Once again the boys were left alone for the night, and they talked and giggled about cartoons until the setting sun made the room too dark to see much. Parker had fallen back into his child mentality and giggled with the others, but as he slipped into his sleeping bag his adult identity pushed forward again. A faint smell or urine remined him of the accident that was likely to be repeated tonight, normal enough for a 5 year-old, but mortifying for a grown man. He briefly wondered if he was just hallucinating, or even losing his mind. But the day's activities had proven he really was a five year-old, and there were enough memories in his head to piece together his whole life as Lucas' twin. But there were also a lot of memories that belonged to Carter the adult, the working man, the husband, the father. Even if a five year-old did go crazy, he couldn't manufacture memories of being a grown-up.
That didn't leave much to go on. The only explanation that he could come up with was that he had somehow been turned into a little boy last night. Not very believable, but nothing else fit. He scrunched his forehead trying to remember anything that might connect. Everything was normal when he had slipped into his sleeping bag. He remembered looking around at the already sleeping children and wishing he could drift off so easily. Actually, he was having to fight drooping eyelids, his small body worn out from the day's activities. He frowned. Had that idle thought changed him? If he dug deep, he knew it was more than just the one expressed desire - in some ways he had envied the little boys. No responsibilities, no worries, no wife or job or kids. But really being a child again had not been an actual desire - well, not if he thought about the consequences.
His first thought was for Benjamin. The boy seemed to be unchanged and happy, but did not appear to remember that his father should be here. And what about Helen, his wife? They got along well, and were as happy as any couples they knew. Some fights, of course, but mostly good. Work was nothing special, but he earned enough for Helen to stay home until Benny was in school. What was most confusing about all this was his sudden history as Lucas' brother. It was more than his adult life being erased - it seemed that a whole new life had been created somehow.
It was harder to stay awake. If it wasn't so dark. Where was the purple light from last night? Wait. Purple light? He remembered it now and looked around the room. The light had come from high up, not from the dark windows. He slipped out of his sleeping bag awkwardly and stood. Peering up, there was only darkness. Where had the light come from? Moving as carefully as he could on five-year-old's legs, he went to the window and looked out. The older boys were sitting around one of the fixed grilles, probably telling ghost stories or cooking marshmallows. One of them moved away from the group, probably going to the bathroom. Parker frowned again. There was purplish light floating above and behind the kid. It was too big and oddly colored to be a firefly.
Opening the door proved to be a challenge, but he got the handle turned using both hands and slipped out. There was no one paying any attention this way, so he headed for the latrines. The building was little more than a log cabin with basic plumbing - urinals and toilets along one wall, and a bank of open showers on the other. It was old, dingy, and not too great smelling, but there was light and toilet paper. Way better than what the Boy Scouts had. The boy, a dakr-haired kid who might be 11, was at one of the urinals, pissing. At first Parker didn't see the purple glow, almost lost in the overhead fluorescents. But then it drifted down and landed on the boy's head.
Puzzled, Parker came in to see better. The boy saw him and grinned. "Coming in to pee with the big kids?" Parker flushed, realizing that the urinals were too high for him to use. Then his eyes widened - no, it was a trick of the light? The purple light that grew in intensity. The boy looked taller, different. And the change was not stopping!