As Maddie exited her bathroom she was trying not to panic as much as she could and thought about what to do or if she should call anyone about this. She looked towards a mirror and saw that she had reached being an 8 year-old girl and grabbed her phone and began to think about just who she should call for help.
"Wait, Valerie! Valerie might be able to help with this." Maddie said in a young voice she hadn't heard in a very long time. Valerie, was actually Valerie Webb, Maddie's babysitter whom she had remained good friends with over the years. Valerie Webb was an African-American woman who at 52 had yet to really find a steady relationship, she had once said Maddie had been lucky at all to find someone for at least a little bit.
Maddie went to her contact list and called Valerie on the phone and hoped to god that she would believe her story.
"Hi Maddie, how have you been?" Valerie asked on the other end.
"Uh, hi Valerie, I've been better." Maddie said in her young voice.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were Maddie, are you a relative of hers sweetie?" Valerie asked.
"No Valerie, it's really me, Maddie Haskins. I can't really explain how or why to you, but it's really me and I've somehow become 8 again." Maddie said into the phone.
"I'm sorry little girl, but I don't have anytime for your little prank call." Valerie said as she was about to hang up.
"No, no, wait! I can prove it to you. When I was 8 before, you took me to see 'Sixteen Candles' and swore me to silence and to tell my parents that you actually took me to a kids movie." Maddie said.
"That....you....okay, I'll come over to the Haskins house to see about this and this better not be some prank." Valerie said as she hung up and Maddie breathed a sigh of relief as she put down the phone.
Valerie Webb lived only a few blocks away and it only took her about five to eight minutes to get to Maddie's house whenever she would visit. After only nine minutes of waiting, Maddie heard a knock at the door.
"Valerie, is that you?" Young Maddie asked.
"Uh, yeah it is." Valerie answered.
"Come in, and just be prepared for what you see." Young Maddie said as Valerie opened the door.
Valerie stepped into the foyer and closed the door behind her and almost couldn't believe her eyes when she looked down to see Maddie as she was when she first met her as a teenager.
"Oh my god, Maddie, is that....is that really you?" Valerie asked as she knelt down to Maddie's level to speak with her.
"It is. I...I don't know what happened. I was just seeing my kids off to their date night leaving me home alone and then I was thinking back to seeing that movie when I was this little and then after a few minutes, I'm back to being eight again." Maddie explained.
"Okay....so whatever happened to you, started after your kids left you home alone. Did something else happen between the kids leaving and watching the movie?" Valerie asked.
"Well I bumped into my son's girlfriend and found a ring she dropped." Maddie said.
"Wait, that must be it! The ring you found made you young." Valerie guessed.
"A ring did this to me? It doesn't seem like a little thing could really do that."
"Do you still have it?" Valerie asked.
Maddie took the ring out of her pocket and to the two of them it looked like any other ordinary ring would.
"So, if this ring made me younger, it could also make me older again?" Maddie asked Valerie.
"Yeah, but if it made you this young, maybe you could just become a little bit older like say maybe 18 or 21?" Valerie suggested.
Maddie looked at the ring and thought about it for a minute, it would be nice to be that age again, but maybe she should just go back to her normal age.