With Friends Like These

Chapter 7
SEVEN

“Oh, um, hi there,” he stammered, not sure what to say about what she’d just seen, how to explain it.

“I’m Rachel, I live next door. Just thought I’d see how everything was going over here,” the woman said.

Ben gulped, he was in deep trouble. The woman didn’t appear angry or outraged, but maybe this was just a front for the kids. She looked middle aged, maybe in her fifties. Did she know about Tommy and Ritchie already? Was this perhaps already normal to her? Ben wasn’t sure, so he helped Tommy off his lap and then headed over to the fence, every footstep feeling uncertain, his heart skipping beats, stomach doing flips.

“Nice to meet you darling,” the older woman greeted him, extending her hand.

He shook it carefully, like she might yank him over the fence with super strength. “Hi there. Uh, I’m Ben. I’m just watching the, er, kids, while my partner is out with Pam,” he explained.

“Right, Pam told me she was going out with her friend tonight, Hannah was it?”

“Yeah, that’s her,” he answered quietly, feeling like he was dealing with a lion who might pounce at any moment.

“Very good of you to watch all three of them. I’m sure they’re quite a handful. Once they’ve had their turn in the dentist chair, wiggled those toesies, all their self-control and impulse-control are right out the window. You have to watch them like a hawk, like any toddlers,” she commented.

Ben felt a little better when she mentioned the dentist, so at least she knew what was going on here and wasn’t horrified by it and liable to run to the police about it. “Yeah, they can be a bit crazy now. My little one Greg is over there,” he said, pointing to the naked man currently jamming grass into his mouth and experimentally chewing on it.

“He’s adorable,” Rachel chuckled. “Just make sure he doesn’t eat too much dirt with the grass,” she warned, half-jokingly. “I know Thomas used to have to stop Ritchie filling up his tummy with bugs and dirt all the time. But now of course Tommy is just as eager to join him in a meal of ants and dandelions. Once they’re happy with their pee-pees swinging free in the summer air they don’t much care about germs anymore. Well they don’t really even understand what germs are anymore actually.”

“So you know about Tommy then?” Ben asked.

Rachel chuckled. “Oh of course. I was the one who suggested the dentist to them in the first place. You see I was quite happy for my little one to get a playmate,” she said, gesturing to her own yard.

It was only then that Ben saw the oversized red and yellow plastic swing hanging from a sturdy branch of a tree. Inside the big child’s swing was a young man of about twenty. He was skinny and gangly with freckles and ginger hair. He was also completely nude like the boys in Ben’s yard. His bare feet dangled well above the grass, swinging idly back and forth while the man chewed on his fingers and gazed about with glassy, empty eyes.

“My son Mikey sat in the dentist’s chair a year ago,” she explained. “He’d been having terrible trouble with a gambling problem, lost his job, had to move home with me and just could not act like a proper adult. So I decided if I was going to be a Mummy again, I was going to have my child back at the age he was most adorable at,” Rachel explained. “And he really is. I had no idea his bare bum-bum would be just as cute as the last time around, but it really is. I know Pam feels the same about her little ones.”

“Yeah, Greg really enjoys being naked now too,” Ben agreed, still on edge a bit.

“Oh it’s only natural for them of course. It’s up to us to decide how to clothe them and if they need to be clothed at all. Can you imagine how nice it is for them not to worry about that, not to even be capable of thinking about such things?”

“Well Greg does seem happier this way,” Ben agreed.

“Of course he is. Tommy felt the same way, I knew that he did. He was so jealous of Ritchie. But it was when I saw him helping Ritchie make his stickies that I knew just how much he needed it too. He was just as excited as the little one, just like you are now,” Rachel said, glancing downwards.

Ben was horrified to realise he still had a raging erection of his own tenting out his shorts. He quickly tried to cover himself but the damage was already done.

Rachel shook her head knowingly. “No need to hide it sweetie, it’s perfectly obvious to me that you’re no different from Tommy. You don’t want to be in charge of three wild little tykes, you don’t enjoy that responsibility at all. No, you’d much rather be rolling around in the grass with them, letting your pee-pee get some sun, some air.”

Ben shook his head. “That’s ridiculous!” he snapped, getting more edgy about this whole encounter.

Rachel shrugged. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all. And I think you would definitely agree it would be better to be playing nakey-bummed and innocent in the grass than sitting in jail.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “What?!” he gasped.

“Well you’ve just taken advantage of a ‘special’ boy. I saw it with my own eyes. If I reported that to Hannah, what do you think would happen?” she mused threateningly.

Ben shook his head. “Hannah couldn’t go to the police about that, not without revealing what she did to Greg.”

Rachel smiled again. It was such an unnerving gesture in this situation. “The dentist does more than provide a lovely release from adult worries for our little ones. They also provide documentation to explain their diminished mental capacity. It’s all nice and legal looking. Didn’t Hannah tell you about that?”

Ben couldn’t help but wonder why Hannah hadn’t mentioned that to him. But he knew he was just being paranoid now. This woman was making him paranoid.

“That doesn’t matter,” he told her. “You have no proof anything happened at all.”

Rachel chuckled. “Honey, I’m Pam’s long-time friend. I’m someone she trusts and I have no reason to lie about such thins. Besides once I have a chat to Pam and Hannah they’ll quickly ask Greg and you know little ones his age have no capacity to lie.”

Ben felt cornered. She was right of course, there was no denying it. He felt like the air was getting thicker, it was hard to breathe. “What do you want?” he croaked.

“I’ve already told you that honey. I want to look over this fence and you playing with the other little ones. I want to see your silly little pee-pee floppy and free like Tommy’s, your feeties nice and dirty and comfy. I want you to be a smiley, giggly, carefree little tot like my sweet little guy.”

Ben shook his head. “Look, that isn’t going to happen, so think of something else.”

Rachel was unmoved. “Tommy said the same thing dearie. He told me just that after I spoke to him about his regular play sessions with Ritchie. He insisted he’d be keeping his big boy thoughts too. But in the end he saw sense, he saw this was by far the better option. And not two days later he was over for a playdate with Mikey, sitting bare bottomed in the dirt under our tree tasting each other’s toes.”

Ben recoiled in disgust but Rachel only smirked at his revulsion. “It isn’t so bad sweetie. It means you can have sticky playtime all you want and nobody will mind. You won’t have to sneak around about it anymore. You’ll be able to play with Greg’s happy pee-pee right in front of Hannah, anytime it gets big and twitchy. Tommy helped Mikey have a big creamy squirt during their first playdate and that was fine with me because they were on the same level now.”

Ben was speechless. This was at once horrible and exciting. Somehow this woman knew about his secret yearnings. There was no hiding the fact he was still achingly erect either.

“You’re going to tell Hannah you need to see the dentist darling. You’re going to tell her you’re desperately jealous of Greg and seeing Tommy changed was the last straw. You’re going to let her make you an appointment, you’re going to go, lie in that chair, listen to the lovely doctor and wiggle your toesies for him. That’s what’s going to happen now. Because if it doesn’t happen, then Hannah and the police will soon be involved. And then you’ll be in big trouble. Even if you tell the truth the most you can hope for is to bring me down with you, but that won’t save you and it will condemn Hannah too.

“So in a week I’ll be dropping by your place for a visit. And I expect to find you a smiling, silly little playmate for Greg. Understood?”

Ben had no choice but to give a stiff nod. Rachel flashed that awful grin once more and wished him a good afternoon before walking back to where her adult son was sitting naked in the baby swing, nibbling on the tips of his own bare toes.