Someone was walking up the stairs.
"Jeff!" Jamie called. "I just remembered that I want to use your computer for a minute."
"It's not working right now!" Jeff shouted back.
"But, you were just on it." She was almost at his room now. He toddled over to his door, pushed it shut, (Man, it felt heavy now), and locked it. He toddled away from the door, trying not to think about how weird it felt having to reach up to the knob.
A knock at the door, and he spun back around.
"Jeffy!" his sister called through the door. "Please, let me in. I just need to use it for a minute."
"Hold on," he said. "I want to try one more thing. I had an idea just now." In fact, he did have an idea: the last option for when electronics aren't working, power cycle. It was easy for him to crawl under his desk at his new size, and there he found the power cable for the Chronivac. "Here goes nothing," he said and pulled out the plug.
Nothing happened. He waited a few seconds, crossed his little fingers, and plugged it back in.
He heard the machine whirr back to life and then felt an immediate tingle. "Uh oh," he said. He felt himself changing again. He crawled back out from under the desk and tried to stand up, but then immediately fell back on his hands and knees. He looked at his hands as he felt the tingle subside. They were tiny, pudgy baby hands. "Oh no," he moaned. He crawled over to his bed and tried to stand again, using his comforter as a support. He pulled himself back up onto his little feet and looked around. He was shorter than ever, and felt terribly weak on his little legs. His teenager head felt very big on his little shoulders, leaving him feeling top heavy. He doubted his body was even 2 years old now. "Shit."
"Jeffy," said Jamie through the door. "I don't feel good." She sounded worried.
"Jamie!" he said and carefully toddled along his bed keeping a hand on something solid for balance. He stumbled along the bed and then along his shelves and the wall to the door. He reached up for the knob and was just barely able to grasp it and turn it. The door swung open as he plopped down on his baby ass. He looked up and gasped. The woman standing above him looked old enough to be in a nursing home. Her legs were wrinkled and veiny. She stood hunched forward, her old breasts sagging low in her dress. She held the door frame with a shaky, wrinkly hand. Above all of this, resting on a saggy old neck, was the head of his 10-year-old sister, looking worried and a bit exhausted.
"I think," she said, and then panted a bit. "That I need... to lay down... for a bit."
"Oh, man," he said, looking at her 80-year-old body and then at his 2-year-old body. "This is bad."