"Jay!!" Simon burst through the door. He immediately noticed that the house no longer looked as though a grade-schooler lived there.
"Jay! Where are you?" Simon yelled. He then heard the sound of a door shut down the hall. He moved quickly, dashing down the hall the throwing open Jay's door.
There he saw the room of a sports-loving teen, with a teen-aged Jay standing in the middle of it, looking very sheepish.
"Jay," Simon said. "I though... You look... I..." Simon wasn't sure what to say. He knew what probably happened. But he couldn't bring himself to mention it.
"H-hey, Dad," said Jay. "Uh... What's up?"
Simon caught his reflection in Jay's dresser mirror. He had lost a lot of weight. No. That was wrong. His weight had shifted from his stomach to his muscles. Not all of it, though. He still had a sizable gut, but it was only about half the size it had been before. The rest showed in the size of his muscles.
"Just... Just checking up on you," replied Simon. "Uh, you okay?"
"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore, I can handle myself," said Jay, smirking.
"Right. I'll just..." the rest of Simon's sentence trailed off as he left Jay's room.
Simon went directly to the Chronivac. The screen to his computer was off, but when Simon turned it on, the screen saver was off. The computer had been used recently. But the Chronivac program window was closed. However, that didn't mean anything as it only took one click to close it.
Simon sighed. Maybe he was stressing too much about this. This would all automatically be over in one week anyway. No matter what changes any of them made during the immersion, it would all go away at the end of the seventh day. That was how it worked. Right? Besides, if Jay or Bryan wanted to make alterations to the altered reality, then why not let them?
Simon ran his hand over his smooth scalp. He was still bald, but he was in a lot better shape than before. His new memories told him that he and Jay had been working out together. Jay so he would be in better shape for football, and Simon because he was trying to avoid becoming as bad as Bryan. However, from what Simon remembered, Bryan was still as big as before.
Simon went back to the kitchen and took a beer from the fridge and settled down in front of the television with it. This was his usual routine in this reality, and he found it relaxing. Maybe he really should just relax. He had a good job, a roof over his head, and a family that loved him. He could be much worse off.
__________________________
A couple hours later, Bryan returned home. The family then ate dinner together where Jay talked about how impressed the coach was with him and Simon and Bryan laughed about some of the people that came into their shop that day. Bryan then went to bed and Simon fell asleep in the easy chair in front of the TV. Jay was about to get ready for bed himself when he remembered the Chronivac.
"Well," he thought. "Maybe a couple of alterations couldn't hurt." With that, he went into his father's room
He opened up the Chronivac's program window and browsed through the options.
"Facial features, hair density, age options, ... reproductive features? Wow, this thing's pretty thorough. Wait, what's this?" Jay hovered the cursor over an option titled ALTERED REALITY ADJUSTMENT OPTIONS. Curious, he clicked on it.
It brought up a wide-ranging list of options ranging from "Apparent Gravity" to "Weather Conditions". One that caught his eye was "Temporal Flow". He expanded the option.
A few sliders and text boxes appeared. The most apparent box showed "1 DAY = 1 DAY". Jay's fingers hovered over the keyboard, itching to change something.
He typed: 1 DAY = 2 DAYS. Then he erased it. He typed something else. 1 DAY = 1 YEAR. He liked that one. But maybe he could go a little further. 1 DAY = 10 YEARS. Maybe that was a bit much. 1 DAY + 5 YEARS. Still felt a bit high... but he could work with that. With a grin, he hit enter.
INITIATING RIPPLE EFFECT. STAND BY...
Once again, a wave bubbled outward from the emitter. Jay looked down at himself, but didn't notice anything different.
"Jay," came a gruff voice, from the doorway. Jay spun around with a start to see his father standing there, looking like he had just woken up from the chair. "What are you doing in here?" his father asked.
"N-nothing," stuttered Jay, as he quickly closed the Chronivac's program window.
"Well, you'd better get to bed," said Simon. "You've got school tomorrow and it's already midnight."
Jay nodded and slipped past Simon out the door.
After Jay was gone, Simon looked nervously at the computer. He shook the feeling away as he undressed himself. Whatever Jay had done, it hadn't been major enough for Simon to notice it. Besides, it would be gone by the end of the week. He really had to relax...