You scope out the mall looking for brad and his friend. They cant have gone too far, not with brad hobbling around on his new shaky legs, getting used to his cane. After a few minutes you spot the faded trilby hat and grey suit. Brad was sat on a bench catching his breath while his friend was looking for some new shoes in a nearby store. He looked exhausted and defeated but fit right in amongst all the other seniors sat resting their legs. Brad was looking over at them, all chatting away about their families or remarking on all of the youngsters having fun. Brad sighed. You feel a twinge of guilt at causing brad to become this lonely old man and decide to make it right. Brad should have a friend his own age like the rest of the seniors.
You freeze time again and head into the shoe store. Brad shouldn’t have to lose his best friend as well as his youth. They were old friends after all, George just needed to catch Brad up a few decades.
George was stood at the cashier desk with a colourful new pair of trainers in hand. You walk over and tap his head with your staff. As his body absorbed the magical light the changes commenced.
George raced through puberty uneventfully, growing slightly taller causing his shirt hike up a couple inches. He remained otherwise unchanged until his mid twenties when his forehead grew several inches and his hair began shedding at an alarming rate. Poor guy you think as he hits 30 and is already left with a full norwood seven. As he heads through his 30s it all starts going down hill. It looks like he really lets himself go following his early onset baldness. The weight starts to pile on, neck swelling into a double chin, previously slim torso expanding out and sagging down. His already too small shirt rides up over the forming belly and bunches under his pillowy man boobs like a sports bra. His tits begin to go their separate ways either side of George’s belly, causing the shirt to tear straight down the centre, leaving his tits to continue their sag downwards.
His gut had already pushed his shorts underneath it and George’s increasingly pear shaped body was testing the fabric to its limits. All at once his fat pad at front and huge ass at back meant the shorts practically exploded off him in shreds.
His previously cropped collar of remaining hair starts to grow out much thicker, greys beginning to appear around the temples. Likewise hair begins to grow on his upper lip to form a moustache fitting a man approaching middle age. Large framed glasses also appeared on his more bulbous nose with his declining eyesight. By 40 George could easily have passed for a man 10 years his senior.
Through his 40’s what was left of George’s head hair continued to turn grey, as did the sparse covering on his torso, made sparser looking by his larger size. While the added weight had been holding off the wrinkles, as fifty approached lines were etching themselves on his forehead and around his eyes. His cheeks began to sag and lines burrowed in either side of his moustache, leaving him looking jowly. His skin was becoming loose and saggy, age spots forming all over the place.
Not long left now as George was heading towards 60. His hairs making the transition from grey to white while his moustache thickened further. His eyebrows grew bushier and hairs began appearing out of his nose and ears. A cane appeared in his free hand, helping him stand as he began leaning to one side for support.
With the decreased mobility, by 60 George was having a second burst of weight gain. His belly continued its descent downwards, a crease appearing across the waist as the result of daily highly belting his trousers to hold it all in. His crotch could no longer be seen under the new fat apron and his shrunk, limp member was buried in his fat pad and surrounded by white fur. His looser skin did nothing to stop the added fat all over from hanging and flopping with any movement. His hands began to crease up and seize around the cane as arthritis spread throughout his body. He leant further forward as his spine curled and his weight pulled him down, making him look like he had shrunk a couple inches. Wrinkles had fully formed across his forehead, accentuated by the lack of hair on top to cover them. His eyes were dominated by crows feet and heavy bags. His scalp became blotchy and his skin all over lost is colour and shine.
You decide to stop the process at 70 given how worse for wear George was looking. He really hadn’t faired well in the lottery of life, which seemed a shame given how nice a guy he seemed to be keeping his friend’s great grandpa company at the mall, unaware he was his teenage best friend moments before. Not that it matters now that you’ve caused him to skip 50 something years. If anything maybe this is better than experiencing his steady decline. You tap your staff on the ground and clothes form around his elderly form. Grey slacks hike up right over half his large belly and fasten with a belt. A pale blue shirt buttons itself around him and tucks in and gets covered in a drab grey button down cardigan. His glasses grew thicker and larger, dominating his upper face. His trainers became a pair of smart dress shoes and the colourful pair he was buying became a nice new pair of brown brogues.
Your work is now done. Before you unfreeze time you make sure to fill his head with new memories of a life well lived. He didn’t ask for this like Brad so shouldn’t have to be aware of the loss he had experienced. Likewise you add new memories to Brads head that George was a fellow senior he had got to know since his sudden aging and had been helping his new situation to seem a lot less dire.
You unfreeze time and watch George slowly make his way out the store, stepping heavy on the side of his cane as the result of his trick knee. Brad saw his ‘new’ friend George make his way over to him. Odd conflicting memories flooded his brain about George being his former teenage friend but also of him being a companion in his old age. But it made no sense for him to have known him for so long if he had only just been transformed into an elderly man. The more he tried to think about it, the more his brain fogged up. Stupid old man brain, it was hard for him to remember anything anymore outside of all the aches and pains he had. He heaved himself up off his seat, pain shooting its way through his back and his knees. ‘Where to next George. I dont know about you but i could do with going home and taking a nap.’
‘Me too Bradley. I just need to stop by the pharmacy to get my new meds. There’ a seniors discount on at the moment if you need any pills for your joint pain while we’re there. And we need go to the bank to cash our social security for the week. You’ll have yours to do as well won’t you?’
‘Yeah...i guess..i will now...wont I?’
Your work is done. You watch the two men head off knowing George will now be there to help Brad adjust to senior living. You’ve set George up with a nice apartment in a retirement community. Maybe he can help Bradley move there in time, so he can settle into his new life around people more his age.