The Community

[willnotwill 446]

I don’t have roots.   I go from place to place.   I’ll take a consulting job solving whatever computer issue someone has and when the job is done, or I just get tired of that scene I take the money and move on.   I’ve spent time in just about every corner of the country.   I even did stints in Alaska and Hawaii, but I kept moving.

So it came one brisk April morning to be working my way across South Dakota.       I had spent a few weeks in Rapid City doing some web development and had made my way up to Mount Rushmore.   I decided to hitch my way back eastward.    I stopped in Wall, a sort of a tourist trap.   I thought I might stay there, but there wasn’t any work to be had.    I was making my way back out to the interstate when I passed a small airstrip being used apparently by crop dusters.    The planes were landing, refueling and taking on their spray chemicals and departing.    I walked over to watch more closely.

“You a pilot?” an older man addressed me.

“Me?” I said with a little smile.   “No, just always interested in it.”

“What you up to then?”

“Just watching the operations.    I’m hitching my way towards Sioux Falls.”

“Ah,” the man said with a smile.  “Well, if you don’t mind flying, I can get you in that general direction.”

I didn’t have to think about that.   Never turn down a ride.   Flying would be cool.    I quickly accepted and soon my knapsack was stowed, and I was in the front seat of an open cockpit plane.    He gave me a pair of goggles.   “Keep the bugs out of your eyes,” he said with a smile.   Off we went.   It was beautiful, and I turned towards my pilot in the rear cockpit.   He smiled back, but with the wind, there was no other way to communicate.    I just resumed looking at the countryside from the air.

A bit over an hour later we started descending.    We must be getting close to our destination.   We passed over a small green sport in the larger nothingness of rural Dakota.     A neat little town with lawns, a few buildings, a school perhaps.   Farm fields surrounded the edges.    Cute.   Perhaps I could get a small job there before I continued down the road.

We soon touched down on a small dirt runway and swung off and shut down.   I got down from the cockpit, and the old man handed me my bag.    “Can I chip in for gas?” I offered.

“Nah, I was coming here anyhow.    The interstate is about a half a mile up the road.  You want a lift?”

“I saw it when we flew over.    No, thank you anyhow, you’ve done enough for me.   I can hike it,” I said as I swung my bag over my shoulder.     “By the way, what was that little town just west of here.”

“Old commune.    You don’t want to go there,” he said with the gravity of a warning from the ages.

“Hippies?” I asked suppressing a smile.

“Babies,” he said and then turned and went off into a nearby barn.

Strange old man, I thought to myself.    But kind enough to give getting me, as near as I could estimate, about two-thirds of my way to Sioux Falls.   I walked towards the highway.    Sioux City would be to my left.    I’d just head down the road with my thumb out.    But I thought about it.    Screw the old man.   I’d go check out this Commune.    I suspect that even hippies had computer issues and maybe even for just a meal and a bed for a couple of days before I continued, it would be an interesting experience.

I set out to the right.    It was further than I estimated from seeing it from the air.  It was late afternoon when I reached a dirt road that headed off the interstate frontage road.    A mailbox read simply “Pleasant Valley Community.”    Kind of an idyllic name for an idyllic place.    I started up the driveway.   It was nearly a mile until I came to an arched gate in the fence that also read the same.    Through it was a main street of a town that could have come out of a Norman Rockwell painting.     Tidy little houses stretched out before me with picket fences and green lawns.

A building was just to the left of the entrance.    Town Hall?    I wandered up the steps and through the open doors.    A young woman, perhaps eighteen or so, was sitting at a desk cursing at the computer in front of her.   This had promise.   People with computer problems were always a good sign in my line of work.

“Can I help?” I asked.

She looked up, apparently not having noticed me coming in.

“I think that’s what I am supposed to ask you,” she said smiling.    She was pretty, blonde hair and blue eyes.   As idyllic as everything else in Pleasant Valley.

“I was just passing through and was curious about this place.    I’m a migrant computer expert, working my way towards Sioux Falls; perhaps I can help you with that.”

I leaned over to see the screen.   “I think I’ve got some sort of virus,” she said.   I looked at it.   It was one of those annoying web page popups that tell you that you’re computer was infected and doesn’t let you do anything else.

“No problem,” I said.   I leaned over and knocked down her browser, cleared out the offending data from the history and opened it up.

“Thanks,” she said.    “Were you hitchhiking?”

“I was,” but I got a ride in an airplane at Wall from a man who doesn’t seem to think much of this place.

“Old man, Davis,” she said with a smile.  “He’s done some business with us.   Anyhow, it’s getting late in the day.   Too late to be hitching.   You’ll need dinner and a bed for the night.”   This is what I was hoping for.   “You can come home with me.” 

I waited while she closed up the office and we headed out to the street.     “So this is some sort of commune?” I asked.

“We call it a community.   Commune is so sixties.    My parents were part of a group that established this.    I was born and raised right here.     Let me show you around.   My name is Lynn by the way.”

“John,” I said, “John Pennington.”

We set out on a walking tour of the community.   She explained that her parents and others of their generation decided to get away from the evils of the country in general and set up a community, as self-sustaining as they could make it.    They had built houses and planted gardens.    Some still had jobs on the outside, but they transitioned more and more into doing things with the community.    There were internet based businesses operated from here.   They sold some locally produced items, even some wine.   There were schools, doctors offices, and just about everything you’d find in a small town.”

“They wanted it to be like the small towns of old,” she explained.    One was a doctor, and a couple of the kids went off to medical school and returned to practice here.    We’ve got one computer guy now, so we’re a bit short staffed.    I couldn’t tell if that was a job offer.

“I could help out for a while, if you need someone,”    I offered.

“Great, I’ll introduce you to our computer guy, Bill, tomorrow.    This is my house.”

We walked up the garden path to a front porch.   She pushed through into the back yard where two toddlers were tumbling over one another who came running when they saw here.    They stopped short and fell quiet when they saw me.    I was quiet, too.   As young as she was, I didn’t figure she had kids.   Things must be different in the community.

“Daddy?” the little boy said putting his arms around my leg.

“No, Mikey,” Lynn said.  “Just a visitor.”

The little girl took a few steps cautiously towards me but fell over plopping down hard on what her lifted skirt showed to be a diapered rear end.

“Your kids?” I asked Lynn.

“No,” she laughed.   When she regained her composure she paused.   “These are my parents.”

[minachan16 178]

Whoa, very interesting! Please write more soon!

[willnotwill 446]

I burst into laughter but looked at Lynn and she was looking quite serious.

A woman walked over carrying a baby girl on her hip.

“Hi, Lynn.   Who’s this?” she asked.

“John Pennington.     He just stopped by and helped me with a computer problem.  He’s staying for dinner.   John, this is Jane.”

Jane extended her free hand and I shook it.  “Hi, Jane.”

“I was just explaining to him about my parents.”

I continued to smile.   “And I guess this is your mother,” I said to Jane.

“No silly, this is my daughter.    My parents are over there.”   She gestured into a yard where two more toddlers were playing.

This joke was getting more involved.

“I’m going home now.   See you tomorrow,” Jane said.   Her “parents” joined up behind her as she left.

“She comes over and watches my parents while I am working in the office most days.   Some days they come with me and play there.”

The joke was getting tiresome at this point.    “How about some lemonade,” Lynn asked.

“Sure,” I replied.   She went to the kitchen and came back with a glass.

“These are Mikey and Jeanie,” she explained with the kids.    “Have your lemonade while I go change their diapers.”

She disappeared with the kids.   I looked around.   There were family pictures, showing a much younger version of Lynn with two adults.   Her parents, indeed.    A framed newspaper article showed a more recent Lynn in a cap and gown with her parents.   The caption read ‘ Graduate Lynn Holmes together with her he parents Michael and Jean.”   Isn’t that what she said the kids’ names were.

I looked around.    No sign of a husband.   No pictures of boys Lynn’s age.    Perhaps she wasn’t married.   Perhaps they didn’t bother with those formalities in the Community.   However, her parents appeared to have been married in the other pictures.

The kids came tumbling down the stairs followed by Lynn.   “I’ll start making supper now.”

“Are you married?” I asked

“Oh, no.   Not even a boyfriend right now.”

“Where did the kids come from?” I asked.

“I told you,” she said with exasperation.   “They are my parents.   Look, I know it is confusing, but we don’t really know what happened either.   It started about ten years ago, but the initial founders of the community started  to change one by one, regressed to two year olds.”

I still didn’t believe it.    Lynn got a laptop computer out and opened up a page.   “Here, read about it while I cook.”

I started in on it.    Sudden Regression Syndrome was the name for it.    Sure enough, the article claimed that some of the adults in the community woke up as toddlers.    There seemed to be nothing to do but to care for them as such.    The teens and young adults of the community ended up playing parents to their parents.    Other than being stuck as perpetual two year olds, there didn’t seem to be any ill effects on the affected community members.

I’m still not sure I believed it.    But now Old Man Davis’s comment was making sense.   Babies.    “How long ago?” I asked Lynn.

“It started happening about ten years ago.   It’s only been two years since it happened to my parents.”

“How?”

“We don’t know.    We’ve tried to figure it out.   We even went outside the community for answers but mostly nobody believes us.   The few that do don’t have any answers either.   I just woke up one morning to find a couple of toddlers in my parents’ bed.    Fortunately by this time I knew what to do.”

“And the community just went on?”

“The kids had to step up, but our parents laid a good foundation.”

“And it’s happened to everybody?”

“No, just the founding members.    Over the past decade, every founding member who was still living in the community has regressed.    A few who moved away seem unaffected based on correspondence we have.”

“Wow…” was all I could say.   Things were definitely different in the community.

“Are you afraid it will happen to you?”

“None of the kids have been affected.   Nor has any of people who have moved here since.   It doesn’t appear to be age related. “

“And Jane?”

“Jane’s parents turned about four or five years ago.    She’s married to another boy who grew up here.   They just had their first child.”

At this point, Jeanie climbed next to me with a book.    “Story?” she asked.

“Read to her while I finish cooking.”

I took the book, and Jeanie snuggled next to me, and I started to read.

Lynn set food on the table.     She lifted Mikey and Jeanie into their high chairs and fastened bibs on them.   She put food on their trays and they commenced to using their hands to stuff it into their mouths.

I sat down with a more adult meal of turkey and mashed potatoes and green beans.    “This looks wonderful.”

“Thanks, leftovers really.   No problem.”

“Do you feel sad for them?” I said referring to the parents.

“No, not really.   I did at first, but they seem to be happy and carefree.   While it’s not exactly the dream they had when they founded the community, it’s in line with their values.”

“And you?”

“They’re my parents.   I don’t mind caring for them.  They give me a lot of joy.    Yes, some day I want to have children of my own and raise them to adulthood, but until I meet a guy I want to share that with, I’ll take care of my parents.”

Lynn pulled out a bottle of wine and opened it and poured each of us a glass.   “This was my father’s collection.    I guess compensation for caring for him is that it is mine now.”

We drank and talked, and she put her parents to bed in a crib in the nursery.   “This had been my room, she explained.   But about a year after they changed, I figured I should take the master, so I flipped things.”

She showed me to the guest room, and I settled down to sleep.

[ruffledpanties 64]

I think John might just find a home in the community.  It looks like a fun place for littles to be their real selves.

[SGTbaby 41]

 I think this is great so far and I am curious to see how it develops. 

[Dubious 125]

Aliens!

[diapersnpaws 42]

Enjoying this story!

[willnotwill 446]

I awoke the next morning to the smell of bacon cooking.    I dressed and headed down to the kitchen.   Mikey and Jeanie were sitting on the floor playing.   Lynn was in the kitchen.   She set a plate down for me.   I ate heartily.

“This is great,” I said.

“The eggs and the bacon both come from community farms.”

The kids, I mean, parents were sitting in their high chair using plastic coated spoons to shovel oatmeal into their mouths, depositing a good deal of it on their faces.    It was cute.

“Are we done?” Lynn said to them.   They both nodded their approvals.    “Give me a hand,” she said to me, “Just follow along with what I do to Mike with Jeanie.”

Lynn got a wipe and cleaned off her father’s face.    I did the same with Jeanie.   We got the bibs off and carried the children up to the nursery and proceeded to change Mikey’s diaper.   When she was done, she handed him to me and took Jeanie and did the same.

“I can’t say I’ve ever changed a diaper,” I said.

“I figured that was the case, you being a young single guy.     You might learn.”

“Do you resent having to do this?” I asked.

“No, not at all.   They are my parents.   They did the same for me.”

“But you were toilet trained after a few years.   This is going to go on for how long now?”

“Nobody really knows.    They could have a normal life expectancy or maybe longer.”

Diaper changes completed we headed downstairs and out the door.    We walked the opposite way on the main street than I had come in.    Soon we came to a large building.   Children of all ages were playing in the yard and running in and out of the building.

“Day care?” I asked.

“More of a community center.     It gives the kids some time to play.   Both those who went through the transition and the regular children and grandchildren now,” she explained.    She set Mikey and Jeanie down, and they went running off into the crowd.    She waved to a woman who appeared to be running this chaos.   “I’ll be back in a bit.    I’m showing John to the computer center.”

We headed back towards the building I had met Lynn at but went around to the back side.    An outer office with several computers was sitting there with manuals and books strewn around.   Typical IT office, I thought.   We made our way into the machine room, and a young man was pulling manuals out of a computer box.

“Ben, this is John.   He says he’s a migrant computer worker and could help out for a bit.”

Ben looked up and beamed.   “Well, I don’t care if he’s a migrant apple picker. I could use the help.   Ben Cranston,” he said extending his hand.

“I’ll leave you two to do your magic,” Lynn said leaving the room.

“Is it just you, here?”   I asked.

“Pretty much.   I’ve got some teenagers I’m training, they’ll be over after their morning classes are over.   It’s been just me since the fellow I worked through went through the change.”

“Wow, that promotion must have been a shock,”  I said.

“You’re telling me.    It was especially difficult because I saw it happen.   With my parents, I just woke up one morning, and they were toddlers.    I saw it happen to Richard.”

“You saw it happen?”

“Yeah.   We were right here.  Motioning to a rack of communications equipment.    The fiber optic trunk had been giving us problems all morning, and Richard had finally troubleshooted the problem.    He just started to relax and then said he felt dizzy.     He sat down on the floor and before I knew it he was shrinking into a toddler.   I picked him up out of a pile of oversized clothes that he had managed to wet in the process.    Not much I could do.   I called my wife and told her to bring over some diapers and let Richard’s children know what happened.”

“So what’s this morning’s order of business,” I asked changing the subject.

“I’ve ordered some new servers.    Our existing ones are getting a little long in the tooth.   We’ve got to get these setup and VMWare installed and then we can start migrating our existing stuff over to them.”

“I have experience with VMWare,” I added.

“Good, it’s new to me.    We can get the racks ready, and when the help arrives they can help us get them mounted.”

We worked together arranging the racks and getting the power ready.   We ran cables to the networking racks and removed most of the packing materials from the servers leaving them sitting naked on the floor.

“Come, let’s walk over to my house for lunch.”

We made our way down the street and around a corner to another neat little house.    We walked through into the kitchen.   Ben kissed a woman who was in the kitchen.   “HI, hon.   Got a guest for lunch.”

She turned to me.   “You must be John,” she said.   “Lynn called and told me you were working with Ben.   Ham sandwiches and soup OK for you?”

“Sounds fabulous.”

“I’m June, by the way.”

Ben and I sat down at a large table.   June stepped out the back door and rang a bell.    A slew of small children toddled in and took seats at the table.    Ben started with introductions.   “My son, David,” he said pointing at a boy probably about eight.   “My daughter, Sarah.”  This was a bit younger.   “My parents, Saul and Ruth and June’s parents, April and Will, and our youngest, Gabe.”    The remainder all looked to be the same age, two years just like Lynn’s parents.

Ben and June like clockwork applied bibs to the toddlers.    Sandwiches were distributed, and the older kids and Ben, and I got soup.    Sippy cups were distributed to the toddlers.

The food was great, and I thanked June.    She told Ben that she could handle cleaning up and he could take me back to work.

We got back to the computer center, and two teenagers were waiting.  “This is Kristin,” he said pointing to the girl.  “And this is Tyler,” pointing at the other.   “John’s a computer expert whose going to help us set up the servers.”

We all worked at getting the first one in the rack.   We got it powered up, and I grabbed the software disks and sat down at the console.    Tyler and Ben started to work on mounting the second.   Kristin sat down with me.   “I’ll show you the setup on the first one, and you can do the second.”

“Great,” she said.

Kristin was a quick study.    When Ben and Tyler had the second machine ready, she did the install with minimum prompting.    By the time the third was in place, she had it down.

By the time we were through it was quitting time.    I said good bye to this bunch and walked back to Lynn’s.    Mikey and Jeanie came running as I approached and through their arms around my legs.   “Daddy,” they cried.

I found it amusing and bent down and picked the two up and wandered into the kitchen with them.   Lynn regarded some sort of roast in the oven and then shut the door.   “It needs a few more minutes.”

“They called me ‘Daddy,'” I said setting them down.

“Wishful thinking on their part I guess.   It’s a bit harder on them I think that there’s not a male in this house like most of the others.    I have no brother and I don’t have a husband or boyfriend.    I think they’re hoping you’ll stay.”

Stay?  I  pondered that.    I never have stayed long anywhere.    And stay  and be Daddy to a couple of perpetual two year olds?    But Lynn handn’t said it like she was expecting me to do it.   Just a statement of fact about the kids.    I let it slide.

[junyour 10]

A very good ar story so far. I look forward to seei9ng where it goes.

[SGTbaby 41]

I was wondering if he would stay and how the story might progress in that regards. I look forward to more.

[willnotwill 446]

I spent my days working with Ben and Kristin and Tyler.    Meals were divided between Lynn and her family and visits with others in the community from Ben and his family and Jane and her family and others.    I did spend some down time checking the Community’s own online resources about the syndrome.

I really didn’t learn anything because they didn’t seem to know either.     Over the course of five years or so, every one of the original residents of the community regressed.    None of the second generation had, nor had anybody of any age who had come to visit.    A couple of people had left the community over the years, and they appear not to have been affected either.    What triggers it was uncertain.  It was not simply age, though certain stresses seemed to be a factor in some cases, such as the former IT man.   Others just made the transition in their sleep.

It was after dinner Ben’s house, and I had his mother or perhaps his mother-in-law on my knee.    “Do you think this will happen to you some day?” I asked Ben who had a male member of his family with him.

“Nobody knows,” Ben says.   I guess we have to be prepared for that to happen.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Not really.   I guess we’ve all learned to live our life to the fullest expecting that it will happen.   If it does, I guess I won’t be unhappy.   Look at these children.   They’re happy.    They have little care other than being fed and having their diaper changed.   It’s a pretty good life I think.”

I nodded and reflected to myself.    Fed and changed.   I had noticed the prevalence of that.   I’d not changed a diaper yet, but I’ve watched countless times as one was changed in front of me.   I’d handed wipes and diapers to Lynn and disposed of the dirties when she was changing her parents.

Diapers.   The syndrome had indeed changed things.   Some of the founders were of the age when one might expect them to need geriatric services.   But other than having their diapers changed, there was no call for that.   They were healthy.   No arthritis or heart disease or other ailments of the elderly.    The community did have to embark on a diaper composting facility to cope.

One night after a fine dinner and the parents had been put in their crib; Lynn got out a bottle of her father’s legacy.    We each had a glass of wine and were on our second when Lynn moved close to me.   I was expecting her to say something, but she just stared at me with an intent look.     For a second I feared she might be going through the change, but no she leaned forward and put her arms around me and kissed me.

It surprised me at first, and she sensed this and pulled back, but I just smiled, and she started In again.    Her lips were warm and firm and for one who professed no real experience she was a passionate kisser.   After a few minutes of this, she took my hand and led me upstairs.    Guiding me towards her room I had to ask “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Are you?”

“Yes.”

We got out of our clothes and into her bed.     We kissed some more and explored each other’s naked bodies.   We made love.   We cuddled and explored more.     A second round of love making ensued and then we drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

[willnotwill 446]

The next morning I unthreaded myself from Lynn’s sleeping embrace and padded into my room and threw some clothes on.    I looked into the parents’ room, and Jeanie was standing in the crib.   She saw me and reached out and started to cry.

I walked over and picked her up and immediately she stopped.  “What’s wrong little girl?” I asked.    I looked in her eyes and then felt her diaper.    She needed a change.    Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything.   I set her on the changing table and unfastened her sleeper.   I peeled open the diaper and dropped it in the pail.    I cleaned her up and was just fastening the new one on when Lynn’s nude form snuggled up against me.

“Thanks for taking care of that,” she said giving me a kiss.

“Sure,” I said.

Lynn changed Mikey and then set about getting breakfast.    After faces had been wiped and the kids were dressed, Lynn asked “I hope I’m not asking too much, but could you take the children down to the center today.   I have some important calls to make.”

“No problem,” I replied.

I grabbed a toddler’s hand in each of mine, and we headed out the door.     Here I was a single man walking what might be my prospective in-laws down the street.   Now, now, John.   Don’t get ahead of yourself.    You’re not committed to marrying this girl after one night.

I got to the center, and when Mikey and Jeanie saw the other kids they pulled away, and I let them go.   They ran into the mass of others.     I smiled at one of the other adults.   The kids were huddled together in some sort of game that I couldn’t figure out.   “They do that at times,” the woman standing next to me said.   “I’ve never figured out what it means.”

“Kid’s games,” I agreed.

“But it’s only the changed ones.   The natural kids don’t participate for some reason.”

A second later the crowd broke from their huddle and rambled over towards us.   Mikey and Jeanie grabbed on to my legs as they had done a few times before.    They looked up and said “Daddy.”   The other kids surrounded me.   Each was trying to grab on to some part of me or just to touch me.   “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” were their cries.   Then after a moment it stopped, and they ambled off into normal play.

“Well, I’ve never seen that before,” the woman said.

“Lynn’s kids think I might be a daddy as Lynn’s a single ‘mom,'” I guess.

“But what about the others?”

I went to the computer center, and Ben, and I started doing some work that took us most of the morning.   A man entered around lunch time.    “Hi, Phil,” Ben said.    “John, this is Phil.    He’s the current chair of the community council.   I guess the closest thing we have to a mayor.”

“Now, Ben, you know that’s an exaggeration.   I’m just there to make sure the council meetings run smoothly.   I don’t wield any direct power.   John, I thought I might have lunch with you.”

We headed down the main street to what might have been called a shopping district.   At this point, all my meals had either been in people’s homes or brown bag, but there was a little café here.    I ordered a sandwich, and Phil did the same.

“Ben tells me you’ve been a big help to him and that you’re doing wonderfully teaching Kristin and Tyler.”

“Thank you, I’ve enjoyed doing it.”

“We were hoping you were happy.   I’ve not only talked to Ben and Lynn, but to a number of the members of the community.    I’ll tell you this isn’t something we consider lightly and we’ve not really even done it before to my knowledge though our organizing documents describe the procedure.”

I really had no idea what he was getting at.   Was he talking about them paying me?    I was hoping that I’d get a little money for my time, but I was having a good time and willing to settle just for the room and board I had received.

“We’d like you to become a member of our community.”

There It was.   It hit me like a ton of bricks in its implication.

“This is independent of whatever your relationship with Lynn is.   We can give you your own house if you want.   If you want to continue to live with Lynn, that’s fine too.     We hope you’ve seen enough of the community at this point to realize what a great place this would be for you to settle down in.”

I was still stunned.

“Think about it,” Phil pleaded.   “As I said, I believe you are the first person that has ever been asked to join since the founders established the community.”

“I’m honored,” I said sincerely.   “But I’m going to have to think about it.”

I didn’t go right back to the office.    I grabbed a glass of ice tea and just sat down in the park area in town to think.     Could I settle down?   I’d never spent more than a month in the same place in my adult life.    Did I love, Lynn?   Did I want to marry her?    Did I want to spend the rest of my life raising kids and caring for her parents?

Her parents.    What happened if the younger folk started to change.   If Lynn changed?   If I changed?   I head started to spin.

No, I couldn’t do it.   I went to the house and threw my stuff into my bag.   I took out a piece of paper and wrote.

“Lynn,  I’m sorry.   I’m very torn towards staying, but I can’t.    The uncertainty is too much, and I’m not the settling down sort.    Thank you for all you’ve done and I’m sorry that my leaving is likely to distress you.  –John.”

I pushed out of the house and down the street.     I heard “Daddy” as I moved away.   I knew it was Jeanie.   I didn’t dare look back.   I  hustled down to the interstate and waved frantically at an eastbound truck.    He slowed down and pulled over, and I jogged down to the cab and climbed in.

“You looked desperate,” the driver said as I climbed in.

“I just need a ride badly,” I said.

He pulled the rig back on to the highway.   “Where you heading?” he asked.

“Where are you going?”

“Chicago.”

“That’s fine by me,” I replied.   I’d bypass the idea of Sioux City and head east.

[diapersnpaws 42]

uh oh! 

If it's a virus or bacterial infection... it just went global. If it was magic, i wonder if the invitation is enough to trigger...

Poor Lynn, Poor kids!

Poor John!

[willnotwill 446]

I made it to Chicago, well, Joliet actually.   I found a small tech company that needed some temporary help, and I stayed there for a month before moving on down to Champaign-Urbana for a few weeks.   I was getting back into my nomadic swing.

Years passed.    I continued my life.   I had a few other brushes with relationships, but in the long run, I couldn’t live with that long of commitment.    Still, as I got older, I did slow down.   My gigs lasted longer.   I spent more time seeking companionship.   And, at night in bed, I dreamed of Lynn and the Community.

Christmastime was the worst.   I thought about going to see my family.   I’d not seen my own mother in several years, so I worked my way down to Virginia.     My mom was happy to see me as was the rest of my family.   My sister and her husband and kids were there.   The kids swarmed around me, and I played games with them.

“You should find a girl and settle down,” my sister told me.  “Have kids of your own.”

“I got close there once,” I said thinking of Lynn and Mikey and Jeanie.    I went to my room and laid down, and tears filled my eyes.     It had been, what, sixteen, no seventeen years since I ran away from the Community.    I couldn’t get that back.   I’d wasted an opportunity.

Or had I.    I looked online for any mention of the Community.   Even knowing what I did about their computer presence it was hard to find.   It appeared to be there still.   Would they remember me?  Would they bar me for what I did?   Would they at least let me visit?    Lynn probably had children of her own now and a husband.

I put it out of my mind, or at least I tried.   It still came back to me in my dreams.   Tugging at me.   I was just finishing a job in Silicon Valley, and it pulled on me hard.    Without knowing why I was at the airport buying a ticket to Sioux City.   Two changes of planes later I was on the ground there an hour away from my destination.    I got a cab and told him where I wanted to go.

“That’s going to be a rather expensive fare.”

I opened my wallet and handed him two one hundred dollar bills.   Money, I had.   A mission, I was on.

He dropped me at the gates to the community and drove off.    I was committed.   I walked down the main street as I had done years earlier.   I climbed the steps to Lynn’s house, or what had been her house.    I knocked.

A blond haired teenage girl answered the door.   I just stared at her.   She smiled a second as to ask what I wanted but then she got a serious look and stared as well.    The resemblance was there, but there was something else I couldn’t identify.

“Is Lynn here?” I finally asked.

“She’ll be home soon,” the girl replied.  We continued to stare.   “Are you Lynn’s daughter?” I asked.

“Yes, my name is Jean,” she stated.   That answered that.   Named after her grandmother no doubt.   I wonder if Mikey and Jeanie were still around.    She went over and picked up a picture.   It was Lynn and me at Jane’s house drinking wine.  “Is this you?” she asked.   “Are you John Pennington?”

She knew I was, but I did nod.    “Mom told me all about you,” she said with a sigh.    She opened the drawer and pulled out a piece of paper.   The note I had written so long ago.   “I was always wondering if I’d ever meet you.”

“Because of what your mother told you?” I asked.

“Because a girl is curious about her father,” she replied.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.    That’s what I couldn’t place at first.   She looked like my mother.   There was a Pennington family resemblance.   She was my daughter.   The product of that one night in Lynn’s bed.   I had to sit down.

“I didn’t know,” I said,   “I’m sorry.”

“I know.   Mom told me that she never told you.   She didn’t want you to feel trapped into coming back to the community.   But you’re here now.”

I heard the door open, and a blond girl, two years old, run in.   She looked at me and froze.

“Lynnie, look who's come to see you,” Jean said to the girl.    I looked at her.

“Johnny,” the little girl said coming towards me.    I knew now.   The change had happened.   I was looking at the Lynn.    Two years old and in diapers.      She through her arms around me and hopped on my lap.   She kissed me.

I felt warm even though it was odd to have the affections of a two year old.    The warmth was oddly placed.    I realized that it was that I had just peed my pants.   My head started to spin, and I was sliding on the couch.   My clothes fell oddly around my body.     Lynn and I were now the same size.    I started to cry.

Jean leaned over and picked me out of the mess of oversized clothes.    “Don’t cry, Daddy.”   She took me up to the changing table where I had changed her grandmother’s diaper years before.    She put one on me and then she set down in a rocking chair holding me on one knee and Lynn climbed on the other.

“Don’t cry, Daddy.   Everything is going to be fine now.”

I dried my tears and snuggled close to her knowing she was right.

 

-- The End --

 

 

[Eagle0769 15]

I like this story very much. Never read a story like this. I understand how John feels though.  I'm happy you finished it  it was a great ending brought tears to my eyes and made me do peepee in my diaper  thank you for a great story  

Eagle aka Baby Jay

[CDfm 95]

Great story. I am kind of curious though about what happened to her parents. 

[babylin 58]

Thank You, willnotwill.

 An enjoyable story.  Kinda wish there was more.

 Well done.

 

 

 

happiness is wearing cotton diapers

[willnotwill 446]

Thanks all.   Yes, I was thinking about resolving what happened to the parents but I couldn't quite make it fit with the flow of the closing.   That and I was torn between them passing on and the community finding a way to deal with the immortal regressed members.

[dmavn 31]

Bonzer story.. but really?.. VMware? Hyper-v rules!!

[Sarah Penguin 70]

Fun