The Change of the Seasons: The Long Sweat

Chapter 12
Storm in a Teacup

Chapter Description: The best laid plans can sometimes go so horribly wrong.

[size=2]Many different things had changed for the Medlock family over the course of the summer. The eldest son James, an irresponsible college student, had been magically transformed into an elementary school age boy while the youngest son Jonathan, a distant preteen boy had been seemingly altered into a young adult to take his brother’s place. In the case of the Medlock family’s breadwinner Jennifer, the single mother had only been rejuvenated out of her middle age. The now 38 year old mom wasn’t dissatisfied with her own transformation; but being so long divorced she couldn’t help but notice, now more than ever, that despite all the changes in her life, she still awoke up alone in her king size bedroom every morning. When she was a decade older, she had justified her lack of a second husband to her elderly parents in many ways: she was a career oriented woman, menopause was around the corner for her, and besides she already had two great sons to carry on her legacy. Now that Jennifer was in her 30’s again, these reasons seemed hollow to her. It was like if this last spark of youth granted to her had also caused a renewed sense of desperation to have a sexual relationship again.

In her time off work she found herself going to her office’s gym more and more to get back into shape and to engage with the numerous young and single men that prowled there. Her home life seemed to encourage this behavior of hers as well. Jonathan was taking up increasingly more of her parental responsibilities and the motherly lioness felt herself being complacent in her declawing on the home front. Despite the magic water that drastically changed their lives, Jennifer felt that her life was all the more complicated than it was in her middle age. It didn’t help that Jonathan was asking serious questions about his dad Jacob, which constantly reinforced the stress she thought she buried long ago. She often found herself wondering if she was supposed to stand in that rain shower on the summer solstice for just a bit longer.

It was this nagging feeling that had finally convinced her to move up her plans for a family vacation. Her extended family had always gone to Old Lake Beach and it had been far too long since she and her sons had just gone there as a family. One Saturday morning in early August, she had abruptly announced during breakfast that they were going to spend the day at the beach. Both her boys seemed overjoyed, James always loved swimming in the water and Jonathan looked like he could use the excuse to go see his girlfriend Samantha. Their relationship seemed to be waning recently in spite of its promising start. Jennifer figured that it wouldn’t last once Samantha went to college in the coming weeks. At the very least she hoped the two could end things on a high note. When breakfast was over with, the three of them loaded up the car and drove over to the beach. She hated to admit it, but Jonathan was driving better every time they went out. She could probably trust him to drive by himself at this point, though she kept that too herself.

Once they arrived, she found a nice spot to set up on the beach and after laying out a couple of beach chairs she called out to her formerly oldest son, “James! Baby! Let me get suntan lotion on you before head out into the water.”

“Ok mom!” James innocently replied, the preteen boy approached her and allowed her to lather him in suntan lotion.

Jennifer did not know what to think of James recently. She had done her best to prepare him for the effects of Facilitation but the end results felt a bit off to her. She was happy that her son was able to accept his return to childhood but at times he seemed to act like there never had been a “return” at all. When she questioned him about how he was acting a few days after being babysat by Sarah Longview, he seemed to downplay his former life as a college student. She hadn’t expected Facilitation to affect him so strongly. The regressed college student at the very least had a more positive relationship with his brother. When they had gone to watch fireworks on the 4th of July, Jonathan had even picked up his former older brother and put him on his shoulders to better see the colorful display over the crowds. Jen had captured the moment in an outstanding photo that she believed represented everything good that had happened this summer to her family. After a few minutes of impatiently waiting for their suntan lotion to dry, both her boys raced into the lake and began to play together. They began playing some game where Jonathan would raise James above the water and throw him as far as he could while James pretended to be a fish of some sort and kept grabbing his brother’s legs. It was a heartwarming sight to the single mother and she had a small desire to join her sons in such horseplay.

Jennifer had been so deep in thought that she didn’t notice the Longview sisters approaching her until they were right on top of her. The two girls were as lovely as ever, Samantha was wearing a two-piece yellow bikini while Sarah wore a slightly less revealing two-piece swimsuit that was dark blue. Jennifer had been very surprised by Sarah recently, not only was she going through a growth spurt but it seemed like her personality was becoming much more ambitious. Before the summer, Sarah was never one for being outside. She had always been an introverted bookworm, which made her random appearance on the beach all the more shocking to Jennifer and caused her to feel ever more self-conscious of her conservative tankini, which now felt incredibly juvenile on the grown woman.

“Hello Ms. Medlock!” Sarah exclaimed, already taking charge of the conversation as she placed a small cooler and a rather large beach bag by the sand next to her.

“Well hello girls,” Jen responded, “I see that you’re still lugging that cooler around Sarah. You got some special juice in there or something?”

“Nope, it’s just water. I figured my sister could use some hydration while on the line of duty.”

“Yeah right,” Samantha said bitterly.

Jen was worried about the college bound girl’s attitude, “Is everything alright sweetheart?” she asked.

“It’s just my last day of work and Sarah here has been hounding me nonstop about something.” Samantha answered while eying the cooler resting on the sand.

“You’ll be so much happier Sammy,” Sarah jumped in, “If you just get it over with, you’ll see how stubborn you’re being about this. It won’t really change anything between us.”

Jennifer nodded understandably. I know what’s going on here, she thought. “Girls,” she interrupted the teenage banter, “I’ve always treated you like the daughters I never had and that won’t change even if you two aren’t courting my sons. Especially you Sarah, I know how close you’ve always been to Jonathan. I’m sure you guys can get together soon despite your sister breaking up with him.”

This apparently caught the girls completely off guard. Sarah’s face had gone red from embarrassment. It was Samantha who broke the long silence, “You’re right. I do think I should break up with Jonny, but it’s bigger than that…I don’t want to go to college.”

This was incredibly shocking to Jennifer who had no idea Samantha held such feelings. “That’s a tough choice. Are you sure you want to wait a year before going? I’m sure your parents will be heartbroken.” she told her.

“It’s their fault,” Samantha said while ignoring the first half of her comment, “They wouldn’t let me do anything for most of my life until it was suddenly time to leave the nest for college.”

“You should do what you feel is right for you.” she told Samantha. “Let me go fetch Jonathan from the lake and you can let him down gently.” she got up to go to the lake but suddenly realized how thirsty she was. Letting the girls continue their conversation undisturbed, she reached into Sarah’s cooler and grabbed a water bottle without asking.

I’m sure Sarah-bear won’t mind if I take one, she told herself.

--------------------------------

James had just been thrown for the billionth time across the lake by his big brother. Even weeks after his transformation, he still wasn’t completely used to his smaller size. Though it was perhaps more to the point to say that James wasn’t used to someone who was so much bigger and stronger than he had ever been as a grown up. He and big brother had been playing some variant of tag he had made up on the way here. He would try and tag Jon’s legs while his brother would retaliate by trying to grab him from the surface like he was a fisherman grabbing a trout in a stream. Jon hadn’t exactly been thrilled about the idea at first, but after some taunting he had finally gotten his brother in the mood and the two were now having a blast in the lake. James swam in under Jon’s legs in order to grab his feet but was instead hoisted up by Jon’s superior strength. James had been winning at first but now Jon was getting into the game and started tickling James every time he managed to grab the younger boy swimming around him in the water. The game was so much fun that James didn’t care anymore that the high pitched laughter filling the air was in fact his; he was far too busy frantically trying to escape his brother’s stranglehold. It had dawned on him more than once that he had been on the opposite end of this brotherly stranglehold when he was the grown-up. He was glad that Jon was carrying on this particular legacy of their past relationship.

While being held in the gentle firm grasp of his big brother, James reconsidered the reasoning behind his transformation into a kid. He knew that he had never been unkind towards his brother but as he thought back through the course of the summer, James realized that he should have been more intimate with Jon. In high school, James felt increasingly more awkward in displaying physical affection towards Jonny and he barely called home when he was away at college. Now, James reaped all the rewards of being the little brother: he sat on Jon’s lap when they played videogames together, Jon often covered for him when he got in trouble, and James had even sleep in his big brother’s bed after he got too spooked by a movie they watched last week. He felt a sharp pang of regret for not being so brotherly when he was still the older one. After their father Jacob left their family, James was supposed to be the man of the house. And while he did the minimal of what was expected of him and loved his mother and brother with all his heart, James had never truly considered their feelings towards him. His mother wanted someone to confide and rely upon while his brother needed a dad in his life. James couldn’t be that dad for him, and now it apparently fell on little Jonny to take on that mantle.

Jon once again threw him with his great strength and the boy flew across the lake water some five or six feet before slamming into it like a cannonball. As his feet touched the bottom of the lake, the preadolescent boy relaxed his body and floated up to the surface. He wondered what had happened to the teenage years that were siphoned out of him. The boy had no illusion that he would randomly bump into some of those years again while he floated up to the surface.

Where did those years go? Did Jon just get them or are they just at the bottom of Old Lake? he speculated.

As logical as that sounded to him, something in his gut told him otherwise. His elementary school education reminded him of the salmon, the fish that swim up river against all odds in order to breed in the waters that they themselves were born in. Perhaps those years of his young, misspent adulthood had gone back up the delta that poured into Old Lake; and up the various creeks and streams of New Springs, back into the mountains and caves from which that magical water had flowed out of. Even if the 10 year old boy could trace those years up the valley and locate where they were deposited, James knew that he wouldn’t be interested in taking them back. For the first time in his 20 years of living within the strange little valley town known as New Springs, James was thoroughly enjoying his youth.

When James resurfaced he saw that his mom was casually swimming towards Jonathan. He instinctively swam to meet the two. By the time he reached them they were already in conversation.

“She’s here?” Jonathan asked their mom.

“Yeah she wants to speak to you about her future.” Their mom relayed.

His big brother didn’t seem to take the message very well. Gloominess seized him and the happy brother was gone, “I’m not going to like this am I?”

“I’m sorry son,” their mom offered and gave him a quick hug, “You can’t imagine how proud of you I am.”

“Thanks,” he said with an audible sign of dejection in his voice, “I better go face the music.”

James and his mother silently watched Jon swim back to the shore. The preteen boy had mixed emotions. He gathered enough from the conversation to know that Sammy was probably going to break up with Jon on the beach. Given his own bias on the matter, James was fairly satisfied with the outcome but he also felt very bad for his brother. He didn’t have time to dwell further on the situation however as his mother had pulled him into a hug as well.

“I’m also proud of you too sweetie.” she said as she rubbed her cheek against his.

“Thanks but I don’t think I have really done anything.” he said.

His mom broke away from him and opened up a water bottle that she had been holding onto. James wouldn’t have even noted its existence if he hadn’t drank one recently that warped his entire prospective on life. His mom sipped it briefly and then responded, “Remember what we talked about in the bathroom all those weeks ago? About helping Jonathan become the big brother that was right for you?”

James nodded, that moment was the closest he had been with his mom for many years.

“Well you succeeded, everything Jonathan is now is because of you.” she said.

He had a hard time believing that, “I’ve just been being a kid, I don’t see how that affects him.”

“For the ten short years of his life Jonathan has felt rejected by those closest to him. Your father left him when he was an infant, you left him for college when he was a child.” she explained. “He never acted like it but he depended on me being there for him, even now.”

James felt another pang of regret, he had never really thought of Jon that way before.

“It’s why he has responded so well with you being the little brother now.” his mom continued, “You have been so been kind and affectionate towards him that you have completely reversed his attitude in life. Not only is he interested in his own future but he’s dedicated to our future as a family as well. The selfish boy has become a selfless man. That is a rare feat in this day and age, especially among our family.” She once again opened her bottle and took another swig of it.

The former underachieving college student wasn’t sure of what to make of that, “Are you saying he’s better than me?”

His mom enthusiastically held up her free hand in a motion to stop his train of thought, “You and I basically raised Jonathan together; I’m just saying that we should be proud of his accomplishments. I know it must hurt to have your old self compared to Jon like that, but you made out like a bandit in other ways.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“10 is a good age to restart your life from. You have chance to re-experience your childhood for a bit and you have a roadmap of the next decade of your life that you can use to navigate adolescence again like a pro. That’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

He knew his mom was right, more than he could tell her. The divorce had basically ruined his years as a preteen the first time around. The simple fun he was experiencing as a 10 year old this summer felt long overdue to him and it felt even better that the only thing around the corner for him was a return to the 5th grade. “I’m not embarrassed about being a kid again,” James admitted to his mother, “I just wish I wasn’t so fat.”

“Come on squirt, not this again.” his mom said and flicked him in the forehead out of the blue. “Look at yourself for once; you aren’t all that fat anymore from playing around. In fact, you’ve been swimming really well out here; if you kept at it you could have a swimmer’s body if you wanted to.”

He was taken aback by his mom, not in just what she said but how she said it. Her attitude and even her word choice seemed completely different to the boy now. It was like the tender conversation between mother and son had just vanished all at once. “Mom...” he tried to get in.

James’ mom swallowed another mouthful of water and continued talking like she hadn’t even heard him, “Hell, maybe you could get Jon to sign you up for the swim team...“

“Mom!” James shouted, “What are you saying?!!! You’re the mom in charge here!!!”

His mom was clearly confused, “Huh, What are you blabbering about?”

James’ paranoia about plastic water bottles was rapidly becoming justified “Where did you get that water bottle?!!!” he demanded.

“Just out of Sarah’s cooler, she’s not going to flip a shit over some water.” she said nonchalantly.

“You’re drinking the magic spring water!”

For a moment he could tell that he finally got through to her, his mom’s eyes widened and the full grown woman looked completely aghast. Just as suddenly though, something seized ahold of her and the boy correctly assumed it was the pleasurable sensation that had previously taken control of him twice now.

James’ mom reclined onto her back, “Oh god!” she gasped pleasurably.

He could already tell that she was being regressed in age just like he had been. Her large maternal breasts were deflating rapidly as if they were balloons having their air pinched out of them. The fat that remained from her previous regression out of middle age was now being drained completely out of her. He knew that the sensation was only intensifying when she started moaning with pleasure. Her long blonde hair was slowly crawling up her back while its dull color was brightened. When James saw that her legs were starting to recede in length he bolted for the shoreline.

“I’m getting Sarah’s help mom!” he shouted though he was entirely unsure if she had even heard him.

James swam with an intensity that was unmatched for a kid his age. He could clearly see the spot his family had set up on the beach and the sight freaked him out even more. Jonathan was screaming at Sarah as she stood defiantly against him, as if defending something behind her.

Crud! What the heck is going on? he thought as his feet hit wet sand and he ran the rest of the way over on foot.

He could hear bits and pieces of the commotion between the two and definitely recognized some of the cuss words Jonathan was bombarding Sarah with.

“What the FUCK are you thinking Samantha?!!!” his big brother cursed past the younger Longview sister.

Sarah seemed unfazed by his brother, “It’s her choice Jonny. She wants this.”

As James approached them it was becoming increasingly clear what was happening. Sammy sat in an obvious trance behind her younger sister, although “younger” didn’t seem all that significant anymore. Samantha’s teenage years were being unwound from time right before his eyes. All signs of her well-endowed adult features were simply evaporating, leaving behind the gangly teen girl he had grown up with. Just like his with his mom, Sammy’s breasts were rapidly shrinking in size to the point where they disappeared completely behind her bikini. Sammy’s body was essentially undergoing reverse puberty. She was getting shorter and her skin was getting paler in color. Her dark hair, tied in a ponytail, was also getting smaller in proportion with her body. She no longer looked like a high school student to James; in fact she was looking more like a middle schooler. Just as he feared that it would continue going the transformation abruptly stopped in her preteen years; the magical presence apparently satisfied with reversing any visible signs that Samantha was ever a teenage girl. Instead, as the unnerved girl slowly stood up from the beach chair, it was perfectly clear that puberty had not reached her just yet. She was tall though, taller than James at least.

Sammy saw him and awkwardly ran over to him while barely holding up her bikini.

“James!” she screamed with a pitch in her voice he hadn’t heard in years.

Sammy came to a halt before the boy and hugged him tightly. His height in comparison to hers became unmistakably clear as she leaned slightly over him in her embrace.

James didn’t know what to do at this point. He came here to start yelling at his babysitter and now he was joyfully being squeezed to death by the crush of his life.

He looked past Sammy’s shoulders and saw that Jonathan was marching towards them at a frightening pace. Unexpectedly however, his brother stopped right in his tracks several feet away from them. The fury James could see in his eyes changed into total disbelief. It was only when Jon cursed and slammed his foot into against the sand and marched back to the beach chairs that James realized that his big brother wasn’t reacting to the preteen couple.

Coming in from the surf was a young teenage girl that shared his bright shade of sandy blonde hair. All teens looked mature from James’ newfound boyhood perspective. Even so, James could not deny that the dazed girl approaching them radiated with youth. Her long hair came down to just below her shoulders and her bangs mostly hide away her eyes. She was skinny, not as skinny as Sammy, but enough to make the takani she was wearing look ridiculous on her young body.

In a flabbergasted state, James walked up to the young teenager, “Mom?” he asked quietly, his eyes mirroring his brother’s state of disbelief.

The girl slowly raised her delicate hands to part away the bangs covering her eyes. They were blue, exactly as his were. He intimately knew the young girl’s face; though it was one that existed many decades in the past, in the old family photos he once studied with fascination. Her white skin had a warm tint to it and the few remaining freckles from her childhood were lightly sprinkled over her face.

“James???” she asked. “What’s happened to me?” Her voice betrayed a sense of fear and complete confusion.

The proud lioness of the Medlock family had been reduced to little more than a cub. In the face of every basic feeling that screamed at James to acknowledge the woman that gave birth to him and raised him for 20 years, it was simply impossible for him to even imagine that this young teenage girl had ever been an adult.

“You….got younger.” he finally told her.

She nodded her head in agreement; though to James it looked she was still simply trying to convince herself. It felt downright bizarre that they two of them had been adults before this summer. First he had been turned into a child and now his own mother was a developing teenager again. The son and mom had been effectively transformed into brother and sister.

“This is fucking bullshit!” Jonathan shouted from the beach chairs. His big brother was now searching through his mother’s bag and tossing aside everything in his way. Jonathan finally pulled out a pair of keys and stormed off towards their mother’s car. The young teenage girl that had been his mother tried to stop Jonathan but found herself short of words.

“Jonny get back here!” Sarah shouted. The 15 year old girl looked like she was about to charge right after him. She instead turned and quickly picked up the cooler that had caused all of this. She then looked directly at his regressed mom with her eyes staring down the poor girl with a fiery intensity “Can you get them home?” she asked in tone that seemed more like a command.

The young girl that had been a fully frown woman minutes before nodded submissively. A quick glance between the two revealed his mom was at least a year younger than his babysitter now. “I think so.” she answered worryingly.

The words were but wind to Sarah’s ears. James doubted she had even bothered to listen to them. She was bounding after Jonathan who was entering the driver’s seat of his mother’s car. Miraculously, the bookish teenager forced her way into the front seat as his brother was backing up and they the two of them sped off into the unknown.

James was now alone with two regressed women and they were beginning to lose it.

“What am I supposed to do?” his shell-shocked mom asked.

Sammy finally snapped out of the euphoria of her transformation after watching her ex-boyfriend along with her own sister abandon her on the beach. The preteen girl was now tearing up as she attempted to think with her mentally regressed thoughts. “Can you drive us back home with my car Ms. Medlock?” she asked his regressed mom, she looked unsure of how she was even supposed to address her now.

The teenager looked absolutely defeated, “I don’t even know if I’m old enough to have a learner’s permit.” she said.

The situation was going south incredibly fast. James knew from his own regression on the beach months ago that the two half-naked girls were attracting a lot of attention. He needed to think fast before concerned beach-goers got involved and the regressed trio found themselves in a foster home on the other side of the country. Analyzing the day’s events, it was undeniable that Sarah had clumsily orchestrated her sister’s regression, so he immediately went towards the excessively large beach bag and found a crap ton of girls bathing suits that ranged in various sizes. He grabbed the first bathing suit that could fit a preteen girl and threw it at Sammy’s general direction.

“Get this on Sammy!” he ordered and then threw a teenage bathing suit at his mom turned teen, “You too mom! We need to get out of here!”

As the regressed women were changing clothes, James scoured the area his brother had discarded the items from their mom’s beach bag over and discovered her cell phone. Sure enough, he found the number of the person he was looking for, the man who went by the name of Seth. James didn’t know how he was going to explain what happened to the mysterious man. He also had no idea where Jonathan and Sarah had gone; he just hoped that his big brother knew what he was doing.

Taking a moment to convince himself that he was making the right decision, James pressed the call button and prayed that Seth would answer.

The Long Sweat reaches its climax in: Climbing up Jacob’s Ladder[/size]