Chapter 1: Where or when am I

Time unknown - Place unknown.

"Keith, Wake up!" I heard a female voice calling me through the fog of my dream. Even though the voice was vaguely familiar, I was not able to place it immediately. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I started to consider whom I might have invited home last night. Thinking through my activities between the time I got home from work, and when I went to bed shortly after midnight, I realized that something was not quite right.

There was been no one else in the apartment yesterday, and I distinctly remembered locking the doors before heading to bed. As I continued to rub my eyes to try to buy a little time, I tried to remember the times that I had invited a woman to sleep in my apartment.

A few years ago, I shared an apartment with a friend of mine and her husband for six months, after an accident had left him temporarily unable to work, and killed their oldest child. Aside from then, I could count on the fingers of one hand, the number of nights a woman slept in the same apartment or house as me, since my divorce. I am proud that, even counting the period between the time my ex-wife moved back with her parents and our divorce, that number would not change.

Still half asleep, I started to roll out of my bed; however, when I got to the edge of the bed, a safety bar stopped me. Since I hadn't slept in a bed with bars on the side since high school, I opened my eyes to see where I had awakened.

Looking over the bar, I was able to make out some blurry shapes that were not the ones I usually saw before I put on my glasses. Instead, I was reminded of the bedroom I shared with my brother, Jason, at my parent's house from sixth grade until the time I left home to go to college at the age of eighteen.

Closing my eyes and leaning back on my bed again, I pictured how that room looked after Mom had us do one of the periodic cleanings. Jason and I couldn't rearrange the room's furniture since it had been built in place shortly before we moved. Two of the corners of the room where occupied by loft beds, with a desk and a four drawer dresser situated below the platform holding the mattress. Between the two loft beds was the larger of the two windows in the room. Below and in the space between that window and the lofts was a bookcase. There also was a shelf along each of the walls about a foot below the ceiling. Two chairs and steps going up to the lofts completed the furniture. I did not think much about how it was furnished while I lived there. When I stepped into the dorm room I would occupy my freshman year in college I was surprised by how similar they were.

Jason's side of the room showed his interest in cars, and he usually had several models in various stages of assembly on his dresser, with completed models lined up along the shelf just below the ceiling. His half of the bookcase had only a handful of books, with a rock collection taking up much of that space. My side of the bookcase was filled with books and my magazine collection. I also had several models on display, but instead of cars, I had airplanes, a couple of models of the space shuttle, and a few Star Wars spaceships.

"Keith, you need to get up. I know it's your birthday but you need to stop procrastinating. Now, get up and go take your shower. After you get dressed, come on down so you can eat breakfast and finish getting ready to go to school," the voice that woke me up continued, each sentence a little bit louder than the last.

Turning my head towards the foot of my bed, I could see the doors to the closets Jason and I shared. Finally directing my attention to the source of the voice, I looked at the doorway to the rest of the house. Standing there was a vaguely familiar woman with brown hair. Since I had not put on my glasses, I could not see her clearly enough to recognize her.

Sitting up in bed, I quickly found my glasses and put them on. Following my surprise at not waking up alone in the apartment and realizing that I was not even my in apartment, I didn't really know what to expect. With my glasses in place, I could clearly see that Mom was the woman who woke me up. However, she looked very different than she did the last time I had seen her.

The last time I saw Mom alive was thirteen years ago, just before she died. In this dream, she appeared to be much younger than she was then. In fact, she looked like she did in her late thirties or early forties. Memories, I had thought I had lost forever, of my Mom's fortieth birthday party came to mind, and I remembered that happening the year I started in high school.

"Okay Mom, I'm awake," I said as I climbed out of my loft.

"Since it's your birthday, what do you want to eat Keith?" Mom asked as my feet touched the floor.

"How about some pancakes?" I replied remembering fondly the taste of her homemade pancakes.

After quickly looking at her watch Mom replied, "It looks like I will have time to fix you some before you go to school. Now hurry up and get ready if you want to eat," she said as she started to shut the door behind her.

"By the way Keith, if you want anything special for lunch today, please tell me before you go to school," Mom added, almost as an afterthought, before she closed the door all the way.

Wondering if the weird dream I was having was due to the leftover Chinese food I had for supper last night, I glanced under my loft. I saw my school uniform, which was a polo shirt with the name of the school painted over the left breast pocket and a pair of jeans, on a hanger hanging on a hook under my bed.

Deciding to play along with my dream, I opened the top drawer of my dresser looking for a pair of socks and some underwear. Finding that drawer contained only a half finished model and a model painting kit, I closed it, glad no one saw my mistake. Grabbing a pair of socks and underwear from the next drawer down, the hanger containing my school uniform, and a pair of sneakers sitting under my desk, I hurried into the bathroom next door.

Fortunately, I did not have to wait for my turn today. That often happened when I was growing up, since I had to share the upstairs bathroom with my sisters, Lisa and Marilyn (Mary) and my brother Jason.

After closing and locking the door to the bathroom, I looked into the mirror as I slipped out of my shorts. Staring in the mirror, I was speechless. What I saw confirmed that I either was still dreaming, or had actually gotten my wish and gone back in time in order to change my past (or is that my future if I am actually in what was my past? Time travel can be so confusing... )

The last time I had looked in a mirror I had seen a balding and gray-haired man who, due to the numerous wrinkles and sunspots, appeared much older than fifty-five. My current reflection showed a young, healthy looking face. All signs of the wrinkles, sunspots, bald spot, or even the mustache I had worn for over thirty-five years were gone. I could also see thick, wavy hair that, depending on the lighting, was either dark brown or black. While it wasn't as short as a crew cut, it was a lot shorter on the sides and back than it was before I had gone to bed.

Glancing in the mirror at my chest, I realized that there where a few changes there as well. The muscles in my arms and upper chest were a lot better defined than before. The biggest change I could see was that I no longer had the misnamed beer gut that I had just last night. It was misnamed since I never had any beer, and in fact I have been a teetotaler my entire life. I got my gut by over indulging in unhealthy eating habits, not alcohol. One of those unhealthy habits was drinking two to three gallons of flavored carbonated sugar water a week for most of my life. That habit contributed to me losing several of my teeth over the years.

I was relieved to see that not everything had changed from what I had seen just yesterday (?) morning, in the mirror, as I was getting ready to go to work. I woke up with the same amount of hair on my chest that I have always had, in other words, none. Looking closely, I spotted my third nipple located about three inches below where my "normal" right nipple was and about half its size.

Stepping on the bathroom scale, I saw that my weight was now only about one hundred and forty as opposed to the over two hundred pounds that I weighed at my last physical. Since I had already noticed my stomach was flat, the weight loss was not as big a surprise as some of the other changes in my body. I also took note, that as expected by the reduction in my weight, my legs were much thinner and more muscular than before. On the right one, I noticed a large half healed scab about halfway between my thigh and my hip.

I then started tracing a finger around the scar, closed my eyes, and remembered the day it happened.

"Help me!!!" I heard. Quickly figuring out the direction of the cry for help, I urged my trusty steed Peg, on towards the cry of a damsel in distress.

Once again, Keith, the Lone Ranger to the rescue, I thought as I galloped towards the tower from which the cry had come from. Fearing an ambush along the main route, I started to make a detour so that I would approach my enemy's tower from a little used side road.

As I was racing to the rescue, I started thinking about the reward that I would get. Once I rescued her, Rita would kiss and hug me, pressing her tits firmly against me.

When making a turn, Peg's legs suddenly shot out from under him, and I found myself sliding down the road on my side. Looks like your trap worked Black Bart, I groaned silently as I gingerly picked myself off the ground.

As I picked up my trusty steed, which actually was a Peugeot bicycle, I noticed that the handlebars had gotten misaligned when I had my accident. After assuring a few construction workers that had seen me fall that I was okay, I walked home favoring my right side.

When I got home, I put my damaged bike in the shed in the backyard alongside the other four bikes in there. My first thought was to try to hide my injuries from Mom, but she saw me as I walked in the back door. "What in the world did you do to your leg Keith?" Mom asked when she saw my leg.

"Mom, I was riding my bike downhill a few blocks from here. I tried to make a quick turn applying very little brakes and leaning a little to the side. To my surprise, the rear wheel of my bike started skidding. Since I was already leaning, I ended up sliding down the road, with my bike still between my legs," I said, while sitting down at the kitchen table.

"So, did you forget how to ride your bike little bro?" came Jason's voice from behind me.

"No Jason, I didn't," I replied turning towards him. "As I was getting up, I realized my mistake. On the corner where I was turning, there is a house being built. Some of the sand being used in its construction was scattered on the road, and that caused me to lose control of my bike. If I had been going slower, or there had not been the sand on the road, I would have made that turn as I had done dozens of times before. Even with the sand and the speed I was going I probably would not have had any problems had I been more careful."