Mayhem in a Pill
Chapter 2: A Leap of Faith

Copyright© 2015 by Shinerdrinker

Young Tim just sat on the rock clutching the manila envelope his future self had left to try and fix their combined futures. He was fighting the urge to open and read all the envelopes right then and there. He went over and over again in his mind what had just happened. Was it real? Was someone playing a joke on him?

But the real thing that hit him was the way the “future” him (Fat Tim) knew how he lived his life and how he never really tried to do anything. Fat Tim knew how he only did enough to get by and not get into trouble. The way Fat Tim painted his life if he continued on the path he was on now was a serious splash of cold water to the face. Tim realized he needed to make a change and the opportunity given to him in a pill was enough of a kick in the ass to get him going. The decision was made. A change was needed but was he willing to go through with what his Fat Tim had planned for him.

Hearing loud laughter off in the distance, he suddenly realized he had sat on the rock all afternoon and a quick check of his watch showed just after three-thirty and his fear was rising as he knew the bullies generally started harassing the younger kids, during the summer, after three. Since they were older high school kids and not working, they usually slept all day then came out in the late afternoon. He decided to get down off the rock, before he hurt himself. Actually, he decided he did not want to hurt the contents of the envelope.

“Well, I guess that’s it for swimming today,” and with a giggle he retrieved his backpack and removed the dry t-shirt and quickly changed. He also peeked at the cut on his hand and saw that the gauze was tinged with blood but not really that much.

He decided to leave the gauze on, until he was almost home, just for safety. Tim also understood it was time to get going, because ... well now he had a little light reading to do. The trip home was anti-climatic. Avoiding the bullies was easily done, if you knew your way around the park, and Tim knew. He quickly made it out of the park and up the hill toward the residential streets. While walking past a house before he reached his own, he quickly removed the gauze and placed it in his backpack’s pen pocket, to keep it separated from both his wet shirt and the manila envelope.

“Tim, is that you?” came from the kitchen.

“Yeah Mom it’s me.”

“Don’t leave your wet shirt in your backpack. They’ll get moldy. Go ahead and give it a quick rinse off in the shower, then wring it out and leave it in the hamper. You know I don’t like it when you swim in the creek, you have no idea what kinda weird stuff is in there,” she yelled from the kitchen.

“No problem, Mom.”

Tim made his way through the hall way of the 1950s four bedroom, one and a half bath single story home. His room was at the end of the hall and the large bathroom was in the middle of the hall in between the master bedroom and the first bedroom, which was reserved for his younger sister Carmen.

Once in his room, he blew a quick kiss to his prized Cindy Crawford poster up on the wall. It was silly but for some reason he always blew a kiss to the supermodel in the tight blue jean shorts, and nothing else, posed in a looking over her shoulder. The look in her eyes seemed to ooze sex appeal. The room featured other posters of scantily clad women in different levels of undress, but the Cindy Crawford poster was a personal favorite.

He closed the door behind him, removed the wet shirt and dropped it on the floor, reminding himself to do as his mother asked. He then removed the manila envelope and with a paranoid look around his room he placed it under his pillow on his still unmade bed. After a second thought he felt under the pillow might not be secure enough, so he moved the envelope under the mattress and above the box spring. Most teens hide pornography in that obvious hiding spot but not Tim, his porn stash was under the bottom drawer of the dresser. Pull the bottom drawer completely out of the dresser and in the gap between the floor and the drawer were his porno mags. Not many but they were well used. Tim felt the mattress was good enough since no one went in his room anyways ... it was not very clean but it was just like a typical teens’ room.

Tim then removed the trash from the light lunch he’d had with him, which was now the empty sandwich bags and the empty water bottle. He liked the swimming hole and did not want it to be ruined with trash so picking up after himself was a simple thing to do. With the trash in one hand and the damp t-shirt in the other he went toward the bathroom. He dropped off his trash and continued on to the bathroom. He ran the shirt though the shower just enough to drench it then he spent a few seconds wringing it out. Once fairly dry, he put it in the dirty clothes hamper. He also washed his hands after all that and went to see what his mom was cooking for dinner.

His mother, Juanita, was prepping the main dinner course along with various side dishes. “Hi Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Roast chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans,” she said with a smile as she enjoyed the kiss on the cheek from her oldest child. “How was your afternoon?”

Tim wanted to tell her everything that happened but on the walk back home he finally decided to heed the advice from his future self and keep it quiet. “Nothing much, just did a little swimming and played around then came home but I almost lost track of time and stayed too late to get caught by those guys on the other street.”

“Oh yeah, those bunch of hoodlums! Make sure you stay away from them. They are bad news. Dinner will be ready for when your dad comes home.” Juanita was a stay at home mom and cared for Tim and his little sister Carmen. While Tim was preparing to enter the ninth grade, little Carmen was getting ready for the fourth grade. She was smart and very personable like their father. Tim took after his mother. He was quiet, most of the time, cerebral person. Carmen and their father were out going people, and made friends easily. Tim was not shy, he was just the kind of person who thought out what he wanted to say before it came out of his mouth.

Realizing he had about an hour to kill, Tim would normally go ahead and watch TV in his room until called for dinner but today he had something to read. Back in his room, he retrieved the envelope from under the mattress and removed the envelope labeled “Read me first before you start.”

“Well ... no time like the present.”

Tim emptied out the envelope and inside were several sheets of paper. He also examined the small box holding two pills, were barely larger than aspirins. At least he did not have to worry about gagging on some giant horse pills like the ones he had needed to take when he’d had pneumonia.

“If you are reading this letter Tim, then my trip was successful but there is still a LOT of work for YOU to do. Now I should have told you in our admittedly too brief conversation, but I had a very limited window to get this done, or I’d get myself and a lot of other people in trouble. I have made a conscientious effort to not give away too much of the future. But I also wanted to make sure you actually did something with this opportunity. It is pretty unique. I’m also going to be vague in discussing with you some topics. This is security for you in case you lose these letters for some ungodly reason; and for yourself, so you don’t screw up the future so bad that I can’t recognize anything. As a matter of fact, after you read and probably re-read this first letter a few times ... and understand it ... then I suggest you destroy it. Don’t just throw it away, but actually burn it or shred it or something, to make sure it can’t be put back together again. Some of the stuff I need to tell you in this first letter might give away the whole story. This letter is the only letter you will need to destroy, The others are vague enough to keep the secret but don’t take any chances. Keep them secure.

Now the pills are very cool little devices to help you get to where you want to go. Normally, in my time, there are limits placed on the programming the nanites can follow, they can only change you this much or they can only repair you that much. Since I know how much you like football and other sports, I know you secretly would love to be a big time high school football hero! That would be an excellent way to get your ass doing something.

That’s why I set the nanites to gradually reduce your weight, and build up your muscle mass. Your extra fat should get replaced by muscle. By the time you get to the freshman football season, you should be at about the peak performance of a nationally ranked top high school football recruit. But, with hard work and dedication to getting better, you should be able to actually improve upon the improvements. Depending on what you want to do and how far you want to take it. Think of it as a boost, to get your ass going. The harder you work, the more the nanites will take care of your body and improve your performance. You should be able to get into other sports as well ... I’ll let you decide that one for yourself, but the football I totally understand.

I do have one request, learn martial arts!

It helped me SOOOO much! I know it can help yo, too! Hell the way you’ll end up taking over the school, will put a target on your back. I could have just programmed it in there, but the journey made the destination totally worth it. I did program in a sort of natural aptitude for martial arts, sports, education. So learning martial arts or learning ... well, anything ... will be simple. You should enjoy the instant gratification of learning something so easily and so quickly.

I also had the nanites up your pheromone levels so you should be able to get pretty much any female you want. They will be like putty in your hands, and the way you activate your pheromones will be like second nature to you: ... easily controlled. You will know when true love is there or if it’s just ‘true lust’ that has appeared.

Now let’s talk about the side effects of the pills. You will not be permanently harmed but once you take them expect the equivalent of a very bad cold or flu. Go ahead and stay home for at least 48 hours after you take the pill. After then, you can let your parents take you to the hospital, but DO NOT LET THEM TAKE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL BEFORE THE INITIAL 48 HOURS!!!!

I can’t emphasize that enough because the chemical changes transforming you will be detectable by their medical tests! The results would force higher up doctors to be called to see the freak kid with the totally unheard of toxicology. The doctors would get very excited when the results started coming back, and since your parents would most likely bring you to Ft. Sam, it would be very easy for them to spirit you away and turn you into a guinea pig.

Remember the old joke, “When did you get so paranoid? When everyone started following me!” If they actually saw those test results of what was happening to your body within the initial 48 hours, well let’s just say you would find the location of some of the other secret sights before me and they will not let you leave ... EVER!

The pill should be through the baseline changes in under the 48 hours somewhere more closely to between 30 and 36 hours. Give yourself the 48 hours before you go to the hospital and you should be able to avoid ‘the men in black.’

You won’t go to sleep how you look now, then wake up in the morning looking like some kind of Hollywood heartthrob. No, the baseline will first be set, and then the changes will begin. You will start losing weight pretty quick. That will be what sets off your parents. Figure 15 to 20 pounds of fat disappearing in the first day after the baseline is set. Then after about a week you will stabilize. You will have lost about 50 to 60 pounds, total. That weight will come back, because over the next month you will start to grow.

The fat in your body will not just disappear. The nanites will gradually change the fat at the cellular level, and will start transforming it into muscle. They will also increase your bone density and increase and strengthen muscle fibers all over your body. You will get strong. You will get fast. You will be very difficult to injure. Not bullet proof, but you can figure a knife possibly breaking if you get stabbed. You’ll feel it, but it will not make a deep penetration.

Lean muscle should improve first so you can adjust to the new height. Don’t just be strong like some kind of Olympic power lifter. Make sure you work on your flexibility, endurance, and motor skills. Learn yoga and the ‘Pilates’ exercises to stretch and gain flexibility. The nanites will give you a great leg up on those, but their efforts can be improved so much more with training! That’s why I suggest some kind of martial arts.

You are gonna be clumsy for maybe a week, while the brain programming begins. Blame being tired from all the rest that has been happening, and your ... well I guess our ... parents will believe it. When you are done growing, I think you’ll finish off at about 6’5”, and weigh about 275 pounds. That should also include a very low body-fat percentage. Basically, big as a bull and sculpted like an underwear model. And yes, improvements to our “package” are a mandatory upgrade. I know you’ll enjoy it.

But again, while the nanites will change the base, you can change, too. You’ll decide what you want to be and the nanites will reconfigure your final improvements. You might get taller and thinner, or you might get shorter and more compactly built (like that Olympic weightlifter I mentioned, earlier). It is up to how you train and what goals you want to finally reach.

The girls should really like you. But I strongly urge caution on that front. Some of these girls will see you as a ways to a means. Especially girls you never met before, who suddenly want to meet you.

I don’t say avoid women at all costs, but I trust you can understand for yourself what might happen. I do give you one piece of advice: ... stay away from girls who are already in relationships, and also stay away from those girls who leave long term relationships, once they get a whiff you might be interested. Do your best, but have some fun. No need to be a monk.

Okay, take a pill then wait at least 48 hours, before you let our parents take you to the hospital. You’ll probably be about a week in the hospital. After a couple of days there, the nanites will produce a genetically perfect copy of a tape worm that will come out through a bowel movement and that will let the doctors off the cliff as to why you are losing weight and are so sick. They will be happy to find a quick and easy solution to the problem. Soon after you start showing improvement, they will let you go. Your mom will probably give you shit for swimming in Salado Creek; but hey it will make her feel better that she can finally do some parenting.

I just realized something. I haven’t told you why I gave you two pills. Save the second pill. While these pills have been in use here in the future for quite a while, they are still somewhat of an unknown commodity. Wait that didn’t come out right. The pills definitely work, but their effectiveness is sometimes an unknown factor. You might need too much work for the nanites to repair and improve your systems.They may need reinforcements. But that is usually when getting paraplegics walking on their own again, and not just fixing the shape of bodies. But, better safe than sorry. So you have a second pill and if you take that pill, it will serve as a kind of booster shot for the nanites already working in your system once you take the first pill. So I suggest if the nanites let you know a booster is required, because of all the work needing to be done on you, then go ahead and take the second pill. It is possible the first pill will plateau and more help is needed. Reinforcements, if you will.

You should be able to communicate with the nanites but they don’t really know anything other than their programming. So, if they need help from you, give it to them. It’s highly doubtful that there will be any problems, but the chance is there, so don’t worry if it comes up. And remember ... only you can take the pills. You cannot give the extra pill to anyone else, as they are genetically coded to us and only us. The consequences for someone else taking the backup pill, would not be good.

Finally, all changes the nanites will jump start for you are not just physical but also mental. These changes will be almost immediate. Your first night, you will sleep without dreams. When you wake up, you will be one of the top computer scientists in the world. Computer programming will be a second language for you, and you will be fluent. This is a gift from me to ... well ... me. I know we have always liked being around computers and now you will be able to use them as easily as you can change a TV channel.

But the nanites will also begin programming your synapses to fire quicker and you will find you can understand more than ever before, a lot more quickly. Photographic memory is totally possible.

Spend some of your off time away from the gym and football field and in the library. Don’t forget to work out the most important muscle: your brain. Besides, you will find once you start, it will be hard to stop the reading. Hang out at the library, when not working out. Hell, show up at school this summer! Work out with the weights, run on the track, then spend a couple of hours in the library. You will love it.

Okay, that’s it. I envy you this journey! Have fun and remember to secure the letters; but, after you understand this letter, destroy it! Then secure the other letters.

After reading and re-reading the initial letter several times, Tim suddenly thought about the friends he hung out with in middle school. After all, they would not be hanging out with the football players like he would. This line of thinking had Tim daydreaming about what would happen to his friendships when he changed so rapidly, and began hanging out with different friends. He soon realized he really didn’t have anything to worry about, since none of his friends actually visited him during the summer, anyway. Then again, he never went to them, either.

’Oh, well. I guess the idea of staying with the same group I was with, is actually something I am trying to fix by changing the past,’ he thought to himself.

Thinking was never a weakness with young Tim. Over-thinking yes, but general planning was not difficult for him. So, standing in his room, he stared at his reflection in the mirror behind his door. He took a full inventory of himself.

First thing he noticed ... the first thing he always noticed ... was his stomach. It was big and seemed to take up an inordinate amount of space in the reflection. He raised the bottom hem of his t-shirt and held it up with his chin. Then he lowered the elastic waistband of his shorts to expose his rotund belly.

He asked himself, “How will I ever get a girl with this monster truck tire as a waist?”

He reached under his stomach with both hands, interlaced his fingers and lifted his stomach. Not an easy feat but he quickly noticed the reduction of weight pulling on his back and also saw in the reflection that he stood up straighter. He let go and his stomach dropped and continued to jiggle for what seemed an impossibly long time. Tim noticed the weight return to his lower back after being suspended by his arms and saw himself immediately slump over from the weight, again. Tim did not like that look, or that feeling, at all.

“Good grief, not only is my stomach huge but my arms and legs are so skinny. I look like some sort of comic drawing of a fat kid on the verge of becoming a fat teenager. Damn, how can I change it?” His hair was dark and wavy and full. The fact that the older version of himself was bald had not gone unnoticed.

Before his meeting at the creek, Tim had decided he was wanted to let his hair grow longer. But what he really wanted was to get his hair to look like the actor on the old Highlander TV show. His straight black hair was about shoulder length but he always wore it pulled back into a pony tail with some sort of ornate barrette holding it together behind his neck. Tim always thought his look was the essence of cool, sleek and thoroughly European styling. Tim loved the look and when he looked in the mirror that was the look he wanted to see staring right back at him.

But he was pretty sure his mom would not approve of long hair like that and she would make him get it cut or she would do it herself. Before she had married Tim’s father, Juanita was a beautician. So, of course, she could help the family save money and cut hair at home. Unfortunately, the only hair she cut was Tim’s and his father’s hair. His father’s hair was not difficult to cut. Since he was bald. He preferred the high and tight look of the military, he used an electric trimmer to keep it short.

Nowadays though especially for summer, a high and tight haircut was easily acquired. Since middle school was just the beginning of entering adulthood. a haircut was not that important. That went to show you, how outside of the ‘cool kids’, Tim truly placed himself. Of course he and his friends would not care about the haircut, but girls would definitely care about the hair and the clothes and the appearance of being in the right clothes, hanging out with the right kids ... and of course, thinking the right way. Tim did not understand that ... yet.

Next thing Tim did, was to open his closet and look at his clothes. In his mind, the right clothes were all you needed to get invited to lunch at the cool table, and hang around with the other cool kids and maybe get invited to the cool parties.

No, not birthday parties but the parties where someone’s parents were out of town and the cool older sibling was gonna relax with a few friends, but in reality he was gonna break into the parents’ liquor cabinet, and drink as much of what they could find in there and act like complete fools ... of course in the company of the other ‘cool kids’.

So to keep his younger siblings from snitching, he allowed them to invite a few friends over and they could also get something to drink then act just like the older ‘cool kids’. Of course all this needed to be seen by some of the older kids, so the stories would be spread at the earliest possible moment and the stories would reach legendary status! In reality a few middle and high school kids were sitting in the backyard hiding from the neighbors, and drinking away the contents of their parents’ liquor cabinet: but the story would grow to involve the SWAT team, and several units of the National Guard would be called in to try to stop the greatest party of all time.

Yep, Tim understood all you need was the name brand shirt, with the name brand jeans, and of course the name brand shoes! Then you too will be invited to that party, get to hang out with the cool kids, and possibly even become a Hollywood star when a talent scout sees you walking through the mall in all your name brand clothing, and begs you to star in his next TV series.

Tim’s clothes were not name brand, but they were not lower quality, by any means.

His father after retiring from the Army three years earlier immediately got a job as a Nurse Supervisor at the Brooke Army Medical Center. All the nurses were in the Army but the hospital system decided they wanted civilian nurses to actually run the different wings to make sure the same system is always used, and exacting military medical standards are always followed. The nurses come in do their jobs for a couple of years then get promotions and are then moved to other hospitals throughout the country or even in another country. Since the civilian nurse supervisors run the wards, they run them the same way all the time while the nurses can be moved interchangeably with the minimum of problems.

Tim’s father, Raymond worked for twenty-five years in the Army as a nurse. When he’d retired they’d had him running the nurses in the world famous burn ward at BAMC. When he retired, they offered him one of the newly created civilian ward supervisor positions. It was the job he was already doing, but at about three times the salary he’d had, previously. The Army liked the way the nurses were running the burn ward at BAMC. When they asked the doctors why it was so smooth an operation, the doctors all said “Raymond Murphy.” The family was doing well and his father was happy to be where he was the most effective.

Tim knew if he wanted he could get new clothes for the new school year and if he wanted he could upgrade the clothes to the name brand versions. He soon realized he would just be chasing the neighbors to get the best looking clothes, then within a month they would be out of style! It was a never ending circle of needing new clothes. He knew he wanted none of that. He decided that with the way his body was going to look, he needed to show it off, only without looking like he was showing it off. The idea of purchasing clothes to accentuate his body was almost a foreign concept, but it was not an unappealing one.

“Okay, blue jeans, definitely. Levi’s. Might as well pay for quality. And to add to those, how about different colored Polo style shirts. No need for top of the line name brands and blowing a hundred bucks on just one shirt, no I can get three shirts for around a fifty bucks, and they should last me a while. Guess I’ll need about six of those as well as three maybe four pairs of jeans. You know, to splurge, why not get a couple of dress white shirts to wear when I’m feeling ... dressy?”

A smile crossed the fat kids face. He noticed the smile in the mirror, and then immediately noticed the fat. The smile disappeared, quickly.

“I’ll need new shoes as well. I’ll decide on those when I go to the shoe store. Either nice cross trainers or some Timberland boots or something like that. Strangely enough I have no problem spending my father’s money on footwear.”

With a final introspective look at himself in the mirror, Tim decided to go all the way. Not only change his life but to take the path that was seemingly being cleared for him. He actually wondered if he would he see himself again. Then he laughed when he realized he would see himself again, when he gets that old, but he would not look the same. Tim retrieved one of the pills from the manila envelope and took another look at himself in the mirror.

Tim smiled as he swallowed the pill.

Edited by TeNderLoin

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