The Sanctity of Knowledge

Chapter 13
Chapter 13

It was another morning at Dalian Daycare Center.  As usual, Alexa sat with her former colleagues at an activity center, surrounded by various toys.  A pile of Duplo Legos lay in front of her, some of which she had apathetically assembled into various shapes.  Alexa was bored.  Really, really bored.  Now that the mental regression of Athena’s curse had been lifted, Alexa was painfully aware of just how dull life as a toddler actually was. 

Still, she had done a good job of keeping up appearances, as Metis had advised.  During her morning routine with the goddess, she had managed to convincingly act and speak as babyish as she always had, leaving Athena unaware that Alexa had regained her adult mind and speech.

“Hey ‘Wexa” Elizabeth said, crawling towards her bored playmate.  “You no pway wiff  Wegos?” she asked.  Alexa didn’t immediately answer.  Infantile speech, which came naturally while she was cursed, now needed to be considered and contemplated.

“Me pway wiff ‘nudda toy” Alexa finally responded in her best toddler impression, reaching for a nearby Fisher Price laptop.  Elizabeth smiled in delight, happy that it was her turn to play with the plastic blocks.

Jessica saw that Elizabeth was about to grab Alexa’s Legos and immediately began crawling towards them, clearly upset.  “Noooo!  Me wanna pway Wegos!” she whined, placing her hands on the pile of plastic blocks. 

“My tuhn, my tuhn!” Elizabeth retorted as she attempted to push Jessica’s hands away.  Alexa sat and watched as the two toddlers continued to argue.  She rolled her eyes as Jessica began to scream at the top of her lungs in frustration, kicking her legs and pounding her fists on the ground as she suffered a toddler meltdown.  “This is going to be a long freaking day” she thought to herself as she unenthusiastically poked at the buttons of the toy laptop she had picked up. 

It was then that Kaylen toddled over to Alexa.  “Wanna pway Wexa?” she asked, holding a baby doll and sitting down next to her.  Alexa immediately smelled that Kaylen had pooped in her diaper.  While cursed, the smells of the daycare (both pleasant and unpleasant) had become something akin to olfactory background noise.  Nothing, including the odor of her friends’ diapers had made her react strongly one way or the other.  Now, Alexa was nearly gagging from the stench emanating from the former educator.  She began to scoot away, which only caused Kaylen to scoot towards her in pursuit.

“Wexa?” Kaylen asked quizzically.  “Why you no wanna pway wiff me?”

Between the mind-numbing boredom, the cacophony of Jessica’s tantrum and the reek of Kaylen’s diaper, Alexa had neared her breaking point.

“Wexa?” Kaylen persisted.  “Why you no…..”

“Because, you have a load of shit in your dia……….” Alexa snapped, catching herself mid-sentence and putting her hands over her mouth.

Kaylen stared at her in shock, stunned that Alexa had just used several adult words in a very adult way.  Alexa immediately sought to recover from her slip-up.

“’Cuz your diapuh ‘tinky!” she rephrased, praying that Kaylen wouldn’t question why she’d suddenly been able to speak in the manner that she had.

Kaylen stared at her for what felt like an eternity.  Then her face slowly screwed into one of hurt and she began to cry, her fragile infant ego wounded by Alexa’s rejection of her companionship.

“You mean!” she blubbered, rubbing her teary eyes with her fists.  Alexa breathed a sigh of relief.

By now, Elizabeth and Jessica’s quarrel attracted the attention of the daycare workers and Kelly knelt down between the two to resolve the conflict.  After mollifying the warring toddlers by applying the Solomon solution and dividing the Legos between them, she detected the odor of Kaylen’s dirty diaper.  She walked over to the crying little girl and sat down next to her, sniffing close to her overalls and confirming that she needed a changing. 

“Let’s get you in a clean diaper, stinky pants!” Kelly said, picking up Kaylen and carrying her to the daycare’s changing table.  Alexa exhaled in relief, grateful that she’d avoided drawing suspicion to herself and that she no longer had to deal with her playmate’s stench.

After Kaylen was taken away, Alexa sat and watched Elizabeth and Jessica.  Their prior conflict now settled, the two little girls played with their respective share of the Duplo blocks they had been allotted.  Elizabeth stared at two blocks she was attempting to put together, a thin line of drool dripping from her chin as she gave up and attempted to put one of them in her mouth.  Jessica appeared to have lost interest in the blocks already, putting her finger into her nose, pulling it out and then putting it in her mouth.  In that moment, aided by her adult sensibilities, Alexa realized just how pathetic they had become.  It was then and there that she resolved to not only save herself, but her colleagues as well.

A few minutes later, it was Alexa’s turn to make a dirty diaper.  Alexa squatted and did her business, still aware of how humiliating and embarrassing it was but also mentally fortified enough that she was able to do so without feeling an impending loss of emotional control. 

When Alexa was finished using her diaper, she immediately began to see which daycare worker was available to change her.  Luckily, Kelly had just returned from diapering Kaylen and was helping the little girl pick out a dress for her dolly.  Alexa tugged at Kelly’s apron, not wanting to spend another second sitting in her own mess.

Kelly turned her attention to Alexa, who was staring up at her expectantly.  Kelly knew what that look meant and turned Alexa around to check her diaper.

“Oh no, Alexa!  You too?” she said in a tone of playful surprise.  Kelly picked Alexa up and carried her to the changing table.  She laid Alexa down, pulled her shorts off and began to untape her soiled diaper.  She pulled the front of the diaper down between Alexa’s legs, noted its contents and began to write on the dry-erase board that hung on the wall next to the changing table.

“Alexa…….time…..10:47 a.m……….large BM…..also wet…….there we go” she said aloud, putting the cap back on the marker she used on the chart that tracked each of the children’s diaper changes for the day.

Alexa turned her head to the side as Kelly put on a pair of disposable gloves.  Alexa then felt the familiar sensations of being changed, but something was different.  It felt like Kelly was examining her while changing her.  Alexa’s intuition was correct.

Unbeknownst to Alexa, Kelly had been watching her all morning.  Something about the way Athena dealt with Alexa at the grocery store had unnerved her and she feared the worst.  Kelly knew the signs of abuse when she saw them.  Alexa seemed distant and detached, in contrast to most days where she was actively involved in play.  Kelly finished changing Alexa’s diaper, pulled her shorts back up and sat her on the edge of the table.

“Alexa?  Honey?  You’re so quiet today.  Are you ok?” she asked, a look of sincere concern on her face.  Alexa looked into Kelly’s eyes, then quickly down at the floor. 

“You can tell me anything, Alexa” Kelly encouraged, hugging Alexa close and softly rubbing her back. 

Alexa suddenly realized what Kelly was implying.  The last thing she needed was attention, especially from the authorities.  That would surely alert Athena that something was amiss.  She obviously needed to defuse the situation, but how?  Surely, she couldn’t reveal to Kelly what was really going on?  How would she react to the revelation that Alexa was actually an adult woman, trapped in an infant’s body?  Would she actually believe the unbelievable tale of the past month of Alexa’s life?  As her mind raced in an attempt to figure out what to do, Kelly continued her interrogation.

“Alexa?  Miss Kelly wants to ask you something.  Does Mommy get angry with you sometimes?  Does she ever hurt you?  Do you want Miss Kelly to talk to some friends of hers?” Kelly asked.  Now Alexa was spooked.  She had to do something and now was the time.  She looked back into Kelly’s eyes, swallowed hard and leaned in close to her ear.

“Naptime.  I’m going to create a distraction.  Then, take me somewhere where we can be alone.”

Alexa watched as the hair on Kelly’s arms visibly stood up and her mouth dropped open.  Alexa noticed that the color in her face had gone.  Alexa drew in closer.

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything.  Oh, thanks for the diaper change, by the way.”

Kelly dumbly nodded her head, mouthing “you’re welcome” as she helped Alexa off the changing table.  She watched the little girl walk back to the activity center then collapsed into a nearby chair.

“Kelly?  What’s wrong, hun?  You tired already?  You want me to get you an espresso?” her coworker asked. 

“Yes.  Espresso.  Perfect.  Good.  Double shot.  That sounds good.  Really good” Kelly replied quickly, her face still blank with shock. 

When her coworker returned with a fresh espresso, Kelly grabbed it and sipped it nervously.  She looked across the room towards Alexa who sat in the middle of her playmates.  The little girl raised a finger to her lips, winked at her, then returned to playing with her toy laptop.

Kelly returned a nervous smile and, hand shaking, looked down at her phone.  Naptime was in an hour.  She hoped that she could keep her sanity for that long.