge adult body, begin to sob again. “I didn't find it...and you are saying like this is all my fault.”
“Will you quit crying?” Ben begged. “When will you grow up!”
“I'm only a kid, Dad, and I'm scared. It was cool for a little while to be you, but I don't know all the stuff you do about building stuff...”
Ben watched in horror as his huge, manly body became convulsed with Brad’s frantic sobbing.
“Look...sorry...we don't have to worry about any of that yet,” Ben promised. “We'll get this all cleared up before then!
“When, Dad? I gotta go to school tomorrow?” Brad said. “Unless…” His body convulsed with laughter instead of sobs. “Hey, Dad. Can you go to school for me? That would be awesome! You would be like the smartest kid in the class! Come on!”
Ben’s eyes widened from the unexpected and shocking prospect. “I am not going back to junior high!”
Brad, not having heard, continued gleefully. “I can call in sick and hang around the house and watch cable all day. So cool!”
“It isn’t going to happen!” Ben insisted.
“Oh, come on, Dad. For one day! Please?”
“No! Aren't you listening to me! I've got to go to work...not go to school.”
Brad grinned. “Dad, how are you gonna do your work in my body?” Brad wanted to know. “ I mean you are kinda scrawny...that’s what you tell me.”
“That's why we need to know more about the artifact,” Ben said, increasingly desperate to keep Brad focused on the immediate problem.
“How did you mean to research it?”
“Get online and search the Internet to find out what all that weird writing means that's on it...see on the sides...”
Ben turned over the amulet and stared at some weird symbols. He slapped his forehead in frustration. “Why didn't you mention that earlier?”
“Dad, everything got kinda weird and stuff before...well you know...”
“Maybe we should log online and start looking up sites about that weird Indian relic?” Ben suggested, staring up, unable to shake his awe at his own huge body now occupied so awkwardly by his 12-year-old son.
He took the chair in front of the computer, but found it alarming to notice how large the chair now seemed. He knew that the former adjustments he had made to his seat were high enough to keep his feet from touching the carpet.
And, at the same time, he felt Brad’s huge body leaning in against the back of the chair, reminding him yet again of the drastic change. He didn’t care for the reminder.
He stared at the screen, his mind almost a blank, trying to think of the best way to conduct a search.
”Dad, did you find anything yet? I wanna look.” His son’s excited tone sounded strange being produced with his former adult, husky voice.
“What is that damn thing called anyway? I don't know what to type in the search engine.” Ben hated the shrill sound of his higher voice.
“Uhhh...try Indian artifacts, Dad...”
He typed in the suggestion and got several thousand hits. "We've got to narrow down the search!" Ben said in increasing exasperation.
“How we gonna do that huh?”
"I don't know." His voice sounded tired, and he felt a strong craving for another cigarette, but he didn't need another coughing fit.
“Dad come on... I wanna find out how this stupid thing works...”
"That's what I'm trying to do!" Ben slammed his small fingers down in frustration against the keyboard.
“Jeez chill Dad...You don't wanna break the PC...”
"Ok. ok. Maybe...Brad, do you know the Indian tribe this thing comes from?”
“Uhhh…I think so....maybe....Pete told me when he gave me this thing...”
"Yeah?" Ben craned his neck back and looked up. He felt a tremor of shock to see his huge former body standing, looming practically, behind him. "Think, dammit. What tribe?"
“OK OK don't yell at me Dad...I'm trying my best...I'm scared too you know…”
Ben tried to soften his attitude. "Sorry, I know. But I got the worse part of this deal, believe me!"
“You?” Brad’s voice boomed. “Look at me!”
“But, dammit, I'm only a kid!” Ben protested.
“And I got a beard...and all this hair...and...and....” The words all merged, yet again, into fearful sobbing. Brad needed several moments to stop sobbing and speak again. “And I'm scared because I don't know how to be a man...”
“But you're an adult! And you may have to start acting like it. You need to quit crying and focus! Okay?" Ben’s squeaky voice sounded, at least to his ears, neither in charge or reassuring.
Sniffling, Brad tried to smile. “Okay, okay, Dad...I'll try.” He blew his nose and smiled.