The Diaper Bag (Complete)

[Personalias]

The sun was up when the lights were flicked on, but it didn’t make waking up any easier.  “Time to get up, Lynn!” Mom cooed. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you!”

Lynn rubbed her eyes.  For half a second she could have sworn her room looked like a giant nursery. But when her vision cleared, it was just her same old room save for her diaper bag and the few bits of big baby clothes stowed in her hamper. 

Must’ve just been a lingering fragment of dreamstuff.  Made sense.  She’d spent all yesterday in a diaper and was about to spend the whole day babysitting.  It stood to reason that her subconscious would be likely infected.

“Hold on, hold on,” Mom said just as Lynn was starting to swing her feet over the edge.  “I didn’t mean for you to get up literally, just yet.”  Lynn felt herself being gently shoved back down.  “Gotta change you first.”

“Change?”  Lynn poked at her Pampers, and felt the wet pulp push back.  Furthermore, her bladder was empty and she distinctly remembered going to sleep dry.  She’d wet the bed.  She’d actually wet the bed!  Lynn genuinely didn’t know how to feel about it.

What she did feel was the cool morning air on her backside as Mom casually untaped her diaper and started to change her.  Lynn might’ve struggled if not for how concerned she was that not only had she used her diaper but apparently had needed it.  Might be safer to give her big girl panties a respite.  Besides, she was enjoying this.

As predicted last night, it was a fresh Luvs that made its way under her bum and around her hips.  “Thank you, Mommy,” Lynn said after the Luvs had been secured.

“You’re welcome Lynnie,” Mom smiled. “Now get dressed.  Busy day today.”

Inwardly, Lynn pouted, but didn’t otherwise put up a fight.  It had been nicer when others had been dressing her, but today was a work day.  This diaper was more of an indulgence than she deserved.  

A quick inspection of the clothes in her drawers and closet testified that while it might be more than she deserved, such indulgences might in fact be needed.  Her bra and shirts fit well enough, but none of her pants would budge over the massive Luvs.  Even if they could, she realized, she was likely to pop a button or a seam as soon as she wet.  When Luvs swelled, they REALLY swelled.  

The babysitter found herself at a crossroads. It was either lose the Luvs and risk having an accident in her panties or...

She went over to the diaper bag. Oddly enough, it was empty of Luvs. Mom must have only conjured the one diaper by accident.  Good enough. She didn’t want to have to rifle through a bunch of diapers to get something that might cover them.  “I want pants,” she whispered after she closed the bag.  “Ones that can cover my diaper without showing it off.  Discreet.”  She really hoped the magic would understand.

Apparently it did.  The pair of pants that came out of the bag were jeans, so the denim hid the bulge better.  There was more room in the seat, too, very discreet.  The elastic waistband was a bit immature, as was the snap buttons on the waist, but it wasn’t anything a belt couldn’t hide. There were no snaps along the crotch either, just a zipper.  She’d have to live with the rainbow colored butterflies stitched into the two back pockets, but she could make it work.

A two or three year old, someone just on the verge or in the middle of potty training might wear something like this if everything was to scale.  Yeah.  This would do.  This would do nicely.  She pulled on the pants, tucked in her light yellow t-shirt, and wrapped a belt around her and her disguise was complete.

“Perfect.”

She was about to slip on her shoes- agonizing whether she should go with her regular ones or her light up sneakers- when... 

DING-DONG!

“Marie!”  Shoes in hand, Lynn hustled out of her bedroom and towards the front door. In a very short time she’d gotten very good at running in a diaper.  The playground had given her plenty of opportunity to practice, but she was a natural in that regard. “Hi-!”  Lynn stopped.  It was not Marie at the door.

Mr. Freeman, the parent she was supposed to be sitting for was at her front door.  In his arms, wearing a pink-onesie with a skirt attachment, was his one-year-old, Sabrina.  “Hi Lynnie!” he said, “Is your Mommy home?”

“Mr. Freeman?” Lynnie said. “What are you doing here?  Am I late?”

The parent seemed puzzled.  “Late? No.  If anything, I’m a little early.  You and Sabrina were supposed to have a playdate today at your house, remember?”  Mr. Freeman was the type who liked to call babysitting “playdates”, as if his daughter and Lynn were peers of some sort, so that didn’t bother her.  When you passed thirty, most people under twenty-five looked like kids, Lynn supposed.  But no, she didn’t remember; not the part about babysitting Sabrina over here.    “Is your Mommy here?”

“Lynnie!” the baby cooed at the sight of her babysitter. Sabrina really was a sweet kid.

“She’s just getting dressed,” a voice said from behind Lynn. Lynnie startled.  Good thing she’d decided to forego her panties; it turns out she had a little bit left in her bladder after all.  Not a lot, but enough that the diaper had been something of a lifesaver just then.  Lynn followed the sound of the voice.  Much to her relief, it turned out to be Marie.  

“Marie…?”

“I got here before you woke up,” she explained. “Your Mom wanted to let you sleep in a bit so she let me in.”  Then to Mr. Freeman, she added, “Mrs. Gilligan’s taking the dayshift today, but I’m on deck.”

“Okie dokie,” Mr. Freeman said.  Finally, he handed Sabrina over to Lynn, the tot giggling as she was transferred from one pair of arms to the other. 

“Don’t worry,” Lynn said. “I’ve got everything I need for little Sabrina. I’ve got a brand new diaper bag and-”

Mr. Freeman chuckled at that.  “That’s awfully nice of you,” he said. He unshouldered a red satchel and handed it to Marie. “But I’ve brought hers with.”  

“Wif,”  Sabrina echoed.  The girl was just starting to talk and was still mostly still copying these days.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Mom said, coming to the front, now decked out in hospital scrubs. “Sorry, in a bit of a rush.”

“Me too,” Mr. Freeman agreed. “Gotta get to work.” He waved to his daughter. “Bye-bye, Sabrina!  I’ll be here right after work.”

The toddler waved to her departing father. “Bye-bye!”

Mom, for her part, took a few minutes longer.  “You’ve got my cell phone number in case of an emergency, right?”

Both Marie and Lynn nodded. “Right,” they said in unison.  

“And Mr. Freeman’s?”

“On the contact lists on my cellphone,” Lynn said with pride.  She made sure to have all her clients on speed dial.

“And on a note inside Sabrina’s diaper bag,” Marie added. “Righ between the wipes and her Huggies.t”  She gave Lynn a look.  “Umm...just in case Lynnie’s phone loses signal or power and we need to use the landline.”  Either Marie had something in her eye or she was winking.  Lynn couldn’t tell which.

“Okay, that’s good.” Mom said.  “Fridge is fully stocked. So is pantry.  Have anything you like. Have fun, ladies!”

“We will!” the two young woman called back after Mrs. Gilligan.

“So what first?” Lynn asked once the door was shut.

“Let’s get breakfast out of the way,” Marie said. “I suspect someone’s hungry.” 

“Hungy!”  Sabrina agreed.

“Make that two someones!”

The three girl’s laughed, even if Sabrina’s giggling was just the kind that children did because they saw the big people laughing and wanted to be included.  This would be good, Lynnie decided.  She could babysit, spend some time with a good friend, maybe get a little more playtime for herself, and she’d never even have to put on shoes.

When they walked into the kitchen, Lynn tilted her head to the side.  “How long has that highchair been there?”

Marie blinked.  “I thought it was yours.”  

“Nuh-uh”, Lynn said.  “I’m prepared, but not THAT prepared.”  Still, better to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Lynn slipped Sabrina into the chair and strapped her in.  She had to resize all the straps, the chair was definitely too big for her. The little one’s chin rose just above the tray when Lynn clicked into place.

As soon as Lynn stepped away to get some cereal from the pantry, Lynn unclicked the tray.  “How about I handle feeding Sabrina?”

“Hmmm?” Lynn said, bringing a box Cheerios to the table.  “Sure! That’d be great.”  It was so nice to have help babysitting for once. Marie poured two bowls of cereal and handed one to Lynn. Lynn picked at it, while her friend carefully spoon fed the baby.

“Little bit of apple juice to wash it down?”  Marie suddenly offered Lynn a baby bottle.  Some of the residual magic from yesterday must still be working on Marie.

A mischievous, devious thought creeped into Lynn’s head. “I don’t want apple juice.” she said. “What about O.J.?”

“I already fixed you apple juice.” Lynn teased. “Be a good girl and drink it all gone.”

Playfully, Lynn shoved the ba-ba away from her.  “No!  I don’t wanna! I want O.J.!”  Lynn hadn’t gotten a chance to act fussy, yet.  Or bratty.

“Oh really?” Lynn smirked.  She handed an identical, if smaller, bottle to the actual child.  “Sabrina can drink her apple juice all gone. All by herself.  Are you gonna let little Sabrina beat you?”

A competition!  A game!  That made Lynnie’s brain positively buzz.  Game on!  She snatched the waiting bottle from her friend and began glugging it down with due haste.  The kitchen was filled with the sounds of slurping and hissing as the two diapered girls drank as fast as they could.  Maire looked between them approvingly.

Lynnie drank the bottle down as fast as she could, loving just what she was getting away with in the moment.  Drinking apple juice in the kitchen, having to be coaxed into drinking her ba-ba like a good girl.  Just like one of the babies.  The thought made it easier to gulp the amber colored liquid down.  Apple juice was good enough but she really hadn’t been lying regarding her preferences.

“Yaaaaay! Sabrina!” Marie cheered as the infant finished her bottle first. “You win!  Such a big girl!”

“Biggurl!” Sabrina echoed. Marie unfastened the restraints and set the little girl on the floor.

“No fair,” Lynnie gasped between gulps.  “Her bottle was... smaller…” 

Marie gave Lynnie a pat on the head and rustled her hair. “That’s because you’re bigger.  You need more juice to get rid of your thirsties.”

That made enough sense as far as Lynnie was concerned. She slammed the bottle down, triumphantly “Done!”

“Good girl!”

Lynnie stood up, right into her best friend’s hug. A few quick pats on the back later…

“UUUUUUUURP!”

“You might have finished your juice last,” Marie told her.  “But you just one for biggest burp!”  That made Lynnie feel a whole heckuva lot better. “Ooops!” Marie said.  “Looks like someone isn’t waiting for the rest of us.”  Indeed, Sabrina was toddling out of the kitchen straight for the living room.

“I guess someone wants to get to playing,” Lynnie said.

“Definitely,” Marie agreed.

Within a few steps, they’d caught up to the child. Sabrina was walking around the living room, likely looking for baby toys to play with, and finding none.

Lynnie took a deep breath.  Speaking of playing, it was now or never.  “So Marie…?”

“Yeah?”  

“I was thinking...remember yesterday?”

“Yeah,” Marie said. She adjusted her glasses.  “It was fun. Why?”

“How do you feel about...y’know. Doing it again?  Now?”

Marie’s mouth quirked to the side.  “I don’t know about that, hun,” she said.  “We don’t have a carseat for little Sabrina.  We’ll have to go to the playground another time.”

“No,” Lynnie scoffed.  “Not that. The other stuff.  The playing.  And the bottles.  And the um...diaper changing.  I was thinking I could y’know….play with Sabrina; keep her entertained and you could; y’know...do the other stuff….to both of us.”

Marie held her hand to her mouth. “Awwww!” she cooed. “Is that what you were worried about?  Lynnie!” she gave the girl a big hug.  “That’s what I was planning on doing anyway.” Lynnie could have melted right there. 

“Okay!” Lynnie clapped.  “Wait right here.”  She went to her bedroom and got her diaper bag.  Magical apparatus in tow, she plopped down on her seat directly in front of the baby; the two nearby crinkles mingling with each other.  “Sabrina,. Marie.” she said. “Watch this.”

“Blocks,” she commanded the diaper bag.  “Lots of them.”  The bag was close to bursting by the time Lynnie opened it up and poured dozens of wooden blocks out onto the floor.

“Bocks!” Sabrina clapped.  “Bocks! Bocks! Bocks!”

“Wow…!” Marie said.  “That’s super neat!  How’d you do that, Lynnie?”

“It’s magic,” Lynnie said coyly.

“Must be.”  And there the matter seemed settled.

The two diapered girls started playing with the blocks, while Marie watched, and encouraged them. They’d stack them one at a time until the tower inevitably collapse under its own weight.  Then all three would laugh and applaud at the destruction wreaked and the height accomplished.  

Then they’d stack by two’s.  Then by three’s. Then fours.  Like all good things, it went by too quickly.  Fortunately, Lynnie thought, she didn’t need to stop to use the big girl potty. Her diaper saw to that.

Just a couple of babies, playing on the floor, and Lynnie was getting paid babysitter money to do it.  This really was the life.

When the base of the block tower had gotten to fives, Sabrina started to act strangely.  She started fussing and knocking the towers down on purpose.  “What’s gotten into you?” Marie asked.

Lynnie went through everything she knew about the little girl.  “Maybe she needs a new diaper?” she suggested.  “Sabrina tends to get cranky when she’s uncomfortable.”

“Good idea,” Marie said.  She pulled off the baby’s skirt and patted her backside.  “Yup.  Wet.”  She sniffed.  “Poopy too. Unless that’s you I’m smelling.”

Lynnie giggled.  She hadn’t as far as she could tell, but she didn’t want to admit to anything.  More fun to get checked, she figured.  “Come on,” she said.  “Let’s do it in my room.”

“Good idea,” Marie agreed. Lynnie grabbed Sabrina’s diaper bag while Marie carried the child into the bedroom.

“I don’t mind doing this part,” Lynnie offered.  “Changing diapers is the ickiest part.”

“It’s fine,” Marie said, already unbuttoning and opening up Sabrina’s diaper.  

“Icky,” Sabrina said.  Otherwise, she just folded her hands behind her head.  She was old hat at this. This sort of thing had been going on for literally her entire life.

“Yup.” Marie looked down at the mess. “That’s icky alright.”  She turned her head and made eye contact with Lynnie.  “You can hand me stuff, though, if you wanna be a helper.”

“Deal.”

Marie held out her hand. “Wipes.”

“Wipes.”

Marie worked fast. “Diaper.”

“One fresh Huggies, ready to go.”  Lynnie was nice enough to even unfold it before handing it off.

“Baby powder.”

“Baby powder.”

“Aaaaaand we’re done.” Marie said.  She balled up the used one, and went over to Lynnie’s dresser. “Your next, Lynnie.  Move Sabrina off and lay down.” 

 Lynnie did.  “Whatcha doing over there?”  

Her co-sitter opened the lid of a rather large diaper genie and tossed the vile balled up huggies in.  “Tossing this.”

“Oh!” Lynnie exclaimed.  “My diaper bag!  It’s still in the living-”

“No big deal,” Marie interrupted.  She opened the top drawer of Lynnie’s dresser and took out a perfectly adult sized Luvs. “We’ve got plenty here. Right next to your socks.”

“Where did-?” Lynnie stopped herself.  Mom must have conjured more than one pair of Luvs and put the rest in her panty drawer.  That made sense. Lynnie laid back on her bed, waiting for Marie to change her.  Sabrina occupied herself by sucking her thumb crawling around the older girl’s bedroom.

Marie undid the belt and unsnapped Lynnie’s pants. She shimmied the pants off Lynnie’s bare feet and tossed them into the hamper, leaving Lynnie in just her yellow shirt and yellowed Luvs; a bit of the telltale color had bled through and discolored her formerly pristine padding.

“Oh you really are wet!” Marie teased.   Someone has a soggy bum! Doesn’t she?! Doesn’t she?!” Feeling playful and babyish, but not at all embarrassed, Lynnie hid her face behind her hands in a one sided peekabu gesture.  “Oh no! My Lynnie’s gone!  I guess I’ll have to change this diaper allll by myself!”

Lynnie giggled, peeking from behind her hands as her best friend playfully changed her.

“All done! Nice and clean!” Marie announced when the old one was balled up and the new one was snugly on her hips.  She went and tossed it into the diaper genie right on top of the regular sized Huggies.

“Hey Marie?” Lynnie called from the bed. “What’s the diaper genie doing over there?”

Marie cocked an eyebrow.  “What do you mean?  It’s always been here.”  Lynnie knew that to not be correct but couldn’t hear the lie in Marie’s voice. “Where else would dirty diapers go?”

 Lynnie couldn’t argue with that logic.  She COULD, actually, but she didn’t get the opportunity.  Marie came over and blew the mother of all raspberries into the girl’s tummy, sending Lynnie into fits. 

“Good thing I just changed you, huh?”  Marie asked as she finished buttoning Lynnie’s yellow onesie back up, covering up the fresh diaper while doing nothing to obscure its existence.  

“Yeah,” Lynnie said.  She went and picked up Sabrina.  “Back in the living room?”

“You got it, kiddo.”

Marie led the way back into the living room, taking the baby away from Lynnie so she could sit down on the alphabet playmat right in front of the T.V.  Sabrina joined her.  “You two stay here and play nice.”  Their babysitter grabbed the remote and turned the television.  “I’m going to start cooking lunch for you.  Then it’ll be nap time.”

Owl House!  Sweet!  Lynnie loved Owl House.  King was especially cute!  The little demon insisted he was big and scary, no matter how silly and childish he looked and acted.

Marie went into the kitchen.

Despite how much she liked the cartoon, Lynnie couldn’t get a strange niggling little feeling out of her brain. “Hey Marie…?” she called.

Marie popped her head in from the kitchen. “Yeah?”

“There’s underwear in the top drawer, right?  Next to the diapers?”

“Sure, hun.  There’ll be lots of panties in your top drawer.” 

Lynnie didn’t notice the use of future tense in Marie’s statement.  She also didn’t notice that there hadn’t been a foam playmat when she’d gone to get changed; or that her onesie had been a regular t-shirt; or that her bra no longer existed...

[YourFNF]

Oh shit the really altering effect is going out of control

[Personalias]

“Heeeeere comes the airplane!” Marie said, making the plastic spoon dip and dive. She might’ve gone for a loop-de-loop if she could have. “Time to open the hangar!”

Lynnie opened her mouth, part in following Marie’s directions and part from enchanted cooing amusement. The spoonful of Spaghett-O’s came zooming in, depositing its payload on her tongue before taking off again.  

From her highchair, Lynnie swallowed, and clapped.  Sabrina giggled and clapped too, imitating the bigger girl.  “Your turn!” Lynnie told Sabrina.  Tiny bits of microwaved pasta dribbled out of her mouth and onto her bib.  Okay, so maybe Lynnie hadn’t swallowed as much as she’d thought.

Marie leaned forward and carefully wiped Lynnie’s mouth with the bib.  “Lynnie,” she teased, “you’re supposed to be setting a good example of Sabrina.”

Lynnie blushed a bit, loving the teasing.  “I am.” Lynnie defended herself.  “It’s just sometimes babies get excited and forget to swallow everything.”

Marie smiled politely and looked down at Sabrina. “Your turn.”  She picked up the spoon and gave Sabrina a bite.  Lynnie leaned forward, trying to get a better view of Marie’s technique- she really was quite good- but the restraints on her highchair stopped her.  It had been decided that since Sabrina was too small to fit inside the highchair, Lynnie would sit in it, and the real child would be lap fed.  In return, since babies learned best by watching, Lynnie would serve as a good example.

Big baby and little baby.

It was working like a charm.  Sabrina watched her usual babysitter with careful studying eyes, and then would copy Lynnie to a tee.  At least when she wasn’t gazing up at Marie.  The tot clearly adored her. She clearly was happy about having Lynnie, but something was...different.

Lynnie felt more than a little jealous.  It was only a one day thing, though, she told herself.  After today, she’d put her big girl panties back on, and be back to changing diapers instead of wearing them.

Speaking of which, Lynnie felt a grumble in her stomach, one that was becoming increasingly familiar.  She had to poop.  And for once, she didn’t want to do it in her pants, (not that she was wearing any).  “Um...Marie,”  Lynnie said from her highchair.  

“Just a second.” Carrying Sabrina, Marie went over the fridge and got out two bottles of milk, one much bigger than the other.  “Here you go.  Almost forgot.”  The little toddler started nursing on the bottle immediately. Lynnie’s stayed upright on her highchair’s tray.  “Drink up.”

“Can you let me out of this?” Lynnie asked.

“When you’re done with your sketti and ba-ba.” Marie replied. Then she added,  “Like a good girl.”

“I have to go to the potty,” Lynnie said. A sharp pain in her tongue mirrored the on in her guts.  Potty?  Why had she said that?  “I have to go to the toilet.”

Marie blinked as if Lynn had just spoken in a foreign tongue.  “Um...no? You’re not potty trained, sweetie. You’re not ready for it, yet.”

“What?” Lynn’s snarl was both of disgust and pain.  “Yes I am!  Let me out. I gotta poop!”

Lynn’s friend sniffed the air.  “I don’t smell anything.”

Lynn’s voice went up in a kind of squeal. “I haven’t yet! I HAVE to poop!  Let me out!”

Marie sighed and continued feeding their shared charge.  “Okay, now you’re just being fussy. Are you tired? I bet you’re tired.  Let’s finish your lunch and then you can go down for a nice nap in your room.”

“No! No nap!”  Lynn slammed her fists on the tray, sending the bottle of milk tumbling to the kitchen floor.  

Marie bent over and calmly placed the bottle back on the tray.  “You’re not being a very good example for Sabrina, right now.  Big baby might help take care of the little baby, but you’re still a baby.”  Marie.  “Be a good baby and finish your lunch.”

Lynn gripped the sides of her tray and leaned forward as far as the buckles would allow.  “I’m! Not! A! Ba-!”  She shouldn’t have done that.  The young woman realized it too late.  In leaning forward, she’d lifted her bottom off the hard seat.   The bullet was already in the chamber.  Sitting down had been the only thing keeping the mess in.

Her body going on autopilot, Lynn froze- mouth open- as the massive load exited her and into the waiting seat of her Luvs. It was worse than either of the previous times. Her onesie kept her diaper more in place, kept it from sagging away from her and taking some of the mess with it.  The fact that she definitely hadn’t meant to let loose was just extra salt in an already gushing wound.

“Heeeere comes the airplane!”  Maire took the opening, and Lynn’s stunned silence to scoop more microwaved pasta into the girl’s mouth. Still pushing, Lynn let some of the sauce spill out over her lip.  “Uh-uh-uh.  Swallow it.”  A light tap under her chin caused Lynn to close her mouth and swallow.

Not half a second later, Lynn finished soiling herself and collapsed back into her seat, spreading the mess and, sending her into howling fits.  

Marie ignored it and continued to feed the actual charge, while her classmate bawled.  “You’re being such a good girl, Sabrina,” she cooed. “Maybe you should be the big baby for a while and Lynnie can be the little baby.”

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Lynn howled. “I’M THE BIG BABY! I’M THE BIG...I’M NOT A…” She stopped herself and buried her head in her hands.  

Marie didn’t so much as remark on it.  She just kept feeding Sabrina and cooing at her. Ignore the bad behavior, and praise the good ones in front of the misbehaving child.  Classic child psychology.  And in the back of her mind, all Lynn could do was wonder why it was working on her.  

Yikes! Why was she thinking of herself as a child?!

“Sabrina’s all done!” Marie said. “Would you like a nap-nap?

The girl yawned. “Nap-nap…”  

“Okay, let’s see if we can find a place to lay you down.”  She turned to Lynn.  “Be right back Lynnie.  If you’re clean when I get back, I’ll set you on the potty for a few minutes before naptime.”

This didn’t help Lynn’s mood at all.  She’d already lost.  Marie just hadn’t smelled it yet. She pulled back Marie’s Huggies and peeked inside.  Then again...

Lynn sat there, trapped in her highchair and messy-diaper, trying to control her crying and failing.  She could only watch and Marie walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.  The bespectacled woman scraped her foot on Lynn’s diaper bag, still strewn about the living room and looked down at it.  

“Hmmm,” Lynn heard her say.  “I wonder…maybe there’s something in Lynnie’s diaper bag. A folded up nap mat or something.”  She bent over and shouldered the bag.  “Unlikely but…”  Like Mary Poppins pulling a potted tree out of her carpet bag, Marie reached down and pulled out a full sized daycare kinder-mat: Compact enough to stuff into a child’s backpack (with the top still poking out) maybe, but nowhere near small enough to fit into a diaper bag.   “Ah-ha!”

Lynn watched, mouth agape, as her best friend reacted to the miracle as though it were merely a convenience.  “Let’s go unfold this in Lynnie’s Mommy’s room.” she said.  “That should be quiet enough.”

“Nap-nap…”

She lowered the bag back down to the carpet, just barely within Lynn’s line of sight, to go put Sabrina down for a nap.

Eyes narrowed, Lynn stared at the magic bag just over the kitchen threshold.  Something was different about it.  The golden symbols at the top of the bag!  They’d moved.  No longer near the very rim of the bag, the shimmering glyphs had floated down the aquamarine fabric and now made themselves plainly seen on the side of the bag.

Plainly seen, and spelling something.  The symbols had arranged themselves, twisted into shapes that vaguely resembled letters.“L-Y-N-N-I-E” read.  She drew in a gasp that threatened to become a scream if it hadn’t gotten caught in her throat.

Her name!  Her name had become stenciled in the side! A grim realization came over Lynn:Caregivers didn’t have their names stenciled into diaper bags...babies did.  It didn’t belong to Lynn the babysitter anymore, but it held everything that baby Lynnie might need.

Marie walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the spoon.  “Sabrina’s down,” Marie said.  “Now I can give you all the attention and help you finish your lunch.”

“Marie!” Lynn tried to explain.  “I’m not really a baby-” Her sentence was paused as another helping of Spaghetti-O’s was shoveled into her mouth.  “It’s my diaper bag! It’s magic!”

“Oh really?” Marie asked, spooning up another serving and giving it to Lynn.

Lynn swallowed. “Yes! I’m not really a baby!  Just a couple of days ago I was a babysitter!”

Marie grinned. “Interesting!  Tell me about it.”

And so she did. She told Marie all about the strange old shop and the magical diaper bag.  How it could make toys and clothes and accessories for children that were any size, but it was always babyish or immature in nature.  How the magic affected people and make them think there was nothing wrong; that that’s how she managed to play in broad daylight yesterday dressed like a toddler.

Marie listened patiently, feeding Lynn bits of pasta along the way “So your diaper bag is where all your clothes come from?” Marie asked, thoughtfully. “I guess that makes sense.  Diapers would come from a diaper bag.”

“Not all of my clothes,” Lynn said.

“Take a drink,” Marie handed Lynn the bottle.  “The only thing worse than cold Spaghetti-O’s is room temperature milk.”

Lynn took a few tugs on the rubber nipple and gulped down a quarter of the giant baby bottle.  “Like I was saying, not all my clothes.  My onesie used to be a t-shirt, but after you changed my diaper it turned into one.  I think the magic is getting stronger. Out of control.  I think it might have turned my panties into diapers.”

“Your panties are diapers,” Marie giggled.

“I KNEW IT!”

Marie held the bottle up and Lynn started drinking again. “You could be a writer one day, you’re so creative!”

Lynn almost choked on the milk.  A white deluge practically erupted out of her mouth, dribbling down her chin, taking to the air, and splattering on her tray, and splashing on her onesie in places not even the bib covered.

“YOU THINK I’M MAKING THINGS UP?!”

Marie didn’t seem to hear her.  “Oh baby! Are you okay?  I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to give you that much milk!  Too much too fast!”  Lynn found her mouth being peppered with paper towels before she had anything.  “Let’s get you cleaned up and ready for a nap.”

“I DON’T NEED A NAP!”  

Marie took the tray out of the highchair and moved it over to the sink.  “I’ll rinse that off in a second…” she said more to herself than to Lynn.  Lynn started going for her buckles, trying to undo them but the darn things wouldn’t budge.

They budged for Marie though.

“MARIE! I’M NOT A BABY!”  Lynnie found herself being carried, the mush in her Luvs being smushed up against her as she wrapped her legs around Marie’s waist, being toted around as if she were barely twenty pounds all told.

Marie stopped long enough to pick up the diaper bag off the floor.  

“MARIEEE!”

Marie mumbled something under her breath and reached into one of the bag’s pockets. “Shhhh,” she whispered. “Sabrina’s napping.”

Lynnie didn’t care if that dumb baby was napping. No way was she going to be stuck like this! “I-!” A rubber bulb stuck between her lips, and she began sucking.  And sucking.  And sucking.  She couldn’t stop.  She couldn’t stop!  “Mmmmph!” she mumbled behind the shield while her lips continued to suck on the pacifier despite her!  She wanted to spit it out, she NEEDED to spit it out, but her mouth wouldn’t obey her.

“Much better,” Marie cooed gently. “Some babies just need a pacifier to keep quiet.  Let’s get you ready for nap-nap.”

In some ways, it was a good thing for Lynnie that she couldn’t spit out the pacifier.  It made the scream that much softer when she was carried into her room.  It wasn’t her room anymore: It was her nursery.

Her dresser was gone, replaced by a changing table, fully stocked with wipes and diapers- all Size 8, no doubt.  Marie laid her down, and she went to roll off; but found that her body wouldn’t cooperate.  It was as if her spine was made of iron and there was a high powered magnet on the padded surface: she would wiggle and wriggle, but Lynnie couldn’t actually move.

Marie had no problem moving her, though.  She unbuttoned the onesie and slid it off Lynnie’s hips and over up over her head with ease, leaving her naked save for the soiled Luvs.  “Can’t have you covered in old milk.”

Lynnie could not scream because of the pacifier, and her arms would not cooperate; would not slap at her babysitter’s hands as they undid the tabs on her diaper.  She could only lay there as Marie changed her like she might any other baby.

“Heh,” Marie commented as she broke out the wipes. “So much for being potty trained. Heh.  Potty training.  As if.”  She shook her head and smiled more to herself.  Even with a pacifier stuck betwixt her lips, Lynnie was able to manage a sorrowful whine at the indignity of it all.  “Don’t worry,” Marie said.  “You’ll be ready to be a big girl someday.  Until then, just keep your diapers on and enjoy it.”

Enjoy it?  Enjoy it?!  She HAD been enjoying it; a whole lot in fact.  But that was before this strange turn in events of the last few minutes.  Being a baby never seems so bad when growing up is literally right around the corner.  Now though…?

Her thoughts were interrupted as Marie continued to change her.  Using the front of her diaper to scrape off the bulk of the mess, Marie then continued to.  The wipes felt so much colder than they had yesterday, and it was just that the public bathroom hadn’t had air conditioning.   

It was as if Lynnie’s adulthood was being wiped away, balled up and tossed in the diaper genie. She was getting everything she had wanted, but losing everything she’d already had.  All she had now was a fresh coat of perfumed powder and a clean diaper.

“So much better,” Marie cooed.  Lynnie would have disagreed, but her lips wouldn’t spit out the pacifier long enough to say anything.

Lynnie’s bed was no longer a bed, because of course it wasn’t.  From the changing table all the way over to the crib, but was stuck as a ragdoll up until the moment Marie dumped her inside.  Instantly she was on her knees and grabbing at the bars.  Even with the extra puff of a big baby diaper, Lynnie was fairly sure she could get over the railing, but her body wouldn’t let her get up off her knees?  

Was she a crawler, now?  Or was it just some magic in the crib keeping her from escaping it?  Whatever it was, it was magic.  That same magic made Marie’s promise of being a big girl someday sound so completely empty.   

All the books on her shelf appeared to be made of chewable cardboard.  Her rolling desk chair was now a bouncer.  The only bit of furniture that had been unchanged was her mirror, and Lynnie didn’t like what she saw there one bit.


Wait, why was she thinking of herself as “Lynnie?”  Lynnie was a little girl’s name.  A baby’s name!  She was Lynn Gilligan, darn it!

“G’night, Lynnie” Marie gave her a kiss on the forehead.  “Sleep tight.  By the time you wake up, your Mommy should be home.”  Sleep tight?  Fat chance, Lynn thought.

As soon as the door to her bedroom closed and the lights were out, Lynn reached for the pacifier.  She had to spit it out.  Her fingers found purchase on the plastic shield but her mouth would not release it.  “Mmmmm!” She groaned.  The smooth rubber nipple might as well have been a barbed arrow.  Nothing short of surgery would do it, and even then, magic beat medicine.

While her arms were trying to extricate the magical dummy, her bladder started.  The milk was already starting to catch up to her.  Lynn almost wet herself out of half-formed habits, but doing so would have been like admitting defeat right then and there.  She KNEW the diaper would hold but she didn’t WANT it to.  She wanted to prove that she didn’t need the Luvs, even though  she was being given no alternative and no tools.

Was this what Bradley had felt like?  From her pacifier, her hands shot down for the tabs on her extra large Luvs. Her fingers just barely gripped onto the tabs, but neither they, nor the Velcro fasteners would budge.

Just like little Bradley, had, Lynn yanked and tugged at the front, but nothing would happen.  Same for the back.  She tried to dig her hands into the waistband, or to shimmy them off her hips like they were panties. All she caught was the slightest shifting, just enough to crinkle, and then no more.  She was stuck...

The magic of the bag was getting stronger!  Too strong!  No one had specified that this batch of diapers be unremovable, but Lynn couldn’t get undressed for the life of her.  Maybe it was because Marie had instructed her to keep her diapers on...

For a solid fifteen minutes Lynn did her best to get rid of any of the babyish.  She wriggled on her back and belly.  She tried to rip the rainbow bunny bedsheets off the crib mattress. She tried to create a rattling ruckus by shaking the crib bars.  Nothing worked.

If she really tried, she found, she could stand, but it was always unsteadily and never for very long.  Her balance was off, and her legs didn’t feel nearly as strong as they had been.

Her body exhausted, Lynn collapsed in the crib, exhaling her frustration.  Frustration gave way to fatigue.  The mattress seemed sooooo soft and comfortable, even without a pillow...and her body suddenly felt very heavy...very tired.  The adrenaline was wearing off and quick.

So tired.  So very tired.
.

Slowly, Lynn eased herself onto the mattress, fighting, and losing, to keep her eyes open. One thing that wasn’t going away was her need to pee.  With a final defiant groan, the girl admitted defeat and relaxed her bladder.    She wasn’t even going to be able to go to sleep in a dry diaper. Denied an alternative, the warm wetness didn’t feel nearly as good as it had before.   Being forced to do something felt a lot different than getting away with the same act.

Lynn closed her eyes.

Lynnie passed out.  Only then did the pacifier fall out of her mouth.

Maybe when she opened her eyes again, things would be back to normal…

But like the chalky aftertaste in a powdered chocolate milk, she could just barely taste the lie.

[Jayme]

It seems like Lynn is getting a lot more than she bargained for...

[Personalias]

“Wakey wakey,” Mom’s familiar, comforting voice broke the silence. “Time to get up, baby girl.”  Soft hands brushed Lynn’s.  “Mommy’s home.”

Lynn yawned.  “Mom?”  For a second, the babysitter had forgotten that she was all but naked and in a crib.  The vertical bars and the crinkle when she sat up quickly reminded her.  “Where’s Marie? Sabrina?”

Mom picked Lynn up as if she weighed nothing and took her back over to the changing table.  “I got off of work early.  Sabrina just went home with her daddy.  Marie had big girl things to do, but said she loved babysitting you.  Said you were a very good example for Sabrina.”

Lynn felt an inch of insanity starting to creep up on her. Was this going to be her new normal?  “Mommy,” Lynn said,  “Mom...I’m not a baby.”

“Of course you're not.”  Mom didn’t sound at all convinced.  She was just humoring her daughter.  “Oh wow, you’re soaked.”  Eyes still on Lynn, she dug under the changing table.  “I think Huggies might work better.  Better for moving around in.  More baby shaped.”  Sure enough, she withdrew an adult sided Huggies.  Mickey Mouse would be taking the spot of honor on Lynn’s bum, replacing the purple monkey.  
Just like before her nap, Lynn was stuck on the changing table like a fly on sticky paper.  She was powerless, yet again, to stop her personal space from being violated. Unlike last time though, she could use her mouth.  

“Mom!” Lynn cried out. “Snap out of it!  I’m not a baby!  I’m nineteen!”

Mom didn’t stop.  The tabs came off with two quick scritch-scratches.  “I know you are. Just turned nineteen two months ago.”

In the midst of changing, the naked girl felt her face go numb.  “What?”

Mom was busy wiping.  “I should hope I know my own baby’s birthdate.” She then rattled off Lynn’s birthday, year included.  “I was there, too, y’know.”

“But Marie is the same age as me!” Lynn said, still not fully grasping what she was hearing.  “Her birthday is three weeks after mine!”

Mom unfolded the new diaper, lifted Lynn’s legs and slid it under her.  “Uh-huh.  That’s right.”  She went for the powder.  

For the first time, the perfumed powder smelled bitter to Lynn.  “But she doesn’t have to wear diapers, or sleep in a crib.”

“She’s not a baby, though.”

“Neither am I!”

“Of course not.”  That didn’t stop Mom from finishing up and tossing the old diaper.  “Some people grow up faster than others.  Some people stop being babies around three or four or five.  Others take a little longer.”  Lynn got a kiss on the forehead.  “You look kind of chilly.  Do you want something else to wear?”

Lynn looked down at her breasts.  Her nipples were broadcasting just how cold her bedroom was at the moment.  “Yes…”

“Yes?”

She knew this from when she was actually a little girl.  “Yes, please.”

To match Mickey Mouse, Mommy came back with a white and red polka dot dress with frills on the hem and sleeves that Minnie would love to be sporting.  The magic keeping her in place was released enough so that Lynn could be pulled into the sitting position, and her arms guided through the sleeves. After it was pulled over her head, Lynn decided that calling it a “dress” was generous.  Dresses generally covered up underwear.  

A flashback to yesterday when her dress hadn’t covered up much more:  All of those people!  She’d assumed something about the bag’s enchantment had made the passerby see a little girl of no more than two.

That’s not what happened all, Lynn realized.  All those strangers...maybe even not-so-strangers...had seen her as she really was, waddling around in shortalls and shorter hemmed dresses.  They’d seen a skinny college girl acting the fool, wetting herself, and needing to have her butt wiped for her.  Her face turned burning hot just thinking about it.

Oblivious to her daughter’s embarrassment, Lynn’s Mom picked her up and carried her over.  “Let’s play some more. You’ve I don’t want you oversleeping and then staying up all night.”  

The living room had been almost completely transformed over the course of her nap.  Only the television and Mom’s favorite easy chair remained for the adult-inclined.  Everything else had been clearly crafted with an adult sized infant in mind.

The foam play mat was still in the middle of the floor, but it was far from the only thing that screamed “toddler”. The wooden alphabet blocks she’d conjured up were now in a clear plastic bin, along with some other colorful odds and ends.

Clear plastic bins lined the walls, in each of them were different toys: At a glance, she was able to make out simple wooden puzzles and latch boards, a play kitchen with a bin of plastic food beside it, and various other colorful plastic doo-dads.   A few stray dollies and stuffed animals littered the floor, but nothing  that couldn’t be picked up given two minutes’ time. It looked lived in but not cluttered.  Had she been the babysitter, instead of the tot, Lynn might have approved.

Mom stepped over a baby gate, not even a particularly large one and set Lynn down. “Go ahead,” she said.  “Have fun.”

While her mother sat down in the recliner and switched the T.V. over to the news, Lynn looked around and picked up a rattle.  It was the same aquamarine color as her diaper bag and speckled gold.  She gave it a little shake and heard the beads snapple gently inside.

Shicka-shicka.

She smiled lightly.  Such a simple thing, and yet there were possibilities.  What was a rattle if not a baby maraca.  Carefully, she shook it again, keeping her wrist straight.

Shicka-shicka, shicka-shicka, shicka, shicka.  Kind of like the rhythm of a choo-choo train slowly going down the tracks.  Shicka-shicka, shicka-, shicka- shicka.  Yeah, that was it!  Then, in a fit of whimsy she shook the rattle as fast as she could.

Shicka-shicka-shicka-shicka-shicka-shickaaaaaaaaaaa!  Clearly, the choo-choo had crashed.

“Hee-hee-hee-hee!” she giggled.  Awkwardly, she clapped; sending her closed fist into her open palm, building into a crescendo until the rattle slipped out of her hand and onto the floor.

“Whoops!” Mommy said from the recliner.  “Careful, sweetie.  Don’t break your toys.”

“Okay, Mommy.” Lynnie nodded.  She barely noticed or felt the sound of the padding behind her as she crawled to retrieve her ra-....

She stopped.  

WHAT WAS SHE DOING?!

Lynn leaned back on her heels and bit down on her tongue. The fudge was wrong with her?!

Goodie two shoes that she was, Lynn had only been drunk once in her life: It had happened when she was twelve and her mother had accidentally bought Not Your Father’s Root Beer.  Turns out people could make regular beer taste a whole heckuva lot like rootbeer and Mom had neither red the label while shopping nor put two and two together when she had found rootbeer that wasn’t in the soda aisle.

Twelve-year-old Lynn had gotten sick, but before that she’d learned why people get drunk to begin with.  Being drunk lowered one’s inhibitions.  It made you okay with doing and saying silly things that you normally wouldn’t do.  Yeah, you still had that voice in your head telling you that this was a bad idea or that you shouldn’t be doing this thing, but it was so much easier to ignore that voice and decide that you were going to sleep in your bathing suit or that six Jell-0 cups made a good lunch no matter how many times your parents warned you that you’d puke, (and even after you puked, it seemed okay).

Just then with the rattle was the closest she’d gotten to being drunk since that accidental incident years ago.  Her head wasn’t as buzzy fuzzy and her mouth didn’t feel at all numb, but it was the same on so many other levels.

Deep down, she knew exactly what she’d been doing.  Lynn didn’t think of herself as a baby; that fact was never in question.  No memories of her education or life had been stolen from her. (The mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell...yup, checked out.  That’d be on top of the list for things to forget.)

Part of her still wanted to play along with this charade, and the magic of the bag was making it so much easier to do so.  She had to get that damn bag!  

The girl leaned forward on her hands and gathered her legs up underneath her.  Her but shot up and out into the air above her head while she unbent and locked her knees.  Then with a mighty push she heaved her torso up until she was standing.

Standing! She was standing! She could still walk. She took a step. Two steps!  On the third, (closer to two-and-a-half) her arms flailed out like a high wire novice struggling for balance.  

Okay.  Okay.  She could walk.  Just not very well; and it had nothing to do with how thick her disposable underwear was. Yet another overlap on the diagram between intoxication and enchantment.  Like an early toddler, crawling would still be her fastest option for covering ground.  Bipedal movement would just give her a higher viewpoint.   Speaking of height, her new stance did give her at least one advantage:  There, hanging on a coat rack by the front door, in all of its eldritch glory, was the bag!  And all she had to do was get past that baby gate.

Making sure to swallow so that she didn’t drool, (just in case), Lynn took three awkward bowlegged steps towards the gate, almost losing balance each time one foot planted.  This would be easy.  Even with her impaired gait it’d be next to nothing to get past the security measure designed for actual children.  If she had to, Lynn could lean herself in the doorway and manually pick each foot up and place it over the threshold.

Left.

Right.

Left.

On the fourth step, something happened: An invisible force; gentle but irresistible pushed the girl back, and it was coming from the baby gate.  Lynn lost balance and tumbled down onto her backside, going so far to as to skid backwards across the floor.  “Ooof!”

Okay.  Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought.

WIth the same awkward lumbering determination, Lynn shot her bum into the air and stood up.  

Right.

Left.

“Oof!”

Magnets again!  Just the changing table, except the changing table drew her to it.  The baby gate repulsed her.  Everytime the knee-high barricade came within arms’ reach, Lynn found herself knocked ever-so-gently back on her butt.

“Oof!”

She did not get a fourth attempt.  As she was pushed backward, a new force dragged her back.  That force was the arms of her mother.  Try as she might to resist, Lynnie couldn’t help but be dragged back onto the play mat, now in her mother’s lap.

“I”m sorry, baby girl,” her mother said.  “Mommy didn’t mean to ignore you, she’s just been tired lately.  Not been sleeping well.”

“Mom,” Lynn said, trying her best to keep her composure.  “I need to get to the diaper bag over there.”  All that got her was a diaper check. “No, not like that!”

“Lynnie, there’s no reason to get your bag.  I emptied it out silly.” That explained a lot.  “How about we sing Little Bunny Foo Foo?”

“No I-”

Mommy didn’t wait. “LIttle Bunny Foo Foo, hopping through the forest.”

Lynnie sat in her mother’s lap, letting Mommy move her hands in the air and make tiny field mice and Little Bunny Foo Foo and boppin’ them on the head.  By verse two she was singing along.

All the way through verse ten.  When Mommy played the good fairy, Bunny Foo Foo got an inordinate amount of second chances to clean up her act.  “Mommy,” Lynnie said, “I mean Mom, I wanna get the bag!  I need to show you something!”  If she could just get her hands on it, she could...she didn’t know, destroy it or something and turn back into her regular self.

Mommy laughed at the urgency in Lynn’s voice.  “Sweetie, it’s just a bag.”

“Noooo,” Lynn whined. “It’s a MAGIC bag!”

“Such an imagination.”  The kiss and the hug did not help.  The brief tickle made her laugh, but it didn’t make her feel any better.  Then, Mom gave her an opening.  “Your diaper bag isn’t a toy,” she said.  “We only take it with us when we go out.”

It would cost her the last bits of her dignity, but Lynn knew what she had to do.  “Mommy?” she said, leaning into her mother. “Can we get some fresh air?  Go for a walk?”

“Mommy was working all morning,” Mom yawned.  “I don’t think she has the energy to push you down the slide or chase you around the playground.”

“I don’t wanna go to the playground.”  Lynn allowed herself a silly giggle.  The better to seem innocent.

“Oh yeah?  Where would we be going then, little lady?”

“Downtown…?”  Lynn let the thought linger before charging in.  “We could go for a walk. Enjoy the scenery of town square.  Get some fresh air.  You could push me in my stroller...and we could window shop.”  Lynn didn’t know for a fact whether or not she had a stroller, but it was a safe bet.

“Hmmm..” Mom said.  “Maybe we could do some window shopping…”

Yes!

[Jayme]

Hmm, I can see multiple things happening when Lynn gets ahold of the bag, but I wanna see what happens next to see if one of the many possibilities I see is correct....

[Zuesbaby]

Good story

[Personalias]

The sun was hanging low in the early evening sky. There was maybe an hour of daylight left and the street lamps had already come on, ready to pick up the slack for when the sun went down.  Most of the shops in the downtown area weren’t closed yet, but they’d already done the bulk of their business for the day.   

Either that or they were just starting up.  Much like the sun and the moon, when the cozy little Mom and Pop shops were wrapping things up, a handful of restaurants and bars were just prepping for their rush.  

Mom drove once around the square, past the gazebo  in the main town square looking for a parking spot before finally settling for a mostly empty lot a block away, just by the bus stop that Lynn had regularly used to get to this part of town.  She gritted her teeth when they passed by the old bank; the one that had been so many storefronts since but was more recently being called “Lost Things Found”.  

Lynn needed to get in there.  More than anything she needed to talk to the old man who ran the store.  Get him to take this away.  Get him to take all of this away.

The side door to the van opened wide.  Lynn didn’t immediately get out because she couldn’t.  Just every other piece of equipment, “baby-proof” meant “Lynn-proof”, and she was helpless during the half-hour ride from her house to the downtown square.

Mom wouldn’t let her hold the diaper bag, either.  If she had, Lynn might have busied herself trying to tear it apart with her nails and teeth or else devising an impossible way to toss it out the window.  What she got though was being strapped into what was essentially a roller coaster harness and forced to along for the world’s least adrenaline inducing car.

“This was a good idea,” Mom said.  She unbuckled Lynn from one mobile prison and switched her over to another; the adult sized stroller was probably the least macro-sized thing she’d been exposed to, more like a posh wheelchair-recliner combo (but wasn’t that what regular strollers were anyways?).  “A little fresh air, some walking on the sidewalk, some window shopping.  Maybe we’ll even get dinner.  Would you like that?”

“Sure.”  Lynn said.  “Can I hold the diaper bag?”  The sidewalk would be close enough that she could fling the cursed thing into oncoming traffic.  Might be worth a shot.  Return the cursed item.  Destroy the cursed item.  Same difference, right?

“I don’t think so,” Mom said.  “Wouldn’t want to lose it.”  Dang it!  How did she know?! “There’s room in the back of your stroller for it anyways.”  Mom took a second to stick two fingers past the leg cuffs of Lynn’s diaper before strapping her in.  “Still dry.”

“You could just ask me if I was wet, y’know.” Lynn said

“I know.”

Lynn was getting the distinct impression that “I know” meant, “I’m not really listening.”  She did, in fact, have to pee.  Mom insisted on having her drink a whole bottle of apple juice before putting her in the car. Like a good mother she wanted her “little girl” to remain hydrated.  

It wasn’t a great need.  Not yet. Something that she could have held in for a while, in fact. The kind of thing that would be easy to ignore if she were working on something...or in class...and not wearing a diaper.  

It was a strange inverse from her experience on the playground: When she was padded up and playing, she barely noticed her bladder and didn’t think twice about it.  It was little more than scratching a mild itch.  Now that she was trying to avoid using her Huggies for its intended purpose, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Mom vanished behind her and the stroller moved forward out of the bumpy parking lot and onto the smooth paved sidewalk.  Cars wooshed by, creating miniature breezes in their wake.

The stroller slowed as they approached the first store window.  Lynn looked up and saw a bunch of dressmaker’s dummies wearing old fashioned ball gowns.  “So pretty,” Mom commented.  “Don’t you think so?”

Lynn was about to roll her eyes, but then took a good long look at them.  There was a kind of beauty to the gowns, very Disney Princess-esque.  “Yeah…” she admitted

“You’d look super cute in one of these.  I wonder if they have anything in your size.”  Another effect of the magic no doubt..  It was a tailor’s shop.  Of course they had something in her size.  Stores like these were where at least fifty percent of prom dresses came from locally.

What Mommy had meant was “I wonder if they have anything babyish in your size.”

“Just use the bag, Mommy,” Lynnie said. “It’s magic. Has anything in it.”  Lynn bit her lip. Egad, was she trying to help?  She pictured herself in a Cinderella ball gown, crinkling with every step and in extra thick padding to compensate for the layers and layers of fabric.

“Oh you.” Mommy laughed.  “That’s not how diaper bags work.  You just don’t see Mommy packing yours often enough.  Why don’t we go inside and talk to whoever is behind the counter?”  The stoller started moving past the window and to the door.

Lynn looked over her shoulder to the sun.  Images of an old man with a cane hanging a closed sign and walking away for the night shot into brain.  “NO!”  The stroller stopped.

“Mommeeeeee,” Lynn made herself whine.  If she was going to be seen as a baby she might as well play the part for maximum results.  “I don’t wanna go insiiiiiide!  Inside boring!”

She heard the resigned sigh from her mother and knew she had won that round.  “I did say window shopping and fresh air, didn’t I?”  Lynn’s field of view straightened out as the stroller no longer threatened to turn.

The sidewalk continued to roll by quietly.  A few other people walked by, giving too friendly waves to Lynn.  No matter the size, everyone seemed to want to wave and babble at a baby.  Her face flushing and blushing, Lynn smiled and waved back, halfway dreading and halfway loving the attention.

The balance definitely shifted over to dread when she heard the next voice speak out.  “Laura?  Lynnie?”  The stroller stopped.  Lynn’s knees locked and her arms tensed up.

“Nora?  Dane?”

“Hiiiiiii!”

A second stroller wheeled around. This one, with an actual child in it.  A child that Lynn knew very well.  “Bradley?”  It was Bradley all right.  Same hyper-energetic, whiney, fussy, bratty bradley.  Being out on the town, he was trussed up in overalls and restrained in a stroller instead of being allowed to run around almost naked.

“Lynnieeeeee!” Bradley screeched.  Bradley had never called her “Lynnie” once.  Not once.  “Lynnie! Lynnie! Lynnie! Lynnie! Baby!  Baby! Baby! Baby!”  Bradley was bouncing.

“We thought that was you,” Bradley’s mom said to Lynn’s.  “Our Bradley just loves his favorite playmate from daycare!”  She looked down to Lynn.  “Hi Lynnie! Hiiiii!”

Daycare?  Daycare?  Lynn was in daycare now?  Or rather, always had been as far as everybody else remembered.  That was something new that sunk in….all of her clients, all of her charges...they were peers now.  Except that they were all one and two...and she was “the big baby” at nineteen. Lynn wanted to shrink down and die right there.  “Awwww,” Bradley’s dad said, noticing her embarrassment.

“Someone’s a shy baby.”

“Shy?” Mommy laughed. “My Lynnie?  Get out of here!”  Bradley’s parents joined in the laughter.”

“LYNNIE LYNNIE LYNNIE LYNNIE!”  Did Bradley remember?  Did the magic not affect kids?  Lynn shuddered at that thought.  
“That’s how we know all of his little friends.” His mother said.  “He learns their names and won’t stop saying them.  

Lynn wanted to speak up, to tell them that just two days ago she’d been Bradley’s babysitter,  but something in her wouldn’t let her interrupt.  It was rude to talk when the grown-ups were talking...

That didn’t stop Bradley. “PEE-PEEEEEE!!”  His face broke out into tears and he started tugging at his overalls.  

“Uh-oh,” his dad said.  “Looks like we gotta go change him.”

“He’s started doing this thing where as soon as he’s wet he yells about it and tries to take his diaper off.  It’s why he’s in regular overalls instead of the kind with snaps in them.  Otherwise he’d be half way to flashing us right now.”

“Oh,” Lynn’s mom commented.  “Lynnie’s never had that problem.  She keeps her diapers on like a good girl.”  Lynn did not particularly enjoy the following pat on her head.  More than ever she related to the little twerp sitting across from her.

“We think it’s a sign that he’s about ready for potty training.” Bradley’s dad said.  “We just gotta get him to tell us when he needs to go.  Maybe if we switch to Pull-Ups…”

“Oh, Lynnie’s not at that phase yet.  She could sit in a wet diaper all day and not be bothered as long as it doesn’t leak.”

“MOMMY!”

Lynn’s indignation went ignored over Bradley’s cries.  That tore it.  No way was Bradley going to get potty trained before she did!  This had to end, today!

“We gotta get going,” her former clients said.  “Gotta find a place to change him.”

“I’ll let you get to that.”  And the two strollers and their drivers went their separate ways.  After the crying had died down, Mom leaned over and whispered in Lynnie’s ear.  “Little boys like Bradley might be easier to potty train, but I’ll take you any day of the week.”

That made Lynnie feel good inside.  Almost good enough to not notice that they were passing a certain set of stairs. “Mommy!” Lynn yelped.  “Stop!”  The stroller kept moving.  “STOP!”

“What is it, baby?” Mom asked.  “Do you need changed, too?  Do you want to be like your little friend Bradley, too?”

Lynn balled her hands up into fists. “No!  I mean yes! I mean…” Lynnie pointed up the steps to Lost Things Found.  “I wanna go in there!”

“I thought we were just window shopping, today.” Mom replied. “Fresh air, remember?”

“But we can’t window shop if the place has no windows.  We gotta see what’s inside!”  It was flimsy logic, but so was the idea of a nineteen year old baby.  

Mom wasn’t having any of it.  “I don’t think so.  I don’t see a ramp, either.”

“I’ll walk up!” Lynn pressed.  “You can hold my hand and we’ll walk up!”

“I like walking out here, just fine.”  The stroller started moving again.

“WAAAAAAAAAAIT!”

A stop.

“IT’S A TOY STORE!” Lynn lied. “PLEASE MOMMY! I WANNA GO SEE THE TOYS!”

She could see her mother’s face again.  Mom walked around and hunched over so that the two were at eye level with one another.  Her eyebrow cocked.  “This place is why you really wanted to come for a walk, isn’t it?”

The ex-babysitter felt the glare of her mother’s patented “look”.  She had no hope of lying.  “Yes, ma’am.”

Mom nodded, and started to unbuckle the big baby. “Okay.  But after we see what’s in this new store, we go back to the dress shop.  Deal?”

Lynn took her mother’s hand and stood up out of the stroller.  “Deal.”

“We can leave the stroller here and off to the side for a few minutes.  I don’t think anyone will steal it.”  

Two eyes laser focused and searched for a hint of aquamarine in the back.  “Don’t forget the diaper bag.”

“What is it with you and that bag today?”  If only Mommy knew. After today, she might.

[diaprbayb]

[Personalias]

 

CREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAK!

Just like the first time, there was no gust of wind, or footsteps behind them or vacuum or rushing of air. Just like the first time, the heavy door slammed shut all the same.  

“EEEEEEEEP!”  It was Laura, not Lynn who cried out this time.  Lynn was smiling. To her this meant that there was still magic in this old tomb for poorly thought out businesses.

The lights came on.  Right where he had been before was the old shopkeeper, as hard and shriveled as ever. “I really do need to get something done about those lights,” he said.  “I don’t suppose either one of you would happen to know the number of a good electrician, would you?  I’ve reported the issue to my landlord, but they’re quite useless it seems.”

boing!

boing!

boing!

Mom regained her composure fairly quickly.  “Oh dear, I did jump.”  She looked around at the display cases.  “This isn’t a toy shop, isn’t it?”


The old fellow gave a dry laugh that sounded like dead leaves crackling.  “Not as such, but there are many amusements here.”  Then, he looked at the diapered girl, still wobbling and trying to stay standing no matter what her legs were telling her to do.  “Hello, Lynnie!  Enjoying your last purchase?  Here to do business?”

boing!

boing!

boing!

Lynnie was pulled off balance while her mother drew her in for a protective hug.  “How do you know my daughter’s name?”

A jowly smile was offered in return.  “Her name’s on the bag.” He pointed to the aquamarine baby bag that had been here two days ago.  “Sorry.  Just a little joke.  I love talking to babies and children like they’re adults.  It’s so funny to see how they react; like they’re not used to it.”

Mom’s laughter was polite enough.  “Oh, that is very funny.”  She was already,

“Please, take a look around!” he gestured towards the back.  “I can show you my Happy Homemaker’s Section! I’m positive you’ll find something there that you’d love to take home with you.  Everybody does!”

boing!

boing!

boing!

Mom looked like she was about to politely excuse both of them and walk out, when she tilted her head to the side “What is that noise?”

Behind thick glasses the old man blinked slowly, rather like a cat.  “It’s a pink rubber ball that never stops bouncing, completely defying the laws of physics.” He paused.  “Just got it a few days ago.  Would you like to see it?”
Mom looked to Lynn.  “Is this why you thought this place was a toy store? Did one of your little friends tell you about the ball?”

Lynn looked to her mother and then to the ancient shopkeep.  “Yes.”

“Okay,” she smiled.  “Let’s go see this ball.”  And so they did.

“Wow.” Mom said after it became clear that the little rubber ball wasn’t going to stop.  “How does it do it?”

“I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you it was magic.”

Mom shook her head, chuckling knowingly like a grown-up who was in on a joke.  “Still,” Mom conceded. “It is pretty neat.”

“Well, it’s not much of a curio shop if there’s nothing to be curious about,” the old man said with a sly grin. “ Are you sure I can’t show you some other items from my collection?”

Mom looked at the ball, still hopping up and down with the same speed and steadiness of a metronome.  It was hypnotizing; mesmerizing in a way.  “Y’know what? Sure.”  She turned to her daughter.  “Lynnie? Do you want to watch the ball bounce while Mommy looks around.”

Lynn’s head was moving double time of the ball she’d wished into existence.  “Uh-huh!”

“Don’t worry madam,” the old fellow said.  “I’ll be happy to look after your little one while you window shop.  Let me know if you have any questions.”

Mom walked away, peering at the different bizarre displays as if she were at a museum instead of a magical house of chaos. Left standing on her own, Lynn felt her legs begin to tire; so much so that she had to sit down on the floor.  At the very least it was a slow, controlled fall.

Once Mom was far enough away, the shopkeep leaned over and said.  “Thank you for keeping your part of the bargain.  I always appreciate family referrals.”

Lynn felt like she’d just heard another language. “Family...referrals…?

“Yes,” the coot said.  “Remember, part of our haggling was you referring more customers to me.  You came back with your mother.”  Then he said, “So I take it you’re satisfied with your purchase?”

The young woman’s jaw dropped open. “Satisfied?!  Satisfied?!”

He held up a finger.  “I’m sorry, but before we continue I should be very clear that I have a no return policy.  You either like it or you don’t.”

The record in Lynn’s brain skipped a beat.  “Satisfied?!!!”  She lifted up the hem of her polka-dot dress and pointed to the adult Huggies beneath.  “Does this look like satisfaction to you?!”

“Yes.”  

Lynn was completely gobsmacked.  She had expected one of two things: Either a surprised and confused old man who was just as shocked as she was, or a mustache twirling maniacal villain.  This was neither.

“Everybody thinks I’m a baby!”

He scratched the top of his head. “Aren’t you?”

Oh no.  The bag was affecting him too!  “No!  I’m nineteen!” she pleaded.  Please see reason! Please see reason!

“I realize.”

“I’m not supposed to be like this!  I’m supposed to be babysitting, not needing to be babysat!”

“That’s true for most nineteen year olds, yes,” he conceded. “But some people grow up faster than others.”

A low growl got stuck in her throat.  This wasn’t working!  “ You sold me that bag!  Made the sales pitch!  We shook hands!  Would you have done that with an unaccompanied baby?! I wasn’t like this two days ago!”

Then the old shopkeep said something that shook Lynn Gilligan to her core.  “Not on the outside, at least.”

“What are you talking about?!” Lynn wanted to shriek, but her question came out instead as a hoarse whisper.  “I never wanted to be a baby…”

The old man teased his own wild hair a bit. “Didn’t you?  If not, then why aren’t you the one toting the bag around?  Why are you being cared for instead of caring for someone else?”

“I...I...I…”  She had nothing.

He smiled, not unkindly, like an indulgent grandfather; and that might have been the unkindest part of all.  “Lynnie, you’re very much a child, but you’re not a stupid one.”

That’s when everything clicked into place for her:  She really was a baby.  Or rather, she’d never really been ready to be a big girl. That was probably true before she’d wandered into this place.  It was definitely true now.  Why else would a nineteen year old girl with no romantic interest or any kind of sex life tote around a diaper bag everywhere?  It wasn’t professionalism as much as an excuse to have so much baby stuff around her at all times while still giving her a sense of semi-plausible deniability.   She’d been sewing this her entire life on some level.  Only now was it bearing fruit.

But just as she’d missed her all too short childhood when she was an adult, now that she was a baby, being an adult seemed so much more preferable; especially if she was going to be sleeping in cribs and eating in highchairs for the rest of her life...

“So I’m stuck like this?”

“Only if you consider it being stuck…”

As an adult she could go anywhere she wanted and do whatever she had time for.  What could she do like this?  Get stripped and changed and dressed?  Get taken where other people wanted her to go and play if and only when they let her?  To always be someone else’s responsibility instead of her own agent?

The only thing Lynn could do “by herself” was something that no self-respecting woman would WANT to do to themselves.  Though considering that she had lost the ability to undress herself, she likely wouldn’t have a choice.

Like Icarus, she’d flown too close to the sun and was going to drown in a sea of infancy.

“You’re not going to fix me?”

He patted her on the head.  “Why would I do that?  What’s there to fix?”

That’s when Mom came trotting back up, holding a tiny pair of shoes.  “How much for the cute pair of baby doll shoes?”  They were dark green with little bells on the toes.

The shopkeep took a gander at them.  “Oh those? Those are elf shoes.  You put them in your house and they attract little elves to clean for you.  It was a cobbler who first figured that trick out.”

Mom chuckled, more sincerely than before. “Awww, how cute!  That’s a neat little story.  Will sure save me a ton of housework.  No more dishes or having to put Lynnie’s toys away.”  She tried (and failed) to hide a wink from Lynn.

“Indeed,” the old shop keep said. “But they only work if everyone stays asleep the entire night. If anyone gets out of bed, the elves will race around and put everything back the way they found it, including dish stains.”  He turned around and gave Lynn a wink.  “Does your daughter sleep through the night yet?”

A spot of recognition on Mom’s face.  “Yes, mostly.”  She bent over.  “Though you hear that, Lynnie?  If you don’t sleep through the night and wake Mommy up, the elves will go away.”  She stood up and mouthed the words “Thank you.”

“That’ll be fifty dollars.”

“FIFTY DOLL-?”  Lynn’s mom cut herself short.  “These are worth maybe ten...for the story.”

The proprietor’s eyes literally twinkled.  “Twenty.”

“Fifteen.”  At least Mom knew how to haggle.

An old wrinkled hand shot out for a handshake. “Add in a referral and you have a deal.”

“WAAAAAAAAIT!”

The adults froze and turned to look at the nineteen year old toddler.  They waited patiently, bemusedly, as Lynn stood up, first sticking her butt into the air and then pushing off the ground, followed by waving her arms in the air to get her balance.  “That’s not gonna like...turn her into an elf or something, is it?”

Both grown-ups, for Lynnie was having a harder and harder time thinking of herself among them given the circumstances- laughed lightly.  “Oh Lynnie,” Mommy said, “don’t worry this is all just for fu-”

“I never sell what people deserve,” the old man interrupted.  “Only what people need.  You have my most solemn assurance that nothing untoward will happen.  These shoes help with cleaning.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.”  He gave her a boop on the nose.  “As long as a certain someone stays in her crib all night.”

That boop on the nose was enough to send Lynnie off balance.  She teetered backwards, her arms flailing to grab onto something that wasn’t there.  

“Gotcha!”  Mom was quick.  Super quick.  Just before Lynnie’s feet gave out, she was caught and pulled into her mother’s arms.  “Don’t worry baby. Mommy’s gotcha.  She won’t let you fall. Never ever.”

A second epiphany.  The last few days she’d had more time and privilege (if not freedom) than she could remember.  Her mother had shown more concern and care for her over the last few days than she could remember.  Before this would her mom have bathed her?  Tucked her in? Taken time away from the T.V. to really pay attention to her?

No.  Of course not.  

Marie had been fun to hang out with, too.  The time at the duck pond and the playground and this morning had been the most time she’d spent with a friend and NOT worrying about cramming for some exam.

Stuck as she was, that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.  Marie was very likely her weekend babysitter, meaning playing every weekend with her best friend.

Was it really so bad that the price for all this was getting too much of it?  Was too much of a good thing really that bad?  Was it even too much?  

She could still talk, even if everyone who heard her thought of her as just a precocious child.   Did anyone really listen to her or take her seriously as a nineteen year old (the crazy nineteen year old with the diaper bag no less)?  It surely wouldn’t matter if she was hurt or sick.  Most people would believe that.

She could still walk...kind of....  Playground time might be trickier, but that just meant she’d get more help and attention from the grown-ups in her life.   More attention.  More love.  More of everything she gave and so desperately craved for herself.  And if the diaper bag retained its magic, it’s not like she’d be a financial burden on anyone.  All of her food and clothing could be magicked into existence.

“Are you okay, baby?”

Lynnie relaxed her bladder and her mind.  This would be far from the last time she’d be in a wet diaper….but she was done counting.  “Yes Mommy,” Lynnie said.  “Ready to go?”

***********************************************************************************

Howdy howdy!  Welcome back!  Couldn’t stay away from Bastion, huh?  Back for a little more people watching before you go back home?

Hmm?  Who’s that coming out of that new store?  The one with the baby giggling in her arms?  

That’s just Laura Gilligan.  She’s a nurse, works over at the hospital.  Her daughter’s a cutie though.  I remember when my own little girl was that age.  Well...not quite, I suppose, but you know what I mean.  

Every parent says their kiddos grow up too fast, but not her Lynnie.  

Yup, not much else to say about them.  Normal stuff, pretty boring actually.  Wish she didn’t leave the girl’s stroller there like she owned the sidewalk, though.

Now over there, coming out of the dress shop  that’s Nora and Robert Simmons.  They’re well off, but that’s because Robert is an accountant; one of them financial advisors. Take care of rich people’s money long enough and you get rich yourself. Nora’s got expensive taste, though, so some people wonder how much of that income is legitimate and how much is money gettin’ “lost”, and I hope you hear the quotation marks when I say that.

Over there coming up the street is…

(The End).

 

[diaprbayb]

Sorry to see it end, but I agree that they can't go on forever.

[aldl4811]

Really awesome job, thank you for the story!

[Sir Stinkypants]

A truly lovely tale! Thank you for sharing it!!

[kirababy]

Really enjoyed this one, will have to re-read it, so I can absorb more of the details.

[diaperedcoach]

Excellent job on the story.  Really enjoyed it.