Josh was sitting home frustrated that his birthday had passed with
hardly a mention from the TSA folks. "You'd think with the 50 emails a
day a few of 'em would've remembered my birthday!" he mumbled as he
changed channels on the TV. Here it was almost a week later and nothing
special from the list. His mind wandered as the images on the SciFi
channel flickered by. He was about to fall asleep when his attention
turned to a light knock at his door. "Great..." he exclaimed
sarcastically as he walked to the door. Josh foolishly opened the door
without question even though he had no idea who was on the other side.
WOW! Standing at the door was what he would call a total KNOCKOUT! Long
blonde hair, blue eyes... a real babe.
"I'm looking for someone named Josh...are you Josh?" she said.
"Ummmmm yeah...I'm Josh... uhhhh come in" he stammered.
She entered the room and Josh noticed she was carrying some sort of
package. His mind was racing 'what's going on, has my luck started to
change?'. Josh just stared at the young lady 'about 25 years old he
thought (considering himself somewhat of an expert at judging people's
ages), nice long legs, flat stomach...
His thoughts were quickly interupted as she broke the silence and said
"listen, some friends of yours asked me to come over and cheer you up.
They said it was your birthday soooooooo 'Happy Birthday!'".
Josh was surprised for a bit but managed to speak "Ummm What friends?".
"I don't know, they just paid me and..." Josh interupted her "Paid? Are
you a PROSTITUTE?".
"No, no, NO!...I'm a dancer down at the EXXXtreme Club" was her reply.
"Cool!, I didn't really have a problem if you were a prostitute
though... So are you going to dance or strip or something?" Josh asked
anxiously.
"Patience, I got this bottle of booze and thought we might have a couple
of drinks and talk first. You seem like a nice guy and I don't meet too
many nice guys where I work!" she said.
Josh started getting excited and ran off to the kitchen to get glasses.
He yelled back at her to open the bottle because it's "Party Time!".
Pffffffft... the bottle was open and Josh set down beside her on the
couch. "So, you know I'm Josh, what's your name?".
She began filling their glasses and replied "Glitter...well ummmmm
Amanda actually, but at the club everyone calls me Glitter. I prefer
Amanada. Here's your drink. Heres to ya 'Birthday Boy', bottoms up!".
Josh took a big swig and thought how good this stuff tasted. He noticed
Amanda had taken a big swig also. 'Probably gets a lot of practice where
she works' he thought.
"So I wonder, which of my friends do I thank for this surprise anyway?"
Josh said thinking out loud.
"I don't know their names but they said you all got together on some
kind of a computer thingy...."
Uh oh. "They weren't from the TSA list were they?" he asked worriedly
and then quickly put his glass down.
"Yeah, I think that was it. TSA, is that a club or something?" she
asked. "Errrr kinda... well... um what is this stuff we're drinking
any...." his voice trailed off as he noticed Amanda's appearence had
changed ever so slightly.
"Is something wrong" she giggled. She looked fresher somehow, her face
was smoother. Josh looked at his own hands and noticed they looked
different. Something didn't feel right. He looked back at Amanda and the
change was more distinct now. She was still Amanda but she looked barely
20. Her features were rounder, her eyes appeared wider. She was staring
at Josh and looked confused.
'If she's 20 now I must be...FOURTEEN!' he thought.
Josh ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Staring back was a boy
fast approaching puberty...The wrong way! 13, 12, 11...he had to do
something, he had wanted to be younger but HE had wanted to control it.
He hurried back to the living room stumbling on his now too long jeans.
Amanda was still sitting on the couch but was crying now. "What's
happening to us?" she sobbed. She looked to be a high school girl now.
Her legs were skinnier and her shoes were too big now. Her breasts no
longer filled out her crop top as they had before.
"You look like a 16 year old!" Josh said as he noticed his almost
girlish sounding high pitched voice now.
"This can't be happening, you've got to do something...ohhhhhhhh I feel
funny" she said as another year quickly left her. 15-14-13... Josh got
her one of his old T-shirts because her formerly tight short shorts were
now WAY too big. The T-shirt was huge on her but it covered the
important parts. The years kept washing away. Josh was now 7 and the
effect showed no sign of slowing. Everything was looking so much bigger
to him. He looked back at Amanda and watched as she seemed to shrink
into the T-shirt right before his eyes.
"Amanda, where didja get that booze?" little Josh asked.
"Your friends sent me to some shop in the mall. A new place..."
She was stopped in mid-sentence as Josh, now no more than 5, said "Did a
wittle o man know your name?".
Amanda started to answer but felt strange sensations throughout her
body, she too was drifting to the wrong side of puberty. 12-11... "
Uhhhh Yeah, he did know my name... I thought it was kinda strange...
Spells R Us was on the sign. Maybe we can call him and he'll fix us!"
she said frantically, totally shocked at how young her voice sounded.
Josh had quit paying attention to the funny girl on the couch, he was
fascinated by the hands of the shiny clock behind her. She looked for a
phone, then turned back to look at Josh. "No, Josh! You're just a baby!"
she screamed. She began wiping the tears away from her eyes and then
noticed just how strange her face felt. Young. Small features. A missing
tooth! She hopped 'down' off the couch, her bare feet no longer touching
the floor as she sat on the couch. She hurried to the bathroom mirror.
"Noooooooooo, it can't be". Staring back at her from the mirror was a
kindergarten version of Amanda. Mandy they called her back then. She
remembered everyone calling her Mandy because it was too hard to say
Amanda. She felt confused. Slowly she stopped crying. She ran her hands
through her hair. She looked at her now small hands and feet. Confusion
was sweeping over her as she tried to concentrate. The T-shirt she was
wearing now swallowed her. Her reflection in the mirror only served to
confuse her even more. She tried to fight the feelings she was having.
'Help... Amanda, I'm Amanda, Amanda, Aaaam, ummmm I, I'm Manda'... I'm
Manda...'. All of a sudden she began smiling at her reflection. Her
thoughts turned to playing at the beach, swimming pools, other children
she knew. She turned and padded back into the living room. She wanted to
play with the baby. She knew the baby's name was Josh but she wasn't
quite sure how she came to know it.
"Oooooh me too wittle, you need a mommy" she said to the small baby who
was cooing on the floor.
3-2...umph- little Mandy sat on the floor no longer able to walk. She
started watching the light flicker between the blades of the whirling
ceiling fan. Now not even 1 year old the youthening effect began to
finally halt. She started sucking on her big toe...
In a small shop in the mall an old man in a bathrobe makes a call to
Thomas "Thomas, I think we've solved the problem of Josh writing stories
and then never finishing them. It'll be a long time before he starts
another story and leaves people hanging..."