In a reversal of Big, the Tom Hanks classic from the 80s, your adult self is suddenly locked in the body of a 12-year-old kid. How do you survive your first day back in school?

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It  happened while he was sleeping.

He woke up, rising lightly from his bed and danced into the bathroom.

It was the mirror that made him aware of the changes in his physiognomy.

He was now his 12-year-old self.

A quick glance at the calendar; the year was 1958.

1958.1958. 1958.

“What the hell?” he yelled out.

The sharp tones of his mother echoed from the kitchen, “No swearing in this house, Tom. You know the rules. And why don’t you watch where you’re going if you don’t  want to stub your foot on the door step.”

He could not understand it. Yesterday, he had lain down to sleep , a fully-grown, slightly disappointed man in his mid-50s.

And today, he was back in his childhood.

What could have transpired? Was it just a dream? Or had he fallen through some time portal?

He did not believe in magic.

“But time portals, surely, that’s scientifically possible. They don’t just occur in fantasy genre movies.

They are part of most sci-fi movies as well.”

“Am I in a movie?” he thought aloud and then quickly dismissed the thought as soon as it occurred to him.

“Be rational. Be real. Think it through.”

But the sound of that dreaded school bus outside the window brought back all the chills and fears he felt for his left-behind school days.

“Oh, no!” The child in him cried—the minor in the adult in a minor’s body.

“School!”

And he looked at the calendar again.

It was the 12th of September, 1958.

It was then he recalled his first day at school.

He never got there.

He dismounted the bus and walked all the way home, hiding out in the backyard until the school bus returned.

This continued for a good month, until the school principal called one day.

That is a tale for another day.