Chapter 13
Epilogue
Chapter Description: It's a new life for Shane, at least for now. But, as he knows very well, things have a way of changing....
Ten Months Later...
Life with his younger brother hadn’t been a picnic for 9-year-old Shane.
They had both made adjustments, but Shane continued to feel that he carried most of the burden of adjusting to his altered situation.
During the first few trying months, he regretted, more than a little, not accepting Robbie’s simple suggestion that he simply go home and live with him. They might have been the same age, physically, but Shane knew that would never work. It was far too complicated, and he would have had to admit to Steve the double life he had been leading. So, he swore Robbie to secrecy, and then contacted his brother.
Convincing his sibling of his identify had been surprisingly simple. Shane simply knew too many secrets that no other 9-year-old could possibly have known about the 33-year-old man now responsible for Shane.
Fortunately, perhaps, although Shane wasn’t quite sure, his brother’s occupation as a lawyer helped immensely when it came to creating a new life for a boy who had once been a grown man before he foolishly wished it all away.
After some "discussion," they agreed that Shane would become the adopted "son" of his younger brother. The adoption ruse let them smooth over complications in their story.
Of course, the new Shane meant that the identity of the original Shane had been methodically erased. That has caused some consternation.
"It’s simpler this way, buddy," his brother told him before he set in motion the legal mechanisms to have his brother presumed dead.
With the legal pronouncement, his brother, as his only close living relative, inherited all of Shane’s assets, including his house, his car and some modest bank accounts.
"It’s going to be expensive to raise a kid," his brother said, using the ultimate trump card. "I didn’t ask for this, you know."
Slowly, over weeks and months, some aspects of his new status became accepted reality.
One welcome bit of relief came as his boy’s body gradually threw off the excess testosterone it inherited from adult Shane. As his adult hormones ebbed away, he managed to calm the adult physical urges that had clouded his mind to a great extent. Sex, or more accurately, thoughts of sex, no longer monopolized his every waking thought.
Shane knew it was only a temporary respite. He would assuredly have to go through a second puberty.
He now knew that for a fact. For the first three months of his life as his own brother’s new "son," neither of them had been sure if he would grow and mature like any ordinary boy.
Then, in a day in early November, Shane’s day got off to a great start when he measured his height against a mark he had made on the wall of his new bedroom.
Later, his brother confirmed the measurement Shane had already taken.
"Looks like you’ve grown, maybe even a couple of inches," his brother told him. Smiling down at him, his brother reached out his hand and mussed his hair.
"Please," Shane objected. "I’ve asked you not to do that!"
His brother simply smiled and shrugged.
The knowledge that he wasn’t trapped forever as a 10-year-old boy came as welcome news. He would grow, and maybe he would not have to always remain the smallest boy in class.
That had been a source of tension between the brothers.
"I’m not going to school!" Shane had insisted.
His brother won that round, too. He always won. They had settled into a new home by Labor Day after Shane’s summer transformation.
When the local school resumed in the fall, Shane found himself a fifth-grade student at McKinley Junior High School.
He’d forgotten how sensitive children are too even subtle differences. The other kids sensed something not quite right about the new kid.
"All the boys are mean to me," Shane had complained for the first week. "Please, don’t make me go to school."
His brother remained quite stubborn. "Sorry, Shane. It would draw too much attention to pull you out of school."
Although he had little in common with real children, Shane’s defenses lowered enough for him to make a few friends. He still found himself low on the school hierarchy, with most of his classmates, boys as well as girls, significantly taller than him.
His teachers despaired of his short attention span. They sent notes home to his brother describing him as far above average intelligence, but lacking motivation.
"But I’ve already learned all that stuff," Shane whined when confronted by his brother.
"Bluff your way through," his brother ordered. "If you’re so smart, that shouldn’t be a problem."
At those times, Shane suspected that his brother, perhaps secretly, actually liked the situation of finding their roles so dramatically reversed.
At times, his chronologically younger sibling seemed to take great pleasure in treating him like a real kid.
Such treatment at the hands of his brother always drove Shane to exasperation.
He could understand, reluctantly, why his brother absolutely forbade him to have alcohol or cigarettes.
"But why can’t I drink coffee?" Shane objected.
The only answer he got, which really rubbed him the wrong way, was when his brother lowered his face and gazed at him, not even attempting to hide a smirk.
"It’ll stunt your growth, that’s why!"
He tried acting out, but his brother put a quick stop to that. Catching Shane puffing on a cigarette in the backyard after dinner one evening, his brother ordered him to put out the cigarette before Shane had even managed more than a few quick puffs.
He complied, reluctantly, and was given a warning. "We’ll deal with your punishment later."
When bedtime arrived, Shane began to feel relief. Perhaps his brother was prepared to overlook his infraction. He had already changed into his pajamas when the door opened and his brother walked into the room.
"I…I was ready to go to bed," Shane said quickly.
His brother looked down at him with a stern expression. "Not so fast, kiddo," he said. "We’ve still got to deal with the way you’ve been acting."
"I’m sorry," he tried quickly. "It won’t happen again."
"No, it had better not," his brother said. "I thought it over, and I figured I’d just do what the old man used to do with us."
Shane backed away. "You can’t punish me! You’re not my father, and I’m not a kid!"
"Look, I don’t want to do this, but it’s for your own good."
Shane heard echoes of all the punishments his father had handed down during his turbulent childhood. He was always getting into more scrapes than his kid brother, who had always been a model son.
His brother took a seat on the bed. "Come here, Shane."
"No!"
With a sigh, his brother stood and, with alarming ease, overpowered his transformed sibling. He resumed his seat and bent the struggling boy over his knee.
"You can’t do this, damn you!"
"Language!"
"Let me go, you bastard!"
WHACK!
His brother’s hand slapped the seat of Shane’s thin pajamas.
"Shane, I am sorry it happened, but you’re a kid now. You’ve got to learn to act like it."
"I am not a kid!"
WHACK!
"Oww, you bastard!"
His brother, with commanding ease, pulled down the pajama bottoms and then tugged down his brother’s white briefs.
"I finally understand what dad meant all those times," his brother remarked.
The first slap on his bared bottom stunned him.
His brother drew his hand back and slapped him again. And again.
Shane’s tantrum subsided, and his reality crashed around him.
The last smack of his brother’s bare hand on his ass prompted a sob.
"I’m sorry….pl…please stop," he blubbered.
His brother released him, but his pajama bottoms and briefs remained pooled around Shane’s ankles.
"You’re a kid, Shane, and it’s time you started acting like it, for both our sakes. Is that understood?"
Shane sniffed and wiped away tears. "Yes."
His brother left him like that, totally humiliated. Shane pulled up his briefs and pajama bottoms and crawled into bed, his rear still sore from the smacks of his brother’s big hand.
After that evening, they no longer spoke of Shane’s former life as an independent, mature man.
Shane became so adept at acting like a kid it became easy to forget that he was supposed to be a grown-up man.
Then, out of the blue, came an email.
Robbie, after having become quite uncommunicative for several months, wrote him with a plan he had hatched. He had done his online research and located a summer camp.
"I’ve already asked my dad, and he said I can go," Robbie wrote. "I was hoping you could ask your brother to let you go, too. We could spend the whole summer together."
•••••
"Shane!"
He turned toward that familiar voice, but got quite a shock when Robbie ran toward him.
The kid had grown! He was all legs and awkwardness, but Robbie must have gained close to six inches of height since they’d last seen each other. Shane’s hope of finally having someone he could, literally, see eye-to-eye with, went up in smoke.
"You…you got big," Shane stammered, suddenly feeling shy.
"I know!" Robbie replied in an excited tone. "Can you believe it?"
Shane felt suddenly small.
Robbie surprised him with a hug, that nearly squeezed the life out of him with its enthusiasm.
"This is going to be such a great summer," Robbie said.
And, for him, it was. Every day, he got to remind his friend that he was bigger in every possible way.
But, he also got the chance to tantalize his friend with the whisper of a local legend. As Robbie heard the tale, the camp was located near a mysterious pool that was said to have magical qualities.
"Maybe we should try to find it," Robbie suggested.
"That’s a great idea," Shane agreed with boyish optimism.
The End?
