Fresh Start

Chapter 8
Morning in Buzzy Bee

In Buzzy Bee Cabin Chris awoke desperately trying to recall his multiplication tables. When he quickly recalled that nine times nine was eighty-one he knew he was okay. He still had his mind! Slipping the headphones off, he rolled onto his side and then gasped.

Across from him Joe was already awake in his bed. The guy with the rugby player build, who’d escaped once before was lying on top of his sheets with his foot pulled to his face and his toes in his mouth. His eyes were crossed and focussed on his toes and Chris could hear the man giggling around them.

“Joe!” he called out, afraid to lose his only hope for escape.

Joe let his toes slip from his mouth. He smiled and drooled down his chin, still holding his foot in his hand, yanking it back and forth playfully. “Joey siwwy!” he proclaimed.

Chris climbed out of bed and noticed that his body had changed a lot. Two years had put him on the other side of puberty. He was barely five foot two now, not even a hundred pounds. His pull-up hung a bit loose on his skinnier frame. He held it up with his hand and stepped over to Joe’s bed, looking down at the squirming man. It appeared his target age was closer to 12 months, not two years after all. He could barely speak, poor guy. Chris couldn’t believe he was really gone.

“C’mon Joe, hang in there! You’re a grown man remember? You escaped before! You can do it again!” he called.

Joe’s eyes seemed to focus more, they actually looked at Chris and he held his feet in the air, frozen in place.

“Moosic pweety,” Joey said with seemingly great effort. “No big boy. Make awll go bye-bye,” he explained as best he could. Then the brief flicker of intellect in his eyes was gone. He smiled again and pulled his foot back to his mouth, giggling happily.

Chris held out some hope that this was all an act, a genius way to escape further treatment and then escape when they least expected it. Farting noises erupted from Joey’s diaper and it began to expand as he filled it with poop. He grimaced as he pushed, then smiled broadly. No, this was no ruse, the man wasn’t a genius, at least not anymore.

Debbie appeared at the foot of the bed then, smiling indulgently when she saw what the man was doing. “Well, it looks like little Joey really enjoyed his music didn’t he?” she crooned.

Joey blew little bubbles around his toe, but made no response.

“You see all that silly effort to try to escape and look how happy the music made you. Aren’t you glad you listened to the music now?”

Joey popped his toes from his mouth and nodded now. “Uh-huh!” he chirped, to Chris’ shock.

Chris watched the oversized baby and knew he was all alone now. It was up to him to get out of this thing. He watched Joey sit up in his bed, still clapping his feet together as Debbie asked, “You wanna be my special helper?”

Joey nodded and repeated, “Spepal!”

“Yes, special,” she agreed.

Joey looked at Chris and giggled at him. “Toe-munchah!” he yelled at him.

Chris didn’t know what the big baby meant. What he did know was he felt weird. Something about what Joey had just said to him. “Wha?” he asked, his tongue suddenly slow and slippery.

Debbie put her soft hand on his shoulder. “He said you’re a toe-muncher like him dear,” she cooed to him.

Chris felt so weird. But he was absolutely certain of two things. He wanted desperately to get naked and he needed to put his toes in his mouth. He tried to push those very strange thoughts aside. He didn’t know where they were coming from.

“Are you honey?”

Chris tried to focus his thoughts, hard as that was. “Huh?” he said.

“Are you a little toe-munching toddler, a silly little 2-year old boy who wants to be my helper, who wants to stay little forever and ever and streak nakie-bum all over the neighbourhood like his big brother?”

Chris stared at her, the words reverberating through his head. Little forever and ever. He was never going to grow up, he’d be locked in stasis as a toddler, a little boy who would never learn to use a potty properly, never read or write or even talk in full sentences like Nate at least could. A little tyke running around nakie in full public view, jaybirding around the neighbourhood peeing on neighbours’ lawns and bushes whenever the urge struck, being paraded out by his mum at gatherings to suck on his toes like a silly baby and give everyone a good laugh.

Of the three boys he had the most resolve, the most determination to fight and the biggest reason not to give in. But it didn’t matter, his body has been most sensitive to the drug, only slightly less so that Joey. The suggestions from the chair and the night music had been burned into his brain. And when he heard his trigger everything started to fall into place. He would still be the first to succumb.

The need to let go, forget and be dumb like Joey, was so overwhelming. Debbie had moved on though, she was kneeling by another bed, talking quietly to one of the girls, whispering in her ear. The girl’s body tensed then relaxed. She swung her legs up in the air and grabbed her feet, pulling them back and forth. Chris could hear her cheerful giggling. Even she had given in. A wave of dizziness seized him and the floor seemed to move as though he were on a ship, dropping him heavily on his bottom with his legs splayed before him.

Chris blinked and wondered where he was. His head was so fuzzy, so slow moving. He focused on the two most important urges he had, pulling at the diaper thing until it slipped down his legs and he could kick it away. That felt great! He was nakie! And there were his toesies too! He grabbed them and jammed them between the lips. Everything else faded to static and then was gone.

**

Half an hour later, Mr Belton and Dr Howe were standing with Debbie watching the toddlers play before their breakfast. Most had smoothly regressed in age by around two years. The youngest was now physically eleven, the oldest seventeen. That all seemed fine, but the two men were there to check on the mentally adjusted.

Most of the group was unaffected, only Joey having woken up with mush between his ears instead of a brain. But the girl Samantha and the boy Chris had quickly succumbed to triggers shortly after waking. According to Debbie Joey’s transition had been very smooth. When she saw him wake up with a big indulgent grin on his face she’d immediately known his mind was gone. She’d given a few tickles on the soles of his feet to check and sure enough he’d taken to playing with his footsies in no time. Now Joey only knew that he was a baby with the mentality of an 18 month old and that he was Debbie’s special helper. He was now toddling around the room in a heavily soiled, stinking and droopy diaper saying trigger words to the various unaffected children. Of course he had no idea they were triggers, just that they were words he liked to say to people.

Dr Howe was more concerned with Chris though. He was to have his age locked in place at two and a half. That meant he needed to be completely rid of any complex thoughts. At the moment he seemed quite well adjusted. He was standing with his back to them, bent over mooning them with his bare bum, head stuck between his spread legs blowing upside down raspberries at them.

“How was his transition?” Howe asked Debbie.

“He struggled quite a bit, not really very smooth y’know. He just did not want to let go. But in the end I found him naked on the floor suckin’ his tootsies, so he got there eventually.”

Dr Howe nodded and went over to where Chris was now spinning around and around in circles. “Hey there buddy, remember me?” he greeted.

Chris stopped spinning and dropped to a squat, resting on his haunches and staring at the doctor with confusion on his face.

Howe smiled. “That’s okay. I remember you. Sorry it looks like you were one of the first,” he said kindly to the boy. Chris nibbled on his thumb and stared blankly at the doctor.

“I just need to make sure you’re perfectly happy in there Chris. That there’s nothing left in that empty noggin of yours that could upset you later,” he explained.

Chris nodded and his eyes seemed to focus.

The white coated man was familiar. And then Chris knew where from. He was the nice doctor man, whatever that was. No, wait, he was making Chris little and dumb and like that forever. He didn’t like the doctor man at all. Did he? It was all so confusing. Chris looked at the other people in the room. They wore clothes, not like him. He was naked. He was a naked boy. But not them. They were big and he was little. Right? No, they were making them little just like him. But they hadn’t given up yet. Chris realised he’d lost his mental powers and the other people hadn’t. They still thought big person things and wore clothes and stuff. Why couldn’t he do that stuff? This wasn’t fair! He didn’t wanna be dumb like this when the others were smart.

Dr Howe saw the look of understanding in the crouching boy’s eyes. He saw Chis pouting, upset. “Yeah, you are still in there a bit aren’t you?” he asked.

Chris nodded and said, “Feew awll dumb.”

“I know you do buddy and I’m sorry but I can’t reverse what’s been done. I can only help make you happy like Joey.”

Chris shook his head. He didn’t wanna be like that. But the doctor man was tapping his foot. He looked down.

“What are these Chris?” he asked in sing-song tone.

Chris stared at his feet and felt weird again.

“Are these little boy’s toesies?” he continued.

Chris found himself nodding, his lips slack as confusion fogged his brain again.

“Do you wanna show me how you munch them Chris? I heard that you’re quite a silly little toe-muncher,” he encouraged.

The words reverberated through Chris’ skull, blasting away his temporary ability to concentrate once and for all. As Chris settled onto his bottom, feeling the soft carpet brush across it he knew that his big boy days were over forever. He’d been a cute boy before but a little toddler with a teensy weensy little wee-wee and his feet in his mouth was a thousand times cuter to mummy. He never had a chance, but that was okay because getting little actually felt pretty nice. As his thoughts dwindled away Chris felt absolutely wonderful.

Chris stared slack-jawed up at the doctor, enjoying the big man’s attention and smile. Then he did what he’d soon be doing for mummy and her friends on a regular basis. He grabbed his bare foot and declared, “Lookie! Me munch ‘em!” and jammed his toes back in his mouth for all to see how silly he was.