All Frank noticed was a bright, light blue, flash, right before his entire vision went dark. As he blinked, his vision slowly returned; first blurry, then it refocused. All the while he heard his family panic.
“Oh my god! Dad! What did I do? I didn’t mean to…” he heard the voice of his oldest son yell.
“Frank! Honey! Please say something…?” his wife yelled and then turning towards her son “What was that?”
“I don’t know?” Justin almost cried.
“Dad! Dad! Wake up!” the twins yelled in unison.
“Mr Smith, are you OK?” Jerome asked.
“Oh look, he’s regaining consciousness…” Amber, his daughter, explained to the group.
As Frank’s vision returned, he couldn’t help but notice a strange, tickling sensation on his chest.
“Dad, are you OK? Did I hurt you?” Justin asked worried.
Frank let out a sigh as he adjusted his seating. “No son, it didn’t hurt a bit…and I’m feeling fine. It’s a bit ticklish, that’s all…” Frank opened the top two buttons of his shirt, exposing the patch of grey chest hair, and rubbed his hand over it. His skin had turned red where the beam had hit his body. “It’s probably nothing, I feel fine…just a little itch!”
Justin, still not entirely overcome by the shock of shooting his own dad with an unknown device, grabbed the gun from the floor and put it back in the box. “Let’s just keep this away from anyone until we find out if it’s dangerous or not…” He went into the garage to store it.
The family, calmed down from the shock as they’ve noticed Frank is alright, finishes dinner. As Debby is in the kitchen making coffee, the rest of the family sits outside, enjoying the nice evening. The sun is setting and it is starting to get dark. Frank turns on the porch lights and Amber lights some garden candles.
“I’d best be heading home” Jerome said as he noticed what time it was.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a cup of coffee?” Frank offered.
“Na, sorry. It’s already getting dark and I don’t want my mom to worry too much”, he confessed, “she hates it when I’m out and about in the dark!”
Jerome got up from his seat and went over to Frank to shake his hand. Frank got up as well. He was about the same size as his son’s friend.
“Thank you very much for the nice dinner though”, he said as he grabbed Frank’s hand and squeezed it gently, “ I’ve really enjoyed it!”
“No worries, you’re always welcome here…” Frank said as he squeezed back. To Jerome’s surprise, Justin’s dad had a pretty firm grip himself.
“Woaw, pretty nice handshake you’ve got there, mr. Smith!” Jerome replied as he put his left hand on Frank’s upper arm to compliment him. However he also did it to cup a feel. Through the fabric of Frank’s long sleeved shirt Jerome could feel something hard and bigger than he suspected. “Your workouts must be paying off!”
Justin, who stood next to his dad, replied laughing “What workouts?”
“Yeah Jerome, I haven’t been working out. In fact, I haven’t touched a single weight in my life!” Frank said as he rubbed his own upper arm with his left hand through his shirt.
“Well, than I guess you’re stronger than I always imagined”, Jerome laughed. He continued thanking Debby.
“Please say hi to your mother for us…” Debby asked
“…and your dad! Tell them to come over one day; we’d love to catch up!” Justin’s dad added.
“I will! See you boys!” Jerome said as he waved at the twins “And Amber, always nice to see you!”
Amber blushed. “Bye Jerome!”
Justin let Jerome out; as he returned he walked to his dad.
“What was that all about? Working out? You?” he asked his dad as he put his arm around his dad’s neck. His hand lay on his dad’s shoulder so he quickly squeezed. Somehow it felt tighter than he remembered.
“I don’t know...”, Frank laughed, “I can hardly believe it myself...”
It was no secret that Frank hated physical exercise. He wasn’t blessed with the most perfect body, but at least he had a high metabolism, which let him stay skinny. He wanted nothing to do with exerting exercises or lifting heavy weights. He did however wanted, as all men, a more muscular body, but the only way to reach that is to exercise. Which is why he gave up on that dream a long time ago.
After the family had cleaned up the table, Amber went up stairs to her room to read some teen magazine, as did Davy with one of his comics. Dylan and Justin stayed outside, helping out their dad with the grill.
“Do you need a hand putting back the grill in the garage?” Justin asked his dad.
“Oh, yeah boys, thanks, I could use the help!”
The three Smith men each positioned themselves on one side of the grill. They grabbed it as good as they could and promised to lift it on three. “One…two…three!”
Dylan, even though the grill was heavy, managed to lift up his side of the grill some inches. Justin however had more trouble. He was weaker than his little brother, even though he didn’t want to admit it. However the strangest thing happened on Frank’s side.
He, remembering the grill was extremely heavy, got ready to give it all the strength he got. When he yelled the number three, he pulled and to both his as well as his sons’ surprise, he lifted it up almost a foot. It seemed much lighter than he remembered. The grill, now hanging in the air somewhat slanted, almost pushed over Justin who let it drop to the ground out of shock. Frank and Dylan let it drop as well.
“Dad! Watch out, will you!?” Justin yelled as he couldn’t understand how his father could lift this heavy object so high.
“I’m sorry son, let’s try again!”
The men tried again, this time Frank applied less force, and they managed to put the grill back into the garage. As they were walking with the heavy furniture in their hands, Justin couldn’t help but stare at his father. His shirt looked somewhat different on him, as if his body underneath was somehow bigger. Maybe Jerome was telling the truth; maybe his dad was secretly working out to become bigger.
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