Reborn

Chapter 10
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Jack drifted in and out of sleep, it felt peaceful.  Whenever he momentarily regained consciousness, he was only dimly aware of his surroundings and the desire to go back to sleep was overwhelming.  In this state of drowsiness he had forgotten the turmoil that he had endured over the past few days, it was blissful.

Once he had fully regained consciousness he started to recall the events of the previous day. He kept his eyes closed and wondered whether Emma might start to regret her behavior towards him.  He hoped that she would have calmed down after a full night of sleep and that she might start to feel remorse for the things that she had said.

Then he heard movement in the room and he realized that Emma was already awake.  When he opened his eyes he saw her stood by the side of the bed, looking down at him.

"Good morning sleepyhead," she beamed.

He had asked her if he could sleep on the sofa, but she had insisted that he would have to sleep next to her in the bed.  She had been watching him like a hawk ever since she had confiscated his phone, he couldn't get away from her.

"We're going to play a game today," she announced, "I'm going to pretend to be your mommy and your going to pretend to be my baby," she continued.

Jack decided not to respond, he thought that if he pretended to go back to sleep then she might leave him alone for a while.  He groaned, snuggled into the bed covers and closed his eyes again. When he heard her leave the room, he decided to use the time to plot his next move.  He listened as Emma went about her morning routine, all the while he wondered what he could do or say to get away from her.

After what seemed like a while, he heard a knock at the front door.  He listened intently as the door was unlocked and opened, then he heard muffled voices.  He briefly considered calling out for help to whoever was at the door, but after what sounded like a few words being exchanged the door slammed shut again.  He could hear shuffling and the sound of something being dragged across the floor, then he wondered whether a parcel might have been delivered.

He recalled Emma's announcement that they were going to a play a game, he had hoped that she had been joking, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to predict her behavior.  He listened nervously to the sound of her fumbling around with something, then he heard the sound of rustling plastic and something being torn open.  After what felt like a long time, he could no longer stand the tension and he decided to go see what she was doing.

Jack crawled out from underneath the covers and climbed down from the bed.  When his feet touched the floor he realized that his diaper was so full that it was practically sliding off of him. It was soaked with urine and it sagged precariously between his legs, the tapes were buckling under the weight and barely held it around his waist.  He guessed that if Emma saw him like that then she would use it as an opportunity to change him, so he decided to try changing out of the diaper himself.

He pulled at the tapes on the side of the diaper and gravity did the rest, within moments it slid onto the floor with a light thud.  Now naked, he crept into the spare bedroom where he knew the diapers were kept.  However when he arrived he saw that the package of diapers had been left on top of a chest of drawers, out of his reach. He looked around the room to see if he could use anything to climb up to reach them, but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind him.

"Jack, what happened to your diaper? Are you trying to change yourself again?" Emma queried.

Jack span around to see Emma stood over him, then he remembered that he was naked and he made a half hearted attempt to cover his genitals.

"You don't need to be shy, you haven't got anything that I haven't already seen," teased Emma.

He blushed and looked down at his feet, unable to meet her gaze.

"Now lie down on the floor so I can change you, then you can have breakfast and take your medicine." Emma ordered.

He hesitated for a moment and contemplated drawing a line in the sand.  He was intimidated by her, but he worried that his cowardice might only embolden her.

"I'll do it myself," he asserted.

"You can't have your breakfast until I've changed you into a clean diaper and you can't take you're medicine until you've had breakfast," she warned.

His heart sank as the implications of her words began to sink in.  He understood that she was making an implicit threat, if he didn't comply with her demands then he wouldn't be able to take his medicine.  He wasn't sure whether she would be willing to carry out the threat, but he wasn't willing to risk the possibility that she would.

Jack sighed and decided that he would comply with her demands for the time being.  He groaned and then slumped to the floor, feeling completely defeated.  As Emma loomed over him he closed his eyes in a futile attempt to preserve his dignity.

He could hear the soft rustling of plastic as Emma removed a clean diaper from the package and placed it down on the floor.  Then he heard movement and felt her presence, he guessed that she was kneeling in front of him.  She wrapped her fingers around his ankles and lifted his legs into the air before sliding the fresh diaper underneath him.  After releasing his ankles she secured the diaper around his waist and fastened the tapes.

"There we go," she cooed.

When he opened his eyes he saw Emma kneeling on the floor, gazing down at him.  She smiled impishly and tilted her head slightly, hinting at a mischievous plan about to unfold.  Then she climbed to her feet and beckoned Jack to follow her.

"Come with me, I've got a surprise for you," she instructed.

Jack couldn't remember the last time he'd experienced a good surprise and he wasn't expecting the next one to break that trend.  He rose slowly to his feet and then stood there for a few moments, pondering his next move.  Emma strolled into the hallway and then looked over her shoulder to check whether he was following her.

"This way," directed Emma.

He traipsed behind her, taking as much time as he could.  As they passed by the front door he noted the presence of two large parcels propped up against the wall in the hallway.

When Emma reached the doorway to the dining room she turned around and motioned for Jack to go through the door.  He held his breath and followed her into the dining room.

"Look at what I bought for you Jack," she said.

He looked up at a white plastic high chair that was stood in the middle of the dining room.  It wasn't just the thought of sitting in the high chair that troubled him, he was also disturbed by the realization that Emma was willing to spend money on things for the sole purpose of tormenting him.

Emma went to the kitchen and left Jack stood in the dining room, who continued staring at the high chair.  When she returned to the dining room she was carrying a glass of water and a pill bottle.

"Come on Jack, you can try sitting in it at least once, for me." Emma suggested

He wanted to draw a line in the sand, he wanted to tell her to get stuffed.  But he knew that if he didn't go voluntarily then she could simply force him into the high chair and he would have no way of stopping her.

"And if I don't?" Jack muttered.

"I might just forget to give you this," she replied, shaking the pill bottle.

Jack took a step towards the high chair and then hesitated.  He couldn't be sure that she would carry out the threat and for a moment he was tempted to call her bluff, but then he thought better of it.

"We're going back to the hospital on Monday, right?" he asked.

"We will, if you're a good boy." Emma replied.

He wondered how much money she had paid for the high chair, if it had been expensive he thought that she would want to use it more than once.

"You've spent money on this thing, what will you do with it when I'm gone?" he queried.

"I can just sell it to someone online, it will be like brand new." Emma explained, shrugging her shoulders.

He sighed and then stepped slowly towards the high chair, until he was within touching distance of it.  Emma placed the pill bottle and the glass of water down on the dining table, before lifting Jack into the high chair.  His legs dangled far above the floor and he knew that he wouldn't be able to get out of the chair without assistance, he felt trapped.

Even from this vantage point, Emma still towered over him.  When she returned to the kitchen to make breakfast, Jack surveyed the dining room from his high chair and thought about his predicament.

Emma returned from the kitchen with a bowl of oatmeal and placed it on the high chair tray, then she pulled a seat up to the high chair and sat down in front of Jack.  He stared at the bowl and his stomach rumbled, aching for sustenance.  Emma used a small spoon to scoop up some of the oatmeal and held it out in front of Jack's face.  He folded his arms and turned his head away from the spoon.

"I want to feed myself." Jack insisted.

"Okay well I'll make you a deal, if you can put this spoon in your mouth without making a mess then I'll let you feed yourself." Emma replied.

Jack felt like his motor control had improved over the past few days and he was willing to try using the spoon in order to avoid the indignity of being fed by her.  He reached out with one hand to grab the spoon and Emma carefully passed it to him.  He grasped the spoon tightly in his hand and carefully maneuvered it towards his mouth.  The spoon was so close to his mouth that he could feel the warmth from the oatmeal on his lips, but at the last moment the spoon veered awkwardly to the right and the oatmeal spilled onto his bare chest.  He grunted in frustration and slammed the spoon onto the tray.

Emma smirked and tilted her head.

"Let mommy feed you so that you don't make a mess," she teased.

Emma picked up the spoon and scooped up some more oatmeal before holding it aloft in front of Jack.  It smelled good and he felt hungry, he thought that he could probably starve just to spite her, but he reasoned that it wouldn't do him any good.  He knew that he needed to eat in order to stay mentally alert and he realized that going on hunger strike would be counter productive.  He closed his eyes and opened his mouth wide.

"No Jack, open your eyes, I want you to open your eyes and look at me." Emma ordered.

He reluctantly opened his eyes and saw that Emma was looking directly at him.  He tried to avoid making eye contact with her by focusing on her chin.

"You're looking through me, not at me. I want you to look me in the eye," she demanded.

Jack stared into her pale blue eyes and tried to imagine that he was somewhere else.

"Here comes the choo choo train," she cooed.

She moved the spoon slowly towards his open mouth as she stared into his soul.

"Choo, choo," she continued.

Jack swallowed a mouthful of oatmeal and winced in embarrassment.  Emma repeated the process, spoonful after spoonful, until the bowl was nearly empty.  After he had finished breakfast, she took the pill bottle and the glass of water from the table.  Then she placed the medicine on his tongue and lifted the glass up to his mouth so that he could take a sip of water.

After he had swallowed his medicine, Emma returned to the kitchen to eat her own breakfast and wash up.  Jack sat silently in the high chair and hoped that Emma had finished torturing him.  He stared at a clock on the wall and impatiently watched the minutes pass by as he awaited her return.

As he studied the clock face something began to trouble him, the numbers on the clock didn't look right to him.  In place of the number eleven he could see an X followed by a straight line. But he knew that the number eleven was two straight lines and he wondered why there would be an X there.  He looked at where the number twelve should be, but instead he saw an X and two straight lines.  He remembered that X was a symbol used to multiply one number by another number and he couldn't understand why it would be on a clock.

When he thought about it more carefully he could recall seeing clocks like that one before.  He concluded that the numbers on the clock were in a different language, perhaps in Spanish.  He wondered why Emma would buy a Spanish clock and he decided that she might have been trying to deliberately confuse him.

"Jack, what are you staring at?" Emma asked, as she stood in the doorway.

"Uh...oh...nothing." Jack mumbled.

"The clock? You can still tell the time right?" Emma queried.

Jack hesitated, he wanted to ask her about the strange numbers, but he didn't want her to know that he was confused.

"Yeah...uh...the numbers just seem...never mind." Jack stuttered.

"Well, I've got another surprise for you, I'll be back in about fifteen minutes." Emma said.

Emma left the room and Jack listened to her drag something through the hallway.  He was starting to dread the word surprise.  He could hear packaging being opened and the sound of something heavy being moved.  He fidgeted nervously as the seconds ticked by, then after what seemed like an eternity she returned to the dining room.  As she approached the high chair Jack noticed that she had a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, a hint of what was to come.  She placed her hands underneath his armpits and hoisted him out of the high chair, before depositing him on the ground.

"Follow me," she instructed.

Jack reluctantly followed behind her as she led him into the spare bedroom.  There he saw what appeared to be the unassembled pieces of a wooden crib on the floor.

"This is going to be your bedroom until Monday, what do you think?" Emma asked.

Jack leaned backwards against the bedroom wall and stared at his feet.

"Don't sulk, you can be my little helper, now pass me those screws." Emma ordered, pointing to a small plastic bag on the floor.

Jack looked at the bag of screws and frowned, then shook his head.

"Fine, I'll do it then." Emma said as she bent down and picked up the screws.

Jack watched her in silence as she assembled the crib, piece by piece.  He picked up the discarded bag that had contained the screws and read the label.

12mm screws

He was relieved that he had recognized the number twelve and that it didn't have an X in it.  He felt sure that there was something wrong with the clock he had seen earlier.

Once Emma had finished assembling the crib she left the room and returned with a small mattress.  Jack stared up at the wooden bars and wondered whether he would be strong enough to climb out of the crib.

"Come on, let's try it out." Emma suggested as she beckoned him to move towards her.

Emma placed the mattress in the crib and Jack walked timidly towards her.  She lifted him into the air and lowered him into the crib.  As the bars rose up around him, Jack felt like he was being imprisoned in a cell.  Although he was taller than the bars surrounding him, he wasn't sure whether he would be strong enough to pull himself up over the sides.

Emma gazed down at him and smirked.

"Do you like your new crib Jack?" she asked.

Jack looked away from her and groaned.

"Please, I've learned my lesson, I'm sorry," he whimpered.