"This is too big of a decision to make in haste, Jeff. Make my mind five years old again for now, and bring my adult mind back when you're babysitting me later," suggested Mrs. Evans.
"That sounds reasonable, give me a second... there! See you in a few hours."
And like that, Mrs. Evans felt as though the world was growing fuzzy and less focused as her five year old mind began to reassert itself. It wasn't until later that Mrs. Evans felt as though she were waking from a nap, standing on Jeff's back porch as she heard various children screaming around the backyard that she felt she was coming back to her senses. For a moment all time in between when she and Jeff were talking in the hallway and now was a blank, but then she felt a slight pressure as her five year old memories re-integrated themselves slowly with her own adult memories.
"You should be back with us, Mrs. Evans," said Jeff.
"I am... though avoid going back and forth between two different mindsets like that if you can, Jeff--it's disorienting to say the least."
"The kids are playing hide and seek for the large part, while I'm about to make dinner. Use whatever time you need to think this decision through," said Jeff as he slipped his phone back into his pocket and went back inside the small suburban house. Mrs. Cheyenne Evans took in the scene of the backyard. Jeff's brothers Tommy and Artie were hiding together in a tree house only accessible by a ladder. Jane and Lizzie were each hiding behind a different bush. Hannah was under hiding under the porch, which Mrs. Evans could see through the deck. Ryan seemed to be the only kid who was doing a great job of hiding as at a glance, Mrs. Evans could not find him in the backyard. Joey meanwhile was counting against a tree (not one which supported the tree house), apparently on his way to fifty.
"Hide Cheyenne!" whispered Hannah from down below.
"I'm not playing," said Mrs. Evans as she decided to go inside and sit in the living room to think of her situations.
On the one hand she had really had a lot of fun playing with Artie and being five years old again. It was really starting to feel almost natural to her. On the other hand, she had done rather well for herself the first time around--did she truly want to give all she had accomplished up?
These two thoughts weighed on her mind until she suddenly remembered that in this new reality her new parents were expecting to have another baby real soon. That would give Cheyenne of this timeline the opportunity to be a big sister, something she'd never really had the opportunity the first time around when she'd been an "accident" her parents had had after age 40, and their one and only child. A new experience being a big sister--now that was a definite point in favor of staying young. However, there was her stepson to think of. Her husband had had a son before they had married, and so she had taken on the role of mother to the young boy, and he had needed her as his father was always on business trips or caught up with work. What would become of Josh, her eight year old stepson if she remained a little girl?
There was no real simple choice... unless...
"Jeff," asked Cheyenne as she came into the kitchen.
"What is it?" asked Jeff as he continued to pay attention to the instant mac and cheese powder he was stirring into the noodles, butter, and milk mixture.
"Do you still have access to my old profile? Before I became little."
"I can check," said Jeff as he finished stirring the mac and cheese together and pulled out his phone. It was a few minutes which had Cheyenne's nervous five year old body, rocking on the balls of her feet in anticipation.
"I do, what about it?" asked Jeff.
"Can you change Josh from being my stepson to being my big brother? I wanna stay little, but I can't just abandon Josh," said Cheyenne.
"Give me a few seconds... I can... and... I... did."
Cheyenne felt her head rush with a few altered memories. Josh was her older brother, and far different a personality from the stepson she had known who was sulky, quiet, and rather emotional underneath a veneer of aloofness. Now, Cheyenne remembered her big brother as being a dutiful brother who'd braved a bully who'd hurt her in preschool--causing him to get a black eye, but her ever eternal love and devotion of him--which had inflated Josh's ego a little bit. He no longer was an unhappy boy, but had almost taken on fatherly concern and care for his baby sister as he still called her. Smiling as the memories settled in
"I'm ready to be five for good, now," said Cheyenne with a dutiful nod of her head, to which Jeff nodded, said his peace, and brought back the memory transformation that would make her the five year old she physically was.