The Carnival

Chapter 2
Chapter 2

Janie stepped back out of the bathroom as the splashed water began to pool and spread across the tiled floor. She had put way too much of the liquid into the bathtub: only a few moments had turned her 17-year-old sister into a 6-year-old!

’Come on, Susie, you’ve got to get out now!’ said Carla.

’Don’t wanna!’ said the little girl. Carla finally managed to pull the child out of the tub, but not before she had kicked more water on her.

’Oof!’ said Carla. She got a towel and started drying Susan off. ’What happened to you? Why did you get so young?’

Janie smiled to herself; the six-year-old gave her mother a blank stare as though she didn’t understand the question. Janie noticed that the little girl that had been her sister minutes before had already gotten a little smaller before Carla had dried her completely.

Then Janie realized that her mother was still soaking wet, even as she was wrapping a towel around Susan. Carla was too busy fussing to notice, but she was getting younger! Carla was no longer a 39-year-old woman, but now was in her earlier thirties, more like 34!

’Mom, you’re all wet!’ said Janie.

Carla looked down at her wet clothes, and at the water in the tub. She got up from Susan and looked at herself in the mirror. ’Yes, I am.’ She didn’t seem to connect the danger of the potent water to herself.

’Mommm! You’re getting younger, just like Susan!’ said Janie. Carla was now 30. Her wet shirt clung to her, revealing how her stomach was flattening out and her hips were narrowing slightly, making it look like she needed to tighten her belt a notch.

’What are you saying, Janie? I’m as old as I always was.’

Janie remembered how the mystic old woman had told her that the spell on the potion would keep Susan unaware of the change. ’Mom! You need to dry off, now! Susie’s just fine, she stopped getting younger.’

’But...’ The 28-year-old Carla was surprised to hear such insistance from her daughter about such a trivial thing. Most of the lines in her face were rapidly disappearing and her wet pants were now loose by about a notch and a half.

’Mom, take my word for it, you need to dry off now before your hair dries all messy! I’ll watch Susie!’ insisted Janie.

’Well, fine, I’ll do it if you say so,’ said Carla. ’Stay here, sweetie, okay?’ She smooched the five-year-old Susan on the forehead. Janie was amazed at the transformation as she watched her youthening mother leave the bathroom getting steadily younger.

Carla wondered why Janie had told her to dry her hair; maybe company was coming over and she had forgotten about it. The 25-year-old went to her own bathroom that connected to her and Sam’s bedroom.

Carla plugged in the hairdrier and ran it over her hair repeatedly. Oh, great, she thought to herself, my pants are all loose. She pulled the belt on her jeans tighter and slipped her feet out of her wet shoes.

Janie waitied in her parent’s bedroom, wondering whether she should watch her mother or not. She liked the idea of being the older sister for once and not dealing with the constant annoyance of Susan’s competition, but this was too much! She peeped around the corner to her parent’s bedroom, dreading the worst.

Carla finished drying her hair, ’finally!’ she thought to herself. She laughed and put it away, pulling at the much-oversized shirt that still clung to her.

’Oh, well, I guess this can dry out on its own,’ she said out loud.

Janie’s heart jumped in her chest when she heard that. She looked into the bathroom. It was an amazing shock to see her mother looking not much older than Susan had an hour earlier! Her shirt was two inches below the waistline and her pantslegs had reached her feet. Her wet socks were wrinkled slightly; Carla was much skinnier, too, but was such a knockout that 17-year-old Susan would have had a hard time competing with her!

’MOM!’ said Janie.

The youthening woman looked startled at the outburst, and confused.

’Er, I mean...Carla, your clothes are all wet. You need to change them, now!’

’All right, all right,’ said the 19-year-old, swiftly becoming an 18-year-old. As if they were in a high school locker room, Carla dropped her too-loose pants with no regard for Janie. She stepped into the bedroom and opened one of the drawers from her clothes dresser. ’Ugh!’ she said. ’Everything’s all baggy!’

’Come on, come on, just hurry up with it!’ pestered Janie. She was beginning to worry that the only way to get her mother--Carla--out of her dangerously wet clothes was for her to regress to another 5-year-old!

’Jeez, alright already,’ said the teenager. Her softened face was getting even softer, and her nose was beginning to get slightly upturned. She pulled off her shirt. Underneath her bra was hanging loosely from its straps, no longer supporting spongy mammaries, but enclosing pert teenage breasts. She took that off as well, and her underwear slid down her legs and around her ankles.

Janie was totally shocked; her nude 17-year-old ex-mother seemed oblivious to her presense. She noted with alarm that there was a glisening residue of the bathtub-of-youth water on Carla’s body. Carla dwindled even more until she was only 16 years old! But fortunately what remained of the moisture evaporated and she finally stopped getting younger.

’Oh, jeez,’ said Carla--Janie could no longer think of this girl as her mother--as she shuffled through the clothes drawers. ’Nothing here that fits me. Maybe I could borrow some of Susan’s stuff? I mean, it’s not like she’s gonna use it now.’

Janie could only nod in silence. She watched the beautiful nude girl exit what had once been her mother’s bedroom and walk into Susan’s room. Janie followed.

Inside Susan’s room, the little 5-year-old sat sleeping in a corner, still covered only in a towel. Carla quickly riffled through the drawers and got dressed.

’Uhh, Carla,’ said Janie. ’I...um...what are we going to do now?’

’I don’t know,’ said Carla, putting on one of Susan’s jackets. ’I guess we can tell Sam when he gets home; he’ll think of something. Susie’s just fine and safe sleeping here.’

’I guess so,’ said Janie.

’In that case, let’s go to the mall like we planned. Come on, I’ll drive!’