The Tale Of Old Hickory

Chapter 2
Chapter 2

"Hickory, what’s..." Jenny was about to ask the bat what was going on and had to put her hands over her mouth to not scream. The formerly little girl was more than twice her size.

"Hehe. Don’t mind her, she’s just a little scared tonight."

Her mouth still covered in fright as the woman smiled and said, "Yeah, some little kids take awhile to really get to like it. Take care!"

"Thank you, ma’am!"

As the woman shut the door then, Jenny slowly uncovered her mouth; before she could speak, though, Josh piped up to ask, alarmed, "H-Hickory, why are you so big?!"

"What’re you talking about?" Getting on one knee to talk to Josh, the formerly-little girl giggled, "Aw, you don’t need a change already, do ya, Josh?"

"A...." Now confused, the tiny zombie remarked, "What do ya mean a change?!"

"Ewww!" Before Josh could get a proper answer, his girlfriend, who was now the same size of him, remarked, "’Dat’s gwoss! We jus’ stawted walkin’ an’ you went an’ peed awweady?"

"W-What? What’re you talkin’ about, Kel --"

"Dat’s icky!" Moving to put some distance between herself and Josh, Kelly’s first reaction was to retreat over to Taylor’s side. "Keep ’way from me, pee-pee pants!"

"Um, Kelly?" While she was usually eternally cheerful, this was an instance where Jenny was happy to make an exception, "You, uh, feeling okay?"

"I’d be fine if my boyfwiend didn’t go pee-pee."

"I didn’t go pee-pee!" squealed out Josh angrily, pouting at the girl vampire. "I jus’... I jus’ wann’ know why Hickawy got so big!"

"From drinking my milk," replied the thirteen-year-old, moving so she was behind the group of toddlers. Using her position to usher them forward, she replied, "C’mon, now! The night’s wasting and I promised I’d have you guys back early!"

"Yeah!" Rushing forward, her plastic underwear flashing briefly under her much-shorter vampire dress, Kelly demanded, "Hurry up, swowpokes!"

For lack of anything better to do and with what looked like a giant blocking the other way, Josh didn’t question things further and instead went quiet for a moment and got to walking.

It was hard not to notice, though, that Kelly remained walking with Taylor rather happily, both seemingly ignorant to what had happened. Josh turned his head over to Jenny, though, and she looked suitably freaked out.

As such, he questioned hesitantly, "Uh... D’you know wha’ happen?"

"Uh-uh," explained the mad scientist nervously, shaking her head. Feeling around the inside of her jacket for her candy and wallet, she soon found to her horror that the latter was missing (although her first thought still managed to be "Thank goodness I’ve got the candy!").

"I..." Finding something else worrying the tiny mad scientist replied, "I-I think were babies now..."

"Babies!" Shocked at this, Josh frowned, declaring, "Nuh-uh! How c’n we be babies? That just doesn’t-"

"Well, I’m wearing a diaper now!" replied Jenny hotly, hands on her hips. "An’ I’m pwetty sure ’dat wasn’ pawt of my costume when I put it on!"

That wasn’t the sort of response Josh had come to expect from the girl, so he was taken aback for a second. Still, after a moment he shook himself from it and asked, "But how? Whatcha fink ’appened?"

"How’d I know?" Jenny’s tone had cooled off a bit now, but it still wasn’t quite as friendly as it usually was. "Wait.... Ol’ Hickwey’s s’posedta be able to make ya younguh too, wight?"

"Um, I guess. But why’d he wanna be older?"

It was Taylor who piped in, unhelpfully, "So he could have a latuh bed time, ’couwse!"

"Uh-huh..." Pouting visibly, the other vampire of the group bitterly asked Hickory, "Whenda we hafta go back?"

"You know your mommy said eight," replied Hickory sweetly, pulling Kelly back toward the group. "That’s when you gotta get back home."

"Awww..." With a definite whine to her voice, the baby girl replied, "I wanna stay up all night!"

"Yeah, but..." Grinning, Hickory teased, "If you don’t get back in your coffin by eight, little baby vampires turn into dust!"

"Pft." Rolling her eyes, the baby replied, "Nuh-uh! I’m not weawwy a vampiuh, dummy!"

Gleaning the meaning from this conversation, Jenny put a hand to her chin and asked her boyfriend, "Uh... You dun ’membuh bein’ a big boy, do ya?"

"Wha? Dun’ be dumb." His arms crossing at that, Taylor went on to say, "Was nevuh a big boy. Wish I was dough."

Hickory saw fit to cut in there, as she noticed something about Josh and Jenny seemed off. As the two were the ones of the four toddlers closest to her, she poked her head forward a bit and asked, "You two seem to be acting kind of funny. A bit too scary for you?"

"Uh uh!"

Both replied that at once, but after a moment Jenny seemed to hit on an idea. It wasn’t much of one, but she was quick to ask, "S’just.... C’n we go’ta yer daddy’s museum thing? Pweash?"

"No way!" squeaked out Kelly with a frown. "I wansa get candy! Not walk ’wound in a pwace where I can’t touch anyt’ing!"

"Well, actually my dad makes the place into a haunted house every Halloween," replied Hickory with a smile. As that smile grew wider, she explained, "Heheh... Of course.... It’s a little too scary for babies."

"Is not!" Reacting at once, Taylor replied, "I’m nota scawduh anyt’ing! ’Speshully not some old museum!"

"Yeah!" Nodding at once, Josh hopefully asked, "You c’n get us in, can’tcha?"

"Well..." Hickory trailed off for a second, eyes turning down to where all four babies had stopped in front of her. While Kelly still didn’t look too happy about things, Taylor looked insistent and both Josh and Jenny appeared to be silently pleading with her.

"Well.... Okay, I guess a quick stop in couldn’t hurt."

"Yay!"

Jenny was the one to give that shout, and it made Hickory grin a little bit. Quickly, she asked, "Heh. I told you babies the museum’s about Old Hickory, right? You know who he is?"

"Uh-huh!" Explained Josh hurriedly, taking Hickory’s hand as she walked them to the museum, "He wassa old monstuh who took ages, wight?"

"No, that’s not the way I heard it," replied Hickory with a smile. "My dad always said he was a sweet old man who worked hard to get rich, then because he was so old by that point, made a trade to learn to change ages."

"Wight!" Looking a tad afraid herself, Jenny added, "He made a deal wif’ da devil, yeah?"

"No, my dad always said it was a Faerie or a pixie or something like that.

Well, no sense arguing over details. There were probably different versions of the story anyway, and this wasn’t the time for semantics.

Instead, Josh took the cue to ask, "Wouldja daddy know howta find ’im?"

"Heh. This is just about hurrying to grow up, isn’t it?" With a grin still on her face as the group walked, Hickory explained, "Heh. Might depend on how well-behaved you are - my dad says people only notice when Old Hickory’s done something if they’ve been good. If they’ve been bad they don’t remember a thing, so he likes to go after people who won’t know it afterward."

"So onwy people who’re bad dunno if Old Hickawy does stuffs ta ya?" questioned Josh, giving a sideways glance to Kelly.

"That’s right!" Patting the baby on the head, the tween explained further, "My dad used to say that being bad makes you blind to the important things or something."

"Huh...." As they continued walking along, Jenny gave another meaningful look to Josh before stepping closer to her diapered vampire boyfriend. Adjusting her wig, she asked as casually as she could, "Uh... Somefin’ ya dun wanna tells me?"

"Wha?" His head turning for a second to the girl, Taylor stared at her for a moment before casually shaking his head and answering, "Uh uh."

"Hm."

Jenny was plenty suspicious there, but while Josh opened his mouth to ask Kelly the same thing he stopped before saying anything.

Gears turning after a few moments, Josh turned to the mad scientist on hand and asked, "Uh, Jenny? Ya evuh notice how dey hang out wiff each othuh all da time? An’ they’s weawin’ matchin’ costumes?"

"Yeah, but...." Glancing at her boyfriend again, Jenny at once grabbed his hand, replying, "Dat’s... ’Dat’sa big t’ing ta say wiff’out anythin’ ta backs it up... I mean, Taywor’s so ni-"

"Ewww!" Pulling his hand away at once, the little vampire squealed out, "Dun’ hold my hand! You’re gonn’ get your cooties all ova me!"

"Hey!" Pouting at once, Jenny hotly replied, "I dun gots cooties!"

"Do so!" shot out Taylor, before dashing forward to walk between Hickory and Kelly.

As Jenny was left there, tugging at the black rubber gloves that were part of her costume, she finally turned to the diapered zombie and replied, "’Snot twue."

"Jus’...." Josh seemed reluctant to admit it himself, but after a second of looking about in confusion eh trailed off and pointed over toward the designated babysitter and the two infants on the opposite side of her.

Hickory didn’t seem to notice what was going on; instead, she was looking down at the other two and asking, "Aw, isn’t that cute?"

A craning of what little he had of a neck showed to Josh that Kelly and Taylor were clearly holding hands themselves.

"I..."

Jenny stopped walking and soon enough, the other four members of the little group followed suit, about half a block away from the museum. As the eldest member in particular turned to stare at the little mad scientist, she found she had tears starting to grow in her eyes.

"Jenny?" Bending down worriedly, Hickory asked, "Are you okay? Do you need a change or someth-"

"YOU JERKWAD!"

That scream was the only warning Taylor got before the mad scientist charged him, making a weak tackle against him that left both babies tumbling into the grass beside the sidewalk.

"EW!" Kicking furiously at this movement, Taylor squealed, "NOT FUNNY! GET OFF!"

Grabbing her boyfriend’s vampire collar and shaking it, Jenny screamed, "I was datin’ ya when you moved inta town an’ you go an’"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" The mad scientist squeaked as she was pulled off her boyfriend and into the air by a cross-looking Hickory, "What do you think you’re doing, young lady?"

"I..." Before Jenny could properly retaliate, she based, feeling a sensation between her legs. Maybe it was the rush at the vampire, but now her diaper felt very, very wet.

Hickory perhaps didn’t notice that, as she merely glared and scolded, "That’s bad! We don’t hit people, understand?"

And for Jenny’s part, it was hard telling if it was that, the issue of her boyfriend, the urine in her diaper, or some other factor, but she responded to the ambiguously brown-skinned girl by beginning to wail.

"Well... umm..." Apparently not prepared for this turn of events, Hickory replied, "Look, I know you’re upset, but hitting people is still bad. You can cry all you want, but nothing’s gonna-"

"I-I pee-peed!"

"Ohhhh...." Well, that explained it. Hickory glanced uncomfortably up to the museum and back at the baby scientist in her arms, and then to the infants standing around her. Pulling Jenny into a hug now, she offered, "Uh... How about we go up and see my dad? Can you be okay wearing it ’til we see him?"

"U-Uh huh...."

"Good, good." While Cecilia kept her voice comforting as she set to carrying the girl, as she motioned for the other babies to follow she began, "Now, tell Taylor you’re sorry, okay?"

"B-But he--"

"No buts."

As she stood there guiltily, feeling her soon-to-be-ex-if-he-wasn’t-already boyfriend staring at her waiting for an apology, Hickory had to fight the urge to tell him, "I’m sorry you’re such a huge jerk!" Once that impulse was properly wrestled with, she mumbled out a low, "I’m sawwy..."

"Hmph." Taking Kelly’s hand, which only made the wet baby all the angrier, Taylor remarked, "Dun sweat it, pee-pee pants!"

"Taylor, that’s not nice."

As the group headed toward the museum again, Jenny rose a gloved hand to her nose and gave a rather loud sniffle, which was diffused somewhat when Josh hugged her.

"F-Fanks...." Jenny was happy to return that, though only momentarily as she wanted to keep walking so as to get changed as soon as possible. As the two moved to catch up to the others, though, she asked, "You, um, doin’ ’kay?"

"Yeah..." Moving to take the girl’s hand consolingly, Josh said, "Ya know, when we gets big ’gain, if ya needs somefin’ jus’ teww me."

"’Kay...." As they waddled closer to the museum, Jenny gave a sad little giggle before joking, "Well, ’wight now I needsa diapie change, but dun ’fink you’d wansa do ’dat!"

When Josh made a grossed out face and shook his head, the group found themselves climbing the steps to the museum. As they reached the top, they were greeted at once by a random worker.

"Whoa, there..." Stepping forward, illuminated from the back by the light of the front gates, teh grown-up remarked, "You kids need to get in line like-"

"Mr. Bellville, it’s me!" Hickory waved, asking cheerily, "Hey, is it okay if we step inside?"

There was a sort of awkward silence from the man for a moment, before answering, "Um, yes, of course. Go on to the back room, I’ll let your father know it’s urgent."

"Uh, okay."

Hickory didn’t seem to understand that, while the babies were inclined to not question it. As such, she just said, "If you could, round up something to use for a diaper. One of these babies had a little accident."

"It was Jenny!" cried out Kelly loudly, whilst pointing at the little scientist to single her out.

As Jenny naturally tuned pink at that, and even grabbing her wig and pulling it down over her eyes, the aide instead just sighed, turned, and grumbled out, "Yes, of course."

"Hehee... C’mon!" Taking Jenny’s hand, Hickory led the kids in through the side door, revealing a minimally-lit chamber a few rooms away from a bustling chatter, "My dad outta be here soon!"

Well, that was certainly a relief for Josh and Jenny. Granted, the female part of that equation had plenty more of her attention to devote to that.

As they entered the room, though, Taylor saw fit to complain, "I’m bored! Wha’ ’bout dat haunted house fingie?"

"Oh, well..." Crouching down to speak to the baby, Hickory explained, "Heh... I think if we’re gonna go on it, Jenny’s gonna wanna get her diaper changed first."

"’Snot huwtin’ her!" protested Taylor in a whiney voice. "She’s jus’ wet! Pwob’wy get wet ’gain when she sees aww da scawy stuff anyway!"

"Hey!" Glaring now, Jenny protested, "Onwy weason wen’ pee-pee in da first place was ’cause ya made me mad!"

"Hmph." Crossing his arms as best he could manage, Taylor counted that by saying, "S’okay, Kelwy neater anyways."

Jenny responded to taht with a "Hmph!" of her own, turning away from the rest of the group to stop off and be by herself.

"Awww..." Of course, before she could get very far, she found herself picked up and cradled in the lap of Hickory, Josh sitting just beside her, "Don’t get all grumpy. You don’t wanna be grumpy on Halloween, do ya?"

"Nnn..." Pouting as she squirmed around in the big girl’s arms, Jenny relented with a weak, "Guess not..."

In the midst of all of this, the group barely took notice of the fact that the door cracked open a moment. A second later, though, they all turned when they heard a friendly-sounding male voice ask, "Hickory?"

"Oh, hi dad!"

As the girl happily turned her head to the door, the man stepped into the room more fully. He looked in late 30’s or early 40’s at the most, and smiled as he said, "I can take over for a minute. While I’m busy can you go take over at the haunted house for me?"

"Ooo, sure!" Before she dashed out though, the little girl tugged on her father’s jacket to hiss out, "Oh, Jenny, the one who’s a mad-scientist? She had a bit of an accident..."

"Gotcha.." Ruffling his daughter’s hair, the adult replied, "I can take care of it. Go have a ball."

"Thanks, Dad!"

As the little girl dashed out in a hurry, the adult turned to the babies and asked, "So who knows what happened?"

"Whatcha tawkin’ ’bout?" Kelly was the first to speak up there, in order to protest, "Dis is bowin’! Wansa get mowe candy!"

"Yeah!"

After Taylor helpfully piped in with that, Josh toddled up to point at Jenny while squeaking out, "Uh, duh two’a us aren’t s’posedta be babies if that what ya mean."

"Oh, I see...." Getting down on one knee, the adult asked to closer pair of children, "Well, you’re probably very confused, but I can tell you-"

"You’re Owd Hickawwy, ain’tcha!" squeaked out Josh, pointing at once to the grown-up. "Wike... Da weal one, fwom da stawwy!"

"Well, my name wasn’t really Old Hickory," replied the adult bluntly, a coy smile on his face as the patted the boy on the head, "But pretty much. Was it that obvious?"

"We kinda stawted ta figuwe when Hickowy stawted getting bigguh."

"I imagine." With a sigh, the man explained, "Every so often she does this without realizing it. Usually afterward I try to go around town and fix what problems she causes that really need fixing. Don’t know if the situation would be better or worse if she knew the truth, though."

"She doesn’t know?" remarked Josh, stunned. "I ’fawght she was jus’ bein’ mean!"

"No, she’s got no idea." Glancing over his shoulder at the closed door, he added, "Very nice, but given what kids are normally like, I was thinking about keeping it from her until she turned seventeen."

"Hm." Pouting at this information, Jenny slurred out, "Well, ’dat’s still pwetty ewwesponsuh... Iwwuhspooso... Iweew..."

"Irresponsible."

"In either case..." Arms crossing over his chest, the man explained, "I suppose I should get the two of you changed back."

"Wait, wha’ ’bout dem?" With a point at Taylor and Kelly, who had by now gotten bored and started playing patty cake with each other, Josh asked, "Ain’tcha gonna tuwn dem back too?"

"I could if you really want your friends back. As it stands if they’re unaware of it they’re basically the same people, just with more time to improve whatever less than moral character traits they have."

"Yeah, but...." Frowning now, Josh replied, "’Dey’s still peoples. Ya can’t jus’ weaff’ ’em wike ’dis!"

"Kid, I’ve been around much longer than you," replied the adult, "I’ve found that a lot of people who are terrible adults wind up bratty kids and wind up learning that their behavior isn’t exactly acceptable."

"But..." Jenny pointed to her friends again, "Won’t ’deir mommy an’ daddy know what’s happuned ta ’dem?"

The adult shrugged, "Likely not- these things have a way of working themselves out, believe it or not. Last year I regressed this mother and daughter on a whim and they wound up-"

"Hey!" Dashing over to whap his girlfriend on the back of the head, Taylor demanded, "Pee-pants, how much wonguh we gonn’ stays here?"

"Kay, fine." That was a plenty good motivator on its own, but the rest of the night’s discoveries didn’t help. With a sigh, Jenny explained, "Pwob’ly was done datin’ now neeways."

"Some discoveries were made, hm?"

The man gave a bit of a smirk, then turned to Josh and asked, "Okay, what about you, any objections?"

"Well, uh.... Kinda, but ya’d know bettuh an’ all..."

"Hey, it’s not the end of everything. You two could still hang out with them by babysitting them or something."

"Hehehe..." Giggling at that idea, Jenny admitted, "Dat’d be pwetty fun. Could do it togethuh..." She said that last bit while glancing sideways at Josh, but soon has to add, "Uh... what ’bout my diapie? If I change back, ’smy unduhwears gonn’ be wet?"

"Heh... Good question." Grinning, the man replied, "I guess you’ll want a change, then?"

"Uh, be nice.... Hehe, be, um, kinda nice if I didn’t memba dat aftuhwawd, dough."

"Can’t help with that, I’m afraid. A wet diaper, though, not a problem."

With a grin, the man further explained, "Every so often Hickory accidentally regresses herself too, so keep a few on hand."

"Am I gonn’ be wearin’ one unduh my mad scientist costume when I turns back?"

Before the adult could reply to that, he found his pant-leg being tugged on by the she-vampire, drawing his attention, "Misser? When c’n we weave an’ gets candy?"

"Well, I do keep a bowl of it on hand for the kids at the haunted house," replied the curator, getting to his feet, "I can get you some when you leave, if you behave yourselves..."

"We’ww be good!"

That came from Taylor, as he quickly joined Kelly’s side to announce that. With a smirk, the man questioned, "Promise?"

Both of them were quick to shout, "Pwomise!" in return.

"Uh-huh." Sounding skeptical, the adult stepped out through the side-door, remarking, "I’ll be right back" before making his exit.

"Hmph." Now left alone with his ex, Josh turned to glare at her before saying, bluntly, "Wet’s not see each udduh anymawe..."

"Huh?" Appearing insulted, the diaperd vampire replied, "Whass’ ’dat mean?"

"Means I dun wansa date ya no mawe," explained the zombie. "You’re mean an da age diff’wnece is ’bout ta gets huge!"

 

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