“Thanks for having me over, dude!” Ben said to Alex as he came inside.
“No problem; you wanna stay for dinner?” Alex asked as he gave Ben a fist bump.
“Is that Ben, dear? Did you ask him to dinner?” came Olivia’s voice from the kitchen.
“Just did, Mom! He’ll stay,” Alex yelled back, seeing Ben nod.
On the way to his room, Alex said, “I almost forgot, I want to show you something cool.”
On his bed lay the Chronivac. “I nabbed it from my sister’s room just now while she was banging her boyfriend,” Alex bragged. “I thought it was her laptop, but now I think it’s something else.”
“Like what?” Ben asked.
“I’m not sure,” Alex admitted sheepishly.
“Well, let’s take a look,” said Ben. Besides his love for soccer, Ben was also a bit of a tech geek. He opened it up and gasped.
“Dude, how’d your sister get a Chronivac?” he exclaimed.
“A what?” Alex said, leaning in.
“I’ve only ever heard of these! They can change absolutely anything about anything. Heck, they can even make sure nobody knows anything was ever any different! They work best on people, though. I wonder if your sister’s used it yet?” Ben mused, pulling up the change history.
“Yep! She used it on your dad and mom. Look,” Ben gestures to the images and descriptions that showed Derek before and after, and the sudden creation of Olivia.
“That was Dad? Mom didn’t exist?” Alex questioned.
“Not just that. Changing your dad changed all of you,” Ben said with awe.
Alex stared in disbelief at the pictures of geeky Jake (who didn’t remotely resemble the brother he knew), average Katie, and his own former scrawny self.
“I was a short twig?” Alex cried. “My whole life is a lie?”
Ben nervously said, “It sure looks that way.”
Alex moaned and grabbed his head. Then he fell on the bed in a faint.
“Dude? Wake up!” Ben yelled, shaking him.