Rescue Mission to Wonderland

Chapter 3
Rescue Mission to Wonderland Part 3

Chapter Description: The quest in the magic kingdom is over, but not everything is back to normal for Josh. Is it even better?

As it should be:

Josh still held Kelly’s hand, when they arrived back in the princess tent in her room. He felt a moment of relief, which ended abruptly when he stepped into the room and looked at his sister. She was still taller!

“She said, it would be as it should be!” He protested.

“She never said she would make it as it was.” Kelly noticed, obviously confused herself.

Frantically Josh looked back to the portal, but it had vanished already. Before anyone could say a word, the door of the room opened and Josh’s parents came in.

“Did you play nicely?” His mother asked.

“Mommy, Daddy!” Josh said. “Look at me! It's not right. I'm a big boy!”

“Sure you are Josh! Nearly five!” His mother replied with a proud smile. “Are you already excited for your first day of Kindergarten next monday?”

Josh mouth fell open.

“I should be really big!” He insisted.

“Son, you are.” His father noticed, smiling. “Soon you will be as big as your big sister. She is seven. Can you show us with your fingers how much this is?”

Josh looked at his small, soft hands, finding to his horror, that he couldn’t as much as he tried. His room! There was the math-book in his room. If he found it, he could show it to his parents and prove he was big. He raced past his parents, down the floor.

“Did he behave?” He could hear his father ask behind him, but didn’t care for an answer.

He ran into his room, stopping dead in the middle of it. It wasn’t his room. Well, it was, since it was where his had been and had the outline, but it wasn’t. It was the room of a little boy. Posters of Cars, Lion Guard and Paw Patrol on the wall, A bouncy-ball in the corner. CDs with stories of Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam. A play car. A toybox with lots of Lego. A table for small children with coloring books on them instead of his large desk with mask book. Some child – himself, he realised – had drawn something on a sheet of paper with crayons. An impossible multi-colored being resembling a dog on a meadow which looked way too green.

There was still a mirror, though framed by a smiling giraffe. In it, Josh saw a little child. Four-year-old. Straw blond hair exactly like Kelly. A surprised look in his face. He wore a pajama with the image of colorful autumn leaves and matching slippers. Terrified, he touched his own face, and knew by the movement of the boy it was him.

“You look nice.”

Josh whirled around, seeing Kelly in the doorway of his room.

“I look like a toddler!” Josh replied, knowing he sounded whiny.

“You are still my brother.”

“Baby brother.”

He pointed to a photo on the wall. It was at the place where the one of himself holding an infant Kelly had hung, but now it showed him, maybe two-year-old, sitting in a stroller, wearing nothing but a Barney-shirt and a diaper, being pushed by a five-year-old Kelly. They were both laughing.

“Little brother.” His sister insisted.

“For mom and dad, too.” Josh said. “Why?”

“Everything was to be normal, remember? I guess Queen Lyxaria thought it was best this way.” Kelly guessed. “She is very wise.”

“She is not! She is mean!” Josh replied, again sounding whiny. “I must speak to her.”

“The portal only appears when she needs us. Next time it does I will ask her to turn you back. I promise!”

Josh felt angry and confused. What did this mean? One month? One year?

“But …” His sister stopped, turning her head slightly. “Do you want to play with us? Until we have to go to bed?”

Josh opened his mouth and closed it again.

“I don’t feel like it,” he replied. “I just want to be alone right now.”

“Oh, okay.”

Kelly left the room, her shoulders slightly slumped. As she did, Josh noticed the bracelet at her right arm, just as he wore the counterpart on his left. He starred at it for a moment. It was no longer golden, but out of yellow plastic with fake plastic diamonds. Yet, it still was the Bracelet of Friendship, wasn’t it? With sudden horror, he remembered the images in the mirrors, of him and his sister not doing anything together, arguing, becoming strangers.

“Hey wait!” He called and raced after her.

Despite everything, they had a great evening. Amanda’s necklace had turned to a toy, too and Beatrice now wore a toy-sword, but they knew that they were in reality very special and knew that this knowledge made them special, too. They played a game with a dice, which was at first a problem for Josh, because he no longer understood numbers. His sister helped him though, moving his figure and even trying – without success – to teach him the numbers again. Despite the small age difference he had fun though and found himself laughing more often than not. While he would have been unable to count the years, the gap between them had shrunk considerably, allowing for shared games they had never tried together before.

It could have gone on forever, but Josh’s mother came in and told him it was time for his nighttime bath before bedtime. Reluctantly, he let himself led to the bathroom, saying on a pouty tone that he wanted to play more. Looking over his shoulder, however he saw his sister blinking at him before mouthing 'Good night', and his frown turned into a grin. In the bathroom, the tub was already filled with water, covered by a thick cover of foam.

“Arms up!” His mother ordered.

Not really knowing what was going on, the former teenager obeyed instinctively. His mother pulled his shirt over his head and then proceeded to remove his slippers and then his pants. Josh realized next would be his underpants and a sudden feeling of modesty made him shudder at this thought.

“Are you cold honey?” His mother asked worried.

Josh shook his head. There were words to describe how he felt, but they felt too big for his tongue. Before he could muster a response, his mother threw a look at his feet.

“Josh, what did you do with your feet? Did you play in the garden again?”

At his mother’s words, he threw a look at them. Indeed they were dirty! The construction of the well and the long road he and the girls had traveled on during the quest had left their tolls. The former teenager looked up and grinned widely at his mother’s face, showing all his milk-teeth. He knew it was a secret and that she wouldn’t believe him anyway.

“You cheeky little adventurer!” His mother declared with a sigh, returning the smile.

This made Josh giggle, putting his hands over his mouth, when she removed his underpants which had a bright car on it. For a split second, the little boy felt the urge to put down his hands over his boy's parts, before it left just as fast, leaving him wondering why he had thought of doing that. The hesitation had just been the memory of a more mature feeling, while right now he found nothing of standing stark naked before another person. Indeed, it was his mommy, who had seen him this way since forever, so he felt silly for the thought.

As his mother lifted her still giggling son in the bathtub, he felt wonderful, the warmth of the water rapidly surrounding him.

“So, excited for Kindergarten?” His mother asked.

Josh nodded as his mother handed him a green plastic frog to play with. Actually, he looked forward to it. It seemed less stressful than his last year would have been. There would be many new friends to be made and kept, instead of fearing to lose them when going to the grown up school. Also, there would me many bright colors he could use to try to paint pictures of his adventure.

As Josh continued to map the wide field of his future with vague shapes, before being occupied with leading his frog through wide mountains of foam, his mother began cleaning him with a washcloth. She began with his face, gently going over his little cheeks and nose, then his back and front, not without sending the little boy into a fit of giggles when rubbing under his arms, then continued to his groin, which he didn’t even begin to think as strange, and his legs, before ending with his near black feet.

Before long she was done and after washing his hair – making sure no foam went to his eyes – she lifted her son out of the bathtub and placed him on bath-mat where she began rubbing him dry with a towel, larger than him and unbelievable soft. Josh grinned at her and remembered Queen Lyxaria’s words.

As it should be.

After having blow-dried his hair, his mother wrapped him in the towel, before picking him up and carrying him out of the bath. After a short visit to Kelly’s room, where he waved her and her friends goodnight, she carried him into his room and placed him stark naked on his play-rug. Quickly she put him into a Ben 10 underpants and sleeper with dinosaurs on it. Just as his mommy wanted to pick him up she noticed something at the end of his bed.

“Do these belong to Daddy?” She wondered before turning to him. “Did you put them here, sweetie?”.

Josh looked down to see she was meaning. It was a pair of shoes. His old shoes, which he had left at Rivertown! They were looking clean and pristine like the day he had bought them, but as he placed his left foot besides them he realized they were much too large now. The ones besides them, red one with Fireman Sam-motive and Velcro fasteners seemed much more fitting.

Looking up at his mommy, he shook his head, proud to have another secret.

“Mhh.” She noticed his little baby-toothed grin, and picked him up. “A secret for tomorrow.”

As his mother tucked him in the bed with Thomas The Tank Engine sheet, he noticed a violet teddy-bear, looking just like one of the Gigglers, by his side. He felt a sudden rush of fear, but his mommy gave him a goodnight-kiss, which made him forget all his worries. He smiled at her.

It has been a very funny sleepover, Josh thought happily, as his mother left the room and switched out the light.

The end