by: Ambrose | Complete Story | Last updated Feb 9, 2024
Chapter Description: A new day for Dave, but also a new chance to get back his teenhood? Waking up in his crib makes him doubt it. What can he do without being able to read, write or even remember how old he is supposed to be? Maybe a trip to the daycare is just the distraction he needs. Toys, games and a lot of other two-year-olds to have fun with!
Past the streets. Through the park. So many times he nearly lost control. So many times something seemed to catch him and this would mean … Finally the unpaved way leading to the cul-de-sac he lived in. Dave felt relieved wash over him. He would get home!
Suddenly Mrs. Pepper stepped in his way, towering over him and crossing her arms.
“What do you think you are doing, crossing my lawn with your tricycle?”
“Tricycle?” Dave stammered.
Indeed, as he looked at it, his bike had transformed into a tricycle.
He wanted to protest that this was for toddlers, only to realize that he fitted perfectly in it. Looking at his hands he noticed how tiny and soft they were … his whole body was! He was a toddler.
“Little brother is in trouble!”
Looking up, Dave discovered a little girl in a flower dress with pigtails, no older than five, sitting on the lawn behind Mrs. Pepper, grinning at him … It was Lily.
The shock of this realization woke him up with a throttled scream. Sitting up abruptly in his bed, he breathed heavily, as if he had raced the whole way in his dream for real.
Insane, Dave thought with closed eyes, trying to calm his breathing. If I have a dream about a computer program, why could it be the Matrix and me becoming Neo instead of a …
He never ended this thought, for as he opened his eyes, he noticed the bars in front of him. Indeed he was surrounded by them. Outside of them was the colorful nursery of a toddler without any trace of the room he remembered as his own, despite him knowing it used to be his. Inside them … inside the crib … his crib, the plush toy of Chase looked at him with an friendly, loyal smile, always ready to go on the biggest adventures with its little owner.
Me, Dave realized. But I’m no …
This was when he noticed the warmth spreading between his legs and slowly in the direction of his butt. Looking down he noticed the bulk under the pants of his pajama. Almost against his will, he touched it, being rewarded by a warm, soft, slightly squishy feeling. Not really wet though, the diaper was too thick for that. Yet, there was no doubt that he had wet himself in his sleep or as he had woken up from his nightmare … or was he still peeing?
“Look who is awake!”
Dave looked up, discovering his mother leaning over the crib and smiling at him.
“Mama!” More he couldn’t utter.
“Right,” she said, picking him up. “Time to get ready for the day.”
Too stunned to protest, Dave instinctively held on to his mother, as she carried him to the changing table. The squishy, warm feeling of the diaper felt so strange and was made even worse that it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Before the regressed teenager could get over this, he looked into the mirror over the changing table and saw himself, a two-year-old toddler in his night-time-pajamas, being held by his mother. It was then when the merciful fog of sleep lifted completely and he remembered all what had happened the day before in painful clarity.
“Oh, a bit grumpy?” Linda asked upon noticing the upset look in her son’s face. “Hush, everything is all right.”
With this she placed a pacifier into his mouth, which he couldn’t help but begin sucking.
Satisfied his mother laid him on the changing table and removed his pants. As a sign of resistance, Dave kicked his legs, but she just pressed his stomach with just enough force to keep him down and opened the tapes of his diaper. She then skillfully grabbed them by the ankles and held them with one hand, while using baby wipes to clean his private parts. At this point Dave stopped resisting, realizing there was no point of it and even more, why fighting getting clean? Thus in no time he found himself in a fresh, clean diaper.
“See,” Linda noticed, throwing her son’s used diaper into the diaper bin and the pulling up his pants, as she made him stand on the changing table. “All done and ready for the day!”
Dave didn’t believe this at all.
***
He was indeed not ready, for what followed was teeth brushing, cleaning of his face by with a washcloth, and a combing of his hair, done mostly by his mother. After this ordeal, he found himself sitting at the dinner table, strapped into a high chair while his mother prepared breakfast. It was a strange feeling one he – for good or ill – was much more aware of now than yesterday, when he had been deep in shock over what had happened to him. This sort of seating should have felt demeaning, but he found he felt very little shame.
Maybe he was still in shock, maybe it was the AI affecting his feelings, he couldn’t say, but part of him found comfort in it. His diaper served as an extra padding to the already soft form of the fabric he was sitting in and the height of the chair, though a bit intimidating when looking down, allowed him to have a much better view of the room than he would have elsewise. Still he marveled how big and strange everything seemed now. It looked like a whole new world to explore and have fun in.
Is this how real toddlers see the world, Dave wondered. Maybe it isn’t too …
His happy thoughts were interrupted, when Lily came from her room and took place at the table.
“Morning Davy!” She greeted him with a wide grin. “Did my little brother sleep well?”
Dave wouldn’t even have honored this with an answer if he could have formulated it properly.
“He was a bit grumpy,” his mother answered for him, as she carried two plates to the table. “Probably didn’t sleep well.”
“Poor baby!” Lily noticed and playfully tickled the bare soles of his feet.
In a pitiful attempt to defend himself, her brother kicked his little legs, causing her to retreat giggling.
“Stop torturing your poor little brother,” Linda said, though smiling upon this seemingly innocent play between her children. “You can play with your friends in Kindergarten.”
“Yes mommy,” Lily said obedient and also with a smile.
Dave wasn’t smiling. How could his sister enjoy going back to Kindergarten? He smiled even less, when plate was put on the tray of the high-chair. It was a separated plate for babies, containing toasted bread with peanut butter, scrambled eggs and strawberries. Seeing this made the regressed teenager realize how hungry he was, but he refrained from eating and instead starred at the pieces of toasted bread, trying to get the number of them in his head. If he somehow managed this, then maybe he had the ghost of a chance to order the AI to turn everything back to normal.
It are one piece more than both of my hands, Dave thought, scowling at it. Come on. One and one and one …
“Not hungry?” His mother asked, when she returned with a filled sippy cup, noticing he wasn’t eating. “Come on, one bite.”
She picked up one of the slices of bread and brought them near her son’s face. Dave turned his head away, but only managed to get some peanut butter on his cheek this way.
“Here comes the plane!”
Lily giggled upon this scene, eating her own breakfast without complaint.
“Don’t you want to be big like your sister?”
Offended, Dave opened his mouth to respond that he was big – bigger than Lily indeed – but this only allowed his mother to show a bit of the toast into his mouth. Reluctantly he bid, smearing his mouth with peanut butter and even having a piece of bread falling on his bib.
“Tasty, isn’t it?” Linda asked.
Dave had to admit it was. Still chewing, he looked at the remaining slices of bread on his place, finding with frustration, that he couldn’t even count them, even when they were now only as many as his hands. Giving up for now, he allowed his mother to feed him the slice she held, before picking up the rest alone … all by himself like a big kid.
***
His hunger got the better of him and in no time Dave’s plate was as clean as that of his sister.
“I bet you two can’t await seeing your friends in daycare and Kindergarten,” their mother commented as she put the dishes in the sink.
“Yeah!” Lily agreed enthusiastically, happy to see her new friends without glasses.
Dave just froze upon the realization what awaited him soon.
And soon came quickly closer, as in no time Linda had brought them upstairs, where she laid out a pink barbie dress for her daughter to wear, while dressing her son into a red shirt with Bob the Builder, blue shorts and red/yellow sandals, making him feel like a walking alarm signal.
“Look mommy,” Lily demanded, as she came jumping in. “All done!”
Indeed she had put on her clothes, but left one Velcro strap open.
“Big girl!” Linda replied with a smile.
She knelt down to close it, not noticing her son shooting daggers at his sister with his eyes. A moment later she carried him down the stairs, with Lily following carefully, the stairs clearly intimidating for her still new size. They entered the garage from inside their house as usual, but the car awaiting them left both children stunned. Instead the old red Ford, it was a new blue Toyota with two safety seat in the back.
“You made new car!” Dave accused his sister.
Lily gave him an innocent grin.
“No darling,” their mother noticed, opening the right back door. “Mommy bought it with the latest bonus.”
As she strapped him in the safety seat, Dave realized his had changed even more than he had previously thought. A new car wasn’t bad, but it had been part of their history as a family and … was there even anything left of the life he remembered? Of their life? Judging from the grin on Lily’s face as she was strapped into the safety seat beside him, she didn’t care at all.
“Ready for a fun ride,” their mother told them as she took place in the driver seat, put on her seat belt and started the motor.
Dave feared it would turn out to be a tunnel of horror.
***
It turned out to be neither a fun ride nor a tunnel of horrors for Dave, even when the safety seat made him think he sat in one of such cars … though he didn’t remember any in which you nearly lay in. Everything looked so big, strange and … new from his perspective. Being outside only enhanced the strangeness of his reduced size which had become even smaller since when he had arrived home yesterday. Or maybe it was because he now only could sit and watch instead actively trying to escape. Or it was easier to look at how the world had changed than pay attention to how much he had … Reluctantly he touched his shorts, feeling the soft, but thankfully dry thickness of his diaper under it.
“All safe and padded!”
As if he had just escaped a trance, Dave’s head snapped to his sister. The now four year old sat in her safety seat instead of nearly having to lie like he did and grinned down at him. This made him furious, as it reminded him of his own impotence and how much she enjoyed this all.
“You … fouw-ey …” Dave began, trying the worst word his mind could still muster, only to stop when he noticed something.
“No four-eyes!” His sister replied with a smile.
“Lily!” Their mother chided. “Don’t use thus a word. Especially not in front of your brother.”
“Sorry mommy,” Lily said, sounding guilty, but still giving Dave a grin.
He glared at her.
“Glasses are all gone!” She whispered to him. “Don’t you have a clever big sister?”
Dave would have jumped on her if he hadn’t been restrained, so instead he looked out of the window again, trying to somehow imagine it to be just a normal drive.
***
Dave didn’t get too much time to make himself believe it was just a normal day though, as some moments later their mother parked the car in front of a walled with an entrance door flanked by two columns appearing like oversized play blocks carrying signs which were probably letters and numbers. He couldn’t read them, neither the words standing over the door, but he knew they had arrived at his daycare, when his mother unstrapped him and picked him up from his safety seat. He was then led hand by hand to the entrance, while Lily waved him goodbye, smiling from glasses-free eye to eye.
As they stepped inside, Dave found himself in a brightly colored entrance room with a floor showing crayons, toys and balls, while the walls were decorated with cute cartoon animals. Behind the counter an elderly African American woman typed something as Dave could hear.
“Good morning Linda,” she greeted her, before bowing over the counter. “You, too, Davy.”
The regressed teenager didn’t know how to respond. The woman clearly knew him and his mother … in this reality, but he had no idea who she was. She had a name tag on her left breast, but it could have been written in an extraterrestrial language for all the good it did to him.
“Hello Cynthia,” his mother greeted her, before gently pressing her son’s hand. “Say hello Dave.”
“Huwo,” he said weakly.
“Uh oh, someone isn’t quite awake,” the woman called Cynthia commented with a smile.
“Not his fault,” Linda noticed. “We had some problem with the neighbor yesterday and …” She shook her head. “Best not to talk about it.”
“Right,” Cynthia said, coming from behind the corner and offering her hand to Dave. “Why don’t you come with me and we let all these nasty neighbors behind for a round of fun? Doesn’t this sound great?”
She sounded nice, but was so big and strange for Dave, promising fun which he knew would be even stranger … instinctively he pressed his mother’s hand tighter.
“It is all okay,” Linda reassured him. “I will pick you up after your nap as always.”
Reluctantly Dave let go. He didn’t want to appear scared in front of this lady or even his mother, even when he felt this way. He didn’t want to appear more a baby than he already did. Just as reluctantly as he had let go the hand of his mother, he took the hand of the daycare worker who seemed to know him well enough.
“See? Everything is fine!” the woman told him, before turning to Linda. “I will see Carol has an eye on him.”
Linda nodded with a smile, waving at Dave, as he was led deeper to a glass door, having the life-sized picture of a tree on it, surrounded by colorful, live sized teddy bears who smiled who seemed to beckon him to enter their enchanted forest. The door was locked with an card lock Cynthia used her id-card for, before giving in a code one pad lock. There was a click as the door opened and Dave was led deeper in. As it fell into lock behind him, he turned around despite not wanting to give in, trying to see his mother one more time, but she was already at the door, on her way to the car where his sister was waiting.
“You mommy will be back soon,” Cynthia promised, having noticed his look. “You will hardly notice it. Such a big boy like you can have a lot of fun alone.”
Dave hated this sound reserved for small children, even more as he felt the front of his diaper growing warmer as they were walking. He was quickly losing the little bit of control he had left …
“Me big!” He tried. “I rode my bike! Through the park and … and …”
„You rode your tricycle again?” The woman asked with a mild smile. “I bet the other children will love to hear the newest story of our favorite biker.”
What does this mean?, Dave wondered. Do I drive my tricycle here as often as my bicycle?
Before he could think about this more, he was lead into a large room, filled with all sort of toys, furniture in his size, plush toys and more. Before he could register it all, a woman with long blond hair approached them. According to what Cynthia and his mother had talked about, it was Carol.
“Good morning Dave,” she greeted him, kneeling down to be on eye level to him “I was already missing you.”
The regressed teenager didn’t know how to respond, somehow these deep blue eyes seems to look just right through him. He suddenly felt giddy, like he had to wobble on his feet.
“Hi,” he managed to stumble.
“Dave had a hard day yesterday,” Cynthia explained. “Why don’t you join your friends, while the boring grown-ups talk?”
Dave knew this meant they were going to talk about him and wanted him out of earshot, but this served him well, as all he wanted was to be alone. He carefully walked deeper into the room, so very filled with all sort of toys and equipment his size, nearly overwhelmed by the strangeness of it. All of it was clearly designed to relax toddlers, but it only made him even more wary. He passed a table where five toddlers around his age were playing with a large wooden bead maze, a puzzle and a toy car and finally let himself fall into a small bean sack in a corner.
This act of exhaustion made him aware of his diaper again. Warm, a bit malleable, maybe like putty. Had it been this way when he had been two for real? Had the diapers made advantages or was he wearing a more expensive brand since his mother clearly made more money and … Dave felt a fresh wave of warmth around his groin and shuddered. Thinking about it clearly had given his bladder all the wrong idea.
NO!, he screamed at himself, trying to will the flow to stop.
It finally did, though Dave didn’t know if it did so due to his bladder obeying him or there being nothing left … No, he was sure and this made small tears appear in his eyes.
I’m a 16!, he angrily wiped his tears away. I don’t belong here. I should be in High School with Mike.
The thought of his friend right now sitting in class with the rest made him cry a bit more. He just couldn’t control himself, which made him feel even worse. It made him feel smaller. Was he shrinking? How could he ever return to normal? How could he …
“Dave?”
He looked up to see Carol kneeling besides him, a slightly worried look on her face.
“Is everything all right?”
“Mh, mh,” he muttered in a tone which he hoped sounded brave, as he wiped away his tears. “Fine.”
She gave him an uplifting smile which should have looked false, but for the regressed teen looked like the most beautiful thing he had seen in a while. He felt something grow warm and this time it wasn’t his diaper but his stomach.
“Such a brave boy!” Carol noticed and this even sounded honest to Dave. “Do you need a diaper change?”
Normally he would have furiously denied it, but there was something to the tone of her voice … and was what the sense of denying it anyway?
“A little,” he noticed.
“Aw, you made a little tinkle?”
Dave winced by this baby-word, but nodded.
“Well, then up for a change!” She noticed. “Walk or carry?”
“Walk!” Dave answered instantly.
“Okey dokey!” She offered her hand. “Come.”
Reluctantly he took his, once again seeing his pudgy hand being swallowed by that of an adult. He wiggled out of the bean bag which had already formed a seat fitting to his shape and seemed reluctant to let him go. This wasn’t helped by the wet diaper again feeling like heavy putty as he put more weight on it. It was Carol’s hand which steadied him enough so he didn’t fall back, but got on his feet.
His caretaker didn’t let go, as they walked through the room. Well, she walked, while Dave toddled, as he was trying to get into as little skin contact with his diaper as possible. This should have made him feel even more like a dumb toddler, one needing to be led by an adult, but when he shyly looked up to her he felt different. He felt happy he was there with her.
“Up you go!”
Perplexed Dave looked up. They had stopped in front of a piece of furniture which had appeared like a plaything for him. There were wooden stairs leading up to it and Carol wanted him to climb them. It was only when he did, still propped by the woman and feeling his wet diaper every time he lifted his feet, that he saw it was a changing table complete with blue plastic mat, safety belt and rails to prevent toddlers or babies from rolling of. He froze, as he realized what would soon happen there.
“Come on,” Carol said, padding the changing pad. “Just a little bit more.”
Dave didn’t want to do it, but there was no turning back. He climbed the last stairs and reached the top of the changing table. The floor suddenly looked so far away, still he crawled into position and sat down, his diaper heavy against his butt.
“So very good!” Carol praised him, as she gently pressed him to lie down. “You are quite a big boy already Davy!”
Dave didn’t feel big, as she fixated him by closing the safety belt over his breast and especially not as she put off his sandals and pulled down his shorts. Still, he tried to find comfort in her words. Big was relative, wasn’t it? He could have ended up even younger, like as an one-year-old, unable to speak, or as half a year old, unable to even walk … he was much older than this. How much? His mind tried to fathom what on a level he knew was simple math, but failed, once again making him feel small.
Rip!
Carol undid the tapes of his diaper, pulled back the front, grabbed the ankles of his feet and lifted him slightly in the air. This was what his mother had done this morning, so why did it feel different? Dave looked into the caretaker’s face. She was concentrated on her task, as she cleaned him with cool wipes she took from a shelf far above him. In no time he was wearing a fresh diaper and got his shorts pulled over them.
“Nice sandals you have!” She praised as she put them on his feet.
Dave hated the red and orange colors of them, yet when she found them good, they couldn’t be as bad, could they?
“Will you show me how fast you can rush in them to your little friends?” The caretaker asked, as she lifted him to the floor.
“Yeth Miss Cawol!”
Grinning widely and suddenly feeling very smart, Dave rushed to the other toddlers.
***
In contrast to her brother, Lily didn’t even look back, when she nimbly walked, nearly hopped down the floors of her kindergarten, her pink puppy backpack light on her back. This was the adventure she had wanted … the sort of life she had wanted. The walls were decorated with cartoon characters as well as the crayon pictures, noodle pictures and other simple crafted art done by the children. For the former teenager it looked so much better than anything they had ever produced in art class in High School.
I can’t wait to make one for mommy!, Lily thought. And I can’t wait to play with my friends and …
This was when she stopped. She had no idea where the room of her group was! She looked around, but the woman at the door had already left, as had her mother and if she just asked someone … she would look strange for not knowing the room of her room. The regressed teenager bit her lip and cautiously tiptoed to the entrance of the room next to her. It was colorful, packed with toys, furniture just her size and more. Children her age played around the various corners and in the middle three of them, two girls and one boy, listened to a brunette woman in a blue dress, showing her pictures in a book.
“This is the wild lion,” she explained. “He rules the savannah and roars when he is angry. Roar!”
The children giggled, trying and failing to imitate the roar. In this moment Lily wanted nothing more than to join the fun around this nice woman, so she made a small step in.
“Lily,” the woman said with a slight smile, making her hope she had chosen right. “What are you doing here? Mrs. Sarah will already wait on you.”
Lily hid her disappointment that it wasn’t the right room and more importantly that this wasn’t her caretaker behind an earnest nod, before turning around and leaving.
Why couldn’t she just tell me which room it is?, she thought depressed.
The next one looked pretty much like the last as Lily stepped in. A major difference was that the children weren’t hanging around a caretaker, but had gathered in groups of two and three around the various tables. The caretaker, a woman with brown hair and glasses in the white shirt and jeans sat crossed legged on the playmat, seemingly reading some papers and drinking a coffee, just briefly looking up at Lily and smiling before turning back to them. Lily felt relieved that this distracted woman obviously wasn’t her caretaker Sarah and turned around, quickly reaching the door and ready to try the next room …
“Lily!”
Surprised she turned around, finding the caretaker looking at her with a scowl.
“Where are you going?”
Lily bid her lip.
“Toilet?”
Mrs. Sarah relaxed. “Okay, but please hurry and then join us. You are already a bit late.”
“But …”
“No buts Lily,” the woman sternly shut her off. “Now hurry and don’t forget to change into your slippers and put your backpack into your locker.
Lily nodded and stepped in the floor. She felt disappointment that this was her caretaker, a distracted woman, not engaging her children from the start like the other and obviously doing her paperwork when she should pay full attention to them. Even worse, her first words to her had been pretty much a reprimandation … what could she do if her mother insisted bringing Dave to his daycare first, leaving her to arrive late?
A bit down she looked around the many open lockers lined up next to the entrance. How was she supposed to find hers? Had they … This was when she noticed the photos pinned on them and quickly found the one showing her smiling into the camera not caring she missed a few teeth. As she put her backpack in it and took out the pink unicorn slippers she was supposed to wear, Lily decided to let her frustration over Mrs. Sarah go. This was supposed to be a new start and she couldn’t be worse than her teacher had been in high-school. Looking at the photo of herself smiling again, she promised herself to try to be the happiest girl in the whole pre-Kindergarten.
When she walked back in, Mrs. Sarah had already put her papers away and now gave her a slight smile, as she stepped onto the central mat.
“Now that all are gathered,” she told the whole room of four year olds, “I declare circle-time to begin. Please gather!”
As she joined the other children in sitting down Indian style on the soft rug, Lily indeed smiled just like on the photo.
***
Dave played alone with a toy car on one of the little tables. In truth it was pretending to play, using the time to formulate a plan to change his situation. Yet, every time another plan to become a teenager again appeared in his mind, it quickly turned to dust as he thought harder about it, dying of being too complicated, too risky or downright silly. It was just so difficult to come up with something sensible with this size and the lack of basic skills even a grade-schooler had. He couldn’t even say how old he wanted to be again, nor would he stand a chance in trying to force his sister to turn everything back to normal. He was lost, even more so than when he had been trying to get home with his bike.
Maybe I should try a car the next time, Dave thought, watching the red and white toy car as he moved it over the table. Drive around and find someone to help me against my mean sister …
He could nearly see himself behind the steering wheel of this car for real. Driving around and looking smart and cool and grown-up.
“Wrumm!” The regressed teenager made the sound a car without even noticing it. “Wrumm, wrumm!”
“Okay children,” Mrs. Carol voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Circle time.”
Disoriented Dave looked around, suddenly remembering where he was and what he was doing. He was annoyed beyond words and angrily pushed the toy car away, making it fall over a cliff … just that it wasn’t a cliff, just the table in the playroom of a daycare center … his daycare center where everyone but he remembered him being enrolled in since a year or more. Part of him wanted to rebel by just ignoring the call to gather, but already he noticed Mrs. Carol’s assistant Mrs. Sally going to the toddlers who needed more encouragement to let go of their toys and games.
Not wanting to be treated this way, especially not by a girl he thought was barely much older than he had been, Dave toddled to the soft play rug in which middle Mrs. Carol was waiting on the last stragglers. As he sat down his caretaker gave him a proud smile, as if he had done something very good. This made him lit up a bit, even though it ended quickly, as he suddenly felt the soft padding around his butt when sitting down. What was it that made it so easy for her to make him feel this way?
As Dave looked at other toddlers around him, he found the same feeling reflected in their innocent looking faces. Admiration? Was he really so much like them? Looking around partly open mouthed, if not even sucking his thumb or playing with his feet? Determined to look at least a bit more mature, Dave tried to sit Indian-style just like Mrs. Carol, but doing so made him feel the diaper under his shorts even more, even could even see the bulk under it expanding. Annoyed he gave up and instead looked up at the his caretaker who towered over them even when she sat with them.
“I’m so happy to see you all together here!” Mrs. Carol began with a smile. “Are you happy, too?”
Dave didn’t know how to respond. Some toddlers nodded, some looked away for the colorful toys of the playroom they had been so rudely been separated from. Their caretaker’s smile seemed even to widen and she seemed to look at him longer than at her other charges.
“I know the perfect song to start this morning!” She said and pressed the button of a music player, out of which came the beginning of a tune Dave failed to identify in the first moment.
If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands!
If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands!
Mrs. Carol’s melodic voice clearly rose over the tunes. She clapped her hands and swayed a bit, animating the children to join in. Most didn’t, not even her assistant, but she definitely caught the attention of all but one.
If you’re happy and you know it, and you really want to show it,
If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands!
In this verse even Dave joined in the clapping. It was silly, really. Who could hear him over this music clapping with these little hands? Still, there was something in this song which was catching and even more so in Mrs. Carol. He wouldn’t sing though, no way!
If you’re happy and you know it, stamp your feet!
Mrs. Carol stomped on the ground with her heels and most of the toddlers, including Dave, imitated her.
If you’re happy and you know it, stamp your feet!
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, stamp your feet!
The last time all toddlers joined in.
If you’re happy and you know it, shout hooray!
Mrs. Carol raised her hands into the air and shouted “Hooray!” with the children joining in, forming a happy chorus giving enthusiastic supports even if it came off wrong in time and tone. Dave tried to make his voice come out clear and loud, but it sounded just like that of the other toddlers.
If you’re happy and you know it, shout hooray!
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, shout hooray!
A boy with a Mickey Mouse shirt and a girl with a yellow dress both stood up and jumped as they screamed hooray.
If you’re happy and you know it, do all three!
If you’re happy and you know it, do all three!
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, do all three!
n the end most of the children had stood up, jumping and shouting. Dave found himself amongst them.
“This was great!” Mrs. Carol praised them. “Now settle down for more fun.”
She patted on the ground, a gesture Dave didn’t immediately understand, until the boy next to him let himself fall on the ground. Instinctively imitating him, he followed suit, landing on the soft carpet with his well-padded butt. He and the other boy exchanged a smile upon this and burst out in laughter. Dave looked to Mrs. Carol and found her smiling at him. Was she laughing at him? This suddenly hurt him and let him remember who he really was. Not one of these silly toddlers for sure. He promised himself to not forget this again.
“Time for a story,” Mrs. Carol declared and picked up the book she had placed besides herself. “Do you know which book this is?”
Dave scowled. It was a red book with a sleeping bear in the middle and various animals around him. He didn’t recognize it. Either it had been too long since he had read it as a real two-year-old, or it was a new one. The were signs in it … letters for sure, but he could no more decipher them than he could fly.
“Da Beaw smowes on!” The girl in the yellow dress said, playing with her long brown hair as she did so.
“Right Abby!” the caretaker praised her. “Bear Snores On. What a great book, isn’t it?”
The girl nodded with a shy smile.
This made Dave feel envious. He wanted to be praised! He wanted his caretaker to smile at him this way!
Already Mrs. Carol opened the picture book, showing them the illustration of a snowy forest with a large cave in which bear slept. This was enough to make Dave feel slightly colder. Words were written under it, none of the toddlers could make sense of. Luckily Mrs. Carol was there to read the story to them.
“In a cave in the woods,
in his deep, dark lair,
though the long, cold winter
sleeps a great brown bear.”
As the story went on, Dave’s eyes hung on Mrs. Carol’s face, just like these of every other toddler.
***
In Lily‘s Pre-Kindergarten group every child looked upon the object they had been handed by Mrs. Anna, Mrs. Sarah’s assistant. Amongst them were a crown, a stethoscope and a firefighter’s helmet. Lily got a chef’s hat she studied curiously as she had no idea what to do with it.
“Today, we play a round of show and tell,” Mrs. Sarah explained. “Look at these items and try to figure out what you know about this, who might use it, what profession … everything you can image!”
Every child looked at the item in its hand with total interests, their minds racing.
“Now,” their caretaker said after having given her charge a moment to reflect. “Who wants to start?”
“Me!” Lily said.
“Lily, we raise our hands here,” Mrs. Sarah noticed sternly. “You know this.”
The regressed teen hadn’t known and made a face as she lifted her hand.
“Eve, you raised your hand first,” the caretaker said, pointing at a blond girl with a green headband in her hair, holding the firefighter’s helmet. “Come to the center and tell us about it.”
The other girl smiled and stood up, in doing so giving Lily a smug look which made the regressed teenager scowl. She had had no idea children such young even could make such a face.
“This is a firefighter’s hat. Firefighters are helpers. They wear this to stay safe when they help people in fires. Daddy is a firefighter!”
“This is wonderful Eve! Firefighters are heroes and so is your father.” Mrs. Sarah praised her. “What else can you tell us?”
“They have big red trucks with loud sirens,” the little girl continued, “and they use water to put out the fire.”
“Exactly Eve!” Mrs. Sarah noticed. “Sit down please. You did very good.”
The girl went back to her place, beaming with pride and showing Lily a bit of her tongue, just little enough so no one else noticed it or thought it for the gesture it clearly what.
Why is she so mean to me?, Lily wondered. Have I …
“Lily?”
Surprised Lily looked to Mrs. Sarah, the look in the caretaker’s face making clear she hadn’t called her the first time.
“Do you want to show and tell now?”
Embarrassed the regressed teenager nodded, trying to ignore giggles she heard from her peers, standing up awkwardly, as her pink Barbie Dress suddenly seemed to be so much heavier and harder to move in than just minutes ago. As she had done so and finally stood in the middle of the circle she couldn’t but feel shy. All eyes were on her and upon standing up she had rumpled up the chef hat!
“I …” Lily bit her lip. She knew it, so why didn’t it come out right? “A chef is cooking.”
“Indeed,” Mrs. Sarah praised. “What is he cooking?”
Encouraged Lily smiled. “Cookies and pancakes and steaks and salat …”
“Oh, so much yummy food. You make me hungry!”
Lily giggled.
“What else can you tell us about chefs?”
“They work in the kitchen … and restaurants and … and …”
“Very well, Lily,” her caretaker stopped her. “Now sit down and let another show and tell.”
Lily nodded and sat back down on her place immediately. Another girl enthusiastically rose to tell something about the stethoscope she held firm in her tiny hands.
This was great!, Lily thought, her heart racing. Maybe this is the real fun of childhood, exploring so much new … maybe this is what I missed.
***
Linda wasn’t having a happy time in her office … which was right now the desk in her bedroom her computer stood in. Working there, a cup of coffee next to her, really should have relaxed her, but what came out of the link to her company’s server was enough to raise her blood-pressure.
“A weekly team meeting at 3 p.m.?” She looked at her supervisor on the monitor. “You know I have two little children I have to take care of.”
“You told me your daycare is allowing expanded stays,” Derry noticed in a conciliatory voice.
“As an exception not a rule,” she informed him. “Extending Dave’s daycare is easy enough, but I need him to have a stable schedule when I start potty training him in a few months. Lily’s group has firm policy, maybe I would have for her to change it and it is hard for her to find friends as it is.”
A moment of silence as her boss leaned back. In moments like this Linda understood his position all too well. Had he been in the room with her, she might be able to read him a bit better, see more of his body language and seriousness of this suggestion than through this little window.
“With you against it we have a split,” he noticed.
“Just let us schedule a video conference tomorrow,” she suggested. “We still might find something as a team.”
Another moment of silence, but finally Derry sighted.
“Okay Linda,” he relented. “But we will have these meetings one way or another.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “Tomorrow I might also have finished the matter in Berkley.”
“Wonderful,” he noticed, giving her a slight smile. “See you.”
With his window closed, leaving Linda to relax a bit in her stool. Derry was a good boss, but sometimes he tried too much to show his dominance … maybe an effect of not really seeing his team in person for such a long time. Yet, a weekly meeting, given the distance of some of their homes to the headquarter?
Linda shook her head and tried to concentrate back on the Berkley deal. She alt-tabbed through some windows, trying to get back to the one she had worked in, when she noticed something strange in the background menu. It was a program she didn’t know, but seemingly used a lot of resources.
“Warp-Reality-AI,” she read. “What is it?”
Just for a moment it sounded familiar, but as she tried to remember she found she couldn’t.
One of the new systems they mentioned they would test?, Linda wondered. No matter, better be save.
She clicked to shut it down, but a warning sign appeared.
Warning, shutting it down while still processing conflicting data might lead to unstable results.
Linda hesitated a moment and then ended it anyway. If this caused problems the IT would surely inform her. Determined to get some work done before she brought her children home, she opened the Berkley files and quickly had forgotten everything about the mysterious program.
***
Dave was beginning to no longer feel being surrounded by two-year-olds to be such a bad thing as he had feared. Sure, when he had arrived in the daycare they were just loud, noisy and not able to do anything, but the more time he spend with them he realized he could have fun with them, just like with the kids in high school. They played with balls for example, throwing them around and hunting them with remarkable speed in his eyes. They also made amazing races with him, using their toy-cars, as they drove it over some play rug, making funny sounds to show the speed their vehicles had in their mind. They also wrestled. It was nothing big, but still it was fun to have their bodies tumble over the soft ground. This let off a bit of the energy he had felt inside himself before and had had no idea how to deal with. No wonder toddlers were always running around.
Obviously to release even more steam, Mrs. Carol let her group out on the walled in garden, where amongst other toys, tricycles, a small climb-tower with slide and a sand pit awaited them. Dave chose the latter and with his knees in the soft sand and a blue plastic shovel in his hand, wondered what to do with it.
Finally he settled recreating his flight from school yesterday, just to remember himself that it had been real. Of course he couldn’t create it in too much detail, but a few quadrats and rectangles as buildings, a few waves as the river he fell in, lines as the ways and streets he had raced down, leading to the final quadrat which was his home. It was all in his head, but mumbled a bit, toned down by not being able to use words and numbers. Looking over at the quadrat which should represent his High School, he did his best to write the word, but was nearly sure it were just scribbles. That such a large journey had all been for naught depressed him.
“Hey Dave.”
The regressed teenager looked up to see Mrs. Carol stand over him with a slight smile.
“What are you doing?”
Dave looked back at the map, feeling a sudden wave of shyness.
“Drawing!”
“And what are you drawing?” She asked. “A big worm?”
“A map!” Dave corrected.
“A map to a treasure?”
The regressed teenager smiled at this silly suggestion.
“To home!”
Mrs. Carol gave him a warm smile.
“Don’t worry, your mommy will pick you up at 12:30 … just before naptime,” she explained. “Speaking of time. Time to go inside for some lunch. Ready?”
Dave nodded, noticing how hungry he really was. He dropped his shovel and walked past his caretaker to the inside, as she informed her other charges. Just as he entered the playroom through the open glass door, he was stopped by Mrs. Ally.
“Outside shoes out first,” Mrs. Carol young assistant told him.
Dave nodded, eager to proof his maturity, by opening the Velcro straps and slipping out of them, kicking them away.
“Probably best I can expect,” the assistant noticed with an exhausted sigh, as she kneeled down to pick up the shoes, when she suddenly sniffed. “Did you make a stinky?”
Dave looked perplexed. He hadn’t noticed, so he hadn’t … or?
Mrs. Ally pulled at the back of his shorts and then the back of his diaper to get a look.
“Definitely a big one,” she noticed, taking his hand. “Oh lucky me.”
Embarrassed, Dave let her lead him to the changing stable. There she picked him up and laid him on it soft plastic cover. As she pulled down his shorts, he instinctively kicked.
“Leave it,” Mrs. Ally said sternly, the stress clear in her voice. “I know you don’t have a crush on me as on Carol, but I’m doing my job here.”
This made the regressed teenager stop. Was she right? Did he have the toddler version of a crush on his caretaker? His face became red, as he realized the truth in it. Not wanting to look at Mrs. Ally, he instead looked around, until he found the clock.
11:07 a.m., Dave read. Maybe 1 ½ hours and mom will pick me up. It is … Hey, I can read the clock!
He looked around further in the room and found that he could read the occasional letter and number, as well as the names of the books lying around. He even could read the name on the diaper package Mrs. Carol opened.
“Huggies!”, he noticed, more to himself.
“Right,” the assistant caretaker said. “Just for you.”
Dave smiled, but for a reason she couldn’t even begin to guess. The world suddenly seemed smaller, easier to understand and maybe even handle.
“All done,” Mrs. Ally said, as she pulled the shorts back over the fresh diaper. “Off to the table with you.”
With this she put him down, allowing him to toddle to the tables where other toddlers already sat. Once it was made sure everyone had a clean diaper, Mrs. Carol and Mrs. Ally served the meal consisting of a snack box. Dave contained 10 sliced cherry tomatoes, 9 pieces of cheese, 7 crackers and 17 blueberries, as he happily and thoroughly counted. Eating with ravenous hunger, he thought about what had happened with the AI to give him is skills back, but found it futile. Instead he concentrated on the opportunities this opened to get his life back.
I have a real chance now, he thought. If only Lily doesn’t learn of this.
After dinner it was time for free play. Dave used this freedom to write down the numbers until ten and then some letters including his name, just to be sure he could and his newfound abilities weren’t just restrained to reading both.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Dave Johnson, age 16
The regressed teenager smiled seeing this, but his optimism turned to horror, as the sheet was suddenly picked up by Mrs. Carol. Her seeing he could do this would …
“What a beautiful picture!”, she noticed. “Are these flowers?”
Dave relaxed a bit. Whatever malfunction the A.I. had, obviously it still prevented anyone from interpreting something he did as anything else but what a real two-year-old would do.
“Yes,” he lied, automatically adding: “For mommy.”
“Such a little artist!”
Despite knowing this was far from the truth, given she interpreted this as just the painting of a toddler, Dave smiled. Out of relief or even because of the praise even he couldn’t say.
***
Lily was quite busy learning. Right now she again sat in a circle along with the other pre-kindergartners and watched Mrs. Sarah place five cut out paper banana on the rug.
“Look how many bananas the monkey threw off the three!” She exclaimed, laying her hand on each. “One, two, three, four five!”
Most four-year-olds, Lily first among them, repeated the numbers.
“Right!” Their caretaker praised them, continuing in a sing-sang.
“Five ba-na-nas lying on the ground,
Along came a mon-key and snapped one away.”
Lily didn’t join this, since she didn’t know the rhyme, but many of her new peers did, making it obvious in this reality this was regular.
“Sneaky monkey!” their caretaker noticed, earning some giggles from the children. “How many bananas are there now?”
“Four!” Lily shouted first, followed by Eve.
“Right!” Mrs. Sarah noticed, counting them. “One, two, three, four!”
“Five ba-na-nas lying on the ground,
Along came a mon-key and snapped one away.”
“How many have we now?”
“Thr …” Eve began.
“Three!” Lily interrupted her.
“Right Lily!”
Mrs. Sarah said, showing no sign she had noticed the interruption, but unknown to the regressed teen, the other little girl glared at her.
A little later the math hour continued, as they were adding and subtracting little sugar pieces in the shape of bananas on plastic sheets with the picture of the jungle. If they did right, they could eat one piece, which was more than enough to motivate their little minds.
“Okay, each come forward and take some more,” Mrs. Sarah said.
All children hurried to get to their feet. Just as Lily stood up though, someone stepped onto her plastic sheet, scattering the sugar-banana-pieces she had carefully put in line on the playrug.
“Hey!” she protested, looking up.
Eve looked down on her with a mean look on her face, showing her the tongue. For a moment the regressed teenager was too stunned to react, then she remembered the right way to deal with this.
“Mrs. Sarah!” She called.
Her caretaker took her attention away from another child she was giving pieces and briefly assessed the situation.
“Just clean it up Lily,” she told her.
“But …”
“Little girls who don’t obey don’t get bananas.”
Lily’s clenched her fist, while Eve, still standing above her, gave her an evil smirk before going to Mrs. Sarah.
Not wanting her first day at pre-kindergarten to be like this, once circle time had given way to free play, Lily decided to talk to the Eve. Awkwardly she approached the other little girl, who was just now playing with a baby doll, not sure how children this age made peace.
“Umhh, wanna play?”, she asked.
Eve nursed the baby doll with a plastic bottle. “No!”
“Why not?”
“The baby doesn’t like you!”
Lily looked the baby doll in the small baby carrier and for a moment believed it would frown on her.
“It does,” she protested.
“No!”
Sudden anger rushed through Lily. Just to prove her wrong, she grabbed a play rattle and let it swing in front of the doll’s face.
“I make it laugh,” she claimed.
“No!” Eve shouted, taking the doll and holding it close. “Leave it alone.”
Lily grabbed an arm of it, this toy belonged to all of them! Her past as big girl, the plan to befriend Eve, everything was suddenly forgotten. What mattered now was this doll!
“Give it!” Lily demanded
“NO!” Eve shouted back.
The struggle of the little girls was too much for the poor doll. The arm Lily was pulling dropped out and both girls fell on the butt. It wasn’t a deep fall and left the former teenager more stunned about what had happened than in any pain. Eve, in contrast started instantly to cry, causing every child in the room who hadn’t yet noticed their struggle to stop their own games and look at them … but not just them, for the caretakers also took notice.
“What is going on here?” Mrs. Sarah asked sternly.
Sitting on the ground, starring up at the adult who seemed suddenly even larger than before, Lily couldn’t utter a word.
Eve was less shy and looked at the adult with tearful eyes. “She hurt dolly!”
The caretaker took the crying girl in her arms and looked at the doll which was now missing an arm.
“Is that true?”, she asked looking at Lily.
Forcing herself to react, though it was like through molass, the regressed teenager shook her head.
“No!”
A little girl with flower dress pulled at Mrs. Sarah’s arm.
“I saw it,” she said. “She pulled the dolly.”
“I you want to play with it, you have to ask,” the caretaker told Lily.
“No,” Lily noticed. “I didn’t …”
Mrs. Sarah sighed, seemingly having enough of this troublesome child.
“Mrs. Anna?” She asked her assistant, having approached them. “Could you bring her to the time-out-stool?”
“Of course,” the other caretaker replied, kneeling down and helping Lily up. “Come, you have to think about what you did.”
“No!” the regressed teenager shouted. “It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t …”
Not listening to the pre-kindergartner anymore, Mrs. Anna picked her up and carried her to the corner, where the stool waited.
***
As his mother picked Dave up and put his into his safety seat in the back of her car, he tried to hide his optimism behind a sullen look. He knew he couldn’t afford to have his sister even suspect that he could read and write again if he wanted to have a chance of turning things back to normal. As he threw a short look at Lily, he noticed that he hadn’t needed to bother, as she was looking out of the window, sunken deep into her own safety seat. The frown on her face made him realized that her day in pre-kindergarten hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped. For a moment he felt a sense of satisfaction about this … maybe a petty feeling, but somehow fitting for his current age she was very much responsible for … but then a sudden realization hit him.
She already plans to change reality again!, he thought and shivered.
“Everything all right Dave?” His mother asked, having just taken place in the driver seat and noticing her son’s unhappy face.
“Yeth!”
A lie with a fake lisp to not make Lily suspicious.
“Well then,” Linda said. “I think once we are home …”
A knock at the driver’s window made her stop and look around. It was Mrs. Carol.
“I didn’t want to startle you,” the caretaker said as Linda opened the window. “Dave draw this picture with flowers for you and I think he forgot it while playing with his friends.”
With this she handed his mother the picture he had indeed drawn. Only the adults weren’t seeing it behind the false image the A.I. somehow made the people see. It weren’t flowers but letters, numbers and most important his name and true age. No one could this it though, except he and …
No!, Dave silently begged his mother as she still looked at the paper, with the seats preventing him and Lily from seeing it. Don’t show it to us! Don’t show it to Lily! No, please …
Linda obviously didn’t read her son’s mind and did just this.
“Look what a beautiful picture your brother made!” Their mother said and presented the picture to her daughter.
Dave saw his sister’s eyes growing wide and she read it.
“Beautiful flowers, aren’t they?”, Linda asked.
“Yes mommy,” Lily replied after a moment. “I will draw you a picture at home, too!”
She gave a wide, wicked smile and Dave suddenly noticed the front of his diaper growing warm.
***
The family of three arrived home in no time. Once they entered the house, Linda led her three children upstairs.
“Mommy will take a shower,” she explained to Lily, picking up Dave. “Play by yourself in your room until then.”
“Yes mommy!”, her daughter promised.
She lies!, Dave wanted to shout, as he was carried into his own room, noticing his sister smiling at him from behind his mother’s back. She will creep in your room and use the A.I. on the computer to make everything worse!
He didn’t for he knew his mother wouldn’t believe him, the A.I. would almost guaranteed make her not even understand him.
“Someone used his dipee,” Linda noticed, feeling his groin. “Number one or two? Well, we will see.”
With this she placed him on the changing table, removing his shorts.
This is my world now, Dave thought depressed, as he looked around in his nursery, knowing his chances to become his true age again were practically zero now. Daycare, diaper change and … this isn’t fair!
“Just a little tinkle,” his mother commented, as she lifted his butt and threw the used diaper away, having cleaned her son’s groin. “No big deal.”
The regressed teenager realized that indeed it no longer felt like a big deal. Even the smell of the baby powder she was now powdering his butt with was something he slowly grew used to. How long until he enjoyed all this? Until using the toilet would feel like a strange idea?
“All done,” Linda said, picking him up from the changing table and placing him into his crib. “Wait here while mommy showers.”
With this she left Dave sitting there, guarded by the Paw Patrol Puppies which decorated the crib. Dave just knew his sister was listening in her room for the shower to start to creep into their mother’s bedroom, start the computer, activate the A.I. and … He didn’t want to think about it. Instead he looked around through the rails, at the tapestry with colorful animals, the stuffed animals, picture books, toys, the changing table …
My room … my nursery, he thought. I could turn it back how it was when I’m 16 again the normal way … if I still remember … if Lily doesn’t delete my memories … or just doesn’t let me grow up …
This was depressing enough that he suddenly found his right thumb resting in his mouth. No longer seeing any point in it rejecting it, he let it there and began to suck, feeling oddly better. Just a toddler sitting in his crib with a shirt and a diaper, waiting for his sister … his big sister to do whatever she liked.
Suddenly his mother walked back in. She was stark naked, presenting a body years younger than she had just a day ago, something she didn’t bother about as didn’t Dave right now. What did catch his interest was what she carried with her.
A tablet!
“Remember our deal sweety,” she told him, placing it in front of him in his crib. “You can play with it while mommy showers if you stay a silent good boy.”
Dave barely registered it, instead he starred at the YouTube video showing an episode of Paw Patrol.
“Seems allright,” his mother commented. “Mouth up!”
Instinctively Dave obeyed and found her gently removing his thumb and instead placing something softer into it. He had to direct his attention away from the tablet and touch his face to realize she had placed a pacifier in his mouth. Surprised he looked up.
“A good adventure with your little friends,” Linda said. “I will be back soon.”
Dave watched her leave his room and instantly pressed the video away, not even bothering taking out the pacifier. He had once linked this tablet with his mother’s computer over a router. If it was still connected in this reality … if she still left the computer always on …
Child-security activated. Please enter password!
The regressed teen felt like crying in frustration, only for him to force himself to calm down, without realizing he was helped by the pacifier he had begun to suck. His mother wasn’t great with passwords. She mostly used a combination of grandmother’s name or birthday, something Dave always found ridiculously unsafe, but which dramatically limited the password she might have chosen.
Please don’t have Lily changed your mind too much!, Dave begged as he entered the first version, sucking his pacifier even more intensely. I will never make fun of it again!
Through the open door of his nursery he could hear the sound of a shower getting started.
***
As she listened to her mother’s footsteps, Lily played with a doll, the same way she would have played with the doll in pre-kindergarten together with Eve, if the other girl had let her. Even thinking back at this episode and the felt eternity on the time-out-chair which had followed made her want to cry. Yet, she kept her tears back, knowing it would all be right soon. It would be as if this never had had happened.
I will send Eve to another class … to another pre-Kindergarten, she planned. Mrs. Sarah and Mrs. Anna, too. I deserve better caretakers! The new ones will listen to me and believe me. The children will all be my friends.
The regressed teenager listened, suddenly aware of the sounds of running water. Enthusiastically she jumped up, but controlled herself to tiptoe, as she crept into her mother’s bedroom, her little feet silent as that of mice. The computer awaited her and with it the chances of getting her life right this time.
Dave’s life, too, she thought. I will take away all his big boy thoughts. He will be happier this way. No more planning to return things to how they were … maybe I will turn him one-year-old, too, or half a year. Learning how to walk again will keep him busy.
Lily climbed onto the chair, determined to make the changes which finally would give her a life she could really be happy in. The monitor was showing the screensaver, so she just pushed the mouse around and, entered the password 04061967 … found the connection to the server at her mother’s work still active. Opening it, she found WARP REALITY AI already running. Feeling her heart stopping she read the latest command to the text AI.
Undo all mental changes in Linda Johnson due to WARP REALITY AI and make her realize what her daughter did.
100 %! Change completed.
“No!” Lily breathed out.
She had no idea how her brother had done this, but it didn’t matter. She had to undo it.
Make her forget it ag …
Before she could finish the order, strong hands grabbed her small body and pulled her away from the keyboard, the A.I. and her hopes. Looking over her shoulder the regressed teenager saw her mother, naked and still wet standing behind her.
“Enough of this!” Linda’s voice as was firm as her eyes. “It is over.”
Lily wriggled like mad in her mother’s grip, desperately fighting with all the strength a four-year-old possessed.
“No! Just a few changes,” she begged, hot tears running down her cheeks. “Just a few more changes mommy.”
As a response Linda, used her leg to shut off the computer’s power, making its monitor turn black.
“NOOOO!” Lily’s shrill scream echoed through the house, even as her mother took her into a warm embrace.
***
Mike stopped his bike in front of the Johnson’s house. He didn’t have to wait long until Dave pushed his own bike out of the garage. Once again a teenager and wearing his favorite Green Day hoodie, his friend gave him the biggest smile, obviously never having been happier to have to go to school.
“Are you sure you don’t need training wheels?” He asked.
“Fuck you!” Dave replied with an even bigger smile. “Best put on a mask or you will taste the cloud of dust I will leave behind.”
Mike laughed and wanted to reply, when the sound of a starting engine stopped him. A second later a new blue Toyota rolled out of the garage.
“Hello Mike,” Linda greeted him. “I hope you two will have fun at school.”
The teenager smiled at her. He would never admit it to Mike, but with barely thirty his friend’s mother looked great.
“Well, we will throw a few balls,” he said. “Looks like it will be a good day for this.”
“This for sure,” she agreed. “Goodbye. Say Goodbye Lily!”
“Goodbye!” The little girl in the safety seat in the back said and waved.
The car left and Mike looked after it, as it headed to Canyon Creek Elementary School.
“Good your mother works from home and could help you,” he noticed. “But you could have convinced her to not order the A.I. to destroy itself before I had a bit of fun.”
“Mum was very strict in …” Dave hesitated just a heartbeat. “In restoring everything back to normal.”
"Not wanting to change any more diapers,” Mike teased.
His friend just gave him a dry smile, but stayed silent, the memories of the changing table being still too fresh.
“Insane.” Mike shook his head. “But seriously, were you never tempted to join your little sister at her first day of elementary school? Just to see it again?”
Dave looked after his mother’s car just vanishing behind a corner.
“No, it is her special day,” he noticed, “and as mom said, some things you can only do once.”
Actually twice, Dave wanted to add. But this is our little family secret.
“Come,” the teenager climbed on his bike. “If we come too late again Mrs. Steigbügel will make us want to be in daycare instead.”
Saying this, the image of Mrs. Carol smiling at him appeared before his in inner eye. She for sure already taking care of her daycare group he was no longer part of, preparing to begin the day with a happy song in circle time … just for a heartbeat he wondered if was going to the right place.
“You will never be faster than me on this tricycle,” Mike teased and used his friend’s moment of distraction for a head start.
Dave grinned, all his doubts evaporating as he pedaled after him.
The end
The Power of AI
by: Ambrose | Complete Story | Last updated Feb 9, 2024
Stories of Age/Time Transformation
