After breakfast Lauren got dressed and got ready to go out but stopped to look at the time. Her son still wasn’t up yet and she wanted to leave soon. She knocked on her son’s door and pulled it ajar. “Wake up James, we’re leaving in ten minutes.”
“Yep…” she heard him reply in an exhausted voice.
Lauren returned to the kitchen and as much as she wanted to force her son to do them she just couldn’t leave the dishes sitting there, especially since they would be out all day. So she washed them herself, but she told herself she would leave the bin to James.
By the time she had finished in the kitchen, more than the ten minutes had passed and James still wasn’t up. She went back to his room and knocked again.
“James, are you ready?” she asked, though this time she didn’t get a response. “James?”
Lauren opened the door to find his room was a complete mess. Clothes were scattered across the floor, hanging on his bedhead and over his computer chair. There was rubbish consisting of bottles and cans, chip packets, plastic packing spread throughout the room though mostly on the computer desk. The room also reeked of body odor and was rather stuffy.
Lauren was angry, though not because of the state of James’ room, she was angry because James was asleep. She stormed past the mess in his room and opened up his curtains, blinding him with sunlight.
“I told you we were leaving in ten minutes, that was fifteen minutes ago,” Lauren snapped as she hovered over her son.
“I didn’t hear you,” James replied half asleep as he tried to block the light.
“I knocked on the door and you answered!” Lauren scoffed. “You know what I don’t have time for this, I’m heading Chloe’s without you and if she asks where you are I’m just going to tell her the truth, that you’re too focused on video games you couldn’t get out of bed to visit.” Lauren motioned towards the computer, which hadn’t been shutdown last night. “I expect you to have the bins out before I get back and seeing as I did your job this morning, you’re also cooking dinner tonight.”
Before James could respond, Lauren had walked out of his room and slammed the door shut.
* * * * *
Lauren was angry at James when she hopped into the care and made the forty minute journey to Chloe’s house. Being tense made the drive a nightmare as she kept playing past moments James had angered or annoyed her not only that but every slow driver, every idiot and every red light got on her nerves more than usual. She couldn’t even recall the majority of the drive by the time she reached her destination.
“Hi mum,” Chloe called as she gave Lauren a hug, she then said something Lauren missed. “Mum?”
Lauren snapped out of of her trance and gave a sympathetic look to Chloe. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I said what do you think of my hair?” Chloe asked as she showed off her black hair bob cut. “I decided to go bold.”
“It’s ah… different,” Lauren commented not quite sure if she liked it or not just yet. “I guess it’ll take some getting use to.”
Chloe nodded. “I understand, I’m not quite use to it myself.” Chloe then looked over at Lauren’s car and saw that she came here alone. “Where’s James?” she asked.
“I don’t want to talk about your brother at the moment,” Lauren warned. Chloe got the message and didn’t press any further.
“Well I guess you’ll want to see the house then,” Chloe offered as she lead Lauren inside and gave her the tour. “Gregory had to fly out this morning so it’s just me at the moment,” she explained. “The house is has three bedrooms, en suite in the master bedroom. We’re using one of the bedrooms as a study and the other is just storage until we finish unpacking. There’s also a garage but that’s being converted into a man cave for when they guys are home from work.”
“Greg could’ve saved a bit of money if he got a smaller place,” Lauren commented as she was shown the house.
“We had considered that but this is a lifelong investment so we wanted to future proof ourselves,” Chloe stated as she put her hands on her belly. “I know we don’t get married for another six months and I’ve just started my nursing career but we both want kids down the line.”
Lauren gave her daughter a loving smile. “I’ve always liked Greg, he cares a lot about you,” Lauren stated. “I can’t wait until he’s officially my son-in-law.” Lauren gave a quick glance at the spareroom of the house. “Do you think I could convince James to move in here? Maybe that way I can downsize to a smaller place.”
Chloe gave a horrified look. “Oh, no, no, no, no… Gregory is a cleanfreak he’d kill James. Sorry mum but nice try.” She then headed towards the kitchen and motioned Lauren to sit down, while she made her a cup of tea.
“It was worth a shot, hey maybe I’ll just move in, instead, I wonder how long it’d take James to realize I moved out. I would say he’d notice no one is cooking him dinner or doing the laundry but he’d just get takeaway and wear dirty clothes, so my guess is until the bills were due.”
Chloe finished making the tea and passed it to Lauren. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about James,” Chloe reminded her.
“I’m just blowing off some steam, the boy drives me mad sometimes. I mean I love him but he’s not as responsible as you, when you where his age you had started university, had a part time job and were already dating Greg. James has done none of that, all he does is sit on his computer and plays games all day, and when he’s not doing that he’s sleeping. Sometimes I wish he was like you.”
Chloe shifted uneasily at her mother’s words. “You don’t mean that, I mean he’s lazy and hasn’t gotten his life sorted but at least he’s not a violent drunk like dad was. Besides I could annoy you too, remember how I’d use to always steal your makeup, and use your shampoos. You don’t really want two of me do you?”
“Sometimes I wish I did,” Lauren confirmed. “Besides, taking my stuff and not doing anything are two different things.”
“Mum… you don’t know what you’re saying, trust me on this. James is okay the way he is.”
Lauren gave Chloe a confused look. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I wish James would change but he won’t, not unless something drastic happened and he was forced to adapt. Now that’s enough about your brother.”
Chloe went silent as she finished her cup of tea.
There was an uncomfortable silence lingering after that. Lauren knew Chloe wanted to say something but she didn’t want to force it out of her. She knew it had something to do with what she had said about James but couldn’t figure out what it was. Whatever she had said soured the mood and she ended up cutting her visit short.
* * * * *
On the drive to Chloe’s place, Lauren had been angry and frustrated. On the drive home however she was disappointed and confused. On the drive home she tried to think where she had gone wrong with Chloe and the only thing she could come up with was when she wished James could be more like her. Thought why that would upset Chloe, she couldn’t figure out. Chloe knew he was a lazy and irresponsible so why wouldn’t she want him to change?
When Lauren pulled up, she was surprised to see that the rubbish had been taken out and not just from the kitchen, James had actually cleaned up his room as well. She opened the door and discovered James was actually preparing dinner. In the past when she had asked him, he’d forget until she reminded him then he’d order a pizza.
“Who are you and what did you do with James?” Lauren asked, stirring her son up.
“What do you mean?” He asked. “You know I prefer being called Jamie.”
Lauren looked at James in confusion. “You’re cooking dinner, and since when have you preferred being called Jamie?”
“Now who’s the imposter?” Jamie asked.
Lauren gave Jamie a closer look, he seemed different somehow. He had shaved his beard, but his hair looked longer and lighter and his skin looked fairer. “Okay, I see what’s going on ‘Jamie’ your sister called just after I left her place, didn’t she? This is just an elaborate joke. Well the jokes on you, as I don’t care. I’m more than happy for you to cook dinner.”
“I haven’t spoken to Chloe. So I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jamie stated.
“Whatever you say,” Lauren countered.
Having enough of this Lauren walked away and left Jamie in the kitchen to do dinner, while she continued her evening as usual. Though the evening didn’t end up being usual. After Jamie had prepared dinner, he began sorting out his room and not just tidying it either, he was planning to get rid of a lot of stuff. Though while Lauren was curious, she didn’t question it, his room was long overdue for a cleanout. After that he cooked dinner and even did the dishes without being told.
Lauren was still convinced this was a practical joke or at the very least Jamie felt bad for this morning and was now trying to suck up to her. The thing she knew for certain was this new ‘Jamie’ wouldn’t last.
* * * * *
The next morning when Lauren got up, she saw Jamie was already up and much of his room had been sorted out. She headed down the hallway and went to go to the toilet but it was locked. Lauren rolled her eyes as she heard the sound of liquid lading in the toilet. Jamie somehow missed when he went to pee and whenever he was done he always left the toilet seat up. However when Jamie got out of the toilet the toilet seat was already down. Lauren didn’t enter the toilet straight away and had to have a look at her son. He looked completely different from last night, his hair was almost blond and going past his shoulders, his butt looked bigger and his figure looked a lot more slender.
Lauren was speechless, this was way more than a prank, Jamie looked like a completely different person. In fact she reminded her of Chloe when she hit puberty, only grown up as well. Panic hit Lauren as she realised what she said yesterday to Chloe and how Chloe reacted to it.
“Did she know something like this would happen?” Lauren muttered to herself as she sat on the toilet seat.
As soon as she got out of the toilet, she looked for Jamie but he had left the house. She didn’t want to confront him with what she had noticed as he seemed to be unaware last night and thought she was acting weird. Instead Lauren called Chloe.
“Chloe, I need you to come over, something weird is going on with your brother,” Lauren explained over the phone without much details.
“He’s turned into a copy of me hasn’t he…” Chloe sighed.
Lauren paused for a moment. “Not yet, at least not entirely, but he looks a lot like you, yes. He even insists I call him Jamie.... Wait how did you know this would happen?”
“I knew it might happen,” Chloe replied. “As to how, well I’m better off telling you in person.”
Lauren tried to ask for more information but Chloe had already hung up by that stage.
* * * * *
The next hour was torture for Lauren as she waited for Chloe to get there. She couldn’t help but wonder what she had done to her son or her daughter for that matter. She wished that James would be more like her and given what Chloe said over the phone that meant he was becoming a copy of her not just becoming a woman. If there was a bright side to all this however it was that James himself wasn’t aware of what was happening so he was able to avoid the psychological trauma that would come with a change of this magnitude.
“Mum?” Lauren heard Chloe’s voice knock on the door. Though she wasn’t sure which of her children it was anymore. She got up and opened the door and found out it was the original Chloe. “Where’s James... or Jamie?” She asked.
“He... she’s not back yet, I’m not even sure what she went out to do. James would usually tell me but you wouldn’t so I guess he’s gotten that trait from you.”
Chloe gave her mother a hug. “It’s okay mum, I tried to warn you about this yesterday but I didn’t know if it would happen again and I didn’t know how to tell you…” Chloe started as she sat down on the couch with tears running down her cheeks.
“Tell me what?” Lauren asked as she placed a motherly hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “Tell me what? You can tell me anything you know, I’d probably believe it too.”
Chloe took a deep breath as she prepared to reveal a twenty year old secret. “You’re not mum, you’re not Lauren. Well you are now, but you weren’t originally,” Chloe informed her mother.
Lauren froze as she didn’t know how to react. Before today she would’ve said that was impossible but with James now Jamie and the look on Chloe’s face she knew it was true. “I don’t understand, if I’m not Lauren then who am I?”
“Dad… you’re dad,” Chloe answered. Lauren didn’t say anything so Chloe continued with the story. “You know how you left dad when we were kids because how violent he was, well for some reason you didn’t take us with you and we were left with him… with you. I was so scared and so angry that you weren’t mummy that I wished you were and the next day you had become mum, you had her memories and everything. As a kid I didn’t care, I had my mother back and dad was gone. As I got older I kept thinking about that moment thinking I had remembered it incorrectly but everytime I pictured it mum was the one that left, not dad. It wasn’t until yesterday when you wished James could be more like me, that my memory finally made sense. Somehow what I had said turned you into mum.”
Lauren sat next to Chloe as she told her the truth she had buried for all these years and still she couldn’t believe it. “That can’t be right, I know myself, I know Lauren. I would never, she would never have left you in the hands of that drunk man and if she did, she would’ve come back. So if I’m Lauren now, what happened to the real one?”
“I don’t know.... Maybe I erased dad from existence and you really are my mother or maybe… maybe…”
Before Chloe finished the thought, Jamie had come through the door, holding bags of clothes and other stuff that better suited his new life. “Chloe!” she dropped her bags and ran up to her sister giving her a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t come yesterday, I slept in, which is so unlike me. Ooh I love what you’ve done with your hair. Do you think I’d look good with a bob cut like that? Have you been crying?”
Lauren welcomed the distraction of Jamie entering when she did. She had finished her transformation, at least Lauren thought she had. Jamie looked exactly like what Chloe did, three years ago. She even acted like how she used to, coming into a room and talking non stop. Though there were a few features different between them, Jamie had Chloe’s long blonde hair, instead of the black bob cut she got recently and she still had her scar she got from fighting at school.
“Jamie, how about you go unpack your things, I just need a quick word with your sister,” Lauren instructed. Jamie listened straight away and headed to her room. Without taking the chance of them being overheard, Lauren and Chloe went out the back and shut the door behind them. “I don’t get it, you said I became Lauren and I remember her entire life. Jamie looks like you but still seems to be her own person.”
Chloe wiped the tears from her face. “I guess you might be my mother then, or it comes down the wording, I wished dad was mum, you wished Jamie was like me, so there could be some parts of him still. Either way it’s uncanny how much she looks like me.” She then averted her gaze from her mother. “Anyway can you forgive me for what I’ve done?”
“Chloe, there’s nothing to forgive,” Lauren gave her daughter a hug. “It must’ve been hard for you to hold this secret for so long but even if I’m not the original Lauren, I’ve been her for the last twenty years, I am and always will be your mother.” She then looked at the door and contemplated what to tell Jamie. “I can understand why you kept it a secret too. I think it’s best if we don’t tell Jamie what happened.”
Chloe nodded as they went back inside.