Edits - Ch 5.1.1.1.1.1.2.1

Chapter 5.1.1.1.1.1.2.1 - Tim closes the app before the transformation is finished.

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Worried about what might happen if they ended up as toddlers, Tim decided to close the app immediately, hoping that would stop the regression.

The moment the app stopped running, they were hit by a sudden earthquake, shaking their bodies to the point that their vision went blurry. It felt as if they were on a train that had just derailed and was grinding to a halt. Their bones vibrated, making it impossible to hear above the noise or even think clearly. Gradually, the shaking died down, and everything began to feel more stable again as the last energy remnants dissipated.

When it was over, Tim looked to his friend Steven. The four-year-old looked back at him nervously.

“What was that?” Steven asked.

“An earthquake?” Tim replied although he was not sure. Nothing around them appeared to have fallen over. Even the pictures on the walls were hanging level.

“Hey, Tim?” Steven asked.

“Yeah,” Tim replied, feeling deeply confused.

“What were we doing just now?”

Tim chuckled. That was obvious. “We were just…” he started to say but trailed off when he realized that the answer was not coming to him. “Uh…” Tim tried hard to remember, but he had only a fuzzy impression that he had been doing something with a phone just now. There was a phone beside him on the couch, but the screen was locked. With no idea what the password was, he had no hope of using it. No, it could not have been the phone, but what was it? What were they doing?

“I don’t know,” Tim admitted at last. “Must not have been that important.” He shrugged.

“Boys?” a woman called to them.

They turned to see Steven’s mother enter the room.

“Mom,” Steven said. “Did you feel the earthquake?”

“Earthquake?” she said, sounding confused. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“I felt it,” Steven said. “The whole world was shaking, the whole universe! Tim felt it too.”

“Oh my,” Steven’s mother said, humoring them. “That must have been quite intense.”

Tim nodded but said nothing. He could not quite shake the nagging thought that there was something significant that he should be remembering. However, no matter how much he thought about it, he could not figure out what he was forgetting. His mind was blank.

“Hey,” Steven’s mother said. “Are you two ready to go to the playground?”

“Yeah,” Steven replied.

Tim nodded, his worries disappearing as soon as the prospect of playing with his best friend on a jungle gym entered his mind.

“Great,” she said, “Let’s get your shoes on.”

The boys ran to the door, grabbed their shoes and began slipping them on.

“Hey,” she said. “Where did you get this phone?” She held up the phone Tim had left resting on the couch.

Tim shrugged. “Dunno,” he replied. “Found it? Don’t remember.”

Steven’s mother put the phone away in the kitchen and returned. “Let’s not worry about that,” she said before checking that they had their shoes on. After taking a moment to help Tim with his laces, she opened the front door, led them outside, locked up behind them, and instructed them to hold her hands as they headed for the crosswalk.

The pair of four-year-olds were overjoyed to be out of the house on their way to play and soon forgot about the earthquake and the phone and every other trace of their old lives.

The End