Giddy at the prospects, Oliver flopped onto his bed, laughing. He wanted to try more, and the possibilities were endless. As he lay there pondering, Oliver began to wonder what the note's author had meant about the ring learning new tricks. He sat back up, then slid off the bed with a crazy idea. Running through his house nude except for the sneakers, the teenage Oliver dug through a closet until he found a nondescript box in a corner. Pulling it out, he removed a few random objects until he reached what he was looking for. Returning the other objects to the box, Oliver kept the item with him and ran back to the mirror. However, before he put the item on, he hesitated. What if he couldn't change back? Being a kid would only require a few years of adjustment before he could go back to using his old identity, but a more drastic change, if permanent, would cut him off from the person he was forever.
Oliver placed the item on the bed and decided to test the ring a little further before doing anything crazy. First, he carefully kicked off the sneakers, wanting to see if removing the clothing which had precipitated the change would return him to normal. After waiting for a few minutes, Oliver felt certain that merely removing the clothes would not result in a change, but he would need another item as a catalyst unless he thought of a specific pesron to change into. Oliver then tried to picture his original self, and initiate a change that way, but concentrate as he might, when he opened his eyes, staring back at him was still the reflection of a gangly 13-year-old.
"I guess it only works if I'm thinking of a person other than myself," Oliver mused, glad to have that useful tidbit of information. If he changed into someone else, he would need to have an article of his own clothing handy if he wanted to change back to his original form. Finally, Oliver grabbed a pair of his boxers out of a drawer and pulled them on. After a moment of stomach-clenching uneasiness, Oliver stared in the mirror at his 23-year-old self. Smiling, and feeling more confident in his understanding of the ring, Oliver removed the boxers, then reached for the item he had recovered from the closet. Taking a deep breath, he put on...