The Special Teacher

Chapter 7
Back to School

Ethan didn’t leave his house the rest of that day or the next. He thought about jumping in his car and getting the hell out of this town, but he didn’t do it. If he disappeared with no notice to the school he would never get another job. He thought about calling the police, but what could he tell them that wouldn’t land him in a locked psych ward?

He decided the best thing would be to simply e-mail in his resignation to the school and get the hell out as soon as they acknowledged it. He was hoping that he’d have a response as soon as they opened Monday morning, but it turned out to be much quicker than that.

Dear Ethan,

So sorry to hear that you are not able to continue your employment with us. However I must ask that you continue until the end of this week so that we have time to hire a new reliever. If you are not able to work on Monday we may not be able to operate the school, which would be a shame for all the children. Please help us out with this week and I can promise you a good letter of reference.

Kind regards,

Anna Lewis

Deputy Principal

Ethan thought about blowing it off anyway. He didn’t want to have to see Liam again or risk running into Claire. But he couldn’t go through all of this to save his mind only to throw his career away by quitting his first school without notice. He decided to just go in on Monday and privately explain the situation to Jackson, see what he thought was best. Jackson’s judgement wasn’t the best but at least he would offer an outside opinion.

So on Monday he put on his normal teaching clothes of a t-shirt and khakis shorts with his durable Teva sandals and drove to the school. He arrived a bit late, missing the staff briefing and the drop off time for most of the kids so he wouldn’t run into Claire. Jackson could supervise them until the start of school time.

He walked quietly through the corridor and into his classroom. The kids were all there already of course. Their bags and hats were in their cubby holes along the wall and they’d already broken into groups doing different activities. A gaggle of girls were at the sensory tub, a few boys were play wrestling on the mat, a few children were colouring at the table. But there was no sign of Jackson. Instead there was a woman with very shiny blonde hair confidently working her way around the classroom.

She spotted Ethan and gave him a little wave, settling a boy down to play with some blocks before heading over to greet him.

“You must be Ethan,” she said, “I’ve heard so much about you.”

She gave him a greeting hug before he even knew what was going on. “I’m sorry, who are you?” he finally managed to ask.

“Oh sorry, silly me. I’m Susan, this is my classroom you’ve been looking after for me.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. “Oh! I thought you weren’t due back from the UK for weeks.”

She nodded. “Yes, it was a bit of a change of plans, but don’t worry the school will pay you out for the rest of your contract.”

Now that sounded good. Maybe things would turn out for the best after all. He got to quit and he got paid out! “So has Jackson already gone?” he asked.

“Oh no, he’s in Janet’s room today.”

Ethan was surprised to hear that. Janet ran the Nursery room, and that was the last place he expected Jackson to be teaching. He was about to ask her what he was doing there when a familiar voice shouted, “Efan!”

He barely managed to turn to the sound before a pair of strong arms grabbed him, pulling him into a crushing hug.

“I miffed you!” Liam told him, snuggling him even tighter.

“Yeah, I missed you too buddy,” Ethan assured the desperate young man, unable to get his arms loose to even hug him back.

“Why you go bye-bye?” the man-boy demanded, looking hurt.

“Sorry buddy I was really sick, I had to go to the doctor,” he lied as the man finally released him so he could breathe again.

Liam pouted. “You’s okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine buddy, don’t you worry,” he reassured the scared tot.

Liam brightened up right away. “You comin’ home den?” he asked.

“Well, we’ll see. I have to talk with your Mummy first.”

Liam nodded. “You gotta come home,” he urged.

“I will buddy,” he lied, to get the boy to stop talking in front of Susan.

“Kay!” he chirped, hurrying back to the teddy bear he’d been playing with on the floor.

“Sorry about that, he’s… um, very attached to me,” Ethan tried to explain.

“It’s adorable isn’t it?” Susan replied.

“Yeah, they’re really great.”

“So, would you like to go join Jackson? I’ve really got things covered here and I’m sure Janet would like some more help.”

Ethan really had no desire at all to work with even more mentally challenged young adults than these but what choice did he have? At least he could speak to Jackson about the craziness this weekend.

“Yeah, I’ll go join him,” he agreed.

“Lovely, I know you’ll have a good time,” she said.

Ethan found it an odd comment, but he didn’t really know Susan, so perhaps that was just her way of talking.

He headed back out of the classroom and down the corridor to the Nursery room. It’s door was covered in stars and smiling sun stickers. Ethan rolled his eyes and headed inside. There was a different smell to this room and he noticed it instantly. The whole atmosphere was a bit different. For one thing he could see the potty seats lined up next to each other right there in the classroom, no attempt at privacy even made for these children. The walls were painted in bright colours with rainbows and smiling faces depicted on a mural. Yep, it felt even more juvenile than his normal room. He hadn’t thought that possible.

“Why hello there!” Janet greeted him. “Susan told me you’d be coming down to join my class today,” she said cheerfully.

Ethan didn’t really like the way she put it. Sounded more like she expected him to be a student than a fellow teacher. He hated the way more experienced teachers treated some newbies like they weren’t real teachers.

“Yeah, she said I should help out with your class,” he replied.

“Lovely, I’m sure you’ll be a big help. Oh, would you mind just leaving your shoes there, we like to keep our carpet clean,” she said.

Ethan glanced down and noticed Janet was in just a pair of thick pink socks, her shoes sat on the floor by the door. There weren’t any other shoes there, none of the students arrived in any of course.

“Yeah, of course,” he agreed, slipping his sandals off. He didn’t like it one bit though. After his experience over the weekend being barefoot made him feel really juvenile.

“Wonderful, now come meet the class,” Janet said, taking Ethan’s hand and leading him into the room. It was very weird the way she was leading him by the hand. This woman had spent way too much time dealing with adult toddlers obviously.

The first thing Ethan saw as they entered the main room was a row of huge high-chairs designed for adults. And strapped into them were four young men and women in the process of eating. They were clearly much more intellectually challenged than his normal charges. All were sitting there shirtless, stripped to their undies in fact. That included the two young women, who were sitting there bare breasted, only their thick white nappies covering giving them any privacy.

“It’s easier to feed them without their uniforms on,” Janet explained, noticing his staring. “Otherwise they tend to ruin them.”

“Right, of course,” he answered automatically. He wasn’t really paying attention because he recognised one of the bare boobed girls as Jessie. She was eating some kind of oatmeal with her fingers and had the muck all over her face and boobs as well as her hands. She was patting the plastic tray of her high-chair and babbling loudly, swinging her long bare legs out and in like she was on a swing.

A group of children were playing on the floor to their right as well. There were uniform items left here and there as the children seemed to have a natural tendency to strip. A couple boys and a few girls were in full uniform, but quite a few were less well clothed. One of the boys wearing just a yellow polo shirt and some bright red Spiderman underoos was Simon. He was chewing on the rim of a neon green bucket, staring with his empty eyes.

Ethan felt so sad for him. He was certain now that his Dad had somehow done this to poor Simon, rendered him simple and docile. What had he been like before? Was he smart? He’d never know, poor kid. Now he was trapped by his slow-moving mind, just another empty-headed, drooling overgrown tot.

But there was little time to ponder the boy’s fate as another one of the big toddlers came ambling up to them wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Somehow this young man had escaped his entire uniform already and was now toddling about the room stark naked and evidently unashamed. And as he stopped before them Ethan realised he knew this boy too. It was Timmy, now pantsless in addition to being shirtless.

“Him poddy!” the naked boy announced loudly, pointing behind him.

“Thank you for telling us Timmy,” Janet told him. “You’re a good boy letting us know. Such a good little helper.”

Timmy beamed and began sucking on his fingers. “Tell da teachah!” he babbled around his fingers.

“That’s right, we tell the teacher when someone has an accident,” Janet said. “What a smart cookie you are.”

Timmy giggled and toddled back off, his penis just flopping about.

“Is it okay for him to be like that? We usually try to keep them clothed in our room,” Ethan asked.

Janet shrugged. “It’s a losing battle with some of them. They’re just natural jaybirds at this mental age. Not all of them thank goodness, but when we get a born streaker like Timmy we just go with it, let them be comfy.”

They headed over in the direction Timmy had pointed them. And sure enough there was a young man squatting with his back to them, wearing just the bright yellow polo shirt, his shorts and his undies abandoned. His penis was visible hanging between his thighs and it was still dripping out the last spurts of urine into a big wet patch at his feet. He’d clearly made a huge tinkle on the floor, his bare toes squishing the wet carpet around them.

Janet went straight to his side, kneeling down next to him and putting and hand on his back. She wasn’t angry, she didn’t rebuke him. She knew he couldn’t help himself, the boy was just too young of mind to hold it in, or to know it was wrong to do pee-pees on the carpet. She just rubbed his back and asked, “Have you had an accident baby boy?”

The young man nodded. “Pee-pee tinkas,” he answered, poking his finger into his dangling penis.

“I see that sweetie. And I see you took your undies off.”

He nodded again. “Nakey boy,” he told her brightly.

She smiled. “You want to leave them off then?”

“Yeff!”

“Okay, well let’s get you cleaned up at least.”

The young man nodded once more and let the teacher guide him to a standing position, then turning around to face Ethan. Instantly Ethan’s jaw dropped. The young man who was standing there with his still wet penis exposed was none other than Jackson. He was wearing a school uniform bright yellow polo shirt and nothing else.

“Jackson! What are you doing?!” Ethan cried.

Jackson gaped at him without any sign of recognition. He was still holding Janet’s hand, like that was normal. His face was slack, his eyes were unfocused and lacking in any intelligence. He looked retarded, he looked like he was just another one of the children, like he belonged here. Anyone else would have just assumed he was another one of Janet’s charges, an unfortunate mentally challenged young man with mind of a two year old. There was literally nothing to indicate Jackson hadn’t been like this for years.

“He’s made a tinkle accident and he needs to get cleaned up,” Janet answered for the man.

Jackson was picking his nose, happy to have the woman answer for him.

“But he doesn’t belong here. I mean, he’s a teacher, he’s smart,” Ethan argued.

Janet chuckled maliciously. “Not anymore he’s not.” She turned to him and cooed, “Jackson are you a teacher sweetie? Are you a big smart grown-up man?”

Jackson grinned and blew a silly raspberry in response.

“I’ll take that as a big no,” Janet said. “You see, Jackson here doesn’t even recall being a big teacher man. He’s perfectly happy as one of my sweet little tots. And that’s a good thing because this is right where he’ll be staying. Jackson’s noggin is all nice and empty now you see, so there’s no going back.”

She led the half-naked boy right past Ethan, who was wordless in his horror. He just followed them to the row of potty seats, where she took a tissue and gently cleaned Jackson’s penis for him while he sucked on his fingers.

“There we are, all clean,” she pronounced. “Now off to play with your buddies,” she urged, patting his bare bottom playfully.

Jackson squealed in delight, his moronic grin lighting his face as he toddled wide legged right past Ethan again, back to the other boys playing on the floor. Then he dropped to his hands and knees, mooning them with his big pale bare bottom and also revealing his tar black bare soles. It looked like he hadn’t been wearing shoes in a couple days at least.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to enjoy a fun weekend like Jackson had sweetie,” Janet said to Ethan.

“What?”

“Sarah had Jackson all nice and empty-headed by beddy-byes time on Friday. He’s had a wonderful weekend of play already. I’m sorry that Claire wasn’t able to give you the full treatment. It seems you needed something a bit stronger.”

Ethan backed away from Janet. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I want nothing to do with it,” he told her.

She shrugged. “Sorry baby but it’s never really been up to you.”

“This is crazy! You can’t do this to me,” he snapped.

Janet smiled wickedly. “Why not? We’ve done it to all the other boys and girls here. Each and every one of them used to be smart, independent young men and women. And now look at them, look at how simple their lives are, how content they are. They’re happier this way, and you will be too sweetie.”

Ethan was disgusted. All the students he’d been treating like toddlers had once been smart like him. And these people had robbed them of that, forever. “This is wrong!” he spat at her. “How can you do this to people?”

Janet just shook her head. “It’s for their own good darling. I’d say you’d understand once you’ve experienced it, but you won’t be able to comprehend something that complex once it’s all over.”

“Is Claire paying you for this?” he demanded.

She laughed. “Honey Claire is being paid to do this to you. She’s an agent, like me. No, someone else is paying for you. So I’m sorry but you won’t get to be Liam’s brother. But don’t worry, I’m assured you won’t be alone. And in any case you’ll get to come here and play with your friends every day.”

Ethan shook his head. “No way. You step anywhere near me and I’ll break your neck. I’m leaving, right now.”

Janet shook her head. “You can’t leave sweetie, you won’t be able to drive. In a few minutes you won’t be safe walking down the street, you could get distracted by a pretty birdie and wander into the road.

“You should just stay right here. In a moment all you’ll want is for me to help you get undressed like Jackson and Timmy. You’ll be happy to join them, play with them. All these big boy worries will be completely gone, forever.”

Ethan shook his head again, but this time something odd happened. The whole room seemed to swing back and forth. He swayed on his feet, blinking his eyes.

“Ah, there we are. You’re feeling it now, aren’t you sweetie?”

“What… what is this?” Ethan demanded, feeling dizzy, feeling spacey and slow.

“The same thing as happened at Claire’s house baby. Don’t you feel it in your feeties, the nice tingles?”

And Ethan knew she was right. He could feel the tingles in his feet, his bare feet on the thick carpet. He looked over at Janet, at her thick socks, then at the other children. He was barefoot like them. They were all being exposed, not Janet.

She nodded. “That’s right baby, it’s in the fibres. The kind at Claire’s house worked fast but it wasn’t powerful enough. Then you experienced the plaster. It works very fast, but it was always going to be a temporary fix, just enough to keep you docile and simple until we could expose you to the permanent form again. Too bad you got it off before we could collect you.

“Oh well, it’s all worked out in the end. This carpet takes longer to kick in, but it is so, so much more powerful. We increased the dose just for you baby. It’s going to feel amazing, I promise.”

Ethan didn’t want to hear it. He needed to leave, but the tingling feeling was filling his whole body now and it was amazing. He scrunched his toes in the carpet and endorphins washed over his whole being.

Janet was already beside him now, rubbing his arm, looking into his eyes. “That’s right, it feels so good doesn’t it,” she whispered. “Mmmm, so much pleasure,” she cooed, as though she were feeling it too.

Ethan wanted to stop it, but the pleasure seemed to double just at the mention of the word. He moaned out loud, the whole room seeming to grow brighter, shinier with each second.

“That’s it baby, let it take all the worries away for good.”

“No,” Ethan managed to say. “I dun wan’ it. Not forever,” he insisted.

But Janet kept rubbing his arm. “Sorry Ethan, but it’s a one way trip this time. We can’t risk someone who’s been through our process talking about it can we? We need to make sure every last bit of those big boy smarts are gone, permanently.”

He didn’t want to lose his smarts, he didn’t want any of this. He yanked his arm away from her and walked back towards Jackson. They both needed to go. They were buddies, they had to leave together. Every step caressed the soles of his feet, his head lighting up with bliss.

Jackson was sitting on his bottom facing Timmy. They were pulling their feet back and forth, giggling at one another, nibbling on the tips of their toes like the very dumbest of babies.

“Jackthon, we gotta go!” Ethan yelled.

Jackson looked up at him slack jawed, then popped his big toe back into his mouth and stared cross-eyed at it.

“Jackthon, we gettin dumb!” Ethan tried to warn him, but the boy was just sitting there bare bummed and drooling all over his foot. It was evident it was far too late for Jackson. Janet was right, his mind was gone forever. Now Ethan had to leave before he ended up down there with him.

He turned himself back around, heading for the door. His head was already so foggy, but he was sure if he got off the carpet the big thoughts would eventually come back. He just needed to leave. Right next to the door were his sandals. He just needed to put them on. But no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t know how. There was just a big empty space in his mind where the knowledge had been. He couldn’t recall left and right, he didn’t know front to back. He couldn’t begin to understand how the buckles worked. No, he’d have to leave them.

Except there was one more problem. There was this stupid fluffy teddy bear sitting on the floor right in front of the door. In fact he recognises it as Liam’s teddy. Where had that come from? He should just kick it aside. But that would be so mean. Teddy wasn’t hurting anyone. He should move him. He reached down and picked the teddy up with both hands.

The sensations travelled through his hands and up his arms, straight to his brain. It was ten times better than from the floor. “Ugh, ohhhh,” he grunted then sighed, a huge section of his mind going dark, intelligence simply being blasted away.

Reasoning powers dimming, Ethan smiled at the friendly teddy bear, pulling it close and cuddling it against his cheek. All thoughts of running away vanished. Teddy was so cuddly. Ethan felt just lovely touching him, holding him.

A nice hand on his back and a warm voice in his ear. “Isn’t teddy nice darling?”

He nods his head against teddy’s fur. “I wike teddy,” he agrees. “Him fuzzy.”

“Yes, he makes you feel extra lovely, I know. Now, why don’t we get you changed. You’ve been playing dress up, time to get back into uniform.”

Ethan nods silently. He can’t remember where he is, what’s going on. He just knows he feels good and he needs to be a good boy and do as the nice lady says. He feels her take off his shorts, steps up extra high for her while she lifts them from his feet. Then she snakes his shirt off him, careful to let him keep holding teddy though. It feels even better when he can press teddy against his bare skin.

“Ready for your new shirt?” she asks a moment later, holding up a bright yellow polo shirt.

Ethan frowns. Teddy is so nice on his skin, he doesn’t want the shirt between him and the fur. But can he be shirtless? Aren’t people supposed to wear shirts? He looks over teddy and sees Timmy crawling on the carpet. Timmy isn’t wearing a shirt. Why not? Then he remembers something very important. Timmy’s a little boy. Little boys don’t need to wear shirts, just like they don’t need to wear shoes. He looks down at his feet. He’s got no shoes, his toes are all wiggly in the soft carpet, just like Timmy’s. He’s got little boy bare feeties. He’s little just like Timmy. And little boys don’t need to wear clothes at all. Timmy’s a silly little jaybird. What a silly little boy he is!

Is Ethan like Timmy? For a second that feels like a very silly idea, but then he isn’t sure why. Teacher will know, the nice lady will be able to tell him.

He shakes his head. “Dun wan’ it,” he tells her.

The lady smiles. She isn’t upset, she isn’t angry with him. “You want shorts?” she asks instead.

Ethan feels super extra silly when he shakes his head again. He can’t help but smile, can’t help but grin at how silly he’s being.

And the lady smiles again, so he knows it’s okay. She nods and puts the shirt down. “That’s fine Ethan, little boys don’t have to wear shirts or shorts in my class. And you’re a little boy, aren’t you sweetie?”

Ethan feels so good knowing he was right. “Yeff!” he answers eagerly.

“But I really can’t have a little boy wearing such grown-up undies, they aren’t right for a little boy at all,” the lady says.

Ethan looks down at his boxer shorts. They’re all tented out in the front, all pointy. No those aren’t the right undies for a little boy. And he’s glad when the pretty lady reaches over and slips them down his legs. His pee-pee flops out right away, all big and happy. That’s okay, all sense of modesty has floated away with the rest of the big boy worries. Ethan just feels a lovely sense of freedom when the air hits his doodle.

She gently fondles his stiff doodle and says, “Yes, that’s perfect, look at what a happy boy you are. I told you this would be fun.”

Ethan’s breathing gets faster, his penis jerking and oozing precum. “Big doodle!” he announces.

Janet nods. “Yes it sure is. Why don’t you go show your friends, I’m sure they’ll want to see you’re a jaybird too.”

Yes, that makes sense, Ethan wants to show the other boys he’s little like them. It feels so, so good to know that now, to have that certainty of where he fits in this classroom. He turns and toddles to the group of boys. They look up at him, naked like Timmy, his penis bouncing against his tummy, bobbing back and forth like a metronome as he walks, and they smile and giggle.

“Him nakey!” Jackson declares brightly.

“Jay-buwd!” Timmy announces too.

And there is no shame, no embarrassment as Ethan drops to his hands and knees with the others. Yes, his place is with them, on the floor, playing with toys, being a silly little boy. And it makes him, so, so excited to know that. It’s the most arousing thing he’s ever thought about. And he can’t help it as he takes teddy and pushes him down against his pee-pee and then begins to hump him.

It’s ecstasy as his penis rubs long and hard against the magic fur, blasting away what little remained of his cognition, of his awareness. The other young men giggle and watch the show. His breathing speeds up, grows ragged. His body tenses, back arching and at that moment he experiences a sudden mental clarity, a window of perfect lucidity.

He becomes completely aware of what he is doing and where. There is revulsion to the pit of his stomach as he realises he’s buck naked on the floor masturbating in front of all these people, even Janet standing above them, smiling at his total loss of inhibitions. He let her strip away all his clothes, even his boxers. He asked her to do it, to let him be nude. He had been so close to leaving when he’d picked up the teddy, he was sure that he could have gotten away otherwise, they couldn’t have stopped him. And he was equally certain that it was now too late.

He knew he was about to become just like the mentally impaired young men surrounding him. All of his education, his preparations for adulthood would mean nothing, would be forgotten, wiped away as though he’d never been to a day of school or even kindergarten. He’d never teach another class, he wouldn’t even know his ABCs, wouldn’t be able to count his own fingers or toes. His bright career would never happen, it was over before it began.

In a moment that seemed to stretch into an eternity he thought about the car he’d never be able to drive again, the rented house with all his stuff in it, things he’d never see again and wouldn’t know how to use. He wouldn’t be able to contact his parents, his friends, to tell them what had happened, he wouldn’t know how to use a phone, wouldn’t have the vocabulary to explain even if someone dialled it for him.

The naked and half-naked toe-sucking, babbling, drooling young men around him were visions of his future. He’d never learn, never grow up. He’d spend his days playing at grown-ups feet. And the very worst part was that he’d enjoy it. He was going to forget just how wrong this all was, he was going to forget that this was forced on him, that he had intelligence before, that he knew things.

He just couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let them take that too. He had to remember, just that one thing, that this was wrong. They could make him a moron but they couldn’t make him happy about it, make him a grinning idiot like the rest. He focused all his effort on holding onto that memory.

He came with more force than he ever had in his life. Every nerve sang with bliss. His bare toes curled tight, his back arched further and he exploded jets of warm pearlescent cum across the teddy’s soft fur, onto the carpet, across his tummy and chest.

“Ahhh, ohhhh,” he moaned, experiencing complete euphoria for thirty solid seconds.

Finally Ethan dropped back from the cum-covered teddy, sitting on his bottom, legs splaying wide apart, catching his breath.

Janet knelt down at his side, a hand on his bare back. “There we go, that was it sweetie, all those big boy thoughts are gone for good now. A lovely special sticky squirt is just the thing to finish the process off. And I think those stickies might have even been a bit bigger than the ones Jackson made for us Friday night.”

Ethan looked over at the woman who had just destroyed his adult mind, blinking his wide, unfocused eyes at her, face slack. A moment passed, then he grinned, a big ear to ear smile. “Awll sticky!” he chirped, patting his hands on his cum-streaked tummy.

Janet chuckled. “You certainly are Ethan, you’re a real mess buddy.”

He laughed along with her, wriggling his legs back and forth and chewing on his fingers. There was no sign of enmity from him, just peaceful acceptance of this as being normal. Janet simply cleaned him up and left him to play with the others.

Ethan twisted around and watched her leave. He was finally alone with Jackson and the other boys. They looked at him, seeming to be wondering what he’d want to do now. Ethan grinned at the boys and announced, “Efan siwwy,” before grabbing his right foot and jamming his big toe in his mouth, slurping away at it. The other boys giggled and quickly copied his antics. They were quickly becoming playmates.

Epilogue

Six Months Later

Winter had come to Ngatea. It was damp and rainy and only about eight degrees Celsius in the mornings but Jack Sanders was amazed to see most of his new students at Ngatea Special School arriving in shorts and bare feet. He was here to relieve Janet, the Nursery class teacher, for a month. It was his first job out of university, so he hoped he didn’t mess it up.

A few minutes before the bell a pretty blonde woman approached leading another young man by the hand. Like so many before him he wore a yellow fleece jumper over his polo shirt and a baggy pair of navy school shorts but was still barefoot, his feet looking wet and muddy from the walk to school. His caregiver was in sensible boots of course, but apparently didn’t see that as necessary for him. It wasn’t like the poor young man had the sense to know what was good for him. It was obvious from the slack expression on his face and the vacant eyes that he was just another mental toddler like the others.

“Hi there!” Jack greeted them cheerily nonetheless. “I’m Jack, the relief teacher, and I just wanted to be here to say hello right at the start.”

The woman smiled. “Well hello there Jack, it’s very nice to meet you. This is my little one, and I’m sure he’d like to say hello, wouldn’t you honey?”

The barefooted young man grinned a silly, dumb smile, licking at his lips in an awkward way and twisting his dirty toes on the floor. “Hewwo,” he slurred.

“Hi there buddy,” Jack replied.

“Tell him your name sweetie-pie. Remember how Mummy taught you that?” she prompted.

The blank-eyed man was slack-jawed but he nodded dutifully and said, “I Efan.”

Jack put on his best fake smile and said, “Wow, hi Ethan, it’s really cool to meet you. Can you give me a high five?” he asked, holding out his hand.

Ethan giggled childishly and slapped the offered hand with his free one.

“Wow, what a strong boy you are!” Jack declared, pretending his hand hurt.

Ethan squealed happily. “Efan stwong!” he declared proudly.

“Okay buddy, we better get you into class. Your tootsies must be awful chilly.”

“Oh his feet will be fine, he never wears shoes, absolutely refuses to,” the woman explained. “And I’m afraid he’ll have the rest of that uniform stripped off in no time flat,” she warned.

“No problem, from what I’ve been told he’s not alone in that.”

“Yeah, they just don’t know any better,” she said. Then she told Ethan, “Bye-bye honey, be a good boy for Mummy,” and gave him a hug.

Ethan nodded then turned to Jack and lunged forward, giving him a big hug as well. Jack was a bit taken aback, but he closed his arms around the man’s body and whispered, “Aww, thanks buddy. You’re a really sweet little guy aren’t you?”

“Efan gib cuddles,” the boy answered.

Soon enough the whole class was there and Jack was ready to start. The only thing was something had been bothering him since he’d met Ethan. The boy strongly reminded him of a guy he went to university with a few years ago. Was it possible that it was the same guy?

He walked into the room and looked for Ethan. The young man was already stripped down to his birthday suit, his uniform clothes strewn around the floor. Ethan was climbing on one of the low tables, showing off those thickly callused but filthy bare soles of his and mooning everyone. Jack just rolled his eyes. Of course this wasn’t the same guy. What the hell had he even been thinking? The Ethan he’d known was a bright university student. This poor fellow had never made it past nursery school. There was no point investigating it any further.

“Ethan, get your dirty bum-bum off the table silly boy!” he called to the overgrown tot.

Ethan twisted around and giggled, creeping off the table and then running away as the teacher pretended to chase him. He wasn’t afraid of course, he was just playing. And that was what his life was about now, playing. He was good at playing. It was easy, even for a special little boy like him.

The only tiny flicker of a memory of his past that Ethan had wasn’t triggered until much later in the day, when teacher took his shoes and socks off to be more comfy. Ethan didn’t know how he knew it, he didn’t even think about it. He just knew to get the teddy bear from the toy pile because teacher would need it soon. And that made Ethan smile because somehow, as though by instinct, he just knew that meant he’d be getting another playmate soon.

The End

 

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