Epiphany

Chapter 1
Epiphany

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Chapter Description: Molly awoke to the realization that she was a baby.

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Molly awoke to the realization that she was a baby. It was a strange sort of realization, since it did seem to come from any external evidence. In fact, an outside observer would probably still think she was a college sophomore. After all, she was in the same dorm room she went to sleep in, she was with the same 20 year old roommate who she met in a Victorian literature class, and she wasn’t an inch shorter. This realization didn’t depend on any of that. It was sudden and self authenticating. If she had been religious, she would have called it divine revelation. She sat up in bed and took a glance at the mirror, trying to wrap her head around the truth that had come to her. The face that looked back hadn’t changed in the slightest from the previous day, yet the very features that she used to think showed her 19 years now seemed to barely show 2.

"Morning Molly," said her roommate Jill. She was at her desk playing Farmville on her laptop and barely even glanced in Molly’s direction.

"Why the Hell didn’t you tell me I was a baby!?"

Jill was clearly perplexed as she turned toward her roommate. Her expression turned to shock as she glanced Molly over. "When did you become a baby?"

"What do you mean when? I’m exactly the same as yesterday. Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Honest to God, I really didn’t know!"

Molly was getting really frustrated now. "Dammit, I know I’m just a baby, but even I can tell how little I am! Why won’t you just tell me!?"

"Molly, you’re 5’4", you’ve read the works of Plato, you’ve been on dates, and you’re old enough to remember getting a Dreamcast for Christmas when you were a kid. I know it seems silly that I couldn’t see the obvious, but all of those things seemed to point to someone who was much older than a baby. You’re my best friend, so please believe me when I tell you that I really didn’t notice until you pointed it out."

Molly thought about that. Those things really didn’t seem to mesh with the fact that she was a baby. What was going on?

"I mean it’s not like I’ve seen you do anything that matched you age," Jill continued. "If I had caught you wetting the bed or something I might have picked up on this earlier."

Molly suddenly felt her bladder release. She stared down at herself in shock as the scent spread throughout the room. "What the.." said Jill as she smelled it. "I thought you were potty trained!" Tears formed in Molly’s eyes, and she began to softly cry.

"Crap," said Jill as she went to comfort her friend. "Don’t worry Molly! Lot’s of kids your age have accidents. It’s nothing to be upset about." That didn’t seem to help much. Jill wasn’t sure what else to do. She looked around the room for a moment, then reached into her purse, pulled out her keys, and began jingling them in front of Molly.

Molly’s crying slowed to a stop, and her expression became perplexed. "What are you doing?"

"I thought babies liked this sort of thing. I don’t know. I’m not good with kids." Molly couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of this whole situation. Jill laughed with her, then bent down to give her a hug. "I’m sorry I didn’t take this whole thing better earlier, but I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to help." They embraced silently for a moment before Jill continued. "Let’s get you cleaned up. Can you stand up for me?" Molly slowly got off the bed, clearly uncomfortable in her wet clothes. "Good girl." Molly couldn’t help but smile at the praise. Jill proceeded to pull Molly’s pants off, doing her best to pretend to not be grossed out by what she was doing. She threw those clothes in Molly’s hamper, then got out some tissues to clean Molly up.

"So do you have diapers around her or something"

"Um..." Molly thought about that for a moment. At her age, it would be really weird to not have some in her room, but she couldn’t remember seeing any around, and she surely would have worn some to bed if she had any. Molly shrugged, and Jill began her search of the room, quickly finding that while there were plenty of regular undergarments around, there wasn’t anything resembling a diaper.

"Crap. I guess I’ll have to run to a drugstore real quick. I’ll be right back."

"You can’t leave me alone here!"

"What? Why not?"

"Look at this place! Does it look safe for a baby? I can’t even count the number of choking hazards."

"I’m sorry."

"You need to be more responsible! It’s not like I can take care of myself."

"I said I was sorry!" said Jill, trying not to get too exasperated. "Maybe I can find someone to babysit you."

"But we moved in early. There’s barely anyone in the building let alone anyone we know."

"Well I could probably find someone who’d be willing to watch you for a few minutes. People are generally pretty friendly here."

Molly began to look scared. "You’re... you’re gonna leave me with a stranger?"

"NO! No. That was a bad idea. No strangers," replied Jill, desperate to keep Molly from crying again. "We’ll figure something else out."

"Why can’t you just take me with you?" asked Molly.

"I’m sorry hon, but I can’t have you peeing all over my car." Molly started to look sad again while Jill tried to think of something to do. "Wait! I have an idea." Jill went over to Molly’s dresser and pulled out a pair of her panties. "Step into these." Molly did so, and Jill pulled them most of the way up. She then grabbed a roll of paper towels and starting stuffing them in Molly’s underwear.

"Dude, seriously?"

"Yeah, I know it’s the most ghetto diaper in the universe, but I think it’ll be enough to keep the car clean until we get some proper diapers." She stopped and adjusted Molly’s underwear a little. "Yeah, I think that’s enough."

Molly wasn’t happy about this and started to pout. "It looks stupid and it’s uncomfortable."

"Don’t worry, I’ll dress you so no one can see it. I promise you’ll look real pretty." Jill started looking through Molly’s dresser. "You know, I probably should have suspected something when I first saw you in this," she said as she held up a My Little Pony shirt.

"I thought I was being ironic." She thought about it for a moment. "I don’t know why. Ponies are really cool."

"They certainly are," Jill responded while bringing over some clothes. She proceeded to put Molly into that shirt and a skirt, and she then put Molly’s hair up in pig tails. "See, you look very pretty. And you can’t even tell that you’re wearing a diaper at all."

Molly did like how she looked. She felt like she looked more like herself than she had in ages. "Still isn’t comfy, though."

"Sorry, but there isn’t much I can do about that right now. But I know that you’re a big girl and can handle being a little uncomfortable for a few minutes. You can do that for me, right?" Molly didn’t want to disappoint her friend, so she nodded. "Good girl. Let’s get going." They then left the dorm building, with Jill insisting that Molly hold her hand on the way to the car. They were both quiet for a while, but then Molly started to cry again.

"Hey, what’s wrong?"

"I don’t wanna be a baby," Molly managed to say between sobs. "I feel vulnerable and helpless and I can’t do anything by myself."

Jill gave her a hug. "I know it’s hard, but I’m here for you. I’ll do what I can and make sure you stay safe." Molly just sniffed a bit. "Besides it’s not all bad. You get to hang around and play all day, you don’t have to worry about whether your makeup is right or if you’ll get enough money to pay off your student loans, and you get to have everyone else fuss all over you. I’m honestly a little jealous of those things."

Molly calmed down a little. "Really?"

"Yes really. You should try to focus on the positives of this." Molly’s crying pretty much ended, and they were both quiet for a minute. "If it helps, I guess can take you to somewhere fun for someone little like you at some point. Maybe Chuck E. Cheese’s or something." Molly smiled at that, and Jill was relieved.

They finally reached the car. Jill approached the door, then stopped, sighed, and turned back towards Molly.

"What is it?"

"Why didn’t you tell me that I was a baby too?" Instantly, Molly saw Jill’s face transformed into one as young looking as her own without changing in the slightest. There was no question that Jill was Maggie’s age. Maggie just stared, shocked.

"Didn’t notice? Told ya it wasn’t..." Jill looked down at a dark spot forming between her legs. She began to laugh.

"Man, if I still thought I was a grown up, I’d be so embarrassed right now."

"Let’s find someone to clean you up."

"Nah, I’m good," replied Jill as she kicked off her sandals and attempted to unbutton her jeans. It took her a few tries, but she soon had them open and slid them off of her body.

"What are you doing?"

Jill honestly seemed surprised by the question. "Don’t you remember how uncomfortable wet pants are?"

"So you’re gonna go to the store half naked?"

"Nope," Jill replied as she began to lift her shirt.

"You can’t go around without any clothes on!"

"Why not?" Jill asked as she finally managed to get the shirt over her head after a few unsuccessful tugs. "It’s not like I’m going to pee on someone’s expensive rug out here." Jill then moved onto struggling with her bra.

"But what if someone sees you?"

"They’ll probably think it’s cute. Besides its fun being nakey, so who cares?" Jill struggled with the bra a bit more. "Help please."

Molly thought about that. She remembered when she attended her nephew’s second birthday party recently. At one point, he managed to pull off all of his clothes when no one was looking, and everyone except his 10 year old sister seemed to find that cute and funny, including Molly herself. She had to admit that Jill looked adorable, and it would be silly if people reacted harshly to a little baby like her being a jaybird. She decided that she might as well help her friend get more comfortable, and after a minute of struggling, she managed to get the bra off. Jill was thrilled and jumped up and down with joy.

"Let’s go play!" said an excited Jill.

"But what about-"

"DUCKIES!" Jill exclaimed as she ran toward the campus pond.

"But we need to go to the store!"

Jill clearly wasn’t listening as she proceeded to make quacking noises while chasing the ducks. Molly really started to wish she noticed that Jill was a baby before deciding to go off with her. Toddlers could be such a handful. Of course, she realized that that probably included her. She wondered if she was that much of a pain to Jill before Jill came to her senses. Molly herself was tempted to play with the ducks, but she still didn’t feel safe without a trusted grown up around, and if Jill couldn’t be a grown up, then Molly would have to be a big girl until they were safe.

She needed something to catch Jill’s interest again. She looked through Jill’s abandoned clothes, eventually picking something up and heading in Jill’s direction. Jill was now a few feet in the water and walking towards the few birds that she didn’t scare off yet. Molly approached the edge of the pond and started to shake Jill’s keys while calling her name. Jill stared at them fascinated for a moment, then giggled and started walking to Molly, who started to run away. Jill chased, and Molly made sure to lead her behind a building, out of view of any ducks before letting Jill catch up.

"Gotcha! I won!"

Molly felt an urge to argue about that, but she managed to suppress it and give Jill her prize.

Jill started jingling them like crazy. "I can’t believe you didn’t like these!"

"They’ve grown on me." She wasn’t kidding. She enjoyed their brief chase, and part of her regretting giving those up, particularly without another toy to play with. "But we need to we need to get going. We’ll have to walk, but it’s not far."

"But I wanna play!" said Jill as she stomped her foot.

"Come on, you said you’d put a good diaper on..." Molly stopped. Did she really expect another baby to not only be able to buy something on her own but change another baby’s diaper properly? Jill could barely take her own clothes off let alone dress anyone. The plan had completely fallen apart. Heck, Jill’s babyhood meant that it never would have worked in the first place. In addition, she still needed to deal with the bigger problem problem: the two of them were entirely without any sort of adult supervision. This was completely unsafe, and it scared Molly. What were they going to do? She tried to keep herself calm and figure it out. She could just try finding the nearest adult and asking for help, but she wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers. Besides, strangers were scary. She thought about going back to her dorm and calling someone for help, but when was the last time she ever encountered a baby who knew how to use a phone? She had memories of dialing successfully herself, and she was pretty sure she could repeat what she remembered, but were these memories accurate, or was she just misremembering pretend conversations she had after hitting some buttons at random? She honestly didn’t know. Finally, she realized a solution that should have been obvious from the beginning.

"We have to go to my aunt’s house," she told Jill.

"Why?"

"’Cause her son’s our age so she’ll know how to take care of us and she’ll have diapers and stuff and she lives right near here."

"But I don’t wanna go with grown ups! They won’t let us do fun stuff!"

"She bought a puppy a few weeks ago."

Jill’s eyes widened. "I wanna play with the puppy!"

"Well then we gotta go," said Molly, grabbing Jill’s hand. The two proceeded to walk to the end of campus that way, with Jill swinging her keys around, and Molly trying to not get too jealous. After a few minutes Jill got curious and tried putting the keys in her mouth. "Ew, yuckie!" she said as she tossed the keys to the side.

Molly was horrified. "We gotta go find those!"

"Don’t wanna."

"But what about your car?"

"Didn’t like it. I’ll get a cooler one," replied Jill as if it were no big deal. "Or maybe a pony or a rocketship or something. That would be awesome!"

"Do you know how much those things cost?"

Jill looked at Molly like she had three heads. "No. Do you?"

Molly thought about that. She was sure that she had a decent idea for how expensive these things were, but then what did babies know about how much anything cost? She was far too young to really be doing anything with money, so wouldn’t her ideas about it be unfounded? Did she really even have the most basic understanding of what was affordable and what wasn’t? She had to admit that she probably didn’t.

"If you get a pony, can I ride it?" Molly asked.

"Okay, but I get to ride it first."

The two of them continued they’re journey, hand in hand. It was going a bit slowly, as the girls were both easily distracted by all the bugs, birds, and the like that was around outside, but Molly always managed to keep them moving in the right direction. Most people were at work by this point, and few students had taken the option to move in this early, so they didn’t encounter anyone else for most of the short trip. However, at one point, a car drove past them, and they clearly got the attention of the man driving it. Molly hid behind her friend, but Jill waived waived at him excitedly as he passed by. The man turned around and pulled up next to them.

"So what are you all dressed up for?" he asked Jill.

Jill was confused. "I’m nakey."

"Yes, I can see that," said the man, now looking a little confused himself. "Where exactly are you going all ’nakey’ like that?"

"I’m gonna play with a puppy!"

"Jill," Molly interjected quietly, "we’re babies, and babies shouldn’t talk to strangers!"

Upon hearing this, the man’s expression changed to surprise and then horrified embarrassment. "Er...uh...you kids be safe, you hear?" He then sped off.

"That was weird," Jill said.

Molly was relieved that he left. "Let’s keep going. We’re almost there."

After walking another block, they finally reached Molly’s aunts house. Molly rang the doorbell repeatedly, and her aunt opened the door. She glanced at what Molly was wearing and what Jill wasn’t. "Molly, what exactly-"

"So I found out I was a baby and then I wet the bed and Jill put a really bad diaper on me and then was going to take me to the store to get a good one but then she remembered she was a baby too and then she took her clothes off and played with ducks and then I decided we needed a grown up but I didn’t wanna talk to strangers so I came here," Molly said all in one breath.

"Oh," said her aunt with a look of recognition. "That happened to you, too, huh?" She hugged Molly. "It must have been very scary to be without any grown ups around."

"It was," said Molly hugging back.

"Well you’re safe now. And I’m so proud of you for being a big girl and coming right here. Most kids your age would have gotten themselves hurt. You’re such a good girl."

Molly was positively beaming due to the praise. Maybe she wasn’t quite as helpless as she had previously thought.

"Can we play with the puppy now?" asked Jill.

Molly’s aunt released Molly from her hug. "We’ll need to get you dressed first."

Jill stomped her foot, pouting. "But I wanna be nakey!"

"I won’t make you wear anything else right now if you don’t want to, but you need a diaper on if you want to play in my house.

Jill just quietly pouted.

"Please?" Molly asked her.

"...’kay." Jill finally quietly responded.

Molly’s aunt brought both of them into the kitchen, then quickly ran into the other room and came back holding a couple of diapers. Jill didn’t fight the diaper being put on her, but she didn’t do anything to help it along, and she insisted on remaining upright, so it took a couple of minutes for Molly’s aunt to get the diaper on her.

"Alright, that’s a little bit small," Molly’s aunt said, "but it should be good enough for now. I’ll have to get some larger diapers later tonight." She turned towards Molly. "So what’s this about a ’bad diaper’?" Molly lifted her skirt, and her aunt laughed. "Well I guess that was pretty resourceful for someone your age, but I think you’ll like this better." She proceeded to get Molly into a real diaper, and Molly was quite happy to find it much more comfortable.

"You girls play in here while I go call you mommies and get the puppy," she said as she brought the girls into the living room and helped them get into a playpen. Molly’s cousin Jimmy was in there with them, and his ten-year-old sister Abby was asleep on the couch. The two baby girls were quite happy to have someone else their own age to play with, and they lost themselves in their games, not paying attention to what Molly’s aunt was saying just outside of the room.

Molly’s aunt returned after a little while. "Girls, since both of your mommies are far away, I’m going to be taking care of the two of your for a couple of weeks until they can get down here."

Molly didn’t mind, as she’d always liked her aunt, and she was already learning to appreciate her cousin a lot more. Jill looked bothered. "You said you were getting the puppy!"

"Don’t worry hon, I just wanted to make sure you too would listen to what I said first." She opened the door to the back yard, and a puppy came bounding in. Both girls cheered, and Molly’s aunt helped them out of the playpen, and all three toddlers began to loudly play with the puppy as Molly’s aunt sat on the couch next to her daughter. Abby awoke due to the noise. She looked a bit grumpy, but then she spied her mother and began grabbing at her chest. "I guess someone’s hungry after her nap," she said as she opened her blouse and Abby latched onto her breast.

Molly took a glance in their direction and was surprised by what she saw. "Abby’s a baby, too?"

"Yes, dear. We realized it last night. She’s been having a rough time since she found out that Jimmy is her big brother, so try to be nice to her, ok?" It hadn’t been fun for anyone that night. Molly’s aunt had been on the couch watching TV with Abby when all of the sudden the girl just burst into tears. She tried to get Abby to tell her what was going on, but Abby was incoherent. She soon noticed a smell around the time that Abby finally managed to get out "Me baby." She felt so foolish for not noticing earlier and did her best to comfort the girl, though it took quite a while for the crying to die down at all. When she finally felt that her daughter was calm enough to get cleaned up, she found that despite Jimmy now clearly being about twice her age, his diapers didn’t fit her, so she had to make an awkward late night run to the pharmacy, which luckily had plenty of diapers in her size that they said they just got in stock. She then had the stressful task of putting both of her very young, wound up children to bed. Luckily, she suddenly realized that mothers always love having babies around, and calmed down and began to appreciate this turn of events.

Molly felt bad for Abby. She never really got along with her brother, so it must have been devastating to realize that he was the older one, and Molly had a feeling that Jimmy wasn’t being very nice about the reversal of their relationship. "Don’t worry, I’ll be really, really nice. Can I play with her when she’s done eating?"

"That’s up to her," Molly’s aunt responded as her daughter continued to suckle. She reached for the remote and turned the TV on.

"...discovered the man who has done more for children in the last 48 hours than most people have in their lives," said the newsman, "Stephen Johnston of Battle Creek, Michigan. Now Stephen, can you tell us about the problem and what you did to solve it?"

The other man was a thin man with messy hair and thick glasses. He looked nervous and uncomfortable, like he didn’t want to be there. "Well...uh... I guess I noticed that..uh... people didn’t seem to notice just how young some really people were, so I made a device that helps them... er... realize things that should have been obv-"

Molly’s aunt changed the channel. She was interested in the topic, but she figured that she’d put on some cartoons for the kids and look up a summary online later. She noticed that her daughter had stopped suckling.

"Are you done, sweetie?"

Abby nodded.

"Do you want to play with your cousin?"

Abby looked at Molly and shifted around nervously as she approached.

Molly could see that Abby was unhappy. "What’s wrong?"

"Baby," she responded sadly.

"Yeah, me too," said Molly as she lifted her skirt to show Abby the diaper she was wearing. Abby was clearly surprised. "Found out this morning. I was sad about it, too, but it really isn’t that bad. We get to watch cartoons and play all the time, and we’ve got people like your mommy to keep us safe and stuff."

Abby had stopped squirming and seemed to be thinking about all of this.

"And I really, really want to play with you. We’ll have lotsa fun!"

Abby turned towards her mother. "Wan’ pay!"

Abby’s mother was thrilled that her daughter finally seemed to be excited about something again, and she helped her off the couch and onto the floor. Molly ran over to some toys, and Abby quickly came crawling after. Molly wondered why she was so upset about being a baby. She was having more fun than she remembered, and it looked like she was going to get to have this much fun for a long time.

 

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