Fresh Start

Chapter 14
Penguin Playtime

Ryan sat on the carpeted floor of Penguin Cabin feeling more and more of an outsider there. The first day had been tough enough, waking to find both his bed neighbours reduced to naked morons. But at least there had only been a few that morning. Sure more had succumbed over the course of the day but they were still clearly a minority. He was at least able to write of their failures off as the result of some personal flaws they had, some weaknesses he didn’t possess.

On the second morning though he had woken up to find half a dozen more of his cabin-mates hopping and climbing around their beds unable to read or count or remember primary school. Now it was he who was in the minority. Now he felt more like he was in one of those zombie movies where bit by bit everyone succumbs until there is no one left, not even the hero.

It made everything harder, being surrounded by the simple-minded. The first day he endured the childish activities because he had people to talk to, people to share his sufferings with. Now, things were different. Ryan was but one link of a circle of kids seated in the middle of the play area. And he could tell just by looking around the circle that he was in trouble.

Today he was wearing blue and white pinstriped overalls, like a train engineer, over a Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt. They were a bit baggy on him because he had awoken a bit younger than expected. He estimated his age to be eight or nine, on the young end of the group. Most of the kids now appeared between eight and twelve and none had gone through puberty. Several others were dressed like him in overalls, a few in t-shirt and shorts. But two boys sitting opposite him in the circle and a blonde girl sitting right next to him were naked. Additionally a few others were wearing only their pull-ups or underoos.

Another boy dressed only in a pair of Batman underoos, though worn on his head so his already wild hair stuck through the leg holes, was skipping awkwardly around the outside if the circle tapping heads and singing, “Duck, duck, duck, duck…” as he went.

The poor kid who couldn’t even figure out how to wear underwear properly was named Owen. He had been a very bright, almost genius sixteen year old destined for top university scholarships. That was until this morning. After spending the whole first day sat in a corner recording everything he saw in a secret journal and shaking his head in disdain at all the humiliating behaviour he saw, Owen had woken up that morning, collected his journal to continue his scientific documentation of the process only to be tapped on the shoulder by Billy and asked if he was a nakie jaybird yet. And just like that Owen had felt all his brilliance, all his years of homework and essay writing slip right out his ears and in fact, he suddenly realised with absolute certainty that he was a very slow-witted little pre-schooler who didn’t like learning stuff at all.

That whole epiphany took two seconds and then Owen had dropped his journal on the floor, stuck his crayon in his mouth to chew on and stripped off his clothes so he could have fun being a nakie boy like his friend Billy.

Apparently his parents thought their little nerd was dooming himself to a boring, friendless life and he’d be much happier starting over as an average Joe. When they signed him up they’d shown Belton photos of Owen as a pre-schooler always in neat little outfits, sitting alone in the corner, reading books while the other children played. They were assured he’d be different this time, and Belton was right.

“Goothe!” Owen roared, smacking the head of a little ginger boy of about nine who wore only some dinosaur print underoos.

The boy leapt up and took of racing after Owen, though he had a tough time catching up as Owen was still physically about eleven and had much longer legs for running. As they raced around the circle, giggling the whole way Ryan looked the whole group over and considered how much they’d changed.

There were the two naked boys, Benny and Billy. They’d been the first boys to give in and seemed to be the furthest gone. Ryan was certain their parents had specifically requested they be made rambunctious, uninhibited little tykes. The ginger boy doing the chasing was Aaron. He’d been a quiet boy into classical music, playing the piano and flute. He still seemed to like music but now it was the drums, or at least he seemed to like running around banging his hands on windows and doors and toys, well anything that made a pleasing noise. The sole jaybird girl sitting next to Ryan was Maggie, an obsessive perfectionist and wallflower who now liked running around kissing all the boys and drawing all over the walls in wild crayon scribbles. Looking around Ryan realised that everyone had changed their personality in some way in addition to being made younger.

The day only went downhill from there. Ryan couldn’t enjoy any of the little kid activities because he had a new worry. What did his mum and dad want changed about his personality? Did they want him to be a goody-goody or a sportsman? The possibilities were endless and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not that he would have enjoyed the day much anyway.

After duck, duck, goose they went to breakfast and then to play in the sandpit. Billy and Benny still crept around bare bottomed before him. This wasn’t like a normal camp. There little boys who stripped down would be chased by counsellors and swiftly redressed. They’d be scolded for picking their noses or sucking their thumbs and encouraged to act like big boys and use the toilet. Here they were being trained to forget their understanding of social rules and taboos, to do whatever felt nice, whatever they found fun. A set of wet undies was praised and rewarded with cuddles, nose-pickers got smiles and nods. Gwen encouraged them to get messy, to put sand in their mouths, wrestle with each other and throw their toys around the room. When Ryan spilled some of his juice on his shirt at morning tea Gwen smiled broadly and said, “Oh my, aren’t you a messy little guy, and just as cute as a button!”

“My hand slipped,” Ryan had muttered back, blushing red.

“That’s okay buddy, little guys like you spill stuff all the time. Would you like to take your shirt off? It must be sticky.”

“No, I’m fine!” Ryan had snapped.

Gwen had just shrugged and moved on that time but Ryan didn’t know how long he could last with everyone around him giving in.