Laura got back up and stuck her head out of the door of the den. "Stephen, can you come here, please? I'd like your help with the photo software."
"Sure, Mom," you say. As you walk into the den, you note, "Sorry, I should have told you -- the guy did tell me to read the instructions. But it seemed kind of self-explanatory."
"It is, and I did read them, or at least skimmed," says your mother, as she takes the unusual step of closing the door and locking it. "Have a seat."
You sit down at the computer, where the family photo from a few minutes earlier is on the screen.
She perches at the edge of the desk and asks, "Tell me -- do I look normal to you?"
You look up at her. She's looking at you expectantly. Of course she looks normal -- she's your mother. "Uh, yeah," you say. "You're not feeling weird about getting old, are you?"
"What? I'm only 38," she points out, but then says, "See that 'Enhance' button at the top of the sidebar? Press it and watch."
You figure the software will just do a noise reduction, maybe sharpen edges, or if it's really smart, reduce red eye. That's what you expect when you move the mouse and click the button.
What you see instead is like some kind of instant Photoshop session. The images of you and your family members morph. You and your father become more muscular and handsome -- Dad even gets longer hair that forms into a ponytail, making him look like something off one of those paperback books your mom reads sometimes. Your sister Jessica's young curves become slightly more noticeable, her hair growing to her ass, her face being tweaked to be even more beautiful. And your mother's breasts grow along with the rest of her curves, her face also altering.
"Whoa, Mom, this is incredible," you say. "It's like there's artificial intelligence that --"
"Wait," she interrupts.
With that, you feel a tingling all over your body, briefly confusing you, but then you realize that your muscles are literally growing. "Mom, are you --" You look up to see that she's looking down at her enlarging breasts.
You look back at the photo on the screen and recognize that you've both just changed to match what the "Enhance" button had done to you. You had a little bit of muscle definition before, and now you're definitely ripped. The first thought that crosses your mind: are your new muscles permanent, or will you have to keep working out to maintain them?
"I'd actually used the 'Enhance' button once before I called you in here," says your mother.
"What?"
She points with a manicured fingernail, longer that you remember her having before. "You and your father didn't have any muscle to speak of -- Jess really didn't have any curves --"
That's hard for you to believe. Your father's always had some muscle -- he was naturally like that, and you obviously inherited that. And Jess started developing a couple years ago -- that was normal, right?
You realize your clothes must have been altered, since they're still fitting your now-larger frame.
"What do you think?" asks your mother.