This is the second of my Spells R Us mini series that I call Reverse Rings.
It carries on the tale from the first one, with more of the characters and rings
from the first story. It probably shouldn't be read without reading Weird
Wednesday first. There isn't any appearance of the Old Man or the store in
this story, though he started the mess in the last one.
Jamie McKenzie sat in his room, thinking about the events of the last
few weeks. He was fourteen and a half, and a normal student at school.
Several weeks ago, his best friend Kevin suddenly started acting weird. In
class one day, Kevin had told him that he was really his own mom, trapped
in Kevin's body because of a pair of magic rings. Jamie had laughed at his
friends joke, wondering what the punchline was. "Man", he'd thought,
"Kevin actually thought I'd buy something like that?. He must be nuts".
Jamie almost wished he'd taken it seriously later on, but at the time Kevin
had told him he'd bough the rings at a place called Spells R Us in the Mall.
But he'd been in that mall a thousand times, and had never seen any Spells R
Us, so just laughed.
But then, Kevin had started acting weird after that, seeming to avoid
him and all his other friends, as well as lots of other little things. Jamie
didn't know what to think, and wondered if something had happened to
Kevin, some sort of trauma or something.
After a couple of days, he went over to Kevin's after school to ask
him what was up. Best friends didn't just ignore each other he decided.
When he got to Kevin's house, he stopped at the door, hearing some loud
yelling inside. He put his ear to the door to listen, feeling embarrassed to be
snooping on his friend, but overcome with curiosity.
Jamie heard Kevin's voice yell "Try to remember where you lost that
ring! I'm your mother, remember, and I can't take this much longer!"
Jamie was a little confused about this, it certainly didn't make any
sense. Then Susan, Kevin's mom started yelling back, "I'm sorry, but I
don't know where the ring went. It just disappeared! Do you think I want
to be stuck as my mom?"
Stunned, Jamie kept listening a little more, hearing Kevin yelling back
again, "Yes, I'm beginning to think you do! You haven't been been helping
me look for the ring very hard, and you've been prancing around the house
for the last few days trying to act like me! I want my life back Dammit!"
Remembering the story that Kevin had told him a few days ago, the
conversation started to make sense. Did they really switch places? Jamie
wasn't sure he believed it. He'd always kept an open mind about magic,
hoping that it really existed, but to actually find out that it did exist? That
was pushing it a bit. Jamie decided not to go in, turning around and going
home. He'd had to think about that some more.
Over the next week, Jamie had started to subtly test Kevin, or at least
whomever was in Kevin's body, and finding that this Kevin didn't know
some of the things that he should. Jamie talked about the day a few weeks
earlier when they had supposedly gone to the movies, and Kevin had agreed
that the movie was nice. But they hadn't gone to that movie. They'd told
Kevin's mom that, when they really went to the park to watch the girls, and
knock over outhouses. Jamie became convinced that they'd changed places.
He'd gone to Kevin's house a few times too, but Kevin never seemed
to get into the video games they were playing, and was really bad. Worse
than he'd ever been before, and forgetting all the little tricks.
Susan, Kevin's mom was acting fairly normal, or at least she seemed
to be most of the time, moving, talking and even smoking like she normally
did. But every once in a while, she'd do something that didn't fit. Mostly
when she didn't see Jamie nearby or realize he was there. Sometimes by
just doing something that Kevin would, or just forgetting things.
Jamie was amazed that his best friend and his best friends mom had
traded bodies. He managed to pick up a few more clues about what
happened from overhearing them talking when they didn't realize he was
nearby. Apparently the two rings switched their minds when they both wore
them, though he remembered something like that from when Kevin, or
actually Susan he corrected himself, had told him the story. And then
somehow Kevin lost one of the rings, and his mom was really upset about it.
Kevin seemed to be taking it pretty well, and his mom seemed to resent that.
Jamie thought it was funny, that Kevin, in Susan's body was acting
very confident and ordering Susan in his body around, and Susan was doing
what she was told, at least when he was around.
Doug kept showing up, and Jamie wondered how Kevin could stand
that, now that he was in a position to get rid of him. Kevin had always hated
Doug. He also wondered how Kevin could be smoking his moms cigarettes.
Kevin had hated the smell of cigarette smoke.
Susan had started acting more like Kevin, and at times almost seemed
to forget that she used to be the parent. She seemed to be losing any hope of
getting back to normal, giving up and starting to slide into her role since they
couldn't find the ring. She was acting a little more submissive to Kevin,
surrendering to her situation. Kevin was bossing her around whenever
Jamie was around and he assumed when Doug was too. He noticed them a
few times when they thought he was out of hearing, and how even then
Kevin was acting confident, and like his mom used to, and sometimes telling
Susan what to do, and she did it. Like she was getting in the habit of doing
what she was told to.
Jamie had kept his ears and eyes open, gathering the information. The
idea of the magic fascinated him. Especially with Kevin suddenly becoming
an adult and being able to boss his own mom around. Jamie wondered how
Kevin could stand being stuck as a girl, and thought it must be awful. He
kind of felt sorry for his friend, but at the same time envied him a little. He
thought about bossing his own mom around, or at least having other people
do what he wanted and liked the idea.
The more Jamie thought about it, the more he felt that he actually had
to see these rings. Thinking about what he could do with them, Jamie
grinned, imagining trading places with some rich playboy. Unfortunately,
he remembered, one of the rings was missing.
Finally Jamie had decided to confront Kevin, and talk to him about it.
He wanted to hear all about the rings, and what it felt like. He didn't want
Kevin's mom around, so he skipped school and went over to Kevin's house
not long before lunchtime. He was taking the shortcut through Kevin's back
yard and was just about hop over their fence and into their back yard, then
stopped after he got up a little, noticing Kevin's mom, or actually Kevin he
had to keep reminding himself, coming out the back door. Jamie ducked
back behind the fence and watched Kevin between the crack in the fence,
wondering what he was doing.
Kevin stopped just outside the back door looking around a little to see
if anyone was watching, and didn't see Jamie on the other side of the fence.
Jamie noticed that Kevin was holding a small wooden box in his hand, the
size of one of those old Rubics Cubes. Kevin took a small hand shovel and
started to dig a small hole in the dirt next to the house, and dropped the box
in, looking satisfied. After covering it back up and making sure that it
looked like it used to, Kevin went back inside.
Jamie watched this, curious what was in the box. He decided not to
talk to Kevin just yet. He decided to come back a bit later, but first he
wanted to see what Kevin had hid. He didn't want to be seen, so he waited
10 minutes, then went around towards the front of the house. Peeking in the
window, he saw Kevin sitting on the couch and rubbing himself.
Jamie was a little embarrassed to see Susan's body doing this and
didn't want to be caught peeping, so he went back around to the back again.
This was the perfect time to check and see what was in the box, then bury it
back up again before he was noticed. He didn't think that Kevin would be
leaving the couch for a few minutes, so he shouldn't get caught. Going to
the spot he'd seen Kevin bury the box, he started to dig the dirt back with a
stick. It only took a few minutes since the box was only 3 inches down, but
he had to dig around it a little to get his fingers in and grab it.
Jamie looked at the dark wood, and slight carving on the box, and
thought it looked kind of nice, even with the dirt on it. He opened it up,
thinking to maybe see a little money, and instead saw a single gold ring.
Jamie picked it up and looked at it, noticing the slight engraved lines on it.
This must be one of the rings Jamie realized. Jamie guessed that after they
lost the one, Kevin decided to put this one in a safe place until they found it.
For several more minutes, Jamie looked at the ring, trying to see if anything
in it made it look like magic. Nothing seemed magical about it.
Since one ring was useless, Jamie sighed then put it back in the box,
burying it where he'd found it. He didn't want to get caught, so he hopped
over the fence in back pretty quickly and left.
That night, Jamie went over to Kevin's again, and was up in Kevin's
room playing a video game, while Susan went down stairs for a snack.
They were still pretending to be each other, and Jamie noticed were getting a
little better at it every day. Susan still sucked at games though. Jamie put
the game on pause and got up to go to the bathroom, and noticed a ring
sitting on Kevin's dresser.
Picking it up, he noticed that it was the ring in the box. That didn't
make sense. Why bury the ring to hide it, then dig it right back up and leave
it in the open? Unless, Jamie realized, it wasn't the same ring. They'd
found the one they lost.
Was this it, or the other one? Why hadn't they changed back yet?
Remembering the way Kevin had acted while hiding the ring, Jamie started
to wonder if Kevin had found it and changed his mind about changing back.
Or decided not to. He probably didn't even tell his mom that he found it
again, Jamie decided, so that's why he hid it, so she wouldn't find out.
Feeling guilty, but vaguely exited at the same time, Jamie had slipped
the ring in his pocket, hoping that its disappearance wouldn't be noticed.
Staying till it was time for "Kevin" to go to bed, Jamie said good night to
"Kevin" and his "mom", then left to go home. However, he didn't want to
go home immediately. He waited for several minutes, then snuck around the
back of their house, and dug up the box again. Carefully he buried the hole
back in, and straightened up the area, hoping that Kevin didn't come to dig it
up soon. Jamie felt guilty about stealing them, but promised himself that
after he was done with the rings he'd bring them back.
Two days later, Jamie sat in his own bedroom, looking at the rings,
still a little undecided on if he should try them or not, and if so with who.
His parents were out of the question, so who? After some thought, Jamie
came up with a good possibility.
Ross Davidson. Ross was a local celebrity. He used to work at the
local Seven Eleven, until he won 15 million dollars in the lottery. He'd
shown up at school once to give talk about not giving up to the whole
school. Really boring. But Jamie remembered that the guy was fairly well
muscled and that the girls were all saying he was cute.
Still not sure, Jamie spent the next two days finding out a bit more on
Ross. He'd asked around school, and looked at the local newspapers in the
Library. He found out that Ross was 27 years old, and had a real nice
house, with a swimming pool and everything. Jamie thought that was great.
Jamie wasn't sure he wanted to be that old though. He wanted to be an
adult, but thought 21 would be perfect. But Ross did have a few gorgeous
girlfriends, which was what decided Jamie to go through with it.
There were a few downsides Jamie found out as well. Ross had been
divorced, and his ex-wife had custody of their 6 year old girl. Fortunately,
Jamie thought, that his ex has the kid, so I won't get stuck with her. Better
yet, they got divorced before Ross won the money, so she didn't get half of
it. He still would have to keep paying large child support bills, and watch
the kids every other weekend, which was when Ross had her over, but he
decided that he could live with that.
Jamie kept thinking of having all that money and those women, and
what he'd do with them. He was so excited that he couldn't sleep that night
as he worked out his plan.
Jamie wrapped one ring in a package, and mailed it to Ross, signing it
"From your secret admirer", in the most feminine writing he could manage.
It took him 5 trys to get it the note right. He sprayed a pritz of his moms
perfume on it, just to help, then mailed it out to Ross.
The night after mailing out the ring, Jamie couldn't sleep, thinking all
night about what it would be like. He started to wonder what would happen
since a stranger would take over his place, but decided not to worry about it.
It would be too much fun. When he got up, he put the other ring on his
finger, feeling a slight tingle. "Now to wait", he told himself.
Kevin was beginning to get bored. At first being turned into his
mom was a lot of fun. It still was a bit, and he loved being the adult and
being able to tell his mom what to do for a change. But he was getting a little
bored, sitting at home most of the day. He'd seen all the new movies that
he wanted too already, and the other places he used to like going to, like the
comic shop, had people look at him funny, so he didn't go there.
He'd had his mom teach him to put on makeup, and he started trying
on different clothes of hers. He'd went to a beauty salon, went dancing, and
to a bar, just to see what those things were like. He'd felt really bad for
several days when he started having his period, and almost switched back
with his mom, but decided to stick it out. He'd wondered how women
could stand the discomfort and bleeding every month. When he'd asked his
mom, she laughed, enjoying his discomfort.
His mom used to write books to keep herself busy all day, but all he
had was his boring housework and stuff. It was still fun, but just not as
much, especially since he'd started getting bills in the mail, and had to pay
them. At first he'd insisted that he do it because as the mother it was his
responsibility, and after the first couple days, that got boring, and his mom
wouldn't do it for him, throwing his words back at him. He'd had to go to
school once to talk to the principal about an incident with "Kevin" fighting
with a bully, and a few other things. He had found all that new
responsibility fun at first, and a challenge to meet, but he was getting a little
tired of everyone expecting things of him. It was sort of like when his mom
used to nag him, but now everyone seemed to. He was glad his mom was
able to help him with some of it, though mostly by just explaining what he
needed to do.
Mostly though, he was getting a little worried about his mom. She
wasn't acting at all like herself. She'd sort of given up, and just went along
with things. It wasn't as much fun without her being so annoyed by it, and
he was getting worried about her being unhappy. He certainly didn't want
her to kill herself.
Kevin decided that he should go back to his own life. He didn't
really want to, but didn't want his mom to suffer. They hadn't always
gotten along well, but he did still love her, and didn't want her to be
unhappy for good. So he decided, to dig up the ring and "find" it. He'd
buried it so that his mom didn't accidentally find it when she dug up the
house looking for it. He'd never really lost it, and just wanted to stay as his
mom for a time, and decided that it was long enough.
He did start wondering about maybe he should switch with Doug
afterwards, letting that creep get stuck as a teen while he took over Dougs
life. The thought kind of excited him, though he didn't think he could go
through and sleep with his mom like Doug did. He'd have to think about
that.
Digging the hole up, Kevin got a shock. The ring and box were
gone. He ran upstairs to his old room, checking to see if his mom had found
them, and didn't see any signs of them. Then he noticed that the other ring
was missing off the dresser, where she'd left it since they first changed.
Kevin panicked for a little while, unable to guess what had happened,
then gave up and sat down, realizing that he was now his mom for life and
trying to accept it. It wasn't a game anymore.
Jamie was impatient and restless for the next few days, barely
containing his excitement over what he knew would soon happen. Soon Ross
would get the package and find the ring. Thinking one of his girlfriends
gave it to him, he'd put it on, and then they'd trade places. Jamie's parents
didn't know what to think of his odd behavior, and decided that he must be
in love.
On Saturday, Jamie was at the park, watching the birds, wondering
how it would feel, when suddenly the tingle on his finger returned, and he
started to feel dizzy. This is it, he thought, as his whole body seemed to
twist and turn and everything blur. He shut his eyes being glad he was
sitting on the ground when this hit. After a few seconds, the dizziness faded
and Jamie realized that he felt different. It worked.
Opening his eyes, Jamie saw a large mans face looking down on him
saying "Now honey, that was for daddy", and pulling the ring off of his
finger. Jamie looked down at himself in shock, realizing suddenly that his
plan had failed, that he'd become Ross's 6 year old daughter instead. He
was horrified to look down and see the little dress he was wearing, and
feeling the long hair down his back. He reached his hand between his legs
feeling nothing, and broke down and started crying.
Thinking that his daughter was upset because of being reprimanded,
Ross hugged Jamie trying to comfort the crying child. He didn't know who
sent him the ring, but Ross kind of liked it. He never wore rings though and
wondered how it would look on his girlfriend Shiela.
Over in the park, Jamie's body got up, very confused, and went to
play with the children on the swing, dropping the ring behind him in the
grass unnoticed.
THE END