Patrick and his sons made it to their room and began unpacking their things claiming beds and looking at a brochure showing the activities the resort offered. After getting things situated the boys had decided that they wanted to go to the playplace, a giant play area with tubes, slides, balls and all sorts of fun things to climb on and in.
The boys had been well behaved for hours now and their excitement and physical energy were starting to boil over. Nathan was starting to whine about Kyle having had the dinosaur toy all day and not sharing.
"That's okay Nate, we are going to the play place right now and we are leaving the Dinosaur here for when we return." Patrick grabbed the key card and handed it to Nathan. "You can hold onto this though. Its the spare key to the room." Nathan smiled feeling powerful and special as there was only one spare key. Patrick ushered his sons out the door, and pointed out the room number, A3311. "In case we become lost or separated you can come back here with someone from the front desk and they will call me."
After walking down a long hallway, going down an elevator, passing a gift shop, a bar and snack shop they eventually came to the playplace. It was similar to the ones they have at fast food restaurants only much bigger. It was three stories tall, and overflowing with children.
Before realizing it his children had bolted for the entrance leaving him to catch up. When he had gotten to the entrance a young woman, about 20, appeared stopping his entry. "I am sorry sir, nobody over the age of 12 is allowed beyond this point."
"My three 5yr old children just went in, I want to stay with them." Patrick explained.
"In that case you should be with them." The woman said without moving from the entryway.
Patrick glanced past the woman to see his children sitting down and taking off their shoes, in a moment they will be gone, somewhere in the maze. "Ma'am, I don't understand the game you are playing, are you going to let me in or not?"
The woman glanced at a booth next to her marked Age-O-Matic, "I don't create the rules, but the fact remains, you must be under age 13 to gain entry to this part of the resort."
Mark was pulling on Kyle's shoe, which was apparently stuck; Nathan was pulling on Kyle's arms. With a sigh Patrick stepped into the booth, There was a large dial that had numbers between zero and 100 and the center of the dial had a button labeled GO! The dial was set to 6 from the last occupant. Patrick clicked it down a notch to 5 and pressed go.
Patrick first noticed his pants were loose as the belly he had begun growing shrunk back into his body. That was short lived as his shorts shrunk back down with him. His clothes became smaller as he aged backwards. There wasnt a mirror, Patrick watched as his body hair became less dense and less coarse, he felt his face, it was smooth. All at once he seemed to be loosing height, he rapidly dropped inch by inch.
When it finally seemed over he noticed there was a step stool hidden behind a curtain, presumably for those who needed it to reach the dial, like him. His shoes were now velcro, he was wearing shorts still, and a sponge bob t shirt. Stepping out of the booth the woman took a glance at him and stepped aside, "Enjoy your playtime."
Patrick ran through the entryway and ran up to his sons who were still pulling on Kyle's other shoe.