A Whole New World

Chapter 15
Photo Shoot

Chapter 15

When his eyes adjusted from the flash nothing seemed to have changed. He was still in the tunnel, still at Gymboree and still dressed in the striped romper. Only the book itself seemed to be different. It had become plastic. It was now a rounded puffy plastic infant’s book with pictures of little yellow duckies on the cover. “Baahpoopthhh,” he mocked the book.

Brian blinked. What had he said? That didn’t sound right at all. He concentrated and declared, “Mmmaahpthhh...bababoo!”

No! This was all wrong, the book had robbed him of his ability to speak! How could he fix anything now? He couldn’t, that was the simple answer. He just couldn’t.

There was something wet dripping on his hands. Brian saw bubbly liquid on his fingers, then he felt the wetness on his chin as well. He was drooling, spittle coating his chin and hanging from it. Brian had to concentrate on keeping his mouth closed to keep the saliva from running over his lips. Feeling inside his mouth with his tongue revealed that his teeth were all completely gone now. Fighting the panic rising up inside him Brian began to crawl out of the enclosing space of the tunnel. His arms promptly gave out and he found himself flat on his tummy.

Brian scooted on his tummy, legs flailing behind him like a frog until he was free of the tunnel. Just holding his head upright seemed to take an effort now. His muscled had turned to jelly. Even when he wasn’t crawling his legs twitched and his feet wiggled. The motor control areas of his brain were back to complete infancy now. As he left the tube and looked about the room he discovered that his visual acuity had also decreased. He’d never needed glasses, but now everything in the distance was blurry.

However things nearby remained perfectly clear and he was able to see the woman lying on the floor facing him. For a second he didn’t recognise the adult sized infant, even though he could see her just fine. Then the face staring at him clicked into place and he gasped at Meggy. He hadn’t recognised her until now because she looked very different than a minute ago. Meggy was bald, her lovely hair completely missing from her head. She was gaping at him slack-jawed with drool pouring freely from her toothless mouth.

Despite the bald head and toothless mouth it was actually her eyes which showed Brian the most prominent and disturbing change. Before she’d been wide-eyed and innocent looking sure. But something had happened in this last transformation, some threshold had been crossed. Now her eyes were completely vacant, empty of all personality or even a flicker of intelligent thought. Whatever had been left of adult Megan, the little flicker of her old self he’d still seen even as she babbled and messed her diaper, it was completely gone now. Her mind had undeveloped to the point that she was nothing but an empty-headed little infant, albeit in a grown-up body.

Meggy blinked those big unthinking eyes, pursed her wet lips and blew a raspberry, saliva bubbles escaping the corners of her mouth. Brian just shook his head in disgust. Then he had a terrible thought, bringing his hand to the top of his head and sighing with relief as he felt hair. Granted it felt thinner than before and was probably so light it appeared blonde by now, but still it was hair.

“Well there you are!” a voice called from just behind him. Brian managed to twist his head enough to see ma-ma there, hands on her hips, grinning down at him. “How did you get all the way over here Bri-Bri?” she asked.

“Baadoo,” he babbled, forgetting he could no longer form proper words.

Ma-ma giggled at his cute babbling and picked him up. The feelings of helplessness he’d been having since this began now became complete. He was limp as a rag-doll in ma-ma’s arms. From Meggy’s behaviour and his lack of speech or motor control he now estimated his abilities at the five or maybe six month old level. As ma-ma rested him against her bosom and cradled his bottom with her arm, he felt that his diaper seemed much thicker as well, the leg-holes no longer contoured to fit a learning walker or even a crawler.

For several disorienting seconds he could only see ma-ma’s shirt as she carried him across the room. Then she set him down in a strange seat that wrapped around him with a section sticking up between his legs. He recalled that this was called a Bumbo, it was designed to keep a small infant sitting upright, preventing him flopping over on his back or tummy. It forced his legs straight out in front of him where he watched them twitch and wiggle seemingly on their own.

Rachel was sat in a pink Bumbo right next to his. Though her outfit hadn’t changed her hair had become thinner as well and she too had a romper collar that was now wet with drool. Brian gave her a pitiful look, wishing he could tell her how sorry was that he’d only made things worse for them again. She glared back at him, opening her mouth as though ready to yell at him, but shut it again when the only result was more spittle down her chin.

For five minutes they were forced to sit there trapped in their Bumbo chairs watching other older kids play. With each demotion they appreciated what they’d had before. At least at the last level they were mobile and could communicate to some degree. Rachel thought she’d even enjoy being back in one of those baby walkers now. At least that was a vehicle of sorts.

When Sara and Joy returned from changing Danny into a new diaper they set about entertaining the bored looking babies. Danny was plopped on the floor to creep while the two mommies shook rattles before Brian and Rachel. Neither baby wanted to show any interest, even though the noises were undeniably attention-grabbing for both. Was this what their future held? How could they ever be happy contained to baby seats and forced to watch the world go by while their mothers gave them silly toys that could never entertain their adult minds?

Sara frowned at Bri-Bri’s lack of interest in the rattle. “Come on sweetie, look at the pretty rattle!” she urged. “Lookie, lookie Bri-Bri,” she cooed to the boy, shaking it right before his eyes.

Brian glanced at the rattle at last and then his eyes seemed locked on it. “Yes, there we go, there’s my happy baby! Who wikes his widdle wattle? Does Bri-Bri? I think he does! I think he wants to chew it, doesn’t he?”

Brian began to reach out for the toy, despite himself. Ma-ma let him take it into his hands and he found the urge to put it in his mouth was indeed irresistible. He gummed the hard plastic, slobbering over the toy and feeling ashamed by his infantile explorations. At least until he looked over and saw that Rachel was smiling and squealing with glee as her ma-ma tickled the soles of her feet. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. Brian felt light tickles brush up and down his own feet as ma-ma copied Joy. The nerves down there seemed to have become super-sensitive and he shivered with ecstasy, smiling around the rattle and giggling uncontrollably. Ma-ma was so funny! How could getting a little tickle be so much fun?

“Bri-Bri likes getting ikles on hims footsies! Look at that silly smile!” Sara baby-talked to him. “Do you love your ma-ma? Can Bri-Bri tell me who he loves? Say ‘ma-ma’ for me sweetie! I know you can do it, just say ‘ma-ma’ for me.”

Feeling alive with silliness as the tickles continued Brian opened his mouth and tried his best to make his ma-ma happy. “Mmmbaah!” he crowed.

“Ooh that was close sweetie!” ma-ma declared. “Try again sweetie. C’mon ikkle Bwi-Bwi, tell ma-ma who you love. Say ‘ma-ma’!”

Brian concentrated on getting his tongue in the right place, then opened his mouth, ignoring the flood of drool that caused, and said, “Mmmaa-maaa!”

Sara leapt with joy, clapping her hands and then leaning it to plant several big smooches on her baby man’s face.

“He said it! Did you hear that Joy?”

“I sure did!” Joy nodded, happy for her friend. Turning to her girl she said, “Can you do that sweetie? Can you say ‘ma-ma’ like you little friend?”

Rachel was still giggling from her tickles and decided to give it a try. “Daaadooo,” she blathered unsuccessfully.

Joy chuckled at her daughter’s attempt. “Oh well, it was close sweetie but I’m afraid it’s ma-ma, not da-da.”

“She’ll get it soon enough,” Sara assured the other mother.

“Yes, soon enough she’ll be crawling and speaking real words and everything. I’ll just enjoy her cute little babbles while I still can.”

Amanda reappeared with bald little Meggy on her hip. “Hey guys we better get going if we’re gonna get those photos done,” she reminded them.

“Oh goodness, you’re right, we need to get going,” Sara agreed as Joy nodded.

Brian and Rachel were picked up out of their Bumbo seats, Brian still mouthing his rattle, and were carried out of the play area to their waiting stroller. It had changed since they were last in it though. Now instead of being two abreast there was one seat behind another, behind another. Amanda slipped Meggy into the rear sear while Rachel found herself placed in the middle one. A set of plastic toys dangled above her head just in reach of her hands. Also facing her was a little mirror secured to the back of the seat in front of her. In it she could finally get a glimpse of herself and it wasn’t a pretty picture. She could see the drool glistening on her chin, how thin and wild her hair was, the darkened soaking wet front of her romper. Even with her obvious breasts showing she looked like an overgrown infant in every way. Brian was sat in the front seat, his legs now divided by part of the hand-rest. It had holes built into it holding a ba-ba and several toys.

Once Sue and Danny were secured in their own separate stroller they all made their way out of Gymboree and through the mall again. This time Brian wasn’t paying attention to the sights, his attention was locked on the toys attached to his stroller. He didn’t seem able to look away. Hitting at them over and over was just so enjoyable. Rachel felt just the same in the seat behind him. She lay back in her chair batting at the dangling toys, making them spin about and light up.

It seemed like no time at all had passed before they were at their destination and their mommies were lifting them out of the stroller. Rachel actually cried out when she was lifted free. She wanted to play with the toy more. She screeched at her ma-ma to make her stop but that accomplished nothing. Ma-ma just sat down on a seat with Rachel on her lap. It only occurred to Rachel a bit later that this was surely uncomfortable for ma-ma as she weighed at least as much as she did. Nevertheless ma-ma began to bounce Rachel on her knee, calming her down. The up and down motion was quite relaxing in fact. She liked the sensation as well as the knowledge she was safe on ma-ma’s lap.

Once she was calmer she was able to reflect on her recent behaviour. It troubled her that she so easily accepted playing with baby toys as fun and that she’d just screamed and babbled nonsense when she was upset, like that was a normal response to things going wrong. Just the idea that she’d thrown a tantrum over losing a flashing yellow baby toy was enough to make her feel like an idiot.

They were at a photography studio somewhere in the mall now. The waiting area they were in was not separated from the actual studio, so they could see the whole set-up. The walls were all painted black and there was a very complicated, expensive looking camera on a tripod in the middle of the room. There were several backgrounds available, but the one he had down at the moment was simple blue sky and clouds. There was a desk with a cash register and beside it a clothing rack with all sorts of outfits. The waiting area walls were covered in photos, some colour, some black and white. It appeared from these shots that the man here specialised in baby photos. That was probably a pretty good industry if people stayed babies for over twenty years.

The shots displayed showed naked or diaper-clad young men and women smiling eagerly for the camera. One had a teen girl clothed only in a diaper chewing on a big string of what were meant to be mommy’s pearls, giggling her pig-tailed head off. Another featured a twenty-something man in a plastic kiddie fireman hat and shirtless with blue-jean shortalls pulling a giant red radio flyer wagon in which a lanky teen boy was seated, he with a dumb infantile grin and naked but for a diaper as well.

Once Joy was satisfied that Rachel was calm enough she was carried over to a large play-pen in the corner and deposited there. The other babies were already all in it. Rachel noticed that Sue and Danny hadn’t really changed this time. It appeared they were now all about the same level of development. Those two and Meggy were happily lying on their backs or tummies gnawing on the simple baby toys in the playpen. Rachel and Brian still had enough self-control not to touch toys that countless young men and women must have slobbered over. This pen was surely rife with baby germs. That didn’t stop their baby-minded compatriots from offering them toys.

“Babababa,” Danny babbled to his sister, offering her a drool-soaked green teething ring.

Rachel shook her head, unable even to say the word ‘no’ to her brother. He stared blankly at her a moment then returned the teething ring to his own mouth, blowing spit bubbles around it. Rachel gagged and looked away. She didn’t like to see how far Danny had fallen. As with Meggy his eyes were now devoid of recognition or any real thought process.

“We’ll start with your older girl then,” a male voice announced from outside the pen.

Rachel tried to see through the mesh but it was too tough. Only when the man appeared over the railing, gazing disinterestedly down at them, did she see the photographer. Amanda appeared at his side a second later and together they lifted Meggy out of the pen.

“Here we go baby,” Amanda crooned to her girl. “Let’s get you in your special outfit for your photos.”

After a short time Joy and Sara appeared again, looming above them as though giants. Being in the huge playpen warped their perspectives. Rachel and Brian found themselves being lifted out.

“Let’s get you guys ready to be stars,” Sara joked.

Meggy was already having her turn in the spotlight, quite literally. With her mother right beside the photographer Meggy was alone on the studio floor with all the flood-lights focused on her. The outfit she worn was discarded in a heap by the tripod. Instead she’d now had a white ribbon tied around the crown of her bald head, a big pink bow affixed to it just above the right of her forehead. She wore that and nothing else. Even her diaper was discarded with her other clothes. She was lying naked on her tummy on a thick white section of shag carpet, long bare legs askew behind her, smooth bum lifted slightly in the air, boobies on display as she craned her neck and gaped at the squeaky ducky toy her mother held. Her blank eyes followed the toy’s every movement and each time it squeaked her face was lit with an open-mouthed grin, which the photographer dutifully caught in photo after photo.

“Good girl Meggy, look at the pretty ducky,” Amanda encouraged.

Meggy couldn’t so much as reach for the toy, or crawl towards it. But she was content to look at it and smile at the funny noise it made anyway.

When they’d taken enough shots of that pose Amanda put away the toy and went to her daughter’s side, rolling her onto her back on the carpet. “Good girl, Meggy is a good baby,” she cooed. Then she began to tickle Meggy’s soles, making the girl giggle as Rachel had at the treatment earlier. Only Amanda was also peddling Meggy’s feet in the air above her. “Lookit your tootsies!” she sing-songed to the naked woman.

Sure enough Meggy grabbed one of her feet and yanked it back and forth. Amanda stepped back and the photographer snapped shots of her playing with her feet, pulling them back and forth and finally jamming several toes in her mouth to suck on.

“There we go! That’s my little toe-muncher,” Amanda announced. “That’ll be our next Christmas card.”

When Meggy finished her toe-sucking session Amanda got her re-diapered and back in her baby outfit. Now it was going to be one of their turns. The photographer came over and asked who would be next.

“Well let’s get the boy out of the way,” Sara stepped up. “If that’s okay with you Joy.”

“No problem, go ahead.”

“Okay,” the photographer agreed. “Let’s get him dressed properly.”

“What do you think?”

“For an infant of his age I always say just a diaper or nothing at all is cutest.”

“Okay, let’s do it with just his diapee, so he doesn’t make a mess.”

The man nodded and went off to prepare his camera. Brian was lowered to the ground and laid powerless while his ma-ma slipped his romper off him. Then he was carried over to the white rug and laid on his tummy. The rug was warm and tickly but he refused to smile. The last thing he wanted was his humiliation permanently captured on film. He was determined to ruin the photo shoot any way he could.

Ma-ma stepped back and the man handed her the ducky. She dutifully began to wave it around, squeaking it playfully. Brian wouldn’t play ball so easily. He pointedly refused to even look up at the ducky, lest it actually capture his attention. Instead he looked intently down at the carpet. If they couldn’t see his face, they had no photo.

“C’mon sweetie, look at the ducky!” Ma-ma called in vain. “Quack-quack!” she imitated, with no result. Finally she turned to the photographer and shrugged. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” she declared. “He’s usually very good with strangers. I don’t understand why he’s so shy all of a sudden.”

“It’s okay miss, I’ve seen this before. Has he been fed recently?”

“Well no, he hasn’t had his lunch yet,” she admitted.

“Then you should feed him now. That often calms them down, makes them more relaxed.”

Sara nodded. “Of course, I’ll do that right now, thanks.”

With that she swept Brian back up and carried him out of the shop and into the mall, not bothering to put his romper back on him. Pleased though he was at foiling the photo-shoot he wasn’t happy about being taken into the mall in nothing but his diaper. He clung as tightly as he could to ma-ma, hoping to shield his body from public view.

“Why are you being so cranky today little guy?” ma-ma crooned to him. “Maybe you are just hungry,” she mused.

Ma-ma sat down at a bench just down from the studio, swinging Brian’s weak useless legs onto the bench beside her and resting his head in her lap. It was a weird position for him to be in, looking up at her that way. He watched as she undid the buttons on her blouse. What was she doing that for? Brian shrieked when she pulled back the blouse to reveal a nursing bra. Brian squirmed wildly but couldn’t get free. She had a firm grip on him to keep her baby from falling and he didn’t have the strength to pull away from her.

She seemed quite concerned by her baby’s fit, but couldn’t understand what was wrong. “Shh, shh, it’s okay baby, it’s okay. Ma-ma’s here Bri-Bri, right here and she’s not going anywhere.”

Brian shook his head, willing her to understand. “Baanaaaooh! Eeehgaa!” he jabbered incoherently.

“Here baby, have come to ma-ma,” she said, pulling his head to her breast.

Brian shook with revulsion as his mother’s bared breast filled his vision. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t.... The breast brushed his cheek and some unknown instinct took over and his head twisted on its own accord until the teat brushed across his lips. They opened and took the brown fleshy bit into his mouth. Once it was there he couldn’t stop himself from suckling, just like he did on the pacifier or the ba-ba. It was better than his binkie or ba-ba in fact. It was warm and soft and felt so natural. The creamy warm liquid that squirted into his mouth was the best tasting thing he could ever remember having. Once taste was all it took to be hooked.

Brian suckled on and on, swallowing a tummy-full of ma-ma’s milk. This was ma-ma inside of him, warming him, providing for him. He could see only the skin of her boob, but it didn’t matter, he wasn’t thinking about anything, just existing in the moment. Time meant nothing while he was feeding. All he knew was everything was perfect.

He was barely awake when the suction was broken. The lovely nipple slipped from between his lips, some milk dribbling down his chin and wetting his chest. Ma-ma closed up her blouse while he lay with his head rested in the crook of her elbow, staring wordlessly up at her, still smiling with delight. He didn’t struggle as she lifted him back up and carried him into the studio again. It was only once there that his mind seemed to flick back on and he realised where he was and what he’d just done.

Suddenly he wanted to vomit up the milk he’d just drunk. He thought about all the people in the mall who’d passed by and seen him feeding like that. People had actually seen him, a twenty-one year old man, feeding at his mother’s breast, naked but for a diaper right there in the mall! How could he ever go back to normal after that? And what was worse, he felt a burning desire to do it again! It tasted sooo good and it felt so wonderful. He was addicted.

Back inside the studio the photographer was finishing up with Rachel. She was wearing a big pink bow in her hair now and her romper was gone. Instead she wore a frilly pink tutu and nothing else. She was topless, her breasts bared to the camera as she squirmed on her belly like a fish out of water. She didn’t look happy either but Joy didn’t seem to care that the girl wasn’t smiling. She was just interested in capturing the cute outfit the baby was in.

With the photos done Rachel was finally stripped of the silly tutu and placed back in the playpen in just her diaper. Now it was again Brian’s turn.

“How’s he doing?” the photographer asked.

“Much better, he really calmed down once he got a tummy full of ma-ma’s milk.”

“Great, let’s get started then.”

“Okay, y’know what, I think he’ll be happier if we get him free of his diapee, so let’s make some nudie shots,” ma-ma decided.

“Sounds fine, those are always the cutest anyways.”

Brian shook his head but was completely ignored again. With a couple of rips his diaper was floating to the ground and he was being deposited on the carpet again, now totally naked. The shaggy material tickled his pee-pee nicely but that wasn’t going to make him forget how embarrassing this was.

“Aww, look at his widdle tushy, these are going to be just lovely,” Sara told the photographer.

Brian knew when he’d lost the battle. They weren’t going anywhere till ma-ma had her photos. So when she squeaked the stupid toy again Brian looked up and forced a grin. The camera snapped over and over and he did his best to hide his weenie. All they’d get was his butt and he could live with that.

The cameraman stopped and Brian hoped this was it, but instead he said to ma-ma, “Would you like some footsies shots like Amanda’s girl?”

“Oh yes, those are sooo adorable.”

“Okay, let’s get him on his back and playing with his tootsies.”

Ma-ma rolled the boy onto his back and then began to peddle his feet, just as Amanda had done to Meggy. But Brian just stared back at her, not amused. “C’mon sweetums, lookit ‘em wiggle, lookit dose toesies,” she crooned.

Brian would have crossed his arms if he could have. Instead he remained still, not giving in.

“C’mon Bri-Bri, this little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home...” she sang, playing piggy toes with him. But again this had no effect on him.

“Guess he doesn’t like his toes much,” the photographer shrugged.

“Guess not,” ma-ma sighed, releasing his feet.

Brian was feeling pretty proud of himself. He’d ruined their photo shoot after all. Not bad for a baby unable to even sit up properly. His moment of pride was short-lived though. It ended as golden liquid arced through the air, splashing ma-ma and soaking the carpet. He hadn’t felt it coming on at all. Suddenly he was tinkling all over the place. Even once it started he couldn’t do a thing about it. His bladder had no control whatsoever. All he could do was watch the pee-pee spurting from his naked weenie.

“Oh dear!” ma-ma exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!” she told the photographer.

“No problem at all, happens a lot in this line of business. I’ll get it cleaned up when he’s done, don’t worry yourself. You just get him cleaned up and diapered again.”

Ma-ma nodded as his pee-pee stream slowed to spurts and then finally stopped. Brian moaned in shame as ma-ma slipped his diaper under his butt and grabbed some wipes to clean his weenie yet again. And the only thing he could think was, at least it wasn’t poopy.