The cube still looked the same, but Adam still had a sneaking suspicion. He picked it up with his manicured fingers and noticed that it felt much colder than before, like it had been stuck in a freezer for a few minutes. And just seconds after he touched it, a realization of what was going on hit him.
"Whoa..." he said as he began to realize. But something still wasn't right.
"What is it sweetie?" Jeff asked, "Did someone at school give you that cube?"
"No mom," strange... it still felt right to call him mom, even though he realized it was wrong, "This cube - it's giving us new identities!"
"Identities?" Jeff's brow furrowed, "Why, I'm the same woman I've always been. How can that be?" He now had on a light floral dress, which Adam suddenly realized looked way worse than the suit.
"I don't really know, but this cube does it! The company designed it for empathy training. It's therapy by a dice roll! Each side is programmed to write a new identity onto people nearby upon activation. The identities are connected in some way - so it made us believe we were, like, mother and daughter!"
"Woah, that's trippy man!"
"Yeah, and it's changing reality around us so that we fit!"
"So, how do we change back to... to whoever we were before?" Jeff was a little scared. Did this mean losing his daughter?"
"I just have to set it down with the default side facing up, let go, and then we'll be back to normal and the cube will deactivate."
"But how do we know which side that is? They all look the same!"
"That's the problem. The instructions are programmed right into the cube, that's how I realized all this once I touched it. But I think the code is broken. The instructions are incomplete, but something tells me that once I let go of the cube, we're both going to forget all of this information."
"So if the wrong side is up, we'll get brand new identities and have to figure this all out again? Honey, I don't know about this."
"It's the only way to get back, mom. Besides, we already know what this side of the cube is. It's a one in five chance we pick the right one!"
Jeff suddenly looked very worried. "But what about our lives? What about all your friends at school! You were so excited about trying out for cheerleading. Do you really want to lose all that? Our family?! Our home?!"
They looked around and Adam suddenly realized they were in the living room of a fairly nice house, instead of the modest apartment they started out in.
"Mom, this isn't real! It's not right!"
"Don't lecture me about what's real, young lady. You're only sixteen, you've got a lot of growing up to do. In fact, I really don't think you're mature enough to handle that... that thing. Give it here!"
"No way mom! We have to, like, fix this!"
"Jessica, I'm warning you! Give me that cube or you're grounded!"
"You can't ground me! I'm not your daughter!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Jeff reached forward to snatch the cube, but Adam recoiled backwards. The sudden movement caused him to fumble the cold piece of metal. It slipped through his fingers and fell. It bounced off the leg of the coffee table, then rolled several times before disappearing under the couch.
The eyes of the oddly dressed men went wide as saucers. But only for a moment, until both of them forgot they had even been arguing.
