"Mom, can I change to cartoons?" Mikey asked Alex.
Jon frowned, noticing the caption on the screen had changed. It now said..."Jane gets caught up in town politics..." Somehow, his mother had swapped places with a fictional character.
"Mom?" the stranger said. She'd never seen this boy before in her life. "Umm, no. I want to watch this," she said. She watched the stranger serve breakfast to her children and send them off to school.
"This is boring," Mikey complained.
"Well, run upstairs then," Alex said. "I need to have a private chat with..."
"Jon," Jon supplied helpfully.
Mikey looked at them both oddly, but headed upstairs again. She turned to Jon. "I've never seen him before in my life," she said. "And...those are my kids...and that...that woman."
Jon looked at her. He had to be the calm one here. "I'm not 100% sure what's happening. My mom was sucked into the TV, and you...came out," he said. "You're a...fictional character," he said.
"Come again?"
"You somehow traded places with my mom. Now you're real, and she's...in a TV show. I know that sounds crazy, but..."
She picked up a nearby photo. "That's her with you..." she said. Suddenly, she blinked. The woman was gone, replaced by Alex in the picture.
Jon saw it too. "We need to figure out how to get my mother back before you completely replace her," he said. He moved to touch the TV. The screen was solid. he didn't feel the pull he'd felt before. This was not going to be easy.
