“THE MAGICAL BEANIE”
    Nick Carter sat back on his bed in the hotel room he
was sharing with Brian Littrell while they were on tour.  Nick laid back onto the bed, and his mind wandered as he tossed and played with an unusual Beanie Baby a fan had thrown onto the stage to him
that night.
    Brian sensed that something was bothering his best friend.  “Nick, something wrong buddy?”
     Nick kept throwing the beanie up into the air and catching it when it came down.
     “Well, it’s kinda stupid.”  Nick sighed.
     “Hit me with it, I’m all ears,”  Brian said as he bent over to get his pajamas out of his blue suitcase.
     “Well, it’s just that I get so sick of being cooped up in hotels, for once I would like to just be able to go out and do stuff without being
recognized.  I want to go to the mall, I want to go to a nice restaurant.  Do you know what I mean Bri?”  Nick’s last toss landed on his face and Nick laid there with the beanie on top of his eyes.
     “Yeah Nick, I know it’s hard, but like the lyrics to the song says ‘There are prices to fame’ and being recognized in public just goes with
the territory. “  Brian smiled when he looked at Nick laying there with the beanie still laying on his face.  “Go to bed, you’ll feel better in the morning, okay?  Good night buddy.”
    Brian slid into his bed and sighed as he turned the lights out.

     Nick  reluctantly removed the dark green toy from his face and pulled the covers back and crawled into his bed.

     Clutching the tiny beanie tightly, with both hands, Nick talked to it as if it would answer his desperate plea.  “Just for a day I would
like to be able to go out in public without being recognized.”  As Nick started to drift off to sleep hanging onto to the toy, he kept mumbling the words over and over.


     Nick woke up when he heard a door slam out in the hallway.  The morning sunlight was filtered through the tacky hotel curtains.  Nick looked at Brian’s bed to see if he was awake yet.  He saw that Brian, as usual was curled up on his side in a tight ball hugging a pillow on the bed.  Nick snickered at the sight.
     Nick decided to get up and get a glass of water and watch some tv.  When he pulled his covers back, he discovered that something
was not right with him at all.  He let out a yelp which immediately brought a pillow sailing towards Nick from Brian’s side of
the room.
     “Nick, knock it off, would ya?” Annoyed, Brian burrowed down into his covers.
     “Brian, ssso-something’s wrong with me.”  Nick’s voice was shaking.
 Brian, heading the tone of Nick’s voice leaned up onto his elbows and looked over at Nick.  “Oh, my God, Nick!”  Brian was in a state of
shock when he looked over at Nick.
     “What has happened to me?”  Nick was afraid to move.
     “Nick......you’re so.......you’re..........oh, my God!”  Brian couldn’t get the words out of his mouth.
     “I’m huge.  What’s happened here?”  Nick groaned as he struggled to get himself to a sitting position.
     “Man, Nick, you look like you gained over 300 pounds in one night!  I  know I have kidded you about your late night pizza raids telling you to be careful, but that wouldn’t cause do this to you, at least not
overnight.”  Brian was running the words together, he was scared and worried about Nick.
     “Nicky, think about what you did last night, maybe this is a weird reaction to something you ate.”  Brian suggested.
     As Nick searched his mind for the events of yesterday, his eyes fell onto the dark green beanie baby.  Nick scooped it up into his chubby hand.  “It was this thing,”  Nick said as he shook it at Brian.  “Remember how I was wishing for one day to go out without being recognized?”  Nick threw the beanie across the room.
     “Well, I guess your wish came true.”  Brian laughed.
     “But this?”  Nick pointed at his body.
     “Wait until you see your face.”  Brian teased Nick.
     “Oh, god, what now?”  Nick said as he struggled to stand.  Nick slowly waddled to a mirror.  “God my thighs rub together.  This is so
sick!”
     When Nick got into the bathroom, Brian heard Nick yell.
     “Oh, god, I’ve got a huge double chin now.”  Nick’s voice was getting angry.
     “Hey buddy, you got your wish, you might as well have
fun.  I don’t think even your own mom would recognize you right now.  Good thing we don’t have anything scheduled for today.”  Brian laughed as he watched his friend waddle across the room.
     “How can I go and do anything?  I don’t have any clothes!”  Nick shot back at Brian angrily.
     Brian opened up Nick’s leather suitcase.  He was just
as suprized as Nick to see that all of the clothes had grown overnight to accomodate Nick’s change in size.
     Picking out some clothes, Brian tossed them onto Nick’s bed.
     “There you go, get dressed and just a little advice, you might want to tuck your shirt in, I heard it can make you look thinner.”
    Brian chuckled as he went into the bathroom to get dressed.
     Nick gave a half laugh at Brian’s last remark.  He grunted and groaned as he struggled with each article of clothing.  By the time
he was finished getting dressed, Nick was winded.
     “Hey, Nick, I hear Kev and Howie down the hall, go ahead and leave before me and I will meet you in the lobby, okay?”  Brian said
as he walked by the front door.
     Nick akwardly tried to get up off the bed.  “Okay, then we’ll see if they know who I am.”  He put his trademark white nike baseball hat
on backwards and left the room.
     The elevator was around the corner and Kevin, Howie
and AJ were standing by it waiting for the car to come up.  Nick stood waiting for the elevator with them.  The three guys glanced over at Nick, but no one paid any attention to him.  Nick knew he was
unrecognizable when he got off the elevator and none of the guys ever said anything to him.
    Nick and Brian spent the afternoon shopping at a mall and going to as many places as they could go.  Although Nick was never recognized,
Brian was every place they went and Nick patiently waited as Brian signed autographs and posed for pictures.
     “Nick, I just hope that this change that happened to
you, made you happy.”  Brian sighed as they got into the cab for the ride back to hotel.
     Nick grinned. “Bri, this was actually one of the more happier days of my life so far.”

     Nick woke up the next morning when he heard a knock on the hotel door.  Before he got up to answer the door, Nick looked under the
blankets and was immediately happy to find that he was back to normal.  He started wondering if this was just all a bad dream.
     Nick jumped out of bed and ran to the door and looked
through the peephole.
     “Bri! Get up, AJ is here.”  Nick hollered at Brian still sound asleep.
     Nick opened the door and let AJ in.  “Hey, Nicky, where were you and Brian all day yesterday?  I couldn’t find ya.”  AJ said as he
entered the room.
     Nick rubbed the back of his head, “Ah, out checking the sights.”  Nick replied hoping that AJ would leave it at that.
     “Oh.”  AJ saw a dark green beanie baby on the floor and bent over and picked it up.
     At that moment, Nick realized that it was not a dream and that he should destroy the possesed beanie.
     “Ya know what Nicky?”  AJ said as he played with the beanie.
     “What’s that, AJ?”  Nick asked as he watched AJ play with the toy.
     “I have such a hard time figuring out women tick, why their moods change so much.  I wish for one day I could understand women
from their angle.”  AJ was now holding onto the beanie tightly.
     Brian and Nick grinned at each other.
     “Ya know, that could happen, AJ.”  Nick laughed.

THE END


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