Head back to the attic to get more boxes

I returned to the ladder leading up to the attic above our house and carefully climbed up the narrow wooden steps. The ceiling was low, and I had to stoop to reach the remaining few boxes against the far wall. The space was lit by a bare bulb and a desk lamp attached to an extension cord I'd rigged up earlier for more light. The two bare bulbs cast sharp shadows against the wall as I rocked the next box off the pile. When I got it down, I saw that there was a fist sized hole in the drywall behind it. I would have thought nothing of it except for the green and gold glint of something deep back in the space. Curious, I looked around for something to widen the hole.

There was some old camping equipment on the ground, and I picked up a hiking stick and poked at the hole, nervously afraid of finding a rat or something equally horrible. The drywall crumbled around the stick and soon I'd poked enough of a hole to see some jumbled objects. They looked like a collection of yellowed vintage comic books and a toy of some sort. The hole was now big enough for me to reach an arm through, which I did with some trepidation, grasping the toy and pulling it out.

It was a kid's ray gun that looked to be from the fifties. It had a bulbous plastic body in green and gold with a wide nozzle on one end and was in immaculate condition. I turned it over in my hand, noting its spectacular build quality, and pulled the trigger a few times, pretending I was a space explorer and was to shoot the wall. Amazingly, a little red light lit up at the tip. How the hell was this thing powered? I figured this toy could be worth some money, so I set it on top of the next box and carried it back up the stairs. I set the box down in front of my mom and picked up the ray gun.

“Look what I found. It was behind, like, a fake wall or something in the attic. You ever seen this?”

Mom turned her clear blue eyes to me, one dark eyebrow arched in question. I aimed the gun at her.

“Pew, pew,” I said, pulling the trigger jokingly.

To my shock, my mom deflated, her skin and clothes falling back on the chair like a balloon with all the air sucked out. She looked like a costume someone had laid out.

I took a step back and stared with wide eyes. “What the fuck!”

Panicking, I aimed the ray gun at my deflated mom and pulled the trigger again. Instantly, mom was back to normal. She frowned up at me and answered my question as if nothing had happened.

“I've never seen that before. Huh. Maybe it belonged to whoever owned this house before us.”

My heart was still thumping wildly in my chest as I lowered the gun. “Mom? Are you okay?”

“Of course. What's wrong?”

“I-- didn't you-- were you...?” I looked down at the toy ray gun in my hand, then back up to my mom. “You didn't notice anything strange?”

“What are you talking about, honey?”

“Nothing. Nothing. I just...” Curious now, I aimed the gun at her and pulled the trigger.

Again, my mom deflated, her empty skin draping onto the barstool. I crept closer and prodded her deflated body with my index finger. It felt rubbery, like a costume. an intricate costume, but a costume nonetheless, even down to her painted blue eyes and shiny hair. I set the gun down on the table, picked up the skinsuit of my mom and noticed how smooth it felt as I ran my hand along it. As I flipped it over, there on the back of my mom's neck was a zipper. I pulled it down slowly, half expecting her organs to spill out, but the inside was empty, lined with what looked nothing but yet felt like nothing alike, as my hand glided through the inside of the suit a warm, fuzzy feeling drew over me and gave off some sort of familiar security. As I followed the zipper further I noticed that it ended at her lower back, and I found myself looking inside one of her hollow legs.

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself.

An idea occurred to me. I pulled off my shoes, socks, and pants, then, slipped one foot down into the hollow of my mom's leg. I felt my toes sliding into place and the costume stiffened around me. I made a move to pull my foot out but in a second, I could feel my mom's bare foot against the cool tile floor as the rubbery suit clasped tight to my feet and my thighs. Suddenly I was no longer wearing a costume but felt like I was actually in my mom's body, feeling everything as if her skin was my own. I wiggled my toes and watched my mom's tiny toes move up and down.

This was so cool.

I stepped into the other leg and adjusted the costume up around myself. Somehow, despite me being taller and wider than my mom, the costume fit, adjusting to me with a slight squeeze. And then I was assailed by all the sensations of my mom's skin. I took my shirt off and slid my arms into the arm holes and adjusted the rubber mask over my own face. Reaching around, I found the zipper and pulled it up my back. The instant the zipper reached the top the costume tightened around me, and suddenly it was if there was no costume at all. I was my mom.