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My Father had died: I was 12, but I was not a twelve year old. I had my 25 year old mind in my twelve year old body. My Mother also had her current mind in her late twenties body. We secretly agreed not to let anyone else know.
We inherited a house at the end of a forest road, a road I used to play along when I was younger. The house had large grounds with lawns, tennis courts and streams. As we walked through the front gate, we met one of my Mother's Church friends. He advised us to sell some of our grounds so that some houses could be bought. He was quite patronising to my Mum; she nodded with a dumb female look on her face, but looked at me behind the guys back and crossed her eyes. He ruffled my hair which pissed me off, so I asked him a snide question about where his wife was - implying that she didn't know he was here trying to hit on my Mother. He was angry and confused with a 12 year old asking him loaded questions and left.
We walked through the courtyard at the front of the house and waited for our relatives to turn up. They all wanted to offer their condolences for my Mother's loss, but we both knew they were sniffing around for money. My brother, 6 years old in the dream, played with the cousins his own age. Strangely, he didn't seem to have his 19 year old mind in the 6 year old body, but neither my Mother nor I worried about this. It seemed to me that he would get his adult mind sooner or later.
It was strange to see my Aunts at 18, 22 and 30; the two younger ones were quite attractive (Ewww!) My Mother was far more assertive with them and their husbands or boyfriends when they tried to boss her about. My relatives were angry at first, but became more bewildered as time went on. This was amusing to my Mum and I; she stood up to her daffy Mother a lot, which made me laugh behind my hand.
The house was strangely laid out. It had no corridors or hallways; all access and stairways were inside rooms, even bedrooms. You had to walk through a guest bedroom to get to the third floor children's rooms. I argues with my Mother about the best way to change the layout of the house. My Aunts tried to shush me, but I argued with them to shut them up.
We sat at the large wooden dinner table. My Mother and I dominated the table because we were so much more confident than the others. I refused to be browbeaten by an uncle and dismissed his bullshit about gardening and decorating. He was amazed that I would speak back to him like that.
Eventually my Mum gave in to my Aunts and told me to be quiet. I leaned over to her and said "Don't fuck with me, I may look 12 but I'm really 25" She looked shocked and angry, then she laughed with me as she remembered.
As the relatives left we gave them our email addresses, but they looked at us as if we were mad - I was 12 in 1986 and there was no non-academic internet then.