Hide & Seek

Chapter 10
With Friends Like These...

Chapter Description: With Abbie apparently back in her right state of mind perhaps she and John will finally escape from Valerie.

X

John didn’t know what to do. Valerie wasn’t trying to help him, she still wanted to make him her little boy. How had he missed that until now? He was clearly a big boy, as muddled and confused as he was right now, he knew that. He went to school today and only big boys did that. He remembered kicking the ball around with other big boys, wearing his smart uniform, walking home without a grown-up to watch him, clearly he was no baby.

Then Abbie did something John wasn’t expecting. She turned to Val and asked, “Can I pway with Johnny?”

But it wasn’t the question that Johnny was surprised by. It was what she did next. She looked right at him and winked. And Johnny knew what that meant, Abbie was a big girl again and now she was gonna help him escape like before.

Valerie hadn’t seen the wink and she nodded eagerly, brushing her hand through Abbie’s hair and praising her. “What a wonderful idea sweetie! Yes Johnny, wouldn’t you like to play with your friend Abbie?”

Doing his best to make Val think he was still a lost little baby Johnny put on his best fake smile and yelled, “Yeth Mummy. Pway with Abbie!”

“Excellent, why don’t you two go play downstairs.”

Abbie nodded dutifully and took off skipping past Johnny and racing down the stairs yelling, “C’mon Johnny, we gonna pway.”

John followed her down the stairs, discovering he couldn’t race down them like she could. His legs felt strangely weak and his balance was poor so he went down one step at a time, keeping his eyes on his fuzzy pajama-enclosed feet. He found Abbie already settled on her butt going through a bag.

“Abbie,” John whispered, “you rememba bein’ big now?”

Abbie nodded gravely, her eyes wide. John was glad Abbie was thinking big again, now she could save them both. Johnny knew he was a big boy, in primary school even, but all he felt was warm and stuffy and confused in his footie pjs and nappy. He sat down beside Abbie and tried to see into the bag. “Watcha doin’?” he asked.

“I gotta find big boy clothes for you so we can leave.”

“Oh,” John responded, feeling much safer now that Abbie could do the thinking for both of them.

“When the elephant thingy stopped working I remembered stuff. You’re s’posed to be a big boy, your mummy is bad,” Abbie explained. “You should a left that teddy. It’s bad,” she warned him, seeing the fuzzy bear still tucked under John’s arm.

John hadn’t even realized he had the teddy still, how silly of him. He let the bear drop to the floor. Johnny put his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it, that sure felt nice. Abbie finished pulling out some big boy clothes for Johnny and leaned over to the thumb-sucking seven year old. “We gotta get you outta that sleeper, it’s for babies.”

John agreed, he sure was hot in this thing, maybe once he was dressed in big boy clothes he’d feel alright again! Abbie undid the zipper for him and helped him slip his arms and legs out of the babyish garment. It was such a relief to be out of the sleeper that John almost wished he didn’t have to wear the clothes, it felt awfully nice and cool sitting here in just his nappy, maybe he could pull that off too...

“Johnny, where’s your hat?” Abbie asked. “We don’ want you gettin’ any more sunburned,” she added.

Johnny considered this a moment then remembered, “In da baff-woom.”

“’Kay Johnny, I’ll go get you your hat to wear, you put on the shirt,” Abbie directed, handing him an Auckland Blues t-shirt.

John pulled the shirt over his head with some difficulty. His arms and fingers just wouldn’t cooperate the way they were supposed to. Once he had it over his head though, it got worse. John couldn’t get his arms in or his head through the right hole, it was so frustrating he wanted to cry. Abbie was supposed to be helping him but she wasn’t and with the shirt on his head he was blind. Johnny fussed and flailed until he freed himself of the bad shirt. He was angry at Abbie for being a big meanie and not helping him.

Then he heard it, a familiar melody that chilled him to the bone. The teddy bear had started on its own again, its eyes lighting up. Johnny knew that was bad but the reason why escaped him. He needed to leave, yes, he had to get away from here. As John stood up all reason directed that he get as far away from the teddy as possible. But John’s ability to reason was severely impaired now and all he knew was that he didn’t want to be alone running away and the teddy seemed like a good friend to have with him.

John grabbed the bear by the arm and toddled out of the room, his legs feeling increasingly shaky. He took wide halting steps, his toes pointed inwards, but soon it wasn’t enough and John dropped to his bum with a plop. For a brief moment all he wanted to do was cry and suck his thumb, but something told him he had to keep going. John crawled through the foyer on his hands and knees. He smiled as he reached the front door, he had made it! The soft music coming from the teddy and the increasing tingling in his head forgotten, he was almost free. Mummy wouldn’t make him a little baby, he was a big boy and he was gonna get away and tell the big police men about his bad mummy.

John summoned all his strength to force his legs to stand, using the door-knob for balance, teddy dropping to the floor. He turned the knob but the door didn’t open. “No!” John squealed, it was supposed to open, this wasn’t fair.

Maybe it was locked, he thought. But suddenly the memory of what that meant evaporated from his dwindling mind. John wondered if that shiny button below the knob had anything to do with it, but a moment later John wasn’t even sure how the door-knob worked. He pulled and pushed the shiny thing. Nothing happened. John blinked in confusion then was distracted by the rush of warm liquid into his nappy. He became vaguely aware that he was making pee-pee in his nappy. That certainly wasn’t a big boy thing to do was it? John didn’t think so, but he was no longer certain what big boys did or didn’t do.

John’s legs were tired so he sat back down on his bum, something about the gentle hum of the teddy told him that’s what good boys did, they sat on their bums and sucked their thumbs. Something caught his eye across the room, it was a set of colourful plastic toy keys. That was what he needed! Keys opened doors, he could use those to escape! John crawled on his hands and knees over to the toy, feeling much more comfortable on the floor than trying to stand. Reaching his objective John took the keys in his hands and beamed with pride at his achievement. He had the keys now. He could go outside. Images of playing in the sand-box and sitting in the wading pool filled his mind. Yes, now he could go outside and play. He was such a clever boy. But John was increasingly entranced by the pretty colours of the keys. He shook them in his hands and they made a delightful cacophony of sound. Making noises was fun! John shook the keys more, sitting back on his bum and overtaken by a sudden urge, John jammed one of the keys in his mouth, enjoying the smooth hard texture as he gnawed on it.

It suddenly dawned on John that he was nowhere near accomplishing his goal of escape. He had gotten completely sidetracked by some babyish activity. Horribly aware that he was chewing on toy keys, John threw them on the floor. He wanted to cry, the teddy had made his brain all smooshy just like Mummy said it would if it were on too long. The bad teddy was off now, he wasn’t sure when it had stopped, but the eyes were closed and there was no sound coming from it. John wondered where mummy was. He was so cross with her for making him all smooshy, she was a naughty mummy.

John was still sitting on his bum trying to focus his diminished brain power on a plan when a big person walked into the foyer. It wasn’t mummy though, it was Abbie! John called out to her happily.

Abbie put her finger to her mouth and shushed him, tip-toeing over to the door and undoing the lock. John drummed his heels on the floor in excitement, Abbie had figured it out, she was such a smart girl. He watched anxiously as she opened the front door, checking to make sure no one was around. She closed it quietly and turned to face Johnny. This was it, Abbie was going to take him to see the police men and fix naughty mummy.

As she crept over to him, John noticed that Abbie had white things on her back, they looked like wings. For some reason John thought she looked like Tinkerbell, whoever that was. Abbie dropped to her knees in front of John and announced, “I lookin’ for Mistah Elphant, he’s pwayin’ hide n’ seek.” Then she looked him over and giggled, “You wook wike a baby Johnny.”

John knew something was wrong. He struggled to string a sentence together, to say something coherent. “Bad mummy, me... ah... teddy wittle...” he tried, his attempts to sound intelligent thwarted as his mind flicked from one thought to another.

“You sound wike a baby too,” Abbie gushed.

John shook his head, trying to clear the heavy fog from his brain. “Bet’cha wike to pway baby games too!” Abbie exclaimed, grabbing John’s feet and wiggling his big toe singing, “Dis wittle piggy went to da market,” and so on.

“No...Abbie...” John tried, trying to focus his mind on their problem. But it was too late; as soon as Abbie started playing piggy-toes with him John found it impossible to concentrate on anything else. What’s more he found that each and every wiggle of a toe rewarded him with a gentle pleasant buzz deep in his brain. He didn’t try to pull his feet away, this felt far too nice. John felt all his fear and worry receding, his plans to escape disappearing into the ether as the fog cleared away from his mind, taking all his confusing adult thoughts with it. John understood fewer and fewer of Abbie’s words as she continued until all he could recognize was her pleasant tone, she might as well have been speaking Russian for all he understood. As the game proceeded John no longer felt confused, the cottony feeling in his head being brushed away by the pleasant buzzing. John didn’t mind that he was being rendered incognizant; he was too busy enjoying Abbie’s tickling of his soles. Soon she worked her way up to his tummy.

Johnny wanted to tell Abbie how much fun he was having but when he tried to speak nothing but babbling left his mouth, he couldn’t seem to recall any words. The effort to speak produced nothing but some cooing and bit of drool dripping from the corners of his mouth as his tongue stuck out. But Johnny thought the noise he made was funny, so he pursed his lips and blew more, sticking his tongue out to blow cheerful raspberries up at Abbie. He felt warm drool bubbling out of his mouth and coating his chin, dripping unheeded onto his bare chest and tummy. To Johnny’s scrambled mind the warm dribble on his bare skin was a pleasant sensation.

It was then that Valerie finally made her appearance, beaming with joy at her new little baby. Though he still had the body of a seven-year old it was clear from the coating of drool down his front-side, his sagging nappy and awkward motions that he had the mind of an infant. She kneeled down beside Johnny and looked him over as though she couldn’t believe it had actually worked.

“I pwayed da piggy-toes game wit’ Johnny an’ now he don’t act like a big boy no more. He don’t talk or nothin’,” Abbie explained, a goofy little girl grin on her face.

Valerie patted Abbie’s shoulder, “Yes, you did a good job helping Johnny be a good boy for his mummy dear. He’ll be so much happier now.”

Abbie nodded. “Uh huh. Do I get my lollies now?”

“Of course sweetie, here you go,” Valerie said, handing Abbie a bag of Starbursts. Abbie greedily ripped open the bag and started downing the gummy lollies. Valerie chuckled, it was so easy to trick children, how ironic that Johnny’s trust in Abbie was his undoing.

Valerie gathered Johnny into her lap. She looked deep into his wide glassy eyes, searching for any flicker of intelligence, any sign that a small part of his adult self was still in there waiting for a chance to escape. “Baba...gaa...ahh...ooh,” Johnny babbled, blowing another spit bubble. He wanted to tell his mummy something so important, something so complicated. But his mind wasn’t sending the right messages to his tongue.

Satisfied the process was complete, Valerie pulled her beautiful new baby in close and kissed him right on his bubbling wet lips. “You’re Mummy’s sweet little baby now aren’t you sweetums? Yes you are, oh yes you are!” she gushed in a sing-song voice. Valerie squeezed his sopping wet nappy and praised him, “Looks like Johnny made a nice tinkle in his nappy, huh. I bet that felt nice to get all that wee-wee out baby. Well, let’s get you in a nice dry nappy. Oh Mummy just loves changing her little one’s nappies.”

Valerie laid Johnny down on the carpet while she got out another oversized nappy for the boy. He grinned up at her, his innocent eyes following her wherever she went. Then he blinked and frowned briefly. There was still a small piece of his adult intellect left in the back of his mind and he found himself having brief flashes of awareness. One moment he was happy to swing his skinny legs about in the air, the next he felt incredibly embarrassed and angry at Mummy for doing something bad to him. If only these brief moments of insight would last long enough for Johnny to remember what it was mummy had done. But it was just so nice to watch her movements, the pretty, shiny buttons on her shirt, that he couldn’t concentrate on anything else.

“You see Johnny, Mummy only wanted the best for you. Look how happy you are, now that we got rid of all those nasty big boy thoughts. You sure didn’t make it easy for me y’know, running away halfway around the world and getting this poor girl involved. Didn’t you ever think that the nursery would know which passport you took and where Abbie lived before she came to London?” Valerie cooed to Johnny, who struggled to understand what she was saying.

“That’s how Mummy knew just the right size nappy and sleeper to bring. Oh the sleeper was silly of me though, Mummy didn’t think about how warm it would be here. Wasn’t that silly of her?” she continued, tickling Johnny’s tummy and slipping his wet diaper out from under him.

Valerie sighed as she powdered Johnny’s privates, “It’s just too bad the physical regression only works in London, such silly security procedures they have. Of course the antidote only works in London as well, you actually thought I had the antidote didn’t you, you silly little goose. That was just mouthwash silly. But oh well I guess you’ll just have to be mummy’s big baby till we get back to London and get you all fixed up.” she chided him as he pouted.

Johnny only understood a little of what she was saying but in one of his moments of lucidity he recognised that he had been tricked by his naughty mummy. For a moment Johnny wanted to get up off the floor and tell on his mummy for being bad. He had no idea who he would tell though, and in any case he was soon distracted by the sunlight streaming through the windows, losing his tenuous chain of thought.

Johnny waved his legs about, making it tricky for Valerie to get the pins done. Eventually she managed to pin his new nappy on. She giggled as Johnny played with his toes, grabbing his foot with both hands and jamming his big toe in his mouth, slurping away at it. “Good thing I scrubbed your footsies clean in that bath sweetheart,” she joked, watching the seemingly infantilised boy suck his toes.

Reaching into her pocket Valerie withdrew a small black object that looked like the remote to a car alarm. “Guess I won’t be needing this anymore,” she joked. “Poor baby, did you actually think Teddy had a mind of his own? You never guessed that Mummy had the remote control all along, did you?”

Johnny removed his sodden digits from his mouth and reached awkwardly for the remote. Somehow he understood that it was a bad thing and he needed to get it away from Mummy, but his movements were spastic and uncoordinated and all he could do was screech and clumsily bat his hands in mummy’s direction.

“What’s the matter sweetie? Does baby want Mummy’s special remote? Well here you go darling, it’s all yours,” she cooed, putting the remote in Johnny’s outreached hands.

Johnny felt so proud of himself for getting the bad remote away from Mummy. It had seemed so important to do that, but now he couldn’t quite remember why. Was he playing a game with mummy? No, he didn’t think so, but it was so hard to be certain of anything now. Johnny looked the black object over and decided to explore it more carefully, placing the corner in his mouth and chewing on it, his baby slobber dribbling over the buttons.

The ringing of a cell phone distracted Valerie from her baby’s playful antics. “Hello,” she said, putting the phone to her ear. “Yes it’s done, he’s just the sweetest little baby boy now.”

Valerie nodded several times before saying, “Yes, flight 2230, we’ll be on it, everything is set here.” She looked down at Abbie sitting on her butt finishing the last of the lollies. “Well not everything actually. What do I do about the girl?”

Valerie listened for a long moment before grimacing. “Are you sure about that, it seems cruel, she doesn’t even have...”

Valerie looked pityingly down at Abbie, “No I agree, you’re right it would be too much of a risk. I’ll take care of it. Right, meet you at Heathrow, bye.”

Valerie pocketed the phone and went to the closet, taking out an oversized pushchair which she stowed there earlier. “Are we goin’ for a walk? Cause I don’ need a pushchair, I’m a big girl,” Abbie insisted, finished with her lollies and looking bored.

“No, you aren’t going for a walk sweetie, you’re going to stay here while I take Johnny for one.”

Abbie pouted, looking nervous, “All by myself?” she asked.

“Just for now honey, you’re a big girl, you’ll be okay.”

Abbie bit her lip, “’Kay.”

Pulling out some new clothes in Johnny’s current size Valerie soon had him dressed in a Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt and blue-jean overalls. She gave the ankles a couple of rolls up and stowed the boots for when they arrived in snowy London. She secured Johnny in his pushchair and replaced the now drool-soaked remote with a sky-blue teething ring which he promptly deposited in his mouth, unconcerned by the loss of the object he had wanted so badly just moments before. Then she turned to take care of one last piece of business.

“Abbie honey,” she called, picking up the stuffed elephant and flipping open a hidden compartment at the bottom. “I forgot, how old are you sweetie?”

“I’m dis many,” Abbie declared, holding up four fingers proudly.

“Ah, of course,” Valerie continued, turning a dial to 5 minutes and closing the compartment. “But are you sure of that Abbie?” she asked, flipping the on switch and handing the stuffed animal to Abbie.

Abbie nodded, but a dreamy look passed over her face as the elephant worked it’s magic. “You look more like a little girl of two to me.”

“Nuh uh, I’m... I... me...” Abbie stuttered, struggling to find some words.

“That’s it sweetie, I think you’re a big two-year old girl. I bet you’ll be using the potty all on your own pretty soon and I bet you don’t even sleep in a crib anymore, I bet you have a big girl bed.”

Abbie’s jaw went slack and she nodded, “Uh huh, gonna do poddy, me bi’ girl.”

“Yes you certainly are,” Valerie agreed. “Now why don’t you sit on your bum like a good girl and tell Mr. Elephant what a big two-year old you are. Your mummy and daddy will be home to play with you really soon.”

Abbie nodded and sat down with her legs splayed out, chewing on the elephant’s ear again. Valerie gave the girl a last pitying look and pushed Johnny out the door and down the walk to the footpath where her rental car was waiting. She hoped Abbie’s family would take good care of her. She just couldn’t take the chance that the girl would regain her mind and alert the authorities. Once their minds were regressed below age three the effects were irreversible, she’d have to grow up all over again without the benefit of having a body to match her mind as Johnny soon would. She hoped she had made the right choice.

To Be Concluded...