“Stepping Into Dad’s Shoes”
Jake paused as he knocked on the door to his son’s room. Maybe tonight wasn’t the night to tell Aaron about the curse. But then, he was going to find out anyway. It might as well be tonight.
“Hey, son? Can I come in?” Jake entered and found Aaron on his bed, looking at his math homework. “Studying math, huh?” He sat down on the bed beside him, using a comforting tone of voice. Aaron was eleven and not necessarily a spitting image of his father. Whereas Jake had firm features; wide chest and hefty muscles, rugged, clefted chin, prominent nose with sexy eyes to match, thick dark hair that curled some, and a dark five o’ clock shadow, Aaron’s features were much softer in terms of what genetics had given his son. Aaron had flat hair, and although he didn’t have his fathers rugged good looks yet, Ben knew that he would grow up to look more like the men in his mother’s side of the family. That is to say, naturally thin, and weak chinned. Probably wouldn’t be into sports, but rather academics if he was lucky. Right now his cheeks were very unspotted and puberty was years away. Jake expected his son to have a growth spurt soon, genetically speaking. The kid was small even for his age. Hell, sooner than he expects, that’s a hell of a bit of irony, he thought. He slipped the photo album from his arm and put aside his son’s book.
“Aaron buddy, I wanted you to see something. This is a photo album full of pictures of me and your granddad.”
“Wow, grandpa looks so much different in these.”
“Yeah, but he’s still healthy for his age. Most men in our family age pretty well…” he said, looking at his son with concern. “In fact, that’s kind of what I wanted to tell you about. Remember the talk we had where I told you all about what your body would go through when you hit puberty?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said, muffling his response.
“Well…um…here’s the thing. I have a story for you. Now back in the first part of the book we can see pictures of your grandpa when he was a kid, with his dad. Now, back then it was the forties, it was a lot different. Your great grandpa worked several jobs, but his main job was as a pawn broker. This was in L.A., where after the war ended, the business developed into quite a good deal. One day, this Eastern European gypsy woman, a Roma, a lot of them had escaped the war by settling in the States, she comes in with some old gold rings. Great grandpa gave her some money to hold them for a while and if she couldn’t pay him back they were his after a certain time. Well, he wound up keeping them because she couldn’t pay, and she begged him, she even said she would work for him, cleaning, cooking, sweeping, but he wouldn’t listen. He had had a hard life, and it made him a hard man.” Jake took a deep sigh. “Now what happened next, well, she basically told him he would have a curse put on him. ‘With more innocent eyes’ she said, ‘you will look upon the world again’. Now here’s where it gets interesting. The next morning he wakes up…and he’s grandpa. He had woken up in his…son’s body.”
Aaron smiled. “That’s so funny, dad,” and put his head on his folded hands. He smiled broadly. “I thought you were gonna tell me a real story.”
“I am. I really am, Aaron. I’m not your uncle, I don’t pull your leg like that. Basically, they switched places. They didn’t tell anyone about it. Grandpa, in his son’s body, stayed in the shop and helped him to learn all the things he needed to do, in order to cover for a while. I don’t have the details, but they argued some and made up, but it was hell on them both. The world must have been a scary place for them both back then. They only had each other. Grandpa’s mother had passed on quite some time before. So at least they didn’t have that to contend with. Then, a week passed and they woke up as themselves, and promised each other they would never speak of it again. Back then, if you were crazy they locked you up and did some, well, pretty bad things that they don’t do anymore, nowadays. But then something interesting happened. Great grandpa tried to find the gypsy woman and couldn’t. She had disappeared without a trace. The rings were his. And they really weren’t rings, there was a pair of earrings, a bracelet, one big ring inset with a ruby, and a hairpin. They were all kept in an enameled case, and he shut it up in a safe so no one could ever touch them again. Grandpa has them now. And now, things get even…more interesting. Now, they had both thought that it was all over and done with. But I guess part of the curse remained afterwards…
“When I was the same age as grandpa was when he became his dad, the exact same age, I woke up one day to find…I was enormous. I had hair on my legs, a deep voice, I was in my dad’s bed. I panicked. I ran out the same time as he did, and I was taller than he was! Now, I won’t bore you with details now, but I was really scared and later pretty, well, excited about it. Dad, my dad that is, had taken very little sick leave, so he figured that it couldn’t hurt to take a week off and let the thing run its course. He did count it as a disease, you see. Only way to explain it scientifically, he told me. Course I think he was just making up for the fact he didn’t know what caused it. But he wanted me to remain calm, and it worked. I went out with my dad and got to hand money to people for the first time. I got to drive the car on a few occasions, he gave me lessons, and at one point I even tried a sip of beer. Okay, a few bottles of beer.” Jake smiled at the memory. His son smiled, obviously getting ideas. “But a week later, bam, we woke up one morning and we were ourselves again. So as you can see, it’s a temporary thing. It’s just inevitable. Because, now uh, it’s almost time for you, buddy boy.”
“Yeah, right! This has to be a joke!” Aaron smiled and shook his small head. “No way.” He stared into his father’s eyes for a time. The smile faded. “No way,” he insisted.
“Tomorrow night, after we both wake up, we’re going to be each other. I’m going to be in your body, you’ll be in mine.”
“Just like that movie we saw last week! Vice Versa!”
“Yup.”
“And Big! And Like Father, Like Son!”
“I uh, wanted to prepare you a little, first.”
His son stared at him, incredulously.
“Dad?”
“Yeah, son?”
“What’s gonna happen, then? Do I have to go to your job?” His small voice cracked on ‘job’.
“Well, see I knew about this in advance. So I arranged for a week’s vacation from the company. That gives us the chance to do this thing and get it over with and no one will be the wiser.” It was almost convenient that his son’s mother left when Aaron was only two. After finding out her husband was gay, it freed her from the responsibility she never wanted but felt compelled to fulfill. She left and never came back, feeling no obligations after he told her she had none and that he would care for Aaron as a single father. So at least that little detail wasn’t going to be a factor.
“So, I get to be you? A grown up? I get to be a grown up for a whole week?”
“Yeah, I figured I’d tell your school you have chicken pox. You haven’t had them and if you do later we’ll tell them it’s something else.” He smiled. “Look. This is…there’s no other way to describe it. It’s magic, Aaron. I just don’t want you to be afraid of it. The way I see it, the gypsy woman just wanted our family line to see things from a more innocent perspective, and maybe feel some of the fear she felt. She thought it was an appropriate punishment. Maybe the curse just isn’t powerful enough to hold after a while. Whatever the reason for it, we’ll get through it. I promise you.” He put a reassuring hand on his son’s shoulder.
“So…do I have to go to school tomorrow?”
“Yes, of course. If I have to go to work, you have to go to school. That’s our agreement, right?”
“Right,” Aaron said, reluctantly.
“Right. So one more day won’t hurt. Just pretend to be more tired than usual. It’ll help be more convincing.”
“Okay!” Aaron jumped on the bed somewhat, sitting on his knees. “Hey, Dad? Can you teach me how to drive when I’m an adult? You said you would when I become one.” He smiled that cute little smile he gave whenever he wanted to get something. At least my kid’s a charmer, Jake thought.
“We’ll talk about that later. Namely when you’re taller than I am and can’t reach the gas pedals.” He kissed his son on the forehead and said good night.
I just hope he can sleep tonight. God knows I won’t.
Jake went to his room and went to bed, thinking his he and his son might have to switch rooms, to accommodate for the size ratio. He didn’t think he would like to sleep on his son’s much smaller bed, it was unfair to ask Aaron to do it.
It was all so surreal, but he had had plenty of time to prepare for it. In a few days, the journey would begin. He drifted off, thinking of the time he got to be his own father and how good it felt to be tall so suddenly, for the first time.