Reborn

Chapter 13
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Jack was sitting in his high chair, eating lunch with his fingers and eagerly anticipating his impending return to the hospital. Emma hadn’t mentioned the appointment all morning, but it was the only thing that he could think about. He nibbled at his food, but he didn’t feel hungry.

“Jack, are you looking forward to seeing Doctor Palmer today?” Emma inquired.

He looked up and saw her stood in the doorway, grinning mischievously.

“You can ride in the car with mommy, you’ll like that won’t you?” she asked.

Jack nodded his head half heartedly.

“What noise does a car make Jack?” Emma quizzed.

Jack looked down at his lunch and balled his hands into fists.

“Come on Jack, you know this, it goes vroom vroom.” Emma chirped.

Jack continued to stare at his food and hoped that she would get bored or change the topic.

“Do you want to go see Doctor Palmer? You’re being awfully quiet.” Emma remarked.

“I do.” Jack murmured.

Emma smirked as she looked down at him from across the room.

“Then tell mommy what noise a car makes,” she urged.

Jack squirmed uncomfortably, he realized that she wasn’t going to change the subject.

“Vroom vroom,” he mumbled.

“Say it louder, so mommy can hear you,” she said enthusiastically.

Jack hesitated momentarily.

“Vroom! Vroom!” he yelled.

“Good boy, you’re so clever.” Emma gushed.

He resumed eating and silently cursed her. Emma continued to watch him for a few minutes before returning to the kitchen.

After Jack had finished eating lunch Emma wiped his hands with a damp cloth and then took the plate away to be washed. When she returned from the kitchen she lifted Jack out of his high chair and helped him to put his shoes on.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the hospital,” she beamed.

He wanted to believe that the ordeal was over, but he didn’t trust her. When Emma opened the front door and motioned for him to step outside, he still thought that it might be a trick. But to his surprise she helped him into the car and then buckled him into the child seat. When they pulled out of the driveway, he started to feel more hopeful.

As they drove through the suburbs, he still wasn’t convinced that they were going to the hospital. He couldn’t see clearly out of the window, but he tried studying the passing rooftops of buildings so that he could identify familiar landmarks. When he saw a building that he recognized, he was reassured that they were going in the right direction.

“This could be our last hour together, I’m going to make it one to remember.” Emma announced.

“Huh?” Jack grunted.

“I have something to tell you,” she explained.

Jack froze and listened intently, he sensed that whatever she was about to tell him wasn’t good.

“Remember that puzzle I gave you yesterday? The one about the farmer crossing the river? You gave me the wrong answer,” she revealed.

Jack gulped. He had naively thought that she had been trying to help him by giving him a puzzle to do, but now he sensed that it had a more sinister purpose.

“But you said it was the right answer?” he replied.

“I didn’t want you to worry. I found it online, it’s a brain teaser for school kids. It took you ten minutes to give me the wrong answer,” she explained.

Jack started to panic, he had tied himself in knots trying to solve that puzzle. If what Emma had said was true, then he knew that he was in more trouble than he had realized.

“We need to get back to the hospital,” he urged, “you should’ve taken me sooner,” he added.

“It won’t be long now.” Emma replied.

He couldn’t see the time, but he guessed that they had been driving for about ten minutes. He caught a glimpse of a passing road sign that indicated they were heading East. A few minutes later he caught a glimpse of another road sign, this one seemed to indicate that they were driving West.

Jack decided to practice mental arithmetic to keep his mind sharp. He thought that if he started with something easy, he might be able to track the progress of his mental decline. He settled on practicing the seven times table and tried to block out the sound of nearby traffic.

Two times seven is fourteen, he thought.

He knew the answer instinctively, he didn’t even need to think about it. But what was three times seven? The answer didn’t come as easily this time, he knew that he should have it memorized, but when he tried to recall the answer his mind went blank.

He repeated the question to himself mentally. Three times seven. But the answer still eluded him. He closed his eyes and attempted to visualize the answer, in his minds eye he could see three number sevens lined up next to each other. Seven, seven, seven.

Is that the answer? He thought.

That didn’t sound right to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. He thought about it for a moment and concluded that the answer was too long. Then he thought about two sevens next to each other and he remembered that the number was called seventy seven. That number was shorter, but something about it still felt wrong.

Jack retraced his steps mentally and remembered that two times seven was fourteen, then he realized that he needed to add another seven on to fourteen. He thought of the number seven on the end of the number fourteen and briefly settled on an answer of one four seven. But something about that didn’t seem right either. Then Jack hit upon another idea, he could use his fingers to add seven to fourteen. Each finger would represent a number and once he had added seven fingers to the number fourteen, he would have arrived at the correct answer.

Jack opened his eyes and stretched out his hands in front of his face. He used his right hand to grab his left index finger. He remembered that fifteen came after fourteen and he decided that his index finger was the number fifteen. Next he grabbed his left middle finger and tried to remember the next number in the sequence. He was almost certain that it was sixteen.

The car came to a halt at an intersection and Emma craned her neck to check on Jack in the back seat. She could see him staring at his fingers intently and she guessed that he might be counting.

“I can see you,” she said in a sing song voice.

Jack tried to ignore her, he knew that if he lost his focus now he would have to start from the beginning again. He grasped his left ring finger and thought that the next number might be seventeen.

“What are you counting Jack? How many times you filled your diaper this week?” Emma sniggered.

Jack felt a flash of anger but he managed to compose himself, he knew that she was deliberately attempting to disrupt his chain of thought. He felt increasingly sure that the number seventeen came after the number sixteen, but then he had a sudden realization that he had forgotten how many numbers he had already added to fourteen. He quickly looked back to his index finger and his middle finger to retrace his steps, then he concluded that seventeen is three plus the number fourteen. Next he grasped onto his left little finger.

“Nine.” Emma said.

When Jack tried to think of the next number in the sequence, the number nine immediately popped into his mind. He knew that it was the wrong answer, but he had to retrace his steps to the number seventeen before he could begin counting again.

“Thirteen” Emma said.

Jack gritted his teeth and attempted to block out Emma’s interruptions. He knew that the next number wasn’t thirteen, but he thought that the correct number ended in a “teen”.

But Emma’s disturbances began to pick up pace and soon she was reeling off a whole list of numbers one after the other.

“Six. Twenty five. Forty two. Nineteen. Eighty eight. Twelve,” she continued.

Jack’s head began to spin. The numbers crashed over his mind like waves, overwhelming his ability to think clearly. In desperation he covered his ears with his hands, trying in vain to block out the noise. But then he remembered that he had been using his fingers to help him count how many numbers he had added to fourteen. His heart began to race. He tried to remember how many numbers were between fourteen and seventeen, but Emma’s constant interruptions made it impossible to think.

Jack was suddenly overcome by a rush of emotions that he could no longer contain. He let out a high pitched scream and kicked his legs in the air in frustration. Then his lip started to quiver and warm tears blurred his vision. He could no longer think coherently, he could only feel, he began to sob despondently.

“Jack, I’ve been thinking...I think that what’s happened to you has happened for a reason.” Emma said.

“But...it...was...an...accident.” Jack sobbed.

“No...an accident is tripping over your shoe laces or accidentally crashing your car, not being turned into a toddler. This was...a miracle.” Emma explained.

He couldn’t understand how she could describe it as a miracle, when he felt like it was a curse.

“A miracle? You’re crazy.” Jack yelled.

“You never wanted to have children with me, you were always too selfish, you couldn’t handle the responsibility,” she responded, “but now you are a child, you don’t have to worry about anyone else, this is what you wanted,” she added.

He knew that Emma had wanted children, but she had only ever brought up the subject fleetingly and she had never made it a condition of their relationship. He decided that she wasn’t being sincere and that it was merely an excuse for her own behavior. His sobbing started to subside and he tried to compose himself.

“This is about revenge, you’re just angry that I cheated on you.” Jack protested.

“It can be both,” she countered, “you get a new life free of responsibility and I get even with you, we both win,” she concluded.

Jack wiped the tears from his eyes and yawned, he felt tired.

“I like my old life,” he whimpered.

“It’s too late for that now Jack, your mind is slipping away, it’s already over.” Emma insisted.

Something about the tone of her voice sounded particularly disturbing to him. She was adamant that he was losing his mind, but instead of sounding sad, she sounded hopeful.

“Too late? But what about the medicine?” he asked, “the doctors can help me,” he insisted.

There was an uncomfortable silence and Jack waited nervously for her to reply.

“I have a confession to make,” she announced, “you haven’t been taking your medicine, I’ve been giving you vitamin pills,” she revealed.

Jack had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He felt drowsy again and it took a few seconds for the meaning of the words to become apparent. It had been days since he had been prescribed the medicine and he hadn’t taken a single dose. His worst fears had been confirmed, Emma wasn’t just trying to humiliate him, she was trying to destroy him.

“No...you can’t do this, please just take me back to the hospital,” he pleaded.

“It’s too late for that honey, if they found out what I did...” Emma replied.

He tried to think of something to say that might change her mind, but he was mentally exhausted.

“Just take me back, I won’t tell them, just...please...” he begged.

“We’re not going back to the hospital, we’re going home,” she announced.

His eyes darted around the car, looking desperately for a way to escape. He decided that if he could unbuckle himself and get out of his car seat then Emma would be forced to stop the car. He fumbled with the buckle and tried to break free, but his fingers weren’t strong enough. He felt fatigued and he was struggling to focus, he couldn’t keep up with her.

“No! No!” he yelled.

“But we can stay together this way,” she said, “I’m going to be your mommy and you’re going to be my baby,” she continued.

Jack screamed in desperation. He wanted to get away from her, but he had no way of escaping, he couldn’t even get out of the car seat without her help. He had no way to contact Doctor Palmer or anybody else, he felt like a prisoner. He wanted to swear at her, to call her every name that he could think of, but he was scared of antagonizing her.

He continued to whimper and let out the occasional sob. He closed his eyes and struggled to collect his thoughts. He felt mentally drained and before long he was fighting just to stay awake. He made a few half hearted attempts to regain his focus and fight off the drowsiness, but his thoughts slowly trailed off and he fell into a deep sleep.

When Jack woke up he realized that he was no longer in the car. The room was dark, but he could see the bars of his crib and he guessed that he must be at home. He couldn’t see any light shining through the curtains, so he assumed that he must have slept through the whole afternoon. The gravity of the situation was setting in and he realized that he needed to escape soon, before he lost his mind. The house was deathly silent so he suspected that Emma had gone to bed.

He contemplated how far he would be willing to go in order to escape. He thought about dragging a chair into the kitchen so that he could climb up to the drawer where the knives were kept. He wondered whether he would be able to stab Emma whilst she was asleep. He recoiled mentally at the idea, but he thought that what she was doing to him was almost as bad as killing him. Then he considered the possibility that she might be willing to kill him and that if she woke up he would have no way to defend himself. He quickly dismissed the plan as being too risky, besides he had no idea whether he would have the guts to actually go through with it.

Instead he decided to sneak out of his room and look for the door keys or for a phone that he could use. He climbed carefully out of his crib and down to the floor, before tiptoeing out of the room. The weight of a full diaper between his legs impeded his movement and made it difficult to move quietly, a soft rustling seemed to follow him no matter how cautiously he moved.

He searched the hallway and the kitchen, but there was no sign of the keys or a phone. He crept into the living room and searched diligently but he found no means of escape. The couch was positioned in front of windows and he thought that he might be able to climb up to them, but then he would have no way of opening them. He decided to try anyway on the off chance that Emma had left one of the windows unlocked.

He climbed up onto the couch, first onto the seat and then slowly onto the backrest until he was looking out of the window. He pressed his hands up against the window and balanced carefully on the backrest. He tried the window handle but it was locked, then he peered out of the window to see if he could spot anybody.

The street lights illuminated the road outside and it was eerily quiet. Suddenly someone walking a dog came into view on the opposite side of the street and Jack sensed an opportunity. He thought that if someone witnessed a child banging on the windows of a house then they would almost certainly call the police.

Jack balled his hands into fists and decided that it was his best opportunity to escape, he knew that he would only have seconds to alert the stranger before Emma woke up. He started to furiously pound on the window and he screamed at the top of his lungs. He hammered the window with what little strength he had in his arms, but the resulting sound wasn’t nearly as impressive as he had imagined it would be. His screams were by far louder than the banging, but the stranger didn’t even turn around to glance at him. Jack was dismayed to realize that the stranger hadn’t even heard him.

Seconds later Emma came crashing into the room and pulled him away from the window. He didn’t even see her coming, he just heard her thudding footsteps behind him and felt her arms wrapped around his body. Then he was bundled out of the living room and carried back to his bedroom as he continued to scream.

He writhed around in Emma’s arms and cried out in anguish as she lowered him into the crib. Then he flailed his arms around dramatically and screamed as he looked up at her.

Emma took a deep breath, swept her hair out of her eyes and then placed her hands on her hips.

“Jack, if you don’t stop screaming this very second then I’m going to lock you in that crib and keep you there until you learn to behave,” she warned.

Jack reduced the intensity of his screams and stopped intermittently whilst he thought about what she had said.

“What? You don’t think I’ll do it? I can buy locks, I could turn that thing into a cage,” she threatened.

He knew it was possible. She had already imprisoned him in his home and he realized that if she locked him in the crib his opportunities to escape would be even more restricted. His screams petered out into occasional whimpers.

“You were so happy when I cuddled you yesterday” she said, “think about how much you’ll enjoy being a baby,” she added.

Jack rolled over onto his back and then turned to face away from her. He stared at the wall through the bars in his crib and sobbed quietly.

“If you embrace it I’ll make it easy for you, it’ll be over before you know it and then we can be a happy family,” she continued.

He wasn’t ready to surrender, he still believed that he could escape.

“If you fight it then you’re going to make yourself suffer, you’ll spend every day worrying about something you can’t change,” she went on.

He stayed silent, he didn’t even want to dignify what she was saying with a response. But he knew that he wasn’t going to just give up.

“Just let go,” she urged, “you’ll be happier staying with me, I promise,” she added.