Bobby decided to think about it while satiating his hunger. After going through almost every fruit name he could think of, he had craving for some. So Bobby got up and went into the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. In the fruits and vegetables bin, there were a bunch of fresh fruits: grapes, mangos, kiwis, and papayas. Suddenly, seeing the papaya, Bobby remembered the word, and said it aloud almost involuntarily. Nothing seemed to happen after he had done so, so he waited another ten minutes just to be sure--and as he suspected that had been the code word to stop John's transformation.
Now that Bobby had seen the four year old boy grow up, he wanted to see if the ring could do something else by pushing the limits of the ring. The little experiment with the control word had given Bobby an idea to try out but first he had to start John over with a clean slate.
"Make John grow younger by a year every five minutes until he's four years old again."
Bobby grabbed another beer and two papaya from the fridge and then joined his friend and former charge in the living room.
John had aged to 22 before Bobby had been reminded of the safe word, so the 22 year old lounged about on the sofa quite contentedly. His clothes were different from how Bobby had left him. Before, John had been a college senior, dressed in athletic lounge wear. Now John wore black socks, khakis, and a white shirt, indicating a post-graduate occupation--although the top two buttons were now unbuttoned, and the shirt wasn't tucked in to denote a lackadaisical after hours look. His formerly long hair was now closer cropped to his head and he had shaved the majority of his facial hair away, except for the slight sideburns which framed his face.
"Yo man, you want a papaya?" asked Bobby as he tossed John the fruit.
"That doesn't sound like too bad of an idea," said John before taking a bite into the fruit.
Bobby was curious what this incarnation of John was like, and so decided to find out "I still can't get over that you shaved your beard."
"Hey, when you have to get a job--you do what you have to."
"Don't you ever wish you could have it back though?"
"Sure, but it's nothing a couple weeks of growth can't return."
And return the beard did--no sooner than John had finished saying that then his first five minutes were up and he shifted back to a twenty-one year old college senior. No longer a "wizened" graduate, his hair returned to its full length and his beard to its former glory. His clothes shifted back again to a tight college t-shirt with its sleeves cut off and a pair of gym shorts. His black socks lost their glossy look and thickened back to their cotton texture with a white Nike symbol embroidered at the top. His discarded dress shoes opened up and transformed back into the Adidas flip flops they'd been previously. John's nature also seemed to ease up as the worries of maintaining a job and supporting himself were lifted off his shoulders once again.
Bobby felt an immediate ease settle in the room--realizing that there had been a slight tension before that had come from the social distancing of graduated college friends. And for the next fifteen minutes that ease continued to remain strong as the two chatted away as peers and near equals. Talk of girls, parties, and their studies littered the conversation. However when John crossed the threshold from college student back to high school student that Bobby once again felt the dynamics between them change.
John's physical features seemed to have taken a toll having left college--he was still muscular and well-built for a High School senior, but nowhere near the level that access to a gym had afforded him later in life. John's height also had shrunk slightly as well so now that they most likely were equal. His sharp chin had softened ever so slightly, and the rest of his body adjusted to the slightly decrease portions it would have to grow accustomed to. John's immaturity increased as the conversation became more dirty mouthed and with a tiny bit less concern for the respect of the girls they chatted about as the conversation all seemed to shift back to how they affected John's life. John's clothes shifted slightly--the college t-shirt shifting back to a sleeveless workout shirt that was a little loose on his body. The gym shorts remained the same, as did his flip flops, but his socks shrunk to become white no-show socks, no longer reaching the mid-leg length they had previously been. John's hair shortened slightly, but was still on the rather long side, and his beard thinned out until it was merely a smattering of dirty scruff of an obvious teenager trying desperately to appear older than he actually was. Bobby now felt as though he were talking to a younger brother figure, with John increasingly as the minutes wore on looking up and taking advice from him.
It was a half an hour later before things shifted yet again. As John went from thirteen to twelve and left his teenage years behind him. His musculature had diminished and he now had entered the gawky early adolescent phase of large head, feet and hands coupled with a slightly lanky body. He now looked more like the child he'd been earlier in the day when he'd quit playing house with Jessica. His height had diminished significantly as he had reversed nearly all the benefits of puberty. All facial hair was but a dream away now, and his hair had shorted back to a length of just barely spilling over his ears. His clothes returned to that of a full t-shirt and the gym shorts became jeans shorts. The socks increased in length to ankle socks, and the Adidas flip flops now became Nike sneakers.
It was at this point that most conversation between John and Bobby began to dissipate as their shared attention returned to that of the television show which was now running a re-run of Seinfeld. Bobby enjoyed the show, but he seemed to notice that John wasn't as much, so he gave the control to John and told him to pick out something he wanted to watch. John obliged by switching to Cartoon Network.
The minutes continued to tick by and John continued to shrink, fast reapproaching the age he'd been when the entire escapade had began. Around age six, John began to exhibit signs of fussiness and exhaustion so Bobby suggested it was time to go to bed. John managed to summon enough energy to vehemently disagree, and Bobby eventually reached a compromise that he could stay up until Scooby Doo was over. Baby fat returned to the shrinking John, until at long last 10:30 PM had arrived and the couch was now inhabited by a quite small four year old boy who had passed out from exhaustion of staying up way past his bedtime. Bobby smiled as he mentally compared the picture of the sprawled out 21 year old John had been earlier that evening whose feet had stuck out over the end of the couch, but now just barely stuck out over the first cushion of the sofa.
Bobby then did the thing any respectable babysitter would do, and he gently picked up John and carried him up to his bed. He was heavy, but John along the way unconsciously repositioned himself to better cling to Bobby as they walked. Once up in the second guest bedroom, Bobby took off the toddler's excess clothes, leaving his Barney underwear on and put on carefully putting the toddler's multi-colored two-piece dinosaur pajamas over him. Once that was done, Bobby took extra care to tuck him in and then exited the room.
Having done his duty as a babysitter, Bobby reflected on the test of the ring's powers for that day, reveling in the power it had shown with control over John's age. Bobby now decided to make the adjustment he'd been waiting for since he'd begun the age reduction exercise.
"Every other day beginning tomorrow, I want Jessica to grow a year older each hour the sun is up until she's nineteen. She'll stay like that for three hours and then get younger every hour until she's four again. And no one will think this is at all out of the ordinary. Everyone will think this condition is normal for her--that she has a rare genetic mutation that ages and regresses her. John will age and regress the same way on the days that Jessica does not age and regress, and likewise no one will think it's anything out of the ordinary. Everyone will think this condition is normal for him--that he has a rare genetic mutation that ages and regresses him."
And with that wish made he retired to the first guest bedroom for the night and couldn't wait to see how the ring would interpret his wish.