The BIG Switch

Remember "Childhood Friends Reunited?" This story uses some of the same characters, only this time, things are different. You'll see why down below.

It was Thursday, meaning it was time to finish up working on a new comic, and put it up on the site. It hadn't been too long since the comic that had sparked interest was released. I'd put it at approximately 1-2 months. Then, there was an interesting comment about the newest comic and about what had happened over the last month or so: "Wow! This comic's great! You really are getting better at this! I've been pretty busy over the last month cleaning up in NYC, so I haven't had the chance to see these comics! I look forward to seeing you soon". Then, at the bottom, "Will B." Well, I didn't know what to make of it; maybe it was someone really into the comic?

Well, as we all know, there's more than one person with the same name, so at first I didn't notice. Then I realized there was a lot of cleanup to do in New York, after the national disaster on Sept. 11, and that would include many large remnants to be moved. Could it be? I later checked: "I look forward to seeing you soon; I have been allowed to take some time off and will be there soon." How did this person know where I am, unless...

I went to the beach to relax, thinking of the times that Will and I had together a little while ago, and I wondered if this was the same one. I fell asleep (properly protected by some sunscreen, of course) and was awakened by something rising out of the water. "Hmm, what could it be?" I wondered. It got closer, and bigger as well. I couldn't quite make out a shape yet, and started back toward home, after a long time at the beach. Out in the distance it looked like a young man, and because the beach was practically empty by now, it wasn't apparent then.

I started to drive away; but all of a sudden, the ground was shaking. "That's weird, Florida doesn't usually have earthquakes!," I thought while driving. The shakes intensified and the sun, which was shining on me, seemed to have gone behind the clouds. "This is a really big earthquake. I better get home soon!" Strangely, the shakes lessened, but were always there. Finally I got home.

The ground started shaking shortly after, and before long, there was a BIG shake! "I forgot about this Standard Time business, it's getting dark already!" However, the sun was still out, but a huge form blocked its light. "Whew! That was quite some run! Next time, stay around for a while!" I heard a voice, which sounded familiar. I realized upon looking up, that William had been out all the way in the waters off the shore, and had actually made it here, some 10 miles away, at about the same rate that I was driving! And he might've slowed down a bit to avoid accidentally destroying stuff in his path, which people were now especially sensitive to.

"Umm... hi! How did you get here?" I asked.

"Well, I've been moving tons of rubble off the streets all the way in New York, and they decided to finally give me some time off, and had several cranes and stuff do what I could do. Then, I came all the way down here and, now I'm tired. It took me 11 hours..." William said, looking out of breath.

"Wait a minute! You came all the way down here, in that time?" I wondered how he did it, I guess he did slow down for me, or else was already tired, keeping a pace of "only" 40 miles in an hour! He decided to sit down for a while, still towering over the house even then, and by quite a bit! A great gust of wind suddenly came down, I figured that he's trying to cool down after doing all that running and even walking. I know that if I'd covered nearly 1,000 miles in 11 hours, even at that size, I'd be tired too!

"Whew... I've been wondering. Maybe I could be in your shoes for a day and you'd be in mine; it might be fun!" William stated, seeming quite serious about this.

"What?! Um, you won't fit-- what would you do, put them on your toes? I don't want to be in those things, after all, you've been in 'em for 11 hours, and the top of them is above the house!" I responded. This was pretty true. I estimated the length of those shoes at 16 whopping feet, and to even get in the top would require a 10-foot climb!

"No, no, no, what I mean is, for one day, you'd be my size and I'd be yours! However, you have to be careful, otherwise there'll be a lot of people mad at me later!," William said, making the point more clear.

"That could actually work; after all, except for the size difference and your hairdo, we are very much alike," I answered. "Ok, on the count of 3, 1-2-3!"

It seems that I fell asleep. I woke up, wondering where everything was. Then, I looked down. "Wow! This is so cool! But where's my friend?" I found a lake with a reflection, I looked at it, and I was surprised. Apparently we actually HAD switched, to the point that he was me, and I was him! Every single detail matched up. "Wow, even the clothes are the same! I'll have no problem getting people to know it was me!" I shouted. Quite a few lights came on across the neighborhood. "Oops, I must've forgotten that. I'll have to be careful, then." I said, in a quieter voice.

"Tom, you have to be careful! You don't want everyone around here after you...," William said, looking concerned.

"Hmm...what should I eat?" I thought, knowing it would now take a lot more food to satisfy. On the way to the restaurant, someone's house was on fire! "Well, I know what to do now." I found a nearby source of water and splashed it on the house. "Wow, the fire's out!" That was easy enough. Having worked in a supermarket near the restaurant, I knew there was a big source of food around. Unfortunately, that would be on the list of things not to do, as it was about 9:30, and people were still shopping and working. That would mean it would cause structure damage, frighten the shoppers and workers, and be stealing if I were to pop the roof off and take some food. The peak of that roof, I knew to be about 45-60 feet up, which was now only about halfway up on me. Besides, I would get William into a lot of trouble if they were to get a picture of any sort of me.

Part 2

a day though." So, he started to look at the newspaper, and watched TV. "Well, he's doing quite well, nothing about him on the news. That's good."

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how to get some food without causing a lot of trouble. "This is a bummer; there's no way I can get any food around here." I said. So I started walking down the street, watching out for any cars. "Hey! I know what I can do! I could go to the beach again, into the water, and pick up something!" So I did. Unfortunately, I didn't see the rock (actually a boulder) in front of me and tripped. I tried to keep standing, but I couldn't. I fell down, and came within 10 feet of crushing someone in their car. Luckily I didn't, or there would have been big problems... I fell asleep briefly, lying on the ground.

"Hello?" I heard a voice. "Hey, big guy! I see you're finally awake. What happened to you?"

"Well, I tripped over something and fell down," I responded.

"Ooh. That must've hurt! You know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!," the driver of the car said, looking at the imprint in the road from me falling on it.

"Yeah, that hurt! I'm glad you're safe, though." I responded. I then stood up.

"Whoa!!! You're HUGE! My, your foot would probably completely cover my car under it. If you had fallen on it, I'd be a goner," the person said.

"Yeah, I'll be leaving in... what time is it?" I asked.

"It's 10:30."

"Well, I'll be leaving in 22 hours. I might as well go to sleep." I said.

"Well, I guess I'll go to sleep. Gee, I get tired awfully fast now. I wonder if it's from being so small?" William said, back at my house. He began to have a dream...

Boom! "Hmm? What's going on here?" Boom!!
"An earthquake?" BOOM!
"It's getting worse!," William stated, in an anxious tone. "Wow! This is so cool!," I said (in the dream). BOOM!! "It's probably just Tom walking around."

Crunch! "Oops... I stepped on something!," I exclaimed. I looked at what I stepped on, and it was a house!

"Please... get off me..." William said in pain.

"Wow! I didn't know houses could talk!" I said.

"You have to be more careful!"
I started to walk away, but tripped on a car and fell down on the house!

"AAAH!!! What a horrible nightmare! I'm just glad it was just a nightmare," William said in relief, and went back to sleep. Meanwhile...

"Yawn... I'm so tired. I bet it's from being so huge." I said. I began to have a dream. "Hey, wake up! We have another load for you to do. Without you, it would take us 30 cranes and 300 workers to do this same amount!" a worker said. "Huh? What, where am I?" I wondered. I saw the rubble and lots of workers at a still-burning remains of a building or buildings.

"You're at Ground Zero. There's a lot of stuff to pick up, and I have about 30 tons of it for you!" the worker responded. 30 tons may sound like a lot, but to someone that's 100 feet tall, that would be about the same as a bowling ball scaled up to fit would weigh. So, I started picking up the mess. "Why did Osama bin Laden have to do this to us?" I wondered, realizing a greater sense of importance actually being at the site rather than just reading about it.

"Because that was their goal, to terrorize," the worker stated.

"We have more, lots more for you.", other workers say.

"I figure it'll take a year to do all of this!," I exclaimed.

"Well, with you here, it will only take us 3 or 4 months, so we can finish before the busy spring season begins. Of course, that means we'll be here during the cold, snowy winter, but it's a lot better than having to do this through that and the hot, steamy summer, " the boss said.

"And, just how many cranes and how many workers would it take to get rid of the same amount I could?" I wondered.

"It would take over 30 cranes and 100 workers to do that much. Thanks to recent cutbacks on the amount of workers we're allowed to have at Ground Zero, we're not allowed to have that many.", the boss answered. The dust stirring up in the air caused me to feel like I was going to sneeze. "Ah, ah, ah..." I started to sneeze but managed to hold it.

"Whew, at least you didn't..." a worker started to say. "AH-CHOO!" This stirred up more dust in the air and actually lifted some debris. A block weighing about 10 pounds to me (80,000 pounds or 40 tons to them) fell back down and hit me in the head. "Ugh... That hurt... Good night." I fell to the ground, as it began to rain.

When I woke up again, I realized that it was just a dream. The part about Ground Zero that is, not the being huge part. Surprisingly, the car and the driver from earlier was still around. "What time is it?" I asked.

"It's 3:30," the driver answered.

"3:30? But the sun is out!"

"It's 3:30 in the afternoon. You've been asleep all night and all day. You've slept for 17 hours." Aaugh! 17 hours! That meant I only have 5 hours to get back home! And I estimated that I was over 50 miles from home. "Sorry, I gotta run, little guy." I said. Running home, I arrived a little over half an hour later.

"I thought it was over 50 miles... oh, I forgot! Being bigger causes you to be able to cover more distance faster!," I thought. It's now 4:10. In a little over 4 hours, I'll be back to being small, so I decided to go on a little tour of the landscape. I had to be careful that people didn't see me, or... it might not be good.

It was a nice journey, seeing all the houses, buildings, trees, cars, people, and even animals from such a height was amazing. However, on one of the highways, a truck missed its turn and was about to fall off the side (it was an elevated highway, about 20 feet above the ground)!

"Wow! If I don't do something, that truck will fall down and explode!," I exclaimed. The doors of the truck were open by now and there were fireworks and gases inside, on the way to a fireworks factory. It seemed, if this truck explodes, it will cause great damage, even to the highway above! So, I carefully made my way to the scene, and picked up the truck as it fell and gently placed it back on the highway.

"Whew! That was intense!" I said. The sun was starting to set and a cool night was starting. "It's 6:30 already? I better get home."

Meanwhile, back at home... "This is a late-breaking news report! On I-75, in Sarasota County, a truck hit a barrier and almost ran off the road, down onto the ground 20 feet below. It was full of explosives and was on its way to a fireworks factory somewhere in Southwest Florida...", a news station reports.

"Oh, that's terrible! If it were to fall down there, it would explode and... what the?," exclaimed William, surprised.

"...the truck driver reports being lifted back onto the highway by what he says to be a giant! Apparently the shock of the situation has caused the driver to go crazy.", the station continued to report.

"He's not crazy! That's got to be Tom! He's kept a disaster from happening there, and all this station can say is 'the driver went crazy from shock'!" It was now 8pm. "Where's Tom now? We're supposed to be switching back!" William thought.

He stood up outside, and a spike of hair from a now 12 foot teen scrapes the top of an archway in front of the house. William then walks to a tree nearby and stands next to it. "Wow! I can already reach to top branches of this tree. I hope Tom gets back soon!" Now 25 feet tall, and still growing, he notices that everything is going back to the way it was before the change. Standing up, William noticed the doorway of the house was at knee level and the roof at his waist and dropping lower fast. His feet are now big enough to block off the entrance, at 4 feet long and 2 1/2 feet high. Putting one of his shoes on a scale that he found, the shoe weighs 90 pounds! "Now, for a hand." He puts one of his hands on it and it weighed over 100 pounds. "So, I'd guess that I would now weigh about... 12,800 pounds... or over 6 tons, and I'm still growing!"

Up to 50 feet tall, William now towered over the house and the tree. His feet are now 8 feet long and 5 feet high, and still growing. You can barely see the doorway over his huge foot. That shoe from earlier? A 720 pound behemoth about to weigh as much as and be as big as a car! Even the spikes of his hair are long enough to be as tall as a small child. The top of the roof now knee-high and the door at his ankle. And, amazingly enough, he's still growing, getting even more huge and powerful, despite already weighing over 100,000 pounds (or 50 tons)! "Where is Tom?! At this height, I should be able to see him from 50 miles away... unless he shrunk back down again."

Now 75 feet tall, his feet were 12 feet long and 7 1/2 feet high- the size of a car, and still growing! The shoe measured earlier now weighs a whopping 2,000 pounds, or a ton! And William himself actually weighed 350,000 pounds (or 175 tons)! His voice echoed throughout the land as he yelled out, "WHERE'S TOM?!"

"Hey, I hear someone familiar around here, maybe he grew back up again?" I said. I was about 10 miles away from the house, covering less distance due to my shrinking back down. Suddenly, the spikes of hair fell down off me like six-foot long spears as I began to quickly shrink down. Luckily, they only hit the ground or else, there could have been a bad disaster. The trees began to "rise" up into to the sky. Now, houses were again bigger than me and not the other way around. I only managed to get within a few miles of home before returning to normal size.

Meanwhile... At his full 100 foot tall height, William realized that I had likely shrunk back down to normal size too, and that he'd have to find me. Now, his feet are 16 feet long and 10 feet high, just as they were before we ever switched, able to completely cover a car under one. The shoe that weighed 90 pounds 75 feet ago? Now, it weighs 5,400 pounds... over 2 1/2 tons for a SHOE, not accounting for the titanic teen wearing it! The young giant actually weighed almost 1 million pounds (or 500 tons), able to instantly crush most things if he's not careful! A single spike of his hair is actually long enough to be as tall as or taller than many people, at a length of 6 feet. Looking up into the sky, I saw the highest spike rising up out of somewhere.

I knew that I was close now. I ran toward it, until I could see his face. "Tom! Where are you? I've looked all over for you!," William said out loud. Getting closer, I see his green shirt and blue pants.

"I'm down here!" I yelled out. "Ah, there you are! I heard about the truck going off the highway..." William said.

"Are you... mad at me? Afraid that something will happen to you?" I asked.

"Mad at you? For saving the trucker and perhaps saving several dozen people on the highway? Of course not! In fact, I'm quite proud of you! I thought something bad might have happened when we switched, but you are quite nice and gentle, too!," William stated in a happy mood. "However... it is time."

"Time? Time for what?" I wondered.

"It's time for me to go back to do more clean-up. Keep doing those comics, please. They're getting better and more detailed. I will give you time to take a picture though, I'll stand... here, next to the house," William said.

"Okay, let me get the camera." I said. I went to get the camera and stepped back far enough to see all of him but close enough to still see it clearly. "Okay, smile!" FLASH.

"I'll be seeing you, I've got a long trip. But I will be back sometime in the future. For now, bye!," William says as he writes on a prop-size notebook with one of those giant pens.

"Cool! I even got an autograph!" I said in excitement. "Bye! See you soon!"

The End (look for more stories in the future)