Life experiences flashed through Katie’s brain: Elementary school, high school, college, LAW school? And then, nothingness for what seemed an eternity.
Katie woke up to find Mary Elyse shaking her on the beach.
“Katie! Katie! OMG like, are you OK?” the teen shouted, concern noticeable in her voice.
“What?” Katie asked. “What happened?”
“I thought you passed out!” Mary Elyse said, pushing her long red hair behind her back. “And your waist! Are you bleeding?”
Katie looked down. “Oh my god, it’s period blood! How did I not know I was having my period today? You’d think it was my first!”
“Oh, ummmm,” Mary Elyse said, clearly uncomfortable. “Want me to find you something else to wear?”
Katie looked objectively at the young teen. “No sweetie, but I do want YOU to find something else to wear. Why are you wearing that oversized bathing suit? I bought you this perfectly good one.”
Katie handed Mary Elyse the bikini she bought at the beginning of the day.
“Go to the bathroom and change,” she said. “Then let’s go head home.”
Mary Elyse obliged her foster mother. She loved Katie very much. The two had met shortly after Mary Elyse’s parents died a few years ago. They were much older, although Mary Elyse couldn’t remember how old. They seemed nearly 80, but she knew that couldn’t be right. At any rate, Mary Elyse Simpkins became a ward of the state after her parents died. Katie was friends with her case worker, did some research and eventually was able to become the girl’s foster mother. The two had lived together for the past several years. Now Mary Elyse was a pretty girl, nearly 15 and a freshman in high school.
Mary Elyse was glad to have Katie in her life. She did not have many friends at school. She longed to have a group of close girlfriends one day, but in the meantime she was happy to have a wonderful foster parent who knew what it was like to be a kid.
Mary Elyse put on the suit. It was funny, though, the tags said it was near to her size, but both the tops and bottoms felt stretched out, as if a much larger woman had been wearing them for an extended period of time.
Soon the redhead popped out of the restroom.
“Ready to go, kid?” the tall, statuesque blonde asked.
“Sure thing, Katie!” the teen responded. She was in awe of her foster mother. Nearly 5’9”, skinny, teardrop shaped C-cup breasts, and barely an ounce of excess cellulite on her. Even at 36 she could pass for a much younger woman … especially in her eyes. For such a smart woman, they were almost childlike.
“C’mon then, let’s go home,” Katie said.
***
The realm was strange. The air, the energy, everything felt … purple. It was like everywhere and nowhere at once.
She awoke with a start. The first thing the 43-year-old noticed was that she was nude. Her large, pendulous, D-cup breasts swung freely. Not fat, her naked stomach still had the relaxed paunch she was growing accustomed to, and her rear was slightly dimpled with cellulite; she usually tried to cover that with control top pantyhose. She could feel her thighs rubbing together. It all felt right and alien at the same time.
Then she heard her name.
“Kellie! Kellie is that you?”
She turned around to see a man approximately her own age. He two was nude, with black, wavy hair, a slight beer gut, and a tan earned from weeks in the sun, fishing.
“Do I know … Jake?” she asked. “Is your name Jake?”
“It is,” the man replied. “Do you remember them as well?”
She soon realized there were nine others nearby, mostly older looking, all nude. One in particular stood out, a thin, bird-like woman in her 60s with long white hair and small breasts.
“You’re Claudia!” Kellie shouted.
“That’s right, dear.”
“But … you were little! You were … were you? What is going on?”
“You see,” Jake began, “your daughter, Katie, found a ring that could change people’s ages. But it became damaged. Its powers fluctuated wildly, and regressed us all until we were no longer conceived.
“We regressed much faster than you,” a man in his 50s named Robert said. “Eventually, you too succumbed. And when you regressed past the point of conception, for whatever reason, the ring was destroyed.”
“And when we ceased to exist, we found ourselves here,” said an older woman named Tricia. “We think we’re somehow in the ring’s ‘world.’”
“But my daughter! What about my daughter!” Kellie screamed.
“I’m sorry, but your daughter is an adult, permanently” Jake said. “She believes your parents are her parents, you ex-husband is her ex, not her father … and that you never existed.”
Kellie wept. Elderly Claudia comforted her.
“Come now dear. We’re in a better place,” the woman said. “All of us. We’ll live forever in this realm.”
“But my life!” Kellie exclaimed.
“It’s gone dear,” Claudia said. “But you have us and eternity.”
“And there’s one good thing about this place,” 43-year-old Jake said.
“What’s that?” Kellie asked through her tears.
“Here, we can be any age we choose, for all time,” a 12-year-old Jake responded.
Kellie looked up and realized the Claudia comforting her was a 19-year-old woman. Robert, Jim, Andie and Susan were all now 8-year-old children. Tricia and the other women appeared to be teens of various ages.
“Join us?” Jake asked. “Join us in fun, forever?”
Kellie smiled meekly, and stood. She appeared to be 13 years old.
“I hope you like older girls, Jakey,” she said.
***
Katie O’Toole and Mary Elyse Simpkins finally arrived home after a long day at the beach.
“Go up and shower, kid,” Katie said.
“Sure thing,” Mary Elyse responded.
It had been a good day, Katie thought to herself. Then a picture hanging in the hallway caught her eye. It was very odd. It was herself as a child, maybe 6 years old, with her father and a woman who was not her mother. Her father looked far too old in the picture, almost the age he was NOW. And the woman?
She had no idea who the honey-haired woman in her 40s was.
***
Somewhere, a purple glow appeared in some grass. As it faded, the age ring sat, whole, in its place, waiting for the next person to find it.