This is a work of fiction intended for mature readers. 18 and over please.

All rights reserved by author.



“And I do appreciate you being ‘round...”
from “Help!” by the Beatles


Time Bomb by Nomdreserv

Part 4


Lisa finally showed an hour later. Karen, without obvious new changes, sat sideways in
a chair, watching TV and drinking a diet soda. She still enjoyed her cartoons, but was
getting impatient waiting for her friend to show. Not because of worry - she was feeling
less and less troubled by the unexplained age changes - but because she wanted to talk,
gossip, go somewhere or maybe try some makeup experiments - you know, fun stuff.
Here she was home from school ... er, work ... and just wasting the day. When the bell
rang, she bounced up and ran to the door.

“Hiya, Lees. About time. C’mon in.”

Lisa froze in surprise. She was dressed in a stretch cotton shirt and long skirt with a pair
of comfortable sandals, her usual work wear (as she said, casual dress was a nice bonus
of working for yourself).

“Karen? Oh my God! It’s still happening?”

“What’re you talkin’ about?” Karen was thinking that Lisa didn’t look quite right herself.

“You! You look like ... well, like when I met you in college.”

College? Karen thought, momentarily confused. Oh, yeah, she could remember some
stuff about that. Not much about courses, but she remembered Lisa: a tall, serious girl,
attractive but shy, especially about her still developing figure. They had hit it off
immediately despite their differences, becoming fast friends and sometime lovers. But
Lisa looked different somehow, probably because she seemed so worried. Karen didn’t
like that, and wished Lisa would be more like herself so they could pal around the way
they used to. She was about to suggest Lisa try to relax when the phone rang. She turned
and ran to get it, and Lisa followed slowly behind, wondering what to do.

Lisa shivered slightly, her magic sense alerted. She stopped and tried to concentrate,
searching for active spells or magic flux. Nothing. Imagination, or maybe just close
proximity to the medallion. Just to be sure, she glanced in the hall mirror.

Objectively, she knew she was pretty, but wished she had more confidence in her
appearance. Karen always berated her for concentrating on her flaws, but she couldn’t
help feeling self conscious about her small breasts and too narrow hips. She tugged at her
loose shirt and tried to thrust her chest out more impressively. Damn. Almost 18 and still
couldn’t fill a B cup. Oh well, she wasn’t here to obsess about her figure, she was here
to help Karen.

She walked on, feeling a little better, and found Karen talking to Bob on the phone.

“Uh huh. Nope, I’m fine. Really. No ...” she rolled her eyes. “Look, Lisa’s here now.
You can ask her.”

She handed the phone over.

“Bob is, like, convinced there’s something wrong. You talk to him.”

Lisa’s heart skipped a beat as she took the phone. Truth was, she had a secret crush on
Bob. She wasn’t sure how long she’d had it, but she couldn’t ignore it anymore after the
last weekend. She hated herself for it, and vowed she’d never do anything to hurt Karen,
but she wished ... well, it would have been interesting if she could have met him before he
became involved with Karen.

“Hi, Bob.” She tried not to sound nervous. Why was she reacting like such a schoolgirl
just to talk on the phone? After all, last Saturday they had ...

“Lisa? Thank God.” He ignored the slight quaver and odd sound of her voice in his
relief. “Do you know what’s going on? Is Karen all right? She sounds different ... like a
teenager again.”

Lisa frowned in perplexion. How was Karen supposed to sound? And she looked her
usual innocently sexy self. Lisa loved the way she filled out a sweatshirt.

“She’s fine, Bob. We had a scare earlier when I talked to her on the phone, but she’s
back to normal now.” She twisted some of her hair around her finger nervously. “I’m
gonna stay with her, so she’ll be OK.” A pause. “So, like, I guess we’ll see you tonight,
huh?”

“I guess so.” He was surprised at how calm Lisa seemed. “Do you know what’s going
on yet?”

“Uh uh,” she admitted. “Sometimes spells are, like, hard to break, you know?” Oh,
great, she thought. I sound like a total airhead. Say something else. “But I talked to
Gregor, you know, my teacher? He’s gonna come here himself, and, like, he really
knows a lot and will figure something out, but, unfortunately, he won’t be here until
tomorrow so we’ll just have to wait.” Out of breath, she paused, then acted on a sudden
inspiration. “So maybe I should spend the night, too, huh?” Lame, but she was
desperate.

“Um, yeah, sure.” Now Bob paused nervously. Here he was trying not to think about
Lisa, and she was going to stay with them. She also sounded nervous. Could she be
feeling the same residual effects of her potion? He tried to clear the thoughts and stay on
track. Lisa’s voice sounded a little funny, too. “Lisa, are you OK? Could this affect
you?”

“No way, uh uh,” Lisa said emphatically. “Like, I’ve got powers and everything, you
know, ‘cuz I’m a witch and everything.” Geez, she thought, trying to slow down, he’s
gonna think I’m a space cadet the way I’m rambling. She took a cleansing breath. “I
mean, no. I’ll be fine, Bob. I think everything’s back to normal, at least temporarily. My
magic sense would tell me if something happened.” There - that sounded better.

Evidently, Bob concurred.

“All right. I’m arranging things so I can leave early ...”

“Super! That’ll be great!” She blushed as Karen looked at her curiously. “I mean, good.
We can talk then.”

Each of the girls said goodbye.

“Thanks, Lees,” Karen said in relief. “It’s sweet he’s so worried, but, like, he can be
sorta overprotective.”

“Treats you like a kid, huh?” Lisa smiled.

“Exactly.” They giggled, recalling the events of the last few days. After a few minutes,
Karen continued. “So now what? You got any ideas what’s happening?”

“Sorry,” Lisa shook her head, her eyes involuntarily drawn to the exposed parts of
Karen’s legs and the swell of her breasts, obvious despite her large size shirt. She sighed.
Karen had such great boobs. Life was unfair. And seeing Karen lounging in just a shirt
sure brought back pleasant memories. Feeling an unexpected excitement, she tried to stay
on topic. “So ... we wait. The good news is that I talked with Gregor, and he’s coming
here himself.”

“I heard. We finally get to meet this mysterious Gregor you keep talking about, huh?
What’s he like?”

“He’s ... different. I mean, he’s really smart, and very nice, and he’s, like, an incredible
teacher - when you can get him to teach. When he really tries, he can solve just about any
problem, but he’s easy to, you know, um ...” she paused, as Karen’s movement revealed
more thigh. “... um, distract. And he’s interested in just about everything, so it’s even
harder to keep him on track.”

“And?”

“Oh. Well, he’s tall, and he’s not bad looking ... but he’s no Bo ... I mean, he’s not really
my ... I mean, we don’t ...”

“Nuf said. What’s he do for, like, real life work?”

“Research.”

“Cool. Medical, scientific?”

“Magic.”

“Magic?” Karen echoed in disbelief.

“Sure. The higher level magic users are sort of subsidized by the Institute.”

Karen remembered Lisa mentioning the Institute. It had the research books and facilities
she used to work on spells, and was run by the Council to protect and advance the craft.

“So, like, you pay dues and stuff?” Lisa nodded. “Witches are union?”

“Only the good ones,” Lisa laughed.

“I hope Gregor has some ideas for all that money you guys pay him.”

“Oh, he will. I hope. Bad news is he’s in New York and won’t be here ‘til tomorrow at
the earliest.” Karen’s face fell. “But things seem to have quieted down,” Lisa said
hopefully. “Like, you haven’t been changing anymore, right?” Karen nodded. “Maybe
it’s already worn off.”

“Maybe,” Karen agreed doubtfully. “I think I’ll stay put for awhile anyway.”

“I, like, totally agree. Let’s ...” Lisa’s eyes drifted over Karen’s blossoming figure again.
“... um, talk. Tell me everything that’s happened in detail.” She licked her lips.

“Sure. You want some coffee?”

“Uh ...” That was certainly their usual drink to fuel conversation, but ... “You got any
cola?”

“Yeah. In fact, I was thinking the same thing.”

They arranged themselves in the family room, Karen sitting cross legged on the floor and
Lisa relaxing on the couch. Their positions allowed Lisa to catch occasional glimpses of
Karen’s panties, perhaps intentionally on both their parts. Things were shaping up like
college indeed.

Karen recounted the whole story, though both now found it far less troubling than earlier.
In fact, they laughed at her description of her office coworkers’ changes.

At the end, Lisa was no further along in solving the mystery.

“Geez, Karen, I don’t know. Everything was fine yesterday, and the medallion seems OK
now. And it’s obvious we’re not being affected.” She suddenly snickered. “So she
thought it was her shoes causing the problem?”

Karen nodded happily. She felt much more relaxed with Lisa here, and she could tell
Lisa was feeling better, too. She looked like her old self again, and Karen smiled in
satisfaction.

Lisa meanwhile looked down at a bunch of papers covering the coffee table. They
showed numerous drawings: some sophisticated pencil sketches, subtly shaded, but
others which showed crude animal figures and landscapes, sloppily crayoned. Karen saw
her looking at them and blushed.

“You do these, Karen?” Lisa asked.

“Uh huh.” Karen looked up shyly. “For some reason, I’ve had an urge to doodle the last
couple of days. It, like, helps me relax, you know?” Sudden panic showed in her face.
“Gotta run!” She jumped up and bolted for the bathroom.

Lisa watched her run, a half thought chased from her mind by the concern for her friend.

Karen returned, smiling in relief and embarrassment, and they fell back into their easy
talking. Karen turned on the stereo, after searching a few minutes to find her CDs from
high school and college (Why were they so far back in the pile?), much to Lisa’s delight.
They sang along with their favorites, and laughed at others, and generally pretty much
forgot there was a problem at all. That may help explain their next decision.

It was just past noon, and though they had done some light snacking, they were both
feeling more serious food cravings, as well as a bit stir crazy. Karen bemoaned the
relatively healthy contents of her kitchen as she stared into the refrigerator.

“Salad ... chicken breasts ... veggies ...”

“Guess it counts as food,” Lisa offered without enthusiasm.

“Cheeseburgers ... fries ...”

“What?” Lisa jumped forward to look over her shoulder. “Where?”

“McDonald’s.”

Lisa slowly smiled to match Karen.

“Roadtrip!” they chorused.



After Karen added shorts and shoes to her ensemble, Lisa treated them to a high speed
drive to the nearest burger place. She got an odd thrill in driving that she hadn’t felt for
years, and, except for a couple of “little mistakes” that made Karen grasp her armrest
desperately, she got them there without grave risk to their recently youthened lives and
limbs.

The restaurant was busy: it was always crowded with families since it had an indoor
playground, and was swelled with the usual lunch transients. Karen watched the food
being prepared avidly, anticipating her grease and sugar fix. While waiting for their
surprisingly large order (They both wondered why they didn’t eat here more often - this
food was the best), Lisa nudged her companion and indicated a tall high school boy
working the grill.

“Check him out, Kari. Cute, huh?”

“Get a grip, Lees,” Karen returned. “He’s a little young for you, isn’t he?”

Lisa looked back. On closer examination, the boy seemed at least 2 inches shorter than
she had initially thought, his uniform hanging loosely on a skinny frame. Karen was right
- he looked closer to junior high than college.

The cook meanwhile pushed up his too long sleeves and stretched on tiptoes to reach the
buns he had been grabbing easily before. His usually familiar job was suddenly feeling
overwhelming, and it didn’t help that the heat from the grill seemed more intense - he
could swear it was closer to his face than it was supposed to be. He reached for another
bun and missed, startled at his lack of reach.

Luckily for him, Karen and Lisa had collected their food and left for a table. Within
minutes, the slightly confused grill cook found himself settling back into his comfortable
routine. Any questions were quickly dismissed as he dealt with the busy lunch work.

In the relative privacy of their corner booth, Karen and Lisa ate happily, talking about
how good life could be when you didn’t have to go to work, then veering into the more
important subject of boys and sex. They tried to ignore the conversations that kept
intruding from nearby tables, but fragments kept sneaking through. One particularly hard
to ignore was a booth near the playground. A 4 year old boy was pleading with a woman
in her early thirties wearing a denim skirt, T-shirt and sandals. Her dull blond hair framed
a tired face as she tried to concentrate on her newspaper.

“Please, Mommy. Please come with me.”

“No, Jeremy,” she sighed wearily and with some irritation. “I told you, Mommy’s too
big to play in there. It’s only for kids. Now, please let me read.”

He frowned stubbornly.

“I wish you were a kid like me, Mommy. Then we could play together.”

“Hmm mmm,” she agreed absently.

Karen looked at them briefly. He seemed like a nice kid. Too bad the mother didn’t give
him more attention; she could at least go with him to the playground. She returned full
attention to Lisa when she heard her say something about Bob.

Of course, that meant she missed the first visible changes in Jeremy’s mother.

But Jeremy didn’t. He watched in surprise as his mother’s hair lengthened and
brightened and her face smoothed into a much more carefree appearance, then in
open-mouthed wonder as she began to get smaller. Intent on her reading, she didn’t
notice as her feet moved higher off the floor, her breasts shrank to nonexistence, and her
shirt began to slip down over suddenly narrow shoulders. She found herself struggling
with the words on the page, first the bigger ones, then all of them, and they faded into
gibberish before her eyes. About this time, Jeremy could stay silent no longer.

“Mommy! Mommy! My wish worked!”

“Huh?” The small girl looked up with a frustrated expression on her pretty face, and
found herself looking evenly into her son’s eyes. She gasped, her tiny feet kicking
futilely trying to find the floor, and succeeding only in dislodging her loose sandals. She
squirmed to the seat edge, and dropped to the floor, now looking slightly UP into her
son’s face. Her shock was so great, she didn’t feel her skirt slip to the floor. Fortunately,
her T-shirt half covered her thighs anyway.

“Wha...” she cried, then stopped, as though something inside clicked.

“Mommy?” she asked in surprise. “My name’s Katie.” Her eyes spotted the play area.
“Oohhh,” she squealed. “Let’s play.”

Jeremy didn’t question her miraculous transformation, but instead ran off happily with the
half-dressed girl.

At another table, a young married couple were finishing their lunch, the woman snorting
loudly about how Hollywood insisted on making movies with aging leading men cast as
romantic matches for actresses barely out of their teens. As they got up, the woman
noticed with shock that her husband was showing gray at his temples, and then her eyes
went wide in horror as she watched the gray spread up and through his hair. His skin
became leathery, bags under his eyes, and deep lines marked his fading smile. She started
to scream, then blinked, realizing her eyes must be playing tricks on her. Marty looked
fine. For a man of his age. The fifty-something man and his barely twenty year old wife
walked out hand in hand, oblivious to the scornful stares they drew.

Karen remained engrossed in conversation, her eyes fixed on Lisa. This kept her from
seeing another strange sight across the aisle, where a mid-teens boy sat dressed in a badly
overstretched shirt half exposing his stomach, and his too small shoes kicked off beneath
the table. He laughed in a deep voice as he stole his sister’s lunch.

“Hey, Robby,” the strangely dressed girl complained. “No fair.” She looked to be about
six, and wore an incredibly loose sleeveless top, an inexplicable bra strap dangling
uselessly over her upper arm. Her skinny legs poked out of equally baggy shorts, with
her floppy sneakers threatening to join her brother’s on the floor as she kicked her legs.

“But I’m still hungry,” he rejoined, indicating his empty kid’s meal sitting next to her
half-eaten mega meal. “And that’s too much food for a little girl.”

“I’m six ...um, seven ... teen,” she finished uncertainly, sticking her lip out. She hated
being called little by her little ... big brother.

“Here,” he offered, tossing her the suddenly less interesting toy from the meal. “You can
have this.”

“Oh, right, like I ..... could ..... care .....” she trailed off. Actually, this thing was kind of
cool. She giggled as she started to play with it on the table, her food forgotten.


Karen and Lisa continued to laugh and talk, blissfully unaware of their increasingly
strange surroundings. Two teenagers kissed passionately in a booth, openly feeling each
other up, in strange contrast to their staid, ill-fitting clothes, and a forgotten cane sitting
on the seat. An 8 year old struggled in a too tight high chair, a burst diaper on the seat,
and a comically small bib under his chin, demanding REAL food instead of the
applesauce before him. Somewhere across the store, a little boy’s voice cried out.

“Kimberly! Put me down. Daddy said he was SORRRRY!”

New customers would walk in and stare for a few seconds before becoming embarrassed
and steadfastly averting their gaze. People could sure be weird, and it was better not to
let them catch you watching them.

Incredibly, most of the patrons eating inside seemed to adapt readily to the extraordinary
atmosphere, and most of the cries of alarm or surprise were ascribed to the kids’
playground, which was becoming increasingly crowded as more adults succumbed to
Karen’s out-of-control magic

By the time Karen and Lisa stood to leave, hardly anyone seemed to quite match their
clothes, and though people remarked on how strangely others were dressed, their own too
large or too small clothes seemed perfectly natural. Scores of half-naked children
whooped in boisterous play, while a few bewildered adults in torn or tearing and
ridiculously undersized clothes looked on enviously.

However, the bewilderment level rose dramatically about 10 minutes after the girls
walked out, with numerous cries of surprise and embarrassment. These were typified by
Jeremy’s mother, squeezing awkwardly out of the tube maze, her legs bare and kicking,
panty-covered ass wriggling in plain view of other equally astonished and uncovered
adults. (At least her panties had somehow stayed put, saving her illegal exposure.) She
stood, hair disheveled and face crimson, and tried unsuccessfully to stretch her shirt low
enough to preserve her modesty, before abandoning the effort and simply sprinting to her
discarded clothes.

Jeremy, sorry to see his playmate disappear, could still be heard murmuring.

“I wish ...I wish ...”


END PART 4

Copyright 1998 by Nomdreserv

All rights reserved by author


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