I arrive at my brother's house an hour later. Upon climbing the steps to the front porch, you already hear the chaos from inside.
The big black mountain dog, Kobe, trying to sound intimidating. He's just a huge over-sized big old baby. He barks at the door, anytime someone steps on the porch. But he'd much sooner lick you to death than to do anything else. A big goofy handsome dog.
I hear my sister-in-law yelling at the kids to "knock it off!" Uh oh. The kids must be doing something now. I chuckle, as I begin to open the door.
"Uncle Mike!" they both yell in unison, as boys and a huge black, brown, and white furry animal all come bounding to the door at once. You barely open the door to enter, when it slams back shut in a giant ball of youthful exuberance from inside.
"God dammit! Andy! Ollie! Let your uncle in! And take care of the damn dog!"
I go to open the door again, and the human boys are trying to hold the dog back. But combined, they are outweighed by the dog 150 for the animal, and 100 lbs for the boys combined.
Kobe easily brushed both 8 year olds off, as he leapt up to greet me.
"Ok, Kobe! I love you too!" I tell the exciteable pooch and I push him off of me.
"Oh! A present!" one of the boys yells. "What did you get us, Uncle Mike?"
"Now, hang on kids. Let me speak with your mother first."
I find my sister-in-law in the kitchen, getting ready to leave. We speak momentarily, as she instructs me that the boys are to be in bed by 8:00. We spoke briefly about other matters. Mostly just small talk.
When she left for the evening, it was just me and the boys. I called them into the living room, where I told them the story of these socks. They are so gullible, it's hilarious. I handed it to them, and they went off upstairs to their room.
Ten minutes later, I hear shouting coming from upstairs:
"It worked! Oh my god! It worked!"
I hear a rush of 8 year old boys come bounding down the stairs.
"Uncle Mike! It worked! We turned into eachother! Just by wearing eachothers' shoes with these socks on!"
Chuckling, I played along with them. Not realizing that those sock really DID work as advertised.
"I know! Do you want to play is Uncle Mike!?" asked who I thought was Ollie. I couldn't tell them apart that well, and didn't understand how their mother could.
He handed me the socks, and asked me to put them on. Andy (or as it turned out, the actual Ollie), ran upstairs. Humoring "Ollie," I placed the socks on my feet.
Meanwhile, "Andy" came bounding back down the steps again. He handed me two different shoes.
He also dropped a small red shirt with a broad blue stripe across the chest, with a thin white stripe above and below the big blue stripe on the floor. It was a nice shirt. He had on a similar shirt, only it was colored light blue instead of red. His brother was just wearing a navy blue polo.
Along with the shirt, was a small pair of jeans and small white underwear.
"Hey! Those are my clothes!" said Ollie (who was actually Andy, but forgot he was supposed to be Ollie.... I think....)
Anyway, "Andy" said "no they aren't. They're mine now. Remember? Anyway. It doesn't matter. Uncle Mike needs some clothes to wear. He's going to be joining us."
I looked at the clothes that I would soon be wearing. Then I looked down at the twins. Two identical sets of sparkling dark blue eyeballs looking back up at me in such a typical fashion for them. I wasn't aware at the time, that I would actually be joining them. A third set of sparking blue eyeballs looking up at grow ups. With the same hair as them: very short, dirty blond hair, with much lighter blond hair, almost white, on the sides. The interesting mix of light and dark on their heads only made them more charming.
"You gave him two different shoes to wear!"
"Yup. That way he wouldn't be me or be you. He would be a mix of both of us. We would be TRIPLETS!"
I had to admit, that was actually a good idea. These damn kids are too smart for their own good, sometimes.
I picked up the really small boyish shoes. Both were Nike sneakers. Just different colors. One was white, and the other black.
"I'm sorry guys, but there's no way your shoes will fit on my feet," I reply smirking.
"Just try it! We'll try it for you!"
The boys got to work, each grabbing a leg as I sat back further in the chair I was sitting in. A shoe in each boys' hands.
"Ready?" one of them asked the other. "Ready!" His brother answered.
They both simultaneously tried shoving my large adult feet into a shoe meant for a young boy.
"See? I told you..."
"...it wouldn't work," was what I was about to say. But I noticed the living room started getting bigger....
"It's working!" one of the 8 year olds shouted.
...or rather, I was getting....smaller!?
Suddenly, the shoes I was wearing began to change into acompletely different pair of shoes altogether! And they were matching!