A foolish risk?

Chapter 1
A foolish risk?

Chapter Description: Is a risk worth taking if it is a foolish one?

*Journal recording beginning*

A simple mistake, that’s all it was, one simple mistake. Now that simple mistake has changed her.

The one thing you could have said about Maria was that she was proud, proud of her achievements, proud of proving that she was as capable as anyone.

Her achievements had made her so proud that an ego had appeared, she began to think of herself as better than others. And she set out to prove it.

At the time I didn’t know her that well, we had only just become co-workers and we were slowly getting to know one another while we worked. I found her to be intelligent and skilled, and somewhat arrogant.

Though I recall something a teacher had once told me, that some of the greatest minds can afford a little arrogance as long as that arrogance would one day be tempered by wisdom.

Anyway her arrogance got to the point where she believed that she could reverse the aging process or place it on hold, many scientists have made such a claim and met with failure.

But she was determined to prove it. Our bosses decided to indulge her and gave her the resources she needed, I was assigned to be her partner. And with that we worked on her idea.

It took ten years, a lot of money and many sleepless nights, but her idea came to life. She created a formula that could reverse the aging process, it was hailed as a miracle of science when the tests revealed truly remarkable results.

But she wasn’t satisfied, she wanted to prove that the formula would work on humans. Our bosses didn’t agree, they felt it would be too risky, that the human body was too complex to allow for a cellular reversal.

They cut our funding, blocked our research, all in an effort to make her see reason. She refused to be beaten by those she claimed to be too narrow in their thinking.

So she made a request of me, she wanted me to care for her because she intended on proving that the formula would work.

She wrote down her notes, made back ups of her research and back ups of the back ups, and then despite my pleading her to reconsider, injected herself with some of the formula.

It took several weeks for anything to show, but eventually the formula began to kick in. At first she looked like she had when we had first met, her skin was youthful as the signs of our long years of work melted away day by day, the grey hairs that were beginning to show from stress become as brown as they were when we first met. She was truly becoming younger.

But it was clear that the formula was stronger than she had intended. Her memories seemed to fade, it was like it was not only her body going backwards in age, but her mind as well. She forgot her research, her life, she forgot we were friends.

Within two months she went from being in her early forties to her early twenties, and even farther. She entered her teenage years and while I did my best to care for her, I was and still am no mother. How can I be when I have never had any intention on being so?

However she needed someone to care for her, she was becoming incapable of caring for herself. At her insistence before she had taken the formula I kept a journal so that our bosses would know of how the formula worked on humans.

I updated the journal daily while Maria went from a teenager to a child, she asked many times where her mother was and I always had to tell her that her mother wasn’t here. Her mother had died while Maria was doing her research.

Soon she went from being a child to a young child, she began to forget so much more and I found myself feeling maternal towards her. She forgot the most basic of things and soon I was caring for a toddler who was unable to take care of herself, she was dependent on me for all of her needs.

She stopping at just under the age of two years old. A beautiful baby girl who was just learning how to walk and talk all over again, I changed her nappies, fed her, bathed her, gave her all the love and care she needed.

Where is she now, you ask? She’s taking a nap, she learned how to say a new word today. Tomorrow she will be two years old once again and just as I did when she was becoming younger, I will be keeping a record of her growth just as I did when she becoming the precious infant she is now.

Her return to infancy proved that the formula was a success, our bosses took credit for it. At this time the formula is being made available to the rich, the powerful and those who have a say over the people. The rest of the human race will be denied such a thing, much easier to control the people with the promise of youth.

I never intended on becoming a mother, but now I am. Maria is my precious, beautiful daughter now and while I am angry with her for the risk she took, I know I can never be angry at the young child who is at this time sleeping and having dreams of innocence and comfort.

How can I be angry at a baby who knows so little and is learning all over again?

A foolish risk, which has yielded a beautiful baby and even tighter control over the people. For all of her best intentions, Maria may have set things in motion that will make fools even more powerful.

Now if you’re excuse me, I need to get ready for a baby girl who will likely need a fresh nappy and a cuddle when she wakes up.

*Journal recording ends*