[ WP ] You wake up on exact date of your 5th birth date in your 5 year old body , with your current memory .

`` What the fuck?'' I was in a tiny bed in an unfamiliar room lit by the dawn light through a window. What happened? I'm not a drinker or prone to sleepwalking. I fumbled for my glasses. 
 
 And could n't find them. 
 
 My mouth felt wrong. 
 
 Fighting panic I looked over myself. No IVs, I did n't hear any medical machines and even without my glasses I knew this was no hospital. But my body was wrong. I literally weighed 55 pounds. I was a kid again. Myself, I was starting to suspect. If this was a dream, it was the most realistic and consist one I'd ever had. 
 
 Even with my 20/400 vision, I recognized the shape of my headboard of the bunk beds I shared with my younger sister. I slid down to the floor silently. A toddler, around two I guessed, was asleep on the lower bunk. 
 
 Information. I needed it. I silently searched the room, squinting as best I could. No glasses were to be found. Some picture books, and toys I dimly recognized were all I found. Was I me? Was this my childhood bedroom that we would be moving away from when I was in first... second grade? I could n't remember. 
 
 I crept to the door, took a breath, and went through it. 
 
 Without my glasses, it was all a blur, but I knew the smell of cofeee, and bacon. And while I could n't confirm this was the house on Bluebird Circle, what I could see of it matched my memories. 
 
 And there was Mom in the little galley kitchen. Her hair jet black, not the silver of the 70 year old I remembered. I could n't see much else. 
 
 `` There's my birthday boy!'' She said, her youth throwing a strange quality to her voice, but it was her for sure. 
 
 I faked a smile, easily because this situation was so absurd. `` How old am I today, Mommy?'' I asked. God my voice sounded ridiculous. 
 
 `` You are Five. Years. Old. You start kindergarten next year!'' She said with a smile. 
 
 `` So, that means it's 1977. Because I was born in'72.'' 
 
 `` Uh... yes? My you are smart! How did you get so smart?'' 
 
 `` You and Daddy already taught me my ABCs and how to count.'' I figured I needed to distract her to shut down that line of questioning. `` I love my mommy and daddy,'' I said and hugged her legs there in the kitchen. While I held her I reeled at the idea that I was almost 45 years in the past. 
 
 I had no winning lottery numbers. I knew the outcome of the next several presidential elections, and I knew a few companies that would rise or fall, but not until the 1990s which was when I started paying attention to such thinks. I knew Mt St Helens, Challenger, Columbia, and the tsunamis, and 9/11 were all coming but I doubted I could meaningfully use any of this information. 
 
 But, I did know one other date. The date Dad died in 2004 from heart disease at a weight of 350 pounds. And right now, here in 1977, Dad was only 30 and still in passable shape. I knew about his depression and Mom's anxiety. 
 
 I let go of Moms legs. Now I had a plan. Redo my life, using my wisdom and maturity and patience, and such small bits of future knowledge as I could make use of. And drag my family with me. They would never know how I would be manipulating things so that things turned out better this time. Yeah, I could do this. 
 
 But first things first. 
 
 `` Mommy, I ca n't see good. I need glasses like Daddy.'' 
 
 
 

