I couldn't tell you how it happened, but when I woke up this morning, I was forty years old.

"MOM!!" screamed someone from downstairs.

It was six o'clock on a Saturday morning. Who was screaming "Mom?" I'm the only child. I was curious, so I got up. I looked down for a second and saw that I was wearing ugly slippers - just like ones my mother wears. I went down the stairs and saw Cocoa Krispies being thrown back and forth from different ends of the hallway. The TV was on the highest volume and two little kids were screaming. One ran up to me and said, "Mommy, tell Jimmy to stop, or else!"

Jimmy? Who's Jimmy? Who are you? I thought.

"Mommy, Mommy! Please?" shrieked the little girl.

"Eileen made the mess down here! She was the one eating the cereal! Can you make me some toast? I was a good little boy," said Jimmy.

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"STOP!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I was beginning to catch on. These two brats were my kids! It can't be - I'm only seventeen. How could it be? I told Eileen and Jimmy to clean up. They began to, after much whining. I finally had the chance to look at my surroundings.

Everything seemed different, but the same. It was like my house, my real house, the one I lived in yesterday, but different. This place had pictures everywhere of the two children who were cleaning up, of me, and of some guy. There were birthday cards over the fireplace. I went over and picked up a card. It said, "Happy Birthday Mommy! It's your 40th birthday! Love Eileen and Jimmy." Oh my Gosh! Forty years old! I'm like my mother now. I've even got her ugly slippers.

The room began to spin and I fell to the floor. I awoke later in my own room. But, this time I didn't hear voices. I looked around and saw that my room was quite typical looking for a seventeen-year-old's. I thought about my dream and laughed. It was more like a nightmare. I looked on the floor, and for some bizarre reason, my mother's ugly slippers were lying there. n