Amir Plays House

Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Can We Play?

“Can we play?” Violet said. The 4-year-old girl stood near Amir’s room’s doorstep, looking innocent as usual.

“Sorry, we just played! I’m really busy” Amir told her. He was in his last year of grad school, and the stress had been keeping him up for weeks.

“We played horsies, I now want to play family! It’s a different game” She crossed her arms and made a sour face.

“It doesn’t matter, you’d have to wait until tomorrow”

“NO! We play now!” Amir knew his sister could be very impatient and borderline a bully when she didn’t get what she wanted. Hell, she had some creepy tendencies, Amir saw her once methodically removing limbs from her dolls when she couldn’t get their parents to give her ice cream.

“Violet, I can’t play now. I have an essay to submit. I know it’s annoying that your older brother can play with you, but there’s nothing we can do about it”

“I said…” She started to cry. “WE.PLAY.NOW!” She screamed so loud that Amir couldn’t even keep his eyes open. He fell to his knees. The ground beneath him shook, and he felt like his heart might be failing him it was the most unbearable 15 seconds of his life.

“What happened?” Their mom barged into the room. “Violet why are you screaming?? Are you ok? Amir, have you done something to her??”

“I didn’t do anything!! I just told her I’m writing an essay for my class so I can’t play with her!!” Amir tried to explain himself. He finally could open his eyes and calm down from this overly dramatic outburst. He looked at their mom, who looked like she was trying hard not to laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re so cute when you play like this!” Their mom burst out laughing. “How precious! Honey! You have at least 10 years before you have to worry about essays, enjoy playing with your sister”

“Yes! Let’s play!” said Violet.

“What are you talking about?” Amir was confused, he looked back at his computer, only to realize his entire computer station was gone. “Wait…” Instead, there was a huge game drawer filled with legos, action figures, play dough, and many more games for kids. In fact, most of his room looked like a young kid's room. His bed was still the same size, but decorated with dinosaurus print and the entire room was painted baby blue. “What happened to my room!?”

Their mom looked around the room. “Seems fine to me. It’s even more organized than usual. You’ll definitely get dessert after lunch”

“NO!” yelled Amir.

“Fine, I’ll give your dessert to Violet”

“Yay!!” Violet clapped and cheered

“Not what I meant! Why is this a kid’s room? where is all my stuff?? My textbooks, my computer?”

“Honey, “ She looked concerned, “I know you like playing grownup sometimes, but you’re still just a kid, you don’t have textbooks or a computer, but I promise you, you’ll get tons of those once you’re in elementary school”

“Wait…” Amir looked at himself. He was still tall, taller than his mom, he had hair on his hands and legs and a full-on short trimmed beard. The only thing that changed was the way he dressed, he had Bluey shirt and bright red short pants. “Mom, what the hell happened to me?”

“I think you maybe played pretend too much it went to your head. You are my sweet sweet 5-year-old” 

“What!? This…it can’t be right” He looked at his worrying mom and then down at Violet. She had psychotic glee plastered on her face. “You know what, I’ll be glad to play with my sister”

“Yess!!” Violet ran to her room cheering with joy. 

“Good! I’m glad you snapped out of it” His mom hugged him. “I’ll call you when lunch is ready. I made you your favorite barbecue chicken tendies”

“Thanks, Mom”. Amir reluctantly walked to Violet’s room, thinking maybe his best bet was to get some answers from her.

He found her in her room, sitting on the floor next to a big dollhouse. He sat next to her and heard a crinkle under him. He bolted up and looked down at his underwear - it was disposable training pants with smiling dinosaurs on them. Amir was mortified as he remembered the control issues he had as a child. “C'mon!!!”

“Come on what? Stop looking at your undies and come play!”

“You did it, I know you did,” he said to her, trying to stay calm.

“Yes, I ordered all of the dolls here!” She looked proud. Clearly, she didn’t understand what he was trying to say.

“No, I’m talking about me. You did this to me, I was an adult and you, well… I have no idea what exactly happened, but I know it’s your fault”

“You were too busy being adult so I made sure you were no more,” she said calmly while brushing her doll.

“OK, so if I play with you will you turn me back? I don’t want to be a kid” 

“Maybe…You’ll be the baby of the house, and I’ll play the mother, here take” She gave Amir a Spiderman action figure with a little napkin around his crotch, signifying a diaper. If he was really 5, he would've been pissed she used one of his toys like that.

“I’m still the older brother, can I play the father?” 

“But then there will be no baby because I’m the mother!” She was starting to get angry.

“I can play both. I’ll do THIS VOICE FOR THE FATHER” He said to her in a deep and gravelly voice. “and this voice to the baby” he said in a quiet and squeaky voice. Violet chuckled loudly.

“Yes, be both!” She was finally happy and enthusiastic.

They played for a while, Amir was so engrossed in the play, that he even managed to forget that his little sister turned him 5.  

“How are my babies doing?” Their mom looked at them from the hallway. Being referred to as a baby immediately pulled him from the game and back into the weird reality he found himself in. “You’re probably hungry, you’ve played for a while!”

Violet reluctantly got up, and so did Amir, though, his pants felt weird. 

“Violet go sit at the table. Amirush, do you need a changey?” 

“No!” Amir stared at her angry that she even suggested he wet himself, even though everyone thinks he’s five he still had control.

“I’m just gonna check, ok?” in a second she pulled down his bright childish pants to his ankles and looked at his training pants. “Yeah, I knew it. You need a change.” The pants’ wetness indicator was blue all the way up, it was completely soaked.

“How? I didn’t even notice” Amir was flabbergasted. 

“Don’t worry, you know how you sink deep into games. You’ll grow out of it soon” She took him by the hand into the toilet and dropped the wet and soggy disposable and when she tried to bring wipes to clean him, Amir stopped her 

“Please, don’t. It’s too weird, I can do it myself” His mom raised her eyebrow. 

“Why weird? I’ve done this every day in the last 5 years. But if you want to, you can do it yourself, I’ll just sit here”, she dropped down the toilet lid and set next to him, “and watch that you do it right, ok honey?”

Amir sighed and agreed to the less humiliating terms. He managed to clean himself just right, that his mom was visibly impressed.

“Wow! What a big boy! All your adult pretend really helps me out, huh? Next thing you’ll file my taxes” She cackled and brought him a new disposable, this time with superheroes on it. 

Amir sighed again, and with zero pleasure put himself into the glorified diaper. 

At the table, Violet set on her booster, waiting impatiently for her chicken tenders. Next to her, was another booster but big enough to place Amir in it. He knew it was his place, and warily, he set there. At least he was glad to eat some good food, as he always adored his mom’s cooking.

He ate quietly and slowly, trying to consider a way to approach his state and a way to handle Violet, when he noticed something weird, his chicken pieces were starting to float away from his plate, and right into Violet’s.

“Hey! Stop that!” Amir yelled. It’s one thing turning him five, it’s another to steal the only thing that makes him happy in this state.

“I’m hungrier than you,” the little devil said

“So ask Mom, don’t steal mine!” He told her. “Let's see what mom has to say about it: MOM!! Violet is stealing my chicken!!”

“Shh stop telling on me!” Violet yelled back.

“What now?” Their mom entered the kitchen, “I thought we stopped the fighting today”

“Violet stole my -” Amir couldn’t finish his sentence when a strong shriek filled the room, blinding him with its strength.