“Good morning, son,” I heard a familiar voice say as I rustled around in the sheets, “Time to wake up…”
I opened my eyes and rolled around. Something seemed strange… and then when everything came into focus I saw my own body leaning over the bed, smirking at me with my own face!
“Oh shit!” I said, and instantly grasped at my throat. This was not my voice! I sounded so much… younger! “Who are you? What the hell is going on!”
“I’m Charles Dittmaier,” said my duplicate, “And you are my son, Christian Dittmaier. Aren’t you feeling well, son?”
“Stop it!” I said, propping myself up in the bed. It was my son’s bed. I was in his bedroom! “I’m Charles Dittmaier!”
I looked down at my body. Gone were my furry pecs, my well-toned body – and in their place was Christian’s pale, scrawny frame. I could never get the kid to be a real man and go out for any of the sports teams at school. He insisted instead on his computer classes and online games.
“Nope, I’m afraid you’ve got it all wrong,” my imposter said confidently, with a smug look on his face, “See, I’m the dad now and you’re the son. And that means you need to get up and go to school, and I need to get ready for work. We can discuss all of the details later, but I suggest you just go along with this for now, all right kiddo?”
“What!” I said in total desperation, “Christian! Please, we need to talk about this! Just – whatever you did – change us back, ok?”
“I don’t think so,” he said, turning away.
“Where are you going?” I asked him as my head spun.
“I’m going to go hop in my shower, and then pull on one of my most expensive suits, and then head out in my BMW to run my company.”
“You – you can’t!” I said, “They’ll know something’s not right. Christian, please!”
He only laughed as he walked out of the room. I threw myself down in the bed, covering my face with my hands and hoping this was all just a very, very bad dream…