A Little Amusement

Chapter 2
Accidents Happen

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Chapter Description: Sara's forgetfulness and a secret from Lindsay's past lead to a slight problem with the plan.

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Sara didn’t take a picture of the parking sign this time. She and Lindsay sat in the Jetta for about three minutes, not saying a word. Finally, Lindsay broke the silence.

“So should we do this?”

“That’s up to you. But we went through all the trouble of buying the clothes.”

“How many times have you done this?”

“About a dozen.”

“On people?”

“On plants and animals.”

“But not people?”

“Just you at Wal-Mart a half hour ago.”

“Wait, you took away seven months of my life, and you didn’t know for sure that you could give them back?”

“I knew.”

“How?”

“I just did.”

“So how long have you been a witch that you’ve only done this spell twelve times?”

“Last year and this year.”

“Two years?”

“No, last year and this year. I can only do this on the days around Halloween. At least that was the case last year.”

“So you’re only a witch how many days out of the year?”

“Four last year. About the same this year so far.”

“And you can do other spells?”

“Nope. Only this one so far.”

“So what happens when you make me little?”

“For the animals, they just got younger. Or older sometimes, if that’s the way I wanted to go. And then I returned them to their normal age.”

“How do you know you returned them to normal? It’s not like they could tell you how old they felt.”

“I just know. How can I change the age of living things? I don’t know. But I know I can.”

Lindsay was silent for another two minutes. Finally she held out her hands. “Let’s just do this.”

Sara held both of Lindsay’s hands and concentrated. Lindsay felt her jeans become tight again. Then things seemed to move faster. Her clothes felt loose. It was funny to feel her bra slide away...or was it her who was sliding away from the bra? She definitely had lost some of her five feet, eight inches, but her blonde hair remained relative with her shrinking body, stopping between her shoulder blades. Her university sweatshirt now enveloped her. Sara let go of her hands.

“Time to get you re-dressed!”

“Is it over? I didn’t feel anything.”

“That’s good to know. I always wondered whether the subject felt anything, or if it was just like growing up in real time...you don’t even realize it’s happening.”

Sara removed Lindsay’s sweatshirt and black bra, and lifted her out of her jeans and underwear. “Candy corns?” She held the panties up for Lindsay to see, as if she didn’t know they were there.

“It’s Halloween, OK? Who says I can’t have a little fun with it?”

“’Little’ being the key word for you now....”

“Shut up and get me dressed!” Lindsay smiled.

Sara worked the tiny jeans up her legs and over her butt, securing the elastic waistband in place. She pulled the shirt over her head and helped her get her arms through. Next she slipped her feet into the shoes...no socks...and fastened the Velcro straps.

“You know, when you’re not busy being grown-up and mean to me, you’re kind of cute.”

Lindsay blushed. She was used to guys calling her cute...and she was definitely on to their game...but coming from Sara, it was a sincere compliment.

“Come on,” Sara said. “Time to see if our plan works.”

“?If?’ Are you saying there’s some reason it wouldn’t?”

“No. But pretend to be precious and innocent just in case.”

“Pretend?”

“You heard me.”

The walk across the parking lot took longer this time as Lindsay toddled in short steps. They stood in line for about 10 minutes before their turn at the window.

“One adult and one under five,” Sara said. The ticket seller nodded with every bit as much enthusiasm as the parking attendant and swiped Sara’s debit card, handing her one ticket back with the plastic rectangle. They waited in another line for security to check Sara’s purse...or at least jab at its contents with a stick for about three seconds...and a third line to actually enter the park.

“It worked!” Lindsay beamed.

“Shhh, you’re a little girl, remember. You need to act like one.”

“Well I won’t be one for long,” Lindsay said, tugging at Sara’s hand toward the bathroom.

They walked into the handicapped stall, a mother taking her child to the potty from the casual observer’s standpoint. Lindsay quickly pulled off the T-shirt and jeans, almost forgetting about the shoes, which she also hurriedly kicked off.

“Now, please,” the naked toddler said.

“Careful with those!” Sara said, grabbing the clothes off the floor and turning them right-side-out. We need to return them, remember?”

“Just change me back!” Lindsay held out her hands, which Sara grabbed.

If Lindsay had been cute as a toddler, she was beautiful as an adult. Her thighs weren’t quite firm enough for a modeling career...something she’d never even considered herself...and her hips were slightly too wide to be called “petite.” But otherwise she was completely proportional...some might have called her “perfect.” Perfect smile. Perfect breasts. Even her feet were somehow perfect.

Seeing her friend nude as an adult for the first time, these qualities did not escape the attention of Sara, herself slightly rounder. On Match.com, she may have described her body type as “A few extra pounds,” compared to Lindsay’s “Average”...maybe even “Thin.” The situation also did not allude Lindsay, whose hands quickly...and only somewhat successfully...tried to cover her most private areas.

“OK, clothes now, please,” she said.

“Oh... um, problem.”

“Problem? Sara, I’m standing naked in a bathroom stall at an amusement park. ?Problem’ isn’t exactly what I want to hear right now.”

“Your clothes are in the car.”

“What!”

“We didn’t bring them. I didn’t think of it.”

“Well, don’t you think you should have?”

“Did you?”

“No... but this was all your plan!”

“So what do you suggest we do?”

“Go get my clothes!”

“Well you obviously can’t walk across the parking lot naked.”

“I’ll stay here. You go, and you come back with my clothes.”

A knock interrupted their argument. “Janitorial,” a harsh woman’s voice said through the metal door. “This bathroom be closing in five minutes so we can clean up in here.”

“OK, new plan,” Sara said, grabbing Lindsay’s arm. Two minutes later, she was helping young Lindsay back into her Wal-Mart clothes.

“Fine, but you’re carrying me this time.”

“I’ll carry you when we get to the parking lot. Now come on, we’ve already missed half the night.”

Sara grabbed Lindsay’s hand and led her out of the bathroom, back toward the entry gates. The guard stamped Sara’s hand for re-entry and gamely pressed the stamp onto Lindsay’s too...though since her admission was free, she didn’t really need one. But what child doesn’t enjoy hand stamp, much less one that glows under blacklight?

“Carry me now?” Lindsay said? “We’re in the parking lot.”

“We’re in the entry concourse, but you’re going to keep whining until I pick you up, aren’t you?”

Lindsay nodded.

“Fine. But I hope you appreciate this because it’s not happening again!”

It wasn’t until Sara bent down to grab her young friend that she saw the odd shadowing. Was it shadowing? Wait, no.

“Step this way for a second,” Sara said. Lindsay complied as Sara kept her eye on the odd portion of darkened pavement where the little girl had stood.

“Lindsay? Did you just pee your pants?”

Lindsay looked down. “Sara! What did you make me do!”

“I didn’t make you do anything! Why did you wet yourself?”

“I didn’t even know I was doing it until you said something!”

“You’re four years old! You’re old enough to know better than that!”

“Wait, I thought I was five.”

“No, children under five are free, remember?”

“You could have just made me five! They wouldn’t have known the difference!”

“As long as we’re going to lie about your age, I wanted to be honest about it! I mean... well, you know what I mean.”

“Sara, I’m not potty trained yet!”

“What?”

“I wasn’t potty trained until I was... I wasn’t potty trained until I was five.”

“Everyone’s potty trained before they’re five!”

“I was a late bloomer, OK? And now you’ve turned me into a four-year-old and made me pee my pants!”

“Are you going to cry? You look like you want to.”

“No I’m not going to cry! I’m going to...oh crap!” Lindsay ran to a tree planted in the pavement and pulled down her wet pants.

“Lindsay! What are you doing!”

“You already made me pee my pants! I’m not going to let you make me poop them, too!”

“Do you need to poop?”

“I don’t know! I’m not potty trained! But I’m not taking any chances! I’m going to stay here until I do!”

“Lindsay, let’s just go back to the car, OK?”

“No, you bring the car here!”

“I can’t leave you alone, Lindsay. You’re four!”

“Then make me older.”

“How old? Five? Six? Will these clothes even fit you at those ages?”

“Well I’m not walking across the parking lot like this!”

“Lindsay, let’s get you to the car and get your clothes, and we’ll turn you back into a big girl.”

“No!”

“Fine.” Sara pulled up the little girl’s wet pants and lifted her off the ground. Lindsay screamed and tried to kick her.

“You’re the one who wanted to be carried,” Lindsay said.

“Put me down!”

“So you can walk to the car in your wet pants?”

“Fine. Wait, why shirt loose?”

“You’re too heavy as a 4-year-old. I took off another couple years. But only until we get back to the car.”

Lindsay quit fussing long enough to be placed in the car. Sara removed her clothes yet again and threw them in the back seat. “Well I guess we don’t have to worry about returning those pants.” Lindsay grew a little bigger. “There, now you’re five. Happy?”

“I will be in another seventeen years.”

“Well hold that thought until I get your twenty-two-year-old clothes out of the trunk.

Lindsay did hold that thought. And she was happy she could hold her urine again too, if necessary. Never in her life had she felt so helpless as when Sara told her she had wet her pants. Never, that is, until Sara returned from the trunk.

“It’s stuck.”

“What do you mean it’s stuck?”

“The trunk is stuck. It won’t open.”

“Well call Triple A or something because I want my clothes!”

“I don’t have Triple A. Look, let’s just go back to Wal-Mart. I’ll buy you new clothes.”

“So how do you plan to get to Wal-Mart with a five-year-old and no car seat?”

Sara thought for a moment and took off her own sweatshirt. She touched Lindsay’s arm, and her friend grew. “Put this on,” she said, handing her the shirt.

Lindsay pulled down the visor and checked her reflection. Um, not twenty-two.

“No, you’re twelve. You don’t need a booster seat now, and this will cover you up enough to get to Wal-Mart. When we get there, I’ll make you young again, put you back in your four-year-old clothes put my shirt back on and go in and buy you new clothes.”

Lindsay stared at her friend, now clad from the waist up in only a flesh-toned bra.

“Sounds complicated. And you’re going to drive all the way back to Wal-Mart in just your bra?”

“Unless you have a better suggestion. If we get pulled over, the cops won’t be able to arrest either of us for indecent exposure. Just...almost indecent exposure.”

Lindsay sulked as Sara backed her car out of its space and drove toward the parking lot exit gate yet again.

 

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