A Whole New World

Chapter 6
Eating Out

Pasta Pete’s was a buzzing cauldron of activity. Families with screaming ‘kids’ sat at every table while waiters in tacky white shirts, red bow-ties and black suspenders rushed about with large trays of food. It was a cheap family restaurant alright, complete with red and white checked plastic table-cloths and pictures of stereotypical Italian street scenes on the walls.

As they waited for a table to open up Brian looked around at the other families seated or waiting for a table. Men a few years older than him twisted back and forth excitedly while parents held their hands. A 40-ish woman tied a bib around the neck of a messy-faced young lady about their age. Brian decided that in this new world children stayed infants much longer than normal but then rather suddenly grew up between age eighteen and thirty. He saw no appreciable difference in behaviour between kids who looked sixteen and those who looked ten.

After ten minutes of excruciating waiting in the crowded entry area a man in a stupid waiter outfit topped off with a straw boater hat appeared with a set of menus. He looked over the assembled family and smiled pleasantly at them. He didn’t groan at the sight of a gaggle of unhygienic and potentially vagrant young adults in a restaurant without shoes. All he saw was a group of cute twenty-year old toddlers.

“Welcome to Pasta Pete’s! Follow me please,” he directed.

The table was made up for them already. Two of the chairs were quite different from the rest. They couldn’t really be called high-chairs because of course they didn’t lift their occupants any higher than the normal seats. Yet they looked like high-chairs. They even had straps to buckle occupants into them. Three other chairs at the table had red booster seats on them. The trio knew these were for them and they took their special seats without comment. They had been sat next to each other, a cup of crayons and three placemats with lots of kids’ puzzles and games laid out before them.

Trying to get their minds off their predicament they each took a crayon and began to work on the puzzles while the moms got the babies settled in their high-chairs, threading legs through the holes and doing up seat buckles. Sue’s binkie dropped from her mouth and she immediately began to squall. Luckily Amanda found it and cleaned it off quickly, reinserting it in the crying girl’s mouth. Her tears were gone as quickly as they began.

Returning his attention to the puzzle Brian found the maze he was working on trickier than expected. For one thing it was very tough to manipulate the crayon. He couldn’t grasp it correctly for some reason. He’d used pens and pencils for years but the manner in which you were supposed to hold one escaped him. Sending the crayon where he wanted to was equally difficult. He kept crossing the lines. Even worse though, he couldn’t seem to think ahead. He kept hitting dead ends in what should have been a simple maze. The whole thing was frustrating and worrying.

Brian finally abandoned the maze and threw his crayon away, looking over at his friends’ papers to see they too were having trouble. Rachel was having a hard time just connecting the dots on her mat while Megan’s usual drawings were now nothing but scribbles. It was quite a relief when the food finally came, though Rachel was particularly upset their mothers had simply ordered for them without even asking for their preferences. She didn’t want plain old spaghetti, but no one would give her a menu and even if they had she knew she wouldn’t have been able to read it anyway.

As the waiter set down plates before them the moms were all quickly out of their seats, tying bibs around Sue and Danny, then turning to the ‘toddlers.’ Joy picked up Rachel’s napkin, unfolded it and began to stuff it into the neck of her dress like a make-shift bib.

“Hey, stop it! I don’t need that!” Rachel insisted, twisting back and forth to escape her mom’s hands.

“I’m sure you’ll be a big girl and be very clean for me dear, but just in case we need to keep your pretty dress clean.”

“Pretty dress? I hate this stupid thing, just leave me alone!” Rachel wailed loud enough to make heads turn from nearby tables.

“Rachel, don’t make a scene!” Joy scolded. “Sit still and be a good girl or there will be no dessert for you.”

Rachel pouted but quieted down, not because of the threat but because she realised people were indeed looking at her like a bratty toddler. Megan and Brian said nothing as their moms tucked napkins into their shirts the same way.

If colouring with crayons had been hard, eating was near impossible. Brian blamed the utensils. While the adults had normal metal forks and knives they had to make do with simple plastic cutlery. Abandoning the proper adult grip Brian held his fork in his closed fist and shovelled the spaghetti into his mouth as best he could. Sure enough it wasn’t long before his napkin bib was stained liberally in tomato sauces. He was certain his cheeks and chin were no better. It took all his concentration to bring the fork to his mouth properly. His only consolation was that Rachel and Megan were doing no better.

“This is stupid!” Rachel finally declared, throwing down her fork and crossing her arms in frustration.

Joy looked up from her meal and gave her daughter a firm look. “Rachel, finish your meal,” she said calmly.

“No! I don’t even like spaghetti with tomato sauce.”

“Rachel, if you don’t finish that, no dessert for you tonight.”

“I don’t care!”

“Really? You won’t care when your friends Brian and Megan are eating yummy ice cream and you have to just watch?”

Rachel said nothing, but didn’t even look at the food.

Joy sighed and got up from her seat, going to Rachel’s side. “Rachel, you are going to eat your dinner or Mommy will have to feed it to you like a little baby.”

“No!” Rachel gasped, looking up at her mother with terror.

“Yes Rachel, eat like a big girl or like a baby, it’s your choice.”

Her bottom lip quivering, Rachel picked the fork back up and shovelled another messy load of spaghetti into her mouth. “I’m not a baby,” she insisted.

“I know that honey,” her mommy assured her. “You’re a big girl who can feed herself. Now show Mommy how you can finish all your food,” Joy encouraged, rubbing Rachel’s shoulder.

By the end of the meal all three were feeling quite silly about how messy they’d gotten. Although they weren’t nearly as bad as little Danny, who’d fed himself with his fingers. The giggling teen’s hands, cheeks and chin were all red with sauce. Megan was feeling a bit overly full from the meal, even though it hadn’t really been that much. She burped loudly and then cringed with embarrassment at her faux pas. The mothers just smiled and giggled at her rudeness though.

As the moms worked on cleaning their babies’ faces with wet-naps Danny’s smile left his face and he got a look of intense concentration. For a moment the trio wondered it maybe some of the old Dan’s adult mentality was trying to break through. Then they heard the rude noises, muffled by his diaper and shorts, erupting from him. Loud farts and little popping sounds could be heard as he squinted and grunted softly. Brian gasped and looked away when he realised what was happening. Rachel was frozen in horror watching her own brother soil himself. Megan was absolutely disgusted.

The teenaged young man smiled again as he finished his business, looking up at his Mommy and announcing, “Poopy!”

“Uh-oh,” Rachel chuckled, “I think we have a little mister stinky-pants here.”

The smell of what the young fellow had done wafted through the air, leaving no doubt he’d made a real load in his big diaper. The scent of it and the smile on Danny’s face was too much for Megan. She gagged and covered her mouth, but combined with her indigestion she couldn’t hold it back. Megan vomited a bit before regaining control. It wasn’t that much, but it was down her bib and badly stained her shirt. Just the sight of the disgusting stuff on her Sesame Street shirt made her want to throw-up even more.

“Oh Megan!” Amanda exclaimed, rushing to her daughter’s side. “Are you feeling sick honey?”

“It stinks!” Megan managed to blurt out.

“Oh, poor girl, you must have eaten too much baby. And you’ve gotten it all over your nice shirt too.”

Megan blinked back tears, looking around her and realising people were staring. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“It’s okay honey, Mommy will get you all cleaned up.” Amanda turned to the other moms and asked, “Could you watch them for a sec, I need to go to the car and get her a new shirt?”

Sara nodded. “I’ll watch them. Joy, you just go take care of Danny.”

Joy nodded and unbuckled the boy from the chair. “Okay little stinker, let’s get you changed,” she chirped, leading the still grinning boy to the bathroom with the diaper bag over her shoulder.

Amanda tutted as she looked over the mess her daughter had made of her shirt. “Okay honey, let’s get you out of this messy shirt. Mommy will get you a clean one from the car,” she told Megan, grasping the bottom of the shirt and pulling it up.

Megan shrieked and pulled away but it happened so suddenly she wasn’t prepared for it. In one swift motion her shirt was up over her head and slipping off her upraised arms. Just like that she found herself sitting in a crowded family restaurant topless, not even a bra to hide her breasts. “Mommy, I’m topless!” she gasped, crossing her arms to keep some dignity.

“Well you can’t just sit in a shirt covered in throw-up sweetie. Mommy will be back with your unicorn shirt in a second.”

As her mother left with her shirt Megan shivered in shame. This was worse than what had happened at home. As bad as that had seemed at the time, being topless in full public view was infinitely worse. Sure, it had happened a couple times at drunken parties back at college, but that was different. Then she’d chosen to take off her shirt and she’d been one of several topless girls. Now no one was even staring at her, no one cared that she her boobs were on display. She was just another toddler who’d ruined her shirt as far as anyone was concerned. Somehow that made it all even worse.

While Brian was trying not to get caught staring at his half-naked friend, Rachel had problems of her own to worry about. The urge to pee had struck her suddenly and violently. It was as though she’d been holding it in all day. She was seriously worried she wouldn’t be able to wait long. “I... I need to potty!” she called out, immediately regretting her childish choice of words but unable to think of how else to explain her need.

Sara gave her a sympathetic look. “Okay honey, just hold it a second. Your mommy will be right back.”

Rachel shook her head. Didn’t this woman understand she needed a potty now? “Can’t wait, need to potty!” she exclaimed.

“Sorry Rachel but I can’t take you to the potty until Megan’s mommy or your mommy comes back,” Sara explained.

Rachel squirmed in her seat, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She needed to go potty but no one was here to take her. It struck her that she shouldn’t really need anyone to take her to the potty and yet by now she needed to go so badly she was afraid even to stand up lest she lose control. It was all for nought though. After a few more seconds of struggling Rachel felt her loins growing warm and wet and the pressure releasing. After holding it in so valiantly she had lost the battle.

The feeling of release was so nice she had to fight not to sigh contentedly. She felt ashamed by what she was doing, but it was impossible to stop. It seemed she had quite a lot of pee-pee to get out. She felt it trickling through the leg holes of her pull-up, warm liquid running down her leg to her sandals as she set on the edge of her seat. She tried to look nonchalant, like nothing had happened. No one could know the disgusting thing she’d just done.

“Honey, did you just have an accident?” Sara asked kindly.

“What?!” Rachel gasped. “No!” she insisted.

“Are you sure dear? You didn’t make pee-pee?”

Rachel shook her head again, refusing to admit the shameful truth.

As she sat there in her cooling pee trying not to cry again she felt a brief flicker of jealousy for Sue of all people. The teen girl was simply sucking away at her binkie, content, oblivious to all the shame Rachel and the others were going through.

Joy returned with Danny soon enough. The young man toddled along pulling ahead of his mommy, who held him by the hand, picking his nose with his free hand. As soon as Joy had him settled in his high-chair again Sara turned to her and said, “Joy, I’m afraid you have another little one needing a change.”

“Oh, what happened?”

“Rach really needed to potty a little while ago but she hasn’t said anything for a couple minutes and she got that look on her face I’d recognise anywhere. I’m pretty sure she’s had an accident.”

Joy nodded and walked over to Rachel’s side. The girl was about to deny she’d done any such thing, but her mommy didn’t even bother asking her. She just reached down and yanked her skirt up, pulling back her pull-up and sticking two fingers down it. Rachel felt horribly violated but worse, she knew the game was up now.

“Rachel honey, you’re very wet. Why didn’t you tell someone you’d had an accident?” Mommy asked her.

Rachel tried to think of an excuse but she was drawing a total blank. “I’m sorry Mommy!” she gasped at last, tears filling her eyes.

“It’s okay. Let’s go to the bathroom and get you changed,” Joy told her kindly, taking her hand.

Rachel sniffled and let her mom lead her through the restaurant to the bathroom. She was sure everyone knew why she was being taken there. With every step her wet pull-up swished and squeaked across her thighs. The cooling pee made her bottom and legs sticky and uncomfortable. At least there was no one else in the lady’s room when they entered. Mommy took her to the largest stall, where a diaper changing station was built into the wall.

“Please Mommy, don’t make me lie on it,” she begged.

“Don’t worry sweetie, you don’t have to lie down. Little girls your age have accidents, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Joy lifted Rachel’s dress and pulled her sopping wet pull-up down, slipping it off each foot. Pulling out a couple wet-naps from the diaper bag she wiped Rachel’s privates and thighs, cleaning off the pee-pee.

“Hmm, looks like you leaked a bit dear. I’m afraid you’ve gotten it all down your leg,” Joy commented, getting more wet-naps.

Rachel stood still and thought about happy college memories while her mother wiped down her leg.

“Honey, you’ve even gotten it all over your sandals,” her mother sighed, undoing the buckles on her glittery jelly shoes. “Well you can just go barefoot like your friends,” Joy told her.

Rachel pouted as she felt the cool tiled floor of the bathroom under her feet. She reminded herself that this wasn’t so bad. Megan was the one sitting out in public topless, being barefoot was nothing compared to that. Mommy was getting out a new pull-up from the bag already and Rachel eagerly stepped into it, glad to feel the thick garment slipping up her legs and protecting her again.

By the time Rachel and Joy returned to the table Megan was wearing a new t-shirt and everyone was getting ready to go. None of them had a chance to speak to each other again before they were separated. Each found themselves being led to separate cars, wondering when they’d see each other again. The worst of it was they still didn’t know what on earth had become of that cursed book.