He woke up to movement as he other boys started to get out of their sleeping bags. It was hard to clear his mind, and he sat up groggily. Beside him, his brother stirred and yawned, then grinned at him. "Hi, Lucas!"
Lucas? He struggled with conflicting memories. The other boy was... Carter. He was Lucas. Alarmed, he played back last night's encounter in the restroom. It was all there, even if he struggled with some of the details. But where being Carter the little boy had been plastered over his adult mind, now it felt like he had always been Lucas with memories of adult life more like something he had watched on TV.
They had both peed during the night, and he climbed out and dug through the brightly colored bag their mom had packed. Matching Cars underoos for today, with the wet undergarments going into a big ziplock bag. Carter took his clean clothes without question - even if Lucas was only older by a few minutes, he was the leader. They focused on getting dressed, and for a while Lucas completely forgot the curious memories of being someone else.
It wasn't until some scouts came through and he recognized Sam that Lucas realized he'd been a normal 6 year-old most of the day. Well, normal for him and Carter. They were linked far closer than any twins ever before, cooperating with each other without words, knowing what each other wanted, was thinking, was going to say. He and Carter were almost sharing a single consciousness now, and when he thought of the adult life it was something Carter had experienced, not him.
Yet Carter did not appear to have any of the strange memories at all. Lucas frowned. Why did he keep thinking his brother had been a grownup? No, he had been Carter before, now he was Lucas. It was confusing, but he could not get the idea out of his head. The glowing figure in the bathroom had changed him, and made another grownup into a big kid. Sam, the teen helping to carry some food back to the Boy Scout camp.
Lucas scrambled up and ran over to where the older boys were gathering boxes from a parked van. Sam looked puzzled, then grinned. "Oh, high there! You get back to sleep OK?"
It was a real struggle to find the words, but Lucas managed to ask "Do you 'member being a grownup?"
Sam looked confused. "How did you know about my dream?"
"Not a dream." Lucas wrinkled his brow in fierce concentration. "Made me little, too."
Sam jumped as the boy next to him prodded his side. "You gonna talk to the squirt all day or help get dinner back to camp?"
The teen grabbed his boxes. "Uh, nice seeing you again little guy." Then he joined the others, but looked back with a troubled expression.
Sam's uncertainty helped Lucas maintain a grip on the fragile identity that had been his adult self. The former adult was aware something was changed, even if he had put it off to a dream. If Lucas could find the strange glowing being again, maybe he could find a way to get changed back. Except - he wasn't all that sure who he was asking to be changed back to. A grown-up? He pictured his own redhaired father... no, that was Lucas' father.
He was suddenly tackled and pulled to the ground in a giggling heap by Carter. The desire to play filled his mind, and the twins took off in a game of tag that lasted until supper. Afterwards, it was Lucas the 6 year-old in full control the rest of the night.