The hospital called her at work in the early afternoon. “Mrs. Connors? This is Central Hospital. “Are you the mother of an Amanda Connors?”
Catherine Connors heart leapt into her throat. “Yes, oh my God!”
“Well, Mrs. Connors, Amanda is here. She is in our intensive care unit.”
“She’s fine now” said the caller “but it was touch and go for awhile”.
Catherine was beside herself “Don’t tell me she took an overdose of pills again?”
“No, but it was a suicide attempt. She slit her wrists, but we caught her in time. She should recover fine”
The caller droned on, but Catherine Connors had stopped listening. Her thoughts were elsewhere. She was the mother of Identical Twin, 19 year old, daughters by the name of Amanda and Candice. They had grown up into two beautiful young women, full of life and charm. That is until two years ago.
Blonde, buxom, they could easily have passed for models while still in high school. All of the boys lusted after them.
And one of them had taken it too far. Amanda, or “Mandy” as she liked to be called, was raped when she was17.
The effect on her was devastating. Instantly, she went from the wholesome, hometown girl, and had morphed into the tattooed, hard drinking, town slut that her reputation had now become.
It was clear that she hated herself and wanted the pain to go away, permanently.
Therapy didn’t work. Sending her away only increased her depression.
Two days later, Mandy was home again. Her, sister Candice and their mom were in the kitchen that evening. Candice was hitting the books, working hard to get through this semester. ‘She is the perfect daughter’, Catherine thought. ‘quiet, easy going, a pleasure to be around.’
Then she looked over at her other daughter. Wrinkled jogging pants, a tank top way to small for those breasts, blonde hair, disheveled this way and that. Amanda’s face was in a permanent scowl. Her eyes, black ringed from lack of sleep, her wrists in big, white bandages from her recent attempt.
She looked like an oversized rag doll. Her mom’s heart went out to her. Poor kid. ‘Maybe, just maybe this time’
Catherine had been in touch with a Doctor Briggs earlier in the day. He was proposing a radical new procedure on Mandy and had high hopes that it could help her.
With some persuasion, her mom was able to get Mandy to dress up (a little), and over to the Doctor’s office.
Mandy sat on the table, uninterested, as Dr. Briggs examined her. He turned to her mother. Mrs. Connors, I think I can help Amanda.
“how?” she could only blurt out, “nothing has worked”.
“Exactly” he continued, “And that was because of the psychological damage from the, er, incident”. “If you get rid of that, you can permanently fix the problem”.
“And how do we do that”? Asked a skeptical Cathy, “Put her in a time machine and go back to the day before it happened?”
“Not exactly, but you are close”. “I’m sure you are aware of the drug, “Youthsin” that has been floating around the college campuses lately?”
Her heart sank “you mean that drug that is supposed to make people younger? “ Yes, I’ve heard of it. “And I also know that it doesn’t work”.
Doctor Briggs shrugged “Well, yes and no. “You see, the drug does actually work, but the version that is out on the black market is too diluted to have any effect.”
“I, on the other hand, have been working with the company that made the product and have access to the full strength drug”
Catherine was skeptical, but desperate. “So, what do you propose”?
Briggs smiled, sheepishly. “Well, I propose that we give it to Amanda here and make her grow younger, younger that is than she before the, er “incident” occurred. I’d say around 16 years old would do.
This caught Mandy’s attention at last. “What? ”You want to make me younger? “Are you fucking out of your mind? “ I’m not going to let you put no needles into me, so forget it”.
Briggs sighed: “Actually, Mandy, the drug is administered in a thin sheet, like those mouthwash tabs, except that it is attached to the skin. Each tab will regress the subject by one year.” That’s all there is to it, Amanda. “You take three tabs home with you, apply one each night and, and in three days, you will feel much better about yourself and the world.”
Even though it seemed like science fiction to Mandy, the idea intrigued her. She was in such mental anguish that every day it was a major chore just to get out of bed.
“But, h-how will that make me forget”? she asked.
“Well, actually, you won’t. You will remember the incident, but for some of our patients, instead of a hard, crushing memory, the experience becomes a detached memory, something akin to a bad dream, and something that you can put aside. “
Mandy didn’t know what to believe. She wanted the pain to stop, one way or the other. She thought about it. “Jesus Christ” she said, “Do you realize that I have a 22 year old boyfriend. “Don’t you think he would be just a little upset to be dating a “teenager” again?
Catherine intervened “Don’t forget, Mandy you and Candice are still teenagers. This is only a three year difference and it may save your life. I’m sure Doug will understand, if he really cares about you.
After much talk and bickering, Amanda finally agreed to the procedure. That is, with Doug’s blessing.
The doc gave her the three tabs and she took them home. That evening, Mandy, pulled out one and placed it on her skin. It stuck instantly and was so thin that she couldn’t even feel it.
“Well, okay, let’s see you save my life”, she said sarcastically.
The next morning, Amanda woke as an 18 year old again. There was not enough change to make any difference. And she didn’t feel any different. The pain was still there.
So, that night she applied the second tab. The second dosage had an influence on her, alright.
Physically, you still could not tell a difference unless she and sister Candice were side by side. The worst thing to Mandy was the memory of the attack. It came flooding back fresh into the 17 year old’s mind. She was distraught and stayed in her room most of the day. Her mother had to force her to use the final tab.
On the third day, Mandy woke and slowly opened her eyes. The room was bright and cool. She felt better. She rose slowly and went to the mirror. The black rings around her eyes were gone. Her face was young, fresh, and beautiful. Her body had changed too. Now slender, her frame had shrunk to a more petite size.
Mandy really did look 16 again. She originally had had three tattoos. But now, only one remained. It was the tattoo of a heart that she had placed on her lower abdomen. She had gotten that one as her sixteenth birthday present.
“Wow”, she said. “This is a trip”.
And Doctor Briggs was right. She actually did feel better. The memory that had been so cruel to her yesterday, seemed to have lost the power to hurt her.
Mandy found that her clothes didn’t fit right anymore. Everything was too big. Even her bra was too loose. “hmm, smaller boobs”, she thought. And indeed, they were.
She finished dressing and went downstairs for breakfast. She found her mom and sister in the kitchen as usual. Her mom was looking at her quizzically. “So” she said “You sure do look younger, Mandy, but how do you feel”.
“I feel better, mom” she said, “Much better”.
Catherine couldn’t help it, but the tears came. She went over and hugged her daughter. It affected Mandy as well, but she was not one to cry.
Finally, Catherine recovered enough to say. “You know, Mandy, you even feel smaller to me. “Go over and stand next to Candice, I want to see how you two stack up.”
She did so and it was evident that Mandy was shorter than her twin sister. In fact, she was bigger all over and looked a lot more grown up then Mandy did now.
It was disconcerting, but Mandy tried to take it in stride. She laughed. “Well, Candy, I guess you get to be my “older” sister from now on” Candice looked down at her little sister. “You know, Mandy, you were always the more forceful of the two of us. Maybe this will give me the incentive to take more control of things. There was a sparkle in her eyes. “Yeah, I think I’m going to like this”.
There were “growth” marks on the wall from when the girls were growing up. Mandy went over and stood in front them. 5’6”. She was now two inches shorter than her 5’8” sister.
That night Doug came over. They went to the back porch swing. Doug said: “Wow, Mandy, you really look good” He leaned over and kissed her. A chill went up her spine, and her nipples got hard. ‘hmmm, there might be one more advantage to being this young’ she chuckled to herself.
Doug reached for her breast, but Mandy flinched slightly. Then, she caught herself. Hey this was her boyfriend, her lover. For some reason, it seemed tough to remember that she was truly a 19 year old and not some high school teen.
She let him unbutton the front of her blouse. His hand slid through the cloth. All of a sudden, Mandy was embarrassed that her bra was too large for her.
If Doug cared about that, he didn’t show it, and Mandy relaxed.
. His hand found its mark, and he caressed her and kissed her again. They stayed on the porch for a long time that night.
The weeks went by and Mandy adjusted to her new, happier life. At her mother’s insistence, she went shopping for a whole new wardrobe, all the way down to her shoes. She and Candice hit it off fine, but it seemed to Mandy that the balance of power had shifted in Candice’s favor. Mandy didn’t care. For the first time in years she was happy.
Even the next door neighbor boy, Jim, had taken more notice of her. Amanda was delighted with this went out of her way to flirt with the 14 year old. He was too young for her, but it made her feel good to be attractive again.
Besides, Doug had adjusted well. They were a couple again and, at her mother’s objection, she slept at Doug’s house on the weekends.
It was about two months later, and Mandy was in bed with Doug on a Monday morning. He had to go to work and was trying to be quiet, but she woke anyway. He went over to the bed, hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.
“Stay in bed, sleepy head. “You deserve it after last night”. She said goodbye to him and got up to take a shower. Still groggy, Mandy started soaping her body.
Did her breasts feel smaller this morning? She couldn’t figure out what was going on until she got out and looked in the full length mirror.
Something was not right. She definitely looked different. And then she noticed it. Her heart tattoo as gone!!! That meant that she had gotten younger again. That meant that Mandy was not 16 anymore.
“Oh my God” She said. She dressed quickly and noticed again that her clothes were looser. She rushed home and called for her mother.
“Mandy, honey, what’s wrong?” she said.
“Mom, I got younger” she stammered.
“Of course, you got younger. “Your sixteen again, silly”
“No mom, that’s just it, I’m not sixteen anymore!”
Catherine looked at her skeptically. “Nonsense, you look the same to me”
Mandy explained the tattoo and pulled her now loose jeans down far enough to show her mother that, indeed, it was gone.
A call came into the Briggs office. “We need to get in touch with Doctor Briggs right away. “This is an emergency”.
Briggs stood silently in thought. “Well” he said, “There no indication that you have gotten younger, Mandy, but it has happened, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of months. “None of my other patients have had this happen to them, especially after a couple of months. “I would chalk it up to a fluke, and try your best to forget it.
“Forget it?” Mandy stammered “I’m a fifteen year old again. “Do you expect me to just forget that I’m now 4 years younger than I am supposed to be”?
Dejectedly, they left the Doctor’s office and went home. Catherine measured Mandy against the wall again and, indeed, she was now 5’5”, 3 inches shorter than her normal height.
“Mom”, Mandy said “Don’t tell anyone that this has happened, especially Doug. “I love him so much and don’t want to lose him over a silly, possibly temporary situation like this”. Her mother agreed.
If Candice noticed, she didn’t mention it. Mandy kept up her normal routine. Everything went fine for about a week and then Mandy shrunk again. Her breasts shrunk, her body got shorter, and still she tried to act as if everything was normal.
This was like a nightmare. The doc said he couldn’t understand it as day after day she was getting younger. Then came the day she slipped under 15 years of age.
It was getting harder and harder for her to act like an adult. Everything was bigger to her. Her clothes kept getting bigger. Day by day, she was losing confidence, her adult mind tried to hold on.
Finally, a few days later, Doug tried to touch her breast as before. She was so uncomfortable, almost scared, that she pushed his hand away. Doug got angry and Mandy finally had to confess to her that she was still getting younger. She moved back home after that and the gap between Doug and her grew wider.
And still Mandy got younger.
(To be continued)