Free The Age Altertron by Mark Dunn Page B

and trusted apprentices in the field
of cataclysmic science. Should I flip the switch and pray for a positive outcome?”
Rodney and Wayne considered the question while their aunt did a little praying
herself, right then and there.
to us. Just you watch. And you won’t
be able to help us. And Wayne and I are still too young to do anything on our
own. So there is the other reason why you should flip the switch tonight. Because
if you don’t, then things could get much, much worse.”
“And what do you have to say, Wayne?”
“Ditto to everything that Rodney just said.”
“You have nothing more to add?”
“Just one more thing, Professor. I would like to say ‘Good luck, Professor Johnson.’”
“Thank you, Wayne.”

CHAPTER EiGHT
    In which Petey comes home, Becky makes a confession, and Rodney and Wayne lay
claim to the same Hawaiian shirt
    T hat night Wayne dreamed he was in the jungle and had
come upon a massive boa constrictor. The snake was friendly at first and did
not bite him, but Wayne remembered from a science report he once wrote about
the world’s largest snakes that boas do not generally bite. They constrict . After a while
the boa grew tired of being friendly and decided to slither up to Wayne and
do some constricting. The enormous snake twined itself around Wayne’s arms and
chest and thighs. It tightened its vise-like hold upon him, and in no time at
all Wayne couldn’t breathe. He’s going to suffocate me! he thought in his dream,
as he thrashed back and forth in bed.
    At the same time that Wayne was being squeezed by one of the largest snakes
in the world, his brother Rodney was having a nightmare of his own. He was also
being squeezed. But it wasn’t a snake that was doing the squeezing. In fact,
Rodney couldn’t see the agent of his trouble. Invisible hands were pulling invisible
sashes to make his clothes tighter and tighter. Rodney wondered, is this a madman’s
straitjacket I’m wearing?
    Usually, with nightmares that become too frightening, the brain will
end the story by waking the dreamer up. Now both boys woke, almost in the same
instant. They realized that the boa constrictor and the tight straitjacket-like
clothing had been figments of their dreams. But if this were so, why didn’t
the squeezing they were feeling go away?
    The answer was simple. Rodney and Wayne looked down to see that their toddler’s
pajamas, which had a pattern of cowboys and cowgirls on them, were straining
with great difficulty to contain their bodies, which were suddenly much too
big for them. Rips appeared in the chest and arms, and big tears ripped through
fabric in the legs of the pajamas. It was as if both boys had grown up so fast
inside their miniature P.J.’s that there wasn’t time even to take them off!
    Wayne switched on the lamp that sat on a little table between the two beds.
His eyes grew big. “Rodney, look at us! We aren’t babies anymore!” He ripped
the left-over pajama-top fabric so that he could breathe better. Then he looked
down as his chest.
“Rodney! Lookit! I have hair on my chest!”
    Rodney tore apart his own pajama top and looked down to see that he had hair
upon his chest as well. “And my hair is gray,” Rodney noted.
    “So is mine,” said Wayne. “Bring your face to the light, Rodney, so I can see
it better.”
Rodney leaned into the dim light of the lamp, which had leather fringe around
the bottom to make it look like a cowboy lamp. “Your face, Rodney—it’s kind
of old-looking.”
Both of the boys’ heads looked gaunt and narrow in the temples, and furrowed
in the forehead. The cheeks and jowls were wider and puffier, as cheeks and
jowls often become with age
“How old?”
“Well, look at mine. How old do you think I look?”
“About the Professor’s age, I guess. Probably a little older.”
“How old is the Professor?”
“Well, Aunt Mildred baked him a cake for his birthday in