“When is that damned magician supposed to get here?” Courtney Miller asked her mother through clenched teeth.

“He should be here any minute…I told him 3 o’clock…” her mother responded.

“I’m sick and tired of keeping all these bratty little girls entertained by myself” Courtney huffed crossing her arms.

“Look; I appreciate you helping with your sister’s birthday party and I know it can get stressful, but relax, it’s not the end of the world helping out”

Just then an inflatable beach ball hit Courtney in the back of the head. Spinning around she looked down and saw her little sister Lily smiling back up at her. Lily with her long curly red hair and face full of freckles wore a white sundress with blue flowers on it and white sandals as she grabbed the wayward ball.

“Come on Courtney” she yelled grabbing her big sister by the wrist and pulling her back toward the screaming pack of 8 year olds.

Courtney rolled her eyes and allowed herself to be dragged back into the endless action. Courtney at 18 was ten years older than her sister. She adjusted her white tank top and tugged at the waistband of her tight and short jean shorts and bent down to scratch the top of her left foot after arriving to the gaggle of screaming girls.

Finally 15 minutes later the birthday party’s main attraction arrived: The Amazing Bob.

The Amazing Bob arrived in a run-down min van that belched smoke out its exhaust. He nearly tripped stepping out of his van as he took out a large black suitcase.

“Oh…this should be a great show…look at this dork” Courtney said with sarcasm dripping off her tongue.

Even though he was at least 30 yards away, The Amazing Bob looked her way. Courtney caught his glance and gave a slight “Hmph”

The Amazing Bob made his way toward the Miller’s backyard while putting on his cape and top hat. The kids all screamed and yelled now that there was something new to catch their attention. They all sat cross legged or bounced up and down as The Amazing Bob began his show.

He brought flowers from his hat and scarves out of his sleeves and poured a glass of punch into a rolled up newspaper; all the typical kids birthday tricks.

“Now” The Amazing Bob said loudly “why don’t we get the birthday girl up here to help me out with my next few tricks”

Lily bounced up and sprinted up to the magician. Her red hair flew out behind her like a flaming streamer and her freckled face lit up once she got next to The Amazing Bob. It was Lily’s Eighth birthday and she was very excited to get to help with the magic tricks.
The rabbit that they pulled from his hat was stuffed but the rings moved and locked at the right times so Lily was happy with the show.

“And now I will need another volunteer from the audience” all the little girls hands shot up but he waved them off “No, No; I need a special volunteer for this trick” His eyes trained up and locked on Courtney. “Lily: will you ask your sister Courtney to come here to help us?”

Lily’s eyes lit up again at the prospect but Courtney was shaking her head and had her arms locked across her chest. “No way” she protested “I don’t want to”

Lily’s eyes got big and she pleaded with her big sister “Please Courtney! Please!”
Finally tossing her hands in the air after the Courtney chant went up amongst the girls, she said “Fine” and stomped toward them.

The Amazing Bob now turned to his audience with Lily on his right and Courtney on his left. “So this is your big sister, huh, Lily?”

“Yep”

“Is she a good big sister?” he asked Lily.

Lily scrunched up her nose “Yeah…sometimes she picks on me though”

“Oh!” he stood up over exaggerating his actions and tsking towards Courtney.

Courtney still simply rolled her eyes and kept her hip slung outward and her arms folded across her chest.

“When she picks on you, does she call you a name?”

“Yes…she calls me freckle face!” Lilly laughed.

“But how can she call you that when she’s the one with the freckles” The Amazing Bob did an overzealous point and zap motion towards Courtney.

Courtney looked unimpressed but Lily’s hands shot up to her face in wonder. The Amazing Bob produced a hand held mirror from behind his back and as he waved it about, he handed it to Courtney.

Courtney lifted the mirror up and gasped: Freckles covered her face and neck “What? How did you do that?”

“Magic” he replied. He waved his hands once more and the freckles vanished from Courtney leaving behind her smooth complexion.

“Was that some kind of trick mirror or something?” Courtney asked.

“Trick Mirror, Tsk, non-believing girl!” The Amazing Bob said. He turned back to Lily “Does she ever make fun of you for your red hair too sometimes?”

“Yeah” Lily said and with that he turned and used same finger point at Courtney once again “TA-DA”

Suddenly red curls sprang into Courtney’s peripheral vision. Her long auburn brown hair was now red and curly like her little sister’s hair. It fell into her eyes and she quickly brushed it back. She tugged on it not believing it could be real, that it could actually be her hair; but it was.

Courtney took a step backwards; fingers running through her hair. The Amazing Bob flashed the mirror again and Courtney could only stare in disbelief at her hair. “How…How did you do that?” she asked again.

“What will it take for you to believe that my magic is real?” The Amazing Bob asked her, but he waved his hand once more and her hair changed back into its usual style and color.
Courtney’s hands patted her head and hair, pulling strands of it before her eyes.

The Amazing Bob now kneeled down in front of Lily. “So Lily there’s just you and your sister right?”

“Yep” Lily replied.

“So you’ve always been the little sister?”

“Yep”

“So you’ve never gotten to be a big sister, huh?”

“Nope”

Now the Amazing Bob stood and turned to Courtney. “So you’ve never been a little sister…just a big sister?”

Courtney’s eyes widened “What do you mean?”

“All I’m asking is if you have a big sister?”

“Uh…no” Courtney answered.

“So you’ve never known what it’s like to be younger sister?”

“No”

“Well that is a shame” He pointed to Lily “You’ve never been a big sister” then he pointed to Courtney “You’ve never been a little sister” Then he turned to the crowd. “So how about we do something about that?” he said as he clicked his fingers. “How many of you think Lily would make a better big sister than Courtney?” he asked the crowd and screams of approval came from the assembled girls.

“Then why don’t you try it sometime” he said as he pointed at both of them while looking ahead, then he crossed his arms until the opposite finger was pointed at each girl and said “Sisters Switch”

Courtney immediately began to shrink and Lily began to grow. Shock resonated on both their faces.

Courtney stared down at herself as she grew shorter and, she feared, younger. As her chest began to contract and pull inward, her shirt changed from a white tank top to a purple t-shirt to cover her diminishing size. Her arms shrank up and her hands pulled back. Her shorts now changed from tight jean shorts into plain and simple pink cotton shorts and she was grateful for it as her waist hips and rear all came in and her legs became rail thin. At the ends of those skinny legs were tiny feet in pink flip flops.

Lily watched as the ground got further and further away from her. She saw her feet growing bigger and her white sandals changed into brown leather moccasins. Her legs grew longer and she gained curves as they matured into the legs and bottom half of an eighteen year old. Her white sundress began to rise up her legs as they lengthened out. The bottom of the dress separated from the top and changed into a pair of skin tight brown shorts. Her vision of her legs became blocked as her body continued to mature and she developed breasts. The detached top of her dress now grew and widened to cover her new assets as a yellow tank top. Her arms elongated along with her hands, finishing off with manicured nails at the ends of her fingers.

He handed mirrors to both girls simultaneously. Upon taking hers Courtney screamed a high pitched little girl scream as she saw her immature face looking back at her. Her auburn brown hair was now just mouse brown and stringy. Her brown eyes were wide and her nose button small as her eight year old self looked back from the mirror. Her fingers pressed and probed her round chubby cheeks.

Lily simply said “Wow” in a husky voice. Her red hair was a darker shade now and her curls had straightened out. Her freckles were still present, but much fainter across her more mature face. She blinked her eyes and flashed a wide smile, admiring her grown up look. “This is so awesome” she said.

“Happy…Eighteenth Birthday to Lily and Happy Eighth Birthday to Courtney” The Amazing Bob said.

Courtney spun to her side to face the magician. “What did you do to me?!” she yelled in her childish voice. Then she caught sight of Lily “Lily? Why are you bigger than me?” she asked innocently enough.

“Well” the Amazing Bob said “I thought she should get a turn at being the big sister. You had never been a little sister either, so weren’t you curious to see what it’s like?”

“No!” Courtney shrieked “Change me back! I don’t want to be the little sister! I don’t want Lily to be my big sister! This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!”

“Oh really” the Amazing Bob said ominously as he clicked his fingers once again.

Everything went silent for just a second; then the noise of the party took off at full blast again.

Lily blinked and folded her arms across her chest. She rolled her eyes and asked “So am I done now?”

“Yes Lily…thank you for helping out your little sister at her birthday party”

Courtney’s mouth went up and down in shock as Lily walked off the stage as if nothing was wrong.

“Thank You all very much but that’s all I have for today” the Amazing Bob said as kids scattered all around.

“Wait” Courtney screamed “Lily come back here!” As Lily turned with a puzzled look Courtney saw the banner above the fence read Happy 8th Birthday, Courtney.

“Lily! You can’t just leave me like this”

“Like what?” she asked in a confused voice.

“What? You’re the 8 year old! Not me…I’m 18! He just switched our ages and he has to change us back right now” she said stamping her tiny foot and folding her arms across her chest.

“You’re funny Courtney” Lily said with a chuckle “A bit crazy thinking you’re supposed to be older than me but…” she said raising her eyebrows in disbelief “…that’s what I like about my kid sister” she finished as she turned and slipped a cell phone from her pocket to respond to a text.

“What did you do you fucking jerk!” Courtney’s girlish voice failed to put fear into her adult words. “You can’t go before you switch us back!”

An eight year old named Kendall ran up to them and said “Come on Courtney, the show’s over; come play with us, you’re missing all the fun” before she ran back to the crowd.

“Why does she think I’m her friend?” Courtney said with rising panic in her voice “Why does Lily think I’m her little sister? Why isn’t my Mom freaking out on you right now? What’s going on?”

“Well…since you didn’t believe in magic before, I’ve made sure that you do now.” The Amazing Bob said to the little girl. “You’re the only one who thinks that anything is wrong with you being an eight year old girl. Only you know what age you’re supposed to be…but to everyone else…you are Lily’s little sister. Courtney: just a regular old second grader”

Tears formed in Courtney’s eyes “You can’t leave me like this…please…I do believe in magic”

“As you should” The Amazing Bob pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to her. “If your Mom books me again…maybe we can do something about your situation”

As Courtney held the card between her short, thin fingers she felt a sudden breeze. When she looked up, The Amazing Bob was gone.