Grow Down

Chapter 3
Revenge is the Sweetest Syrup

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Chapter Description: When life give you lemons, throw a tantrum until life gives you junk food.

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C3

Joseph’s alarm sounded at its normal time, but he pounded its ’snooze’ button. The clock never sounded again.

When he woke up again, the clock read ten. Joseph awoke googlely-eyed like on a normal day, but when he saw the time, he received a newfound burst of energy. I’m late! He thought to himself. Joseph rushed out of bed and into his bathroom. Without looking up, he reached for his towel and turned on the water to wash his face and shave. The water started without a fuss, but when he went for the towel, it wasn’t there. What is going on? My towels are in the same place every morning! Joseph looked up to get a startling surprise.

“Oh shit!”

The towels towered above Joseph, he was nowhere near their height. Looking at the faucet, he realized he was lucky to reach that. Then, Joseph tried to look into the mirror. He couldn’t see into it. He stood as high as he could on his toes, and was aghast by what he saw. Joseph Barron, head of multi-million dollar companies wasn’t looking back at him. Instead, some scrawny, bright, blond child returned his stares of disbelief. Joseph was positive something was wrong. He looked at himself to see that he was indeed shorter, his night shirt draped on him like a dress that happily brisked his ankles. He looked into his bed to see his night pants were still lying there, as if they simply felt that they’d rather not move this morning. Everywhere he looked on his person, he found the same thing. Childhood. Without his consent, Joey began to cry.

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Helga heard someone crying when she woke up, so she ran throughout the house to find its source. At last, she came to her master’s room. The crying was coming from inside. Slowly, Helga opened the door.

Helga began working for the Barron family when she was 25 and had just moved to America. She was a servant in Germany, so she’d be a servant in America. But she never realized how terrible her assignment would be, to assist a clearly over-worked young man take care of a bratty teenager.

Helga thought of deja vu when she saw the child in her master’s open bathroom crying. She wasn’t sure, since she met her master when he was at the green age of 14, but she saw many similarities between both teen Joseph Barron, adult Joseph Barron, and this weeping child before her.

“Mr. Barron? Is that you?”

“Of course it is, you twit!” The child slammed the door shut. Regardless of how ridiculous that had sounded from a child, Helga knew right away that this child was her master.

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“Rob, Rob, vake up!” Helga’s voice was anxieous. Robbert groaned. Just what has the boss done now? Robbert begrudgingly reached for his suit, when Helga stopped him.

“No time for that, come quickly!” Robbert noted that Helga was also still in her nightgown. Whatever was wrong must have been big to upset her so much as to violate the dress code. Helga took her position as maid extremely seriously.

“Do you remember vhat the master looked as a child?” Helga asked as she soared down the hallway leading to Joseph’s chamber.

“Um, of course, why?”

“Then tell me vhat you think of this!” Helga opened Joseph’s bedroom. Aside from the fact Joseph’s pants were lying on the bed without a wearer, Robbert noted nothing odd. He told this to Helga.

“No, no! I need to show you, this!” Helga whipped open the bathroom door,

“I told you to go away!” a small child, no older then eight said to Helga as he clutched a towel to his tiny body. It was unmistakably Joseph Barron.

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Robbert could not believe his eyes. The child was an exact replica of Joseph Barron, but there was only one way to be truly sure.

“Joey?”

“Don’t call me that!” the child dropped his towel in a fit of rage. Besides seeing the child’s private parts, Robbert saw what he was looking for. Ever since babyhood, Joseph Barron bore a birthmark on his left leg. The brown patch of skin confirmed without a doubt that this child was Joseph Barron.

“Yup, its Joseph alright,”

“Hat makes you so sure?” Helga asked.

“He’s had that birthmark since I changed his diapers,”

“Robbert!” Joseph said in a typical ’whinny schoolboy’ voice.

“Ell then, I’ll go find some clothes he can wear. We must have something,”

“Not a thing,” Robbert said, “There’s nothing that could fit someone his age.

“Ell then, I have no other choice. I vans hoping it could come to this,” Helga pulled out a tape measurer and some paper.

“Hold him down,” Helga said in her only ever German-free statement.

“Wait, what are you doing, stop!”

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An hour later, “Joey” Barron was wearing newly bought clothing from Target. He was fuming that his servants had held him down to measure his shrunken body without his consent, and had gone as far to pick out the most childish of clothing.

“You’re sized in the young boys section, champ. Not much we could get you that didn’t look childish. Not many kids your age wear suits and ties after all,” Robbert chuckled. Joey; Joseph’s world was rapidly crumbling before his eyes. His oldest butler had reverted to calling him ’champ’ instead of boss, like he tried when Joey was ten.

I suppose he thinks its funny.

“Ell, no that this is settled, hat do eve do now? Mr. Barron had four meetings today.”

“We cancel them,” Robbert said.

“We can’t do that!” Joey said, “I wanna go in!”

“We’re going to have to if you’re gonna pout like that,” Robbert playfully tousled Joey’s hair. Joey hadn’t even realized how childish he must have sounded. He blushed at the though.

“Besides,” Helga said, “You have the bigger problems,” she flicked on the television.

Authorities have released that after an accident at Barron Co., Human Interests Labs, multiple children claiming to be adults have surfaced. DNA testing at the lab confirms that these children are whom they say they are, and authorities debate on whether or not these childish adults are protected under adult-only Constitutional rights, such as voting. If they are found unprotected, multiple lawsuits could surface from this. Here we have Theresa Sonia to investigate, Theresa?

Well Tom, I’m here live with one of the victims who wants to personally tell us exactly what happened to him . . . , Helga clicked the TV off.

“Lovely. They’ll mention its my fault and I’m ruined!”

“Ell, at least they’re one good thing,”

“Oh yeah, what could possibly be good about this?”

“You’ve finally be getting a day off!” Joseph stared, dumbfounded by this statement. Although he didn’t want to admit it, it probably was a good idea for Joseph to get a vacation. He had never had one since he started school.

“Ok,”

“He’ll start with your lunch! I’ve already given your employees here at the house the day off,”

“What! Who said you could do that?”

“Do really want ALL of your staff to know what happened?” Robbert pitched in. Joseph blushed some more.

“Ell, we be having a bit of a problem,” Helga said from the kitchen. Joseph hadn’t even noticed she was gone, “We’re out of the foods, today is the shopping day,”

“Joey and I will go into town and get it,” Robbert offered.

“What!”

“Splendid! You will be needing this list,” Helga handed Robbert the list. It was two pages long.

“Great, we’ll take my car,” Robbert said, he really didn’t want to drive the limousine. Joey tried to object to being a passenger in a “peasant” car, but Robbert only replied, “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb in your limo,”, silencing Joseph immediately.

When they reached the front gate of the Barron Estate, Joseph asked, “Where are we going?” Robbert was happy to hear that Joey had submitted to him.

“I’m an ACME member, pick an ACME to go to,” Joey didn’t shop, how would he know where to go?

“One, outside of the city?”

“Alright, there’s one in Bensalem, a half-hour away at best,”

“Thats fine,” Joseph stared out of the window at his reflection.

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