"THE TOUCH"
by shortysboy
"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!!!", Aaron thought as he ran down the street. "God I'm gonna be late. My stepdad is gonna kill me."
The beating he received the last time he pissed Dave off was still fresh in his mind.
"I should have never stayed after school to watch the cute soccer boys practice, that's what caused me to lose all track of time. Maybe Dave will be passed out on the couch and won't even notice I wasn't home by 5. Please God, let him be asleep."
Ever since his Mom died 1 year ago, and then Dave lost his job, his stepdad had spent most of his time sitting on the couch in his underwear, drinking and taking out all his aggression on his dead wife's son. Aaron figured it was the only bit of control he still had left. Still, it made life hell for Aaron, who was still trying to get over the death of his beloved mother. He knew life was difficult for Dave too, losing his wife and then his job, and a year later still not being able to find a new job. At first they survived on Dave's unemployment, and then when that ran out, Dave applied for and then started receiving welfare. That was the last good break he got. At 58, Dave's prospects for jobs where slim. Maybe he could get a job at a fast food restaurant or as a greeter at Wal-mart, but Dave considered them beneath him, and the more Aaron thought about it, neither job really fit with Dave's temperament.
"Still, why does the f*cker have to take it out on me. He's not even my real dad."
But then again, he never knew who his real dad was, since he'd left his mother right before Aaron was born. And Aaron's Mom would never talk about him.
So all that he was left with was Dave, and he almost wished he had been orphaned than be left with him.
Things had been going so good before his Mom died. Dave had stopped drinking and was making good money at the factory, Aaron had been an 'A 'student and his Mom was happy for the first time in Aaron's memory. Then his Mom died, the factory shut down and Aaron stopped caring about anything.
On top of everything else, five days ago, Aaron started getting intense headaches that dulled down to a constant ache that hadn't gone away now for two days, and along side that, both of his arms started tingling. He thought about telling Dave about the pain, but decided against it, knowing they had no money for a doctor.
Still he wished the pain would just go away.
He was making good time now, but he knew he would still be at least 10 minutes late. He decided to cut through the alley to help make up time and was about halfway through when he ran smack dab into a bum, and fell smack down on the pavement.
"Sh*t!" he yelled out loud. "F*cking bum!"
The bum stood up over him and extended his hand saying, "You wouldn't have any change would you?"
"F*cking bum," he thought. "No, I don't have any change," he said, standing up.
Aaron had just started to walk past the asshole, when he felt the bum grab his arm and say, "I just want..." and then this shock of electricity passed between them and suddenly Aaron realized he couldn't move. Shifting his gaze to the bum, he noticed he seemed to be frozen in place as well, and then suddenly the electric current intensified and seemed to pass from Aaron into the bum.
At first, Aaron couldn't see anything happening, then suddenly he noticed the wrinkles on the bum's face seemed to start to start to disappear, slowly, one by one.
While this happened, the bum's hair began to slowly darken, going from a dirty silver, to a dark brown.
"What the hell is happening," Aaron thought. "He looks like he's growing younger."
And so he was; the formerly 65-year-old bum, now looking like a 40-year-old.
The shock between them continued strong and Aaron saw the changes start to happen more quickly. He watched at the bum's hair began to grow shorter and the crow's feet around his eye's began to disappear, the bum looking somewhere close to 30 now.
As the shocks continued, time kept on ticking backwards, with the bum now looking closer to 20, then 18, then 16. And as Aaron watch he was able to see the bum's pants fall to the ground as the changes kept coming. 14, 12.
"God, I've got to let go," Aaron thought. But no matter how he tried, he simply couldn't pull away.
Then suddenly, with a POP, the electric shock disappeared and Aaron could move again. The release was so sudden, that Aaron lost his balance and fell to the ground again.
It was then that he looked up and met the eyes of a 6-year-old boy, with light brown hair and blue eyes, wearing only a shirt that stretched to the ground and was nearly falling off his shoulder.
Aaron scrambled back, frightened by what he saw.
"The can't be the old bum," he thought, "can it?"
"I want my Mommy," the little boy cried.
Aaron could only stare, terror growing in him.
Finally he stood up and ran, not really thinking where he was going, knowing only that he had to get away.
It was only when he was within a block of his home did he realize that his headache and the tingling had gone away.
to be continued