I shake my dad gently but my new strength causes me to nearly knock him off the table. “What’s going on?” My Dad says with my voice. His eyes open, revealing my previous blue eyes, that he uses to stare right at me. “Son? Is that you?” He says.
“Yeah Dad it’s me.” I say my voice coming out as an angry growl. I wasn’t so used to talking with such a deep voice yet. Hopefully I would adjust to it quickly. Dad gets up and rubs his eyes before looking at his hands. “Woah! I’m so thin.” He says a smile spreading on his face. I watch him jump off the bed and race into the bathroom. Knowing what I just did, he was probably exploring my body just the same.
A few minutes later my Dad walks out with a grin on his face. “You have a pretty nice body son! After all it does come from mine” Dad says pointing at his old body or now my body.
“I guess. But I’d prefer if I was still in it.” I say watching my Dad taking off his gown and putting on my white briefs and medium-sized shirt. Dr. Larry walks in holding my old jeans and my Dad’s cargo pants. We both reach for the wrong one before Dr. Larry hands is the right one. “Sorry still getting used to it I guess” I tell him.
Dr. Larry simply laughs before speaking “Ok. Although the changes are permanent, my team is still looking at a possible experiment in reversing the effects of our machine.” I look at him with a hopeful gaze. Perhaps I still had a chance at swapping back to my old body.
“However, even if we do find a solution it’ll take a few years to develop. So I hope you don’t get your hopes up!” Dr. Larry continues spotting my expression. It soon becomes one of dismay however. “On a more positive note, Steve we’re depositing the money into your account now, so it should all be there by the end of the week” Dr. Larry finishes before bidding us farewell. We’re handed our shoes and socks as we reach the exit and put them on before entering the next room.
I see my family sitting on a bunch of chairs in an empty waiting room. Mom is busy distracting Brad while Mariah and Lucas are just on their phones. When the hear the door open, their eyes look up before they rush over to the both of us. “No way!” Lucas says walking up to me. It feels weird seeing my older brother at eye-level now but it doesn’t seem to bother him from speaking,“How’s it feel to be our old man, David?” He says snickering.
I simply frown at him and although I don’t expect it to do much, Lucas actually winces as in response. Perhaps I just gave him one of Dad’s old stares, the ones Dad used when he was really angry, Lucas had seen them a fair share of times. “Now… now… leave your little brother alone. We need to take the both of them home. I bet they must feel tired and confused after the procedure” Mom says looking at the both of us consecutively and sympathetically.
“I sure don’t feel too tired with this body” Dad says stretching his arms. He starts to stretch my body as in to show his new youthful energy to us. “Dad can you cut that out! I just want to go home.” I say in a growl again. It seemed I still wasn’t accustomed to controlling my new voice.
“Ok son I’ll stop,” Dad said standing back in place, “anyway let’s go home now! We need to start adjusting to our new lives.” Everyone simply walks out of the laboratory nonchalantly, as I trail behind them. “Am I the only sane person reacting to this?” I thought to myself. Mariah hadn’t looked up from her phone still, Brad was simply hopping next to Dad, asking him weird questions that Dad responded to in a joyful tone, and Mom didn’t even appear fazed. Only Lucas was showing some form of reaction, although it just looked like he was laughing at my expense.
I got in the passenger seat as Mom drove all of us home in our minivan. When we got home, Dad and I stepped out of the car before Mom told us she was going grocery shopping with a bit of the money we just received. “We’ll leave the both of you alone for a bit to give you some time to adjust” Mom said before driving away.
As we stepped into the house, I notice how much smaller it appeared at my new height. I had nearly become a foot taller and a lot more wider I noticed as the floorboards creaked under my new weight. “Well Son what do you want to do?” Dad asked me. I decided to respond by saying….