It’s Saturday morning and your mum is out shopping and your brother it at piano lessons. Only you and your father are left at home. Your dad usually takes it easy on Saturday morning’s he lies in after working late on Friday evening and he then keeps to himself in his study catching up with office work and papers. This Saturday is no different.
The house being this quiet makes it the perfect opportunity for you to experiment with the magic socks again. You look under your bed where you had left the pair for “safe keeping” after the last round of experimentation. But the socks weren’t there. Actually underneath your bed looked unusually clean and tidy.
Oh crap! Your mum must have put the socks in the laundry bin for washing after cleaning your room a bit too thoroughly for your own taste. You frantically open your sock drawer, rummaging the neatly stacked pairs frantically looking for the magical but ordinary-looking, white crew socks with a green seam at the toes. Finally you spot a sock with a green seam and you unearth the pair. Strangely its counterpart didn’t have a green seam, but looked like any other ordinary plain sock, if not a little too big for your feet – it seemed to be the size your father would wear. Maybe the green stitching came off with washing, leaving only the white stitching underneath? Maybe it had stretched in the laundry? You put the pair on just the same, including the larger ordinary looking sock that feels different and less comfortable.
What shoes will you try on now?
You are tempted to try on another pair of your father’s shoes. You open your door and tip toe your way to your parents’ room. You make your way inside, noticing that the bathroom door is closed and that the shower is running. Your dad must be showering after waking up. You look into his closet trying to find a pair of shoes quietly.
The shower stops running and you hear your dad towelling himself whilst humming. Being afraid you’ll be caught snooping in your dad’s stuff, you quietly start making your way back to your room thinking you’ll come later when your dad is in the study. You hear your dad snapping on the elastic of his boxers. Thinking he’ll soon be out you hasten your step.
Just as you’re about to leave the room the bathroom door opens and your dad sees you.
Crap… should’ve moved faster; you curse to yourself.
“You’re already up Will? Usually you’re not up before 10am. And what are you doing in my and your mother’s room?”
You turn back and face your father. His hair is still wet and he has a wet towel hanging on his left shoulder. He’s dressed only in a pair of light grey boxers and a pair of white socks. You notice something peculiar about his socks though. First of all they’re not the same size – one of them looks slightly smaller, as if it could’ve been your size. And the other had a green seam at the toes!
Your dad sees you eyeing his socks. He looks at them as well.
“I think your mother must have mismatched these socks – the left one is too small and the right one has this unusual green stitching. Well as long as they’re both white I guess they’ll do. Actually come to think of it didn’t you have a new pair with green stitching on?”
“Yeah I guess it’s mine…”
You’re about to finish the sentence but looking at your dad you notice that something is off. The fine lines etched on his face were smoothening out and his receding hairline was slowly creeping back on his forehead.
You’re transfixed as you realise what’s happening.
“Hey, Will have you hit a growth spurt recently as you’re looking taller than usual?”
Just then you notice you’re feeling vertiginous as the room felt as if it was shrinking around you.
You remember that even you had one of the magical socks on. What is happening? Neither of you is wearing any shoes to trigger any transformation!