Amy sat back against the couch very slowly. Her head was spinning from the story she had just heard and she didn’t know what to say.

Lori stood up from her chair “Frankly, I’ve never been so afraid in all my life and I am so sorry that my daughters have to go through what we went through” she said pointing to Jennifer.

“We thought it was a one shot deal for the two of us and we really did think we got rid of this book” Jennifer said as she tapped the leather cover in front of them. “But now that it’s back…it’s given me at least a thought that there might be some way to reverse it”

Kelly now sat upright “Yeah…I mean if it’s now gotten two generations of us to switch ages, it must have a reason for being here and if there’s a way into this mess, then there has to be a way out of it”

“Don’t get too excited Kelly” Lori cautioned. “Your Aunt and I have been talking about this again after really not speaking about it for years. We even tried saying the spell again between us to see if we would switch and nothing happened”

Amy and Kelly exchanged a look at those words. Amy picked up the book and started to examine it closely.

“I’ve looked that book over a bunch over the last two weeks and I can’t find a single marking in it to indicate where or when it came from, but if you can…good luck” Lori said. “Just from the quality of the paper and the color of it, you can tell it was old when we found it, but not really old. To me it looked like the type of paper that was being made in the 1920’s or 30’s”

Amy looked over at her mother and suddenly asked “Did you ever wonder why you had girls that were seven years apart…just like you and your sister?”

Lori looked down and sighed heavily. “Yes” was all she said before she looked up “I don’t even know how to say this, but we weren’t trying to have a second child; but the next thing I knew…I was pregnant. It played in the back of my mind at the time but I put those thoughts out of my mind and tried to ignore them. Then I started worrying to myself once you turned 10 Amy that this would happen and…” she trailed off and clapped her hands.
Amy and Kelly saw the tears in their Mom’s eyes and Amy stood up and hugged her as tight as she could while she whispered “It’s not your fault” into her ear.

This only caused Lori to cry even harder. Kelly now came over and hugged on the other side of Lori. And despite the fact that she now only came up to her Mom’s chin, she too whispered “I’m not mad about what happened to me Mom…I’m just confused and trying to do my best with it”

Lori was now fully sobbing and she hugged her girls.

After a while, they had calmed back down, even though Lori continued to dab a tissue at the corners of her eyes.  Jennifer said “Just know that we’re here for you girls for all the issues and problems you might and will face as you transition into your new lives”

Kelly sat back and said with a dull realization “Oh yeah; school starts in on Tuesday”

Jennifer piled the other three into her rental car and took them out for dinner. It was mildly irritating and somewhat embarrassing for Kelly when the waitress handed her a kids menu, but as she sat back in the booth seat and she felt her feet rise up off the floor, she was fully reminded of her status in the world. “At least I don’t have to worry about what I eat for my figure” she said to cheer herself up.

Amy was still amazed at how hungry she got at 17 and by how much she could eat if she wanted to. She was tall and thin at 5’10” and her metabolism let her eat.

Lori and Jennifer mostly picked at their food as they talked and tried to figure out why and how the book reappeared.

“As stupid as it sounds…that book is following us for some reason” Lori said under her breath.
“But until we find out something about not only the book but the spell, we don’t know how to reverse it” Jennifer added.

“Or if we can reverse it” Amy joined in the conversation. “I’ve already been trying to search the words to the spell on the internet and I’ve come up with nothing in the last two weeks”

Lori and Jennifer now gave their attention over to Amy. “The closest I can find a match to the book is that it was made by a British company named Kensington Press in either the 20’s or 30’s as I’ve been searching leather bound books too”

“With no writing and no marks of any kind on any page…I don’t want to say it’s a dead end, but…” Amy shrugged at the end.

Tuesday came and with a new school year.

Kelly woke up early in anticipation and anxiety; starting the 5th grade had her on edge that morning. She hopped out of bed and showered and got ready. It was a hot day, so she wore dark green shorts and a yellow top with a pair of gray canvas sneakers and ankle socks. School rules for fifth graders and all students at her elementary school were no open toed shoes allowed. She was already down stairs having her cereal when Lori had to call up to wake Amy.

Amy yawned and stretched and ran her fingers through her messy head of brown hair. “Crap…” she said to herself as she swung her legs out of the bed and let her feet hit the floor. “…first day of school and it’s High School” She staggered down the hall to the bathroom and flipped on the shower. She stepped into the hot water and let it run over her as she thought “God…I hope I don’t make an ass out of myself”

Amy had been texting back and forth with a group of girls that she was now friends with. She wasn’t on the soccer team despite the fact that she must have been on it last year to get a trophy with her name on it “Guess past me must have quit the team”  she thought with a laugh.

Amy got out and dried off her hair and put on a minimum amount of makeup. She got dressed in a black tank top, tan shorts and brown sandals. She threw on a white button up over the tank top and made her way downstairs.

“Are you going to eat?” her mother asked her.

Amy just patted her stomach and shook her head no “Too nervous…can’t eat. How are you doing Kelly” she asked her sister.

“Nervous…but okay” she responded.

“You’ll be fine” Amy said with a smile.

“So will you” Kelly answered with a tilt of her head.

“See ya” Amy said as she grabbed her purse and back pack and headed out the door to her car…a 2004 Honda Civic. The year of the car was an irony not lost on her as she backed out of the driveway and drove to school.

Kelly hefted her backpack onto her narrow shoulders and got in the backseat of her mom’s car. She tried not to let the little things get to her, but sometimes it was impossible to not be jealous of the life she had left. It was always something insignificant, like a kids menu or having to sit in the back that made her flush red in her cheeks.  She sat back and let the scenery fly by as her Mom drover her to school.

“Hey Kelly!” she heard a group of girls call out to her as she exited the car and gave her Mom a weary smile over her shoulder. She waved and headed towards the girls and was surprised as all their names flew into her mind along with thoughts of classes and parties in the past with each of them: She was with her friends and she had a sense that everything would be okay today.

Kelly was stretched out on the couch, watching Gravity Falls when she heard her sisters’ car pull into the driveway. She sat up eagerly waiting for the door to open. When it did, she hopped up and met her in the kitchen “So…How did it go today?”

Amy smiled “Better than I thought it would” she admitted and kicked off her shoes. “I knew everybody and all the teachers and everything just kind of came to me” she said with a shrug “How did you do today?”

Kelly smiled “It was fine. It’s like you just said…I knew my friends and the teachers. I just wish I knew the material since I’ve done it before, but that’s long gone”

Amy ruffled her sister’s long light brown hair “It’ll all come to you; at least it seems like it will. I think school will be easy for you”

“I hope so” Kelly added in as she prepared herself for a long school year.

JFK Airport June 18th, 2015

“I can’t believe I’m not going to see you for a month” Lori Jensen said as she hugged her daughter Amy at the International Terminal drop off zone.

“It’s only for a month Mom and I thought you were all for this trip” Amy replied.

“I know…it’s just seeing my daughter off for a month in Europe with her friends, well, I’m a typical nervous Mother”

“She’s going to be just fine” Dan Jensen said as he handed Amy her single piece of luggage and put his hand on Lori’s shoulder. “We’ve raised her right; she’s a good mature young lady and she’s going to have the time of her life”

Amy smiled and caught her younger sister Kelly’s eye. She leaned down and whispered to her sister “Don’t worry and I hope you’re not mad”

Kelly blushed “I’m not worried and I could never be mad about this…go and have a great time” Kelly said. “Maybe I‘ll get to go in a few years anyway”

The two sisters hugged, and then Amy hugged her Dad and Mom and waved to her friends who had gathered at the doors. She rushed to meet them and head in to catch her flight to Frankfurt.

Frankfurt led to Warsaw, Prague, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris before they took the Chunnel into England. They had a few days left to make their way up to London for the flight home.

They stopped in the town of Salisbury for the night and Amy found herself wandering through town and into a few shops in the evening…

“Welcome to my book shop” Amy heard upon entering the cramped space at the end of the block. She inhaled and caught the distinctive smell of old books in the air. “Hello” she replied “I’m just looking around for something interesting to take home to my sister”

“Well feel free to look all you want” the old man sitting by the door said.

Amy browsed around for a few minutes before something caught her eye; it was a plain leather book that looked remarkably similar to the one her sister had found in the attic a year earlier. Amy pulled it off the shelf and opened it to the first page.

January 1, 1934, The Diary of Abigail Cook was written in neat cursive on the top of the first page and Amy tilted her head as she read on.

‘I am beginning this diary at the dawn of the New Year in hopes of bringing a bit of purpose into my days. I will be turning seventeen shortly and wish to have a recollection of my days as I enter into life as a woman. I am fortunate to be able to finish my studies next year and while I’m not sure what the future holds for me…’

Amy read the opening and then began to flip through to later dates.

‘June 19, 1934

My sister Mary and I have decided to try our hand at concocting a spell this summer’

Amy’s eyes widened and her heart began to pound in her chest “Oh my God” she thought and returned to reading.

‘We have no idea what the purpose of the spell should be and both have decided that it is all a rather silly little game to pass the time’

Amy’s fingers rolled over the edge of the book and she detected a slight bump a few pages further in. When she flipped over to this page, she nearly dropped the book in shock.

With her mouth agape she saw where a page had been torn out but even more curious than that was the writing on the two pages that faced each other looked like they were written by two different people. It was when she read the last lines on the left hand side and the first lines of the right hand side that her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

‘Mary and I are going to try a new silly spell tonight, one that if it works, will make us swap ages with the other. Like I have repeatedly stated; all rather silly’ was written in the looped and tight cursive on the left.

On the right, though the writing was still in cursive, but it was much larger and looked much more labored in the writing as it read ‘It Worked! Our spell really worked this time. I am now a girl of 10 once again and Mary is now Seventeen and a young lady’

Amy snapped the book closed and shut her eyes tight against the world. “I found it; Oh My God I found the original book, I can’t believe this. Eighty years ago…this started here eighty years ago” her mind raced.

Amy cleared her throat and walked as calmly as she could up to the old man by the door “Excuse me…how much is this book?”

The old man eyed it quickly “Ehh…give me 3 pounds for it and we’ll call it a day then”

Amy smiled and dug into her front pocket fishing out some money before hustling out the door with a laughing “Thank You”

She nearly ran back to the house they were staying at that night and when she found her friends were all still out, she sat cross-legged on the floor and began to read where she left off.

‘It is truly astounding, Mary and I said the lines that we made up and then I began to grow smaller and smaller whilst she grew larger and larger. I heard a young girl’s voice call out Mary before I realized to my surprise that it was coming from me. I sounded just like a little girl and Mary was so surprised that she clasped her hands together and said to me ‘Oh Abby, what shall we do’.

It was then, that I began to stand up, but my dress was now very large and loose all about my small body. It was my favorite blue dress with the yellow roses on it and I am very sad now that it belongs to Mary. As I stood so did Mary and I was absolutely astonished to see just how tall she had become. Her dress was now much too tight and was on the verge of being indecent as she passed years in moments. I grabbed her by the arm and we rushed up the stairs and into our bedroom. Once inside with the door closed tight, Mary and I noticed some very odd things around our room. Our clothes were now on the opposite sides of the room, All of Mary’s possessions were now on my side of the room and vice versa.

We both felt we should be dressed more appropriately for our new ages and we proceeded to change our clothes.

I have had Mary write down the words to our little spell and I have torn it out and sent it to our cousins Ruth and Virginia in America. Hopefully, they will have fun with it’

Amy realized that her breathing had become heavy and ragged as she read the account in the diary. This was all too much for her to take all in at once and she stared out the window trying to compose herself.