Imagine

Chapter 5
Imagine

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Chapter Description: I recently found a full copy of this story so am now restoring the missing final chapter to the version here in the archive

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Taylor watched as Suzy physically grew younger... and younger! Suzy’s teen years were now behind her and she was in a collision course with childhood. Taylor also realized that with Suzy’s newfound youth there was also her own fast track to the edge of being 30 years old to contend with! Her skin was drier and her muscle tone was not what it had been only a few hours earlier. Not only that, but she didn’t have the drive to try and solve the puzzle of exactly how she’d created this situation in the first place! She was settling into her role as ‘mother’ just as Suzy had settled into her new role as ‘child’. She’d worked so hard to find a solution and now she was feeling spent. She had no energy. She wondered if it was simply the reality of the situation sinking in or if it was something more... after all she was growing older.

School was on break. Suzy’s workplace had given her time off. There was nothing but time to focus on the problem... But it felt like quicksand. They were sinking further and further with no sign of help.

Taylor watched television that night. She couldn’t think of any stone that had been left unturned. It was a simple child’s homemade toy... how could it possibly have worked? Then she began to wonder... maybe she was losing her mind!? Maybe she’d been an adult all along? Maybe Suzy really was her daughter! That made the most sense of all. In fact, she could barely remember her childhood. It seemed so long ago... not just days ago!

That had to be the answer! She was losing her mind! She decided she had to focus on the future and not let some delusion cloud her life or the relationship with her daughter. After all, she was 27 years old and had a 6 year old daughter to raise!

Even though so many things didn’t add up Taylor ignored them. They had to be symptoms of the delusion that she’d allowed to take over her life. That was what she began to believe. It was the only answer that made sense.

Days past. Suzy was a normal 6 year old. She played and made friends with other neighborhood kids. Taylor tried to avoid them. They brought strange feelings of deja vu. She didn’t need or want that. Taylor did her best to be a stable adult and raise ‘her daughter’. She fought the nagging feelings that something wasn’t right. She considered seeing a psychiatrist but she felt that if she could just be strong she could move forard in her life without professional help. She worried that they’d take her daughter from her if they thought her insane. What grown woman could possibly harbor a delusion that she was really a 6 year old child that had invented a machine that allowed her to swap roles with her mother? And now her mother was the child? She had to laugh herself at the thought. Of course they’d have her committed if she told anyone a story like that!

Things went smoothly until Saturday morning. “Mommy, can we trade back now?” Little Suzy asked innocently.

Taylor dropped her coffee mug and it shattered on the floor. “What did you say?” she asked nervously.

“I’m ready to trade back. Billy wants to be my boyfriend but if he’s my boyfriend then I can’t change back ‘cuz then I’ll be too big!”

“Change back??” Taylor asked slowly.

“Uh huh.... Can’t you fix your ‘vention so we can change back? ....If you ain’t gonna do it that’s OK... Billy’s kinda cute and he kisses good!”

“What? Hold on! You’ve been kissing a BOY? ...No wait.... save it.... You say we traded? What do you mean?” Taylor asked wondering if this was all part of the delusion. Maybe she was totally misunderstanding Suzy’s comments.

“I wanna be the mommy again” Suzy answered erasing all doubt as to what she meant.

Taylor felt as if the weight of world had just been lifted off her shoulders. Her delusions weren’t delusions at all! Her face brightened. Things seemed so much better but then she slowly remembered that she still had a problem. How did this happen with just a few odds ands ends? There was nothing to the ‘invention’. ...yet obviously it had worked.

“Suzy, honey... I want to trade back but I don’t know how to make it work! I’ve tried! I stayed awake at nights thinking about it. Just to see you playing I felt like it should be me on the swing but I have to be the adult. I just don’t know how I did it. I was a child then, yet as an adult I can’t figure it out.”

“Can’t you do some magic? Or maybe a fairy Godmother could help.... Like Cinderella had!” Suzy said hopefully.

“Oh Hon, there’s no such things... you have such an imagination..... Imagination? That’s what a child has! An imagination!” Taylor said as her voice slowly raised. “Imagination!”

“What do you mean, mommy?” Suzy asked.

“That has to be it! When I was your age I had an imagination that wouldn’t stop! Now all I have been doing is analyzing what made sense... sense to an adult! But none of this situation makes sense in the first place. I need to think like a child!” Taylor replied.

“But how can you do that... you’re a grownup!” Suzy said.

“You’re gonna have to help me... C’mon... the first thing we gotta do is go for a change of surroundings. Your room!”

Suzy followed Taylor to her messy bedroom. “Normally, I’d tell you to clean this place up but right now I think I like it just the way it is.”

Taylor got a look at her 27 year old face in the mirror. She looked so mature.... and adult! “Ok.... this has to go she said grabbing a towel from the floor and wiping her face trying to get rid of the makeup that she was wearing.

Suzy watched as Taylor seemed to have some sort of plan but Suzy couldn’t figure it out.

Taylor sat on the bed. “Hmmm... I’m dressed like an adult. This has to go” she said as she removed her bra from under her blouse. “And now these” she added as she kicked off her high heels. “Be right back” She said as she exited to the bathroom.

She found a large T-shirt with a cartoon character on the front. She traded her skirt and blouse for the oversized T-shirt. She then brushed out her hair and tehn used a couple of clips on it giving herself a couple of quick pigtails. She scrubbed her face a little more and returned to Suzy’s room.

Suzy looked Taylor over as she re-entered the room barefoot and wearing only the large T-shirt.

“Whatcha doin’?” Suzy asked.

“I need to think and fell like a kid if I am gonna figure this out!” Taylor explained. “I looked and acted like an adult before... that was never going to work. Now I’m rid of those adult trappings!”

Suzy looked her over slowly before speaking “Whatdya look like now?”

“I was hoping I’d look like a kid....” Taylor answered.

“Well... you don’t look like a grownup, I guess!” Suzy snickered.

“Nevermind the jokes.... Ok... I gotta think like a kid.... think like a kid.... How do kids think?” Taylor said as her voice turned to mumbling. “Think like a kid....”

Taylor tried to think back to the day she built the machine. “I’m thinking too much like an adult!” she complained “I need to use my imagination more!”

“How come magic won’t work!” Suzy asked.

“Magic doesn’t....” Taylor said and then stopped. “Ok... I need to be less skeptical and more open-minded! Children don’t know the same barriers!” she said and giggled.

“So magic works?” Suzy asked.

“I guess it could.... I’ve seen stuff... errrrr things that I couldn’t explain so we won’t rule out magic!” Taylor replied as she started swinging her legs.

“What about Fairy Godmothers?” Suzy asked

“Hmmmmm.... I dunno.... I guess it’s possible...... I wonder how you’d get a Fairy Godmother to show up?” Taylor said.

“What about a leprechaun?”

“Leprechauns?” Taylor said as she thought on it. Leprechauns sounded possible. There really are rainbows she reasoned... so why not a leprechaun guarding his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? But there wasn’t any rainbow when she built the Role Reverser machine. “Magic, Fairy Godmothers, Leprechauns.... Hmmmmmmm. Well... if we had any luck they’d all show up!”

“Are you thinkin’ like a little girl yet?” Suzy asked

“I’m tryin’!” Taylor replied “I just gotta remember I’m not really a growup! I’m really 6 years old!” Taylor giggled some more at the thought of her telling someone she was really 6 years old. “Nobody’d believe I am a 6 year old but you and me!” she told Suzy and they both laughed.

It felt good to laugh. She laughed some more. So did Suzy.

“Maybe we need Lucky Charms!” Suzy joked causing Taylor to laugh even more.

“Hey! That’s it!” Taylor exclaimed as she jumped up.

“Huh???” Suzy asked “Lucky Charms?”

“No...... I remember now! I found a four leaf clover and I used it for good luck that day!”

“You mean you were just lucky it worked?” Suzy wondered.

“Oh... Hmmm well.... No ... I bet there is more to it than that! Do you remember what you said or thought when we first used the machine?” Taylor asked excitedly.

“Ummmmmmmm Hmmmmm I kinda remember.... I worked all day and was tired..... And you were wanting me to do this and I didn’t wanna make you mad” Suzy told her.

“Was that it? Nothing else???”

“Ummmmmm uhhhhhh...... Yeah....uuuuuhhhh wait... I ‘member I wished your invention would work ‘cuz if I was the kid for a while I wouldn’t be tired and hafta work all the time!”

“You -wished-??? I -wished- it would work too! The four leaf clover musta granted the wish! That’s gotta be it!” Taylor said as she jumped up and down with excitement. “Now all we gotta do is find a four leaf clover and I bet we need to wish at the same time!”

“Just like on TV?” Suzy asked.

“Uhhhh yeah.... I guess so....” Taylor said.

“Aren’t four leaf clovers hard to find?” Suzy then asked.

“Yeah.. but we can do it! Let’s go!” Taylor said as she headed for the door.

They both searched and searched and finally found a four leaf clover in the neighbor’s yard. “I found one!” Taylor yelled and ran to show her find to Suzy. The neighbors watched the scene from the window... too confused to even show their face as Taylor and Suzy danced hand in hand in a circle.

They ran back inside and to the bedroom. Taylor quickly threw together the same type items that she’d used before. Then she put the four leaf clover exactly where one had been the first time around. “OK... on the count of three, we both say ‘I wish I could trade back’ Ready?”

“Ready!” Suzy said.

“3-2-1.....”

“I wish I could trade back” They both chorused.

A clap of thunder roared in the distance the wind whistled.

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“Taylor...Taylor...Taylor.... Get up it’s time for school!” a voice said “It looks like there is going to be a storm”

“Taylor eyes popped wide open and she looked at her hands. They were a child’s hands... HER hands! “It worked! It worked! We traded back!” she said

“We what?” Suzy asked.

“Doncha remember??? We traded places so I could be the mommy and you could be the little girl!”

“Ohhhhh you were dreaming.... Best get up and get ready for school now!”

“We didn’t trade?” Taylor asked sounding disappointed. “But the four leaf clover....and the invention????”

“I’m afraid not, hon. You just had a dream... that’s all. Now get up and get ready for school. I need to get ready for work”

“Ohhhh..... ok...” Taylor answered dejectedly. It had seemed so real she thought. She got out of bed and grabbed the clothes her mother had laid out for her and was soon off to school. The morning’s dream was soon forgotten.

Suzy hurriedly made Taylor’s bed and thought about Taylor’s dream. “Such an imagination” she said as she smiled and shook her head.

She saw the clock ticking toward another boring day at work “What an imagination she has.... I sure wish I could be a little girl and not have all this responsbility” she said laughingly as she grabbed a loose four leaf clover that was resting on the carpet.

The end?

 

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