Chaotic re-use

Chapter 2
New Powers

Chapter Description: Sam discovers the true powers of the pendulum.

Sam entered his sister’s room slowly. What had been previously a room plastered with pictures of male movie-stars and models had changed drastically. The posters were gone, the dressing-table had disappeared, there were several brown bags on the floor, a blue plastic table, and, in the centre of the room, a large playpen.

Sam approached the playpen, and, looking over the top, drew back with a shocked gasp, falling down on the floor in shock.

Stephie opened her eyes slowly. She saw the large, white plastic bars of the playpen, which were normal. She saw them every single day. But she couldn’t help being astounded by them. She looked upwards to the ceiling. Through her blurred vision, she could make out a figure, who approached slowly towards the bars, then drew back quickly, out of sight.

Stephie was used to these tricks, yet, when the figure didn’t pop up laughing at her like they did normally, and she couldn’t see whoever it was, she began crying.

Sam stood up again, pinched himself, then looked back into the playpen. He wasn’t dreaming now, he was sure of it. The baby girl who was once his sister was still there. Sam wondered what happened to Stephie, and how the baby girl had appeared in her crib.

His mother burst into the room. Once she caught sight of Sam and the crying girl, she gave Sam a scornful look. "Sam, did you wake your baby sister? You know she doesn’t like being woken up this early in the morning!"

Sam looked at his mother, dumbfounded. "Mum, this can’t be Stephie!" "And why not?" "Well, for a start, Stephie’s 16 years...." "16 Years old! Ha! I find that funny! You’ve been living with her for eight months now, Sam. You should now that she is not yet a year old." She waved a finger at him.

A smell filled the air. "Oop, I think someone made a stinky!" Sam’s mother picked Stephie up, and they rubbed noses, before Sam ran out of the door, nearly sending his Dad flying in his rush.

He entered his bedroom, opened the cabinet and pulled out the pendulum. He looked at it for a moment, then an idea hit him. He had wished that he was the older one of them both. Yet he was referring to him being made older, not Stephie being made younger! Now, according to his mother’s (and to some extent, Stephie’s) behavior, time had been edited so that No-one, except him, remembered Stephie. Instead, a new, younger, Stephie had taken her place.

His mother walked past his room, clutching a very small nightdress. Sam went back to Stephie’s room. She was lying on the table, completely naked, and showing no embarrassment. Above that, she was sucking on her big toe. Sam had never seen his sister as a baby before. She had teased him previously about her helping his mother with him, yet now Sam could do the same to her.

He heard yet more footsteps, and his mother entered the room. "Sam, do you mind helping me? Your big 16-year old sister needs her diaper changed." Sam knew she was referring to his ’mistake’ earlier. Her face cracked into a smile. Sam lifted his sister by the feet, and his mother slid the diaper under her and did it up.

Sunday was apparently the weekly walk in the park. Sam knew that the previous walk in the park took place on Saturday, the day of his birth. Yet, as he remembered from what his mother told him when he was 4 years old, when Stephie was 13, that her birthday was on Sunday.

"Remind me Mom, how old is Stephie?" "She’s nine months old next weekend. But, surely you knew that? That’s the third time you’ve asked me that since she was born, Sam!" "Oh, yeah" lied Sam, racking his brains for that piece of information, yet his brain could find nothing.

Next morning, Sam woke up, got dressed into his school uniform, helped Stephie into a new Diaper, and walked to school. As he approached the gates, as usual, he met his two best friends coming up from the orphanage. Tom and Emma were taken in ever since they were found abandoned in a house as babies. They had been going to the same school as Sam for years since. They were all in the same year.

"Hey, Sam, how’s Stephie? Can she walk yet?" Emma asked as soon as he was in ear contact. "No. She still crawls around the place." Sam’s theory was now proved. The pendulum, which he now wore round his neck all the time, had edited time like he supposed.

The bell for break sounded at 10:00 as usual. All the kids rushed out into the courtyard, eager for fresh air and fun. As usual, Sam found ’his’ bench in the corner and sat down on it, waiting for his friends. They didn’t come out, however, and Sam went to look for them.

The sound of screams and yells directed him to them. The school bully, Alan, who was 11, along with his cronies, also 11, were trying to force both Tom and Emma to give up their dinner money.

"HEY! You leave my friends alone!" Sam bravely yelled at Alan. One of Alan’s cronies immediately clamped his arms around Sam. Alan approached him slowly. "Or what?" He growled menacingly. "You going to kick me? Bite me? Yell for Mrs. Smith?" "Neither of those things." Sam retaliated, dismissing his former tactics. "I’ve gained a new tactic. Something which you won’t like." "Oh, really?" Laughed Alan disbelievingly. "Go on, Shrimp. Show us."

The pendulum glowed a faint blue. Blue gas escaped from it, swirling round the corridor. Then, it rushed between each of the bullies in turn, bathing each in it’s time-transforming glow. Instantly, the effects took place. The youngest, a chap by the name of Charles, began to grow, bursting out of his clothes (and underpants, causing Emma to shriek), through into his 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, then beginning to wrinkle as he entered his 50’s and 60’s, eventually ending up at 65 years old. The boy holding Sam’s arms’ grips began to fail and Sam felt his arms slowly sliding down his body, and eventually letting go altogether. Turning round, Sam saw a baby boy on the floor, now wearing a diaper and sucking on a pacifier. But, looking into his eyes, Sam saw something he didn’t see in Stephie, a look of horror, as if he knew what had happened to him. As for Alan, the expression on his face turned to one of horror, to one of confusion, then to happiness, as the 11 year old slumped on the floor, sucking contentedly on his thumb.

Tom and Emma looked round at the Old man, the Infant and the mentally regressed boy, then looked at Sam. "What on Earth was that?" Tom asked slowly. "Something I was given by my now-deceased uncle. It appears to be a device which can alter time. Stephie found that out two days ago."

"What fate could you possibly have in store for a little baby?" Emma’s eyes widened in shock. "She wasn’t always a baby, you know. She was 16 before the pendulum got her." Tom immediately began laughing, yet stopped as he looked back at Alan, who was now crying in a pool of urine. Emma’s eyes widened even further, but she remained silent. Sam hoped that he had managed to convince them that he was right, unlike he had tried to do with his parents. Maybe, if he could get Stephie older again, he could convince them differently.

To Be Continued