Hi, my name is Abigail Edwards but you can call me Abby. I’m 14 years old and…I’m invisible.
Well not really but that’s how I feel sometimes. Let me tell you a little bit about my life.
I’m 14 and in the 8th grade at Sacred Heart Catholic School. I’m the 4th of 5 kids…yeah, let that sink in for a second. I have two older brothers, one older sister and one younger sister. There is absolutely nothing unique about me. I’m not the oldest, I’m not the youngest, I’m not even the oldest or youngest of the girls! To make matters worse, my older sister Shelby is Miss Perfect. Student Council, All A’s and all that while my younger sister Kiera is the best athlete in the family. So where does that leave me; well you guessed it; invisible.
My oldest brother Rob is off at college and my other brother Jack is a senior in High School this year. This is my last year in Catholic school; next year, it’s off to the public high school for me.
See my Mom is the 2nd grade teacher here at Sacred Heart so all of us get to go here until the 8th grade. The Catholic High School is 20 minutes away and we’d have to pay to go there so, you see where I’m going.
It’s not bad. We always know the public school kids from sports and other stuff in town and since I also have a big extended family, there’s always my cousins to bail me out.
My Dad recently got a promotion which I guess is good because he’s making more money but it’s actually bad because he’s in Chicago like 3 weeks out of a month making life even more hectic. I feel bad for my Mom sometimes because she really is busy but at other times, I’m mad because I don’t think she knows I exist.
I don’t think I’m being selfish but I’m not sure. The only thing I think I have on my older sister is that I’m about an inch taller than her. I think she’s prettier and smarter than me so why should I get any attention.
Hello, my name is Mary Edwards and I’m possibly the most frazzled woman on the planet. I’m supposed to tell you something about my life so here goes…I’m 48 but sometimes I feel like I’m 78. I’m a second grade teacher at Sacred Heart School which means I’m in charge of a very important year for my students getting them ready for confession and their 1st Communion. I love my children and my family more than anything and even with me spending every available second with them; I still don’t feel like I’m doing enough. I’m missing things that I’ll never get to recreate. This might sound awful but when Robbie went off to college, it was actually a relief as I knew he was okay to go alone. Jack will be next but I’m trying to cram in as much time as possible with him even if he doesn’t want it.
I know I can’t be everywhere at once and be all things to all people but I try my best. My husband is gone a lot these days. The money is good but I really feel his absence.
Some days I want to be everywhere and do everything and then on other days; I’d just love to slow down and rest.
So…everything was going like always. It was just a Tuesday night but for a series of practices and commitments, I ended up being the only one home for dinner with my Mom. I came downstairs to find her in the kitchen “Hey Mom” I said.
“Hi Abby…how was school today?”
“Fine” I shrugged. I had always been told that I looked like my Mom the most out of all of us. I guess I could see the resemblance.
“I’m sure it was more than fine…either good or bad. Tell me about your day” she said but just as she did; her phone went off “Sorry honey, but could you hand me my phone”
“Sure” was all I said as I handed it over.
I stood back as she talked to someone, it sounded like one of her sisters, my aunts, I couldn’t tell which one and stirred the sauce on the stovetop.
The conversation dragged on and I started to get frustrated. I couldn’t help it. It was just building up inside me. Eventually, I just sighed and stomped off.
I really did want to talk to Abigail. I felt like I didn’t get to spend as much time with her as I did with my other kids. She just lead the simplest life of them…no long practices or special groups outside of her choir concerts. She loves to sing and has a great voice for it.
But my sister Joan was having a crisis of her own with her three kids. See on top of my own kids, I’m also the oldest of 5 siblings myself and they all call me for advice. It just never stops I’m afraid.
When the sauce was ready, I turned off the stovetop and went to find Abigail. She was in her room of course and this is where the story starts to get interesting.
I had stomped off, ignored by my Mother yet again. When she came in this time, I intended to finally speak up and tell her what I thought. I heard footsteps in the hall coming towards me. The door opened and my Mom, with her bright cheerful smile, poked her head into my room “Dinner’s ready honey. Come on and eat with me…just the two of us” she said.
I just look at her, my head slightly cocked to the side. My heart was pounding in my chest “Why do you ignore me?”
“What?! I don’t ignore you honey” she said coming in “I know I’m so busy that I don’t know if I’m coming or going but please don’t think I’m ignoring you”
“But you always seem to have time for everybody else; but never for me” I said a bit whinier than I had intended.
“I’m sorry you think so…I try so hard to be there for all of you. I wish it could be different, I really do” she said.
“I wish it were too” I replied. “I just feel like I’m the invisible child! I wish there was some way for me to stand out to you; be special to you”
By now, my Mom was sitting right next to me on the edge of my bed “You are special to me…” she started to say.
“I knew you were going to say that. Every Mom has to say that to their kid no matter what” I replied.
“I wish you could understand what it feels like to be me”
My Mom got her concerned look on her face and said “I wish I could…and I wish you could understand what it feels like to be me. To be always on the go, to try to make everyone feel special. I admit, I was even the oldest out of my siblings so I don’t know what it’s like to be further down in the order”
I just nodded. I had ran out of steam already.
“Put yourself in my shoes honey” I said to her trying my best to make Abby feel better.
“What if I could” she replied.
“Well you’d definitely stand out to me then!” I replied trying to get her to laugh.
“You need to put yourself in my shoes” she said strongly to me “I think you’d learn quite a lot if you were in my place”
“I wish I could” I said in a reply that would come back to haunt me.
“Well I wish I could too” she said.
If only we could take back those words. If only we could have said something differently. I’ll never forget that moment. That day. Everything leading up to it is engraved in my mind. Hers too…we’ve obviously talked about it a lot.
Everything changed in the next second.
You know how there are moments in someone’s life that mark monumental and consequential landmarks. Go back to the second you realized it was one of those. There’s a split second where you try to hold on to normalcy but can feel it slip away between your fingers. I heard my Mom say “I wish I could” and I should’ve kept my big mouth shut. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up when she said that; there was electricity in the room. If only I hadn’t said my next words. Everything would have just gone on like always. But I didn’t.
“Well I wish I could too” I said.
I looked my Mom in her eyes; her big blue eyes. There was something there that I had never seen before. I saw the look in her eyes go from a sense of normal to alarm; from her usual look to one of confusion and a bit of panic and fear, we could both sense something big coming.
Maybe I said it because I felt like something big could come of it; I just never thought it would be what actually happened to us.
It felt like I suddenly got nervous. I felt my stomach tighten up into a knot. My throat tightened and I know my heart took off pounding in my chest. I felt warm all over, you know the feeling when you’re just caught doing something you shouldn’t be. When I teacher catches you on your phone…that tingling on your forehead and neck, the feeling of your teeth floating. That’s what I felt instantly.
I wanted to speak; to say something, anything but I couldn’t. My mouth wasn’t connected to my brain at that time so it just went silently open and closed a few times.
My Mom started to stand up really slowly. It looked like she was moving in slow motion as she stood up from sitting on the edge of my bed. Her face was showing more and more worry and concern as she stood up really stiff. She got to her full height; which was just 5’2”…3 inches shorter than me, and pulled her shoulders back and raised her chin. That was when I noticed her bottom lip quivering.
It had to start off small. I didn’t feel anything monumental happen to me but my Mom’s face looked different. I stared at her, really trying to detect what was wrong and that was when I noticed that the little lines by her eyes were vanishing.
I went a little bit blank for a few seconds. I know I blinked several times and stood up very slowly because everything in my body felt on edge. My fingertips were numb and there was a pain in the middle of my shoulders. I tried to take in a deep breath to calm myself down but instead, it hitched in my chest and I was simply trying to not panic.
A wave of fear and panic hit me. I didn’t know why at the time but my body and my 6th sense were trying to tell me something was very wrong and about to get worse.
After that, it felt like I got a nervous tic in my eye. I could see Abby looking up at me. The look on her face didn’t make sense to me. “What is it? What’s going on? Do you feel it too?” I finally managed to say to her.
“I…I don’t know Mom” her voice was weak and thin and her hands were shaking.
I put my hands out and took hers in mine but it felt odd; our hands were cold and it felt far away.
“Mom?” Abby said my name with a distinct uptick at the end; her voice rising up.
“What honey? What is it?”
“Do you feel ok?” she asked.
“Of course honey” I lied. “Everything’s fine…just fine” I continued unconvincingly.
She shook her head quickly and violently back and forth “No…no it’s not ok. Something is wrong. I feel it”
I took in a deep breath and had to admit it “I feel it too…something is wrong but I don’t know what”
Abby nodded, her blue eyes were huge and she looked pale white. I knew I didn’t look much better despite trying to stay calm and strong for my daughter’s sake.
“It’s going to be ok Ab…by” I shook my head as I looked at her.
I’ll never forget the feeling of my stomach rising up inside of me at that moment. The moment I watched my daughter’s face change.
She looked older; more mature. Her features seemed to sharpen and define into those of a girl in her late teens or even early 20’s. “What in the world…?”
I was so scared and I was staring at my Mom when I saw the expression on her face change from fear to shock. But it was that change that made me realize what was wrong with her. She looked younger. Impossible as that was, there was no other way to put it; my Mom looked 10 years younger.
The lines around her eyes and mouth and across her forehead were all clearing up and, her hair was growing longer “Mom! Your hair!” I yelled at her pointing to emphasis my point.
“What about my hair?” she replied, her hands flying up.
Her expression changed yet again as her fingers pulled at her hair which was definitely growing longer under her touch. She ran strands out between her fingers, bringing it down over her face where we both watched it grow longer and longer, down past her nose, her lips, then down past her chin.
“I don’t know what’s going on…I don’t understand” she said just before she gasped and let go of her hair and looked at her hand instead.
My Mom’s mouth hung open. I cocked my head and leaned forward closer and closer to her hand. Her nails were growing. Visibly growing longer but more than that; her hand was changing. It was getting smoother and smaller. Her fingers were thinning and all veins and marks were clearing up and leaving delicate hands in their wake.
I stood up. I’m taller than her but even as I stood, it really felt off. My body felt heavier.
My shirt felt tight but it was my bra that got my attention. It was pulling across my back, the little clasps straining to keep it shut, but they popped pretty easily and I could feel my boobs surge forward once my bra loosened.
My arms snapped across my chest trying to hold them back but I felt them squish up against my arms.
I looked down and saw them growing; I also saw my long blonde hair retreating. It was pulling up and getting darker as it went. My hair was a very pale blonde but it was changing to a very dark blonde/light brown color.
Other things were happening too. My leggings now felt tight all over like they were about 2 sizes too small. My butt felt squeezed in by them. My hips felt constricted and they were super tight on my thighs “What in the world is happening?” I asked and even my voice sounded different.
My hands slapped all around until I stopped when I hit way too much softness at my stomach. I quickly lifted up my top and saw that I had a very soft pooch belly. I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I screamed.
You’d think that going through something like this, you’d be in control. But the truth is, is that it came at us so fast that at times, I just locked up, unable to wrap my mind around our circumstances. I couldn’t comprehend what I was feeling and seeing. To put it plainly; I was watching my daughter, my 14 year old daughter age up in front of me. What I was feeling was my body basically slamming into reverse and regressing from that of a 48 year old woman down to the body of a 14 year old girl, barely even a teenager.
Abigail’s face was maturing to the point of adulthood; little age lines were even beginning to take hold as she raced through her 20’s and into her 30’s. Her body thickened. She put on weight and gravity soon hit her as well.
Her clothes were tight and as a Mom, an odd thought hit me out of the blue, they looked silly and childish on her.
I remember my thought pattern at that moment and I fought against it, realizing just how destructive a path I was on.
It went like this: “Abby’s body…it…it can’t be…she’s somehow getting a mature, womanly figure. It’s almost like…it’s changing into a body like mine. She’s got Mom bod! Those clothes are inappropriate for her now; so childlike…so…so cute. I should be wearing clothes like those not dumpy old clothes like…Oh God stop it! Please make this stop, reverse it! Take it back! Abby doesn’t deserve this! Don’t take away her years! I…I’m getting younger. I’m getting Abby’s age and she’s getting mine but, I don’t want to be a kid again! Not like this…God this is sooooo unfair!”
I snapped out of it and saw my body still changing as well as Abby’s.
I was skinny! Like really skinny! Like I hadn’t been this skinny since before Rob was born which had to mean I was back to about college age.
My skirt was slipping. My hips and rear end had obviously slimmed down. I could see my lower legs and they looked smaller and thinner. Even my bare feet looked different. They were smooth, my toes looked straighter and softer.
My blouse hung on me and my bra felt super loose. I moved my shoulders and felt all my clothes shift and swing on me.
I didn’t shrink and Abby didn’t grow. Our height difference remained the same and while she looked like me, she wasn’t turning into me.
That was when she screamed.
I jumped.
Then I screamed too.
As I screamed, my skirt slipped off and dropped to the floor covering my feet. I felt the air hit my thighs but I didn’t look down. I was looking up directly into Abigail’s face as we both screamed at the top of our lungs.
I wanted to faint and just pass out. Maybe if I did that I’d wake up and discover that all of this had just been a bad dream. But I didn’t faint and it wasn’t a dream.
Mom’s scream came out at a higher pitch than mine. It was the sound of a little girl screaming. My own seemed deeper but louder.
I cleared out my lungs and took in a gulping breath as her scream continued slightly longer then cut out.
“Mom?!” I asked. I genuinely had to ask because she didn’t look like my Mom. Where my Mom had stood, now stood a kid my age looking up at me very scared.
She nodded “It’s me Abby!” she pleaded with me “It’s me!”
“Mom you’re not going to believe what you look like” I told her.
She shook her head and looked scared “You’re not going to believe what you look like either” she said.
“Just…just take a deep breath honey” I said not even realizing what I was saying but I saw that she did try to breathe in deep and slow.
I finally found a way to move. I had to will my body like never before to walk to the mirror across the room.
My hips swayed a lot, I felt motion all over my body. My stomach, my arms, my thighs rubbed together at the tops. I had a bad feeling. Nothing in the last few minutes made any sense but watching my Mom and seeing what she looked like; I had to know what was coming.
“Oh My God! I’m old!” I said upon seeing myself in the mirror.
The air went out of my lungs. My jaw opened and my eyes widened. I was middle aged. I had a full on Mom bod complete with a pooch belly. My ass had widened, my boobs were saggy, I had lines on my face and an old lady hairdo; layered and cut up short and off my shoulders.
My eyes crawled up my body noticing every little change. My toes looked crooked, there were marks and spots on my thicker legs, my hands looked seriously old!
I held them up seeing the veins across the backs of them and the dry skin. My neck was loose! “I can’t…” I finally said “I can’t handle this! I’m not allowed to be old”
I saw a figure approaching me, coming into view in the mirror and I jumped seeing a young teenaged girl appear next to me.
She jumped too at seeing her own reflection.
“I’m a little kid!” I yelled out seeing my face and skinny body reflected back in the mirror. My poker straight long blonde hair was back, as were the pimples and “Oh my God I’m wearing braces! You didn’t have braces why do I?”
“I’ve never had braces” Abby replied using her hands to squish up her tight cheeks.
“I had them back in the 80s when I was…” everything around me dropped into place “When I was 14”
I turned and looked up “We switched ages!”
“What…I mean I know what it looks like but…how?!” Abby said.
“I have absolutely no idea but I’m 14 again and you’re 48”
“No! This can’t be…I can’t be 48…what does that even mean? Am I your Mom now?” Abby said incredulously “Did everything about us swap places?!”
“I have…I don’t...I…” I staggered back away from the mirror “I don’t know anything anymore!!”
I could only feel frustration and confusion overpowering every other thought in my mind. Raw emotion came up and overpowered any calm thoughts or rational thinking I was trying to do. Tears welled up in my eyes and I folded my arms and stomped my foot. Childish rage boiled over.
“It’s not fair! I don’t wanna be a stupid little kid again!”
“Now, now…calm down and we can figure this out” Abby told me in a very calm tone. I recognized it; it was motherly.
“No! Don’t…don’t tell me what to do! If I want to get mad I will! I am still your Mother and I’m in charge of what…”
I really felt pity for Mary. She was so confused and just raging out of control. I tried to calm her down but I also realized that I should probably back off for a bit until she calmed down some on her own.
She sat down on the floor, her knees up to her chin, her toes pointed in. I noticed the very cheap polish on her toes; a garish orange that was chipped and picked at; absolutely nothing like what my Mother would ever wear.
The braces gave her a very slight lisp and combined with her youthful angelic face and skinny build all added up to an appearance of a young teenaged girl.
Her suddenly changing attitude also gave off the impression on someone young and impulsive whereas my own attitude was all about finding a solution and keeping calm.
Our maturity levels had obviously swapped as well.
I didn’t want to leave her or go too far so I just quietly began to undress. My clothes were pinching so bad I had to squirm and pull at them to get out.
“Oh my Gosh” I said surveying the damage 34 years of age progression had done to my body “I have the body of an…” I stopped before I said anything too derogatory.
This is where my more mature personality came in handy. I openly assessed my body. I could see Mary eyeing me from her pouting position.
I turned and posed for the mirror seeing the stretch marks, the cellulite, the additional pounds, the sag in my breasts, the extra skin on my neck “It could be so much worse” I said.
I heard a chuckle from Mary.
I spun “What’s so funny young lady?” I asked smiling and raising my eyebrows
“You” was all she said. It was in the slightly sincere, slightly sarcastic tone that only a teenager could manage.
She stood up, her blouse hanging down low enough to cover anything vital, but just barely.
“Every hormone and emotion on earth just opened up inside of me” I admitted. “I feel like a teen. I couldn’t hold it together like an adult right now if you put a gun to my head” I laughed.
I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, I wanted to be happy, I was sad. “I don’t know what to do” I said.
“Get dressed” Abigail told me.
I took off my huge blouse and bra. I was quite surprised at how small I was now and I quickly got my skinny little body covered up with some super cute clothes.
Abigail put on my old outfit and it looked right for her and I totally fit into mine. I walked over to the mirror and flipped my hair out of my face.
I felt my heart beat faster seeing my reflection; I was super cute! I almost felt guilty about it but I couldn’t quite get there “You’re not supposed to be like young” I thought “But I am young” I also thought.
I could feel her hovering. I didn’t want to call her Mom but she also wasn’t Abby to me either anymore. It was then that I saw a picture tucked into the corner of the mirror.
I saw the two faces in it; mine and hers. But I’m the kid in the picture and she’s the adult “Mom?!”
I heard her voice shake and call me Mom. My eyes traced down to the picture in the mirror and it confirmed it. It’s not a picture of us as we used to be; this is us as we are now.
“We need to fix this” I say running my hands through my hair.
“But…but…” she stammered.
“But nothing” I stated flatly. “This is…this is too weird. I can’t! You can’t!”
“We said we wish we could understand what it’s like to be the other and…” Mary began.
“One word. Dad.” I said and folded my arms. Her face dropped.
“Oh.” She said flatly “Oh!” she said higher “OH!...Oh…we need to fix this and right now!”
She shivered all over and stuck her tongue out gagging “Gross Mom! You can’t!”
“Call me Abby” I insisted. “You’re Mom” I reminded her.
“Well we wished ourselves into this, we should be able to wish ourselves out…hopefully” she said shifting nervously from foot to foot.
“You’re right. I don’t remember exactly word for word what we said. Something about being in each other’s shoes and being special” I said “The consequences of this potentially life altering swap are just too much though. We simply can’t do this”
“What if we can?” she said.
“What are you talking about?” I replied.
“What if we could you know, like control this?! We could pick out times and swap back and forth…always swapping back before it got weird. I could become 14 and go to the pool then come home and we could swap back!” Mary said.
“Well that would be interesting” I replied.
“Interesting?! It would be amazing! We could get to appreciate each other’s lives that way. I could be a student one day and you could teach. Then the next day we could do our own real roles and back and forth…we just never cross that weird line with Dad!” she said.
“I had to admit that the idea had a definite appeal to me. Rough test coming up…swap with Mom and teach 2nd grade for a day and let her take it. “It would be a lot of fun I think if we could pull it off” I agreed.
“Then let’s try!” she said and I nodded not able to hold in my smile.
I was bouncing up and down with excitement. I got Mom’s point. Plain and simple that part would be way too weird and gross to deal with at any level but part of me really wanted to see what it was like to be a kid again and I really wanted Abby to see what it was like to be an adult. To be like me. “It’s worth a shot”
“I think it is too” Abby said. “I’d like the ability to switch ages and lives back and forth with you. It sounds exciting”
“Then say it! Wish it!” I said closing my eyes “I wish Abby and I could have the ability to switch our lives and ages with each other any time we want. I wish I was back to my real age and she was back to hers but at any time we can get together and ask to swap, then we will”
“I wish Mary and I would swap back to our original ages but have the ability to swap our ages and lives whenever we like in the future. We could just say I wish I was your age and then we would be”
I heard Abby say her wish after mine and I wasn’t sure it was going to work. For a minute I didn’t feel anything at all changing but then my heart took off in my chest and I got all tingly and warm.
“I just put on these clothes!” I stomped my foot “They’re super cute!”
“Well we can obviously set up a time for you to wear them for a longer period of time Honey” Abby laughed as she had already begun to slim back down.
“It’s working! It’s really working!” I laughed and bounced up and down feeling my body begin to age and mature. I could feel my hair already creeping back up shorter. “This means we can swap back and forth anytime we want to!”
Abby nodded “I really want to teach for a few days”
“You can! Anytime you want to! It’s all yours!” I said excitedly “Can I go to a dance?!”
“Um…I don’t know about that” Abby said in a very motherish tone of voice “We’ll see”
“Please…Pleeeeeaaaaasssseeeee!!!“ I begged even as I felt my body begin to soften and thicken.
I looked down and prodded my belly as it pooched out pushing my cute top aside.
I looked over and saw Abby’s hair growing out long and straight. The lines on her face vanishing as her youthful look returned to her.
“Well I guess we really do have something special between us now don’t we?” I said as my Mom’s clothes began to grow large on me. I felt her bra loosen and the sides of her shirt move off of my shrinking body. Her skirt gave away as my hips narrowed and my ass lost its middle age spread and returned to the body of a teenager.
I hadn’t even noticed the minor aches and pains until I felt them leave. My left knee, my hands, my lower back.
I looked at my Mom’s face and saw her lines coming back in. I’m sure she was happy to lose the braces again as she aged back up to 48. Her cheeks and nose became more pointed “I think it’s going faster this time”
“I think you’re right Abby. Maybe it will pick up speed so it’s something we can do kind of quickly” My Mom said to me, looking and acting like my Mom again.
“Are you going to get like mental whiplash going back and forth between the two versions of you?”
She laughed “I sure hope not…although I got into being a kid really fast I noticed”
“Our personalities obviously swapped with us making me more mature and you, um, much less” I teased watching little details on her settle in like her toes crooking outward and small veins appearing on the backs of her hands.
“Well then I hope some of that maturity will rub off on you when you’re the 14 year old between us” Mom said blushing a bit at her behavior “Was I really sounding like I was 14?”
“Oh absolutely! You were definitely acting like a kid…bouncing all over the place, using different speech patterns. You’re going to have no problems fitting in when you’re the kid.
She blushed even harder.
“Oh…and my answer is yes. You can go to a dance! Of course you can honey…do you have any idea which boy you want to dance with?”
“Stop…!” Mom was blushing really hard. She put her hand up to her face and shielded her eyes from me.
I slipped out of my Mom’s clothes and put my original outfit back on “Feels all stretched out”
“It probably is” Mom said getting dressed again as herself “I promise to take you shopping more often”
“Oh…so you get to have a say in our outfits!” I was laughing again.
“Maybe…” she smiled and dropped her chin.
“I’m having way too much fun teasing you about this”
“Yes you are”
“I can’t wait to get to be your Mom for a longer period of time. And I will get to be whenever we want to”
“Well I can’t wait to be your daughter once in a while. It’ll be nice to pass all my responsibilities over to you and just chill out as a teen”
“I bet my life is harder than yours” I said.
“I’ll take that bet because I can guarantee mine is harder” My Mom replied.
“Let’s find out…”