A long long time ago in a strange place called the 1990's a classic boy meets girl love story happened and around the same time just as cliché story of two teens screwing and getting knocked up at prom also happened.
The pair of teens had a baby nine months later and named him Nate, that's me. I like long walks on the beach, going to the old drive in and classic cartoons. The other couple also had a baby boy and got married (yes in that order), the baby born one day after me grew up into my best friend Tommy.
We met on the first day of preschool and before that Friday we were inseparable. Soon after we found out we lived in apartment buildings across the street from each other. I was the gut and Tommy the brain and in other words Tommy came up with the stupid ideas and I'd do them.
A perfect example and a good lead into the story I'm going to tell is the rocket skates we made when we were 16. This was one of those rare times when inspiration struck me, but Tommy still made it better. Now he insisted roller-skates would be better for stability and he also came up with using model rockets instead of fireworks, I swear I'd be dead seventy times over without Tommy. I tested it out and to make a long story short hitting into a parked car can be just as painful as being hit by a car if your going fast enough, trust me I've done both.
Anyway after school ended and my casts came off my parents decided I needed some structure and they sent me away to a military camp for the summer. That was the longest time I spent away from Tommy.
It was about a month in when Drill Sergeant Schmuck Face, as I'd affectionately taken to calling him, called me to his office. He handed me the phone, we were only allowed access to the phone in emergencies so I was worried. It was my ma, rest in peace, apparently something bad happened to Tommy and she was on her way to pick me up. Drill Sergeant Schmuck Face had me pack my bag before making me scrub the latrines one last time, such a sentimentalist.
My ma picked me up and we headed on the highway back home. All that time she wouldn't tell me what happened, she didn't understand it herself. I expected to go to the hospital but to my surprise we went home. I asked ma about it and she hadn't found out until Tommy was discharged.
Ma let me jump out in front of his building and I rang the buzzer, after an eternity I was let in and ran up the stairs. I pounded on the door until Tommy's dad opened it, he was surprisingly calm. He explained that Tommy was fine and the doctors kept him for observation because what happened was unprecedented. I asked again what happened and he called Tommy out of his room.
My jaw hit the floor, literally followed by the rest of me. Tommy ran to check if I was ok, or so I'm told I kinda fainted. Anyway I eventually woke up to find myself on Tommys bed, I'm told I was out for fifteen minutes. It had to be a dream I thought to myself, but when Tommy came in the room I knew it wasn't. The Tommy I had grown up with for the past thirteen years was gone replaced by a little girl.
Tommy had become a ten year old girl! I asked him how it happened, but he didn't know. He told me one minute he was eating lunch at his favorite pizza place and then he sneezed and was like that. They called an ambulance and the doctors poked and prodded him for half a day, then observed him for another 24 hours before letting him go home, they had no idea what happened to him.
