Annie and Penny Book Deux Deux

Chapter 8
Dueling Banjos

Chapter Description: "What we have here, is a failure to..."

Later in the day, as the sunset over the sleepy town washing it in golden yellow to dull red tones, a small drama was unfolding in the living room of Annie’s house.

Present were Natasha, Annie, Penny sitting in the playpen along with a cute little boy about 15 months old, wearing a blue play-shirt, a thick diaper, and a drool-bib. The little boy burbled and squeaked little happy sounds, played with the baby toys, and currently lay upon his back checking out the taste of his toes.

“I hope we can wash all the drool out of the toys when he goes home,” Jenny remarked. The baby had left his mark on nearly everything in the crib including the rails when he was able to pull himself up and bite them.

Little Sammy rolled over and pulled himself up, drool dripping from his mouth soaked his bib. He attempted to talk to Jenny, but all that came up was a kind of “bub bub bub” sound. His mission accomplished in his mind, he let loose a happy little squeal and clapped his hands for effect then crawled back over to taste and drool some more on the mirror of the activity box.

Annie didn’t want to know and painstakingly made certain that Jenny didn’t either about what had happened to Cynthia’s husband Sam. Natasha, the cruel beast that he was, would probably tell them just for sport.

“He does make for a cute little baby, doesn’t he?” asked Natasha with a little smirk that invited, almost begged the question to be asked. The girls weren’t biting and the question whimpered away dejected without its treat.

The angel Gabriel made his appearance and putting the book-size contract on the coffee table, put on a little act, and pretended to be the bearer of bad news for Penny. “Sorry, love! The contract’s just too darn ironclad!”, he put his arm over his eyes with mock concern, “Woe! Woe, betide and all that ancient language blather!” he continued: “So, my dear, after taking all the carefully worded paragraphs apart, putting them back together again, looking at the problem holistically, and pondering our navels for a few millennia, what do you think we’ve found here, hmm?”

Penny looked a Gabriel, gave a little smile, and asked “Does it have anything to do with, I don't know, authentication? It couldn’t be the wording as that thing seems to change its words around when you’re not looking!”

Gabriel picked up Penny, booped her cute little nose, tickled her tummy eliciting a hearty baby guffaw, and said “Close, my dear! So very, very close! You both signed the contract in blood, did you not?”

Penny replied “Yes, we did. As far as I know, that makes the whole contract legally binding. There’s no getting out that way that I can see.”

Gabriel smiled, tossed Penny up in the air, caught her on the downswing which elicited yet more giggles and a stern warning from Annie to “not do that again!”

“Sorry, so sorry!” apologized Gabriel “Anyway, while legally binding, a signature isn’t if it’s not...” pausing for dramatic effect, he looked at Penny again, who finally caught what Gabriel was alluding to and the two simultaneously sang in unison “Legally Notarized!”

“WHAT! What crap is this? My contracts have been legal via signature for eons! When did it come about that it had to be notarized?” said a disbelieving Natasha.

Gabriel just laughed and said “For about the last century or so, old boy! We just never bothered to tell you as most of the souls you reaped were either deserving of it or practically nonexistent. We'll get them all back in the end times after they’ve been through the hell system of reprobation a little wiser for all the wear and tear, we hope!”

“I am so angry right now!” yelled Natasha. After a short period of stomping around the room, which amused little Sammy to no end of chortling, he calmed down and said “I’m going to go look at all the new changes that I missed out on in the last century! You won’t get by on such a flimsy technicality next time, I assure you!”

“Before you go, there is one thing I’d like to ask, if I may?” said Annie “Aren’t you supposed to be on a date with Cynthia, right now?”

“Oh, no problem!” Said Natasha “I sent a clone of myself on the date so I could be here. I don’t like the little gold-digger anyway, so it’s killing two birds with one stone. Tidily pop, everyone!”

Natasha disappeared in a cloud of smoke which Gabriel sucked away with a wave of his hand. “Never could stand the smell of fire and brimstone, myself,” he muttered.

“What about me?” asked Penny “What happens next? Am I going to remain a baby or can I grow up now?”

Gabriel waved his hand making his suit disappear and reappear as a superman suit. “You were very naughty, Penny! I told you not to go into that youth chamber! Fortunately, the professor whipped up an antidote -” with a wave of his hand, a glass baby bottle with a rubber nipple appeared containing a liquid resembling milk “that will return you to normal in the morning.’

“Really?” Asked Penny getting into the role “but I thought that only occurred in the superman universe, not this one! Lemme drink it! Feed me, Seymour! Feed me!”

Gabriel cradled the cute little baby girl in the nook of his left arm and fed the contents to her, afterward, with a very full belly, Penny asked when it would take effect and Gabriel responded “in about a few minutes”. Her distended belly shrank down as the “antidote” worked its way around her system and got processed by her kidneys.

Penny let loose a flood in her diapers that drenched them and the triple inserts inside to their absorptive limit. As a little leaked out past the stretchy leggings and the whole thing threatened to fall off her waist from the sheer weight, Annie grabbed her up, stripped her down, wiped her off, and proceeded to put a fresh set of diapers and inserts on her. She didn’t put on the Gerber cover as she wanted Penny to dry out a little bit first. “Let's let them breathe a little before we seal you up again, Penny.”

“Okay, fun’s fun and all that, but what’s the status on my situation, Gabriel?” asked Penny.

Gabriel grabbed the book-size contract and held it aloft in his hands as if offering it up. The tome sizzled and then disappeared leaving a small puff of smoke in its wake. Gabriel dusted off his hands and his demeanor changed to a somber one. Somewhere in all the excitement, he’d managed to change back into his sensible suit. He walked over to Penny and took her hands.

“Penny, my dear, without the contract you’ll soon revert to your original age. What you decide after that is all up to you. Annie can change your age to anything you want, but I have a counter-proposal that the boss would like you to hear. Let’s just say that with your brilliant mind in the courts of heaven, guilty angels will have better representation. Will you hear the offer?”

“Of course I’ll hear it, but time in heaven is no doubt different than here on earth and I would still like to get some good loving with my mommy on earth. Maybe with a sabbatical every now and then I could visit her, right?”

Penny’s diapers were stretching to their limits as one of the pins holding it in place popped causing the whole bundle of cloth to fall to the floor. Penny was thirty years old now and gaining back her lost years quickly. 50, 70, 80 years accumulated in a mere eye blink, leaving a tired octogenarian in their wake. “I need to sit down, It’s hard on my hip,” said Penny as she made a limping beeline for the chair.