The Conduit

It was cold out, wherever it was. There was loud music coming from somewhere nearby, but the side curtains of the stroller made the location difficult to point out.

Before Madame Mary started to push her along, she leaned down in front of the stroller and tickled Alexis’s bootie-clad feet. Alexis couldn’t help herself and she started to giggle from behind wet baby tears.

“Aww that’s my good baby” Said Mary looking very cheerful. “Since you’ve been such a good girl, mommy has a present for you!” and into Alexis’s view Mary slid a white baby’s rattle. “Here. A wattle for my good widdle baby girl!” She gently placed it in Alexis’s hand, which instinctively closed around it, and Mary kissed Alexis’s forehead. Alexis tried with all of her might to slap the woman, to hit her with the rattle. She waved the rattle at Mary’s face, but it just made the soft tinkling sounds of a genuine rattle.

Unexpectedly, Alexis became comfortable. Shaking the rattle helped her vent some of her anger. Something about the sound it was making amused her greatly, and she began to giggle softly. Mary wiped the tears from her eyes as Alexis continued to shake the rattle her mind was feeling strange. She was still terrified that she was again stuck in a baby’s body. She still hated the woman standing in front of her. But shaking the rattle was just so much fun! It soaked up most of her attention, and she felt her eyelids droop lazily with babyish amusement. And Mary disappeared from view behind the stroller and started to push her along.

Not long after, the stroller came to a stop. Alexis continued to shake the rattle lazily but she did make out the sound of Madame Mary’s voice coming from above her. Alexis’s eyes searched around for whatever they could see. Three sets of legs were standing in front of the stroller. Each foot was capped by a soft fluffy-looking bootie.

She dimly heard Mary say, “...child for the night. I figured a college party is not the right place for a baby...”

“You’re right... party ...for baby,” someone else said.

Beneath the childlike desire to shake the rattle, she felt the oddest sense of d?j? vu.

“Would you... hold her?” said Mary’s voice from somewhere

And the next thing Alexis knew, she was being hoisted up out of the stroller and placed into the arms of someone she didn’t recognize. It made her uncomfortable. So she continued to rattle the object in her hand. Three faces looked down on her. The one to the right looked really mean. Alexis decided she didn’t like her much. The one closest to her said, “Looks like... past widdle baby’s beddy bye...”

Then she felt herself being given back to Madame Mary and she was glad to get away from these strange people. Alexis saw some pointed hat on top of Mary’s head that wasn’t there before. She looked different. She looked older. Thick glasses now hung on the brim of her nose. Alexis felt the diaper press itself against her skin again as she was laid back down into the stroller

“WAIT! NO!” she cried out in her mind. Suddenly it all came back to her! It was them! She was just held by herself and her two friends! She was at the college! It was Halloween night! She had to warn them! She had to stop them! In a few moments she would put the pacifier in her mouth and start this whole nightmare! She was being pushed along again.

“No!” she wanted to scream out at them, “COME BACK!! PLEASE COME BACK!!!!” But her infantile mind was still focused on the rattle.

A short while later, just after she heard a familiar voice yelling at someone, saying, “What... talking about,” the stroller stopped. Madame Mary appeared again in Alexis’s view, still looking older and aged.

She leaned into the stroller and slowly plucked the rattle out of Alexis’s grasp, “There we go, baby girl,” she said so sweetly that it made Alexis’s baby-smooth skin crawl. “Now, we just have to wait, don’t we?”

Alexis began to cry harder than ever before. She was there. She had the chance to stop this from ever happening. But that opportunity passed, and she didn’t know what was coming next. Madame Mary quickly wheeled the stroller back to her car and placed Alexis back in the carseat. The car rumbled into life and Alexis felt it begin to move. She was crying continuously now, but through thick tears she looked out the window and realized where they were going.

Of course.

Madame Mary had said that they would be at the costume store.