Heads or Heads? 📊

Most of the time, Rick enjoyed living in the same neighborhood he'd grown up in. The thought of moving anywhere had never even occurred to him, not even when he was younger. He quit high school at 16 to take on work as a mechanic at Conway's number one garage where he remained for the next thirty years, climbing the ranks until he was the boss and owner. Moving to a new apartment was bad enough when it was a few blocks down the street, let alone crossing state borders. Besides, why would he leave behind all those creature comforts? The coffee shop he made his daily visit. The trusty mall that had every store he relied on. And he was under half an hour from the ocean, that's practically beachside property!

However, he wasn't the only one to stay in Conway. He'd fixed many a car of a former jock, nerd and cheerleader in his day. Interactions ranged from awkward to downright unpleasant. But it was part of the job. Then of course there was family. His parents still had the family home, though they spent more time on cruise ships since they both retired. Likewise, his little brother Ryan had also stuck around. He'd had the typical small town romance where he married his high school sweetheart, and the two had a boy together. However, they were moving clean across the state in a few short months after Ryan had scored a lucrative job offer. Pretty soon, it would leave Rick the only Marino in Conway, and he wouldn't have to take care of his nephew ever again.

It wasn't that Rick didn't like Ollie, in fact he hated all kids equally. Even when he was a kid himself, he couldn't stand being around them. And Ollie was at least a sweet kid. Rambunctious at times. Very chatty. The kind of kid you can tolerate in short bursts. It firmly cemented his role as uncle in his life plans, with no plan to have kids of his own. Which made it all the more frustrating when Ryan would use him as free daycare. Always assuming he was free to look after the brat for a few hours. Even today, he didn't even ask if Rick had other plans before dumping Ollie on his doorstep while he took the wife up to Lexington to view some houses. It drove Rick crazy. He tried telling himself they were moving in a few months, he should appreciate their presence while he could. All he could think of was of his wasted afternoon

At least this time around, Ollie had discovered a new hobby - treasure hunting. It was all thanks to Burrowing Bandicoot, the marsupial miner that headlined his favorite cartoon. He'd just received the official metal detecting kit for his birthday, and was raring to give it a try. Which meant taking him to the beach so he could sweep the sandy shores for pirate loot. A goal that Rick was all too happy to oblige, preferably when the UV was at its highest. All he had to do was sit back, top up on his tan, and let the boy be everyone else's problem for a couple of hours.

Just as he was starting to doze off, his fantasies were interrupted by a distinctly shrill voice cry out in joy that was getting progressively louder. Rick sighed as he turned his head to see Ollie pelting full speed towards him. "UNCLE RICKY!" he cried out. "I FOUND SOMETHING! UNCLE RICKY!!"

Rick shook his head and sat up in his deckchair, lowering his sunglasses as his nephew approached at full speed. "How many times do I have to tell you," he growled, "it's just Rick."

"Uncle Ricky!" Ollie ignored, instead declaring breathlessly, "I swept all around the beach and I kept finding crushed cans and loose change and stuff, and I thought I wasn't going to find anything valuable, but then I searched by that tide pool over there and the detector beeped and I found this really old coin, like super duper old, even older than grandpa!"

"Slow down and take a breath, kid."

Ollie nodded, gulping in a few deep breaths before thrusting a fist out toward his uncle. He opened it to reveal a dull, rusted piece of unremarkable metal. "It doesn't look like money I've seen before," he said with excitement. "It's all bumpy on the edges and real smooth. Except one side of it has a face on it that looks just like me!"

"Oh wooow," Rick drolled in faux amusement. He took the coin from Ollie's outstretched hand, and brought it up to eye-level to examine it. The coin was a rugged circle, the kind shaped by hand rather than automatic molds. It had rusted from the elements, and yet, you could still see the image on its face clear as day; a side profile of the cherub-like features of a young boy. Indeed, it did bare a striking similarity to his nephew, if you squinted. He did look like every other boy at the beach that day. He flipped it over in his grip, and raised an eyebrow at the other side. Instead of an insignia or a coat of arms, there was instead another side profile. This one was the angular features of an older man with a short beard and shaved head. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken... "Huh," he muttered with a shrug of the shoulders. "That kind of looks like me... The other side, I mean."

Ollie cocked his head to the side. "The other side? No, that was blank..."

"Nope, see?" 

"Wow, how did I miss that?! That's so crazy weird! It has to be extra special if it has both of us on it! It could be a pirate doubloon, or a special token for a ritual, or even some Roman money!"

"The Romans never made it this far West, kid," Rick scoffed. Roman money indeed... "Besides, it's only a coincidence the faces sort of look like us. Lots of coins have bearded men and young boys on them. It's more likely they made a mistake when minting, and they printed two heads onto the same coin. Nothing special at all." Rick was about to toss it away dismissively when he thought back on his words. Error coins were worth thousands of dollars to the right person. Throw in the fact it was ancient as fuck, and he could be holding a million dollar coin in his palm. Whatever it was, he couldn't just give it back to those grubby hands. He knew a guy who could get it valued. Rick gripped the coin tighter and said, "Why don't I hold onto this while you search a little further. Maybe you'll find even more coins!"

"Huh? No, it's mine!" Ollie pouted. He reached his hands towards his uncle's fist, who merely shifted his weight to keep it out of reach. "C'mon, that's not fair! I found it, I wanna keep it!"

"I just don't want you losing it while you search for more treasure!" Rick grunted as he tried and failed to stop his persistent nephew from clamoring onto him in his effort to grab the coin. People were starting to look at them and mutter. But it wasn't until a stray foot to the face that Rick finally bellowed, "That's Enough!" He jumped to his feet, allowing Ollie to fall to the sand, and glared down at him. "How about this? Why don't we flip for it? Heads I keep it, tails you... Wait, that won't work. If it lands on the man's head, then I keep the coin safe and sound. If it lands on the child's head, then you get it back along with full responsibility if you lose it."

Ollie glared up at him with a defiance that merely lasted seconds before relenting. "Okay," he sighed. "I guess that's fair..."

Rick smirked in triumph before sitting back down on his deckchair. After balancing the coin on his forefinger and thumb, he flicked the two upwards and sent the coin flipping over itself. Time seemed to slow as he watched it, eyes following the coin up up up into the sky until all he could see was blue. His head fell back toward the ground before swooping back up toward the sky. His stomach twisted in knots. He felt like he was somersaulting through the air alongside the coin. Sky became ground became sky became ground until the two blurred together as one. Rick wanted to hurl as he only got dizzier and dizzier. Finally, he hit the ground with a shudder.

When his head stopped spinning, Rick opened his eyes and looked around. He was still sat on his deck chair, but everything else appeared...off... The ground appeared closer to him than before, even when sat. The ocean looked further away, the surrounding cliffs more menacing in height. Even the people around him seemed larger than life. Underneath him, his deck chair appeared to have doubled in size. Even his towel looked big enough to swamp him. Then he finally clocked onto the biggest change of all. He had the scrawny, hairless body of a pre-pubescent boy.

Rick gulped as he gaped down at his bare body. Gone was his brawny, hair-soaked body. Everything about him had compacted in some way. Miniature hands brushed against baby-smooth skin that hadn't been hair-free in decades. And it wasn't just his body that changed. He patted his face with a whimper, feeling chubby rounded features with nary a hair or wrinkle in sight. He felt something brush against his forehead, reaching up to swat it away. But it was hair. Actual hair growing on top of his head. He yanked on it, just to be sure. It had been years since he could grow such thick, luxurious hair instead of the near-barren wasteland he'd begrudgingly accepted. It was just like that recurring dream he had, except he remained a man in those. No, this was no dream. Reverting back to childhood? That was a living nightmare.

Clearly this had to something to do with that coin. He flipped it, the world went screwy, and now he was a kid. However, the actual weirdest thing was that nobody else seemed to notice he'd shrunk from manly man to baby boy. Well, nobody except for one person. There was a man by his side who was staring at him, while simultaneously gawking at his own masculinity. He was well built and covered face to foot with messy, salt and pepper hairs. Only his scalp was clear of any hair, and the band of stubble around the sides proved it wasn't by choice. He kept running a furry paw across his hairy pecs and scratching at his beard with an almost immature grin. The worst part, however, was who used to be stood by his side, and who was now currently missing. Because the man looked familiar to him in an all too scary way. Rick took a cursory glance around him for little Ollie, his heart dropping as he knew full well exactly where he was.

"Is that you, Ollie?" He asked cautiously, wincing at the sound of his higher, chirpier voice.

The man stopped squeezing his left pec and broke into a grin. "Duh!" He beamed. "And I knew it had to be you uncle Ricky!Who else would it be? "

"You know it's just Rick..."

"You look so cute and little now! And I'm so big! Big and hairy, just like you used to be! I think I have even more hair than you did, it's on my arms and legs and belly and back and shoulders and face and- and not my head though, but you didn't either. But now you do! I didn't think you ever had hair on your head. How does it feel? It must feel weird to have hair again. Because it feels weird having hair in places I didn't and no hair where I did, but also kinda cool."

"Yeah, it's you," Rick sighed as he tried tuning out the man's incessant chatter, which sounded even more annoying now that his voice had a gravelly gravitas to it. He pinched the bridge of his nose, then put his finger to his lips and shushed. It was the only thing to stop Ollie from talking, and it still worked like a charm even now he was middle aged. Rick nodded approvingly, then asked "So what happened?"

"I dunno,"Ollie shrugged. "You flipped the coin, I got really dizzy, and then I stopped being dizzy and discovered that I was big."

"Same," Rick sighed. "Well, except I became small..." He stroked his chin by habit, already missing the bristly feeling of his beard. "Obviously it had something to do with that coin..." He paused. "Hang on, where did it go? I lost sight of it..."

"I dunno," Ollie replied with a shrug before immediately changing the subject. "Hey, gimme your phone, I wanna see what I look like!"

Ollie grabbed the phone from the deck chair before Rick could even blink, who then rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You won't get that far, I have-" he began to say as Ollie held it up to his face, and the screen unlocked. Rick's voice softened as he continued, "-A face ID lock... On there..." 

Maybe there was more to this problem than he anticipated. Ollie did look almost exactly like he did before the coin flip. There were a few subtle differences of course. His eyes weren't the same steely gray as his own. His build was subtly thicker, his waistline slightly softer. There was a touch more white to his beard, and the stubbly shadow of his shaved head appeared darker, also highlighting how his male pattern baldness was a tad more advanced. On the flip side, despite being hopelessly gay, there was an awkward running joke in the family that Rick had had an affair with Ryan's wife because their kid was the spitting image of him. Even without looking at his reflection, he knew anyone would mistake him for his nephew, which was increasingly worrisome given the circumstances.

Despite these worries, Rick couldn't help but notice that Ollie didn't appear concerned or upset about losing his youth. In fact, he was gawking at his phone with a large grin breaking through his beard. "Wooow,"Ollie cooed as he gazed at his digital reflection. "I look exactly how I imagined I would. You know, based on what my hands felt." Then again, there wasn't much else you could imagine when you have a full beard and receded hairline. Curious, Rick jumped off of his chair and squeezed his way between the man's outstretched brawny arms and his phone. He flinched involuntarily as he felt the man's chest hair brush against his back, finding they were too close for comfort. Despite that, he gazed at the phone screen with bemusement. If he didn't know any better, it was like seeing an old photo from his childhood brought to life with AI. An uncanny thought for an uncanny situation. He decided to leave his phone with his nephew who was clearly enamored by his own grown-up reflection.

Deep down, Ollie felt a little guilty. Not that he'd accidentally stolen his nephew's best years and relegated him to a shortened life that started in middle age. The new man didn't seem to care about that himself. No, it was that he didn't appreciate being given a second chance at life at all. There were people out there who'd kill to relive their childhood, and here he was with the chance of a lifetime wishing he could go back to his simple life of drudgery. It wasn't perfect, but it was the life of an honest man.

It didn't help that he was about to be dragged back into school, surrounded by kids of all ages, many now older than he was. He was a small brat in an ocean of brats, which couldn't have been worse. Then there was the whole moving situation. Ryan wasn't going to give up his new job because his 'son' claimed to actually be his older brother. He was looking at starting over in a new city, the one thing he never wanted to do. He already missed his workshop... No, he had to find that coin again before it was too late. He looked back over to his grown-up nephew, who was now taking photos of himself, pulling stupid faces amidst stupid filters.

"Would you stop that?!" He chided to Ollie, trying to keep his voice low. "You're a grown-ass man now, so act like it! We don't want to draw any unwanted attention. Let's just find that coin before someone else does."

"Nobody's paying attention to us," Ollie replied with a laugh. "Actually, isn't that weird? We've practically swapped bodies in a very public place and not a single person noticed?" Rick frowned. It was true, everyone appeared to be busy with their own lives and not making a fuss over the arguing boy and man. Heck, he wouldn't pay any mind if it were him. Ollie continued, "not only did we change, but our swimming costumes did too. Your underwear got longer, and my shorts got tiny."

"They're not underwear, they're speedos," Rick sniffed dismissively. "But I suppose you're right..." He tugged on the boldly colored board shorts he now wore that grazed against his kneecaps. Then he looked over to Ollie whose trunks had been replaced with a pair of embarrassingly tight black speedos that left nothing to the imagination. Is that what I looked like, he thought to himself with a shudder.

"So we've changed bodies and belongings, and nobody around us suspects anything wrong. Does that mean we've changed positions in life? Because I didn't want to say it before, but you look a whole lot like me, but also not like me..."

"That's because I look like me from almost forty years back," Rick said in an irritated tone. "Besides, I could say the same about you. You look like me, only uglier."

"I thought the same thing!" Ollie exclaimed as he grabbed the phone once more. "The first part at least. I think I look awesome." He cocked his head to and fro at his reflection with a grin. "So if you look the same as you did when you were a kid, and you looked a whole lot like me. Does that mean this is how I'll really look in forty years time? All muscly and hairy and bald?"

"And ugly. Don't forget that." Rick smirked as the older man threw him a dirty look. "Besides, it's not what you'll look like in the future, it's how you look now. Because as far as anyone knows, you are a 46 year old mechanic. Much like I'm an 8 year old elementary school student now. And it's going to stay that way if we don't find that coin. So," he clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly, "where did it go?"

"Why do you keep asking me, you're the one who flipped it."

"Well, yeah, but the world flipped with it and I didn't see where it landed. You're the one with the metal detector."

"I think you mean you have a metal detector," Ollie chuckled as he picked it up off the ground. "This thing is way too small for me now, it was designed for kids after all." Sure enough, in his hair-covered mitts, it looked like a cheap plastic toy compared to the awe-inspiring tool he once believed it to be.

Rick, however, was unconvinced. "You don't seriously expect me to use that thing?" He asked in contempt.

Ollie placed it in Rick's lap. "You're the one who lost the coin, you should be the one to find it. I remember you saying something about taking full responsibility if it gets lost."

"Well yeah but... No, but... C'mon, surely you want to find it as well so we can swap back, right? You don't want to stay ugly and hairy and sweaty and old forever?"

"I'unno, maybe I like being old," Ollie said with a shrug of the shoulders. "You probably like being young again too, right? C'mon, let's leave it for a couple hours and enjoy this opportunity. That coin isn't gonna go anywhere, not when nobody else knows about it. You can go play in the ocean or build sandcastles, and just enjoying being a kid again. Wouldn't you like that, Ricky?"

"It's Rick..."

"Huh?"

"For the last frickin' time, my Name is Rick!" He didn't know what happened. Hearing Ollie laugh off such a weird situation and try finding a silver lining finally made something snap inside Rick. "That's enough!" He screamed to the heavens. "I can't believe you would be so selfish! You can't steal somebody's livelihood and act like it's no big deal! It's just not fair! I'm supposed to be the big grown man in charge, not you! Why do I have to be the kid? You're the kid! I'm the grown-up, and you're the baby, and we're not s'posed to change that! It's not fair, I don't wanna be a kid, I don't wanna! It's just not fair!"

Ollie watched as the kid threw his temper tantrum, stomping his feet, kicking up sand, and generally causing a commotion that finally drew attention from surrounding families for all the wrong reasons. He smirked, knowing the exact feeling of having such big emotions in such a little body. Feeling like nobody listens because you're too young. He could go on for hours and go ignored. Thankfully, growing up meant his own emotions now fit his larger size. He felt less hyper-active, more patient. He knew from experience that you just had to let it blow over and let it run its course. As Rick began to wind down, he finally tutted and shook his head. "I know you think we should act our age, but you're taking it a bit too literal," he chided softly. "Cool that temper down and I'll get you one of those sundaes you like from the pier."

"The one with the pretzel sticks?" Rick asked hopefully, momentarily forgetting why he was angry in the first place before it came back to him in a moment of clarity." "Wait a minute," he cried, "you can't promise that! One, we were going to go there anyway. And two, we're not leaving until I find that stupid coin and return us back to our normal lives!" 

"Don't let me hold you back, bud." Ollie said as he held out the metal detector once more.

Rick snatched the metal detector back from the hairy man and swept it across the floor, frowning as it made a loud beeping sound. "See? I'm not gonna find it here with all these deck chairs and stuff in the way!"

"Well, why don't you go search elsewhere? Maybe it returned to the tide pool after being used. We can both attest that weirder things have happened." Rick mumbled noncommittally, and Ollie smiled. "Who knows, maybe you'll find even more treasure! Wouldn't that be something, bud?"

Rick huffed in frustration, then stomped away. He was going to search every goddamn part of that tide pool if it killed him. Maybe he'd find the coin. Maybe he'd find a whole bunch of coins, and some jewels, and a goblet and bracelets and a kick-ass dagger. Then he'd be the real treasure hunter-er, and he wouldn't share any of it with his dumb uncle. 

He paused for a second. Uncle Ollie was his... No, Uncle Ollie was... Why was he thinking that way? He knew it wasn't true, and yet... God, he really was his uncle now, wasn't he? The coin had actually swapped their lives for real. If he didn't find it soon, it was going to be permanent. He was going to have to move towns and go back to school and face puberty all over again... He couldn't let that happen! He couldn't stay a boy, he had to find it!

Ollie watched as the little boy waddled off with the metal detector, sweeping it left right and center with wild fury. He chuckled and shook his head, he wasn't going to find anything like that. Let alone the treasure he sought. He reached down and moved his beach bag aside. Underneath was a circular piece of rusted metal. So worn by the centuries that both sides of the coin were devoid of an image.

Back when Rick had flipped the coin, Ollie watched it soar into the air until its spinning left him dizzy. It was as if he was the coin rotating in mid-air. When he came to, the first thing he noticed was his buff, hair-soaked body. The second thing was the blank coin half-buried in the sand in front of him. Thinking on his feet, he nabbed his bag and plopped it atop the coin while his newly youthened uncle was still disoriented. 

Ollie felt a little guilty hiding it from the little guy. Especially after the tantrum he threw. But he had his reasons. Sure, having such a brawny, hirsute body and the opportunity to experience adulthood first-hand was nice and all. But the biggest draw was his uncle's static life. His dad had accepted a lucrative job offer, which meant moving across the entire state. His parents assured him it was only a 3 hour journey so they could come back on the weekends. But 3 hours was like an eternity to a little boy. In fact, 3 hours was still a pain the neck for a middle-aged man. Ollie wasn't ready to up-end his life at the drop of a hat. They didn't even ask how he felt about abandoning everything he ever knew. He didn't like it one bit. So finding that mystical coin must have been fate. He may not have known it was magic at the time, but now that he did? He wasn't going to give it up so easy.

Carefully, Ollie grabbed a piece of tissue paper and used it to pick up the coin. He didn't want his face to appear on it again. He knew something was up when Ricky's face showed up on the other side after handling it. He knew he hadn't misremembered seeing a blank side before then. Thankfully, the coin remained blank. He wrapped it up tight in the paper then shoved it in the inside pocket of his bag. 

Maybe having a magical soul swapping coin could come in handy one day. After all, he may have the freedom to stay in town, but it'd be tough keeping in touch with friends now that he was parent age. Older than parent age, in fact. His own parents were younger than the 38 years he'd prematurely aged by. He was 46 years old, and it definitely showed in his craggy, weathered skin, his graying body hair and severely receded hairline. It was hard to ignore that he was giving up decades of his life just to avoid moving away. His dream of being a renowned chef one day now crushed by the reality that he was fated to be a mechanic like Ricky was. Was all of this really worth it?

Ollie laid back in his deck chair and stroked his beard, something he knew he'd be doing a lot of in the days to come. He might be old, but he still looked good. He felt good too. Adulthood wasn't just about his physical body, however. Maybe it wasn't totally worth skipping nearly forty years ahead, but he could make things better. It wasn't totally unheard of making a career change late in life. As for company, perhaps he could gift the coin to his friends and reform his social circle one newly grown man at a time. But that was a problem for tomorrow. For now, he was going to soak up the rays while his little nephew Ricky went searching for missing treasure he would never uncover. Gosh, Rick really was his nephew now. And he was the uncle. Uncle Ollie. It had a nice ring to it, he chuckled to himself. He laid back further in his deck chair and sighed, a stray hand falling to his nude scalp. A small smile cracked his lips as his palm felt slick skin on top while his fingers scratched against stubble around the sides. I'm gonna have to learn how to shave my head just like Ricky used to, he idly thought as he drifted off to a well deserved nap.