diaper dimension Done Adulting, Vol. 2 (Final chapter posted 12/21/20)

[HyperShark]

I loved this chapter! Also great to have some confirmation about Littles speaking to Bigs before they come (which I assume is very common if you are choosing your Big rather than the other way around).

 

I have always loved the interactions between Jamie and Amanda's fellow students. 

[SGTbaby]

Love the conversation and understanding of the professor 

[messyman]

On 3/6/2020 at 5:53 PM, HyperShark said:

I loved this chapter! Also great to have some confirmation about Littles speaking to Bigs before they come (which I assume is very common if you are choosing your Big rather than the other 

On 3/6/2020 at 5:53 PM, HyperShark said:

 

 

For someone going to the dimension for hospice care it would be a dick move on the level of throwing yourself in front of a commuter train or pointing a fake gun at a cop to not make sure everyone is on board.

[Alex Bridges]

Chapter 96

 

Shopping in furniture stores struck Jamie as how a doll house figurine would feel walking into the real world. The furniture itself looked overly ornate and not like he’d seen in anyone’s home. He suspected the store catered to people with money who weren’t comfortable enough with their wealth to not flaunt it in what they believed was the way rich people adorn their homes.

“This stuff is, uh, a bit much,” he said to Manda.

“I think they have less ‘decorative’ stuff deeper into the store.” She led the way to the customer service desk, politely waving off the sales associates who asked if she was finding everything okay. “There she is,” Manda said when they spotted Mel waiting for them.

“Hey, buddy,” Mel said as she bent down and lifted Jamie off the floor onto her hip. 

“Brought tacos,” Manda said as she held up the takeout bag.

“You look so grown up,” Jamie said with a chuckle. He’d never seen her in dress slacks and blouse before. She led them behind the desk into an office.

“Look at you all high and mighty with your own office,” Amanda teased her.

“Studio, actually,” Mel explained and gestured behind her to where poster boards showed her current projects.

Amanda opened the takeout bag and sat down at a small table Mel used to meet with clients. Mel followed.

“You want down,” she asked Jamie. 

“I’m good, so long as we’re skilled enough not to get stuff on your work clothes.”

“I keep a full change here just in case.” She turned part way to reach into a small fridge and take out bottles of water.

“So this is where you spend your days,” Manda said as they dug in. “How’s it going lately?”

“Fine. Novelty has worn off. I like it, but I’m already tired of coming here. Thought about writing ‘Days Until Retirement’ on the wall and making a hash mark every day.”

“That bad,” Jamie asked.

“No. It’s great. I just, ya know, am still in the process of realizing I have to do this every weekday for many, many decades.”

“I remember that realization,” Jamie said before taking a bite.

“Colleagues treat you well here,” Manda asked.

“For the most part. Some people have been here for a long time, and most of them are nice, but I think a couple are just, I don’t know, weary. They’re just grumpy. And they’ve made a few comments about my age.”

“How old was the person you replaced,” Manda asked

“Just two years older.”

Jamie interjected, “They’re resentful. They’re middle aged and in the best job they’ll probably ever have, but you’re just starting out.”

“You should tell your boss,” Manda said.

“Maybe,” Jamie responded. “Are they being bullies or just rude?”

“Rude,” Mel said.

“If it we’re me,” Jamie said, “I’d ignore it. They’ll get tired of it soon, and you won’t be here that long if you have your way, right? I’d let them gossip with each other and only tell my boss if they started bullying.” She didn’t intend to stay at the store any longer than it took to get a transfer to a better store or a new employer, preferably at a design agency.

“That doesn’t do much for the people who come after her,” Manda said to Jamie, surprised by his advice. It wasn’t like Jamie to take someone being rude or mean to his people so passively.

“Think I agree with Jamie,” Mel said. “Not sure I wanna start complaining just yet. It’s only been a month.”

“Follow your instincts, I guess,” Amanda conceded. She didn’t have the workplace experience of either of them to challenge his advice or her thinking.

“What about you two,” Mel asked. “Ready for school to start?”

“Yeah. I’m curious how it’ll be different from undergrad.”

“What about you?”

“I’m ready to see some friends,” Jamie replied.

“What do you do there all day,” Mel asked.

“Hang out with Ella, read, workout, do story time for the littles sometimes. Ella’s always trying to get me to participate more in the activities.”

“Why don’t you,” Manda asked.

“She doesn’t either very much. She spends most of the day drawing and painting.”

“What are the activities,” Mel asked.

“Art activities like everyone trying to make the same project or singalongs or listening to one of the bigs read. I just don’t find it entertaining. Sometimes I’ll help one of the littles with their projects, though.” 

Amanda took note of how he said it, ‘helping the littles.’ Jamie still drew a distinction sometimes between himself and other littles, especially at daycare. She knew what he meant, and she didn’t want him doing anything he didn’t want to, but she did wish he would stop thinking of it that way. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way. It was just that he was a little, too, and he knew it and accepted it, but still with an asterisk next to it.

“You’ll get to see Ella every day,” Mel said. Ever since she learned they were sleeping together, Mel wasn’t sure anymore whether their relationship qualified as cute. “How is Ella?”

“She’s good,” Jamie told her. “She’s exchanged a few letters, but I don’t think she likes getting letters from them. Hearing about their lives, ya know, kinda reminds her of what she lost out on. But she doesn’t know how to tell them not to write about that. They just like communicating with her and getting letters back, but she doesn’t have much to write about, and they just write about their everyday lives.”

“She still seeing Dr. Mary,” Manda asked.

“Mhmm.”

“She must be looking forward to you being there every day. She get bored with you you?”

“Yeah. We spend at least an hour a day just alone. Just a break.”

“Where is there to be alone there,” Amanda asked.

“The littles don’t go into the way back of the field very often, and April and Carrie let us use the quiet room. We nap in there sometimes. They make sure we’re left alone.”

Manda was humming to herself in her head. She didn’t want to even ask why their teachers ensured they were alone because she was afraid of the answer.

“We can let you stay there longer if want,” Amanda told him. “We get charged for a full day if you stay past lunch anyway. I don’t have to pick you up right when I get out of class if you want to hang out.”

“Maybe some days.”

“What time will you be done every day,” Mel asked Amanda.

“Three-ish. Depends on what my assistantship turns out to be.”

Mel shook her head. “What a huge difference a couple extra hours in the afternoon make. You were right, Jamie. You don’t even notice things that like until you start working.”

“Sorry. It’s fun, too, though.” He didn’t mean to be as negative as he’d been discussing work over the years.

“It is,” she said rubbing his belly.

“How much longer you got for lunch,” Manda asked.

“I got an appointment in a half hour. Sorry.”

“Don’t be!” Amanda started cleaning up.

“He needs changed,” she told her. “This is nicer than the bathrooms,” she added apologetically. Manda switched jobs with Mel, letting her clear away their lunch detritus and changing Jamie’s wet diaper on the changing mat.

“Maybe every time we come visit you we can try a different changing table,” he joked.

Back at home, Becky got back from work looking tired. Her face seemed drawn to Amanda. “Everything okay,” she asked when Becky dropped her purse and slumped into a chair.

“Day was one long meeting with the new vice principal. Amazing how tired sitting can make you. And Holy shit is she boring ... And way too enthusiastic. She should be leading trust fall exercises or something. How is Mel?”

“Getting on. The first job honeymoon seems to be over, and she’s figuring out she’s gonna be doing this work thing for a very long time.”

“I remember that. It’s why it’s so important to find something you like doing. Doesn’t have to be something you’d keep doing if you won the lottery, but it has to be something you at least like.”

“I’m starting to feel like a kid again,” Manda said. “All my friends are working, and Jamie is retired.”

“Being a grad student is work. It’s not like college. It’s job training. And you have an assistantship.”

“I know, but you know what I mean.”

“I do,” Becky said as she yawned. “Where’s Jamie?”

“On the breezeway with a book.”

Becky walked out to the breezeway where Jamie was laying on the loveseat with his book and Kazoo loyally at his feet. “Hey, baby boy.”

“Hi, Mom,” he said as he closed his book and peered upward as she walked over, picked Jamie up, and sat down.

“Ooh, this is the best part of my day,” she said as she leaned back against the arm of the couch and stroked Jamie’s hair. Jamie decided that he’d start greeting her at the door every day. She was always overjoyed when he was there and jumped up for her to catch him. He only did it because she liked it so much. 

She patted his butt. “That white diaper cover makes you look so brown this late in the summer. I gotta make you wear clothes next week so you’re used to it again when you go back to daycare.”

“I’ll wear ‘em, but I’m gonna take ‘me off at some point.”

“Were you a nudist and they just didn’t tell us?”

“I just like the sun and the breeze.”

“Hmm. Will you take a nap with me?” It was well past Jamie’s nap time.

“Mhmm.”

Becky, turned her head down to kiss Jamie’s hair, saying, “Thank you, Baby Bear. I want some snuggle time with you.”

Becky sat up and carried him inside, holding the door open for Kazoo to follow them in.

[Pierry Louys]

Always bring a smile when a read this story !!

[the diaper mike]

Awesome chapter as always

[SGTbaby]

1 hour ago, Pierry Louys said:

Always bring a smile when a read this story !!

Very much agreed!

[Alex Bridges]

On 3/7/2020 at 7:32 PM, messyman said:

For someone going to the dimension for hospice care it would be a dick move on the level of throwing yourself in front of a commuter train or pointing a fake gun at a cop to not make sure everyone is on board.

Knowing the reason doesn’t require speaking to the human. Some humans choose not to know who their adopters will be or speak with their adopters in advance. Jamie didn’t, but Becky and Amanda knew his story.

[littleTomás]

Great chapter. I can’t wait to see how things shape up for Amanda in Grad school!

1 hour ago, Alex Bridges said:

Knowing the reason doesn’t require speaking to the human. Some humans choose not to know who their adopters will be or speak with their adopters in advance. Jamie didn’t, but Becky and Amanda knew his story.

I find the hospice care/medical little concept interesting. Regression as a way to ease the pain kinda surprises me, but makes sense in a lot of ways. I can see why that program would exist.

[Sarah Penguin]

whee

[Alex Bridges]

7 hours ago, littleTomás said:

Great chapter. I can’t wait to see how things shape up for Amanda in Grad school!

I find the hospice care/medical little concept interesting. Regression as a way to ease the pain kinda surprises me, but makes sense in a lot of ways. I can see why that program would exist.

I think of it not as hospice care necessarily. I think some go to the dimension for the healthcare and recover completely, while others go and recover for a time. Perhaps some know it will not be a permanent recovery or are unsure, and then it turns into nursing or hospice care. Like Prof. Stern’s little just wanted a few more years, and she didn’t want to know what was happening during that time. She got healthy again for a while, but she wasn’t cured.

Just like I hinted all the way back in Vol 1 Ch 1, some even go for cosmetic reasons, do their 10 years, and effectively extend their good looks and life when they return to earth.

I think there are so many reasons people might want to go, and an actual desire to be a little is just one of them. 

[Shawnie]

I enjoy the writing and story telling you can picture the story in your head, Mr.Bridges keep up the great work lad. ?

[WBDaddy]

After a series of tension/release segments, we've settled into a calm here, and that calm has lasted quite some time.  I can't help but think that new tension will arise once Jamie goes back to daycare.  I've picked up a lot of subtle foreshadowing, but there are potential surprise issues I sense here as well, based on the existing narrative.  

[Gentle Gemma]

Can they unregress a little? 

[Samriis]

26 minutes ago, Gentle Gemma said:

Can they unregress a little? 

I would think so as they send them back after 10 years... right?

[Sarah Penguin]

4 hours ago, Gentle Gemma said:

Can they unregress a little? 

I like to think they regress littles by reading potty training books backwards until all their evil potty training is undone until they are as little as they should be, so I assume unregressing littles means reading t them the same potty training normally.

[HyperShark]

On 3/10/2020 at 6:15 AM, Samriis said:

I would think so as they send them back after 10 years... right?

What I have always found interesting about this is that they have to choose whether to stay after 10 years. Can a regressed person even give informed consent either way or understand the choice? Even if you unregressed them it could still take some time before their mental abilities are up to scratch, even if the physical process was fully reversed. I think at some point I did send a message with around 8 questions to Alex about how various parts of the adoption and the universe worked world building wise. But I think I asked a lot of questions he had not thought of as I do tend to read quite heavily and think about fictional universes more than I should.

[Alex Bridges]

Chapter 97

 

Jamie had grown used to not being able to help with much. He still felt compelled to offer, but the reality was so many things were too heavy or too high for him to do the things he would’ve done if he were back home, like helping Becky prepare her classroom. He could reach the rail that held the markers for her board, and he could move the desks, but as she was hanging things on walls while he kept her company.

He always wondered what went on in an Itali classroom and just how much smarter bigs were than him. In daily life, it wasn’t obvious how bigs’ mastery of subjects they had back home but by no means were common actually helped them in their daily lives. Kids as young as nine learned calculus, and at some point around college the math and science they learned exceeded what could be found on earth except among the very best mathematicians, for whom much of it was still mostly theory.

He suspected that at some point, among the smartest bigs, it wasn’t just that the dimension had made discoveries people on earth hadn’t made yet, but that their very biology made them capable of understanding what humans couldn’t, at least not yet.

On the other hand, he hadn’t seen anything to make him think bigs were any better at what he, ironically, called the humanities. Their art wasn’t more beautiful, their language wasn’t more lyrical or complex, their movies were no better, and their religions, as well as he knew because his was a secular household in a generally secular country - any grander. All of it was merely different, and much was also the same.

Becky taught science, and Jamie never asked her about it. It hadn’t been a strong subject of his in school. He occasionally looked at her textbook or lesson plans if they were open, but never more than a glance. Ella was the same way with Stacy’s work. She only knew Stacy did something in business. She didn’t care to learn more.

“Can I walk around for a bit,” Jamie asked when their casual conversation paused.

“Sure. Just stay in this hallway,” Becky said.

Jamie had of course been to her school before. It looked much like a school at home, except the halls were so much longer and the ceilings so much higher that the echoes of his footsteps resounded as thought he were in the long nave of an empty church. Looking into other classrooms, he could guess what each teacher taught by the decorations on the walls. The social studies room always interested him most, but there was nothing new in there. The same teacher hung the same posters and timelines. It interested him anyway because he still didn’t feel like he knew the place and suspected he never could, that he’d always be an outsider not only because of his species but because he was an expatriate. It gave him insights into things Italis didn’t see, but there would always be a cultural gulf. He couldn’t understand certain things about them, and they couldn’t understand certain things about him even if they regarded him as merely a foreigner and not a little. 

Italis seemed at once more relaxed than back home, but they were more rule bound. Italis seemed individualistic yet also communitarian. Family was important, but an Itali’s duty to it wasn’t infinite. At least in the social circle he was a part of, surprisingly few people had children of their own, but they had littles, and Jamie didn’t know if that was only true of the people he knew or was true across society. Society itself seemed more equal and less stratified, but gender roles seemed apparent even without any enforcement; society just seemed to take certain gender roles for granted, and if it bothered anyone, he didn’t know of it. Those roles didn’t align neatly with the roles he was used to back home, either. Dads seemed no less involved in raising their children or tending their households than mothers, but having a little was something women or families did. Very few single men had a little. Jobs tending to littles were something women mostly did, almost as though interest in littles was itself a gendered hobby of sorts. To Italis, how these tendencies could coexist was never asked because they just did. To Jamie, these seemed in competition with each other.

The timelines of Itali history stretched so far back it was hard for Jamie to even contemplate. Even at home, Jamie was aware that human history was so old that peoples he considered ancient had themselves been able to look back on peoples they considered ancient. Jamie was closer in time to Ancient Rome than Rome had been to Ancient Egypt. The two thousand year old societies Jamie had been taught were the predecessors of his own could look back on societies three thousand years older than themselves. Yet Itali history stretched twice as far, going back ten thousand years.

Jamie felt even smaller when he thought on these things, but also smarter than he remembered to give himself credit for. Year for year, it seemed as though human society had evolved to its present form faster, though he wasn’t sure.

“What do we have here,” someone said as Jamie was peering up at a history poster. He turned.

“Hi,” he said before being cut off.

“Hey little fella,” this woman said gently as she knelt down. Jamie recognized what she was doing, trying to seem safe and not frighten him. He appreciated it, though the mischievous part of him wondered what would happen sometime if he pretended to panic, just to see what chaos and reaction he could cause. It can get bored being a little. “Who do you belong to?”

She paused, so she clearly expected him to be able to answer, which he did. “Becky Webb. I’m Jamie. She knows I’m here,” he added.

“All alone? Well, let’s get you back to her.”

“May I ask your name,” he asked.

“Ms. Rayuken.” She straightened up and held a hand out. Jamie decided to be cooperative and took it, letting her lead him back to down the hall all of two classrooms.

“Hi, Mom,” Jamie said before the woman could say anything.

“O,” Becky said as she stepped down off a chair. “Janisa, I see you met Jamie.”

She let his hand go. “I did. He was down the hall looking in Mr. Vineet’s room.”

“Jamie loves history, don’t you?”

“Very much so.” 

Janisa cocked her head to the side and seemed to have the epiphany some but not all people had when he spoke. It was still rare, actually, for people to realize on their own that he wasn’t just an articulate, regressed little. “O,” she said after a half second had passed. “That’s interesting. If only all our students were,” she laughed awkwardly. “Well, I have to get back to my office. With new faculty in the building, do you mind sticking close to each other so no one gets alarmed if they bump into him alone?”

“Not at all,” Becky said with what Jamie recognized was her polite, fake smile. He hoped he hadn’t gotten her in trouble by being in another teacher’s classroom. He visited different rooms virtually every time he came to school. “We’re just about done here anyway.”

“Place is looking good,” Janisa said. “See you next week.” She left.

“Did I get you in trouble,” Jamie asked when he guessed the woman was out of earshot.

“No. She’s just new and a little overly helpful is all. We have three new teachers, and none of them are in this hall.”

“I’m not so alarming,” Jamie said as he hoisted himself with effort into a student desk.

“She’s our new vice principal. Very eager, by the book. She’s trying hard to make herself a part of the place.”

“She’s younger than you,” Jamie observed.

“Mhmm. We’ll get to know each other, I’m sure. She didn’t hurt your feelings, did she?”

“No. Probably shouldn’t be going into other classrooms anyway. I wouldn’t go into someone’s office.”

“It’s okay. You’re not hurting anything. Sorry this is so boring.” She put the chair back and picked up after herself. “But we’re done now.”

“Seem real yet,” he asked as she grabbed her purse and took Jamie’s hand to leave.

“The last weekend before school starts? Nothing ever seems like it will get here, and then it gets here all at once. Still wanna go to the park?”

Jamie did. He hadn’t spent as much time at the park that summer, and it showed on the pleasant smiles of the bigs they had gotten to know at the park over the years, a revolving cast of people who could be friends without ever knowing each other’s names. The park reminded Jamie of a stage, and he found it amusing to think of the people there as the play’s cast that remained behind whenever he left and were still in their places when he returned. 

“Hey, Steph,” Becky said as she approached the woman who had been the first to welcome them to the park.

“Hey, Beck! Good to see you two. Been a while.”

“We’ve been dealing with change,” Jamie said sarcastically but not spitefully. It had begun to be funny, but only just, their summer of crises large and small. 

“From the mouths of littles,” Becky joked along with him. “How’ve you’re been?” Jamie set off to play on the swing set. Or rather, his version of play, swinging and hanging and climbing as exercise, letting his weight stretch out his muscles and tendons.

“We’ve been good. My application was approved,” Steph reported cheerfully.

“Congratulations! Now for the waiting. Are the kids excited?”

“Two out of three. My youngest isn’t so thrilled with the idea of a second little.”

“Well, my oldest and only wasn’t thrilled with the idea of one,” Becky rejoinded. “What about Beth?”

“She’s excited now, and hopefully it sticks. She’s looking forward to being a ‘big’ little sister, but of course we don’t know who we might match with.”

“Three kids, one little, and another on the way,” Becky marveled. “How did you convince Paolo,” she asked, referring to her husband.

“He always wanted a big family. Didn’t have to convince him at all. He had to convince me a little, actually.”

“How?”

“I believe his exact words were, ‘The house already smells, so why not one more.’”

“How charming,” Becky laughed.

“It’s the teenagers that do it,” Steph joked. “When Eni started puberty, the rule was he kept his door open. Now the rule is he keeps it closed. If I can’t see it, I can pretend it’s a dump.”

“Can you all fit in that house now?”

“We’re deciding who’s doubling up. Might start with the new little sleeping in our room. Depends on the little. We’re hoping for very regressed.”

“The charms of Jamie haven’t worn off on you,” Becky asked. “He’s ...” She was about to say low maintenance and realized that wasn’t true. He required a little less physical work than the average little, but only just a little, and more emotional work.

“Needle in a haystack even if we did want an unregressed little. I guess it’s the prospect of my first leaving the nest. I wanna start over ... speaking of, last time we saw each other you said the move was coming up.”

“It came and went. We’re still adjusting. I see her every day so far. Sort of starting to see how it changes your relationship. She’s been an adult for years, but it just seems like I’m seeing her as a truly independent person for the first time. It’s good. Hard, but good.”

“Maybe that’s the best of both worlds: an adult daughter to be proud of and a little to snuggle.”

“Two,” Becky said again. It was a rarity having two. Littles are expensive and a lot of work. Becky assumed Steph must be at least somewhat wealthy because she managed to not work outside the home while comfortably paying the expenses of a family of six. Getting a second little confirmed it. The agency wouldn’t have approved her otherwise. “Tandem strollers and everything.”

“Mhmm. Gonna be different for sure. But you know how long it can take to match,” Stephanie said, “and then for them to actually arrive. Could be a year or more.”

“Actually, we found Jamie pretty quick. I think it was just a month after our application was approved. Probably helped that most people don’t want an unregressed little. And with special needs. We were open to those, so I guess that’s an automatic flag for a potential match.”

Stephanie thought Jamie was awesome, and Becky had explained a little more about him over the years, but she always thought describing him as having special needs was a step too far. Of course, she never did see him outside the almost always happy setting of the park.

“What happened to tag,” Becky asked. The perpetual game was missing from the field nearest the playground.

“Relegated to mornings. The kids started playing Red Rover again, and some moms just won’t put a stop to it. They could at least use a different field. They don’t need as much space.”

“Well, Jamie’s not playing that,” Becky asserted. “How can those moms be so reckless? That little has gray hair! He’s gonna tear something,” Becky said as she pointed to a little in the game.

“Trust me, I know. Same thing is going to happen as last time: moms will let them keep playing it until someone gets hurt. And the rest of us have to be the bad guys because we won’t let ours play.”

“They’re not kids,” Becky said as though making a point to someone who wasn’t there. “They’re not as springy.”

Jamie did notice that his game of tag was gone. He remembered playing Red Rover when he was still in grade school, and he knew as an adult that no school would allow it nowadays, not least because of the liability. A part of him wanted to go play. The other part of him worried about hurting someone. He’d make a lousy link in a human chain; he’d let people through. As it was, he noticed that the more regressed littles didn’t get to play for lack of coordination. Even if they couldn’t win at tag, they could at least chase each other and toddle around. There weren’t even many littles playing Red Rover. They didn’t need the whole field.

With no game to join, Jamie got off the play structure and made his way to the fountain, cooling off under the spouts and tugging his diaper up in back as it got heavy. The spray moved with the wind. He waddled back to Becky.

Becky saw him coming. She was prepared. She never came to the park in warm weather without a towel and change of clothes for him.

“Did a whale splash you,” Steph asked as he walked over.

“A narwhal,” Jamie said. “Unicorns of the sea.” He stood and dripped while Becky laid the changing pad down. He didn’t mind being changed in public anymore. He looked forward to how good being dry would feel. 

“You and water,” Becky said as she started to strip the wet clothes off him. “What are we gonna do with you?” He was nude only for a second before Becky wrapped a towel around him. He held it closed and starting chewing on the corner as Becky got his wet shoes and socks and shorts off his feet. Without looking up, she gently admonished Jamie to stop. Where he’d picked up that habit and why it was so hard to break, she didn’t know.

She swept him off his feet and laid him down on the pad, rubbing him down with the towel and leaving it closed while she got a diaper ready. Only then did she open the towel and quickly got him diapered with Stephanie looking on.

“Gonna have a new friend for you to play with,” she told him. That was a bit of a misnomer as he didn’t play with her little, Beth. They just liked different things. He wouldn’t be playing with her new little either if she ended up with a very regressed one like she wanted.

“You got approved,” he asked. She didn’t remember telling him she was adopting again and doubted Becky had. She figured he had overheard her; she often forgot that he could understand everything she said. It was easy to forget that about unregressed littles. The regressed ones mostly don’t pay attention, and even if they can understand the words, they don’t always grasp the meaning.

“I did,” she told him.

“What are you hoping for,” he asked as he lifted his hips for Becky to get one of his running skirts around his hips. Stephanie hadn’t asked about that. It didn’t bother her. It just seemed sudden.

“Boy or girl or neither, doesn’t matter to us.” Becky helped Jamie to sit up and got a shirt on him.

“Hungry, baby bear,” Becky asked.

“Mhmm. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome,” she said as she got his sandals on his feet.

“I need to start doing that more before I forget how,” he said.

“You have zero trouble taking clothes off. Just do that backwards,” Becky teased him. “We’re going to go to lunch if you wanna join us,” she offered to Stephanie.

“Packed our own today,” Stephanie responded. She had gone to lunch with them exactly once. 

“We’ll have to come back in the morning when they’re still playing tag,” Becky said as she packed his things away. Jamie was relieved to hear people still played his favorite game at the park.

As she buckled him into the car, he asked, “What are we doing when we get home?”

“Same thing we do every afternoon.”

“Try to take over the world?”

That question always amused Jamie. Becky had no idea why.

“Nap time for baby bears.”

[Shotgun Diplomat]

22 minutes ago, Alex Bridges said:

“What are we doing when we get home?”

“Same thing we do every afternoon.”

“Try to take over the world?”

That question always amused Jamie.

Nice reference that. I can very much appreciate a "Pinky and the Brain" plug. 

Well... to put it mildly I really loved this chapter; it was a great vehicle for the further exploration of the disparities and the parities between Human and Amazonian cultures. The bit that I found most interesting was the mention of the timelines of the two cultures. As well as the direct statement that neither of the two cultures were any the better at the arts or the humanities. 

26 minutes ago, Alex Bridges said:

Their art wasn’t more beautiful, their language wasn’t more lyrical or complex, their movies were no better, and their religions, as well as he knew because his was a secular household in a generally secular country - any grander.

 It is just interesting, that that is the case. You would think that with their far greater technological and scientific understanding, that the arts would have progressed along the same curve; but as you pointed out it is not the case.  

Once again, you have blown me away with the quality of your writing, and the depth of your prose. Thank-you for the update; and as always I am slavering for more. 

[Sarah Penguin]

Pinky and the Brain wearing teddy bear suits for something randoms

[Alex Bridges]

59 minutes ago, Shotgun Diplomat said:

 

 It is just interesting, that that is the case. You would think that with their far greater technological and scientific understanding, that the arts would have progressed along the same curve; but as you pointed out it is not the case.  

I think media in the dictionary sense of the word improve with technology. Tempera paint giving way to oils. Papyrus to paper. Black and white to 4K.

I think the underlying narrative doesn’t change so much with technology. People have been telling stories since there were people to tell them to. In fact, research has shown that the best story tellers are more valued in hunter-gatherer societies than the best hunters. 

If we think of language as a technology, then narrative improves with as language improves, but I think there is a limit to how “good” (whatever that means) language can be. Eventually, it must run up against the limit of our cognitive capacity as biological creatures. The brain is a finite machine.

[SGTbaby]

Love the reference at the end! Good chapter and two littles seems like a lot of work but fun 

[Pierry Louys]

Good chapter !!! I really love the way Jamie is so comfortable and accepting who he are and his place in the Amazonian world 

 

[Shawnie]

Muuuu haaaa haaaa take over the world Dr.Evil ?

[Alex Bridges]

Stay safe out there, people.

 

Chapter 98

 

For the first time, Jamie was glad to be going back to day care. It was a return to normalcy. Nothing important about the place had changed. It was just like it had been the day before Amanda told him she was moving out. There were new faces, but there were always new faces when he’d been gone a while. People commonly adopted during the summer, and when the school year began there were always a few new littles.

Jamie always hoped he’d show up and find another unregressed little, and then he hoped not because he was afraid Ella would like that person more. He knew he was just being insecure, or hoped he was, but the idea frightened him. There was no unregressed little that he could see when Amanda carried him across the parking lot.

“Don’t be nervous,” he reminded her. “It’s just school. They’re just students like you.”

“I’ma be nervous just because you told me not to,” she shot back with a pat to his butt. She was a little nervous, if only because she was meeting new people. The door was propped open, and Amanda walked past the receptionist desk with a wave and into the classroom.

“Got a deposit for you,” she said to get April’s attention. April turned, smiled, and held out her arms. 

Amanda handed Jamie over, and April gave him a squeeze and kissed the top of his head. It mattered to Amanda and Becky that the person they left him with felt some genuine affection for Jamie, and they knew they had that in April. “Welcome back,” April said to him.

“Good to be back,” he said. 

“Here’s his things,” Amanda said as she handed over his backpack. April let him down. “I’ll be back right around the end of nap time.”

“He’ll be rested and waiting,” April assured her.

“Thanks,” Amanda said and knelt down. “Gimme hug.” Jamie put his arms around her, and Amanda held him tight for a moment before giving him a goodbye kiss and ruffling his hair as she let him go. “Have fun.”

“You, too,” he said.

Amanda stood and left. She learned not to linger at drop off. The first time had been the worst, but every year was a little trying on the first day of school. She’d rather they could keep spending the days together. Jamie wasn’t like other littles; he didn’t prevent her from doing anything or cause a lot of undue stress. He could be clingy and under foot sometimes, but she never felt she needed a break from him the way other little guardians did. They needed a break from little craziness and some adult conversation, and with Jamie, craziness wasn’t an issue and she had adult conversation. If anything, she wanted him to be a little crazier. He’d gotten better at playing, but he could get better still. But Amanda didn’t need to wipe her eyes as she left. It wasn’t that hard.

“Summer get better,” April asked as she took his bag to his cubby.

“Meh. What about yours?”

“No summer vacation for me, but it does get quieter around here. That’s always nice.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re quieter than anyone else here.”

“Anything different than it was in the spring,” he asked as he looked around to see if he noticed anything.

“We started a garden.”

“Who works in it?” Turning toddler-like littles loose in a garden seemed to be the best way to kills plants.

“We do,” April said, meaning herself and he other bigs, “but we’ve done seed starters as an activity and transfer the seedlings. We should have some berries in a month.”

“Anything else?”

“Jean left, and now we have Ines. I think she’s outside. Ella’s here already, too.”

“How’s Ines doing?”

“Pretty good. This is her first full time little care job, but she actually went to school for it. She’s good at games.”

“Guess I’ll go introduce myself.” He turned to go, and April reached out and felt his butt.

“Go,” she said when she was satisfied. Jamie breathed a sigh of patience, not because she checked him but because it was just a boring routine. Jamie walked across the classroom, over the toys littering the carpet and around littles still working themselves up to their morning peak of energy. Stepping into the light again, with the door facing the sun, Jamie squinted and put his glasses back on. He had grown so dependent on sunglasses ever since he was a teenager that he couldn’t see how anyone could not need them. Turning to his left, with her back against the brick of the building, still cool from the night, was Ella with a book.

“There you are,” she said without looking up. “Took you long enough.”

“I just got here.”

“Like five minutes ago.”

“You could have come to greet me,” he teased.

“And you could get your ass down here and wish me a good morning.” She closed the book and smiled up at him. He had barely sat down as she pulled him in for an illicit kiss. The nature of their relationship was an open secret, though Jean never quite grasped it, and all the bigs worked hard at preserving plausible deniability. All of them, and Diane especially, only asked that the two not doing anything that a little would casually remark on to their big, like the two of them making out by the playground, a border they tread before Ella let him go.

“Good morning,” Jamie said as he smiled a goofy smile and sat the rest of the way down.

“Morning.”

“Ya miss me,” he asked, “being away from each other for two whole days?”

“Yep.” She put her head back against the bricks and closed her eyes against the sun spilling down her neck, holding her breath for an instant before pushing it out in an audible sigh. “Glad you’re back.”

“Me too.”

“Really?”

“Guess I missed the routine, and getting to be with you more.” The planned three days a week she spent with him at Becky’s during the summer had been a lot more erratic with all the chaos and it’s preparation.

“We’ll make up for it,” she assured him.

“Is Ines the one you said was a little too jolly,” Jamie asked, thinking back on Ella telling him about the new big who wouldn’t stop trying to involve her in things.

“Mhmm. She’s still jolly. Doesn’t try to insist anymore, though. She is good, though; she’s definitely a favorite right now.”

“I should probably go meet her,” Jamie said. 

“She’ll come find you if she wants. Manda in a good mood this morning?”

“She’s nervous a bit, but it’s just because they’re new people. She knows some of them, but first days are always a little scary. Helps that she knows all the professors, though. She says I can go to class with her sometimes. I’m kinda interested to know what they think about us.”

“Ninety percent of it is wrong.”

“Yeah, but they probably know some stuff we don’t. Mom’s school is gonna have a ‘bring your little to work day’ this year.”

“Really? That’s kinda odd.”

“Maybe fun for the kids ... Amy went back to school yesterday.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

Jamie shrugged. “I like having a neighbor to go hang out with. We have fun when she stays with me.”

“I guess. I don’t have sitters like you do.”

“Stacy doesn’t go out much,” Jame remarked.

“Nope. I don’t know if that’s because of me or if she was always that way. I think it was an always thing. Just not her personality. If she goes somewhere, she brings me, at least before you came along. She brings me or takes me to your house.”

“Wish we lived closer. It would be nice to be able to walk to each other’s houses.”

“Yeah ... Wanna see my latest painting?”

 

—————

 

Amanda finished the day’s classes by mid afternoon, met with the professor she was working for, and left to get Jamie. The day was fine; she felt a bit overwhelmed with the schoolwork she had to do, but her fellow students seemed more shy than she did. Even the ones she’d met before seemed as though they were meeting for the first time. All but one seemed friendly enough. The other, Walt, was older, almost forty, and seemed condescending. She didn’t like the way he leaned back and smiled at all of them, as though he knew something they didn’t.

Driving across town, she looked forward to picking up Jamie. Facing a mountain of reading to start doing, she wanted first to get Jamie time in, take her mind off it, and then get down to work. She knew being a grad student was a job, not just a continuation of college, but she hadn’t appreciated the difference until she was handed a two syllabi and told she had to read a book for each by next week, and tomorrow she’d get two more syllabi and have to read two more books by next week. The semester kept up that pace, sometimes articles and sometimes books, but she’d never had to consume that much information in such a short period, and she was actually expected to actually absorb it. Suddenly her days didn’t seem short just because she wasn’t in class. So Jamie time, and then buckling down to start.

She again slipped past the receptionist. She always seemed frosty to Amanda, not the temperament you’d want in a receptionist, but Amanda knew she also kept the books. Maybe that was more important to Diane. Peering through the glass of the door, she saw everyone was still asleep. She eased the door open carefully, and the teachers all turned their heads up from their lunches. April stood and brushed the crumbs off her hands, nodding her head toward the quiet room that had become Ella and Jamie’s nap room on an almost daily basis.

Amanda tiptoed across the classroom, thinking how adorable it was to see all the sleeping littles lined up on their nap mats. She couldn’t be paid enough to ever work at a little care, but she liked this part. So adorable while they slept. April tapped on the door, and Amanda whispered, “I got him. Go back to your lunch.”

“He was a good boy today,” April reported.

“What did he do?”

April shook her head, smiling, and said, “Nothing special.”

Amanda smiled back. “Thanks. See you tomorrow.” April returned to her lunch, and Amanda slipped into the room. She, too, preferred to pretend Ella and Jamie would be naked for any reason other than the true one, but there was only Jamie in the crib, face down and asleep. She lowered the crib rail, and Jamie stirred as it clicked into place.

“Hey, buddy,” she whispered, as she woke him the same as always, running her index finger along his spine and watching him writhe just so slightly. Knowing he was as complex as any big, she liked his body was so predictable. She knew how his body reacted to her touch, and she liked making him shudder or twist or stretch at the feel of her fingers. It was a special connection that he only had with her and her mother, and it made her feel like a good big, like knowing how to make him feel good was something every big should know how to do with their little. It made her feel special, too, as though she held a secret key, and maybe he only gave one to the people he loved most. She knew also from his short, audible sigh that she’d woken him. Gently, she got both hands under him on either side of his chest and lifted him up, laying him against her shoulder.

“Sleepy boy,” she said when he didn’t greet her. He pressed his face into her instead, wiping the sleep from his eyes against her shirt. She gave his butt a pat and pulled out the back of his diaper. “You okay,” she asked when she put her hand on his back again. His skin felt warm, like he’d been in the sun all day. 

“Mhmm. Just tired,” he yawned.

“Let’s go home then,” she said, picking up his clothes out of the crib. She looked down at him, seeming to fall asleep again, and knowing he always said it was weird for people to carry littles around in just a diaper, she didn’t want to dress him. She knew if she did, he’d wake the rest of the way up, not go back to sleep, and be cranky all evening. Giving his back a rub, she walked out of the quiet room supporting Jamie on one arm and holding his clothes and shoes in the other. 

“What did you do to him,” Amanda whispered to April.

“He played hard.”

“Where’s Ella?”

“PT, I guess. Stacy got her at lunch.”

“Well, I guess his nap isn’t over. See you tomorrow.” April reached out and gave Jamie’s dangling foot a squeeze.

Jamie did wake up when they were almost home. He took a deep breath and widened his eyes, stretching his face and taking stock of the state of his undress, the buckle on his car seat’s restraints feeling cold against his bare skin. He sat quietly until they got home, waiting patiently for Amanda to get her backpack from the trunk.

“You’re awake,” she said when she opened his door.

“Ya know, I took a lotta comments over not wearing a shirt all summer,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “but let it be remembered that at least I never left the house that way of my own volition.”

“I didn’t wanna wake you again.” She got him out of his car seat and carried him inside. She didn’t have him until later in the week. She took him to Becky’s, and she was staying for dinner at her mother’s insistence. Just because she was a grad student didn’t mean she didn’t have to tell her mom all about the first day of school, Becky had reminded her. 

“April said you played hard,” Amanda said as she put Jamie down and reached back inside for his things.

“I played on the playground with Jenny. She missed me. And other friends.”

“Ella go to PT today?”

“Yeah.” It had been so many years, he didn’t know how much more strength she could regain, or maybe it was about maintaining progress. He never asked. His feet made little pat-pat sounds on the concrete of the driveway as he followed her inside. Kazoo was waiting for them, alerted by the sound of the garage door. He was jumping up and down as they came inside, bouncing like Tigger. Amanda walked by him and opened the door to the breezeway. He took off into the back yard.

“He’s not used to holding it for this long,” Amanda joked. She left the door open knowing he’d be back inside as soon as he was done relieving himself and making sure everything smelled the same way it smelled that morning,

“I know the feeling,” Jamie said.

“Need a change?”

“Mhmm.”

“Let’s take care of that then,” she said as she bent down and picked him up, giving his butt a pat. Not wanting to embarrass him, she pivoted and sat down on the couch. “We’ll give it a minute.”

Catching her meaning, he asked, “How was your first day?”

“I have to read, like, 600 pages a week. How’s anyone supposed to remember all that?”

“Got me. I only had one seminar course.”

“And we’re not just expected to remember the material but to remember the author and year so we can cite them off hand. That’s the final exam, two hours to write a paper complete with citations, not knowing the question in advance, no computer to help. Practice for comprehensive exams next year.”

“I thought this was a master’s program.”

“It is! Just that some people convert to the doctoral program at the end of the year so they show us what it’s like.”

“Bit of a shock, huh?”

“Yep. Guess they were kidding when they said this is job training, not school.”

“Sorry. Can I help?”

“Don’t ask yet, because I might take you up on that. Put you to work making a thousand flashcards. Done?” He nodded.

Clean again a few minutes later, she asked, “Wanna go lay out with me?”

“I do, but I was outside all morning,” apologetically.

She wanted to spend some skin to skin time with him. She needed it even if he didn’t it. “Well,” she asked, “how about an early bath with me?” He didn’t get his normal long soak on mornings with daycare.

“With you?”

“Mhmm. Been a while since we did that. You could probably use it after playing all morning.” 

“Okay.” She took him straight from the changing table to the bathroom. 

“You do feel warm,” she remarked. Not feverish, just warm, his skin hot and dry. She ran the tub cooler than usual and got him situated. She left and came back with a bottle of water. “Make room for me,” she said as she got undressed. Jamie occupied his eyes with a toy.

She slid in behind him, raising the water up to his arm pits. “Mmmm,” she sighed. “Day just got even better.” She laid back against the tub and closed her eyes.

Knowing she needed a rest of her own and wanted to spend time with him, he turned around and scooted onto her legs under the water. She pulled him close against her, back to chest, crossing her arms over him.

“Thank you, sweetness,” she said.

“I know it’s daunting, but you’re gonna do great,” he reassured her.

“I know. And thanks for saying it. My Jamie,” she said as she kissed his hair. “Always my little boy.”