My big little brother problem.

"Uh...what's up?" I asked my brother.

"Oh nothin. Just waiting for your pathetic ass to get home. Do you know what time it is?" My brother took a puff of his cigar.

"It's 11. It's no big deal."

Jacob took a drink of his scotch and put the cigar in his mouth.

"You're grounded."

"What? No! No way. You can't ground me!"

Jacob took his cigar and held it authoritatively.

"I can't? Do you think I just say things to sound amusing? Huh? Do you think I look like I'm kidding? Well? Answer me!" He demanded. He looked so stern. Just like a real adult.

"I...you're MY little brother. You're not even ten."

He laughed gruffly. It happened so fast I barely knew what hit me. He had flown across the room and held me up and up against the wall. I looked into his big, stubble filled face.

"I'm in charge now whether you like it or NOT. You're twelve. And what I say goes. I say for you to do something and YOU DO IT! Do you understand?"

"Yes," I squeaked in disbelief.

"Yes, what? Yes, sir!"

"Yes sir." I sniffed. He put me down and walked back to the table and lit up his cigar again, which had gone out.

"Dad and I switched ages and now you both have to deal with it. We all do. I have the mind of an adult. You can't think of me as your little brother anymore. I'm your dad, officially, as far as the rest of the world knows. I took dad's identity so that nothing bad would happen to you. I am the one who has to earn a living for this family now and if you don't like it, blame dad!"

It was true. My dad had wanted to experiment in aging but had wound up drastically altering his DNA and Jacob's. Who now went by the name Jim. He had just meant to give Jacob some kind of DNA transfer but it reversed with his adult form. As Jacob grew, my dad shrunk and got younger until they were each other's ages. Jacob found himself acting a lot more mature and my dad found himself acting like a little kid. There were also a lot of weird moments where they acted like their original personalities. It was confusing. Sometimes dad remembered adult things and sometimes he didn't. Most of the time my "big" little brother remembered how to do things, like drive, but also had a lot of my dad's personality quirks now. Like smoking cigars, and chewing me out. Sometimes I think dad did all of this on purpose but he always denied it. How could he have been so careless with the machine?

Of course, my brother knows how the machine works now. I read his journal. He just took my dad's identity and we moved across the nation to a small rural town to escape any detection. He's not going to change them back even though he knows how.

"I'm responsible for you both. Now get upstairs," my "big" brother said more calmly, puffing on his cigar contentedly. He would probably watch some porn or invite his boyfriend over for some sex while I had to stay in my room.

What my bro doesn't know is I'm trying to understand the machine and how it works. If I can just find the right adult to play along I can switch enough of our DNA to become an adult version of myself and maybe gain some maturity as well as some of the personality quirks of whoever I switch ages with. So I have to choose carefully! Better not enjoy it too long, bro. You won't be the only grown up in the house soon!