Nancy Barton inched her way down the center aisle of Delta Flight 2576. The flight from New York to London would be just about 7 hours but Nancy had made this trip dozens of times for her company. The jet lag never got any easier though.
She only had to get to Aisle 11 before she put her carryon into the overhead bin and slide in to her window seat shoving her computer bag under the seat in front of her. She would do some work on the flight but she also wanted to sleep a bit as well.
She had just gotten settled and was watching the crowd move past when she noticed the small girl walking with someone from the airline stop right by her.
“This is your seat” the man in the light blue shirt said. He hoisted her bag up into the hold as she sat down in the aisle seat. “All the flight attendants know about you and they will be checking in on you throughout the flight. Once you land, someone from the airline just like me will come on board and greet you by name and take you to your Mom okay”
“Okay” the little girl said taking her seat.
Nancy smiled noticing the British accent of her seatmate. “I make this trip all the time; if you need anything, I can help you” she offered.
“Oh…thank you very much” the little girl replied. She had scooted back in her seat and her feet came off the floor as the man helped her get buckled in.
“I thank you as well Ma’am” he replied with a smile.
“Honestly it’s no problem at all” Nancy said.
The girl had a copy of Harry Potter and a Fire Tablet in her lap as she settled in.
“Great book” Nancy said nodding down.
“I’ve seen most of the movies but I’m just starting the books” she replied “I finished The Philosopher’s Stone so now I’m on this one”
“My name is Nancy” Nancy said introducing herself
“I’m Charlie” the little girl said “Charlotte really but I prefer Charlie. I just spent some time with my Dad in New York and now I’m on my way home to my Mum”
“Oh” Nancy replied not wanting to pry “I work in New York but my company has an office in London so I travel between the two cities quite often. I’ve really come to love London over the years”
“I like New York but it’s not home” Charlie said.
“I was born and raised there…it’s one of a kind” Nancy replied.
Nancy was 29 with her degree in International Law. She was on her way to becoming a partner as she dealt with labor law between the US and UK.
She settled into her seat wearing a white blouse and a black skirt. She wore black flats for the flight; no need to fight heels in an airport, those were stowed away in her bag.
She flipped her shoulder length brown hair behind her ears and put on her glasses which made her green eyes even brighter.
Charlie fidgeted in her seat getting comfortable. She strained around to look down the aisle as most people were now seated. She was in jeans, white sneakers and a yellow top that was a few shades lighter than her long, wavy blonde hair. Her big brown eyes took in everything.
“How many times have you made this flight?” Nancy asked.
“This is the third time I’ve gone by myself” she answered with a shy smile and a shrug of her narrow shoulders.
Nancy nodded and smiled reassuringly “Well any way I can help you out on this one, just let me know”
“I will and thank you” Charlie said.
After they took off and were in flight, Nancy got out her laptop and worked on a document she was preparing for the next day at work.
Charlie was on her tablet playing a game but her eyes kept wandering over and she began reading the legal text.
Nancy noticed her eyes and she joked “Pretty fascinating stuff huh?”
“It’s kind of boring but not terrible” Charlie said.
“Really?! You think so? You might have a future as a lawyer then…sometimes it still bores me and I’ve studied it for years…I think I’d rather be playing that game of yours”
“Oh we can switch out if you’d like” Charlie laughed offering up her tablet. “If I were a lawyer like you it would mean I’m an adult”
“Oh you in a rush to grow up” Nancy asked.
Charlie just looked at her with an obvious expression on her face “Who wouldn’t be in my place?”
“Oh I don’t think I would be…Being an adult isn’t all the great to be honest. Enjoy being a kid haha”
“Isn’t that the way it goes…adults want to be kids and kids want to be adults” Charlie said.
“You’re right” Nancy agreed. “You spend your whole childhood wondering what it’s like to be an adult and then once you get there and realize you are an adult…all you want to do is go back and be a kid again”
Charlie smiled and sat back in her seat, her feet came off the floor. “Maybe I’ll do the same”
Nancy looked over at her seatmate “You seem really mature. How old are you?”
“Eleven” Charlie responded.
“I doubt I was anything like that when I was eleven” Nancy replied. “When you get to be my age, you’ll be running your own company or something amazing”
“Maybe I’ll be a lawyer” Charlie giggled “How old are you?”
“I’m 29” Nancy replied.
“That’s not very old” Charlie said.
“No, it’s not…but to a kid, being almost 30 sounds ancient”
“My parents are in their 40’s”
“Still not old haha” Nancy said.
Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy caught a burst of color from her computer screen. Panicking and thinking she was about to freeze up, she spun her head towards it. For a split second, it looked like a game had popped up but it was just her document.
Charlie turned towards her tablet and saw Nancy’s legal document up on her screen. It was just for a second and then it was gone and her game was back.
“Plane Wi-Fi can be so weird sometimes” Nancy said shaking her head. She began to type but her mind seemed to blank out. She couldn’t come up with the words she wanted to type. It was almost as if all her legal knowledge left her.
Nancy stared at the screen blankly blinking.
Charlie furrowed her brow as a lot of confusing words and thoughts suddenly came into her mind. For a second, they made no sense, then, they all made sense. She looked around confused as to why she understood them.
A slight jostle of turbulence hit the plane and both their thoughts cleared. “That was weird” they both mumbled at the same time.
They looked at each other a bit puzzled. As their eyes met a thought occurred to both of them.
“What if I were her age?”
“What if I were a kid again?” Nancy thought “What if that were me…travelling between my parents in different countries?”
“What if I were the adult?” Charlie thought “What if that were me…travelling on business between different countries?”
“I wouldn’t have any of the worries and concerns I do now” Charlie thought.
“I wouldn’t have any of the worries and concerns I do now” Nancy thought.
“She has is so much better than I do”
“She has it so much better than I do”
“I wish I could switch ages with her”
“I wish I could switch ages with her”
“I wish I could swap lives with her”
“I wish I could swap lives with her”
Their thoughts synced up, echoing each other, their sudden desire to be in the place of the other now overwhelming their minds.
Charlie could see it; she could see the young girl next to her, travelling by herself while she, the stylish and confident professional woman worked on her important document, at the ready to assist a child in need.
Nancy could see it; she could see the stylish adult woman travelling next to her on important business, while she travelled to visit her Mum in London before returning to her native New York. She wouldn’t ask the lady for help, she wanted her to know that she was mature enough, even at eleven to travel by herself.
“I wish I could switch places with her” they both thought in unison.
A bigger bump of turbulence jostled the plane again and their hands both came down on the middle arm rest. A spark of static electricity ran between them, through them…
They nervously smiled at each other as they realized they were holding hands briefly.
“Oh Wow” Charlie said.
“Turbulence brings out the nervous little kid in me I guess…it makes me nervous and makes my stomach jump and my heart flutter” Nancy said rambling a bit. “Your turn to comfort me since you seem very calm right now”
Charlie realized that she was calm and she could tell Nancy was very tense and upset from the look in her eyes to the way she held her body tight.
Nancy turned toward the window and looked out at the endless dark ocean beneath her. She felt a chill and she curled up her toes in the ends of her black flats. If she had looked down, she would have noticed that more of her toes were showing. When she flattened them back out, nails from her last three toes were fully exposed and her first two toes were barely underneath.
Nancy’s feet were shrinking.
She fidgeted in her seat as Charlie settled back; a sense of calm settled over her but yet she could tell something wasn’t the same. Her shoes felt tight on her feet, her jeans felt tight on her legs and it felt like her muscles were pulsating. “Must be the pressure in the cabin” she thought. She ran her fingers through her dark blonde wavy hair as it thickened up.
Nancy swallowed and looked around. Her heartrate hadn’t dropped, it was still beating a mile a minute and her stomach was flipping wildly. She felt an odd almost weightless sensation as if the plane were lifting higher in altitude. Nancy was beginning to shrink.
Her legs began to thin beneath her black skirt. Her thighs and calves lost mass and curve and her feet now lifted clear of her too large shoes unable to stay planted on the ground as she got smaller and smaller.
Her breasts pulled back in a sudden puff of air as they shrank down unable to fill the cups of her bra. Her white blouse began to wrinkle as she shrank down inside of it.
“What’s going on?” Nancy thought. She heard a foreign sounding voice in her head; it sounded like a little kid was talking. Her thick dark brown hair thinned and lightened, her features began to soften and lose their angular maturity slowly being replaced by the soft and rounder features of a much younger girl.
Charlie squirmed now. Her clothes were getting tighter on her. The sleeves of her top pinched at her upper arms, the waistband of her pants threatened to burst. She could feel her feet straining against her shoes.
She felt pressed back against her seat, weighted down and held down as she began to grow taller and taller.
Her feet touched the ground, toes first but then they went flat on the ground. Her jeans began to creep up her expanding calves. Her thighs gained mass and curve and the seams of her jeans strained before her chest began to itch and pressure began to build up there as well.
“What’s going on?” a deep voice inside her head asked. Her hair continued to thick and darken, her facial features began to mature and grow more angular and sleeker showing age and development.
Just when it felt like her clothes would burst off of her, a sudden gust of air seemed to burst over her and all that pressure was gone. Her clothes felt loose. Charlie looked down very confused.
“What the…?” popped into her mind as she now seemed to be wearing a yellow blouse and a blue skirt.
Just as it felt as if she were about to swim in clothes, Nancy felt a burst of air and it seemed like all her clothes fit again.
Still barefoot, she was now wearing a pair of skinny black leggings and a plain white top as a pair of black slip on shoes sat on the ground beneath her.
All of this had happened in less than a minute. Now the two of them began to catch up mentally to what was happening to them.
Charlie looked at Nancy “No way!”
Nancy looked at Charlie “No way!”
They both said it at the same time taking in the other’s changes.
“You!” Nancy said “You look like an adult!”
“You!” Charlie said “You look like a kid!”
Hearing it prompted both of them to look down at themselves.
Unable to scream, both were dumbfounded and looked either down at themselves or over at the other as their changes continued.
Nancy looked down and saw Charlie was now wearing a pair of nude heels. Her feet looked big. She could make out bumps and veins across the tops of her feet but couldn’t see her toes as they were fit snugly into the grown up shoes.
Charlotte’s legs were full and round, the legs of a woman instead of a child and both watched as her thighs finished up spreading out from underneath her skirt in the now tighter fitting airplane seat. Her hips and ass expanded, blossoming outward and putting her deeper in her seat.
Nancy looked down at her top and her chest. She was no longer wearing a bra, nor did she need one. Her breasts were shrinking down further and further, dwindling down to just bumps before going totally flat beneath her plain top.
She brought her hands over and patted down noticing even the changed look of her smaller and thinner fingers.
She reached for her purse but found it gone, replaced by a simple backpack.
Charlotte kicked her purse as she shifted her feet trying to check out her growing and expanding chest.
All kinds of new sensations were bursting out across her. Her chest was super sensitive and now she considered the weight and heft she felt on her front. She felt bra straps dig into her shoulders as her breasts settled into a pair of cups creating cleavage she could see at the top of her blouse.
The ends of her thick dark blonde hair now came into view. She noticed seeing more of her nose in her peripheral vision and her hand went to it testing out its longer profile.
In a quick reversal, Nancy’s glasses vanished while a different looking pair appeared on Charlotte’s face anchored by her growing ears.
Nancy’s hands went to her own face. She felt soft round puffy cheeks and a much smaller button nose. Her chin and jaw seemed smaller and rounder too and judging by how mature Charlotte looked a few feet away, she could imagine that her own face was equally changed but in the opposite direction.
Nancy could barely breathe “What…?” she said out loud in a high pitched voice.
“Don’t panic don’t scream….please don’t scream Nancy” Charlotte pleaded softly to the girl in the window seat. Her voice still accented, still very British but much deeper.
They were both still scrambling, their eyes and hands flew around up and down, back and forth taking everything in “But…but…” Nancy said, her bottom lip trembling.
“I know…I don’t know what to say” Charlotte began. “We, um, we just switched ages with each other”
“No duh! I’m a little kid!” Nancy cried. “And you…you’re big!”
“I can’t explain it…but yeah, I am. I guess we…” Charlotte’s mind wandered back to what she was thinking just a few moments earlier “I was just sitting here and I thought what would it be like if I were your age and you were mine”
Nancy gasped and flew backwards in her seat, her eyes bugging out large “But that’s what I was thinking about…”
“If we were both thinking about it at the same time” Charlotte began.
“And wishing that it would happen” Nancy finished.
Nancy’s jaw dropped again as Charlotte slowly nodded “Oh wow”
“That turbulence…did it knock us into each other’s life?” Nancy asked.
“This is insane…I don’t know how to be an adult!” Charlotte said in frustration.
Another bump of turbulence and their mental ages began to switch. Nancy’s laptop buzzed and in the blink of an eye, became a tablet that dropped into her lap.
With a second jostle, Charlie’s tablet sprang out into Charlotte’s laptop.
Nancy shut her eyes tight as years of education and experience and knowledge fled her mind, transferring a few feet away into Charlotte’s open and accepting brain.
18 years had passed between them.
Charlotte was now the one with legal knowledge and education, years of experience while Nancy was reduced to just another 11 year old kid. The knowledge and experience of a 6th grader.
“Is everyone doing alright? I’m so sorry for the turbulence but the Captain says we should be out of it now”
They both spun hearing the flight attendant speak behind them.
“You doing okay Nancy?” the attendant asked earnestly looking to Nancy in the window seat.
Nancy pursed her lips and nodded.
“You let me know if you need anything ok?”
“Yeah” was all Nancy could reply.
The Harry Potter book lay up against the side of the plane pined in by Nancy’s side as if it had been in her seat all along.
Nancy grabbed her arm rests and lifted up her small frame her head whipping back and forth. An overall sensation of calm began to filter over her and she slowly lowered herself down.
Charlotte too felt an initial surge of energy and her whole body tensed before she exhaled and relaxed. She looked over at her seatmate and smiled “You doing okay over there?”
“Yeah…just excited about getting to see my Mum” Nancy replied as she closed her tablet and picked up her book.
Charlotte went back to typing out her document “Good…I think this version I’m working on will finally finish up my case so I can’t wait to land”
“Me either” Nancy said with a wink and a smile.