"Has your dad always been a super tall guy?" Ric asked Andrew.
"Well, he once told me he was average-sized as a young kid, but that he had a couple of huge growth spurts between the time he was 11 and the end of his teens," Andrew answered. "I think my Dad said he started out a few inches under 5 feet tall when he was 11, but grew to 6 feet tall by the time he was 16. And then, instead of stopping like most guys, he grew another nine inches to be the size he is now.
"You mean the huge guy he WAS," Ric said laughing out loud now. He then immediately spoke a second incantation, gesturing down at Sean, who was just starting to swim again:
"Double the trouble,
As his age reverts,
Dropping twice the amount
Of his growth spurts."
Nothing much happened during the first lap as Sean youthened further from 23 to 20. But just about one-third of the way into the next lap, Sean suddenly began to lose height rapidly, as the reverse growth spurt kicked in.
Sean had grown 25 inches -- an average of a bit over 3 inches a year -- during the 8-year period between 11 and 19. But now he was shrinking at twice that rate - a full half foot a year. During the third of a lap that Sean's age dropped from 19 to 18, his height dropped from 6'9" to 6'3". The rapid shrinkage continued as he swam, so that he finished the lap in the shallow end of the pool at 17 years old, 5'9", and barely 130 pounds.
Andrew looked down in awe and disbelief: Could this scrawny, average-height teen really be his father?
But when he looked closely at the 17-year-old’s face, Andrew realized that indeed it was.
For his part, Sean was also confused. As he stood up in the shallow end, he couldn't help noticing that the pool somehow seemed larger -- longer and wider -- and the water several inches deeper than it should be. But that didn't and couldn't fully register, because the spell made Sean still think of himself as a 35-year-old, muscular hunk.
"Now the fun really begins," Ric said, nodding down at the 17-year-old Sean, who was starting to swim again. In the third of a lap it took for Sean to de-age from 17 to 16, he lost another 6 inches. Though still three years older than his son, Sean was now nearly the same height - 5'3". But he was much skinnier, at just under 100 pounds compared to Andrew's 115 pounds.
Sean continued to dwindle as he swam, losing inch after inch after inch, dropping more than a foot during the remainder of the lap. By that time, he was a year older than his son - 14 years old - but a mere 4'1", 47-pounder - the size of a skinny 8-year-old.
The boy-sized teen that was Sean treaded water in the deep end, still unaware of the changes.
At this time Andrew, who had been shocked speechless by his father's rapid descent from giant to boy-sized, suddenly snapped out of his trance. He grabbed Ric by the shoulders and shouted, "You've got to stop it! YOU'VE GOTTA MAKE IT STOP!!!"
Little Sean heard the commotion from the pool and looked up at the boys in the open window above: "What's going on boys?" he yelled, his now-high voice cracking.
But the boys didn't hear him. "Just one more lap," Ric said to Andrew. "Then I'll stop it."
"No, no. STOP IT NOW!!" Ric screamed.
Hearing that the boys were continuing to argue, Sean yelled a little louder. "STOP BICKERING, GUYS!!" But the boys paid no heed. Sean then shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'M COMING UP THERE NOW, AND IF YOU'RE STILL ARGUING WHEN I GET THERE, YOU'RE GOING TO BE.... SORRY." This time his voice cracked even worse than before.
This time the boys heard him. Laughing, Ric yelled back down to the pool below. "NOT HALF AS SORRY AS YOU!"