“Hello Johnny. Where is everyone?” his grandmother asked.
“Uhhhhh geeee..... uhhh ummmm they’re around” he answered suspiciously.
“Well, your mother is expecting me so she must be around somewhere. She wouldn’t leave you kids unattended. Trina’s always been responsible.” she said as she glanced out the window. “I see Jamie out back playing with a little friend”
“Uhhhh yeah... “ Johnny answered nervously “Uhhhhh Grandma.... I gotta tell you something”
“You do? What is it?” she answered.
“Ummm You ever hear of the Fountain of Youth?”
“Sure I have” she said.
“You have???”
“Of course I have”
“Well, mommy drank from the fountain and that’s her playing with Jamie. She’s a little girl now”
“Oh... I see.... You certainly have some imagination there, Johnny!”
“Nuh uh.... She ummmmm wanted to play with us but she was too old so she drank from the Fountain of Youth. Now she likes playin’ a whole bunch!”
“Now, Johnny, you wouldn’t fib your Grandma would you?”
“Nope... Don’t you recognize her? I’ll have ‘em come in here. You’ll see” he replied as he opened the door “Jamie, you and mommy come in here!”
Johnny’s grandmother watched as the two girls walked thru the yard holding hands. Jamie looked dressed normally but the other little girl was barefoot and wore only an over-sized tanktop. She prepared to humor her grandson and figure out what he was up to.
“Hi mommy!” little Trina said.
The older woman stared hard at the child. The little girl certainly looked as her daughter had when she was a child. She had the same personality too. For a prank it was a good one she thought.
Looking around the room she saw a pair of adult sized discarded sandals and shorts. They were items that Trina would wear and would go fine with the oversized tanktop that the little girl was wearing. Trina’s glasses sat on the table as well. Why would she leave her glasses behind? It has to be some kind of elaborate joke she thought.
“Mommy, do I hafta still be mommy? I like playin’ and stuff and Jamie says she wants me to be her sister. I don’t wanna be mommy cuz mommies gotta be bossy and stuff. We’re almost like twins now!” Trina explained.
“See, Grandma? I told you!” Johnny said “She’s just a kid now”
Grandma Mary looked around the room. She figured there must be a tape recorder or camera somewhere. “Well, this certainly is an awfully good practical joke but I’m not buying it. Everybody knows there’s no such thing as the Fountain of Youth!”
“That’s what I thought too, mommy!” Trina answered.
“Ok... let’s get to the ‘bottom’ of this” Grandma said “Let’s see your birthmark, Trina”
The little girl blushed and turned away from her mother. She lifted the tanktop enough to reveal a small birthmark on her rear.
Mary suddenly started taking things a bit more serious. The little girl had an indentical birthmark to Trina! ...And she looked and acted like Trina. Could it really BE Trina? “You children go outside... I want to take to errrr Trina... alone”
Johnny and Jamie left the room and Mary started questioning the little girl. Question after question the little girl answered correctly. She knew plenty about Trina’s childhood. Too much to be faking it!
Satisfied the girl really must be Trina she could only stammer a few questions “How? Why? It’s impossible, isn’t it? When?”
Trina didn’t have time to answer the rapid fire questions before another one was sent her way. Mary took a breath “Let’s start over and take this slowly. You wanted to be a little girl???”
“Uh huh... so I could play! I was OLLLLLD until I drank from the Fountain of Youth and now I can play again!”
“But... why so young?”
Trina thought for a moment “I dunno”
“But you -wanted- to be a little girl again?”
“Uh huh.... I was OLLLLLLLLD, mommy!”
“Trina, you weren’t ‘old’ at all. For Heaven’s sake, you weren’t even 30 yet!”
“But I didn’t want to play or nothin’ and I was all bossy! I can play real good now. I can still be mommy if I hafta but I’m not gonna be bossy anymore. I don’t ‘member much mommy stuff anyway. You can be mommy to all of us and Jamie and me can be sisters!”
“Trina, I’ve raised you once! You have a family. How could you do this? How could you be so irresponsible? Have you thought about this... going to school? Growing up again? Dating?”
“It’ll be coooool.”
“But you’re even a little younger than Jamie! What’s it going to be like when you daughter is more developed than you? Won’t that be odd? Your daughter will probably have her first period before YOU!”
“Period?” Little Trina asked sounding confused.
“Have you forgotten what it is like to be an adult??? Don’t you remember the facts of life....where babies come from?” Mary asked as Trina looked more and more confused at the line of questioning.
“I know where babies come from...” she said “The stork brings ‘em!”
“Oh my! Where did you get this ‘Fountain of Youth’ water?” Mary asked realizing that the water had affected more than just Trina’s physical state.
“Uhhhhhh Promise Johnny won’t get in trouble?”
“Trina... why would Johnny get in trouble? Did he have something to do with this? Just tell me. Johnny’s not going to get into trouble”
“Johnny said him and Jamie wanted me to play but I said I couldn’t so he brought me the water so I could play”
“So, Johnny got it for you.... where?”
“I dunno....” Trina said as she twisted her big toe in the carpet.
“Did you ask for it?”
“Ummmmmmm Nuh huh.... I didn’t think it was for real”
“So Johnny brought it to you and you didn’t think it was real?”
“Nuh huh... I told him it wasn’t real”
“But you drank it anyway?”
“Uh huh... So I could play”
“Now wait.... You said you didn’t believe him and you didn’t ask for it did you?”
“But I was Ollllllllllllllld!”
“Johnny handed it to you and you drank it but didn’t believe it was real. So you didn’t really want to be a little girl when you first drank it. Right?”
Trina had to think about it. She didn’t want to get Johnny in trouble. “Yeah... but I like being a kid now!”
“Oh honey.... I think you did this by accident. You didn’t have any plans to be a child again! We have to get you back to normal... if we can. I’m too old to be raising 3 children!”
“It’s OK mommy... You wanna drink so you can be younger too?”
Mary never considered there could be more! She spied the pitcher of water. Could that be it? Being a couple of years younger sounded nice... but she didn’t want to end up a teenager... or a child... or in diapers! People shouldn’t grow younger anyway. It wasn’t right! She had to get Johnny to explain where he got this. Maybe then they could find the antidote. Hopefully there IS an antidote!
“Trina, you go play with Jamie and send Johnny in here. We’ll need to discuss this new family dynamic....”
Trina happily joined Jamie to play in the yard while Mary readied some questions for her grandson.
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To be continued