Who Wears the Pants - Part 8
by Jennifer Loraine
Rose put Bri-Bri down on the floor in front of the couch and said, "Why don't you sit on the couch and watch the baby for me while I go into the kitchen and make some popcorn for us? It won't take long, then we can watch a movie on TV before it's time to put the little one in his crib."
"Okay," David agreed.
Howard crawled around the carpet for a minute before stopping to look up at the naked young man. His long circumcised penis rested comfortably on the twin mounds of his scrotum that lay on the couch between his legs surrounded by a thick mat of curly dark pubic hair. Even when Howard had had his adult body, he hadn't been hung like that. The high school kid's equipment made Howard extremely jealous. Howard was twice the man the kid was even in his reduced state. The only thing this kid had over him was the size of his cock. If only he had retained the ability to speak, he could have wooed Rose the way she deserved. Howard wished he had met Rose before his transformation had happened. He could have shown her what a real man was like. A man didn't need a long dong to pleasure a woman; all that was really needed was the right touch and the right words and women would melt into a man's arms. The clumsy oaf in front of him had been blessed with enough to pleasure a Goddess and could barely manage a silly schoolgirl. She gave David orders as if she was his babysitter as well as his lover.
When Rose returned, she sat on the couch with David with the bowl of popcorn. The inviting aroma of the fresh-popped, buttered kernels made Howard drool copiously. He wished mightily that he could share the bowl of popcorn with his teenaged keepers, but his lack of teeth made that impossible. All he could do was crouch on his hands and knees before them with baby spit dripping from his chin while they watched TV and stuffed their faces. From time to time Rose would pause and smile down at little Bri-Bri who was staring up at her with an expression of intense interest on his fat baby face. He looked adorable; his mouth was open in infant awe while strings of saliva fell from his chin. If Rose hadn't known better, she would have sworn by the look on his face that he wanted some of their popcorn. That was impossible of course. Babies didn't eat buttered popcorn. Little Bri-Bri couldn't have possibly have ever tasted the popular snack. Nevertheless, whenever she looked at him she got the impression that he had an intense longing for something on the couch. She waved her greasy hand playfully towards him and went back to watching the movie with her boyfriend. Howard crawled over to their feet and stopped to look at the huge objects that dwarfed his own tiny appendages. From his height on the carpet, their legs seemed to be part of some enormous flesh-colored statuary erected by a forgotten civilization. They reminded Howard of photos of Egyptian statues of Ramses the Great he had seen in his youth. There was something majestic about the way that her perfectly proportioned legs towered over him and rose out of sight. He put his hand next to her foot and made a quick sight measurement; from heel-to-toe, her bare foot was three times the length of the distance between the ends of his fingers and the heel of his palm. If he grasped her big toe, it would have filled his tiny hand. Howard looked up at her crotch and saw the pink skin of her naked vulva displayed in innocent abandon to him. She didn't even seem to notice his open mouthed stare at her genitals. As an infant, his lusts were beneath notice. Howard looked at the giant clitoris and wondered how he would mount her if he could get her to sit still for his advances. The greater question was how he would be able to maintain an erection with his infantile genitalia. At best, his short little penis would only tickle her and make her laugh. Tears welled up in his eyes as he realized that adult sexuality was beyond him now. He had been relegated to the world of playpens and diapers. Nothing he could say or do would change that fact. Howard watched as David's hand strayed over to her clitoris and began gently stroking her. She shivered in repressed excitement and moved closer to him, snuggling against his shoulder. Howard dropped his eyes in frustration and saw the puddle of saliva that had pooled on the carpet underneath his chin. Suddenly, he was embarrassed by his uncontrolled drooling. He backed off rapidly from his position at their feet and quietly crept over to the other side of the living room. With luck, they might think one of their drinks had spilled while they were watching the movie. He sat down on the carpet and splayed his legs in front of him, fingering the thick padding of his diaper in regret at his loss of masculinity. When his bottom began to feel warm, he knew he had started to dribble in his diaper. There was nothing he could do about it, so he let it happen without crying. Rose would change his diaper soon enough when she discovered he was wet. In the meantime, he would let the teenagers have their fun without his interference. Without thinking, his hand gravitated to his mouth and inserted his thumb as he watched the two teenager's heavy petting. Rose's hand went to David's crotch and wormed its way beneath to find the region between his testicles and his anus. After a few minutes of diddling his sensitive skin, he was as erect as a flagpole. It wasn't long before Rose was sitting on David's lap with the movie muted and forgotten. Howard watched in awe as the two gyrated and bounced in a frenzy of sexual ecstasy. As if in response to the visual stimulation, Howard peed in his diaper again. Just as they climaxed with groans of pleasure, Howard felt his bowels move and fill his diaper again. Howard was so humiliated by his infant reflexes, that he began to cry. Loud howls of a distressed infant bounced from the sheetrock walls as the two teenagers sighed in satisfaction and melted into each other's arms without separating. Rose ignored his wails with a murmur of "In das mitndrinen yetz!" of Yiddish irritation and turned her attention back to her lover's chest to stroked it in appreciation for his attentions. Baby Bri-Bri could wait, she had more important things on her mind. By the semi-erect feel of David's penis, he wasn't quite finished yet. Rose dismounted and took David's hand to lead him down to the carpet. Once there, she made him kneel before her while she used her tongue to restore him to full manhood. Then she turned her back to him and crouched on her hands and knees, dropping her chest to the floor to allow him better entry from the rear. David got the message loud and clear. He grasped her hips in his hands and moaned as he entered her for a second time. Howard sniveled as he observed the young man pumping his babysitter for a full ten minutes before he came a third time and exploded in orgasm. Both David's and Rose's bodies quaked in sexual tetany for almost three minutes before the trembling stopped. Howard whimpered in an agony of loss and jealousy. "What is it with that kid?", David asked in irritation, "Every time we get going, he starts crying! Can't you give him a pacifier or something?" Rose grinned up at him and said, "I'd like to see how you'd react if you messed your diaper while your babysitter was making love! Can't you smell it? What is he supposed to do? Walk up and tap me on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me, please mam, but I think I've made a poopy in my dydee. When you're finished, could you change it for me, please?'" She paused for effect and continued, "David, he's a baby! How else is he supposed to communicate other than crying? He can't even talk yet!" "I wasn't talking about that, I was just commenting on is timing," David replied. Rose shrugged her shoulders and said, "When a baby has to go, he goes! He can't control himself! Let me get up and take care of him. It's past his bedtime anyway." She winked one eye and said, "Once he's in his crib, we can do it again. That is, if you're man enough!" Rose got up off the carpet and went over to Bri-Bri to pick him up. As she did, she inadvertently pressed his face to her breast. Howard found himself confronted by her erectile nipple pushing at his lower face. The temptation was too great to resist, he grasped her tit in both hands and began sucking. Rose laughed and turned to David to let him see his rival. "Look at him, David! He's trying to nurse my boob! Isn't he adorable?" "I'd rather it was me," David said with a twinge of jealousy. "Ohhhh, would Davy like me to come back and put him in dydees after she takes care of little Bri-Bri?", Rose said sarcastically, "After she's got her baby dressed up all nice and snuggy-poo in his dydees, he can suck on Rose's titty all he wants! Is that what Davy wants? I'm sure Bri-Bri's mother won't mind if I take one or two of his diapers to dress up MY baby! There will still be plenty of titty for you when little Bri-Bri is done!" "Well...uhhh," David answered, with a temporizing pause, not sure of how he should answer. Rose tapped her foot impatiently and said, "I see! Well, now! You just sit on the floor right there and Aunt Rose will be back to take care of you in a minute. Okay?" David nodded in agreement, not sure of what he had gotten himself into. Howard continued to suckle her teat as she carried him back to the nursery. Rose took Bri-Bri to the nursery and changed his diaper efficiently while cooing sweet nothings down at the infant boy. Then she took Bri-Bri in her arms, patting his bottom as she carried him over to his crib and said, "It's time for Bri-Bri to go nite-nite, Zeeskayt! Uncle David and I will be in the living room if you need us."
Rose gently laid Bri-Bri down on his side on the crib mattress, covering him with his blankie and tucking a small teddy bear under his arms. She raised the side of the crib and turned around with David trailing in her wake. As she left the room, she took a pair of diapers from the stack and turned out the light, leaving Howard in the darkness. Although Howard was physically comfortable, his mind writhed in torment over the memories of the previous two weeks that flooded his consciousness. He was becoming an infant. Not just in body, but in thought and deed. Remembrances of crawling on the floor and delighting in sucking on the unusual or odd things he found laying before him weren't childhood memories that had somehow surfaced in his adult consciousness after many years, they were scenes from his recent past. He could clearly remember peeing all over Anita and giggling over the accident. The memory filled him with shame.
Rose came back in the room and said, "Lay down on the floor, baby boy! Aunt Rose is going to diaper you!"
David's face turned white as he realized Rose wasn't kidding. He saw the diapers in her hand and knew that she really intended to diaper him as if he was a baby. "Uhhhh....no thank you, Rose. I think I'll pass," David said with a deep crimson blush.
"Shushh, baby," Rose said, "It's not for you to decide what's best for you. Aunt Rose thinks you need some diapers and a little titty. Don't you want to suck on her titty?"
"Y..Yess," David stammered up at Rose as a tingle of anticipation crawled up his crotch. The moment had a magickal quality to it as if he had crossed some threshold into a place from which there was no turning back. Rose's face glowed with an maternal aura that he had never seen before. The prospect of being mothered by her was profoundly seductive.
"Good! Then lay back like a good baby while I find your undies!" Rose said firmly as she pushed him back to lay on the carpet.
David hesitated a moment causing Rose to command firmly, " Fartik, Bubele! Lay down on your back!"
David lay back on the carpet docilely while the invisible mother-thing hovering in the corner of the living room smiled to herself. The Earth magick was strong in the room that she had graced with her presence so often in the past six months. The etheric residue of her visits had imbued the room with purpose and affected all who entered the room. Rose's strong maternal instincts had been easy to refocus on her boyfriend and David had not been so far away from infancy that his subconscious had forgotten the contentment of being loved unconditionally. His heritage looking up to a strong mother figure had made it simple for the mother-thing to sway his Id into believing that Rose was his mother. Young minds were so easy to manipulate. They hadn't worn virtual grooves in their psyches the way adult's minds usually had. A young mind was so busy rebuilding its opinions and identity from moment-to-moment that it wasn't terribly difficult to highjack the process and turn it to other ends. That's why armies normally drafted eighteen-year-olds. Given sufficient guidance and appropriate stimuli, they could be turned into mass murderers for the good of the State. All that need be done was to remove the fragile personality's sense of individuality and it would look to the nearest source of authority for validation of their identity.
The mother-thing had not been so crass as to destroy David's sense of individuality. She was more subtle than that. She had merely adjusted his emotional attitudes to that of a nine-month-old infant and manipulated his view of Rose. Rose was the perfect substitute for his mother; he had already formed an emotional attachment to her and the normal process of emotional transference could be used to center his attachment on her rather than his biological mother. She had discovered old memories and wounds that harbored his original personality profile that he had had as an infant. The damage to his Id had been walled-off, sealing the emotional energy within until it was released. A few changes here and there and David felt like a baby again. She had even discovered a deep well of anger and resistance over premature attempts at toilet training that could be turned to her ends. The mother-thing chuckled as she released the inhibitions that had made David so shy and retiring throughout his early years. He would love Rose with all his heart and soul from that moment onward. She would be the light of his life, the source of all that was good and nourishing for his body and spirit. She would be his mother. If he acted childish or became incontinent as a consequence of her manipulations, that was a small price to pay for the privilege of knowing perfect love all the days of his life. Unlike the petty changes inflicted by the vagaries of everyday existence, the modifications to David's personality would not fade with time. David would be Rose's worshipper until the end of his days.
Rose was even easier to manipulate. Most women see their men as children who need to be nurtured and cared for like helpless infants. Rose had an extremely strong maternal drive that was simple to redirect to her erstwhile lover. A few subtle modifications to the limbic area of Rose's brain and she would see him as her child. David would not go into the construction industry like his father and lay vast sheets of concrete where trees and grasses now grew. Instead of going to college and becoming a developer or construction engineer as he had planned, he'd stay home where he could be safely cared for by the women who loved him. He wouldn't suffer. The trust fund left by his multimillionaire father would provide an extremely comfortable life for him and his new wife. It was a small step in the right direction, the mother-thing decided, but David wouldn't be alone in his first baby steps along his new path. Others would follow until the world was safe for life again. It was the mother-thing's duty to look after every form of life on the planet; in a sense the living things of the world were her children and she intended to protect them from annihilation that threatened them all.
Within minutes Rose had located his underwear and stuffed them with the disposable diapers she had taken from the nursery. She made him raise his feet in the air as if he was an infant being changed and pulled the padded briefs over his bottom. When she had finished with his underwear, she dressed him in his pants and took him by the hand to the couch. She sat on the couch and made him lie on his back with his head in her lap. Rose presented him with her teat and let him suckle like an infant while she groped the thick padding of his diapered crotch. David began sucking, closing his eyes to the world and the incongruity of an eighteen-year-old nursing at his girlfriend's tit. He moaned in pleasure and relaxed, letting himself go, thinking about how he would fuck her the next time they got together. Although his thoughts made him horny, his limp penis remained flaccid in his pants. His manhood had had enough exercise that evening and had decided to take a vacation. Suddenly, a warm feeling invaded his reverie as his bladder emptied itself into his pants.
Rose shook her head and said when she saw the growing stain on the front of David's trousers, "David, Boytchik! Can you hear me? You look so tsetumult! Are you alright?"
David lay on her lap with a beatific expression on his face, causing Rose to say, "Oh, Bubele! What's happened to you? You're acting like a pitsele! Answer me!"
He wiggled delightedly and peed a little more in his pants. The dark stain on his trousers became bigger as he whimpered in pleasure. Her face softened as she understood that his mind had somehow regressed as he lay on her lap. "Oh gevae !", Rose exclaimed, "I was only playing with you. I never mean for you to become a real baby. Now what will I do?"
She looked down at the blank face of the child who's head lay on her lap and said as a maternal feeling for the helpless teenager came over her, "Nu! I guess mother what always told me about men was right. Men are nothing but big babies! You've even wet your pants like one. It's too bad I don't have a change of clothing for you. Poor Bubele, you'll have to wear soggy pants home tonight! What will your poor mother say when she sees you like this?"
David didn't hear her, he wasn't paying attention. Her tit had become his universe. Nothing else mattered. He whimpered a little as she shifted her teat to make herself more comfortable and he lost his hold on her nipple. She guided it back to his mouth again with a practiced hand and smiled as she watched him suckle. The renewed stimulation caused David to pee once again. He never knew it had happened. By the time he was finished, the whole front of his pants was wet. When he finally stopped sucking on her nipple, he was drenched in pee. Rose let him suckle for about ten minutes per teat and then let him suck on her fingers. She marveled that their relationship had changed so quickly from lovers to that of a mother and child. She still wanted to marry him, but her need to have a strong male protector had seemed to vanish. She knew she would be content to take care of him and change his diapers as if he was her own baby. She had had her eye upon David for a long time, and little things like urinary incontinence or occasional infantile behavior wasn't going to upset her plans to marry him. If he was to be her baby instead of a domineering husband, then so be it. Her mother had warned her that men often turn into little children again after they were married. He had just jumped the gun and regressed a little more than most. It didn't mean they couldn't make love. For that matter, it practically guaranteed that he wouldn't be shtupping women on the side. So what if he couldn't go out to work in diapers? Didn't he have that enormous trust fund from his father? They'd make out alright. He didn't have to work.
Rose looked at the clock on the living wall and decided that she had to get him out to his car before Anita came home. She decided that she'd put him in the back seat of his car and let him nap until it was time to go. Then she'd drive him home and have a long talk with his mother. Her instinct told her that the same magickal change in attitude that had been worked on her would apply to his mother as well. One look at David's pants would be all it would take for his mother to see that she was right. With her help, they could setup housekeeping together immediately. For some odd reason, she didn't want to abandon her boyfriend while he was in this condition. She was becoming maternally attached to him and wanted to be there to see to his every need. She didn't know why or how it had happened, but she wasn't unhappy with the change. It was easy to see that David would be happy with the arrangement too; his eyes had taken on the vacant serene look that she saw in babies' eyes when she took care of them.
As he lay quietly in his crib, he thought he could hear Rose and David making love again on the living room floor. David's moans of pleasure came through the walls as if they were made of tissue. Silent tears of regret leaked from the corners of Howard's eyes as he realized that he might never know the pleasure of taking a woman again with his penis. "My cock is only a baby's little wee-wee now and only fit to pee in my diapers," he thought desolately. He fell asleep without even bothering to spit out the pacifier that was still between his lips. It had become part of his everyday world and besides, sucking on it gave him a strange sense of contentment that counterbalanced his sorrow over his loss of manhood.
Rose got up from the couch and dressed herself, then dressed David and took him out to the car. As a precaution, she took his car keys and put them in her pocket. She couldn't afford to let him drive home in the condition he was in. Obviously, she would have to take charge of him. Her mother had dropped her off at Anita's house earlier that evening and had been told that David would drive her home. David fell asleep immediately in the back seat of his car after she bedded him down. She locked the doors of the car and left him slumbering like a baby while she went back into the house. After about an hour, Anita came home with her friend Fran. They paid her and asked her how little Bri-Bri was and she told them he was asleep. Then she left to drive David home.
When Howard woke, the lights in the nursery were on and Anita and Fran were standing at the side of the crib. Their garments were disheveled and wrinkled as if they had a wild night on the town. Howard noticed the stains of sweat on the fabric of their blouses underneath their armpits as if they had been exercising earlier in the evening. Howard surmised that they must have gone to some kind of dance club and had been drinking. Their eyes shown with an alcoholic glaze and they swayed slightly from side to side as they stood in front of his crib. From all appearances, they were somewhat more than mildly intoxicated. Anita spoke and said with slurred words, "Did Mommy's baby enjoy his night alone with the foxy babysitter? I'll bet he did!" She laughed drunkenly and said, "I'll bet before the night was done, she had her hands in your pants several times, didn't she? Don't worry, Sweetheart! She told me that you were a good baby and that she's available any time to take care of you. I think she likes you, Sweetiepie." Anita giggled and continued, "It looks like you've made yourself a girlfriend."
Anita put her arm around Fran's waist and drew her close, saying, "Fran and I had a marvelous time this evening and we're going to do it again soon. In the meantime, it's time for Mommy's baby to go beddy-bye, okay? Mommy and Aunt Fran are tired and want to go to bed. We'll see you in the morning, goodnight Honeybunch!"
Anita and Fran left the nursery together and turned out the light. Howard fell back into a deep slumber almost immediately. Sometime during the night, Howard was awoken by the noise of what appeared to be the sound of women giggling and groaning, but the noise abated almost the minute he became aware of it and his drowsiness prevented him from listening for more noises before he fell asleep again.
When Rose got in the car, it reeked of dirty diapers. Evidently David had pooped in his pants while he slept. She decided to stop at the grocery store and get him cleaned up before she presented him to his mother. It wouldn't do to have her see him with dirty undies. His mother might decide that Rose was unfit to take care of him. Rose wanted to show her that she'd make the perfect wife and "mother" for David. Fifteen minutes later, she parked his car in a dark area of the parking lot and ran in while David slumbered peacefully on. Rose made a few hurried purchases with her babysitting money, raising the eyebrows of the checker slightly when she looked at the assortment of goods in the basket. A baby that old ought not to be fed such young foods! Unless, of course, the baby was a very young giant!
Rose went to the car and quickly removed David's shoes, socks and pants. She put his socks in his shoes in a grocery bag and put them behind the driver's seat, then stuffed his wet pants in one of the plastic garbage bags she had purchased. His underwear was a mess! She rolled him on his side and lay a plastic garbage bag on the back seat beneath his bottom, then she rolled him on his back again and pulled down his soggy briefs. His bottom was filthy. She cleaned him up with baby wipes and opened the bag of extra-large Goodnights. David's extremely slim build made them a perfect fit. Strangely, throughout all the movement and undressing, David continued sleeping. She diapered him quickly and dropped the soggy briefs with its lining of dirty diapers into a plastic bag, tying the top of the bag in a knot. When she was finished, she put the bags she had bought on the floorboard of the car behind the driver's seat and admired her work in the semi-darkness. His white polo shirt coordinated nicely with the white diapers he was wearing and made him look like an overgrown infant. The image of him as a baby wasn't dispelled by the way he was sleeping either. The moment she finished changing him, he curled up in a fetal position and put his thumb in his mouth to suck while he slept.
Rose locked the rear door on David's car and drove over to his house. When she arrived, she left David in the car while she went to knock on the door and talk to his mother. She told his mother that David had had an "accident" with his clothes and that she needed a blanket to cover him while she got him in from the car. David's mother thought it was a strange request, but complied willingly. She closed the door and returned a few minutes later with an old wool blanket she had stored in the linen closet for years in case of emergency. Rose took the blanket out to the car while David's mother watched from the safety of the house. Rose sat the sleepy boy up on the back seat of the car and covered his shoulders with the blanket, then held the garbage and grocery bags in one hand while she helped him walk to the porch. When they arrived, Rose quickly maneuvered him through the door and closed it behind them. His mother knew something was wrong by the fact that he was barefoot when he had left the house earlier that evening fully clothed. Rose set the grocery bags on the floor without a word, then took the blanket from David's shoulders to reveal how he was dressed to his mother. He looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion and plaintively asked, "Mama?"
David's mother dropped her mouth open when she saw his bare legs and the white disposable diaper that covered his crotch. From the telltale yellow stain on the front of his diaper, she saw that he had peed again. The thin plastic of the garbage bag Rose held up for his mother to see clearly showed that his pants were soaked. When Rose held out the other bag with the dirty diapers and soggy briefs, his mother could see the brown stains through the translucent white plastic. She sighed in motherly forbearance and took the blanket from Rose. Then she doubled it over in her arms and spread it out on the floor and for a pad, When she as done, she motioned for David to sit on the blanket. David sat down quickly and spread out his legs in front of him, wondering were he was and what had happened to him. The crinkling sound of the diaper caught his attention making him gaze down at his disposable diaper and pluck idly at the plastic cover while the two women looked down at the former man. The blank look of perplexity on David's face told his mother it would be fruitless to try to question him, so she turned to Rose and asked dryly, "Drugs?"
Rose shook her head "no" in reply. "What happened?" asked David's mother succinctly.
Rose looked down at David's wet diaper as she helped him to sit down and said in a pained voice, "I was babysitting for a woman and David came over to visit while I was taking care of the baby. I had put the baby down for a nap and came back to sit with David. While he was laying on the couch with his head in my lap, he started looking farchadat and wet himself. I got a couple of the baby's diapers and put them in his pants to try and soak up the pee. You can see them there in the bag with his briefs. Something had in him changed while I was in taking care of the baby. He was fine earlier. I didn't notice until he started peeing in his pants he was so farblondget. After I put the diapers in his pants, I took him out to the car to wait until the woman whose child I was babysitting got home and he fell asleep in the back seat of the car. When she came home and I went to the car, I discovered that he had pooped in his pants like a baby. I couldn't let him sit in dirty clothes like that, Mrs. Rosenberg. Can't you see? I stopped at the grocery store and used my money to buy him some diapers. I parked in a dark spot in the parking lot and was able to clean him up and get him diapered without anyone seeing him.
Mrs. Rosenberg, I love David and wouldn't do anything to hurt him. You know he and I had planned to get married after he graduated college. I still want to get married no matter how ill he is. I want to take care of him. It doesn't matter to me that he has the mind of an infant. He'll get better in time, I just know he will. It's better if he has someone who loves him to take care of him rather than have some stranger in a hospital lock him in a room all day. I know how to take care of babies!"
Mrs, Rosenberg sighed and said as she sat on the couch behind David, "We probably should get him to a doctor, but there's little we can do for him tonight other than what you've already done. I don't relish the thought of spending all night in an emergency room only to be given a reference to a psychiatrist. I guess he can spend tonight in diapers, he seems to need them. Do you want to stay here with me and take care of him? I can call your mother and explain that David is sick and you'll stay with us tonight. We have a spare bedroom you can use."
David looked up at his mother and girlfriend and said clearly, "Ba-ba?"
"Oh, Mrs. Rosenberg, he's thirsty!", Rose said with genuine concern for David's needs, "Can I get something for him to drink?"
Mrs. Rosenberg sighed and said, "I doubt we have the kind of drink he wants. From the way he's acting, I'd say he's asking for a baby bottle full of formula. We don't have anything like that around here. I might be able to make some formula from a can of concentrated milk but I don't have any baby bottles. I still have his favorite teddy bear packed in a bag in the garage, but I gave away most of his baby things years ago."
Rose smiled and said, "I'll take care of it. I got some supplies for him from the grocery store in case he needed them. Don't get up. I know where everything is in the kitchen. Remember? I helped in the kitchen at his graduation party from High School. It will only take me a few minutes."
Rose left the room while Mrs. Rosenberg watched David. He seemed to have regressed to the mental level of a nine or ten-month-old infant. He drooled and sucked on his fingers the same way he did when he was a little baby. Mrs. Rosenberg heaved a tremendous sigh and thought to herself, "Poor David! I don't think I'll ever get him potty trained again. He was such a trial the first time. I thought I had him trained by when he was ten months old and then he seemed to forget everything I taught him. He was still pooping in his pants when he was three. He didn't start having dry pants during the day until he was five years old! He was still wetting the bed at night when he was thirteen. Thank the Lord, I still have two of the waterproof covers for the mattresses packed away. They're old, but surely one of them will do for him tonight. If they both have holes, maybe I can put both of them on the mattress. In any case, I'll go and buy some more for him tomorrow. I'm so glad that Rose is staying the night to help me take care of him. I don't think I could lift him with my arthritis. Even though they've talked about getting married since they were children, I can't believe she still wants to marry him. She's such a gem! I should have known she'd have been able to manage in an emergency, her yikhes is the envy of the neighborhood! How can I separate such people who obviously care for each other? If she still wants to marry him after this, how can I stand in her way? As soon as he's well enough to make an adult decision, I'm going to have a long talk with him. It's obvious that she loves him and will take care of him no matter what happens. Those two should be married as soon as possible. I'm getting older and who knows what may happen to me? What would happen to David then? It's better to have him safety married to some woman who loves him and I know will take care of him. At least she doesn't seem to mind changing diapers.
I'll talk to her mother tonight and tell her that David's taken ill and Rose wants to stay here to nurse him. Her mother is an old friend and will understand. Rose will make a fine wife for my son. As soon as he gets well enough to say "I do", I'll see that the two of them are married by a county judge. A formal wedding in the synagogue can wait until he's well enough to be around people again. Rose is a sensible girl, she won't argue with me about that. If he gets worse again, I want to have someone I trust be able to make the decisions for him. Thank the Lord that my Jacob was such a successful businessman, at least they won't have to worry about money. I'll see about buying a house in the country for them away from prying eyes. There's no sense in letting the neighbors talk about David's condition. I have plenty of money in the bank. It will be my wedding present for the two of them. Now let's see, I saw his baby things in the garage two weeks ago...Where in the garage did I see them?"
Rose returned with a baby bottle in hand and gave it to David. He was delighted. He put the nipple in his mouth and began nursing immediately. Mrs. Rosenberg looked at Rose and raised her eyebrows, then smiled in appreciation at her future daughter-in-law's thoughtfulness. The off-white color of the liquid in the bottle told her that she had bought baby formula for David in anticipation of his desires. She had been right about Rose being the perfect wife for her son; she'd make an excellent mother to him as well. The tidy way she wiped his chin when he drooled told her she was a balebuste as well. David sucked and slurped noisily on the bottle as if it was the most delicious thing he had ever ingested. Mrs. Rosenberg sighed again and said to Rose, "When he was little we called him Davy. I think it's best if we call him that again, at least until he regains his adult mind. What do you think, Rose?"
"I...I think you're right, Mother Rosenberg," said Rose diffidently.
"Has he eaten tonight?", Mrs. Rosenberg inquired.
"Ye..Yess, Mother Rosenberg," replied Rose, "But it wasn't very nutritious, it was only popcorn."
Mrs. Rosenberg smiled and said in her most soothing tones, "There's no need to be afraid of me child! As far as I'm concerned, you're practically a member of the family! I think you and Davy should be married as soon as he's well enough for the ceremony. You don't mind if you get married by a county judge? Good! You're such a sensible girl! There's a judge who's a friend of the family who I'm sure will be discrete about Davy's condition. As soon as he's well enough to talk sensibly, I'll have the judge come over here and marry the two of you. In the meantime, you'll live here and help me take care of Davy. Your mother and I are old friends and I don't think she'll object. How could she? The minute the two of you marry, you'll be a wealthy woman! How many girls your age have that chance? I've decided to buy the two of you a house in the country of your own. If Davy still needs diapers, I'll arrange to have them delivered. What could be easier for two newlyweds? When he gets better, I'll see that you have a nice formal wedding in the synagogue. Is that okay with you?"
"Yes, Mother Rosenberg," Rose said with a smile.
Mrs. Rosenberg shook her head and said, "Not Mother Rosenberg, just Ruth. As I said, you're a member of the family now. As for his dinner, popcorn is nutritious enough. I just wanted to know what to expect in his diapers in the next day or so. I'm glad you bought a package of diapers for him for tonight, but we'll probably have to find more appropriate diapers for him to wear. While those diapers you bought fit him, they won't do if he has to wear them overnight. Believe me, I know, child. Those diapers are meant to contain the output of a toddler's bladder, not the full content of a full grown man's bladder. We have to get him diapers that will accommodate the amount of pee an adult's bladder produces."
Rose looked disappointed at her prospective mother-in-law's criticism, she had done her best to take care of David. Perhaps she hadn't told her the exact truth, but that was no sin. She hadn't expected David to suddenly turn into an infant. She had noticed his intense interest in TV commercials with babies in diapers and thought she would thrill him by babying him a little. His wholehearted surrender of adulthood had been an utter surprise to her. Some of her girlfriends had done the same thing to their boyfriends and nothing untoward had happened. From what her friends had said, their boyfriends had enjoyed themselves immensely. Some of them had even deliberately peed in their new diapers and had demanded to be changed! It wasn't her fault that David had suddenly turned into a child. He must have always wanted to return to infancy for him to have changed so quickly. Rose shook her head to dispel the feelings of guilt that were threatening her like dark storm clouds.
"Don't look so despondent, Rose," Ruth said, "You did the best you could do under the circumstances. I'm very pleased by how you've tried to take care of my son. Buying that bottle for him was especially nice of you. One of my friends in the synagogue women's group has a husband who's been very ill for a long time. The poor man is as incontinent as an infant. She buys diapers manufactured by a company in Europe who makes diapers called Molicare. I'll talk to her and see if I can't get the address of the company who distributes them in the U.S. Come to think of it, I think I saw an oversized nipple for a baby bottle somewhere that would fit Davy's mouth nicely. The women's group was talking about buying them for infants who have cleft lips. I'll make some discrete inquires and see what I can find out. I'll make some phone calls tomorrow and see what my friends can tell me. If you'll stay here and babysit Davy, I'll go out tomorrow and see what I can find for him."
Davy looked a bit green as the air he swallowed while nursing threatened to make him upchuck on the blanket. Rose knelt down beside him and gently patted him on the back producing a huge belch. Mrs. Rosenberg smiled tolerantly at her son and said, "Why don't you watch him for me for a few minutes while I tend to things? I expect he'll need a diaper change as soon as that formula hits him. In the meantime, I'll call your mother, then go and look for some of his old baby things in the garage."
A look of intelligence flashed in Davy's eyes for a moment and he said, "Rosie!", then the light died and he stuck his thumb in his mouth and began to suck. Rose patted him on top on his head and said, "Don't worry, Davy. It will all work out. I'm sure this is only temporary. You'll remember how to talk soon. In the meantime, there's plenty of formula and baby food for you to eat and lots of clean diapers to wear when you pee and poop in your old ones. I hope you don't take too long to remember, though. If you do, you may have to be potty trained again. It may not be worth the effort."
Rose rubbed his diaper and felt his penis harden underneath the padding. At least she'd still be able to make love to him. Davy gurgled happily and pounded his heels on the floor excitedly. As far as he was concerned, everything had already worked out. Both of his mommies were there to take care of him.
After a few weeks David starting speaking in short sentences again and they were married. He would never again aspire to become a construction engineer or architect. By the time he regained quasi-adult consciousness, his bladder and bowels were completely untrained, forcing him to be diapered full-time. He also sucked his thumb incessantly and had a tendency to slobber if he didn't concentrate on controlling his face. Although the constant sucking had quickly developed his cheek muscles until his face resembled a toddler's more than an adult's, his control of his lips and tongue never returned to his previous state of mastery. He talked with a baby lisp and drooled constantly for the rest of his life.
Rose and Mrs. Rosenberg took turns every other day cutting up his food for him and feeding him like an infant. When he became constipated during the first week as a consequence of large amount of the dairy products he was consuming, they stopped feeding him cheeses and meats. Instead they centered his diet on fruits and vegetables with a healthy serving of grains at each meal. The multiple bottles of formula he consumed each day fulfilled his daily dairy needs. The bulk fiber of the vegetables and cereals helped keep him regular. The fruits combined with the huge amount of lactose from the formula he ingested every day made his stools as soft and easy to pass as a newborn's. Pooping became such an effortless act that he was almost never aware when he filled his diaper. Davy began to enjoy the feeling of sitting in a nice soft diaper that had been warmed to body temperature with his fresh pee. His sphincter became so relaxed that he dribbled in his diaper almost continuously. For all intents and purposes, he was a baby again. He didn't sound or act like an eighteen-year-old teen. His behavior mimicked that of a twelve-month-old. His oral tendencies grew until Rose and Ruth had to watch him every minute to keep him from mouthing everything within sight. His word selection deteriorated rapidly until the content of his speech matched his infantile enunciation.
Within a month, his burgeoning belly outgrew the extra-large Goodnights which had barely fit him when he was thin. Fortunately, his mother found a distributor in Texas who could ship regular supplies of Molicares that fit him by Next Day Air. She also located suppliers of pacifiers and nipples that would fit an adult mouth. She even had custom nursery furniture made for him so he could sleep in a real crib and have a playpen that fit him. Rose found websites on the Internet that supplied the needs of adult babies and was able to purchase off-the-shelf baby clothes for him. His mother hired an understanding electrolysis technician to come in for a few days every week until at the end of a month, the technician had removed every hair on his body except his eyebrows and the top of his head. By the time she was finished, Davy's skin was as smooth and velvety as a baby's bottom. His body hair had not been that abundant to begin with, he had inherited his father's lack of body hair. Most of his body hair had been pubic and had surrounded his crotch. He had objected to the pain caused by the depilation of his scrotum, but six hundred milligrams of Benadryl had made him so sleepy and docile that he slept soundly during the procedure. Afterwards of course, he whimpered as if he was a newborn who had just been circumcised by a moye. The permanent exfoliation made it easier to clean his pubes and kept his pubes from developing a sour reek despite his incontinence. The emoluments that Rose and Ruth put in his daily bath made his skin retain moisture as well as protecting his skin from the breakdown products of urine. The dead callus of maturity was soon swept down the tub's drain by repeated washings, leaving only the slightly puffy, pink, soft skin that one finds on very young children. His skin felt silky and smelled as sweet as the most beloved baby in town from the daily application of baby powder that they used to dust his entire body after his baths.
Davy's lack of exercise made him gain weight, causing his previous thin physique to be swallowed by thick ropes of baby fat. His fingers and hands became pudgy as he quickly developed the protruding pot belly of a young toddler. Due to a gene for early baldness he had inherited from his maternal grandfather, his thick curly hair soon became sparse and wispy after repeated washings with baby shampoo. The cumulative effect of the changes in his physique and his overall appearance made him look exactly like a giant toddler. Aside from the out-of-scale appearance of his body in comparison to Davy's tiny toddler toys, the infantile appearance of the thickly padded Molicares made him look like a one-year-old when he crept about the carpet on his hands and knees to play. The two women would sit at the kitchen table, drinking their coffee and would break from their adult discussions to condescendingly tell him how adorable he looked as he cavorted coyly for them at their feet. Rose never understood how her adult infatuation with her intended had been transformed into a mother's love. She felt strangely pleased by his metamorphosis without being cognizant of the reasons behind her emotional change. The intelligent young man that she had hoped would marry her had turned into a dazzlingly sweet innocent infant who she adored.
After Ruth bought an adult-sized changing table for Davy, Rose didn't even have to forgo sex with him. At least once a day she would lead him by the hand back to his nursery to change his diapers and disrobe him. Once she had him cleaned up and smelling sweetly again, she would climb up on the oaken changing table and mount him. Davy would always chortle with glee when they made love. As she pumped up and down, he would reach up with his hands and grab her tiddies as if he wanted to suckle them, then arch his back in total surprise when his always premature orgasm overtook him. Sometimes she would bend over and let him have a taste of her teats after he had climaxed, marveling at how much she loved the babe of a man that lay beneath her. He wasn't much trouble to take care of; he rarely fussed and didn't mind if his diapers were wet or dirty. Once they put him on an infant's feeding and sleeping schedule, Rose had plenty of time to read and watch the TV programs that she liked. She found a Website that catered to "mothers" of adult babies and spent at least one hour there a day discussing hints on how to care for an adult-sized infant. Davy was more manageable than the young adult who had had so many dreams of success. He was pleased to play at his two mommies' feet and babble charmingly up at them instead of upsetting the household with his ill-devised plans. On the rare occasions when he grew irritable and difficult to deal with, they merely put him in his crib for a nap.
Davy didn't mind the change in his lifestyle, he had never really wanted to grow up. He had objected to being sent to nursery school when he was four and made protests of absolute outrage when his mother had consigned him to kindergarten for the mornings at the tender age of six. As a child, he had never complained about being bored. He was perfectly content to sit all day with his toy trucks and building blocks and imagine what he would create if he was a developer and architect. Taking a nap in his crib was always a treat for him; he enjoyed the company of his stuffed toys and never had nightmares. His slumber was as peaceful and restful as any infant's. In his dreams, he built towering skyscrapers and vast complexes with Rose by his side with her ever present diaper bag full of clean dydees, formula and small jars of baby food in case he became hungry. His adult sins had been so few and small that his guilt for them had evaporated with his maturity. His transgressions as an infant were immediately punished with a pro forma paddling followed by a timeout or a nap in his crib. Once he awoke, the incident that had caused him to be disciplined was forgotten by all.
Once Rose and Davy moved into their new house, she didn't bother to dress him in more than his customary diapers unless there was a reason. If the house was cool, Rose would dress him in either shortalls or onsies to play on the carpet of their family room. When they went out together, she would put snap-crotched overalls on him and stuff a pair of diaper doublers in the front of his diapers to provide extra padding so she wouldn't have to change him until they got home. Unless it was cold, she let him sleep in nothing more than his diapers with his blankie to keep him warm.
Davy's adult mind returned after two months, but he didn't use it. By that time, he had lost interest in the adult world. His personal concerns remained at the level of a two-year-old. He was happy to be a little boy again and spend his days waddling around behind Rose in his diapers to see what she was doing. He liked taking morning and afternoon naps and having his diapers changed by her. He became too used to having Rose take care of him to expend the effort to take charge of his life. His mother talked to the judge who married them and easily convinced him to declare that Davy was incompetent. After a perfunctory interview with the judge in his chambers, where the judge got to witness Davy suck his thumb, babble, make bubbles of spit and pee in his diapers, Rose was granted full power-of-attorney and given guardianship of her mentally-ill husband. As far as the State was concerned, he was an infant and Rose was legally his mother.
After two years of nursing, Davy developed an acute case of pyorrhea and extensive carries from the constant bath of sugar-laden formula and fruit juice over his teeth. After Rose took him to a female dentist, Rose was told by the dentist that he had to have all his teeth extracted. The dentist used a combination of anaesthetic and nitrous oxide to eliminate the pain of surgery and was sympathetic to Rose's pleas for a prescription for powerful painkillers. He spent the next two weeks in a semi-conscious condition as Rose laced his formula with painkillers. Rose noted with maternal delight that the mind-numbing drugs had an unexpected effect; his behavior which had hovered at the toddler stage suddenly regressed until he acted like a nine-month-old infant. The drugs made him so unsteady on his feet that he stopped walking around the house and began creeping on all fours on the floor. His speech was so slurred by the painkillers that he gave up trying to communicate altogether. Instead, he would sit on the floor and babble to himself while he played with his toys. Most of the time, he slept.
When the swelling of his gums went down again, Rose wasn't surprised to discover that his drooling had become so uncontrollable that his wet dripping chin became a permanent feature of his face. Without his front teeth, he slobbered continuously, streaming strings of saliva on his chest like the merest infant. After he stained two of his best lapped-shouldered infant style T-shirts, Rose made some velcroed-tabbed drooling bibs from some old towels and made him wear them around the house whenever he wasn't sleeping or eating. She continued to bib him for his meals in his regular adult feeding bibs that Ruth had bought him. Since he had no teeth to cut and grind his food, Rose changed the type of baby food she fed him. In order to protect his still tender gums, she bought a number of latex rubber-coated, baby-feeding spoons to use when she fed him. Once the change in routine was made, Rose began spoon-feeding him the finely pureed "First-Stages" baby food in tiny spoonfuls until the jar of food was empty. Gradually she reduced the amount of solid food she gave him, replacing the nourishment he got from baby food with infant formula. Within a month, most of his calories came from the vast amounts of formula he sucked down every day.
Davy spent the rest of his life playing with building blocks and toy construction equipment at Rose's feet while she knitted and watched TV. If he was good in the morning, she'd let him watch cartoons in the afternoon after his nap. She bought a DVD of big construction equipment for him to watch for his twentieth birthday and he watched it over and over, clapping and bubbling in glee at the huge machines as they went about their business. It was fortunate that video tape had been replaced in the late nineties with DVD technology. He'd have worn out a video tape in no time. DVD disks had an estimated service life of one hundred years of normal use. Davy would use every minute of his disk's life before it had to be replaced.
After Davy married and moved into the house that Ruth had bought and given them for a wedding present, he began calling Rose "Mommy" exclusively and became completely dependent on her. He barely noticed when his mother stopped taking care of him and left him to the exclusive care of his ostensible "wife". Executive control of the monies from David's trust fell into Rose's hands as Davy's legal guardian. Rose was an excellent guardian and manager of the monies that had been entrusted to her by her dead father-in-law's bequest. She reinvested the excess funds from David's monthly allotment wisely and was able to double the value within a year. Nonetheless, she was able to provide for her new household without pinching pennies. Rose had the nursery's bathroom completely remodeled to provide a changing area as well as an elevated tub with safety rails to make bathing her charge easier on her back and had a industrial style diaper rinser installed so she wouldn't be constrained to rinse the diapers provided by the diaper service in the altogether unnecessary toilet. She even had an electric patient lift installed over the tub so she could sit him in a special bathing chair and have an electric winch lift him into the tub and lift him out again when the bath was over. A heavy duty washing machine and gas dryer were installed in the bathroom as well as a small pantry was added with a dish washer, refrigerator and stovetop for warming his nightly formula. Her object was to make as few trips to the kitchen and utility room as possible to take care of him. To finish the bathroom, she had a combination button-style lock installed on the door to keep him out of danger.
Aside from getting a new suite of adult-sized baby furniture in his nursery and a number of shortalls and onesies, Davy never saw any difference in his life caused by the substitution of Rose as his Mommy. True, his nighttime bottle came quicker, and he enjoyed riding in the electric lift when Rose bathed him, but these were mere bagatelles to his way of thinking. The important person in his life was the one who took care of him. He had Rose and she was all the mommy he needed. Rose inveigled her obstetrician into giving her a prescription for some hormones that would make her lactate so she could nurse Davy. Of course she still kept prepared bottles of apple juice in the pantry's refrigerator for him to drink in the mornings, but by and large, she breast fed him when she could. If her breasts overproduced milk, she used a breast pump to mechanically express her milk so she could save it in bottles for late night feedings and outings where breast feedings would be inappropriate or exhausting.
Once Rose got Davy on a schedule and started nursing him several times a day, she began to see the advantages of having a baby on a total breast milk diet. His stools stopped smelling and she discovered something about nursing she had been totally ignorant of before she started suckling Davy. Although she had sex with him once a day, Rose missed the foreplay before they had sex. Once he started nursing at her breasts, she discovered that her baby's sucking on her tiddies was nearly, perhaps even more titillating than his clumsy teenaged gropes. They were a very happy couple and lived for many, many years. Rose never got married in the synagogue, Davy was a little too young in spirit and speech to be presentable to the congregation. Rose could imagine the commotion it would cause if they had to stop the ceremony because she had to change his diaper or demanded his mommy's ti-ti in front of the whole community. Moreover, having the groom drop down on all fours to creep down the aisle the minute his hand was released wasn't befitting the dignity of the synagogue. Rose never regretted the lack of a traditional marriage ceremony, she had other memories that more than made up for the formal wedding she should have had. Taking care of Davy was the ultimate experience for a Jewish mother; he was the child who would never grow up! Davy would be her be her baby forever!
When a new medical product came on the market five years later that simultaneously allowed Rose to realize her dream of having a real baby to for her very own while allowing David to return to his true age, Rose availed herself of the horrendously expensive drug immediately. The excess money from David's trust fund had multiplied substantially under Rose's frugal care and they were easily able to afford the expense. Within nine months, Rose had a little baby boy to bounce on her lap instead of having to take care of a superannuated infant-minded husband. Rose was able to sell David's huge baby equipment and outfit his old nursery with normal infant-sized furnishings for her baby without additional expense. Strangely for Rose, it seemed there were other adult babies who were in such dire need of nursery furnishings that expense was no object. All it took was a few discrete ads on the Internet and David's old nursery furniture and adult-sized baby clothing were sold within a week. Rose delighted in taking her new baby on outings. Instead of having to stay home to watch after a husband who was too immature to leave alone by himself, she was able to take her young baby everywhere with her. Rose was able to bring her new baby to the synagogue where the congregation could put their collective stamp of approval on Rose's new family. It was a solution that pleased everyone, including Ruth, Rose's mother-in-law. Ruth was finally able to put aside the role of being David's mother and take on the responsibilities of being a grandmother to Rose's little boy. Mother and baby were extremely happy together and lived in perfect contentment.
Sunday morning both Fran and Anita came in the nursery to rouse Howard from his slumber. He was appalled at how they looked; their hair was in an even worse shape then when they came to visit him before going to bed. The corneas of their eyes were so bloodshot from the aftereffects of the booze they had drunk the night before that they appeared as if their eyes were going to begin to bleed at any minute. They talked together in quiet tones and lurched unsteadily on their feet while they grinned down at him in obvious amusement at his plight. It was painfully apparent to Howard that both of them were suffering from the toxic effects of a massive hangover. While Howard was distressed to see his wife in such a condition, he couldn't really blame her. After all, the strain of having her husband turn into an infant before her eyes must have put her under terrible stress. She had done her best to take care of him, despite his objections. If she needed to go out on the town with one of her friends and make a little whoopie to relieve the strain, that was alright with Howard. At least she hadn't brought some man home with her to spend the night. He was relieved to see that it was Fran at her side instead of some strange man.
If the situation had been reversed, Howard wasn't altogether sure he'd have done the same thing in her place. He suspected that he'd have given into his baser instincts and sought solace in the arms of another woman as soon as possible. If he had been in her place, it would have been all too easy to put her in a Daycare Center each day while he was at work and forget about her. If it would have been left up to him, he'd have hired a babysitter and gone out every night while leaving poor little Anita in the care of some stranger.
Anita hadn't been like that at all, aside from the single outing she had had that evening, she had been with him every minute after she had when she wasn't working. She even made a special effort each day to take a break from work every few hours to come down to the Daycare and see how he was doing. Never once had she even looked at another man in his presence. If Anita had been in the crib instead of him, he'd have probably brought some woman home with him to take care of his "infant daughter". On the other hand, if he had spotted Rose first, he might have inveigled her into "teaching" him how to take care of his "baby" daughter. Then he could have put Anita to bed early while he put the make on Rose. If she went for a clumsy immature teenaged boy like David, she'd be a pushover for a real man.
Howard had been a bit surprised to see Fran in his room that morning and thought that Anita must have decided that Fran was too inebriated to allow her to drive. He concluded that Anita had invited her to spend the night on the couch. Anita changed his diaper in front of Fran, then gave him a bo ttle of formula which made him drowsy and confused. The excitement of the night before which had awaked his adult personality was over and he slipped back into infantine patterns of thinking and existence without even realizing what was happening to him. His memories slipped away rapidly until all that was left was the infant Bri-Bri who had occupied his body for the preceding two weeks. After he was burped, he yawned hugely in Anita's arms and rested his head on her shoulder. Within seconds he fell asleep again and Anita put him back in the crib to nap while Fran and she had their morning coffee.
Later that morning Anita had her regular Sunday bunch. She gave Bri-Bri his morning bottle and changed him before the guests arrived. Anita dressed Bri-Bri in a disposable diaper and a clean white infant's T-shirt for the party and put him in his playpen to keep him out from underfoot while she finished making preparations for her get-together. As the guests arrived and deposited their babies in the playpen with Bri-Bri, they asked whose baby the cute little one in the playpen was and where was Howie. Anita explained that little Howie had gone to live with his grandmother while she was taking care of his baby brother Bri-Bri. As the women filed back into the living room with their coffee and rolls, Bri-Bri noticed that he was surrounded with infants who were about his age. They drooled and cooed as they sucked their thumbs or mouthed the toys in Bri-Bri's playpen. Bri-Bri sat in the back of the playpen with his blankie tightly gripped in his fist as he sucked on his thumb. He made little sucking noises in-between the unconscious sighs of contentment as his eyes wandered vagrantly over the assemblage of mothers arrayed on the couch before him. Bri-Bri's interest in women had become purely practical in the past month. Women were no longer prey for his sexual cravings. Bri-Bri had no lusts to satisfy. His needs were more prosaic: Would they wrap him in his blankie when he was cold? Would they check his diaper and change it if it was wet or dirty? Would they feed him when he was hungry? When he was thirsty, would they bring him his ba-ba? Bri-Bri had no desire for the huddlings of sex, if a woman picked him up and cuddled him in her arms while making agreeable mothering noises, he was content. Drool dripped from his chin and ran down to form a large wet spot on his T-shirt just like the other babies in the pen. No one present had the slightest suspicion that the infant in the back of the playpen was a man of some forty-odd years. Bri-Bri completely blended in with the other infants in the pen. There was no difference in either his behavior or his appearance between him or any of his diapered playmates. After descending only slightly in his behavior to match the demands of their shared social position, Bri-Bri had finally discovered his true peers in life.
After the women had finished their light meal, they began talking about their husbands and children. It was generally agreed that although children could be disciplined and trained, husbands were hopeless. Sometime between their teenage years and the time they got married, men as a group regressed back through early childhood into quasi-infancy. Aside from going to work, most men had to be fed, dressed and watched over as if they were the merest of babes. The women agreed that men were too infantile and set in their ways to be changed by any method short of miraculous. Instead, they focused their attention on their babies; they were the hope of their mother's and the world. There was a chance, although it was agreed that it was vanishingly small, that their little boys would turn out to be somewhat more mature than the fathers who sired them. Of their baby girls, the women said next to nothing. There was no concern about how they would turn out. They knew their daughters would work at their jobs while taking care of their husbands, homes and families without fail. Even if they were only infants, they would be women someday. They would shoulder the burdens of modern life and keep civilization going for another few years. A woman's desire for an orderly home was coded into the very DNA of their cells in the same way that chaos and disruption were coded into a man's DNA. Every woman knew instinctively that men were incapable of living an orderly life. It was obvious from history; women didn't start wars, men did. They couldn't help themselves from being irrationally aggressive any more than a two-year-old could be rationally expected to go potty by themselves.
Although most women were well aware of men's faults, they were ignorant of the social pressures that had left men so incapable of taking care of themselves. Society had changed in the seven centuries since men did their work in the presence of their wives and families. Gone was the long house of the Dark ages where cattle, slaves, children, women and men shared food, fire, workplace and lodgings. Gone too was the workplace of the Middle Ages where apprentices lived in the home of their master craftsman with his wife and children. Men had segregated themselves into their offices to escape the incessant demands of their wives and their progeny. What men lost was their connection to the real world. They had built a egoistic world in which only their immediate needs and desires mattered. They dammed the rivers and made them run backwards to assuage their infantile egos. Stealthy aircraft were built at a cost of billions of dollars apiece while children went hungry and unclothed around them. Whole rain forests were cut down in the interest of immediate profit causing the thin subsoil to wash away and poison rivers for hundreds of miles. Japanese fleets staffed by the scions of Samurai sailors scoured the seas and oceans of the Earth sucking every form of aquatic animal life worth a yen into the vast maw of their enormous fish harvesting and processing vessels. Entire species vanished overnight and fishing resources dwindled as the harvests continued year after year unabated. Business empires worth billions were built on the ruins of people's lives and then squandered on the ill planned imaginings of their CEOs. Nowhere in the world did common sense prevail when men came to power.
Human life had become a commodity to be traded like so much corn. Men's historical sense of community had been abandoned for position, power and the quarterly statement. Like the pampered Emperors of the last Chinese dynasty or the Czars of Russia at the end of their power, they had become over-coddled children who were incapable of taking care of themselves or anyone else. Their history had been forgotten. The ever-sharp spear of the Saxon and Celt had been abandoned for imagined safety of large ill-paid staffs of security guards. Men willingly gave up their right and duty to care for themselves and their families to the government so well-armed police could watch over them like over-protective parents and shield them from their own folly. Men supported the surrender of their historical right to defend themselves from violence so that they wouldn't be bothered by the seamier side of existence. Men lived serenely within the nursery of their neurotic dreams. As long as they had their fancy food, booze, toys and peaceful life, they were content. They didn't have to make coffee or pick up after themselves. They could always hire someone to do it for them. If secretaries hadn't been invented to babysit their male "superiors" in offices, men would have had to hire nannies to tend to their needs. They were overgrown children. There wasn't a woman in the room who didn't know that fact from both instinct and personal experience.
Once the discussion had started, the women began relating a veritable catalog of their husband's faults. One brown haired woman with a baby on her lap complained, "My Henry is no better than a barely potty-trained toddler, he almost never wipes his butt completely after going to the bathroom and I end up having to wash underwear with brown streaks on the rear almost every day. He swears he wipes himself carefully every time, but I can't see how he can be cleaning himself when he ends up with such dirty underwear. I've taken to washing his undies in Dreft with the baby's cloth diapers. It's the only detergent I've found that will get them clean."
One of the other women chuckled and said, "I can't get mine to close the lid on the toilet and flush on a regular basis. It's a funny thing, I just got finished potty training my four-year-old and didn't have any problems getting him to flush every time he goes potty. If only I had a chance to train my husband the way I did my little boy, I could probably have him trained to flush and close the lid in a month."
"How did you train your little boy to flush the potty?", the women in the blue pants suit queried.
"Oh!", the brown haired woman laughed, "I just told him that if he couldn't flush, he couldn't use the toilet like a big boy. Then I put him back in dydees for the day. Whenever I did that, I wouldn't change him until after supper. A few afternoons in wet dydees and he was ready to flush every time."
"Hmmm," mused a woman across the room with a grin, "I wonder if that approach would work with our husbands. Can't you just picture them standing in the kitchen with wet dydees waiting until bedtime for us to change them? I'd be willing to bet that they changed their ways quick!"
"Especially if they got diaper rash a couple of times!", the woman in the blue pants suit added with a giggle.
Everyone laughed at the mental image of their husbands gingerly waddling around the house with bowed legs, trying to keep their wet diapers from rubbing their sore dydee rashes. They could easily imagine their husbands coming to them in the kitchen while they were making dinner and whining about how their tushes hurt. They would plead with their wives to change their dirty dydees, saying how sorry they were that they hadn't flushed the john the night before.
Anita said, "My husband used to strip down to his skivies and throw his clothes around the house the minute he got home. I swear, it was like trailing around after a toddler who had just learned to undress himself. I'd find clothes all over the house. I'm glad that's finally over!"
"How did you get him to stop?", a blond women asked with interest.
"I didn't!", Anita said with a smirk, "He left me for another woman whose happy to pick up after him like she's his mother."
"Are there any husbands who pick up after themselves?", asked the blonde woman rhetorically.
"Not mine!", answered a brunette woman with her nine-month-old baby girl crawling on the couch beside her, "He leaves his tools everywhere! He acts just like my five-year-old does with his toys. If you move them or put them up, he throws a temper tantrum!"
"Which one throws the tantrum," the blonde woman asked, "...your little boy or your husband?"
"Both of them!", the brunette woman laughingly replied.
"Does yours drink directly from the water bottle in the refrigerator instead of pouring the water into a glass?", asked the brunette woman, "Mine does! I can't tell you how many times I've asked him to pour the water into glasses instead of drinking from the jug! He knows it annoys me, so he sneaks around and does it in private when he thinks I'm not looking. When I catch him at it, he denies everything just like a three-year-old with his hand caught in the cookie jar."
"Mine does that!", another woman answered in irritation, "And leaves towels on the floor after his bath, doesn't rinse out the sink after he shaves, doesn't flush or put down the seat, or pick up his tools or put away his dirty clothes! For that matter, he doesn't wipe himself very well and doesn't always wash his hands after going to the bathroom either! Every time I see him after work, he's got his lips wrapped around the top of a forty-ounce bottle of malt liquor and holding the end in the air like some kind of huge baby bottle. When he gets hungry, he wants to be fed then and there as if I could produce a fully cooked meal for him by snapping my fingers." She looked down at her twenty-three-month old boy playing peacefully beside her feet on the carpet and continued, "It's just like having another two-year-old in the house! I swear to God, what my husband needs is a sound spanking, some clean dydees on his bottom and a giant playpen to keep him out of trouble!"
Howard was slightly embarrassed by what Anita had said about him, although in honesty, he had to admit that he hadn't put his clothes away a time or two in the past. After hearing the women's complaints about their husbands, he found himself in general agreement with their overall assessment of men as a group. Although he had been part of the structure that had damaged the eco-system and had felt the same way as the men they described, his position as a dependent infant had cast a new light on his previous life. He had been wrong to deny Anita a voice in running the household. Having vented their collective spleen, the women decided to turn their attention back to their children. The babies were gotten out of the playpen and allowed to creep or crawl around the rugs under their mother's watchful eyes. Bri-Bri was loosed with the other infants to creep among the giant-sized shoes of the women. Occasionally, he would catch a peek up the dress of one of the mothers, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. Without sexual cravings to drive him, his causal glimpses of women's panties were merely the chance observations of an idle infant's curiosity.
One-by-one the babies were picked up and put on their respective mother's laps. Bri-Bri too, found himself sitting on Anita's lap watching the other infants. The mother's smiled at the infants on their laps and chuckled at the antics of the other infants that faced them. The infants gurgled and bubbled in delight up at their mothers while the other mothers exchanged complementary comments on how charming each other's babies were. Soon one infant's hunger made him fussy, causing his mother to get his bottle from the diaper bag at her side. Once the other infants saw the baby with a bottle, they began to cry in hunger too. Within minutes, the room was filled with wailing babies and mothers rummaging through diaper bags to find bottles. Only little Bri-Bri remained silent. One mother, who knew she was among friends who had seen her feed her baby before, opened her blouse and unfastened her bra to begin shamelessly breast-feeding her baby. Bri-Bri watched in awe as the little one grasped his mother's tit in both hands and suckled noisily at her breast. For some reason, he sight made him feel lost and abandoned. He screwed up his face in anger and frustration and began to cry. Anita promptly got up and carried him to the kitchen to get a bottle of formula, then returned and reseated him on her lap. When she tried to put the bottle in his mouth, he turned his head away in disgust. The other mothers took note of Bri-Bri's reaction and said, "It looks like little Bri-Bri misses his mommy's titty. It's too bad you can't nurse him, Anita. It's obvious that he wants a woman's breast rather than a bottle."
The woman who was breast feeding her baby looked at her sleepy-eyed baby and tenderly took her tit from his mouth and slid it inside of her blouse. Then she burped him and walked over to the playpen to lay him gently down on the plastic pad for a nap. She eyed Anita's tearful baby and said, "I've plenty of milk left, Anita. If it will keep him quiet so we can talk, I'd be happy to nurse him for you."
Bri-Bri was astonished when Anita handed him over to the woman. She took him over to the couch and sat down with him in her lap. After making sure he was comfortable, she took her other breast out of her blouse and caressed his cheek with her nipple.
Bri-Bri turned his head involuntarily toward the stimulation and closed his mouth on the proffered teat. He instinctively began to suckle as the tit filled his mouth. He relaxed in her arms, peeing a little in his diaper as a warm fuzzy feeling began to cloud his psyche. Memories of himself as a kindergartner flashed through his mind, followed by scenes himself as a toddler, then a two year old and finally as a ten month old baby. Each memory brought him back to the same emotional state he had felt at the exact moment that the scene was recorded in his subconscious. He could feel his mind becoming duller and his attitudes becoming more immature and primitive. In another minute his mind would be gone forever, not as a result of physical regression, but as a form of psychosis that threatened to destroy his last connection with his real self. The first trickle of milk had barely run down his throat when his adult mind awoke and began to fight his reflexes. The gorge rose in his throat as he pushed her teat away with his tiny hands. He finally managed to regain of his mouth and spit the nipple out with a scream of utter horror.
The woman who held him dropped her mouth open in surprise and looked at Anita for an explanation for Bri-Bri's incomprehensible revulsion to her teat. Anita shrugged as if to say she had no idea why Bri-Bri had taken such a sudden dislike to a woman's tiddies. Anita came over and took the squalling infant away from the insulted woman and sat down with him in her lap. She took the bottle he had rejected earlier and stuck the nipple in his mouth. Bri-Bri's howls had made him thirsty and he began sucking on the latex nipple immediately. All the women in the room shook their heads and smiled at the babe's outburst. He may have wanted titty, but it obviously had to be Mommy's tiddy! No one else could substitute for her. When he finished the bottle, Anita winded him and put him on the floor with the other babies to play. Bri-Bri sat on the floor at Anita's feet and cogitated on what had happened to him in the woman's lap. As he ruminated, he stuck his fingers in his mouth and idly sucked on them, not noticing the smiles of the assembled women as they gazed down at the charming baby at Anita's feet. He peed in his diaper again, this time flooding it, but he never felt it. After awhile he felt sleepy and he got up to creep away. A yawn took him, making him kneel where he was. His arms seemed to fold in slow motion as his head descended to the carpet. A minute later, he was sound asleep with his thumb in his mouth, still kneeling on the floor. His legs were tucked up beneath him with his little diapered bottom perched high in the air. He had moved less than a foot from Anita. The party went on for another half hour, then the women gathered their babies and the diaper bags and said their good-byes. When Bri-Bri woke in his crib at noon, he thought it must have been a dream. Surely Anita wouldn't let another woman breast feed him like an infant, would she?
His memories of his former job became a meaningless blur. On Tuesday he tried to remember what his real mommy looked like when he was younger, but he discovered that his childhood images of his mother had all been replaced by memories of Anita. He simply couldn't recall a time when she wasn't his mother. During the second week his solid food was further reduced while the frequency of his bottle feedings was increased. By Thursday he was only getting a few spoonfuls of baby food at each meal. Howard wasn't distressed by his weaning from solid food. Sucking on the nipple of the baby bottle was more satisfying than eating the tiny amounts of pureed vegetables that comprised his solid meals and nursing distracted him from the boredom of the nursery longer than the short time it took to ladle a few scant spoonfuls of baby food into his mouth. As far as Howard was concerned, eating was hardly worth the effort. At least with a bottle, the experience lasted a half hour or more. They would let him lay on his back in the crib and suck on his bottle while he occasionally reached up with his hand and gave the mobile over his head a little push to make it turn. At first the mobile had seemed ludicrously infantile, but after a day or two, Howard found the motion soothing. Every time Howard felt the slightest tinge of hunger he would whimper, causing the attendants to rush over and give him a fresh bottle of formula to assuage his craving for food. The smell of dirty diapers lost their unpleasant associations as the reek of sour urine and baby poop became part of his everyday existence. By the second week, his smelly little baby farts seemed pleasant and homey to him. He was only slightly dismayed when he discovered that his vocabulary seemed to be shrinking. Whenever the women in the nursery talked, many of the words they said sounded like so much gibberish. It made their talk almost impossible to follow unless he brought to bear all of his powers of concentration. He rarely expended the mental effort. The women's discussions were mostly boring recitals of how the other babies were faring in the nursery or narration's of their uneventful lives with their boyfriends or husbands.
Other than his sudden inability to comprehend complex ideas that had been familiar concepts for years, Howard couldn't see how the loss of verbal skills affected him. He wasn't distressed about his inability to remember how things worked or the schoolbook reasons why the world was the way it was. He was too comfortable to think about difficult subjects like engineering or philosophy. On the rare occasions when he made the effort, the attempt proved so taxing that he fell asleep almost immediately. It didn't matter to him if he couldn't talk, he didn't feel like there was anything worthwhile for him to say. It wasn't as if he had to present an engineering report on his desires. All it took was a loud bawl and all the women within earshot would come running to his side to see what he needed. It was enough. The week passed and then another as he drifted in the timeless contentment of babyhood.
Chapter Eight Old Endings and New Beginnings
If you wish, I shall grow irreproachably tender: Not a man, but a cloud in trousers!
Vladimir Mayakovski (b. 1893 - d. 1930) Cloud in Trousers (1915)
On Friday morning Anita drove to work with Bri-Bri securely strapped into the baby seat in the backseat of the Suburban. It hadn't taken any time at all for her to get used to driving the van. The leather-wrapped steering wheel fit comfortably in her hands while the Suburban's power steering made it easy to control the huge vehicle. She eased her back luxuriantly into the Australian sheepskin seatcover that Howard had bought for the driver's seat of "his" Suburban. He had said at the time that it would help keep his suits neater and drier than sitting on the leather upholstery. The wooly sheepskin was supposed to "breathe" or some such nonsense. He had been right about that. She had noticed over the past few months while driving the Suburban that the sheepskin kept her back and derriere warm when the weather was cool and cool in warmer weather. She was a bit miffed that he had never bought a sheepskin seatcover for the passenger side of the van. Apparently, he hadn't thought that she might enjoy the same luxuries that he had bought for himself.
Anita sighed to herself mentally and told herself that she shouldn't have expected him to be sensitive to her needs. He was a man. When all was said and done, that defined the problem. Men were incapable of truly understanding another person's needs. They thought that merely being in the same room constituted companionship and giving extravagant gifts was the ultimate symbol of love. They had no idea of what it was to give of themselves until there was nothing left, then reach into the depths of their souls and find the strength and understanding to give more. They were concerned with things, not feelings. Feelings for men were avoidable nuisances at best and psychotic delusions at their worse. Wives and families were only external symbols of their success in life, not a reality to be cherished and savored. It wasn't that they were cold, they just had a different perspective on reality. Men were destined by their genes to be hunters not gatherers or raisers of children. For them life was a constant battle to survive on an individual basis. Women were involved in the tribe. They constituted its only hope for survival as a unit. Men won battles, women continued the human race. Women sacrificed themselves for other's survival, men sent others to their deaths to ensure that their own lives continued without interruption.
Neither was wrong or evil, it was just that men and women were diametrically opposed in their interpretation of how life should be lived. In the Dawn of Humankind, when game was plentiful throughout the spring and summer, men's hunting was an important contribution to the protein needs of the tribe. When the weather became dark and cold with the onset of winter, women's gifts of gathering allowed the tribe to get through the lean period with no game. Unfortunately, the rules of the game had changed. Men achieved ascendance when they had learned to sow crops and raise animals for slaughter. The role of women as gatherers had changed into the job of being full-time servants. Society evolved to meet the demands of the environment. The Goddesses of Fertility were swept away by the new beliefs in the various Sun Gods who nurtured the plants with their rays. Even the nomadic tribes who depended on the green grasses where taken in by the new thinking. Once men saw that reproduction was a biological process rather than a holy miracle, the damage had been done. The grasses fed the people as well as the animals. Rice and wheat became staple crops in the Old World while maize filled the breach in the New World. Only government benefited by the change. Tax collectors did not exist before the introduction of a starch-based economy. To be fair, it must be pointed out that some cultures did their level best to insure that all the people got a balanced diet for their subsistence. The empire of Egypt was the sole example of equitable food distribution in the Ancient world.
Christianity was only an affirmation of a process that had already been going on for centuries. The Judges of the Old Testament like Deborah were swept away by the power of the Hebrew Kings. Women were out and men were in. The first thing the power structure did was solidify its base by eliminating the competition. Women were raped, dunked, tortured, burned as heretics, beaten and brutalized until they accepted the legitimacy of man's tyranny. For almost five thousand years since the first watershed empire along the Indus river, men had ruled. While five aeons is a blink of an eye for a planet, it had been a long time for man's racial memory.
The world was changing again and man had been one of the prime mover's of the change. The game was almost gone, crops were failing, only a sense of community would help humankind survive. Individual needs must be put aside for the need of the many. Men were functionally incapable of decisions like that on their own. The sacrifices must be willing or not at all. Only women could make the decisions necessary in the coming world. Like it or no, women would have to be the stewards of humankind's future. Anita's informal discussions with the company sociologist had convinced her that changes to human society weren't just a necessity, they were an inevitability.
Anita woke from her sociological reverie and slowed down to let a man in a tiny red sports car pass instead of ignoring his foolish maneuvering and crushing him beneath her wheels. Anita enjoyed the feeling of control the high vantage point the Suburban gave her. Instead of being overwhelmed in the little Geo by the sixteen wheelers on the road, she was sitting at a level that was almost equal to the truckers. She felt like she was flying over the poor slobs who crept to work in their little subcompact commuter cars. No wonder Howard hadn't wanted to give the Suburban up. She was riding at the top of the world! For the first time in her life, she felt like she was fully in control. She wouldn't have to eat steak and potatoes five times a week. Howard had always turned his nose up at the pasta salads, shrimp gumbo, coq a vin, and spinach souffle every time she had attempted to get him to try something new. She hadn't even been able to get him to try chocolate mousse! All he wanted to eat for dessert was chocolate cake smothered in mounds of horribly fattening, cholesterol-laden, artery-hardening frosting! The very thought of eating that much sugar made her teeth hurt.
She was free now. She could eat whatever she wanted. She could diet most of the week with bean and sunflower seed sprout salads with homemade buttermilk-feta cheese dressing topped with pignola nuts or make herself a meal consisting of only al dente steamed vegetables with a side of aromatic brown rice liberally laced with woodsy crimini mushrooms. On Saturdays she could treat herself with a fresh-baked Quiche Lorraine, Florentine or Monterey and a wineglass of decent Beaujolais while Howard had a few spoonfuls of pureed baby food and finished his meal by nursing on a bottle of formula. Who knows, she might even have a glass of plum wine for dessert while she watched little Bri-Bri suckle his bottle and drool milk down his chin!
She wouldn't have any trouble losing the few pounds that made her figure less than perfect if she didn't have to share in the fatty hamburger steaks that Howard used to eat. Now that she was the boss, she wouldn't have to check with Howard to see what he wanted to eat. She'd be the one who would make the decisions in the house. Once Howard had regressed into impotent babyhood, her problems had vanished like a morning fog under the rising sun. Everything had worked out perfectly! Each time she glanced in the rear view mirror to check on her infantilized husband, she grinned in appreciation of how adorable he had become. He was such a cutiepie! Howard waved his feet helplessly in the restraining straps and watched idly as treetops sped by his window. Occasionally he would screw up his little face in the most winsome expression of intense concentration and blow little bubbles of spit to amuse himself. In general though, he had lost all unconscious control of his slack lips and drool ran down his chin both copiously and continuously. Of course, his control wasn't helped by the fact that he always seemed to have something in his mouth. He not only sucked his thumb on a regular basis, but he frequently put three of his fingers in his mouth at a time, causing baby spit to form long strings that dripped from his chin and made large wet spots on his T-shirts. When he wasn't in the babyseat in the car, he would lie on his back and suck his toes. It was obvious that he had regressed though the anal stage of development back to the oral stage.
Howard hadn't tried to vocalize meaningfully for the past week. His only utterances for the past seven days had been the silly, mindless blather of early infancy. The closest he came to real communication was when he smiled and cooed as she rocked him in her arms before putting him in his crib each night. He had stopped trying to stand too. Even if he held on to the railing of his playpen, the weak muscles of his legs couldn't hold him more than a few seconds before he fell back on his diapered bottom. If he needed to get somewhere, he crept on all fours like an infant. Anita wondered idly if he would lose the ability to creep as well. He was so young now that if he regressed much more, he'd lose control of his lower limbs and he'd be forced to crawl on his belly and squirm his way across the carpet like a legless snake. When he go to that point, she'd buy a baby carriage for him to use on their Sunday walks in the park rather than having him strapped into a stroller. He'd be more comfortable lying on his back than trying to make his immature muscles keep him upright for long periods. She'd have to remember to turn him regularly if his muscles became so weak he couldn't turn over on his own. Anita didn't want him to get bedsores. She remembered reading somewhere that sheepskins were often used with bedridden patients to help keep them from developing bedsores. She thought she had seen one in a Australian catalog they had that was sized to fit baby cribs. She decided she would find the catalog after work and order a couple of skins for him. It would be awhile before she would see whether he rejuvenated to the stage of early infancy though. The process of physical regression had peaked towards the end and was now grinding down to an almost imperceptible halt. It was time to visit her Chief of Research and call the President of the company.
When she arrived at work, she took him directly to the Daycare center and handed him over to one of the nursery attendants. The daycare worker held out her arms to take him from Anita and carry him back to the nursery with the other infants while Anita trailed behind. Anita followed them in the nursery and watched for a moment, then turned to leave for her office. As he was being laid down in a crib for his morning nap, Howard chanced to see Anita's back as she began to leave the nursery. He whimpered quietly at being separated from Anita. Somehow he couldn't bear the thought of being separated from her for a moment. Anita stopped and turned around again a fter hearing Howard's distress. She came over to the side of the crib and attempted to comfort him by patting his head and saying that she'd be back in a little while. Then she turned and walked out of the room, swaying her hips confidently as if she owned the place. Howard pulled himself to his knees with the help of the cribs railings and watched as she disappeared from sight. He would have stood up if he could, but a few days before he had discovered that standing was nearly impossible even if he had something to hang onto. Merely pulling himself to a kneeling position was an effort. After she left, he bent over his knees while he wept silently in abandonment. Howard's quiet sobs took a long time to slow to a stop. When he had finished, he laid his head on the crib mattress in exhaustion. His knees were still folded beneath him as he closed his eyes to shut out the world. Within minutes, he was fast asleep with his onesie-covered, thickly-diapered bottom still in the air.
Howard woke to find himself being lifted out of the crib and carried down the hall by his wife. He blinked his eyes blearily and saw that Fran was walking beside them and chatting amicably with Anita. Apparently Fran was one of the researchers at the company; she was wearing a white lab coat over her dress and was leading the way down the hall to her office. They stopped in front of a door while Fran took a ring of keys from the pocket of her lab coat. She unlocked the door and held it for Anita as she carried Howard into the examining room. Anita laid him on the exam table and proceeded to remove his onesie. Anita was all smiles as she placed his onesie aside and began to unfasten Howard's diaper. As she lifted his legs to slid the diaper from beneath his bottom, she joked with her friend about how cute Howard had become. Howard glanced over at the sound of ripping plastic and saw Fran pulling a diaper open that she had taken from the stainless steel storage cabinet just to the right of her head. She laid the diaper down on the examining table as a soaker pad while Anita held him up. Once the pad as in place, Anita gentle sat him back down on the pad and backed around the table so Fran could work. When Fran took a stethoscope out of the pocket of her lab coat, Howard dimly realized that Fran must be a doctor of some sort. Fran bent over Howard's naked body and gave him a thorough examination. Howard was mildly uncomfortable being nude in the unfamiliar woman's presence, but he had gotten too used to being undressed by strange women to put up a fuss. After a few moments, Fran pronounced, "Well, aside from a mild case of diaper rash, he's in perfect health. The Landau reflex has reappeared, have you noticed?"
She laid him out again on his stomach and ran her finger a few inches over his spine to demonstrate the convex upward arc his entire body formed. Then she put her hand on his head and applied a gentle downward pressure to cause his neck to flex and reverse the arc. Fran took a pen out of her pocket and ran it along the sole of his foot. Howard's toes immediately contracted in response. Fran smiled in evident satisfaction and said, "As you can see, the Plantar reflex has reappeared. That's an indication that his reflexes have regressed to the developmental stage of an infant not older than eight months."
She smiled at Howard as she picked him up under his armpits and easily lifted his tiny body. She sat his bottom on the examination table again as she said, "I recommend that you put him in cloth diapers and plastic pants rather than disposables until his diaper rash has improved. The rash should be only temporary anyway, once his body makes the adjustment to its new environment it should disappear."
Anita nodded her understanding and said, "The diaper company has promised to begin making deliveries to our home tomorrow morning." Fran nodded in professional agreement to Anita's decision to put him in cloth diapers and patted him on the head saying, "Good! I'm sure he'll be a much happier, healthier baby in cloth diapers. I wish that more mothers felt like you and used cloth rather than disposables."
Fran told Anita as thy walked over to the other side of the examining room and Fran picked up the wall phone to place a call, "Bri-Bri's regression is nearly complete. He may get a little younger, but I think he'll only lose a month more at most. From now on, the only major changes in him will be psychological." She dialed a number and spoke briefly to the person at the other end, then hung the phone up. Fran told Anita, "I just called Dee to tell her the results of the experiment. She'll be right down to meet us here."
Fran returned to Anita's side and put her arm around Anita's waist, then whispered in her ear, "We're on for tonight, right? Just a little celebration for the two of us at your house after work. I'll be over at seven o'clock. We'll tuck little Bri-Bri into his crib at seven-thirty and we can make some whoopie. I have the most darling negligee to show you. We'll spend the weekend together. I'm so glad you changed your mind about having a relationship with me. I always knew we were sisters under the skin."
d put him in the company Daycare facilities so he could be unobtrusively monitored by our researchers posing as childcare workers." She laughed and said, "You should have seen how depressed he got when he had to give up his floozy. The investigator I hired put a voice actuated tape recorder on our home phone so I heard the message his mistress left on the answering machine when she dumped him. He sulked and pouted like a little boy. I was half tempted to tell him what I'd done to him just to see how he'd try to defend himself, but the security of the project was more important than any petty revenge." She shook her head and smiled at Howard's diminished body, then said, "This really was all his fault. I'd have never considered him as a candidate for the formula if he hadn't poisoned himself with those toxic chemicals he was dumping illegally. Once he was cured, he could have gotten a job with an honest company and risen to the top. If he hadn't been so deceitful I would never have never given him the second dose of the formula that turned him into an infant. He just couldn't resist the opportunity to play around like an oversexed teenager." Anita patted him on the head condescendingly and said, "He'll be faithful to me now. It doesn't matter that he can't work. Once we get the formula on the market, his sacrifice will make us all rich. In the meantime, now that I've been promoted, we don't need his income."
Anita's expression sobered and her voice took on a businesslike tone as she said to the two women, "Since the formula has been proven to be safe, we can proceed with test marketing with the wealthy of Third World countries. We'll be able to charge enormous fees for permanently rejuvenating clients to any age they desire."
"You're absolutely right. And on that note, I have to leave," said Dee, "I have to contact our broker in Bern and advise him that the experiment was a success. I want him to prepare the groundwork for our new Third World marketing program in the European financial centers. Our common stock is going to go off the charts when the insiders get wind of this. I want him to be ready for the onslaught. I hope you ladies have been investing in our company steadily for the last six months. I wouldn't want any accusations of insider trading by our employees from the SEC! Don't forget the director's meeting at four!"
Dee walked to the door and stopped as she opened it and said, "Oh yes, one more thing. As a bonus, I want each of you to have a free youth treatment from the company. You can be any age you wish. I've already cut orders authorizing the expense. Just think, Anita, you won't have to be a middle aged woman with a baby. You can be twenty-four again and have all the energy of youth to take care of your little one. The two of you can go on together indefinitely. Your baby will have a young, healthy mommy to take care of him the rest of his life. What a blessing this will be, you'll be young and rich and have the baby you've always wanted." After having made her final statement, Dee smiled at the two women and the naked infant on the exam table and left the room, closing the door behind her. The baby was looking up at them while his ex-wife explained his fate and scowled in anger at what he heard. The shock of Anita's confession had temporarily restored his ability to understand adult speech. So his regression wasn't caused by the toxic chemicals his company produced! Anita had deliberately turned him into a baby! He opened his mouth to scream profane curses at the bitch, but all that came out was an enraged infant's wail. He was horrified at the high pitched howl that emitted from his mouth. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life. The self-satisfied expressions on the women's faces didn't hide the contempt they felt for his lost manhood. Waves of emotion broke over him, threatening to drown him in their intensity. His infant mind could not contain itself. His control b roke and he found himself awash in anger. He was overwhelmed by his emotions. The scarlet blush of anger turned into purple rage and started crying in tight-fisted frustration. The three women looked down at the naked infant and chuckled at his discomfiture. His wife smiled down at his contorted, tear-streaked face and said with a grin, "You know, Sweetiepie, you're adorable when you're angry!"
Then Anita put her hand on his chest and pushed him down flat on his back so she could rediaper him. Howard struggled vainly as his ex-wife's hand compassed his chest and gently forced him to lay down. He gurgled incoherently as she pulled the diaper up between his legs and fastened it around his waist. Then Anita picked him up and held him to her chest saying, "He'll be mommy's little baby forever and ever".
The doctor smiled and said in her "professional" voice, "We need to have a talk about little Bri-Bri. First of all, I wouldn't worry about him suffering the rest of his life with an adult mind in an infant's body. I was fairly sure about what would happen to an adult mind if the brain was regressed into infancy and our experiment with Howard has bourne out my predictions. You read what I thought would happen in my original request for a test subject. There are two components to his mental regression: psychological and physiological. I'd like to discuss both with you in detail. In a month at most, he should make the psychological adjustment to his role and begin to enjoy being your baby." She smiled and added, "No matter what his conscious mental age, his subconscious will begin regressing. Human psychology demands it. Men define themselves with their surroundings and work, while women define themselves by their relations with others. In his case, both methods of self-definition will be working against him. His wife has become his mother and his clothes, food and surroundings are the same as any infant's. Have you ever read of how normal adults react when they've had a terrible accident and have lost control of their bodies and can't speak? Grown men weep and cry in frustration like little babies when they wet or mess their diapers when they're unable to talk. Now that his physical abilities have been regressed into infancy, he'll be subject to the same emotional pressures to revert to earlier methods of asking for help. His hypothalmus has shrunk to the size of an infant's while his frontal cortex is rapidly becoming undifferentiated.