Reborn (20 Chapters)

[Garvug]

Summary 

An experiment gone wrong transforms a 30 year old man into an 18 month old baby. His mind is still intact, but for how long?

 

Chapter 1

Jack awoke in a daze and opened his eyes, but the bright light shining down from above made it difficult for him to see properly.  He tried to focus but his head felt sore, so he closed his eyes again to shield them from the overwhelming glare.

"Jack, can you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?" a voice said.

Jack opened his eyes again and squinted into the light, then the figure of a man came into focus.

"Can you talk?" the man asked.

Jack tried to speak, but it felt like the words were stuck in his throat, he couldn't make a sound.

"If you can understand what I'm saying, please blink twice," the man instructed.

The bright light seemed to recede and his vision became clearer.  Jack could see a bespectacled man stood over him, then he realized that he was lying down in bed.  Jack blinked twice.

"Very good, I'm Doctor Palmer and I'm going to ask you some questions, he explained, "blink twice for yes and blink once for no," he urged.

Jack guessed that he was in a hospital and he understood that for now blinking was his only means of communication.

"First question. Am I Doctor Palmer?" he quizzed.

Jack blinked twice.

"Second question. Is your name Thomas?" Doctor Palmer continued.

Jack assumed that the Doctor was testing him. He blinked once.

"Is your name Jack?" he queried.

Jack blinked twice.

"Very good. Your job, do you work in the construction industry?" Doctor Palmer said.

Jack hesitated momentarily.  His still felt groggy, but when he thought about it he was sure that he had never worked in construction.  Jack blinked once.

"Are you a laboratory assistant?" he questioned.

Memories came rushing back to him, he could recall his morning routine and his drive to work, he was certain that he had worked in a laboratory.  Jack blinked twice.

"Excellent. Are you thirty years old?" he continued.

He remembered his thirtieth birthday party, it felt like a recent memory.  He was sure that he had spent the day with his girlfriend, Emma.  Jack blinked twice.

"Do you remember volunteering as a test subject for an experimental procedure?" Doctor Palmer asked.

At first he wasn't sure.  The words 'experimental procedure' sounded ominous and he wondered whether something bad had happened to him.  Suddenly he remembered a needle being inserted into his arm and a mask being placed over his mouth.  When he thought about it more he could recall having a tense conversation with one of his colleagues.  He couldn't recall everything that had been said, but he could remember being warned that the experiment was risky.  He realized that he had agreed to participate in some kind of procedure.  Jack blinked twice.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.  The experiment didn't go to plan, there was an accident and there were some unexpected effects on your body," he explained.

Jack was suddenly gripped by panic.  The first thought that came to his mind was that the experiment might have left him disabled or disfigured.  He tried to sit up but he only succeeded in lifting his head off of the pillow, his muscles felt tired and weak.

"Please try to remain still, you need to rest. I will explain what happened." Doctor Palmer advised.

Jack stopped struggling and rested his head back on the pillow, then he braced himself for the bad news.

"Firstly, I want to reassure you that the accident was not fatal.  We've been running tests whilst you were unconscious and it looks like you're going to live." Doctor Palmer explained.

Although he was relieved that he wasn't going to die, he was becoming increasingly concerned by his inability to sit upright.

"However, something extraordinary has happened, something that has never occurred before in medical history," he went on.

The Doctor paused for a moment and cleared his throat, before continuing.

"Your body has physically regressed, you've essentially aged in reverse.  You're now younger than you were before the accident," he announced.

Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing, what the Doctor was saying sounded impossible. He assumed that he had misheard him and he wanted to ask him to repeat himself.  He took a deep breath and tried to speak again.  But before Jack could get his words out, he was interrupted by an unfamiliar high pitched voice.

"What? I don't..." the strangers voice squeaked.

Jack was initially taken by surprise and he assumed that an unseen child was talking.  But he quickly realized that the unseen person had spoken the words that he had been thinking of. He could scarcely believe it, but he was now contemplating the possibility that it was his voice.

"Don't stop Jack, you're making excellent progress, try to speak again." Doctor Palmer requested.

He hesitated briefly, then tried to talk again.

"I don't understand." Jack mewled.

He was startled again by the sound of his own voice.  It sounded far too high pitched to belong to him.

"We're still trying to understand it ourselves. Perhaps it would be easier if I showed you." Doctor Palmer suggested.

The Doctor reached towards a table and grabbed hold of a hand held mirror.

"Try not to panic, what you see might shock you," he warned.

Doctor Palmer held out the mirror and lowered it slowly towards Jack's face.  An unfamiliar reflection gradually came into view.

This can't be happening, Jack thought.

Staring back at him in the mirror was the reflection of a small child, who appeared to be no older than two.  Jack gasped in horror and as he did so, the reflection of the toddler appeared to gasp as well.

"Try to remain calm, as you can see your body has changed significantly." Doctor Palmer continued.

Jack's heart began to race and he started to feel dizzy.  He couldn't believe what he was seeing, he thought that it might be a trick or a hallucination.

"No...this can't be," he stammered.

When the words left his mouth he saw that the lips of the boy in the reflection moved simultaneously.  With a growing sense of panic he realized that he really was seeing his own reflection.  His mind raced and as he grew increasingly frantic, he lost consciousness.

"Jack? Jack, can you hear me?" Doctor Palmer asked.

When Jack regained awareness he saw Doctor Palmer looking down at him, with a concerned expression on his face.

"You fainted, probably from the surprise. Try to remain still." Doctor Palmer instructed.

Jack took deep breaths and tried to make sense of what was happening to him.  He considered the possibility that he was having a nightmare, but it felt too real to be a dream.

"We're still trying to understand exactly how this happened. You've been in a coma for the past three weeks, during that time you just kept on getting younger." Doctor Palmer revealed.

He wanted to believe that it was some kind of misunderstanding, but he had seen his own reflection.  He wasn't sure whether he could trust his own senses.

"How? Why?" Jack asked.

"I can't explain it, not yet anyway.  It's as though every cell in your entire body has been rejuvenated to an earlier state," he observed.

If it was true, if he really was physically younger than he used to be, he wanted to understand the extent of the changes.

"So...how old am I now?" Jack queried.

He recalled seeing his reflection in the mirror and braced himself for the bad news.

"Well, if we go by your height, I'd say you're the equivalent of an eighteen month old infant." Doctor Palmer replied.

Jack was dumbfounded. It didn't seem possible, but he was struggling to come up with an alternative explanation.

"Height? How tall am I?" Jack questioned.

Doctor Palmer picked up a clipboard and flipped through the pages.

"You're eighty two centimeters tall, give or take a millimeter," he replied, matter-of-factly.

Jack racked his brain and tried to picture being eighty two centimeters tall.  He remembered that he used to be around one hundred and seventy seven centimeters tall, which would mean that he was now less than half the size that he used to be.

"We ran some tests yesterday on your musculoskeletal structure, the results suggest a biological age in the range of seventeen to twenty months." Doctor Palmer explained.

Jack had a troubling thought.  If he really had aged backwards, he wondered whether the process might still continue.

"Will I get younger?" Jack asked.

"I don't believe so, a few days ago the changes to your body slowed dramatically, then they just stopped. You don't appear to be getting any younger," he imparted.

Despite having a feeling that he already knew the answer, Jack desperately wanted to know whether the changes could be reversed.

"Can you make me normal again?" he asked.

The Doctor sighed and scratched his beard, before shaking his head.

"We can't even explain what happened, let alone undo it. I'm afraid this is likely to be permanent," Doctor Palmer advised.

Permanent, the word echoed in his mind.  He felt like his life was over, but then it occurred to him that there might still be light at the end of the tunnel.

"But will I age and you know, get older again?" Jack queried.

"It's possible. Your body appears healthy, so you might just age naturally again," he explained.

Jack wondered whether his girlfriend was aware of the accident and how she had reacted.

"Does my partner know about this?" Jack asked.

"Emma? Yes, she's been to visit you several times whilst you were unconscious. I'll notify her that you're awake," he replied.

Jack was relieved that Emma knew what had happened to him, but he wanted to see her.  He needed to speak to someone who he could trust, someone who could verify that he wasn't going crazy.

"I need to speak to her." Jack asserted.

"I'll tell her that you'll be ready for visitors from tomorrow. For now, I suggest that you get some rest." Doctor Palmer replied.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to come to terms with what was happening.  His mind alternated between a state of disbelief and shock.  When he heard the sound of a door opening and closing, he decided to check whether he had been left on his own.

Once again, Jack attempted to sit upright.  On his first attempt he only succeeded in lifting his shoulders off of the bed, but after a few more attempts he managed to haul himself into an upright position.  He surveyed his surroundings and saw that Doctor Palmer had left the room.

He held his hands out in front of his face to look at them and was immediately struck by the sensation that they didn't belong to him.  He could feel them, but they didn't look familiar. The first thing that he noticed was that his skin was smooth and unblemished.  When he looked at his forearms he saw that they were hairless.  The bottom half of his body was covered by a bedsheet, but when he moved his feet he could make out their outline beneath the fabric.  He noticed that his feet were no where near to the end of the bed and he realized that he really was smaller than he used to be.

Looking down at his chest, he saw that he was wearing a hospital gown that covered his torso. But when he moved his legs he felt like he was wearing something else underneath it, there was something covering his groin.  Jack reached underneath the bedsheet and down towards his waist, where his fingers touched a soft spongy fabric.  He guessed that he was wearing a diaper.

He touched his face and then rubbed his cheeks with his fingers.  Where he would have once felt stubble, he instead felt soft untarnished skin.  When he touched his nose he noticed that it's shape had changed, he used to have a Roman nose but now the bridge felt smaller and less prominent.

He opened his mouth as wide as he could and inserted his index finger, which he used to count his teeth.  He counted twelve teeth in total and noticed that there were gaps in-between some of them.

It was now undeniable, he really was a child again.  He began to consider what his life would be like from then on.  He guessed that he would no longer be able to work or carry out ordinary tasks without assistance, but he was more troubled by the thought of how others would perceive him.  He wanted to see his girlfriend, but he was unsettled by the idea that she might leave him.  In any case, he knew that their relationship could never be the same as it was before.

Jack continued to ruminate until he was startled by the sound of the door opening, he looked up and saw Doctor Palmer stood in the doorway.

"I see you've managed to sit upright. Your muscles are still weak but you're recovering more quickly than I had expected, how are you feeling?" Doctor Palmer asked.

"I...I'm still trying to process this, it doesn't seem real," he stammered.

Doctor Palmer nodded and then pulled a chair up to the side of the hospital bed, before sitting down.

"Well, I've got some good news. I've just called your partner and she says that she's going to visit you tomorrow. In the meantime I'd like to run some more tests," he announced. 

 

 

Chapter 2

Jack woke up feeling groggy and uncomfortable.  When he moved his legs he felt something cold and damp rubbing up against his inner thighs, he felt like he was lying in something sticky. He took a deep breath and detected an unpleasant odor, it was unmistakably the smell of feces. Remembering that he was still in a hospital bed, he realized that he had soiled himself.

He opened his eyes and after a short struggle, he managed to sit upright.  He hoped, momentarily, that the events of the previous day had merely been a bad dream.  But when he examined his hands it became immediately clear to him that his memories were genuine.

He poked and prodded at his hands, before touching his face. He still couldn't believe how smooth his skin was.

The sound of a door creaking open made him jump, he looked across the room and saw a woman stood in the doorway.  She was wearing medical scrubs and her dark hair was tied back in a bun.

"Good morning, my name is Isabella, would you like some breakfast?" she asked.

He hesitated momentarily, but when he thought about it he did feel hungry.

"Yeah, thanks." Jack replied.

He blushed at the sound of his own voice, he thought that he sounded ridiculous.

Isabella walked over to the side of his bed and flipped through the pages on a clipboard.

"Doctor Palmer wants to stop intravenous therapy for now, so I'm just going to remove the cannula from your arm, okay?" Isabella advised.

As she reached towards his arm, it became clear to him just how small he was compared to her. When he saw the size of her hands compared to his own, he instinctively tensed up and tried to pull his arm away from her.

"It's okay, I won't bite," she said reassuringly.

Jack tried to relax as he watched her wrap her fingers around his forearm. He didn't feel safe and the thought occurred to him that she would be able to snap his arm in half if she wanted to.  The rational part of his mind told him that she was a nurse and that she had no reason to harm him, but he had never felt so physically vulnerable before.  He winced as she removed the cannula from his arm, but the stinging sensation quickly subsided.

Isabella picked up the clipboard again and then sniffed the air.

"I think we should get you cleaned up and changed before you have breakfast, okay?" she suggested.

He felt like he was going to die of embarrassment, but he reassured himself that she was a nurse and that she was merely doing her job.

"Okay," he replied meekly.

As she pulled back the bed covers Jack stared at his body. It was the first time he had seen his legs since the transformation, they were smooth and hairless.

"Please can you lie down for me so that I can change your...incontinence pad." Isabella instructed.

Jack rested his head on the pillow and braced himself. He knew that she was trying to preserve his dignity by calling it an incontinence pad, but it made no difference to how he felt.  He could feel her fingers on his hips, unfastening the tapes and peeling the diaper away from his skin.  The fresh air on his groin felt pleasant, but he was conscious that his genitalia were now exposed. He stared at the ceiling and grimaced whilst she cleaned his skin with a wet wipe.

He thought that the worst part was the smell, that and the knowledge that she was having to endure the foul odor.  He imagined her returning home to her family at the end of her shift and regaling her husband with the story of how she had to change a dirty diaper at work.  Now he had to live knowing that he would be the subject of that story and that it would be Isabella's abiding memory of him.  He waited for what seemed like an eternity.

"There we go, all done. I'll be back with breakfast soon," she advised.

Jack waited until he heard the door open and close, then he let out a sigh of relief. Feeling sorry for himself, he closed his eyes and attempted to banish the unpleasant thoughts from his mind. But it was no use, the feelings of shame had already been seared into his brain.

When Isabella returned he sat upright and tried to avoid looking at her.  Sensing his discomfort, she placed a tray of food on his bed without saying anything to him.  It was an omelet and French toast, served with a small cup of juice.

He waited for Isabella to leave the room before picking up a plastic knife and fork.  However when he tried to maneuver them to cut the omelet, the knife slipped from his grasp and clattered onto the tray.  He picked the knife up again and tried to cut the omelet, but only succeeded in stabbing a hole in it.

Overwhelmed by hunger, he discarded the utensils and tore off pieces of the omelet using his fingers.  He had expected hospital food to be of poor quality, but he was surprised by how delicious it tasted.  He stopped eating when he heard the door swing open.

"Jack, how's the food?" Doctor Palmer queried.

Jack wiped his fingers on the bedsheets and then stared at his hands.

"It's okay, but I can't hold the knife properly, there's something wrong with my hands," he replied.

Doctor Palmer adjusted his glasses and strolled towards Jack's bedside.

"There's nothing wrong with your hands, it's just that the muscles in them are weak. You'll need to build up strength in your hands before your fine motor control returns to normal," he explained.

Jack didn't like the sound of that, but he was more concerned by the embarrassing accident that he'd had earlier.

"Oh, will I be able to...use the toilet?" he asked.

"Incontinence is normal for someone with a body like yours, I'm afraid that you'll have to learn those skills again." Doctor Palmer concluded.

"Can I at least walk?" Jack mumbled.

"To be honest I don't know, would you like to try?" he queried.

Jack nodded his head, "yeah," he murmured.

"I'll ask the nurse to assist you, she can help you get back on your feet," advised Doctor Palmer.

Jack realized that if he was to have any hope of regaining his independence, he would need to learn to walk again.

"One more thing, I spoke to your partner and she's coming to visit you this afternoon." Doctor Palmer revealed.

Jack was looking forward to seeing Emma again, but he was worried about how this sudden transformation might affect their relationship.

"Thanks," he replied.

Jack finished his breakfast and silently prayed that he would still be able to walk.  He thought that retaining his mobility might be the last vestige of his dignity that he could maintain.  He fidgeted nervously until Isabella returned to the room.

"The Doctor said you would like to get out of bed and try to walk?" Isabella asked.

Jack looked in her general direction, but he still couldn't bring himself to make eye contact with her.

"Yeah," he replied sheepishly.

She strolled over to him and patted the bedsheets.

"If you sit on the side of the bed I'll help you down. Let's see if you can stand up first," she suggested.

Jack scooched over to the side of the bed until his legs were dangling over the edge.  Standing in front of him, Isabella placed her hands underneath his armpits and lifted him into the air, before lowering him gently onto the ground.  Jack was unnerved by her strength, he felt like a rag doll.

When his feet touched the floor he felt like his legs could bear the weight of his body, but she continued to hold on to him.  As she knelt down in front of him he was stunned by the size disparity between them, even when she was kneeling down his eyes were only level with her breasts.

"Here you go. I'll let go with one hand first, okay?" Isabella continued.

"Okay," he replied.

She slowly released one of her hands, keeping the other in place underneath his arm.  Jack wobbled momentarily, before regaining his balance.

"You're doing good so far, now I'm going to let go with the other hand, okay?" she warned.

Slowly, Isabella released her grip and moved her hand away from his body.  Jack held his arms out to help him balance, he could stand, but he didn't feel like he could move without falling over.

"Do you feel ready to walk?" she queried.

"It's hard to balance, I don't feel steady," he cautioned.

"Okay, hold onto my hand, try to take one step forward," she suggested.

Isabella held out one of her hands at Jack's eye level.  Reaching out, he grabbed hold of her hand between her thumb and her index finger, then she wrapped her fingers around his hand. Cautiously, he moved one foot in front of the other and took a step forward.

"I'm going to fall." Jack warned.

"But you're doing so well, try one more step," she insisted.

As he edged closer to her, he could smell her perfume and feel her breath on his head. Suddenly, his determination to walk was dented by a sharp pang of shame.  This woman, who he barely knew, had already changed his diaper and now she was teaching him to walk like he was an infant.

"Stop, I can't do this anymore, I'm sorry," he sniveled.

"It's alright, we can try again later. Let's get you back into bed for now, okay?" she replied.

Before he could respond, she placed her hands underneath his armpits and lifted him up onto the bed.

"You're doing well Jack, this is encouraging," she observed.

Jack crawled back under the bedsheets and buried his face in the pillow.

"Thanks," he muttered.

Even though he hadn't been awake for long, he already felt drowsy.  He rolled over onto his back and tried to think of what he was going to say to Emma.  They had only been together for two years and now he would be dependent on her to take care of him.  The thought had crossed his mind that she might simply leave him now that he was incapable of meeting her physical needs. He continued to brood about the future, until he became too tired to focus and he drifted off to sleep.

When Jack opened his eyes, he saw Emma stood in the corner of the room, watching him.  Her light brown hair cascaded down her shoulders, accentuating her piercing blue eyes.  She had a pained expression on her face and she clutched her purse tightly in her hands.  He sat upright in bed, then she took a few steps toward him.

"Jack?" Emma exclaimed.

She moved toward him cautiously, as though she couldn't trust what her senses were telling her.

"It's...it's me," he stuttered.

She stopped before reaching his bed and gawked at him.

"You remember me?" she queried.

"I remember...everything," he replied.

She took a deep breath and bit her lip, then for a moment she looked as though she might be about to cry.

"Jack, I'm so glad you're okay," she exclaimed.

He didn't feel okay, he felt like he was in a living nightmare.

"Thanks, I'm not okay, but I'm still me," he responded.

Emma edged closer to Jack and it occurred to him that she was now much larger than he was. But something else seemed different about her, she now had an otherworldly presence and he couldn't figure out why.  He studied her carefully and tried to figure out what was out of place. She was wearing a white blouse and a pair of skinny jeans, he had seen her wearing those clothes before.  There wasn't anything that he didn't recognize, everything was the same and yet it seemed different to him.

"They told me that you might not be the same after...the accident. I was expecting the worst," she explained, moving closer to his bedside.

Jack frowned and shook his head.

"They can't undo it, I'm stuck like this," he lamented.

Jack glanced up at her and then looked away, he was still stunned by the size disparity between them.  He remembered being taller than Emma and whenever he looked at her he still instinctively expected her to be smaller than him, but those memories no longer aligned with reality.  He was unsettled by the contrast between the way that he remembered her and the way that he now saw her.

"But at least you're still alive, for a while we thought you weren't going to make it." Emma consoled.

He knew that she was just trying to make him feel better, but he was finding it difficult to stay positive.  He thought about his family and wondered whether he would be able to see his mother.

"Does my mom know?" he asked.

"Yeah, she came to visit you a couple of weeks back, she had to fly back to the west coast though." Emma revealed.

He was glad that his mother had visited, but he felt conflicted about seeing her again.  Part of him longed to see her, but he didn't want her to see him in his present condition.  He thought that once he had gotten used to his new body he would be able to work up the courage to meet with her.

Jack groaned and stared at his hands.

"Look at me," he muttered despondently.

Emma reached down and placed her open hand on the bed, with her palm facing upwards.

"I know this is hard, but we'll get through this together." Emma replied.

Jack looked at her hand and hesitated for a moment.  Then slowly, he reached out and placed his open hand on top of hers, so that their palms were touching.  Using her thumb, she gently stroked the top of his hand.  He gawked at her pinky finger and noticed that it was longer than his middle finger.

They talked to each other for a while longer, pausing occasionally to collect their thoughts. Although the conversation was awkward at times, Jack felt reassured that Emma wasn't going to abandon him.  Before saying goodbye, she promised to visit him again the next day.

Chapter 3

Three days had passed since Jack first woke up in the hospital and he was recovering well. He spent each morning with Isabella, learning how to walk again.  He was growing more confident and he could now walk across the room without her assistance.  He resented needing her help, but he recognized that it was a necessary step to regaining his independence.

When Emma arrived at midday, she was surprised to find Jack stood next to the hospital bed, talking to Isabella.

"Jack, you're back on your feet!" Emma exclaimed.

He turned around to see Emma grinning at him from the doorway, but he was lost for words.

"He's doing really well, much better than we expected." Isabella observed.

Emma stepped closer to them until she was stood at the end of the bed.  Jack was now stood in-between the two women and he had to crane his neck upwards in order to see their faces.

"That's great, is it okay if I talk to him in private?" Emma asked.

"Of course, let me know if you need anything." Isabella replied.

Isabella left the room and Emma moved closer to Jack.

"How are you feeling?" she queried.

He wasn't entirely sure.  He was glad that he could walk, but something else was troubling him.

"Better, I can walk now. But..." Jack said

"But, what?" she said.

Jack hesitated, it was hard to hold a conversation with her when he couldn't look her directly in the face and craning his neck was becoming tiring.

Sensing his discomfort, Emma knelt down in front of him so that it was easier for them to talk. She was still taller than him, but he could now look up at her without hurting his neck.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" she asked.

"I think...I think I'm incontinent," he mumbled.

"It's okay, you've managed to start walking again, give it some time and things will get easier," she said in a reassuring voice.

Jack frowned and shrugged his shoulders, before looking down at the floor.  Despite being able to walk, he had a feeling that things were about to get worse before they got any better.

"I know it's going to be hard for you but we just have to take it one day at a time," she continued.

There was a knock at the door and Emma stood up to check who was there.  A few moments later Doctor Palmer stepped into the room.

"Sorry to interrupt.  Jack, I'd like to perform an MRI scan on you so that we can take a closer look at your brain." Doctor Palmer announced.

Jack glanced up at Emma nervously and then looked back at Doctor Palmer.

"My brain? Why?" he queried.

"It's not just your body that's changed, your brain has too. We didn't expect you to retain the same cognitive abilities that you possessed as an adult. You've retained your memories and even your linguistic abilities, we'd like to find out why." Doctor Palmer explained.

He had been so preoccupied with the changes to his body that he hadn't considered whether his mind might be affected as well.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"We just want to make sure that there are no nasty surprises in store for you. We also need to monitor you for any signs of confusion, memory loss, things like that," he continued.

The words confusion and memory loss frightened him.  He had already lost his physical independence and now he was facing the possibility of losing his mind.

"Okay." Jack said meekly.

"Jack, if you feel able to walk, can you follow me? It's just a short distance down the corridor." Doctor Palmer said, gesturing towards the door.

Jack nodded his head and walked carefully towards Doctor Palmer.

"Emma, you can accompany him if you'd like," the Doctor suggested.

As they followed the Doctor out of the room, Emma held the door open for Jack and waited for him to pass through.  He walked slowly and attentively, taking one step at a time.

Doctor Palmer led them into a room containing an MRI scanner, where another man was waiting for them.

"This is our radiographer, he'll be performing the scan." Doctor Palmer explained.

The radiographer was a tall scrawny man who appeared to be in his forties.  He glanced at Emma and then down at Jack.

"Nice to meet you both," the radiographer said, "Jack, please lie down on this bed," he instructed.

Jack peered up at the bed positioned in front of the MRI scanner and then glanced towards Emma.

"Jack, let me help you," she offered.

He turned towards her, but he couldn't bring himself to respond verbally or look at her face. Instead he looked straight forwards at her thighs and hoped that she would be able to read his body language.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," he muttered.

Bending down, she placed her hands under his armpits and then hoisted him onto the bed. Jack was troubled by the fact that she was now significantly stronger than him.  Before the accident they used to enjoy playfighting with each other, he enjoyed pinning her down and tickling her until she begged him to stop.  One thing would lead to another and they would usually end up having sex.  He knew that those days were gone and that they were never coming back.

The radiographer proceeded to explain how the scan would work, but Jack had difficulty paying attention as he was more concerned about his bruised ego.  As he was lying in the scanner, he continued to fret.

He wondered whether Emma would stay with him out of pity, or whether she would get bored of him and eventually leave.  She was a young woman and she had desires that he could no longer satisfy.  He considered the possibility that she might cheat on him and then conceal it from him in order to spare his feelings.  He decided that was probably the best case scenario.

When the scan was over he scooched over to the side of the bed until his legs were dangling over the side, then Emma lifted him down to the floor again.  Doctor Palmer led them both back to the room that they had come from and then left them alone to talk.  They stood in silence momentarily, Jack wanted to confide in her but he struggled to put his fears into words.

"It feels...weird, when you lift me up like that," he remarked.

"Yeah, I know, weird right?" she replied.

He felt drowsy and wanted to take a nap, but he was reluctant to ask for her help getting back into bed.  He looked up at the bed and then back at her.

"Can you?" he mumbled.

Emma bent down and lifted him onto the bed.

"I'm kind of tired, I think I'm going to have a nap," he announced, as he crawled under the covers.

"That's alright. I'll go get some lunch and I'll come back later, okay?" she said reassuringly.

He couldn't be sure, but he thought that the way in which she was speaking to him had changed. It wasn't the words that she was saying that bothered him, it was the way in which they were being said.  It seemed as though she was increasing the pitch of her voice slightly when she spoke to him, like she was speaking to a child.

Once Emma had left the room he rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, it didn't take him long to drift off to sleep.

When Jack woke up from his nap he saw Emma sat next to his bed, she was reading a magazine and taking sips from a cup of coffee.

"Hey, what time is it?" he queried.

She looked up from the magazine and checked her phone.

"It's four p.m. I should probably get going soon, will you be okay?" she asked.

They were interrupted by the sound of the door creaking open, then Doctor Palmer entered the room carrying a clipboard.

"I have some good news for you both." Doctor Palmer announced.

Jack and Emma turned to look at one another, then looked back at Doctor Palmer.

"Good news?" Jack asked.

Doctor Palmer smiled and adjusted his glasses.

"I want to keep you under observation for tonight, but I'm happy to let you return home from tomorrow," he revealed.

Jack wasn't expecting to be allowed home so soon and although he was pleasantly surprised, he was also concerned for his own safety.

"Thank you Doctor, but will he be okay?" Emma inquired, clasping her hands.

Doctor Palmer cleared his throat and flipped through the notes on his clipboard.

"He seems healthy, given what he's been through. I still want to conduct regular testing though, which means I need to see you both back here on the 17th," he replied.

Emma looked at Jack, nodded her head in encouragement and smiled warmly.

"So, it's safe for me to go?" Jack questioned.

"I believe so, but if you feel unwell you must contact me immediately. If you experience any pain, any confusion or any unusual symptoms, don't hesitate to get in touch." Doctor Palmer explained.

Despite his low mood, he had to admit that he felt physically healthy.  Although his muscles were weak, he wasn't in pain and he didn't feel sick.

"So what time can he leave tomorrow?" Emma asked.

"If you call over at around 4pm, he should be okay to leave by then. We'll run some more tests in the morning." Doctor Palmer replied.

Jack felt conflicted about going home.  Part of him was excited to leave the hospital, but he was also haunted by the uncertainty of what his new life would be like.

"Jack, I could go shopping in the morning and buy you some new clothes. Then I'll come pick you up in the afternoon." Emma suggested.

He hadn't had time to consider what going home would actually entail and it suddenly dawned on him that all of his clothes would need replacing.

"Yeah...thanks. It's just a bit overwhelming," he replied.

"You'll feel better tomorrow, try not to worry," she said in a soothing voice.

Chapter 4

Emma sat down at Jack's bedside and placed a gym bag on the floor.

"Doctor, can I talk to Jack in private?" Emma asked.

"Sure, I'll give you both some time." Doctor Palmer replied.

Jack glanced nervously at the gym bag.  When Emma had told Jack that she was going to purchase him some new clothes, he had been looking forward to wearing clothes that actually fit him.  But when he thought about it, he realized that the only clothes that would actually fit him would be from the children's section.

When Doctor Palmer left the room, Emma picked up the gym bag and placed it on the edge of Jack's bed.

"I've been shopping, I tried to get you some clothes that you'll like, but there wasn't much choice." Emma explained.

She stood up and unzipped the gym bag, then rummaged around inside.

"What do you think of these?" she queried, pulling out a small pair of denim jeans.

Jack was pleasantly surprised, the jeans had an elastic waist, but other than that they looked very similar to his old jeans.

"They're okay." Jack replied.

"I've got you some plain shirts as well, look," she continued, as she held up a navy blue t-shirt.

So far, so good, he thought.

"I tried to get you some plain pajamas as well, but I could only find ones with prints on them," she revealed, reaching into the gym bag.

Emma pulled out a pajama top and held it up in front of him, it was brightly colored and adorned with pictures of dinosaurs.  Jack shook his head in disapproval.

"Sorry, I couldn't get anything better," she apologized, "we also need to talk about how we're going to get you home." she added.

"You're driving me home right?" Jack asked.

Emma cleared her throat and then bit her lip, before pausing for a few moments to consider her response.

"Yeah, but...you won't fit in a normal car seat," she observed, "what if I crash or if I get stopped by the police?" she continued.

Jack knew where the conversation was going and he didn't like it.

"Umm, you mean?" he murmured.

"I bought you a car seat that you'll fit in, you know...for safety," she explained.

Jack blushed.  He didn't like the idea of using a child's car seat, but he knew that it made sense. He had never trusted Emma's driving and he had no intention of dying in a traffic accident.

"I think I'm going to get dressed now," he announced.

Emma nodded her head and moved the gym bag closer to him. Jack slid to the edge of his bed and peered down over the side.

"Let me help you get down" Emma suggested.

Jack sighed and nodded his head. He perched on the edge of the bed, dangling his legs over the side.  Emma placed her hands under his armpits and lifted him carefully down onto the floor. When his feet touched the ground he was standing only inches away from her, looking directly at her thighs.  He felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of her. He took a step back from her and decided that he needed privacy.

"Can you look away whilst I get dressed?" he asked.

Emma lifted the gym bag onto the floor and then walked to the opposite side of the room, Jack looked across at her to make sure that she wasn't looking at him.  Then he pulled the tiny hospital gown off of his body and let it drop to the floor.  He was now only wearing a soaking wet diaper, which he had been anxious to hide from Emma.  He fumbled awkwardly with the tapes and tried to remove the diaper, eventually it slid to the floor and landed on top of his discarded gown.

Jack looked down at his crotch and stared anxiously at his genitals, his penis was small and hairless.  He didn't want Emma to see it, but he didn't know how long he would be able to hide it from her.

He took a pair of jeans out of the gym bag and attempted to put them on, after several attempts he managed to pull them up around his waist.  But when he tried to put on a t-shirt he had difficulty maneuvering his arms through the sleeves and he struggled for a few minutes with the t-shirt stuck over his head.

"Let me help you with that." Emma offered.

"Okay." Jack muttered.

He couldn't see her properly, as the t-shirt was obscuring his vision.  But he could feel her fingers on his arms, guiding them into the sleeves and then pulling the t-shirt down over his body. He could now see that she was kneeling down in front of him and although she was still taller than him, he felt less intimidated.

"I bought you some shoes and socks as well, can I help you put them on?" she asked.

Jack frowned and nodded his head.  He sat down on the floor whilst she slid the socks onto his feet, he squirmed slightly when he felt her fingers wrapped around his whole foot, her hands were huge.  She slid the shoes onto his feet and secured the Velcro straps, then Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

"All done," she announced.

Emma glanced at the discarded diaper on the floor and wondered how long he would need to wear them for.  Jack noticed where she was looking and he guessed what she had seen.

"Do you need to keep wearing those?" she quizzed.

Jack blushed and looked down at his feet.

"I'm going to try using the toilet again," he mumbled.

"Well I've bought some just in case, hopefully you won't need them," she replied.

Jack got to his feet and walked gingerly across the room, he still felt unsteady on his feet.  Then the door creaked open and Doctor Palmer stepped back into the room.

"Are you two okay?" he asked.

"Doctor, I think we're ready to leave, if that's okay?" Emma replied.

"You're free to go Jack, but we need you back here on the 17th of this month so we can monitor your progress. If you start to feel unwell or you have any concerns, please contact me." Doctor Palmer advised.

They both thanked the Doctor and then began to make their way slowly out of the building. Jack walked carefully, making sure that he didn't trip or slip on any surfaces.  It was the first time that he had left the building since the accident and the world as he now saw it still felt unfamiliar to him.  As they strolled through the parking lot he stared at a pick up truck and marveled at it's tires which were now as tall as him.

When they reached the car Emma opened the door and pointed to the back seat.

"Sorry, I know this can't be easy," she remarked.

Jack climbed into the back of the car and saw that a children's car seat was waiting for him. He clambered onto the seat next to it and stared at it in disbelief, it would fit him perfectly. Reluctantly, he crawled into the car seat and slumped backwards.  His feet were now slightly elevated and he felt like he was sat in a recliner.  He pulled the straps down over his shoulders and attempted to buckle himself in, but the buckle would not latch.

"Here, let me give you a hand." Emma offered.

As she bent down and reached into the car, Jack could feel her warm breath on his face. She took hold of the shoulder straps and the buckle between his legs, then effortlessly snapped it shut.

Jack wondered whether his fingers would be strong enough to undo the buckle if he needed to, but he guessed that he would probably need Emma's help to get out of the seat.  He watched as she sat down in the drivers seat and fastened her own seatbelt.  Before the accident he had always preferred to drive the car himself when they were going somewhere together, but now he couldn't even fasten his own seatbelt.

As they travelled home his mind began to wander and he started to feel drowsy.  He resented the fact that his car seat was so comfortable and he certainly didn't want to fall asleep in it.  He tried to focus his mind so that he could fight the urge to close his eyes.

"Jack, we're home." Emma announced.

He woke up with a start.  The passenger door was open and Emma was stood outside of the car peering down at him.  He remembered that they had been driving home and he realized that he must have fallen asleep.  He fumbled with the buckle on his seatbelt and tried to unfasten it, but his fingers weren't strong enough.  Emma reached into the car and using one hand she swiftly popped open the buckle.

"Do you need a hand climbing out?" she asked.

Jack shook his head and climbed out of the car seat, before carefully lowering himself down onto the floor of the vehicle.  Then he clambered out of the passenger door and hopped down onto the ground.

"Are you tired? You can go to bed if you want." Emma suggested.

"No, I'm okay," he insisted.  But only seconds after the words had left his mouth he found himself yawning.

He stared upwards at the front door of their house, the whole place looked very different from his new vantage point.  Before the accident he had thought that their modest two bedroom home was rather cramped, but now it appeared enormous.  Emma unlocked the door and Jack stepped into the hallway, then he looked around in awe.  The ceiling seemed to be impossibly far above him and it reminded him of being inside of a warehouse.  Everything was the same, but different.

When he entered the living room he was amazed by the size of the television, he recalled that he had been considering buying a larger one, but now the length of their modest TV exceeded his height.  He spent the next ten minutes walking from room to room, gawking at the scale of everything.

When he reached the bedroom, he stopped to look at the bed and yawned.  It was lower than the hospital bed that he had been sleeping in and he thought that he would be able to climb into it without assistance.  Emma followed him into the room.

"Shall I make us some dinner?" she queried.

"What time is it?" he enquired.

"Six o'clock." she replied, as she looked at her phone.

Jack looked longingly at the bed.

"I think I'm going to go to bed after all, it's been a long day," he said.

"Okay, you get some rest. Let me know if you need any help when you need to go to the toilet." Emma replied.

Jack shuddered. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he might not be able to climb onto the toilet by himself.

"Alright," he mumbled.

Jack pulled himself onto the bed and rolled over.  He snuggled into the covers and he thought that they felt softer than they used to do.

"Goodnight." Emma whispered.

"Night," he replied.

The next time he woke up it was pitch black inside of the room.  He could hear Emma snoring quietly beside him and he could feel the heat radiating off of her body.  He rolled over and moved closer to her, before reaching out to place his hand on her shoulder.  She was lying on her side and facing away from him, when he stretched out his legs his toes brushed up against her lower back.

Her skin was warm to the touch, but touching her didn't elicit the same emotional response in him that it used to do.  He used to love to grab hold of her and push his body up against hers, but now he felt emptiness.  He used to get an erection when he touched Emma, but now he felt nothing.

He was troubled by the realization that he was no longer capable of feeling sexual attraction.  He felt emasculated, as though a key part of who he was had been taken away from him.  When he remembered the times that he had made love to Emma, the memories seemed to have lost their meaning.  He no longer wanted to have sex and the idea of putting his penis inside of somebody else felt vaguely disturbing.

Jack removed his hand from her shoulder and moved further away from her.  He rolled over and drifted back off to sleep.

Chapter 5

"Wake up." Emma said.

Jack opened his eyes and groaned. Something didn't feel right, he felt cold and damp.

"Jack, you've wet the bed." Emma announced.

He sat up in bed and looked around, his jeans felt clammy.  Emma was stood by the side of the bed with a towel, looking down at him.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"I know it's not your fault but if this is going to keep happening you really need to wear a diaper, at least until you can use the toilet again." Emma insisted.

He didn't want to wear diapers, but he was struggling to come up with a good reason not to wear them.

"But if I wear them I might start to rely on them, I just need more time," he protested.

"Jack, I can't wash your clothes and our bedsheets every single day. Please, can you just wear them for now?" she implored.

"Okay." Jack muttered.

He crawled out from underneath the damp covers and climbed down from the side of the bed.

"Thanks. I'll just change the bedsheets, I've left some diapers in the spare bedroom," she replied.

Jack walked out into the hallway, his jeans were soaked and rubbed uncomfortably against his skin.  He had to admit that wearing diapers would be a sacrifice worth making if it meant that he didn't have to endure wet clothes multiple times per day.

When he entered the spare bedroom he saw a package of baby diapers on the floor in the corner of the room.  As he stared at the picture of the toddler on the packaging his muscles tensed up. He took a few steps towards the package but he couldn't bring himself to go near it.  Then he heard footsteps behind him and saw that Emma had followed him into the room.

"Did you have to buy baby diapers?" he asked indignantly.

Emma folded her arms and sighed.

"Well I'm sorry, but they don't sell adult diapers in your size at the grocery store," she replied.

He knew he had asked a stupid question, but he was desperately searching for a way to preserve his dignity.

Emma walked over to the package and tore it open, before pulling out one of the diapers.

"Can you leave me alone? I'll do it myself." Jack asserted.

She tossed the diaper on the floor and marched out of the room.

With difficulty, Jack pulled down his jeans and then stepped out of them. He studied the babyish cartoon prints on the diaper and sighed.  After spreading the diaper flat on the floor, he sat down in the middle and attempted to fasten it around his waist.  The tapes were fiddly and he found it difficult to maneuver them to the right place, but after several attempts he managed to fasten them.

When he stood up the diaper felt loose around his waist, like the tapes hadn't been fastened tightly enough.  Then he realized that his t-shirt was also damp and that he might struggle to remove it by himself.  He tried pulling the t-shirt up over his head but he lacked the coordination and strength needed to fully remove it, instead it ended up stuck over his head as he fumbled awkwardly.

"How are you getting on?" Emma asked, poking her head around the corner of the doorframe.

"Fine!" Jack insisted.

"Jack, please let me help you take your shirt off," she requested, as she walked over to him.

Bending down, she pulled the t-shirt off of his head and helped him to maneuver his arms out of the sleeves.

"And that diaper needs fastening properly or it might leak," she observed.

Jack froze as Emma knelt down on the floor in front of him.  He knew what she was about to do and he wanted to protest, but before he could say anything her hands were already reaching down towards his waist.  He flinched instinctively when he felt her fingers on his waist.

"It'll only take a few seconds," she remarked.

She quickly adjusted the tapes on his diaper and he felt it tighten around his waist.

"I bought two pairs of those jeans so you can wear the other ones today." Emma advised.

Jack didn't reply, he felt like he had been violated.  He couldn't believe that she had adjusted the tapes on his diaper without even asking him.

Emma helped Jack into a new t-shirt and then left a pair of jeans on the floor for him to put on by himself.

"I'm going to make breakfast, do you want waffles?" she asked.

"Sure," he mumbled.

Jack sensed that the dynamics of their relationship had been permanently altered.  She now thought nothing of violating his personal space, she didn't even seem to realize that she had done anything wrong.  After putting on his jeans, Jack stood silently and tried to translate his feelings into words, until the smell of breakfast drew him towards the kitchen.

When he passed by the dining room, he remembered that he wouldn't be big enough to sit at the dining room table and wondered where he would be able to eat his meal.  He walked timidly into the kitchen and watched Emma prepare the food.

"Jack, do you want to eat breakfast in the living room?" she queried, "you know, because of the dining room and..." she continued.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, nodding his head.

Emma carried the plate through to the living room and placed it on a coffee table, which she then pulled up to the very edge of the couch.  Jack followed her through into the living room and climbed onto the couch, although his legs dangled over the edge, he could comfortably reach the plate on the coffee table.

Emma placed a knife and fork next to the plate, then frowned.

"Actually, can you still use these?" she asked.

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"I can try," he replied.

He picked up the butter knife carefully, but it felt too unwieldy for him to be able to maneuver it precisely, he felt like he was holding a large carving knife.  He moved the knife gingerly towards the waffle, but before he could reach his target the knife slipped from his grasp and clattered against the table.

Emma picked up the knife and began to cut the waffle into smaller pieces.

"Do you want a drink of water? I have some plastic cups." Emma said.

Jack nodded his head.  He used his fingers to pick up pieces of the waffle, which was smeared with chocolate sauce.  He ate his breakfast ravenously, barely pausing for breath.  When Emma returned with a small cup of water, he carefully used both hands to lift it up to his mouth and quench his thirst.  After he had finished his breakfast he watched television for a while, which temporarily distracted him from his troubles.

Whilst he was watching the television, he attempted to pick up the plastic cup of water without watching what his hands were doing.  He had lifted the cup halfway to his mouth when he lost his grip and the cup fell onto the couch, spilling it's contents everywhere.

Jack scanned the room looking for something that he could use to clean up the mess, but the water quickly soaked into the fabric of the couch.

"Are you okay?" Emma queried.

Jack looked up and saw her stood in the doorway to the living room.

"I...uh...spilled water," he stammered.

"It's okay I'll get a towel," she replied.

Jack moved to the other side of the couch so that his clothes didn't get wet.  When Emma returned she placed a towel on the damp patch and assessed the damage.

"There's some sauce from your breakfast on here too," she noted, pointing to a chocolate smudge on the fabric.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to these hands." Jack replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Emma left the room and returned with a damp washcloth.  As she approached the sofa Jack became aware of a peculiar sensation in his body.  The first thing that he noticed was that his crotch felt warm, then he could feel a steady stream of urine spurting out of his body. He realized that he was pissing himself in front of Emma and he froze in panic.

She bent down over the sofa and rubbed the sauce stain with a cloth.  Jack tried to tense his muscles and stop the flow of urine, but the warm moist feeling was spreading down the front of his diaper.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked.

Jack glanced up at her and they briefly locked eyes.

"Yeah," he replied, as he looked away from her and hoped that she wouldn't notice.

As Emma stood back up she cleared her throat and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"If you need help with...anything, let me know," she offered, before leaving the room.

Jack wondered whether she had noticed a change in his body language.  He contemplated going to the restroom to change his diaper, but he didn't want her to know that he had soiled himself, so he decided to continue watching television as though nothing had happened.

He looked down at his jeans and noticed a bulge in-between his legs.

How long will it take her to notice? He thought.

Initially the warmth from the soaking diaper felt strangely comfortable and aside from the emotional embarrassment, it didn't bother him.  But as time passed by he started to feel increasingly cold and clammy.  As he watched television he occasionally moved to a different position on the couch, attempting to alleviate his discomfort.  Hours passed by until he could no longer bare the irritation.  When Emma started to prepare dinner, he sensed an opportunity to change himself without her noticing.

Jack climbed down from the sofa and waddled to the spare bedroom.  He saw that the package of diapers, which had previously been on the floor in the corner of the room, had been moved on top of a shelf.  Standing in front of the shelf, he stretched out his hands above his head and tried desperately to pull the package over the edge, but it was still out of reach.  He conceded defeat and realized that there was no way to conceal his accident.

"Emma!" he hollered.

Hearing footsteps in the hallway, he braced himself. When she stepped into the room he took a deep breath.

"Yeah?" she replied.

She saw Jack looking up at the shelf and then noticed the diapers.

"Oh...sorry," she stammered.

"Why would you put them up there?" he squawked.

"I was just cleaning, I forgot," she explained.

Emma took the diapers and then placed them back on the floor, before leaving the room.

Jack attempted to change himself, but once again he had difficulty securing the tapes on the new diaper.  He struggled for several minutes, before fastening them the best that he could, but when he stood up the diaper still felt loose around his waist.

"Do you need any help in there?" Emma asked.

"No, just give me a minute," he replied.

He unfastened one of the tapes, but when he tried to readjust it he lost his grip, leaving the diaper hanging off of his body.

"Jack, there's no shame in asking for help," she asserted.

"Fine," he grunted.

Emma stepped into the room and looked down at Jack.  One side of his diaper was haphazardly taped together and he was holding the other side together with his hands.  Bending down, she swiftly readjusted the tapes, tightening the diaper around his waist.

"Dinner will be ready soon," she announced.

Jack couldn't even bring himself look at her, let alone speak to her.  He knew that she was just trying to help him, but he was mortified.  Once she had left the room he put his jeans back on and then sat down on the floor, before burying his face in his hands.  He stayed there for a while, ruminating over his problems, but eventually the smell of cooking drew him towards the kitchen.

He stopped in the hallway to take in the aroma.  He wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled delicious.  He thought about going into the kitchen to see what Emma was making, but he was still too ashamed to talk to her.  He instead decided to wait in the living room and he hoped that he would be able to eat his meal on the couch.

When Emma arrived with dinner he quietly thanked her and climbed onto the couch.  When she placed the plate on the coffee table, she didn't even bother to give him the knife and fork. Instead she cut the food into small pieces herself and took the utensils away with her. Once again he ate with his fingers, devouring the meal piece by piece.  The food was delicious, but by the time he had finished everything on his plate, he was starting to feel drowsy.

Jack clambered down from the couch and yawned, before making his way towards the bedroom. As he climbed onto the bed he caught a glimpse of the alarm clock and realized that it was only six o'clock.  He didn't want to make a habit of going to bed so early, so he opted to find something to keep him occupied.

Jack remembered that he had left some of his old books in a set of drawers in the spare bedroom and he decided to go look for something to read.  When he reached the chest of drawers he realized that he was only tall enough to reach the bottom two.  He pulled open the bottom drawer and began rummaging through it's contents.  Eventually he found a novel that he hadn't read for several years, but he remembered enjoying the story and he decided to have another read of it to pass the time.

He lifted the book out of the drawer and brushed the dust off of it's cover, before carrying it back to bed with him.  When he opened the book, he found that it was more difficult to turn the pages than he had remembered.  Every time he tried to grasp hold of an individual page, his fingers seemed to grab three or four pages at once and he had to take more time to separate them. After a short struggle, he found the first page of the story and began reading.

Soon he was distracted from his struggles and engrossed in the story, it was just as good as he had remembered it being.  But before he had finished the second chapter, he came across a word that troubled him.  It was a word that he didn't recognize.  He thought about the word carefully and wondered whether it might have been borrowed from another language.  But he thought that if that was the case, then surely he would have looked up the meaning of the word when he had last read the novel.

He put aside his concerns momentarily and decided to carry on reading.  Then when he turned the page and continued reading, the same thing happened again, he noticed another word that he didn't recognize.  He searched his memory but he was certain that he had never seen the word before.  He was becoming increasingly concerned and he decided that it was more than a coincidence.

"Emma? Emma?" he called out in a shrill voice.

He waited for a response, but when he didn't hear anything he decided to call her again.

"Emma!" he yelled.

He heard the sound of footsteps and movement in the hallway, then moments later Emma marched into the room.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Jack was surprised by the tone of her voice, she almost sounded irritated.

"Something's wrong, the...the words" he stammered, pointing at the book.

"What's wrong? What about the words?" she asked.

Jack noticed that her eyes were red and puffy, as though she had been crying. But he was too preoccupied with his own problems to ask her whether she was okay.

"I don't know some of the words, I don't know what they mean," he explained, with a look of alarm.

"Which words? Show me." Emma replied, wiping her eyes.

He pointed to a word on the page.

"This one, I think it says Inter...kepted." Jack said.

Emma bent down to get a closer look at the writing.

"It's pronounced Intercepted, you don't recognize it?" she asked.

Jack chastised himself for pronouncing the word incorrectly.  He knew that the letter C didn't make the K sound and he couldn't understand why he had pronounced it wrong.  But he still couldn't remember the word or it's meaning.

"So it's a real word? Should I know it?" he queried.

Emma twirled her hair with her fingers and frowned.

"Yeah, it means...how can I put it? If you intercept something, you stop it before it reaches it's destination. Like, intercepting a car before it can arrive somewhere...or intercepting a message," she explained.

Jack flipped the page and pointed to another word.

"I don't know this one either, circum...ference," he stuttered.

Emma took a deep breath. Jack looked up at her and noted the look of worry on her face.

"Errm, that's the length around a circle," she revealed.

His eyes widened and his heart started to beat faster.

"And I should know those words?" Jack asked.

An awkward silence permeated the room and Emma seemed to be struggling to muster a response.

"We...should go back to see Doctor Palmer tomorrow," she suggested.

"What if...what if I'm losing my mind," Jack gasped.

"You've been through a lot Jack, it might not be anything to worry about. I'll take you back to see the Doctor tomorrow, try not to worry until then," she advised.

Jack closed the book and then flopped onto the pillow.

"I can't believe this is happening," he lamented.

"You've got a big day tomorrow, now try to get some rest" she suggested, "I'll go get you something to drink," she continued.

Jack stared at the ceiling.  It felt like a million thoughts were running through his mind and he couldn't untangle them.  He fretted about the possibility that he might forget more words, or that he might forget how to read altogether.  But he felt drowsy and the more he worried the more mentally exhausted he became.  After several minutes of anguish he closed his eyes and his thoughts started to ebb away.

When Emma returned to the bedroom with a glass of water Jack was already sound asleep. She placed the cup on a bedside table and then returned to the living room, where she stared out of the window.

She was lost in thought for several minutes until the sound of a ringtone brought her back to reality.  She recognized that the sound was coming from Jack's cellphone, which had laid untouched in the kitchen since they had arrived home the previous day.

When she reached the kitchen the phone was still ringing and she didn't recognize the number on the screen.  She thought about allowing it to go to voicemail, but when the phone continued to ring she picked it up and answered the call.

"Hello." Emma said.

"Hi, who is this?" a female voice asked.

Emma didn't recognize the woman's voice and she thought that it might be someone from the hospital.

"I'm Emma, Jack's girlfriend. Who are you?" Emma replied.

"Oh...I...this is...awkward," the stranger stammered.

Chapter 6

Emma helped Jack to climb onto a chair in Doctor Palmer's office and then took a seat next to him.

"Jack, how have you been?" Doctor Palmer inquired.

He looked up at the bespectacled Doctor, but he was struggling to put his thoughts into words.

"Umm well..." Jack hesitated.

"He was reading a book yesterday and well, I'll let him explain the rest." Emma interjected.

"Go on..." Doctor Palmer said.

Jack took a deep breath and stared at the wall.

"Well I was reading a book, one I've read before. I didn't recognize some of the words," he revealed.

"I see, which words didn't you recognize?" Doctor Palmer asked, as he picked up a pen and flipped through a notepad.

"In...Intercepted and circumference." Jack stuttered.

The Doctor scratched his beard and furrowed his brow.

"When you say that you didn't recognize the words, do you mean that you couldn't remember the meaning of the words? Or did the words themselves seem unfamiliar to you?" Doctor Palmer quizzed.

Jack could recall thinking that the words must have come from a different language.

"Both. I felt like I'd never seen them before, but I must have, because I've read that book before." Jack replied.

"I had to explain what they meant to him. He was looking at me like I was crazy." Emma interrupted.

Doctor Palmer tore a piece of paper from the notepad and began scribbling down notes.

"When she explained the meaning of the words to you, did that jog your memory?" he asked.

Jack shook his head.

"No, they sounded like made up words. Like I was hearing them for the first time," he replied.

"Your brain has adapted to this change remarkably well, quite frankly it's a miracle that you can still recognize anyone. But this is a new symptom and we should monitor you for signs of mental decline." Doctor Palmer explained.

Emma gasped audibly.  Jack looked at her and noticed that she was wringing her hands nervously.  Her brow furrowed and she glanced at Jack, then looked back at the Doctor.

"Doctor, do you think it could get worse?" she queried.

"To be honest I don't know, it's the first time that this has ever happened in medical history," he replied, "it's possible that Jack's brain just lost some information whilst his neural pathways were being re-organized. It might not happen again," he continued.

"Might not?" Jack stated, squirming anxiously.

Doctor Palmer took a deep breath and glanced at his computer, before turning his attention back towards Jack.

"Your brain is smaller than it used to be, it's possible that it's struggling to retain all of the information that was stored in your adult brain," he clarified, "so it might be making more space, like deleting files from a computers hard drive when it's memory is full," he added.

"Can you stop it?" Jack asked.

"Well, there's still a lot that we don't understand about the brains of infants. Certain areas of the brain that are associated with memory storage don't develop fully until around the age of three or four. Your brain might be rejuvenating in the same way that your body did," he replied.

Jack's mind raced.  He wondered how long he might have left before he lost all of his memories.

"But somebody must be able to help me." Jack pleaded.

"We'll perform another scan and in the meantime I need to consult with one of my colleagues, wait here." Doctor Palmer instructed.

After the Doctor had left the room Emma looked at Jack and smiled nervously.  He recognized that smile, he knew that she was trying to put on a brave face.

"It'll be okay," she said, but she didn't sound convinced.

Jack perched himself on the edge of his seat and fidgeted nervously.  Five minutes later Doctor Palmer returned and led them down a corridor into another room.  Jack stared up at the huge MRI scanner and frowned.

"I believe you've already met our radiographer, Paul." Doctor Palmer stated.

"Yeah, I think he did the last scan," Emma replied, as she nodded in Paul's direction.

"It's good to see you both again. Please can you help Jack up onto the table and we can make a start." Paul advised.

Emma bent down and positioned her hands under Jack's armpits, before lifting him up onto the bed.  The radiographer tried to reassure Jack as he entered the scanner and reminded him to stay still.  Jack was unsettled by the loud noises being made by the scanner, but he managed to regain his focus and lie motionless.

After the scan was complete, they were led back into Doctor Palmers office, where they were left to wait.  They sat quietly for some time, the silence was occasionally punctuated by the sound of Emma tapping her foot.  She briefly attempted to engage in small talk about the weather, but Jack barely responded.

Sometime later, Doctor Palmer returned to the room carrying a clipboard.

"Did you find anything Doctor?" Emma inquired.

Doctor Palmer adjusted his glasses and squinted at the notes.

"It's too early to say for certain, I think Jack's brain might still be changing, but..." he replied.

Doctor Palmer paused and bit his lip, he appeared reluctant to finish the sentence.

"But what?" Emma asked.

"But the good news is I've just been speaking to one of my colleagues and we might have another option," he revealed.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

Doctor Palmer sat down at his desk and pulled his seat closer to Jack.  Then he paused for a moment and gazed at Jack apprehensively, as though he was reluctant to share the information.

"It's a relatively new drug that might slow down cognitive decline," he explained, "but I should caution you that it's not a cure and it's never been tested on someone like you, which makes it a risky treatment," he warned.

"Let's do it." Jack asserted, without hesitation.

Jack glanced up at Emma and thought that she might be about to say something.  She opened her mouth to speak but then stopped herself.

"Please think carefully about this, we can't anticipate what side effects there might be. I'm giving you this option now, but my recommendation would be to wait for a few days before starting treatment." Doctor Palmer advised.

"Wait? Why?" Jack queried.

The Doctor placed the clipboard on his desk and clasped his hands.

"Because we still don't know how quickly your brain is changing or even the extent to which it will change, I suggest performing further tests before we start the treatment," he replied.

Jack was frightened by the idea of waiting longer, his mind was all that he had left.

"But in a few days I might not even remember my own name." Jack protested.

"You don't know that will happen. What if this drug has dangerous side effects?" Emma interjected.

He understood her concern, but nothing scared him more than the possibility of losing his memories and his identity.

"And what if I don't take it and I lose my mind?" Jack replied.

"If you choose to start this treatment now you must report any possible side effects to me as soon as they happen. We can perform another scan on Monday, in the meantime contact me if you start to feel unwell." Doctor Palmer explained

Emma bit her lip and looked down nervously at Jack.

"Jack, are you sure this is the right thing to do?" she asked.

"I want to start now," he insisted.

Doctor Palmer pulled his chair back up to his desk and began typing on his computer keyboard.

"Okay, I'll write you a prescription. But I want you to call by again on Monday afternoon so we can run some more tests." Doctor Palmer instructed.

"Thanks, we will do." Jack replied.

"In the meantime I suggest you stay mentally stimulated, read or do puzzles, anything to keep your brain active." Doctor Palmer advised.

Emma picked up her handbag and began rummaging through it.

"Is there a pharmacy nearby?" she asked.

"Three blocks away on 22nd Avenue." Doctor Palmer revealed.

"Thankyou doctor. We could call there on our way home, Jack." she suggested.

It suddenly dawned on him that he might have to go into the pharmacy with her. Jack balked at the idea, he didn't want to be seen in public.

"Wait, I don't want to go in...I mean, I don't want people to see me." Jack stuttered.

Emma glanced down at Jack and raised her eyebrows.

"Well I can't leave you in the car, but I suppose I could go pick up the medicine myself and then come back here for you," she suggested, "is it okay if he waits here doctor?" she queried.

"Sure, the pharmacy is only five minutes away." Doctor Palmer replied.

The doctor finished writing the prescription and handed it to Emma, who folded it in half and placed it in her purse.

"Thanks, I'll be back soon." Emma said, as she stood up.

Jack looked up at her with a grateful smile, but to his surprise she strolled out of the room without even glancing at him.

He squirmed impatiently in his seat whilst he waited for Emma to return.

"Is there anything else you'd like to discuss before you go? Any questions?" Doctor Palmer asked.

"No, thankyou." Jack replied, shaking his head.

He had a lot of questions on his mind, but he was frightened of what the answers to those questions might be.  They both sat in silence for ten minutes whilst Doctor Palmer continued to work diligently at his computer.

When Emma returned from the pharmacy she appeared flustered.  Jack recognized that look on her face, but he assumed that she had been irritated by another driver or by someone at the store.

"Did you get it?" Jack queried.

"Yeah, I think we're ready to go," Emma replied.

Jack peered down at the ground and decided that he would attempt to climb down from his seat without Emma's assistance.

"Oh before you go." Doctor Palmer interjected.

The room fell silent for a moment and Jack wondered whether he might be about to receive more bad news.

"You need to take two of those pills every day with a meal, the instructions should be on the bottle," he advised, "remember, if you start to feel unwell then call me," he added.

Jack let out a sigh of relief and then climbed down to the floor.  He thanked Doctor Palmer before following Emma out of the room and into a corridor.  As they walked through the corridor together, Emma made a conscious effort to walk slowly so that Jack could keep up pace with her.  Whenever they encountered a door, Emma would stop to hold it open so that Jack could pass through.

Once they were outside Emma paused momentarily and surveyed her surroundings, trying to remember where she had parked the car.

"It's this way," she said, motioning for Jack to follow her.

When they reached the car, Jack climbed into his car seat and Emma buckled him in.  After she had taken her place in the drivers seat she sat in silence for a few moments and collected her thoughts.

"Well it could be worse, at least they have medicine that can help you," she remarked, as she turned the ignition key and the engine roared to life.

"Maybe. I just...don't want to talk about it right now." Jack replied gloomily.

When the car turned out of the parking lot Jack caught a glimpse of the hospital through the window, he knew that he would have to go back there soon and he wondered what condition he would be in when he returned.  He stared out of the window at the passing rooftops whilst he contemplated his future, his body had been taken from him and now he was facing the possibility of losing his intellect as well.

His stomach grumbled and he started to feel a little unwell.  He wasn't sure why, but something felt wrong.  He wriggled around in his seat to try and find a more comfortable position.  As the seconds passed by he began to notice a dull pain in his stomach, like a pressure that was gradually building.  Then he suddenly realized what was happening.

Please, not now, he thought.

But before he could finish the thought, he felt a large mass pushing its way out of his anus. By the time he had realized what was happening, it was already too late.  Within seconds he could feel warm feces squashed between his buttocks.  There was a brief respite, then seconds later he felt more fecal matter forcing its way through his sphincter.

The smell hit his nostrils almost instantaneously.  The feeling of sitting in his own excrement was bad enough, but knowing that Emma would soon smell his accident felt unbearable.  Barely a minute had passed by when he heard Emma clearing her throat.

"Jack, have you done a...you know?" she queried.

He burned with shame and wished that the ground would swallow him up.

"I'm sorry." Jack muttered, closing his eyes.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." Emma said reassuringly.

"I know, I just...why me?" he asked, dejectedly.

"Things will get easier. Look, when we get home I'll help you get cleaned up," she offered.

He didn't want her help, he wanted to be able to do it himself.  He knew that his previous attempts at changing his own diaper had ended in abject failure, but he was determined to try again.

He winced as Emma lowered the car windows to let in the fresh air.  He remained silent for the rest of the journey home and quietly prayed that he would be able to retain at least some measure of dignity.

When they arrived home and Emma bent down to unbuckle him, he was sure that she was trying to hold her breath.  When he climbed down out of his car seat he became immediately conscious of how hard it was to walk in a full diaper.  Every step that he took reminded him that he had soiled himself.

He waddled into the house and made his way towards the restroom.  He hoped that he would be able to clean himself up before Emma attempted to help him.  But when he tried to take his jeans off he fumbled around awkwardly and he had only managed to pull them down to his ankles when Emma entered the room.

"Here, let me help you. It'll be easier to do this if you lie down on the floor." Emma suggested.

"It's okay, I can do it." Jack replied.

Bending down he attempted to pull the jeans free of his ankles, but he stumbled and almost fell over.

"Jack, will you please just lie down on the floor and let me help you get cleaned up?" she insisted.

At the second attempt, he managed to fully remove his jeans.

"I'm not going to lie down like a baby, it's demeaning. Leave me to it, I'll be careful." Jack protested.

"It's not about..." Emma said, before stopping to take a deep breath.

"Look, you don't have the motor control in your hands to be able to do this by yourself, you're going to make a mess and there'll be poop all over our restroom," she asserted, folding her arms.

Jack waddled over to a packet of baby wipes in the corner of the room and picked them up.

"I don't care...I mean, I'll...I'll clean it up afterwards." Jack stuttered.

Emma sighed in exasperation and unfolded her arms, before placing her hands on her hips.

"You're really going to smear shit everywhere just to protect your ego?" she snapped.

As he waddled back towards the center of the room, the packet of wipes slipped from his grasp and tumbled to the floor.  He looked down at the wipes and grunted in frustration.  He knew that he was going to make a mess if he attempted it on his own.

"You're being ridiculous. Please, just lie down and let me help you." Emma petitioned.

He felt like crying, but he knew that lying down was the right thing to do.  He let out a soft whimper and sat down on the floor.

"Fine!" he mewled.

Emma took a clean diaper from a cupboard and casually tossed it on the floor.  Then she knelt down on the floor in front of Jack and gestured for him to lie down.  When his head touched the floor he closed his eyes and shuddered, he knew that he would never live this down.

Emma reached down and unfastened the tapes on his diaper.  Jack continued to keep his eyes closed, he couldn't bare to look at her.  He could feel the dirty diaper being pulled away from his skin, exposing his crotch. Although the cool air on his skin felt refreshing, the stench of feces was overpowering.

"Jack, I need to lift your legs up." Emma explained.

Before he could respond, he could feel her hands wrapped around his ankles.  His legs were lifted into the air and then he could feel a cold wet wipe being rubbed against his buttocks. He balled his hands into fists and tried to imagine that he was somewhere else.

Emma continued to clean his skin with the wet wipes, pausing occasionally to gag and pull a new wipe from the packet.  He felt completely emasculated.

Holding him by the ankles, she slid a clean diaper underneath him.

"Jack, I want to ask you a question." Emma revealed.

"Huh?" Jack grunted, opening his eyes.

"Jack, have you ever cheated on me?" Emma queried.

He gazed up at her in bewilderment, temporarily caught off guard by the question.  He felt vulnerable, he was naked and his feet were still being held aloft.  He wondered whether she had somehow found out about Louise, but he was too scared to tell her the truth.

"No...no way, never." Jack insisted.

"And that's the truth?" Emma quizzed.

"Yeah, why would you ask that?" he replied.

Emma shook her head and lowered his ankles back to the floor.

"Yesterday, whilst you were sleeping, your phone rang," she announced, "I answered it, guess who was on the other end," she went on.

Jack's heart sank.  He hadn't seen Louise in months, but they still messaged each other occasionally.  It suddenly dawned on him that she had messaged him prior to the experiment at the laboratory and that he had forgotten to reply.  He wondered whether she might have tried to call him to find out why he hadn't replied to her message.

"Emma, I...I can explain." Jack stammered.

"You can explain? Explain what? I spoke to Louise, I saw the messages on your phone." Emma bristled.

He was still conscious that he was naked from the waist down and he hoped to be able to postpone the argument until he felt less vulnerable.

"I...can we talk about this later?" Jack asked.

"No, we're talking about it now. Did you cheat on me with Louise?" Emma demanded.

Jack now felt smaller than he had done at any point since the accident.  Emma was looking down at him with a steely gaze, he tried to avoid making eye contact with her.  He reasoned that since Emma knew Louise's name, they must have had a conversation.  He decided that attempting to conceal the truth was now more dangerous than confessing.

"I'm sorry." Jack muttered.

"So when I asked you whether you'd ever cheated on me before, you were lying when you said 'no', weren't you?" Emma asked.

He stared at the ceiling and struggled to come up with an appropriate answer, he felt trapped.

"Well?" she hissed.

"Yes." Jack said meekly.

She glared down at him and shook her head.

"And if I hadn't discovered the truth you would've carried on lying to me wouldn't you?" she chided.

He had actually considered confessing to Emma a month prior to the accident, but he had only slept with Louise once and he had thought it would do more harm than good to tell her.

"No...I wanted to tell you." Jack protested.

"You wanted to tell me? Now you're lying to me and lying to yourself. I just gave you a chance to come clean and you didn't." Emma sneered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen." Jack stammered.

Emma stood up and walked over to the sink, where she began washing her hands.  Jack sat up to look at her, he was still naked from the waist down and a clean diaper was spread out between his legs.  After cleaning her hands Emma walked towards the doorway.

"Change your own fucking diaper," she yelled, as she stormed out of the room.

Jack sat in stunned silence for several minutes.  Then he fumbled around with the clean diaper and clumsily tried to tape it shut around his body.  After several attempts, he finally managed to get the tapes to stick correctly, but when he stood up the diaper felt too loose.  Putting his jeans back on proved to be another trying experience, but he got there eventually.  After getting dressed he decided to stay out of Emma's way and give her some time to cool off.

He sat on the floor in the bedroom and stared at the wall for what seemed like an eternity, trying to think of something to say to her.  He could hear her preparing dinner in the kitchen and he hoped that she would make him some too, it was yet another reminder of how dependent on her he had become.

When he heard footsteps coming towards the bedroom he mentally prepared himself for an argument.  When Emma entered the room she was carrying a plate and a small glass of water, without saying a word she placed them on the floor in front of him.  He was relieved that she had at least still made dinner for him.

Then she pulled a small pill bottle out of her pocket and unscrewed the lid, before emptying the contents into her hand.

"You need to take two of these with your meal," Emma stated, as she bent down and placed two small pills on the side of his plate.

He thought that she sounded as though she had calmed down and he wondered whether she might actually forgive him.

"Thanks." Jack replied meekly.

"Oh and you're sleeping on the couch tonight," she announced.

Chapter 7

Jack awoke from a deep sleep and memories of the previous day came flooding back to him. He had already been worried that Emma might leave him following his sudden physical transformation, but he had hoped that she would take pity on him.  Now that he had been forced to confess his infidelity, he was almost certain that their relationship had been irreparably damaged.

He knew that he had made a terrible mistake, but he rationalized that had he known about the tragedy that was about to befall him, he would have never cheated on Emma.  He needed her now, more than ever and he wished that he had never met Louise.

When he thought about it carefully, his decision to pursue Louise no longer made sense to him. He could remember feeling attracted to her, but he no longer felt the same way.  His memories of their secret tryst now felt empty and devoid of meaning. He mused that had he first met Louise now instead of several months ago, he would be physically incapable of being attracted to her.

He wondered about the timing of Emma's decision to bring up the subject of Louise.  He had been naked before her, smeared in his own shit, when she decided to broach the subject. He decided that it must have been a deliberate attempt to catch him out whilst he was at his most vulnerable.  If she was willing to use that against him, he wondered what else she might be capable of.

Jack curled up on the couch and waited quietly until he heard Emma get out of bed.  Then he sat up attentively and fidgeted whilst he tried to think of something to say to her.  But when Emma entered the room she didn't even look at him, instead she walked straight past him and into the kitchen.

"Emma...I'm...I'm sorry." Jack called out.

An awkward silence permeated the room until Emma returned from the kitchen.  She stood in the doorway and stared off into the distance, avoiding making direct eye contact with him.

"How many times did you fuck her?" Emma quizzed.

Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as if trying to find a position that would alleviate the growing unease within him.

"Just the once, I swear," he promised.

"Was it just Louise? Or were there others?" she asked.

"No, it was just her," he asserted.

She shook her head in disbelief and furrowed her brow.

"I don't even know why I'm asking, you could be lying to me right now," she replied.

"But I'm not," he protested.

Emma turned to look at him and a mixture of emotions flickered across her face.  Her gaze was intense, filled with a combination of sadness and uncertainty.

"The trust is gone, I can't carry on like this," she continued.

He didn't just fear losing her, he worried about what would happen to him after it was over. No longer able to live independently, he was concerned about the prospect of being left on his own.

"Don't leave me now, not now" he pleaded.

"Jack, even if I wanted to stay, what kind of future would we have together?" she asked, "when I look at you I see a child, I'm not attracted to you anymore," she explained.

He wasn't expecting intimacy, he knew that those days were over.  He wasn't even expecting her to remain faithful to him, he just didn't want to be left on his own to face an uncertain future without her support.

"Well...to be honest, I'm not attracted to you anymore either," he replied.

Her eyes widened with surprise, as though she hadn't considered the possibility before.

"You don't find me attractive?" questioned Emma.

Realizing that his words could have been misinterpreted he quickly backtracked, his expression shifting to one of concern.

"I didn't mean it that way. You're still pretty, but my body has changed and I just don't feel that stuff anymore," Jack clarified.

Emma had been so focused on the changes to his physical appearance that she hadn't spared any thought for the mental or hormonal changes that might have occurred.

"I know that's not your fault but it does kind of prove my point. We don't have a future together," she insisted.

He didn't expect her to forgive him, but he thought that he might still be able to persuade her to stick around until his health improved.

"I still care about you, we could still live together until I figure things out," he suggested.

"Until you figure things out?" she queried.

When he was in the hospital he had felt like he was a laboratory rat.  He was the only person ever to age in reverse, a medical marvel.  He had guessed what would happen if he returned to the hospital and stayed there.  There would be an endless barrage of tests, medical experts from around the world would visit him in order to study his body.  He wanted his life to return to normal, he wanted to live in his own home, but he was worried about being left on his own.

"Look, I'm scared I might be losing my mind here. If I get any worse I need someone around to make sure I'll be okay," he explained.

"You mean if you lose your marbles, I'll end up caring for you?" Emma challenged.

"Just for a bit, hopefully it won't come to that," he replied.

She sighed and covered her face with her hands as if attempting to shield herself from the world. After taking a few moments to collect herself she took her hands away from her face and took a deep breath.

"Alright, I'll stay for a few weeks," she acquiesced, "but only to give you time to work things out," she added.

He felt a sudden rush of relief and the tension that existed between them seemed to abate momentarily.

"Thanks, I just...thanks," he stammered.

"You won't be thanking me later," she cautioned, "we need to go out," she went on.

"What do you mean?" he queried.

"I need a letter from my doctor so I can get more time off work," she explained, "we need more groceries as well" she added.

He recoiled at the idea of leaving the house and being seen by people.  He guessed that she would only be gone for an hour or so and decided that he would be more comfortable being left on his own for a short amount of time.

"Well I can stay here until you get back," he suggested.

"Two minutes ago you were worried about being left on your own," Emma retorted.

He struggled to come up with a way to explain the apparent contradiction.  He knew that it would probably be safer for him to leave the house with Emma than it would be for him to remain at home on his own.  But the shame of being seen in public seemed to outweigh his concerns for his own safety.

"But...I...I," he stuttered.

"Look you can wait in the car, but I'm not leaving you here on your own," she asserted.

As much as he didn't want to leave the house, he got the sense that Emma wasn't going to back down.  He had only just managed to persuade her not to leave him and he didn't want to push his luck.

"Alright," he muttered as he shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

Chapter 8

Jack sat in the car and waited impatiently for Emma to return.  She had only been gone for five minutes, but he felt as though she had been gone for an hour.  He prayed that nobody would peer through the car windows and see that he was unaccompanied.

His stomach grumbled and he fidgeted anxiously.  Ever since he became incontinent he had been fixating on the noises that his body made.  He interpreted every rumble and every gurgle as a sign that he might be about to have a bowel movement.  Passing wind was even worse, every time he farted he thought that he was about to shit himself.

The car door clicked open and Jack was relieved to see Emma climbing into the drivers seat.

"Got it," she announced, "now we just need to go to the grocery store," she added.

"Do we have to?" he complained.

"Yes, we do" she insisted.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Jack closed his eyes and rested his head.  He wondered how he would be able to cope once Emma was no longer living with him and he decided to formulate a plan of action.  Speaking to a lawyer was at the top of his agenda, he thought that he would be able to file a lawsuit and seek damages for the accident.  He guessed that he would be able to use the proceeds to adapt his house so that he would be able to live independently.

"We're here," Emma announced.

Jack opened his eyes and yawned.  He couldn't remember falling asleep but he guessed that he must have drifted off on the way to the grocery store.

"Oh crap," Emma exclaimed.

"What's up?" he queried.

"I just saw some cops going into the grocery store," she explained.

Instinctively he turned his head towards the window, hoping that he would be able to see them himself, but the window was too high for him to be able to get a good view of the store.

"So...," he replied.

"So I can't leave you in the car, if they see you I might get in trouble," she clarified.

He knew that being left in the car on his own would be risky and he didn't want to be mistaken for an unaccompanied child, but he had no intention of going into the grocery store with her.

"We can come back tomorrow," he suggested.

"Let's just do it now and get it over with," she insisted.

He balked at the idea, he wasn't willing to sacrifice his dignity for a few bags of groceries.

"I'm not going in there," he protested.

"Why not?" she asked, "I need stuff to make dinner," she added.

He tried to think of every possible objection that he could raise, but he had to admit that it could all be boiled down to one thing.

"I don't want people to see me, it's embarrassing," he replied.

"So you care about you're feelings, but you didn't care about embarrassing me when you fucked Louise," she snapped.

Jack thought that it was an unfair comparison as he hadn't intended to hurt Emma's feelings.

"This is different," he protested.

"Jack if you make me drive all the way home without buying groceries then I'm gonna leave you to sort out your own mess," she threatened.

He bit his lip and thought for a few moments.  He considered the possibility that he was being unreasonable, after all it seemed plausible to him that she did need to buy supplies.  But he struggled to suppress his lingering doubts about her intentions.

"But...but," he stuttered.

"It'll only take ten minutes, just keep quiet and don't say anything weird in front of people," she instructed.

Before Jack could muster a response Emma was already opening the car door.

"Wait," he protested.

"Oh stop being dramatic," she replied, "just keep quiet and play along," she added.

After climbing out of the car Emma bent down to unbuckle Jack from his car seat.  He recoiled and placed his hands over the buckle in a futile attempt to stop her.

"Stop it," he squeaked.

She leaned in closer until she was inches away from his face and whispered "If you want my help then drop the attitude, we're going shopping,".

He scowled at Emma and reluctantly allowed her to unbuckle his restraints.  He climbed out of the car gingerly in a deliberate attempt to forestall her, but it was an impotent gesture of defiance.  He stood in front of her and looked down at the floor dejectedly.

Emma bent down and placed her hands underneath his armpits, then she hoisted him into the air.  For a brief moment they were face to face and looking directly into each others eyes, then she maneuvered him on to her hip and held him tightly.  His legs straddled her body, his left thigh rubbed against her lower back and his right knee was touching her waist.  She used her right arm to support his weight, holding him close to her body.

"I want to walk," he mewled.

"There's cars around, they won't see you," she replied.

He had pleaded with Emma not to leave him, but he was beginning to reconsider his feelings. He thought that her decision to take him to the grocery store seemed more like an act of malevolence than an act of necessity.

He wasn't used to being carried by anyone, he peered down at the ground nervously.  As she carried him towards the storefront groups of people shuffled past them and he marveled at how big everyone appeared.

Once they were inside the store Emma carried him towards a shopping cart.  She turned her head to face him and whispered "I'll put you in the child seat, I'll move faster this way".

Jack's eyes widened with surprise, he hadn't even considered the possibility that he might have to sit in a shopping cart.  He was furious, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself by causing a scene in the store.

He groaned as she lifted him into the child seat, her abdomen was now at his eyelevel, but his feet still dangled far above the floor.  She was wearing a crop top and he spent the next few moments staring at her navel, wishing that he hadn't agreed to go to the grocery store with her.

The sensation of being pushed around the store felt strange to him, it was almost like being on a ride at an amusement park.  As they passed by groups of strangers Jack looked down at the floor and tried to avoid making eye contact with people.  He tried to imagine that he was somewhere else, anywhere but there.

"Excuse me." Emma said.

Jack looked up and saw that Emma was attempting to attract the attention of a shop assistant. A young woman wearing an apron turned around to greet Emma.

"Yes ma'am?" the shop assistant replied.

Jack glanced at her nervously, his gaze filled with apprehension.  Her dark blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, she had a nose piercing and a small silver ring adorned her left nostril.

"Please can you show me where the baby section is?" Emma queried, "I'm looking for diapers," she added.

Jack's heart jumped into his throat and he looked back down at the floor in shame.  As he had suspected, Emma wasn't merely going grocery shopping, it was a deliberate attempt to humiliate him.

"All of the baby items are on aisle three," she answered, "follow me," she continued.

"Thank you." Emma replied.

Emma pushed the shopping cart alongside the assistant as she led them to the baby section. As Jack stared at the floor and wriggled uncomfortably, he could feel the padding of his own diaper rubbing against his thighs.  Every movement he made was a reminder of his predicament.

"How old is your son?" the assistant asked.

Jack braced himself for the answer, he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

"He's one and a half." Emma replied.

The shop assistant turned to look at Jack and smiled sweetly, her eyes sparkling with warmth.

"He's so cute, I have a nephew who's just a bit older than him," the assistant remarked.

Jack glanced at her and blushed.

"Here we are, the diapers are just over there," the shop assistant said, pointing towards a shelf.

Emma thanked the assistant and then pushed the shopping cart towards the packages of baby diapers.  Jack let out a sigh of relief as the shop assistant walked away from them and he felt comfortable enough to examine his surroundings.  He was glad to see that there was no one else nearby and he thought that he might have a brief respite from the torment.  Emma examined the contents of the shelf and hummed to herself, she was lingering a little too long for his liking.

Jack glanced in the opposite direction and saw a group of teenaged girls walking down the aisle towards them, then he looked down at the floor again.  As the girls approached he could hear snippets of their conversation.

"You'll never guess what Ava told me about Noah," one of the girls babbled.

"Ava, you mean Ava Martinez?" another girl replied.

"No, she doesn't know Noah. I meant Ava Green," the girl clarified.

As the girls passed behind him he tensed up and silently prayed that Emma wouldn't do anything to embarrass him.

"Jack, have you done a poopy?" Emma asked.

He winced and balled his hands into fists.  He hadn't pooped himself, but it was of no consolation to him because the strangers passing by would surely assume that he had done.

"Mommy asked you a question, did you go poopy?" Emma repeated.

He wanted to scream at her, he wanted to call her a fucking bitch.  But he feared that if he reacted to her provocations then he might draw even more attention to himself.

"No," he murmured.

"Well stay still and let mommy check." Emma insisted.

Emma moved behind him and placed her hands under his armpits, before he could react he was lifted out of the child seat and hoisted into the air.  His legs dangled precariously as he felt himself being lifted above her head like a trophy, he couldn't see what she was doing but he could hear her sniffing.  He suddenly realized that she was sniffing his bottom and he was mortified to see a girl standing on the other side of the aisle looking directly at him.  He instinctively closed his eyes and then felt himself being lowered back into the child seat.

When he opened his eyes again he was being pushed towards a different aisle, then Emma stopped again to examine the products on a shelf.  He glared at her as he crossed his arms and clenched his jaw.  His cheeks were red and his nostrils flared, he could barely contain his rage.

When Emma noticed the expression on his face she bent down until her face was only inches away from his.

"If you dare to throw a tantrum I'm gonna find the women's restroom and change you right here," she whispered.

Jack took deep breaths and tried to calm himself down as he focused on the rise and fall of his chest with each inhalation and exhalation.  He felt like he was in a trance, as though his brain couldn't process what had just happened.  Whilst Emma continued to shop he sat quietly and stared at the floor in disbelief.  Then after what seemed like an eternity, she paid for the goods and they left the store together.

As she carried him towards the car, he silently cursed her and wished that he hadn't asked her to stay.  When she buckled him into his car seat he glanced up at her and noticed that she was smirking.  As soon as she had taken her seat and closed the car door, he exploded in a fit of rage.

"What the fuck was that?" he snarled.

Emma paused for a few moments to consider her response, whilst Jack waited impatiently for a reply.

"I'm not sure. Karma, maybe?" she answered.

"Karma? Fuck you," he yelled in a shrill voice.

Despite his efforts to sound menacing, his high-pitched voice betrayed him, causing his attempt at intimidation to fall flat.

"You won't be fucking me anytime soon, not with that tiny baby dick," she retorted.

"Then fuck off, we're finished," he seethed.

Emma shrugged her shoulders in a gesture that conveyed a sense of indifference.

"We're already finished, I told you it's over," she corrected.

In that moment he didn't just want to break up with her, he never wanted to see her again. She had damaged his self esteem to such a degree that he couldn't bare to be around her.

"I want you out of my house," he ordered, "just leave me alone," he added.

"Oh stop being such a baby," she teased, "I'll drive you home and leave you to calm down for a bit," she continued.

Chapter 9

Jack sat on the couch and sulked.  He had attempted to confront Emma again about her behavior, but ever since they had arrived home from the grocery store she was attempting to avoid the subject.  He could hear the shower running, she'd been in there for at least ten minutes.

Although he had simmered down, his ego was still bruised and he thought that reconciliation with her would be impossible.  He wanted her to move out, but he was reluctant to insist upon it for fear of what her reaction might be.  He had known that she was upset with him, but her actions at the grocery store had surprised him and he was no longer sure whether it was safe to be around her.  For the first time in his life, he was scared of Emma.

After weighing up his options he decided that he needed to inform someone else about his concerns before the situation could escalate further.  He clambered down from the sofa and crept into the hallway, before tiptoeing into the bedroom.  He found his cellphone on the nightstand, exactly where he had left it.  He picked up the phone with both hands and carried it back into the living room, before climbing back onto the sofa.

After unlocking the phone and accessing his recent contacts, he decided to send a message to his mother.  But his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the shower being switched off and he had the sudden realization that he might only have seconds left to send the message. He scrolled through his contacts list in a hurry, but a rush of panic only inhibited his attempts to use the phone.

Then he heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway and he quickly concluded that he wouldn't have enough time to send the message.  He knew that he only had moments left to hide the phone, so he scrambled across the sofa and slid it behind a cushion.

When Emma strolled into the living room she was still naked from the waist up, with only a towel around her waist protecting her modesty.  Strands of damp hair were draped over her shoulders and water droplets glistened on her skin.

"I guess we should talk," she suggested.

They locked eyes with each other briefly, until Jack felt his gaze drawn towards something else

"Talk?" Jack replied.

He found himself staring at her bare breasts, he wasn't sure why, but he found them strangely alluring. Before he knew it he had lost his train of thought.

"Yeah, about us," she clarified.

He regained his focus and looked her in the eye again.

"You said it yourself, its over," he replied.

"But this morning you were begging me to stay," she recounted.

Without realizing it, his gaze drifted back towards her breasts. They were well-rounded and perky, he was transfixed by them.

"You wanted me to stay with you" she reiterated.

He looked up again and blushed, then tried to compose himself.

"That was before that crap you pulled in the grocery store," he retorted.

She smiled derisively as a contemptuous smirk played across her lips.

"Oh yeah, it's not like you've ever hurt my feelings," she quipped sarcastically.

He was starting to become frustrated by the conversation.  He noticed that every time that he criticized her actions, she would simply turn the conversation back towards his own wrongdoing.

"That wasn't the same, it was a mistake" he protested.

Emma rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.  She was annoyed by his reluctance to acknowledge the hurt that he had caused her and his refusal to take responsibility for his betrayal.

"A mistake? You humiliated me, used me," chided Emma.

"I loved you." Jack asserted.

Her brows furrowed slightly as she processed his response and tried to work out whether he was telling the truth.  She seemed taken aback, as though she hadn't expected him to proclaim that he had loved her.  Then her expression hardened into a mask of cold indifference.

"No, I loved you Jack. Even after the accident I was willing to stand by you, I felt bad for you. But you lied to me," Emma sneered.

He knew that he had loved her, despite her claims to know otherwise.  He concluded that she was clearly unwilling to forgive him and he decided to reiterate his desire for her to leave.

"I want you to move out," he asserted.

She hesitated for a few moments as she contemplated her response, then her expression softened and she adopted a more conciliatory tone.

"I need to find a new place to live first. Besides, who will make your dinner if I leave now?" she replied.

He had to admit that she had a point, he knew that preparing his own meal would be an ordeal. He would have to pull a chair into the kitchen and stand on it in order to reach the refrigerator, then he would have to move the chair again in order to reach the microwave.  He guessed that he would have to move the chair around at least three times before he would be able to eat.

Then his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of something vibrating.

"What was what?" Emma queried.

He realized that it was his phone, it was the only thing that it could be.

"Uh what?" he muttered.

"That sounded like a phone vibrating" she remarked.

He started to panic, he knew that he would have to come clean but he dreaded what her reaction was going to be.

"Oh...that, I was...was," he stuttered, "just going to message my mom," he added.

Emma marched towards the sofa, causing Jack to recoil in fright.  Then she started methodically searching for the phone, first down the back of the seats and then down the sides.  Eventually she lifted a cushion that was nestled in the corner of the sofa and discovered the hidden phone.

"So why were you hiding it from me?" quizzed Emma.

"I wasn't," sputtered Jack.

"Then why was it behind this cushion?" she asked.

He didn't have an explanation, there was no way to plausibly deny that he was hiding the phone. He realized that he needed to make her understand that he was hiding it out of fear, not out of a desire to mislead her.

"Okay I did hide it, I hid it because I knew you'd react this way if you saw it," he explained.

Emma picked up the phone and started to examine it, checking for any recent messages. Meanwhile Jack fidgeted nervously, wondering what had caused the phone to vibrate.

"So, who messaged me?" he asked.

"Just the hospital, confirming your appointment on Monday," she replied.

He thought that she sounded disappointed, as though she had been expecting an incriminating message from Louise.

"See, I didn't do anything," he avowed.

She bit her lip and fell silent as she continued to inspect the phone, then let out a heavy sigh.

"You were going to though, that's why you want me to move out, so you can see Louise again," accused Emma, as she pointed her finger at Jack.

It wasn't true, but it occurred to him that seeing Louise again would be preferable to remaining with Emma.  He hadn't been actively planning to meet with Louise again, but now he was considering it.  He decided that at the very least he would feel safer in Louise's presence.

"You're paranoid," he retorted, "she wouldn't move in with me now, look at me," he continued.

Emma laughed incredulously and shook her head in disbelief, "oh so I'm paranoid, I just imagined you cheating on me, that was all just a dream," she replied sarcastically.

Sensing that the confrontation was about to escalate, he decided that he needed to remove himself from the situation.

"I've had enough of this, if you won't leave then I will," he asserted.

He climbed down from the sofa and started making his way towards the hallway.

"Where will you go?" she called after him.

As he reached the doorway to the hallway he stopped in his tracks.  He wondered where he would go, he couldn't go to his mothers house, she lived on the other side of the country.

"Back to the hospital," he replied.

"How? You can't drive," she protested.

Jack could hear footsteps behind him and he decided to make a beeline for the front door.

"I'll walk," he insisted.

Emma followed him into the hallway and then stepped in front of him, blocking his pathway to the front door.  Then she shielded the door with her body, preventing him from leaving.

"Don't be stupid," she warned, "you're appointment is on Monday. If you wait until then I'll drive you there myself," she added.

He gazed up at the colossus blocking his exit, he had no way of getting past her.  But he knew that even if he could get past her then he would have no way of getting to the hospital, it would have taken him hours to walk there by himself.  He needed help.

"Gimme back my phone," he demanded.

She extended her hand downwards and for a moment, it appeared that she was going to hand the phone to him.  But when he reached up to grab it she quickly withdrew her hand and held the phone above his head, just out of his reach.

"Are you gonna make me?" she retorted.

"You can't do this to me, take me back to the hospital," squealed Jack.

Emma grasped the phone between her thumb and index finger, then dangled it above his head as she grinned mischievously.

"Like I said, I'll take you back on Monday," she asserted, "but first, we're gonna have some fun," she added.

Chapter 10

Jack drifted in and out of sleep, it felt peaceful.  Whenever he momentarily regained consciousness, he was only dimly aware of his surroundings and the desire to go back to sleep was overwhelming.  In this state of drowsiness he had forgotten the turmoil that he had endured over the past few days, it was blissful.

Once he had fully regained consciousness he started to recall the events of the previous day. He kept his eyes closed and wondered whether Emma might start to regret her behavior towards him.  He hoped that she would have calmed down after a full night of sleep and that she might start to feel remorse for the things that she had said.

Then he heard movement in the room and he realized that Emma was already awake.  When he opened his eyes he saw her stood by the side of the bed, looking down at him.

"Good morning sleepyhead," she beamed.

He had asked her if he could sleep on the sofa, but she had insisted that he would have to sleep next to her in the bed.  She had been watching him like a hawk ever since she had confiscated his phone, he couldn't get away from her.

"We're going to play a game today," she announced, "I'm going to pretend to be your mommy and your going to pretend to be my baby," she continued.

Jack decided not to respond, he thought that if he pretended to go back to sleep then she might leave him alone for a while.  He groaned, snuggled into the bed covers and closed his eyes again. When he heard her leave the room, he decided to use the time to plot his next move.  He listened as Emma went about her morning routine, all the while he wondered what he could do or say to get away from her.

After what seemed like a while, he heard a knock at the front door.  He listened intently as the door was unlocked and opened, then he heard muffled voices.  He briefly considered calling out for help to whoever was at the door, but after what sounded like a few words being exchanged the door slammed shut again.  He could hear shuffling and the sound of something being dragged across the floor, then he wondered whether a parcel might have been delivered.

He recalled Emma's announcement that they were going to a play a game, he had hoped that she had been joking, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to predict her behavior.  He listened nervously to the sound of her fumbling around with something, then he heard the sound of rustling plastic and something being torn open.  After what felt like a long time, he could no longer stand the tension and he decided to go see what she was doing.

Jack crawled out from underneath the covers and climbed down from the bed.  When his feet touched the floor he realized that his diaper was so full that it was practically sliding off of him. It was soaked with urine and it sagged precariously between his legs, the tapes were buckling under the weight and barely held it around his waist.  He guessed that if Emma saw him like that then she would use it as an opportunity to change him, so he decided to try changing out of the diaper himself.

He pulled at the tapes on the side of the diaper and gravity did the rest, within moments it slid onto the floor with a light thud.  Now naked, he crept into the spare bedroom where he knew the diapers were kept.  However when he arrived he saw that the package of diapers had been left on top of a chest of drawers, out of his reach. He looked around the room to see if he could use anything to climb up to reach them, but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind him.

"Jack, what happened to your diaper? Are you trying to change yourself again?" Emma queried.

Jack span around to see Emma stood over him, then he remembered that he was naked and he made a half hearted attempt to cover his genitals.

"You don't need to be shy, you haven't got anything that I haven't already seen," teased Emma.

He blushed and looked down at his feet, unable to meet her gaze.

"Now lie down on the floor so I can change you, then you can have breakfast and take your medicine." Emma ordered.

He hesitated for a moment and contemplated drawing a line in the sand.  He was intimidated by her, but he worried that his cowardice might only embolden her.

"I'll do it myself," he asserted.

"You can't have your breakfast until I've changed you into a clean diaper and you can't take you're medicine until you've had breakfast," she warned.

His heart sank as the implications of her words began to sink in.  He understood that she was making an implicit threat, if he didn't comply with her demands then he wouldn't be able to take his medicine.  He wasn't sure whether she would be willing to carry out the threat, but he wasn't willing to risk the possibility that she would.

Jack sighed and decided that he would comply with her demands for the time being.  He groaned and then slumped to the floor, feeling completely defeated.  As Emma loomed over him he closed his eyes in a futile attempt to preserve his dignity.

He could hear the soft rustling of plastic as Emma removed a clean diaper from the package and placed it down on the floor.  Then he heard movement and felt her presence, he guessed that she was kneeling in front of him.  She wrapped her fingers around his ankles and lifted his legs into the air before sliding the fresh diaper underneath him.  After releasing his ankles she secured the diaper around his waist and fastened the tapes.

"There we go," she cooed.

When he opened his eyes he saw Emma kneeling on the floor, gazing down at him.  She smiled impishly and tilted her head slightly, hinting at a mischievous plan about to unfold.  Then she climbed to her feet and beckoned Jack to follow her.

"Come with me, I've got a surprise for you," she instructed.

Jack couldn't remember the last time he'd experienced a good surprise and he wasn't expecting the next one to break that trend.  He rose slowly to his feet and then stood there for a few moments, pondering his next move.  Emma strolled into the hallway and then looked over her shoulder to check whether he was following her.

"This way," directed Emma.

He traipsed behind her, taking as much time as he could.  As they passed by the front door he noted the presence of two large parcels propped up against the wall in the hallway.

When Emma reached the doorway to the dining room she turned around and motioned for Jack to go through the door.  He held his breath and followed her into the dining room.

"Look at what I bought for you Jack," she said.

He looked up at a white plastic high chair that was stood in the middle of the dining room.  It wasn't just the thought of sitting in the high chair that troubled him, he was also disturbed by the realization that Emma was willing to spend money on things for the sole purpose of tormenting him.

Emma went to the kitchen and left Jack stood in the dining room, who continued staring at the high chair.  When she returned to the dining room she was carrying a glass of water and a pill bottle.

"Come on Jack, you can try sitting in it at least once, for me." Emma suggested

He wanted to draw a line in the sand, he wanted to tell her to get stuffed.  But he knew that if he didn't go voluntarily then she could simply force him into the high chair and he would have no way of stopping her.

"And if I don't?" Jack muttered.

"I might just forget to give you this," she replied, shaking the pill bottle.

Jack took a step towards the high chair and then hesitated.  He couldn't be sure that she would carry out the threat and for a moment he was tempted to call her bluff, but then he thought better of it.

"We're going back to the hospital on Monday, right?" he asked.

"We will, if you're a good boy." Emma replied.

He wondered how much money she had paid for the high chair, if it had been expensive he thought that she would want to use it more than once.

"You've spent money on this thing, what will you do with it when I'm gone?" he queried.

"I can just sell it to someone online, it will be like brand new." Emma explained, shrugging her shoulders.

He sighed and then stepped slowly towards the high chair, until he was within touching distance of it.  Emma placed the pill bottle and the glass of water down on the dining table, before lifting Jack into the high chair.  His legs dangled far above the floor and he knew that he wouldn't be able to get out of the chair without assistance, he felt trapped.

Even from this vantage point, Emma still towered over him.  When she returned to the kitchen to make breakfast, Jack surveyed the dining room from his high chair and thought about his predicament.

Emma returned from the kitchen with a bowl of oatmeal and placed it on the high chair tray, then she pulled a seat up to the high chair and sat down in front of Jack.  He stared at the bowl and his stomach rumbled, aching for sustenance.  Emma used a small spoon to scoop up some of the oatmeal and held it out in front of Jack's face.  He folded his arms and turned his head away from the spoon.

"I want to feed myself." Jack insisted.

"Okay well I'll make you a deal, if you can put this spoon in your mouth without making a mess then I'll let you feed yourself." Emma replied.

Jack felt like his motor control had improved over the past few days and he was willing to try using the spoon in order to avoid the indignity of being fed by her.  He reached out with one hand to grab the spoon and Emma carefully passed it to him.  He grasped the spoon tightly in his hand and carefully maneuvered it towards his mouth.  The spoon was so close to his mouth that he could feel the warmth from the oatmeal on his lips, but at the last moment the spoon veered awkwardly to the right and the oatmeal spilled onto his bare chest.  He grunted in frustration and slammed the spoon onto the tray.

Emma smirked and tilted her head.

"Let mommy feed you so that you don't make a mess," she teased.

Emma picked up the spoon and scooped up some more oatmeal before holding it aloft in front of Jack.  It smelled good and he felt hungry, he thought that he could probably starve just to spite her, but he reasoned that it wouldn't do him any good.  He knew that he needed to eat in order to stay mentally alert and he realized that going on hunger strike would be counter productive.  He closed his eyes and opened his mouth wide.

"No Jack, open your eyes, I want you to open your eyes and look at me." Emma ordered.

He reluctantly opened his eyes and saw that Emma was looking directly at him.  He tried to avoid making eye contact with her by focusing on her chin.

"You're looking through me, not at me. I want you to look me in the eye," she demanded.

Jack stared into her pale blue eyes and tried to imagine that he was somewhere else.

"Here comes the choo choo train," she cooed.

She moved the spoon slowly towards his open mouth as she stared into his soul.

"Choo, choo," she continued.

Jack swallowed a mouthful of oatmeal and winced in embarrassment.  Emma repeated the process, spoonful after spoonful, until the bowl was nearly empty.  After he had finished breakfast, she took the pill bottle and the glass of water from the table.  Then she placed the medicine on his tongue and lifted the glass up to his mouth so that he could take a sip of water.

After he had swallowed his medicine, Emma returned to the kitchen to eat her own breakfast and wash up.  Jack sat silently in the high chair and hoped that Emma had finished torturing him.  He stared at a clock on the wall and impatiently watched the minutes pass by as he awaited her return.

As he studied the clock face something began to trouble him, the numbers on the clock didn't look right to him.  In place of the number eleven he could see an X followed by a straight line. But he knew that the number eleven was two straight lines and he wondered why there would be an X there.  He looked at where the number twelve should be, but instead he saw an X and two straight lines.  He remembered that X was a symbol used to multiply one number by another number and he couldn't understand why it would be on a clock.

When he thought about it more carefully he could recall seeing clocks like that one before.  He concluded that the numbers on the clock were in a different language, perhaps in Spanish.  He wondered why Emma would buy a Spanish clock and he decided that she might have been trying to deliberately confuse him.

"Jack, what are you staring at?" Emma asked, as she stood in the doorway.

"Uh...oh...nothing." Jack mumbled.

"The clock? You can still tell the time right?" Emma queried.

Jack hesitated, he wanted to ask her about the strange numbers, but he didn't want her to know that he was confused.

"Yeah...uh...the numbers just seem...never mind." Jack stuttered.

"Well, I've got another surprise for you, I'll be back in about fifteen minutes." Emma said.

Emma left the room and Jack listened to her drag something through the hallway.  He was starting to dread the word surprise.  He could hear packaging being opened and the sound of something heavy being moved.  He fidgeted nervously as the seconds ticked by, then after what seemed like an eternity she returned to the dining room.  As she approached the high chair Jack noticed that she had a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, a hint of what was to come.  She placed her hands underneath his armpits and hoisted him out of the high chair, before depositing him on the ground.

"Follow me," she instructed.

Jack reluctantly followed behind her as she led him into the spare bedroom.  There he saw what appeared to be the unassembled pieces of a wooden crib on the floor.

"This is going to be your bedroom until Monday, what do you think?" Emma asked.

Jack leaned backwards against the bedroom wall and stared at his feet.

"Don't sulk, you can be my little helper, now pass me those screws." Emma ordered, pointing to a small plastic bag on the floor.

Jack looked at the bag of screws and frowned, then shook his head.

"Fine, I'll do it then." Emma said as she bent down and picked up the screws.

Jack watched her in silence as she assembled the crib, piece by piece.  He picked up the discarded bag that had contained the screws and read the label.

12mm screws

He was relieved that he had recognized the number twelve and that it didn't have an X in it.  He felt sure that there was something wrong with the clock he had seen earlier.

Once Emma had finished assembling the crib she left the room and returned with a small mattress.  Jack stared up at the wooden bars and wondered whether he would be strong enough to climb out of the crib.

"Come on, let's try it out." Emma suggested as she beckoned him to move towards her.

Emma placed the mattress in the crib and Jack walked timidly towards her.  She lifted him into the air and lowered him into the crib.  As the bars rose up around him, Jack felt like he was being imprisoned in a cell.  Although he was taller than the bars surrounding him, he wasn't sure whether he would be strong enough to pull himself up over the sides.

Emma gazed down at him and smirked.

"Do you like your new crib Jack?" she asked.

Jack looked away from her and groaned.

"Please, I've learned my lesson, I'm sorry," he whimpered.

Chapter 11

Emma had been quiet all morning and Jack sensed that something was weighing on her mind. When she had changed his diaper she had remained silent and had barely made eye contact with him.  Then she had allowed him to eat breakfast quietly on his own and had made no attempt to demean him.  After breakfast she had even allowed him to watch the morning news on television whilst she played with her cellphone.

Jack thought that she might be coming to her senses and he was hopeful that she would take him to his appointment with Doctor Palmer the following day.  He was planning to ask her about it, however he was taken by surprise when Emma raised the subject before he could.

"Doctor Palmer told you to stay mentally stimulated, I don't think watching TV counts, do you want to do some puzzles?" Emma asked.

He was pleasantly surprised that she was still taking an interest in his health and he thought that a puzzle would be a welcome distraction from daytime TV.

"Sure." Jack replied.

"I've got a brain teaser for you," she announced, "are you ready?" she queried.

Jack nodded his head.

"A farmer is travelling with a fox, a goose and a bag of beans. During his journey, he comes across a river with a boat to cross it," she explained, "are you with me so far?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied.

"The farmer can only fit one thing in the boat with him at a time. If left alone together, the fox will eat the goose or the goose will eat the beans. How does the farmer get everything across the river safely?" she quizzed.

He thought it sounded simple enough, but he needed to see it on paper to be able to work it out.

"Can you write it down?" he asked.

Emma went to the kitchen and returned with a notepad.  She wrote the question down and placed the notepad on the floor in front of him.  Jack studied the question carefully, he understood all of the words written on the page, which came as a relief to him.

After deliberating, he decided that the farmer would have to take the goose across the river first. But the next step wasn't entirely clear to him, he reasoned that if the farmer crossed the river with the fox next then it would have a chance to eat the goose.  But if the farmer crossed with the beans instead then the goose would have a chance to eat the beans.  He thought about it for several minutes, the problem had sounded easy to resolve but he was missing something.

"Have you found the answer yet?" Emma queried.

"Oh...nearly," he replied.

Jack was getting frustrated with himself.  He kept losing his train of thought and had to start from the beginning again.  Then after a number of imaginary river crossings, he thought he had finally found the correct answer.

"Got it!" he announced.

Emma, who was by now sat on the sofa again, looked up from her phone.

"Okay, what's the answer?" she asked.

Jack tentatively explained the steps that the farmer would need to take in order to cross the river successfully.

"That's right, well done!" she beamed.

Jack felt relieved that he had been able to solve the puzzle, it had taken him longer than he had expected, but he was reassured that he had at least arrived at the correct answer.

"Do you want to try another one?" Emma suggested.

He knew that it would do him good to continue, but he felt mentally drained after grappling with the first puzzle.

"Actually I wanted to ask about Doctor Palmer. Are we still going to see him tomorrow?" he queried.

Emma got up from the sofa and walked towards the door.

"Of course," she replied, on her way out of the room.

Jack returned to watching television and wondered whether she genuinely intended to take him to the appointment.  He guessed that if they didn't turn up then the hospital would attempt to contact him, so he reasoned that she couldn't postpone the hospital appointment indefinitely. He was left to his own devices for the next couple of hours and with a sense of relief, he embraced the opportunity to be alone with his thoughts.

By the time Emma had prepared lunch he was already feeling drowsy, it was nearly time for his afternoon nap.  Instead of forcing him to sit in the high chair, she placed the plate in front of him on the floor and he ate whilst watching television.  He caught himself nodding off and had to make a conscious effort to stay awake, but he managed to finish his lunch without falling asleep.

"Jack, can we talk" asked Emma.

"What about?" Jack responded wearily.

"You're a lot smaller than you used to be and I can imagine how scary that must feel," she acknowledged, "sometimes I notice you flinching when I come near you, but I want you to know that I'll never hurt you," she promised.

He had to admit that he was intimidated by her stature, but her promise rang hollow.  Although she had never physically injured him, she had spent the past few days emotionally manipulating him.

"You hurt my feelings," he countered.

"Yeah, I guess I did," she admitted, "but I'll never, you know...hit you," she added.

He thought that it was outrageous that she had emotionally tormented him and then congratulated herself for not hitting him.  But it seemed as though she was attempting to reconcile with him and he didn't want to spurn the opportunity.

"Is that an apology" he queried.

She smiled faintly and then held out her arms, "can I hug you?" she asked.

He didn't want a hug, he just wanted her to admit that what she had done to him was wrong.

"No," answered Jack.

"It might make you feel better," she suggested, "come on, stand up," she instructed.

He rose to his feet and yawned, he was too tired to argue with her.  Emma reached down and placed her hands beneath his armpits, then lifted him into the air and embraced him.  She used her left arm to support his rear end and pressed her right hand against his back, rubbing it softly. He rested his head on her shoulder and sighed, then the tension seemed to leave his body. He felt a pang of shame, he was almost enjoying being held by her.  It was a curious sensation, after days of being ridiculed by her he now felt relieved by her warm embrace.  He tried to fight the urge to sleep, but despite his best efforts to shake off the drowsiness, he nodded off.

When Jack opened his eyes he found himself looking up at Emma as she cradled him in her arms.  They were still in the living room, but he noticed that they were now sat on the couch. He was dismayed that she was still holding him and he wondered how long he had been asleep for.

"What are you doing?" squeaked Jack.

She looked down at him and appeared to be startled momentarily, as though she hadn't noticed that he was awake.

"I'm cuddling you," she answered, "I thought you were enjoying it," she added.

Jack sat upright and climbed out of her lap, then crawled to the opposite side of the couch.

"I wasn't enjoying it," he protested.

She raised one eyebrow and her lips curled into a sardonic grin.

"Then why did you fall asleep when I picked you up?" she queried.

He hesitated for a moment, although he had been tired he had managed to stay awake long enough to eat his lunch.  He wondered why he hadn't been able to resist dozing off in Emma's arms.

"I didn't mean to, I was...I was just tired," he stammered.

"Oh come on, just admit it, part of you enjoyed it," she insisted.

He blushed and then felt a sudden flash of anger, he just wanted the conversation to end.

"I didn't," he huffed.

"Well I enjoyed cuddling you," she admitted.

Jack climbed down from the sofa and marched towards the door.

"Just leave me alone," he grumbled, before storming out of the room.

When he arrived in the spare bedroom he sat down on the floor with his back against the wall and thought about what she had said.  He knew that he had enjoyed being held by her and that although he could no longer feel sexual desire, he still craved physical intimacy.  But every touch was corrosive to his identity, he was a grown man but when she held him in her arms he felt like he was an infant.

He stared off into space until something caught his attention in the corner of the room, there were two brown parcels propped up against the wall.  He was sure that they hadn't been there the previous day and he wondered whether Emma might be planning something.

"Jack," called Emma.

He heard the sound of approaching footsteps and braced himself for her arrival.

"There you are," she said, strolling into the bedroom.

Jack didn't even acknowledge her presence, he crossed his arms and stared at the opposite wall.

"You don't need to be embarrassed about what happened earlier," she reassured.

He continued to ignore her and fixed his gaze on an oak cabinet.  She stood in silence for several seconds and waited for him to respond, then she strolled over to the corner of the room and picked up a parcel.

"Why can't you just admit that you liked cuddling me?" she asked, running her fingers over the package.

He glanced in her direction and saw her holding the parcel, then frowned.

"Well, I've got another surprise for you," she said, grinning mischievously.

He understood that she was wielding the parcel as a threat, the contents of which would be unleashed upon him if he didn't co-operate with her.  He watched on nervously as Emma tore open the package , then she reached inside and pulled out a pair of denim overalls.

"I think they'll look cute on you, what do you think?" she queried, holding them aloft.

Jack sat upright and studied the overalls, he noticed a cartoon tractor printed on the chest pocket. He shook his head and scowled.

"This is our last evening together, I want to make it special," she announced.

Emma draped the overalls over the side of the crib and then picked up another parcel from the floor, before using a pair of scissors to cut it open.  She smiled as she pulled a brightly colored toy truck out of the box.

"Do you want to play with this whilst mommy makes dinner?" she asked.

Reaching down, she placed the toy truck on the floor in front of Jack, who rose to his feet and looked at it in disgust.

"Now let's get you changed into your new overalls," she directed.

He decided against putting up any resistance, he knew that if he reacted to her provocations then it would only encourage her.  He thought that if he could endure just one more evening with her then it would finally be over with.

She knelt down in front of Jack and pulled his jeans down to the floor, allowing him to wiggle free of them.  Then she placed the overalls on the floor in front of him and he stepped into them, one leg at a time.  She pulled the overalls up and folded the straps over his shoulders, then buckled them.

"Look Jack, there's a picture of a tractor on the front," she said, pointing to his chest.

He took a deep breath and bit his lip.

"You should think yourself lucky that you're wearing a plain t-shirt, there were loads of printed ones to choose from," she teased.

Emma retrieved the toy truck from the floor and then rose to her feet, before motioning for Jack to follow her.  He traipsed behind her, following her into the living room.  She placed the toy truck on the ground and pointed to it.

"Are you going to play with your new toy?" she asked.

He crossed his arms and glared at her defiantly.

"Or do you want to sit on the couch with me and give me a cuddle?" she quizzed.

He shook his head and grimaced, unwilling to yield to the pressure.

"Did we have somewhere important to go tomorrow?" she asked rhetorically, "because I was thinking about taking you to the park," she added.

Jack slumped down onto the floor next to the toy truck and stared at it.  He knew that she would be able to reschedule the appointment with Doctor Palmer if she chose to do so.  Deciding that antagonizing her wouldn't be a good idea, he grabbed hold of the toy truck and rolled it across the floor.

"This will make a good picture," she suggested.

When he looked up he saw Emma grinning and holding up her cellphone.  He used to love the way that she smiled, but now it made his blood boil.  He imagined how satisfying it would feel to slap her across her face.

"I might frame it and put it on my wall," she giggled.

Jack grunted and threw the truck across the floor.  It was an infantile act of defiance, but it was the only thing that he had dared to do.  He braced himself and waited for Emma's reaction, but she merely chuckled.

"Jack, come here, mommy has something that she wants to show you," she said, beckoning him towards her.

He folded his arms and looked down at the floor.

"Jack, come sit on my lap, don't make me come get you," she warned.

Reluctantly, he got to his feet and shuffled towards her without making eye contact.  Then she grabbed hold of him and lifted him onto her lap.  He sat facing away from her, with his back pushed up against her breasts, he could feel her breath on the back of his head.  She wrapped one of her arms around his waist and then used her free hand to hold her cellphone in front of him.

"Look Jack, that's you," she teased.

He looked down at the phone and saw a photo of himself playing with the toy truck.  He thought that he looked pathetic, he knew that anyone who saw the picture would think that he was a real toddler.

Emma placed the phone down on the sofa and then used her free hand to caress his body.  He shuddered at the touch of her skin as she gently massaged him, he was simultaneously repulsed and enthralled.

"You like cuddling, don't you?" cooed Emma.

Her words enraged him, but her body soothed him.  He wanted to scream at her, but he didn't want her to stop.

"It's okay honey, let yourself go," she urged, "babies like cuddles," she continued.

He grimaced and balled his hands into fists, he felt like he had been betrayed by his own body. He almost cursed at her, but then she ran her fingers through his hair and his anger quickly subsided.  He felt his muscles relax as the tension gradually dissipated under the soothing pressure of her touch.  A stream of urine gushed out into his diaper, startling him and soaking his groin.  He was both horrified and enraptured as she continued to caress him.

"See, it's not so bad is it?" queried Emma.

[Garvug]

Chapter 12

Jack was sitting in his high chair, eating lunch with his fingers and eagerly anticipating his impending return to the hospital.  Emma hadn't mentioned the appointment all morning, but it was the only thing that he could think about.  He nibbled at his food, but he didn't feel hungry.

"Jack, are you looking forward to seeing Doctor Palmer today?" Emma inquired.

He looked up and saw her stood in the doorway, grinning mischievously.

"You can ride in the car with mommy, you'll like that won't you?" she asked.

Jack nodded his head half heartedly.

"What noise does a car make Jack?" Emma quizzed.

Jack looked down at his lunch and balled his hands into fists.

"Come on Jack, you know this, it goes vroom vroom." Emma chirped.

Jack continued to stare at his food and hoped that she would get bored or change the topic.

"Do you want to go see Doctor Palmer? You're being awfully quiet." Emma remarked.

"I do." Jack murmured.

Emma smirked as she looked down at him from across the room.

"Then tell mommy what noise a car makes," she urged.

Jack squirmed uncomfortably, he realized that she wasn't going to change the subject.

"Vroom vroom," he mumbled.

"Say it louder, so mommy can hear you," she said enthusiastically.

Jack hesitated momentarily.

"Vroom! Vroom!" he yelled.

"Good boy, you're so clever." Emma gushed.

He resumed eating and silently cursed her.  Emma continued to watch him for a few minutes before returning to the kitchen.

After Jack had finished eating lunch Emma wiped his hands with a damp cloth and then took the plate away to be washed.  When she returned from the kitchen she lifted Jack out of his high chair and helped him to put his shoes on.

"Come on, let's get you back to the hospital," she beamed.

He wanted to believe that the ordeal was over, but he didn't trust her.  When Emma opened the front door and motioned for him to step outside, he still thought that it might be a trick.  But to his surprise she helped him into the car and then buckled him into the child seat.  When they pulled out of the driveway, he started to feel more hopeful.

As they drove through the suburbs, he still wasn't convinced that they were going to the hospital.  He couldn't see clearly out of the window, but he tried studying the passing rooftops of buildings so that he could identify familiar landmarks.  When he saw a building that he recognized, he was reassured that they were going in the right direction.

"This could be our last hour together, I'm going to make it one to remember." Emma announced.

"Huh?" Jack grunted.

"I have something to tell you," she explained.

Jack froze and listened intently, he sensed that whatever she was about to tell him wasn't good.

"Remember that puzzle I gave you yesterday? The one about the farmer crossing the river? You gave me the wrong answer," she revealed.

Jack gulped.  He had naively thought that she had been trying to help him by giving him a puzzle to do, but now he sensed that it had a more sinister purpose.

"But you said it was the right answer?" he replied.

"I didn't want you to worry. I found it online, it's a brain teaser for school kids. It took you ten minutes to give me the wrong answer," she explained.

Jack started to panic, he had tied himself in knots trying to solve that puzzle.  If what Emma had said was true, then he knew that he was in more trouble than he had realized.

"We need to get back to the hospital," he urged, "you should've taken me sooner," he added.

"It won't be long now." Emma replied.

He couldn't see the time, but he guessed that they had been driving for about ten minutes. He caught a glimpse of a passing road sign that indicated they were heading East.  A few minutes later he caught a glimpse of another road sign, this one seemed to indicate that they were driving West.

Jack decided to practice mental arithmetic to keep his mind sharp.  He thought that if he started with something easy, he might be able to track the progress of his mental decline.  He settled on practicing the seven times table and tried to block out the sound of nearby traffic.

Two times seven is fourteen, he thought.

He knew the answer instinctively, he didn't even need to think about it.  But what was three times seven? The answer didn't come as easily this time, he knew that he should have it memorized, but when he tried to recall the answer his mind went blank.

He repeated the question to himself mentally.  Three times seven.  But the answer still eluded him.  He closed his eyes and attempted to visualize the answer, in his minds eye he could see three number sevens lined up next to each other.  Seven, seven, seven.

Is that the answer? He thought.

That didn't sound right to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.  He thought about it for a moment and concluded that the answer was too long.  Then he thought about two sevens next to each other and he remembered that the number was called seventy seven.  That number was shorter, but something about it still felt wrong.

Jack retraced his steps mentally and remembered that two times seven was fourteen, then he realized that he needed to add another seven on to fourteen.  He thought of the number seven on the end of the number fourteen and briefly settled on an answer of one four seven.  But something about that didn't seem right either.  Then Jack hit upon another idea, he could use his fingers to add seven to fourteen.  Each finger would represent a number and once he had added seven fingers to the number fourteen, he would have arrived at the correct answer.

Jack opened his eyes and stretched out his hands in front of his face.  He used his right hand to grab his left index finger.  He remembered that fifteen came after fourteen and he decided that his index finger was the number fifteen.  Next he grabbed his left middle finger and tried to remember the next number in the sequence.  He was almost certain that it was sixteen.

The car came to a halt at an intersection and Emma craned her neck to check on Jack in the back seat.  She could see him staring at his fingers intently and she guessed that he might be counting.

"I can see you," she said in a sing song voice.

Jack tried to ignore her, he knew that if he lost his focus now he would have to start from the beginning again.  He grasped his left ring finger and thought that the next number might be seventeen.

"What are you counting Jack? How many times you pooped yourself last week?" Emma sniggered.

Jack felt a flash of anger but he managed to compose himself, he knew that she was deliberately attempting to disrupt his chain of thought.  He felt increasingly sure that the number seventeen came after the number sixteen, but then he had a sudden realization that he had forgotten how many numbers he had already added to fourteen.  He quickly looked back to his index finger and his middle finger to retrace his steps, then he concluded that seventeen is three plus the number fourteen.  Next he grasped onto his left little finger.

"Nine." Emma said.

When Jack tried to think of the next number in the sequence, the number nine immediately popped into his mind.  He knew that it was the wrong answer, but he had to retrace his steps to the number seventeen before he could begin counting again.

"Thirteen" Emma said.

Jack gritted his teeth and attempted to block out Emma's interruptions.  He knew that the next number wasn't thirteen, but he thought that the correct number ended in a "teen".

But Emma's disturbances began to pick up pace and soon she was reeling off a whole list of numbers one after the other.

"Six. Twenty five. Forty two. Nineteen. Eighty eight. Twelve," she continued.

Jack's head began to spin.  The numbers crashed over his mind like waves, overwhelming his ability to think clearly.  In desperation he covered his ears with his hands, trying in vain to block out the noise.  But then he remembered that he had been using his fingers to help him count how many numbers he had added to fourteen.  His heart began to race.  He tried to remember how many numbers were between fourteen and seventeen, but Emma's constant interruptions made it impossible to think.

Jack was suddenly overcome by a rush of emotions that he could no longer contain.  He let out a high pitched scream and kicked his legs in the air in frustration.  Then his lip started to quiver and warm tears blurred his vision.  He could no longer think coherently, he could only feel, he began to sob despondently.

"Jack, I've been thinking...I think that what's happened to you has happened for a reason." Emma said.

"But...it...was...an...accident." Jack sobbed.

"No...an accident is tripping over your shoe laces or accidentally crashing your car, not being turned into a toddler. This was...a miracle." Emma explained.

He couldn't understand how she could describe it as a miracle, when he felt like it was a curse.

"A miracle? You're crazy." Jack yelled.

"You never wanted to have children with me, you were always too selfish, you couldn't handle the responsibility," she responded, "but now you are a child, you don't have to worry about anyone else, this is what you wanted," she added.

He knew that Emma had wanted children, but she had only ever brought up the subject fleetingly and she had never made it a condition of their relationship.  He decided that she wasn't being sincere and that it was merely an excuse for her own behavior.  His sobbing started to subside and he tried to compose himself.

"This is about revenge, you're just angry that I cheated on you." Jack protested.

"It can be both," she countered, "you get a new life free of responsibility and I get even with you, we both win," she concluded.

Jack wiped the tears from his eyes and yawned, he felt tired.

"I like my old life," he whimpered.

"It's too late for that now Jack, your mind is slipping away, it's already over." Emma insisted.

Something about the tone of her voice sounded particularly disturbing to him.  She was adamant that he was losing his mind, but instead of sounding sad, she sounded hopeful.

"Too late? But what about the medicine?" he asked, "the doctors can help me," he insisted.

There was an uncomfortable silence and Jack waited nervously for her to reply.

"I have a confession to make," she announced, "you haven't been taking your medicine, I've been giving you vitamin pills," she revealed.

Jack had a sinking feeling in his stomach.  He felt drowsy again and it took a few seconds for the meaning of the words to become apparent.  It had been days since he had been prescribed the medicine and he hadn't taken a single dose.  His worst fears had been confirmed, Emma wasn't just trying to humiliate him, she was trying to destroy him.

"No...you can't do this, please just take me back to the hospital," he pleaded.

"It's too late for that honey, if they found out what I did..." Emma replied.

He tried to think of something to say that might change her mind, but he was mentally exhausted.

"Just take me back, I won't tell them, just...please..." he begged.

"We're not going back to the hospital, we're going home," she announced.

His eyes darted around the car, looking desperately for a way to escape.  He decided that if he could unbuckle himself and get out of his car seat then Emma would be forced to stop the car. He fumbled with the buckle and tried to break free, but his fingers weren't strong enough.  He felt fatigued and he was struggling to focus, he couldn't keep up with her.

"No! No!" he yelled.

"But we can stay together this way," she said, "I'm going to be your mommy and you're going to be my baby," she continued.

Jack screamed in desperation.  He wanted to get away from her, but he had no way of escaping, he couldn't even get out of the car seat without her help.  He had no way to contact Doctor Palmer or anybody else, he felt like a prisoner.  He wanted to swear at her, to call her every name that he could think of, but he was scared of antagonizing her.

He continued to whimper and let out the occasional sob.  He closed his eyes and struggled to collect his thoughts.  He felt mentally drained and before long he was fighting just to stay awake. He made a few half hearted attempts to regain his focus and fight off the drowsiness, but his thoughts slowly trailed off and he fell into a deep sleep.

When Jack woke up he realized that he was no longer in the car.  The room was dark, but he could see the bars of his crib and he guessed that he must be at home.  He couldn't see any light shining through the curtains, so he assumed that he must have slept through the whole afternoon.  The gravity of the situation was setting in and he realized that he needed to escape soon, before he lost his mind.  The house was deathly silent so he suspected that Emma had gone to bed.

He contemplated how far he would be willing to go in order to escape.  He thought about dragging a chair into the kitchen so that he could climb up to the drawer where the knives were kept.  He wondered whether he would be able to stab Emma whilst she was asleep.  He recoiled mentally at the idea, but he thought that what she was doing to him was almost as bad as killing him.  Then he considered the possibility that she might be willing to kill him and that if she woke up he would have no way to defend himself.  He quickly dismissed the plan as being too risky, besides he had no idea whether he would have the guts to actually go through with it.

Instead he decided to sneak out of his room and look for the door keys or for a phone that he could use.  He climbed carefully out of his crib and down to the floor, before tiptoeing out of the room.  The weight of a full diaper between his legs impeded his movement and made it difficult to move quietly, a soft rustling seemed to follow him no matter how cautiously he moved.

He searched the hallway and the kitchen, but there was no sign of the keys or a phone.  He crept into the living room and searched diligently but he found no means of escape.  The couch was positioned in front of windows and he thought that he might be able to climb up to them, but then he would have no way of opening them.  He decided to try anyway on the off chance that Emma had left one of the windows unlocked.

He climbed up onto the couch, first onto the seat and then slowly onto the backrest until he was looking out of the window.  He pressed his hands up against the window and balanced carefully on the backrest.  He tried the window handle but it was locked, then he peered out of the window to see if he could spot anybody.

The street lights illuminated the road outside and it was eerily quiet. Suddenly someone walking a dog came into view on the opposite side of the street and Jack sensed an opportunity.  He thought that if someone witnessed a child banging on the windows of a house then they would almost certainly call the police.

Jack balled his hands into fists and decided that it was his best opportunity to escape, he knew that he would only have seconds to alert the stranger before Emma woke up.  He started to furiously pound on the window and he screamed at the top of his lungs.  He hammered the window with what little strength he had in his arms, but the resulting sound wasn't nearly as impressive as he had imagined it would be.  His screams were by far louder than the banging, but the stranger didn't even turn around to glance at him.  Jack was dismayed to realize that the stranger hadn't even heard him.

Seconds later Emma came crashing into the room and pulled him away from the window.  He didn't even see her coming, he just heard her thudding footsteps behind him and felt her arms wrapped around his body.  Then he was bundled out of the living room and carried back to his bedroom as he continued to scream.

He writhed around in Emma's arms and cried out in anguish as she lowered him into the crib. Then he flailed his arms around dramatically and screamed as he looked up at her.

Emma took a deep breath, swept her hair out of her eyes and then placed her hands on her hips.

"Jack, if you don't stop screaming this very second then I'm going to lock you in that crib and keep you there until you learn to behave," she warned.

Jack reduced the intensity of his screams and stopped intermittently whilst he thought about what she had said.

"What? You don't think I'll do it? I can buy locks, I could turn that thing into a cage," she threatened.

He knew it was possible.  She had already imprisoned him in his home and he realized that if she locked him in the crib his opportunities to escape would be even more restricted.  His screams petered out into occasional whimpers.

"You were so happy when I cuddled you yesterday" she said, "think about how much you'll enjoy being a baby," she added.

Jack rolled over onto his back and then turned to face away from her.  He stared at the wall through the bars in his crib and sobbed quietly.

"If you embrace it I'll make it easy for you, it'll be over before you know it and then we can be a happy family," she continued.

He wasn't ready to surrender, he still believed that he could escape.

"If you fight it then you're going to make yourself suffer, you'll spend every day worrying about something you can't change," she went on.

He stayed silent, he didn't even want to dignify what she was saying with a response.  But he knew that he wasn't going to just give up.

"Just let go," she urged, "you'll be happier staying with me, I promise," she added.

Chapter 13

It was dawn and Jack was lying awake in his crib.  He knew that time was running out and he was attempting to come up with a new plan to escape.  In the morning silence he had once again attempted to remember the seven times table.  With difficulty, after five minutes of contemplation, he had concluded that three times seven was twenty one.  But he was aware that he should have been able to reach that answer in a matter of seconds.

It had become clear to him that Emma would not give him an opportunity to escape whilst his mind was intact.  She could simply keep him confined to the house, or drive him around in her car for hours on end, without ever giving him the chance to speak to another person.  But he thought that if he could convince her that he had already lost his mind, then she might slip up and give him an opportunity to summon help.

He had been mentally rehearsing his lines all morning.  He needed it to seem real, he couldn't show any hesitation, he knew that one mistake could give the whole game away.  He could hear Emma stirring in the room next door.

It's time, he thought.

Jack closed his eyes.  He heard the door to his room swing open followed by footsteps next to his crib.

"It's morning sleepy head. Time to get up." Emma announced.

Jack groaned softly and opened his eyes.  He rolled onto his stomach and sluggishly climbed up to a standing position using the bars of the crib for support.

"Mommy," Jack exclaimed, as he stretched out his arms above his head.

Emma looked at Jack quizzically and tilted her head.

"Do you want to go up Jack?" Emma asked.

Jack smiled up at her and stretched out his arms as far as he could make them go.

"Up, up," he replied excitedly.

Emma scooped Jack up into her arms and rested him on her hip.

"You're in a better mood today Jack, you were grouchy yesterday weren't you?" Emma remarked.

Jack stared back at her blankly.

"Yesterday, in the car, when you were counting, remember?" Emma asked.

"Car goes vroom vroom!" Jack replied.

Emma paused momentarily. Jack studied her face and thought that she looked surprised.

"That's right the car does go vroom vroom...and what noise does a train make Jack?" she asked.

He didn't want to appear to answer the question too quickly, he screwed up his face as though he was thinking about her query.

"Oh...uhm...choo choo train," he replied.

"You're right, the train does go choo choo," she beamed.

"Choo, choo." Jack repeated cheerfully.

"Now let's get you changed into a clean diaper, lie down on the floor for mommy." Emma instructed.

She lifted Jack down onto the bedroom floor, placing him on his feet at the side of the crib.

But instead of lying down, Jack waddled over to the corner of the room and picked up a toy truck.  Kneeling down, he pushed the truck along the carpet in a semi-circular motion.

"Vroom! Vroom!" he hollered.

"No Jack, you can play with your toys soon but first mommy needs to change your diaper." Emma asserted.

"No!" Jack replied, as he continued playing.

She raised her eyebrows and placed her hands on her hips.

"You can still keep your truck but you have to lie down and let mommy change your diaper," she insisted.

Jack decided not to reply. Instead he focused intently on the bright yellow truck as he pushed it across the floor and slammed it into the wall.

"Boom!" he yelled.

Emma walked over to Jack and bent down, grabbing hold of one of his hands.

"Jack, be a good boy for mommy and lie down, it won't take two minutes and you can still hold your truck." Emma ordered.

"Nooo!" Jack whimpered.

Emma gestured towards the floor and guided Jack into a sitting position before gently pushing him onto his back.  Jack clutched the truck tightly in his hands and groaned.

"It's okay honey, it will only take two minutes and then you can go play." Emma said softly.

Normally Jack would remain still and silent whilst Emma was changing his diaper, but this time he wriggled around slightly, fumbling around with the toy truck and spinning its wheels with his fingers.

After he was changed and dressed, Emma carried him to the kitchen where she began preparing breakfast.  Jack continued to play with the toy truck on the kitchen floor and paid little attention to what Emma was doing.

"We're having waffles Jack," she revealed, "you like waffles," she added.

He did like waffles, but he concluded that in order to successfully play the part of a toddler he needed to keep Emma on her toes.  He remembered that he used to enjoy eating ice cream for dessert and he decided to ask for that instead.  He rose to his feet and took a few steps towards her, then gently tugged on the hem of her T- shirt.

"Mommy, ice keem," he said.

Emma turned to look at Jack, who was gazing at her with a cheeky grin.

"We can't eat ice cream for breakfast honey, besides I don't have any." Emma replied.

Jack furrowed his brow and stomped his feet on the ground.

"Want ice keem," he whined.

"We don't have any ice cream. You like waffles, Jack." Emma asserted.

Jack groaned and then resumed playing with his toy truck until breakfast was ready.  Despite his earlier demands for ice cream, he consumed the waffles ravenously.  He didn't even try to avoid making a mess and by the time he was finished his face was smeared with syrup.

Once Emma had finished her breakfast she led Jack into the living room, where several toys were scattered on the floor in front of the television.  Without hesitating, Jack sat down on the floor and picked up a toy racecar.  He thought that Emma might be testing him and he was worried that he might accidentally give away the deception.  He decided that he needed to find a way to make it appear as though he was genuinely enjoying playing with the toys.

Jack pushed the toy racecar along the floor and thought about ways to make the toys seem more interesting to him, he didn't want to appear to be bored.  He decided that if he told a story about the toys, even if it was a silly story, then he might be able to maintain his focus and trick Emma into thinking that he was really playing.

He examined the toy racecar and decided that he would pretend to be driving it.  Then he turned his attention to a nearby chair and decided that he would pretend that it was his house.  He decided that he was going to tell a story about escaping from the house in a racecar.  Suddenly Jack's stream of thought was interrupted by the sound of Emma talking in the kitchen.  He hadn't even realized that she had left the room.

"Hello, is that Sophie?" Emma said.

Jack placed the toy racecar on the floor and started to listen intently.

"Hi, my name's Emma, I saw your babysitting ad online," she continued.

Jack realized that she was talking to someone on the phone. He stared at the racecar whilst he continued to eavesdrop.

"Yeah, I have a toddler but I need to go out tomorrow afternoon and I can't take him with me. I know it's short notice but it's a bit of an emergency, I don't suppose you're free for a few hours?" Emma queried.

It's working, Jack thought.  She thinks I'm a baby.

"You are? Oh that's amazing. Thank you so much, what are your rates?" Emma asked.

Jack's heart started to race.  He thought that if he was left alone with a babysitter, he might be able to ask for help.

"That sounds great, let's say from midday to four o'clock in the afternoon?" Emma went on.

He decided that it would be his best chance to escape Emma's clutches.  He began to contemplate what he could say to the babysitter in order to convince her to help him.

"Yeah, I mean he's a bit shy, I work from home so it's been a while since he last had a babysitter...he's one and a half." Emma explained.

He didn't think that a babysitter would believe him if he told them that he was actually an adult. But he figured that if he could convince the babysitter to contact the police somehow, then he might at least be separated from Emma and have longer to explain his predicament.

"I don't suppose you'd be able to call over this afternoon for ten minutes just to introduce yourself? It will give Jack a chance to get used to you, he's not used to being left with strangers." Emma advised.

Jack remembered that he was supposed to be playing with his toys and that he needed to keep up the act.  He turned his attention back to the toy racecar and continued to listen quietly.

"That's brilliant, thank you so much. I live at fifty two Lake Avenue. That's right, I'll see you this afternoon then." Emma continued.

Jack started to plan his next course of action.  He thought that if he was introduced to the babysitter later that same day then he might be able to make an immediate plea for help. However he quickly dismissed that notion, he realized that he wouldn't have enough time to ask the babysitter for help as Emma would be able to bundle him away before he could say more than a few words.  He decided that he needed to wait until the following day, when he would be left alone with the babysitter, before he could ask for help.

"Jack, a nice lady called Sophie is coming to visit today." Emma revealed.

Jack put the toy racecar on the floor and turned around to see Emma stood in the doorway.  He stared at her blankly and pretended that he didn't understand what she was saying.

"Mommy?" he replied.

"Mommy needs to go out tomorrow afternoon and you can't come with me, Sophie is going to look after you until I get back. She's going to call over today to say 'hi' and then tomorrow she's going to look after you for a few hours." Emma explained.

He continued to gaze impassively, he thought that if he reacted too strongly to her words then Emma would start to suspect his plan.  He needed her to believe that he was oblivious to the impending arrival of Sophie.  He picked up the toy racecar and waved it around.

"Vroom! Vroom!" he hollered.

"The car does go vroom vroom!" she gushed.

Emma moved closer towards where Jack was sitting and continued to watch him.

"Mommy is going out tomorrow, do you understand what mommy told you about Sophie?" she asked.

Jack frowned and then pushed the toy racecar around on the floor.

"Mommy, look!" he said.

Emma's gaze continued to linger on him and it made him uncomfortable, so he decided to change the subject.  He pointed at the television and then looked at Emma.

"Mommy...want TV," he said.

"You want to watch TV? Alright, let's see what's on," she replied.

Jack grinned and crawled closer to the TV. He was bored of pretending to play with the toys and he thought that it would be easier to focus on a TV show.

Emma picked up the remote control and flicked through the channels.

"How about Disney Junior? I think you'll like this one Jack." Emma suggested.

He fixed his eyes on the screen intently, ready to feign interest in whatever he saw.  Although he would be watching kids television, he thought that it would be more stimulating than playing with the racecar.  He started to watch an animated show about a family of talking chickens. He attempted to stay focused on the plot so that he could laugh at appropriate times, but he occasionally caught himself dwelling on the following day and the possibility of escape.  Then he would quickly snap back to reality and renew his interest in the television.

He was glad when the episode finally ended, he had found the characters irritating and he was eager to watch something different.  He hoped that the next show would be more tolerable, but when he realized that the characters were talking trains he knew that he would have difficulty paying attention.  He continued to watch show after show, each one just as unappealing as the last.  He wasn't sure how long he had been watching television for, but keeping up the act was mentally exhausting and required sustained effort.

Eventually he started to feel drowsy and he noticed that his ability to focus was diminishing.  He attempted to reinvigorate himself by taking turns playing with the toy racecar and then switching back to watching the television.  But he felt like his body was succumbing to the urge to sleep and the more he tried to resist it, the more fatigued he became.  He closed his eyes briefly and tried to gather his thoughts.

"Honey you look tired, I think it's time you had a nap." Emma observed.

Jack quickly opened his eyes and clumsily grabbed the toy racecar.

"No!" he protested.

"But you're sleepy, if you have a little sleep you'll feel better and then you can play again." Emma explained.

Jack groaned but he was too tired to put up a protest.

"Come on, let mommy take you to your room and you can have a little sleep, then you can play again." Emma insisted.

She scooped Jack up into her arms and carried him back to his bedroom.  After she had lowered him into his crib he continued to fight the urge to sleep, but within minutes of lying down he fell into a peaceful slumber.

Jack awoke to the sound of a muffled conversation.  He opened his eyes and saw that the room was empty, it sounded like the voices were coming from the other side of the house.

Gathering his senses, he remembered that he had taken a nap and that they were expecting a visit from a babysitter in the afternoon.  But something was different.  It suddenly dawned on him that his clothes had been removed and that he was now only wearing a diaper.  He was sure that he had been wearing overalls when he went to sleep. The diaper felt cold and clammy, it bulged between his legs.

Jack began to consider the possibility that Emma was testing him.  He wondered whether she would introduce him to the babysitter whilst he was semi-naked and then study his reactions for signs of shame or hesitation.  He knew that if it was going to be a test then his life depended on passing it and that Emma would not leave him alone with the babysitter if she suspected that he was faking.

The voices on the other side of the house sounded like they were getting closer.  Jack could now clearly distinguish Emma's voice as well as another woman's voice that he didn't recognize. They were coming towards his room.

Jack took a deep breath and braced himself.  His mind raced as he considered the possibilities of what he might do, of what he might say, to convince Emma that he was a baby.

Emma crept into the room, as though she was trying to avoid startling him, but Jack didn't react to her presence.

"Jack, are you awake honey?" she asked softly.

Jack sat up groggily and then rubbed his eyes.

"Mommy?" he replied.

"Remember I told you about that nice lady who was coming to visit us?" she asked, "well she's here now and she wants to say 'hello' to you," she announced.

Emma gestured towards the door and beckoned someone to come towards her.  A young woman followed Emma into the room, she waved at Jack and smiled sweetly.

"Hello Jack, my name is Sophie," she revealed.

She had dark brown hair and a warm, inviting smile that could light up any room.  A pair of glasses were perched delicately on the bridge of her nose, lending a touch of sophistication to her overall appearance.  Jack locked eyes with her and then hesitated briefly, before quickly turning his head to look at Emma.

"Mommy?" Jack repeated.

"It's okay Jack, say hello to Sophie." Emma replied.

Jack looked at Sophie and smiled sheepishly.  She grinned at him, her eyes filled with affection and adoration.

"Hello," he murmured.

Jack froze.  It suddenly occurred to him that he had found it so easy to act the part in front of Emma because he had become used to her presence.  He no longer felt involuntary shame in front of her because she had already so thoroughly debased him.  But now he was sat in a crib, wearing nothing but a soggy diaper, with a complete stranger looking at him.  His instincts told him to recoil, but his life depended on him showing no shame or discomfort.

"I'm sorry, he's a bit shy." Emma explained.

"Aw it's okay, I'm sure he'll warm up to me." Sophie replied.

Emma walked over to the side of the crib and smiled at Jack.  He looked up at her and studied the expression on her face.

Does she know? He thought.

Jack climbed to his feet and stretched out his arms.

"Mommy up, up!" he said.

Emma scooped Jack up into her arms and lifted him out of the crib.  Then she carried him across the room so that they were almost within touching distance of Sophie.

"Hi Jack, me and you are going to have lots of fun tomorrow, I'm going to look after you whilst your mommy goes out for a few hours." Sophie beamed.

Jack paused momentarily and attempted to think of an appropriate response.

"Uhh... play tucks?" Jack asked.

"I think he means his toy truck." Emma suggested.

"Trucks? Yeah we can play with your truck." Sophie chuckled.

Jack smiled timidly, his eyes twinkling with a mixture of shyness and enthusiasm.  He longed to be left alone with her, she was his only means of escape.

"Can you hold him for a minute, please?" Emma asked.

"Sure, no problem." Sophie replied.

Jack steeled himself for what was coming next.  He knew that he couldn't completely retreat into his shell, he had to act the part.

Emma lifted Jack into Sophie's outstretched hands, then Sophie maneuvered Jack onto her hip and held him firmly with one arm.  Jack caught a scent of her perfume, she felt warm and smelled nice.  Emma pulled her phone out of her pocket and started to fiddle with it.

"I think he's filled his diaper. Has he started potty training yet?" Sophie inquired.

Jack wanted the ground to swallow him up.  When Emma attempted to embarrass him he would usually try to imagine that he was somewhere else, but he could no longer afford to do that.  He needed to be mentally present so that he could maintain his attempts to deceive her.

"Oh no, I can't even get him to sit on the potty, let alone use it." Emma replied.

Jack blushed, but with no where to turn he tried to bury his face in Sophie's body in order to hide the expression on his face.

"Oh, that's okay. I don't have a problem with changing diapers or anything, I just wanted to check so I know what to expect for tomorrow." Sophie explained.

Jack searched his mind for something to say, for something that a toddler might say, but he drew a blank.  A growing sense of shame inhibited his ability to focus on anything except his emotions.  His body tensed up and he gripped Sophie's blouse in his hands.

"That's good because he's a right little stinker, he'll keep you busy that's for certain." Emma chortled.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll manage." Sophie replied.

Emma placed her phone back in her pocket and stretched out her arms.

"Sorry, I just needed to check my messages, you can hand him back to me now if you want." Emma suggested.

Sophie lifted Jack back into Emma's outstretched arms.  When he felt the touch of Emma's skin the tension seemed to leave his body and he felt more relaxed than he had done in Sophie's embrace.

Although he resented Emma, he was starting to become desensitized to her provocations, her attempts to humiliate him were losing their sting.  But in the presence of Sophie, someone who genuinely thought that he was a baby, he was acutely aware of the indignity that he was being subjected to.  The feelings of embarrassment, which had started to dull, had now been reignited. Although he needed Sophie's help, part of him couldn't stand being in her company.

"Anyway I'd better let you go, at least he knows who you are now." Emma remarked.

"Yeah sure, well it's been nice meeting you both and I'll see you at twelve tomorrow then." Sophie replied.

"Thank you so much, see you tomorrow." Emma beamed.

Sophie waved at Jack and smiled warmly.

"Bye Bye Jack," she said sweetly.

"Bye bye." Jack murmured.

Chapter 14

Jack had been attempting to hide his excitement all morning.  Sophie was going to babysit him in the afternoon and he thought that he would finally be able to summon help.

As he sat in his high chair eating breakfast he ran through the possibilities of what he might say to her. He doubted that she would believe that he was a grown man, but if he could convince her to take him to the police then he thought that he might be separated from Emma.  He planned to ask the police to contact Doctor Palmer, who would be able to verify his story.

He occasionally caught himself staring off into space and he had to remind himself to keep up the act.  After breakfast he played enthusiastically with his toys, occasionally stopping to watch television.  He wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed, but he felt sure that Sophie would be arriving soon.

He watched one children's television show after another, feigning interest to the best of his ability until it seemed like a long time had passed since breakfast.  He felt anxious, he was expecting a knock at the door at any moment.  He wanted to look at the clock on the wall to check the time, but Emma rarely left him on his own and he was worried that she would see him looking.

Soon he was back in his high chair eating lunch and Sophie still hadn't arrived.  He could recall Sophie saying that she would be arriving at twelve and although he didn't know exactly what the time was, he remembered that lunch was usually eaten at about twelve.

After lunch Jack resumed playing with his toys and wondered whether Sophie might be late.  He soiled his diaper whilst he was playing and Emma changed him on the floor, then she went to the bathroom to wash her hands.  Jack sensed an opportunity to check the time whilst she was gone.

He turned around to make sure that she had definitely left the room, then he began to stare impatiently at the clock on the wall.  This clock was different to the strange clock in the dining room, he could recognize some of the numbers on this clock.

He could remember that the position of the hands on the face of the clock symbolized what time it was.  He knew that one of the hands represented hours and that another of the hands represented minutes, but he couldn't remember what the third hand represented.  Two of the hands appeared to stand still whilst the third hand moved rhythmically around the clock face.

He studied the numbers on the clock carefully, trying to determine which one was the number twelve.  Instinctively he looked at the top of the clock face and thought that he might find twelve there, but something didn't seem quite right about the number he was looking at.  He recognized the numbers one, two and three on the right hand side of the clock, but their position seemed oddly placed to him.  He knew that twelve was bigger than one, so he concluded that the number at the top of the clock couldn't be the number twelve because it came before the number one on the clock face.

Twelve is after one, he thought.

He tried counting forwards using the numbers on the clock, but when he reached the number eight he didn't recognize the next number in the sequence.  He decided that the number twelve must be on the top left hand side of the clock.  The big hand was pointing at the number four and the little hand was pointing at the number two, so he decided that it was either two o'clock or four o'clock.

He instinctively knew that twelve o'clock was early on in the day and he felt as though Sophie should have already arrived.  But the numbers on the clock suggested that his feelings were mistaken, he knew that the number twelve came after the numbers two and four, so he wondered whether Sophie would be arriving later on in the day.

He continued to rack his brain until his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.  He quickly looked away from the clock and back down at his toys.

"Jack, it's time for your nap, you must be feeling sleepy by now." Emma announced.

Naptime!?! Something is wrong, he thought.

He knew that naptime came after lunch, then after naptime it would be time for dinner.  He was sure that Sophie should have arrived earlier on in the day.  Jack started to play with his toy truck and tried to buy himself more time to think about the situation.

"Mommy, no," he whimpered, rolling the toy truck along the floor.

"But it's sleepy time now Jack, you can play again after you've had a little nap." Emma explained.

Jack contemplated mentioning Sophie's name in order to find out whether she was still coming, but he knew that it would be risky.  He was worried that Emma might become suspicious of him if he questioned Sophie's absence.  He didn't want Emma to realize that he was tricking her, but he was also conscious of the possibility that Emma might be tricking him.  He thought that if Emma had changed her plans, then he needed to know about it so that he could alter his own plans.  He ultimately concluded that it was worth the risk and he decided to raise the subject with Emma.

Emma lifted Jack up from the floor and into her arms.  He whined and put up a brief protest as he pointed towards his toys on the floor.

"It's sleepy time, you can play with your toys later." Emma insisted.

As Emma carried Jack towards his bedroom he considered the possibility of mentioning Sophie before he went to sleep.  He could no longer resist the urge to ask about her, he needed to know.

"Sophie?" Jack said.

Emma didn't reply straight away and Jack waited nervously for her to respond.

"Sophie? No, not today. Sophie is going to look after you at the weekend, remember?" Emma replied.

Jack's heart sank.  He was sure that Emma had arranged for Sophie to babysit him today, but now she seemed to be suggesting that he was mistaken.  She hadn't just changed her plans, she was refusing to acknowledge that she had changed them.  Jack thought that she might be deliberately attempting to confuse him.

As Emma lowered Jack into his crib he groaned softly.  He decided against asking anymore questions about Sophie.

"Mommy, no sleep," he protested.

"You need sleep Jack, you're tired, have a little nap and then we can have some dinner." Emma asserted.

Jack snuggled under a blanket and closed his eyes.  He began to ponder why Emma had changed her plans.  He considered the possibility that she knew that he was deceiving her.  He wondered whether she might be testing him or trying to lure him into a trap.  He worried for several minutes before he lost his focus and drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

When he woke up the house was eerily silent.  He could usually hear Emma moving from room to room performing her daily routine, or the sound of the television.  But now he could only hear the sound of birds chirping in the garden.  Light shone into the room through the curtains, so he knew that it was still daytime.  He gathered his thoughts and the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach returned.

Emma had said that Sophie would now be babysitting him at the weekend, but the possibility had occurred to him that she was lying about that too.  There was nothing to stop her from cancelling that plan and he had no way of knowing whether he would ever see Sophie again.  He started to wonder whether Emma had ever genuinely intended to hire a babysitter, or whether this was just a game that she was playing.

Jack sighed and rolled over in his crib.  As he scanned his surroundings something caught his eye in the corner of the room.  He could see a pair of keys sat on top of a pile of folded clothes on the floor.  Emma usually kept the door keys in her possession or out of his reach, so he was surprised to see them left so conspicuously in the open.

The pile of clothes appeared to be freshly washed and he couldn't remember them being there when he went to sleep, so it was possible that she had accidentally left her keys there whilst she was doing the laundry.  He also weighed up the possibility that it was a carefully designed trap.

He now had two potential avenues of escape.  He could wait for the weekend and hope that Sophie really was going to babysit him.  Or he could attempt to reach the front door and unlock it with the keys, then run out into the street and ask a passing stranger for help.

The problem with the first escape plan now seemed obvious to him.  He had no way of knowing that Emma really would hire a babysitter and as the days went by his chances of escaping would grow slimmer.

The problem with the second escape plan seemed almost insurmountable.  Emma was bigger and faster than him, if she saw him with the keys she would easily be able to stop him from reaching the door.

But the unusual silence that filled the air gave Jack hope.  He thought that if Emma were awake, he would have heard her moving by now.  He decided that he couldn't afford to wait any longer and that if Emma was asleep, then he needed to take the chance to escape now.

Jack scaled the bars of his crib and climbed over the side before clambering down onto the floor.  He tiptoed quietly across the room and out into the hallway, the house was still silent.  He peered carefully into Emma's room and saw her asleep on her bed. Jack's heart began to beat faster as he sensed his first real opportunity to escape.  He decided that he couldn't wait until the weekend and hope that Emma was telling the truth about the babysitter, he knew that he needed to act immediately.

He crept back into his room and took the keys off of the clothes pile, taking care not to jingle them as he carried them out of his room.  He moved slowly through the house towards the front door, pausing at intervals to listen for signs of movement.  As he approached the door it dawned on him that he might not have the strength in his hands to be able to turn the key in the lock. The door handle was above his head height and he realized that he would need to reach upwards to use the key, making coordination more difficult.

Jack gripped the key tightly in his hands and carefully maneuvered it upwards towards the lock. He bungled his first attempt at sliding it into the lock and the key merely scraped against the door.  However on the second attempt he was successful and the key slotted in perfectly.

Turning the key would prove to be more difficult.  On his first attempt at turning it he met stiff resistance and the lock wouldn't budge.  He then attempted to pull the door handle down with one hand whilst using his other hand to turn the key, but the key still wouldn't turn.  He was about to make a third attempt when he was suddenly startled by the sound of footsteps behind him.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Emma said.

Jack froze.  His mind raced as he struggled to come up with an explanation.  Emma stood over him with her arms folded.

"M...mo...mommy"? he stuttered.

"Don't give me that , I knew you were faking it Jack, you honestly thought you could fool me didn't you?" Emma said sternly.

Jack tried to compose himself so that he could muster an adequate response, he was trying to think of something that he could say to her that would convince her that she was wrong.

"I...mommy...no," he stammered.

"You were planning on telling Sophie that you're a grown up weren't you? You were pretending to be a baby so that you would have a chance to escape?" Emma said.

"No...I..." Jack mumbled.

"You turned beet red when Sophie started talking about your full diaper, did you think I wouldn't notice?" Emma scoffed.

Jack's heart sank as it dawned on him that he had been tricked.  His plan had failed and his dreams of escape had been crushed.  He felt utterly powerless.

"I cancelled the babysitting appointment and left the house keys in your room to test how you would react, you did exactly what I thought you would," Emma revealed.

Jack looked down at his feet dejectedly.

"Please..." he whimpered.

"You messed up, the next time you see Sophie you won't be able to say more than a few words." Emma taunted.

"Next time?" Jack queried.

"Sophie will be your babysitter...eventually," she revealed, "once you lose the last of your adult memories, I'll hire her again. You put on such a good act yesterday that she won't be able to tell the difference," she continued.

In that moment, Jack felt like all hope of escape had evaporated.  He knew that Emma was going to win and that he was going to lose, it was just a matter of time.  He sensed that his mind was slipping away and that in his present state he had no hope of outsmarting her.  He was growing weary of the struggle and part of him just wanted to know when it was going to be over.

"Please...don't...please don't do it." Jack stuttered.

Emma unfolded her arms and smirked.

"I've already made up my mind, it's done," she asserted.

Jack continued to stare at the floor.  The idea of losing his mind frightened him, but it was Emma's relentless determination to do this to him that truly horrified him.

"Why do this? Are you happy now?" he muttered.

"You bet I am, I can't wait to have a baby," she replied, "but I won't forget about you Jack, I'll always remember that I turned my cheating boyfriend into a helpless toddler," she added.

Jack struggled to suppress his growing sense of dread.  He knew that what she had said would come to pass.  Emma would carry on with her life, knowing that she had beaten him and he would never be able to exact revenge on her.  Even if he grew up again physically, his memories of his old life would be gone.  He would never even know that he had been wronged.

"What about me?" Jack asked quietly.

"You'll be happy as well pumpkin. We'll both be happy. You won't know what you've lost but I'll know that you've lost everything." Emma explained.

Jack looked up at Emma with pleading eyes and his lip started to quiver.  He could feel warm tears rolling down his cheeks and he started to sob uncontrollably.  Emma bent down and lifted him into her arms, then held him closely to her chest.

"It will be over soon honey, I promise. You just need to stop fighting it." Emma said softly.

Jack screamed in anguish.  He felt like hitting her, but he knew that it would be pointless.  He had tried everything that he could think of to escape and each time he had failed.  He couldn't reason with her, he couldn't overpower her, he couldn't outrun her and he couldn't outsmart her.  All he could do was cry out in frustration and wait for the inevitable to happen.

Chapter 15

Jack was lying on the floor in front of his crib, he kept his eyes closed and tried to remain motionless.  He thought that if he could make it appear as though he had fallen whilst climbing out of his crib then Emma would be forced to summon medical help.  It was a last ditch attempt to escape, his final roll of the dice.

His diaper, which was soaked from a heavy wetting, rubbed uncomfortably against his inner thighs.  He felt the urge to move in order to alleviate the discomfort but he had to remain perfectly still, he even tried to control his breathing so that it was as shallow as possible.

He heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor, a few moments later this was followed by the sound of a door creaking open.

"Well, I guess it's gonna be easier to change your diaper this way," remarked Emma.

He listened to her fumbling around in the room and then heard the sound of rustling plastic.  He decided that if he continued to stay motionless then he might be able convince her that he was injured.

"Let's get your pajama bottoms off first," she continued.

He could feel her pulling at the waistband of his pajamas and sliding them down his legs.  Then a few moments later he felt her fingers on his hips as she unfastened the tapes of the soiled diaper.

"You're soaked this morning," she observed.

Emma lifted Jack's legs up into the air and then removed the diaper from his body.  When she released his legs he allowed them to flop back onto the floor, as though he was unconscious. But he didn't get the reaction that he was hoping for, she seemed completely unperturbed.  A few moments later she raised his legs into the air again and then slid a fresh diaper underneath him. As she secured the diaper around his waist and fastened the tapes, he continued to feign injury.

"Get up Jack, I know that you threw yourself on the floor," accused Emma.

He wondered whether she was just guessing, so he decided to remain still and test her reaction.

"Jack, I've installed a hidden camera in the room," she revealed, "I know you're not hurt," she added.

Jack sighed and then rose to his feet.  He had thought that his plan might work, but he hadn't counted on the possibility of a hidden camera.

"I know that yesterday was hard for you," she acknowledged, "but it will get easier," she reassured.

He bent down to pick up his pajama bottoms, which had been discarded on the floor.

"Leave those for now," she ordered, "mommy will change you into some new clothes later," she added.

Emma picked up the pajama bottoms and tossed them into a laundry basket, then beckoned him to move towards her.

"Follow me," she instructed.

Jack traipsed behind Emma and followed her into the living room, then she sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to her.

"Let's have a cuddle," she suggested, "it will make you feel better," she added.

Despite the warmth in her voice, he knew that she wasn't giving him an option.  He remembered the last time that they had cuddled on the couch and how he had begrudgingly enjoyed it.  Her touch was like an addictive drug, it felt good but he knew that it would destroy him.

Jack climbed onto the couch next to Emma and then crawled into her lap.  She wrapped her arms arounds him and then cradled him, pulling him closer to her body.  The tension in his muscles seemed to melt away and for a moment he felt relaxed.

"I've got something for you," she announced, "it might help you calm down" she added.

Emma reached down to her side and retrieved something from the coffee table, but Jack couldn't see what it was.  She moved her hand towards his face and Jack saw that she was holding a pacifier, he recoiled in disgust.

"I don't want it," he protested.

"Just try it, you might like it," she urged.

He opened his mouth and felt the silicone nipple slide onto his tongue.

"Try sucking it, you'll like it," she prompted.

He closed his mouth and held the nipple between his teeth, but he refused to suck it.  It was the only way that he could defy her, an impotent attempt to maintain some semblance of control over his life.

"There's no point focusing on the negatives, try to look on the bright side," she suggested.

Emma caressed Jack's hair, the soft strands slipped through her fingers as she traced her hand gently over his head.  With each stroke, a sense of tenderness and warmth enveloped him.

"No more work, you won't have to pay the bills, I'll take care of everything for us," she continued.

He thought about what she was saying.  It wasn't that he enjoyed working, but it provided him with a sense of dignity and self respect that he would no longer have as a baby.  He wanted to be able to live on his own and take care of himself.  He thought that there was a word to describe what he wanted, the desire to look after himself, but he couldn't remember what that word was.

"You wont have to worry about anything again, I'll feed you and change you," she went on.

To Jack's surprise and disgust, he realized that he had started to suck on the pacifier.  He hadn't even been thinking about it, it had happened without him even realizing.

"You can play with your toys and watch cartoons, no responsibilities," she added.

She rubbed his back softly, her fingers gliding across his spine with a gentle and soothing touch. He gazed at her breasts and for a moment he caught himself thinking about what her nipples would feel like on his tongue.  Then he quickly dismissed the thought and chastised himself for even contemplating it.

"You just need to stop fighting me and let go of your old life," she insisted.

He thought about his old life, about a woman that he had once known.  He could remember her gazing at him, her deep hazel eyes were filled with desire, he had embraced her.  He could still picture her face, but to his horror he couldn't remember her name.  All he knew for certain was that she was the woman who had got him into trouble with Emma.

"I'll go make us some breakfast," she chirped, "you'll feel better once you've had something to eat," she added.

Jack crawled out of Emma's lap and onto the seat next to her, then she rose to her feet and stretched her arms.  Once Emma had left the room Jack waited for a few moments and then pulled the pacifier out of his mouth, he stared at it in revulsion.  Despite his best efforts, he hadn't even been able to resist sucking it.

Jack climbed down from the couch and searched for a place where he could hide the pacifier, hoping that Emma wouldn't be able to find it.  He decided that an empty vase that was stood on the floor in the corner of the room would make a good hiding place.  He tiptoed over to the vase and then looked over his shoulder to make sure that he wasn't being watched, before dropping the pacifier into the container.

Chapter 16

Jack was having a dream that his childhood dog, who had been dead for many years, was licking his face and trying to wake him.  He woke abruptly and opened his eyes, expecting to see a dog, only to realize that it was a fantasy that had been conjured by his mind.

His room was dark and quiet, as he stared through the bars of his crib he contemplated the significance of the dream.  Something about it had disturbed him and when he thought about it carefully, he realized that he could no longer remember the dogs name.  He knew that the dog had existed and he could recall a vague memory of playing with it outside in the snow.  But it's name escaped him, as though it had been airbrushed from his memory and no amount of thinking on his part could retrieve the missing information.

He thought about his family and his childhood, but there were gaping holes in his memory and it was becoming difficult to piece together a consistent narrative.  The names and identities of his family members were becoming indistinct to him.  Some of his recollections seemed to blend together, creating new memories that he couldn't be sure were real.  He could still remember that his mothers name was Julie and he could picture her in his mind, but even his memories of her had started to fade.

Jack guessed that it wouldn't be long before all of his old memories were completely gone.  That gap would be filled by new memories of Emma's choosing, she would shape a new identity for him.

His train of thought was interrupted when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Startled, he sat up to look where the movement was coming from.

Although the room was dark the curtains had been left open and a streetlight shone in from outside, casting shadows onto the bedroom wall.  The occasional gust of wind disturbed the branches of a tree in the garden, causing the shadows on the wall to shift ominously.

Jack froze in fear and stared at the shadows moving across the wall.  He knew that he shouldn't be scared of them, but he couldn't remember what they were called.

Dark...scary...things, he thought.

He searched his mind and struggled to remember their name, but came up with nothing.  As his vocabulary shrank, his understanding of the world around him dimmed.  He no longer had the words to make sense of how or why certain things occurred, so whenever something frightened or surprised him, he would struggle in vain to explain the cause.  He still understood certain concepts on an instinctive level, but that did little to quell his anxiety.

When he was struggling to understand something and the appropriate words had vanished from his memory, he tried to replace the missing words with other words that he still remembered. However the replacements were usually too vague to function as adequate substitutes and he would resort to cobbling together a number of smaller words in order to explain a larger concept.

He didn't dare to look away from the dark patterns that were moving on the wall.

Light makes them, he thought.

He was temporarily reassured by that thought.  He felt that if light made them, then they couldn't hurt him.

But he was suddenly seized by the sensation that there was someone else in the room with him. He couldn't see them, but he felt like he was being watched.  He curled up in the corner of his crib and peered nervously at the shadows.  He felt certain that whoever was watching him was angry, like they wanted to hurt someone.

Jack tried to tell himself that he was imagining things, that it wasn't real.  But the truth was that he didn't know what was real anymore.  As his old memories receded his convictions waned, he couldn't be certain that he was just imagining things because he no longer had access to the full breadth of experiences that he had gained as an adult.  With diminished memories and a reduced vocabulary, it was becoming more difficult for him to dismiss irrational fears.

It's not real, he thought.

He kept repeating it to himself in his head like a mantra.

He was startled again by an indistinct sound coming from the corner of the room.  He thought that he had heard something moving.  Or had he imagined it? He wasn't sure.  He stared nervously into the corner of the room, looking for signs of movement.

He could still feel the unseen presence in his room and a new disturbing possibility crept into his mind.

There's a bad man in my room, he thought.

Jack whimpered but the sound was stifled by his thumb, which he was surprised to find was in his mouth.  He hadn't even realized that he had been sucking it.

As the fear grew more intense his thoughts became increasingly incoherent.  He could say to himself that it wasn't real, but he was struggling to explain why it wasn't real.  Minutes earlier he had been thinking relatively clearly, but now his mind was clouded. When he tried to articulate his thoughts, he could only think of a few words.

Bad man. Not real. Bad man. Not real.

The presence felt real to him and that made it real.

Jack cried out involuntarily, he could no longer contain his fear.  He was filled with dread and the certainty that something terrible was about to happen to him.

As he peered into the shadows and trembled, he was distracted by movement in his peripheral vision.  He quickly turned his head and saw the door to his bedroom swing open, then light flooded the room and Emma stepped in through the door.

"Are you okay Jack?" she asked, "I heard you crying." she added.

He let out an audible sigh of relief.  In that moment he could only think about escaping the unseen presence that was terrorizing him.  His anger towards Emma and his thoughts about his old life were far from his mind.  All he wanted to do was to get out of that room, to be rescued from whatever was in there.

Jack stood up and scrambled towards the side of the crib.  As Emma walked towards him he stretched out his arms and whimpered.  She reached down into the crib and lifted him into her arms.

"What's wrong Jack?" Emma queried.

He held on to her tightly and pointed towards the corner of the room.  He was still trembling and he struggled to explain what he had experienced.

"Bad...bad," he stuttered.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Emma quizzed.

Jack shook his head and groaned.

Emma looked directly into his eyes and moved her face closer to his, until they were almost nose to nose.  He could feel her warm breath on his face and he was reassured by her presence.

"It's okay honey, it was just a bad dream. Do you want to sleep in mommies bed tonight?" She asked softly.

Jack nodded his head.  He would have done anything to get out of that room.

Emma rubbed his back and carried him back to her bedroom.  Then she sat down on the bed and cradled Jack in her arms so that he was looking up at her.  She caressed his face and patted his bottom lovingly.

He was pressed up against her body, lying back in her arms and gazing up at her face.  He could feel the heat radiating from her body and he knew that she would protect him.  He could recall that he used to resist her attempts to cuddle him, but now he wondered why he had bothered fighting her.

As he looked up at her, he noticed the outline of her breasts beneath her pajamas.  They were inches away from his face and he had an urge to touch them.  He wasn't sure why, but her breasts seemed to call to him.  They promised comfort, they promised safety, he wanted to move closer to them.  He reached out and placed his hand on one of her breasts.

Emma looked down at him quizzically and raised her eyebrows, then a smile crept across her face.  Reaching down, she removed his hand from her breast, then she slowly lifted up her pajama top to expose her bosom.

Jack stared at her breasts in awe.  He felt a primal urge to move closer to them, he wanted to be in contact with them.  He gawked at her nipples and wondered what it would feel like to have them in his mouth.  He reached out again and pressed his hand against her bare breasts, they felt soft and warm.  Touching them with his fingers only intensified his desire to move closer, he squirmed around in her arms until his face was almost in contact them.

Sensing his desire, Emma used her arm to support his back and guided him closer to her bosom. Her breasts now filled his vision and he couldn't think about anything else, he had an insatiable desire to feel them on his tongue.  He pressed his face up against one of her breasts and opened his mouth, then he wrapped his lips around the nipple.  He could feel her warm skin on his tongue and he instinctively started to suckle her teat.

The terror that he had felt in his own room had started to subside.  As his heart rate slowed and his breathing returned to normal, his thoughts became gradually more coherent.  He now realized that there was nothing to be scared of in his room and that he had imagined the whole thing.

What am I doing? Jack thought.

He removed his mouth from her nipple and closed his eyes.  His head was still resting against her bosom and he attempted to gather his thoughts.  He was ashamed that he had suckled on Emma's teat and he couldn't understand why he had found her presence so comforting.  Now that he could think clearly again, the allure of her breasts no longer made sense to him.  He had expended a great amount of effort attempting to flee from her, but now he had found solace in her arms.

But her attempts to comfort him were also a reminder that she was capable of being kind towards him.  He understood that whenever he stopped putting up resistance she would respond by offering him warmth and affection.  He felt strangely reassured by her behavior and he concluded that once he had forgotten about his old life she would continue to care for him.

He was still fearful of losing his mind, but he wanted Emma to be kind to him.  He knew that if he couldn't escape from her then he would need to learn to live with her.  He realized that in order to be happy, he would need to make her happy.

He was unsettled by the idea of forgetting about his previous life, but the idea of living in misery in the present was no less disturbing.  Above all else, he just wanted to be content.

He knew that once he had forgotten his past he would no longer have to worry about leaving it behind.  But he couldn't do it, he couldn't bring himself to surrender to Emma.  He wasn't sure how, or why, but he still had hope.

Chapter 17

Jack knew that he had been an adult once, but he couldn't remember how long had passed since then.  He could only count to five and the gaps in his memory were making it increasingly difficult to keep track of the passage of time.  The difference between a day, a week or a month was no longer readily apparent to him.  His recollections of being an adult almost felt like a dream, something that occurred a whole lifetime ago.

He was sat in his high chair, reminiscing about the past, when he decided to raise the subject with Emma.

"Mommy, I used to drive a car," he announced.

Emma placed her fork down on the table and continued to chew her food for a few moments, then she smiled warmly.

"Wow, what color was it?" she beamed.

He thought about it carefully but he couldn't remember what color it was, he could only recall being sat in the drivers seat.  Then another word popped into his mind, a word that he associated with driving cars.

"Mommy, I used...I used to be...adult," he stuttered.

The once vibrant glow on her face dimmed, replaced by a shadow of concern.

"You used to be what?" she queried.

"Adult," he repeated.

Emma leaned forwards so that she was closer to Jack and then tilted her head slightly, as though she was struggling to hear him.

"What did you say honey? I can't understand you," she quizzed.

"Adult," he reiterated.

Emma frowned, her face was contorted with confusion.

"Mommy can't understand what your saying," she explained.

"Adult," he squeaked.

She chuckled to herself and shook her head, then grinned from ear to ear.

"Honey that isn't a word, try saying it a different way," she suggested.

He had been sure that adult was a word, but now he was second guessing himself.  He decided that if Emma didn't recognize the word, then he would need to use other words to get his point across.

"I used to drive a car, I was big," he clarified.

"Do you mean that you used to be a big boy?" she asked.

Jack felt relieved that she finally understood what he was saying.  He thought that if he could make her understand that he was a big boy, then she might start treating him like a big boy.

"Yeah, I was a big boy!" he squealed.

"No honey, you're a little boy," she corrected, "but you will be a big boy one day," she promised.

He felt disappointed that she didn't believe him, but he was struggling to think of other words that might change her mind.

"I was a big boy," he insisted.

"Jack, you're a baby," she replied, "but you will grow into a big boy," she reassured.

Jack felt a flash of anger, he didn't want to be a baby, he wanted to be a big boy.

"No, not a baby," he protested.

"When you were just a little baby you were in mommy's tummy," she explained, "then you were born and mommy took care of you, now you're growing into a little boy," she continued.

He was sure that he hadn't been in her tummy, he could remember being a big boy.  He tried to think of words that might convince her that he was telling the truth, then slammed his hand down onto the high chair tray in frustration.

"No, not a baby. I was a big boy," Jack disputed.

Emma picked her phone up off of the table and started to tap her fingers on the screen.  A few moments later she held the phone out in front of Jack so that he could see it clearly.

"Jack, look at this picture," she urged.

He studied the photo carefully, he could see Emma sat down in a chair and she was cradling a small baby.

"That's you when you were a little baby" she explained, "and that's me holding you," she added.

Jack was confused. He understood that the image on the phone was a representation of something that had actually occurred, but he had no memory of it happening.  He could recognize Emma in the photo, but he didn't recognize the room that she was in.

"First you were a small baby, now you're a little boy and then one day you'll be a big boy," she continued.

He understood that growing into a big boy was supposed to happen in the future, but he couldn't explain his memories of being a big boy in the past.

"I did used to drive a car," he insisted.

"When? How could a tiny baby drive a car?" she quizzed.

Jack grunted and slammed his hand down on the high chair tray again.  He was sure that she was wrong, but he couldn't articulate why.

"You're imagining things honey, it's just make believe," she explained.

He contemplated the word "imagining," but he couldn't remember what it meant.  He was haunted by memories that he couldn't explain, his past was unfathomable.

"I know what will make you feel better," she announced, "I bought some ice cream, do you want some?" she asked.

He recognized the words "ice cream", he couldn't remember exactly what it was but he knew that he enjoyed the taste.

"Ice kweem!" Jack repeated excitedly.

Emma went to the kitchen and retrieved a plastic container from the freezer, then carried it back into the dining room.

"Oh no," she exclaimed, "I don't think you're allowed to eat ice cream anymore Jack," she continued.

"But I want ice kweem," he protested.

Emma placed the container down on the dining room table, then crossed her arms and shook her head.

"But only babies are allowed to eat ice cream," she clarified, "big boys aren't allowed to eat ice cream, they have to eat vegetables," she added.

He didn't recognize the word 'vegetables', but he understood that big boys weren't supposed to eat ice cream.  He knew that he liked ice cream and he didn't want to stop eating it.

"But I want it," he whined.

"But you said you're not a baby, ice cream is food for babies," she replied, "I'll get a carrot for you instead," she added.

He didn't want to be a baby, but he did want ice cream.  He was puzzled by the contradiction and he struggled to come up with a solution.

"No, ice kweem!" Jack demanded.

"But only babies are allowed to eat ice cream," Emma argued.

It occurred to Jack that he could say that he was a baby and eat the ice cream, then deny that he was a baby after he had finished it.

"I am a baby," he whimpered.

"Alright then, I'll get you some ice cream," she replied

Jack congratulated himself for tricking her and decided that after he had finished eating the ice cream he would announce that he was a big boy.  But then an unsettling thought occurred to him and he wondered whether she would be capable of saying things that she didn't mean.  He remembered that he had attempted to escape the house and that she had stopped him, he could recall being frightened of her.

"Ice cream," she chirped.

He looked up and saw her carrying a bowl towards him, he couldn't wait to taste the ice cream.

Chapter 18

Jack bounced up and down excitedly in front of the TV, waving his arms around.  The music was loud and invigorating, it felt good to move his body whilst he listened to it.

"Yay go on Jack, you're such a good dancer." Emma gushed.

Wait, why am I dancing? Jack thought.

He was almost naked, except for a diaper and he was jumping around whilst a nursery rhyme played on the television.  He could remember starting to dance and he could remember enjoying it, but he couldn't remember why he had decided to dance to the song in the first place.

He stopped dancing and stood motionless whilst he tried to retrace his steps mentally.  He tried to remember what he had been thinking immediately prior to that moment.  He could recall that whilst he had been dancing he had been thinking "mommy duck goes quack quack quack", which were the lyrics of the song that he had been dancing to.  Then he tried to remember what he had been thinking before that. He could remember thinking "mommy, look, see" when he had pointed at the television.  Before that he had been playing with his toy cars, but when he tried to recall what he had been thinking at the time he could only remember imaginary car noises.

"Why have you stopped dancing Jack?" Emma asked.

Jack was confused. He tried to remember the last time that he had thought about being an adult, but he couldn't recall thinking about his previous life at all since he had awoken that morning.

He could recall the events of the entire day, but when he tried to remember what he had been thinking about there was an empty void.  When he paid close attention to his own thoughts, he understood that they were comprised of words.  The words were then joined together to create meaning and he could use them to understand his own feelings.

Instead of dancing, he should have been thinking about escaping.  But it hadn't even occurred to him because in that moment he hadn't understood what the word 'escape' meant.  He had simply heard the music playing and then he had been instinctively drawn towards it.

Without an internal monologue, he hadn't had the words to articulate his own thoughts, he had been living on impulse.  Now his internal monologue had returned, but for how long, he didn't know.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Emma queried.

He was about to speak when he noticed that there was something in his mouth, it felt like soft plastic on his tongue.  He reached for his mouth and then pulled the object out, it was a pacifier. A string of saliva still connected the nipple to his lips.

"Are you thinking about being a grown up again?" she quizzed.

Jack shook his head and then dropped the pacifier on the floor.

"Jack you were doing so well," she beamed, "it's okay honey it'll pass, don't worry," she continued.

He was embarrassed by his earlier behavior.  He understood that he hadn't been pretending to enjoy the children's TV shows and the nursery rhymes, he had genuinely enjoyed them.  Even worse than that, he thought that his mind might slip away again at any moment.

"Please...no...no." Jack stammered.

"Jack, come give mommy a cuddle," she instructed, "you'll feel better soon," she promised .

Jack stood still, he was paralyzed with fear.  As Emma walked towards him, his instincts were telling him to flee, but he couldn't move. Emma lifted him into her arms and carried him towards the couch.

"It's okay, you'll feel better after a cuddle," she said in a soothing voice.

She sat down on the couch and placed Jack on her lap, facing away from her.  Then she wrapped one of her arms around his waist and with her free hand she caressed his hair.  Jack didn't resist, he couldn't think of any way of escaping and even if he could, he knew that his time was running out.

"You were having so much fun when you were dancing to the music? It felt good didn't it?" Emma asked.

He had to admit, it had felt good.  When he was dancing he had felt no shame or worry, he had been reveling in the moment without a care in the world.

"Yes." Jack replied meekly.

"And when you started thinking about being a grown up, did that make you feel good?" she queried.

It hadn't, he knew that it had made him feel miserable, even if he desperately yearned for his old life.

"No," he whispered.

"Why doesn't it make you feel good?" she asked, "I think it's because you can't be a grown up, you're a little boy and you can't change that can you?" she suggested.

Jack felt a sharp pang of anger.

"But I want to be grown up!" he snapped.

"Is there any way that you can make yourself into a grown up?" she queried.

He knew that he was trapped in a child's body and that Emma was unwilling to help him.  His determination to defy her was abruptly halted by the realization that it was pointless, there was no way that he could return to his previous life.

"No," he replied.

"Then why do you want to think about being a grown up when it makes you sad? Don't you want to be happy like you were this morning?" Emma asked.

He instinctively recoiled at the idea but he knew that it made sense.  He realized that if he had no way of escaping his predicament then it was pointless to worry about it, the end result would still be the same.  When he had attempted to resist his mental decline it hadn't gotten him anywhere, the only time he had felt happiness was when he had given up the fight completely.

He contemplated his old life and all of the things that he would lose, but his memories were fading quickly.  He could no longer remember what his parents looked like, he just knew that they existed.  He could recall the names of old friends and family members, but not the times that they had spent together.  His past was becoming increasingly abstract and hard to pin down.  He could no longer read and even if he could, he wouldn't remember the meaning of the words he was reading.  It was becoming apparent to him that he had already lost the thing that he was fighting to preserve.

He wondered whether being a baby would be such a bad thing after all. He had been desperately clinging onto his old life, but if he allowed himself to let go of it he wouldn't die, he'd be reborn.

It won't hurt...it won't hurt, he thought.

In that moment he decided that he had lost the fight and that it needed to end quickly in order to spare him from further anguish.

"I give up." Jack mumbled.

"You mean you want to stop thinking about being a grown up?" she inquired.

"Yeah," he murmured.

"Then you just need to stop thinking about big words. Big words are bad and they will make you feel bad," she asserted.

"Can't stop," he protested.

"Well when you catch yourself thinking about big words, or about being a grown up, stop yourself and think about something else instead.  You can watch TV, sing a song or play with your toys.  Then one day you won't even need to stop yourself, you'll just forget," she explained.

Jack tried to stop thinking about being a grown up, but it was hard.  Every time he made a conscious effort to stop thinking about it his mind led him back to the same place.  He sat quietly on Emma's lap for some time as his mind went round in circles.

"Why don't you show mommy your dancing again? I'll put some more songs on?" Emma suggested.

Without saying a word he climbed down out of Emma's lap and walked back towards the TV, coming to a stop in the place where he had been dancing before.  He felt uneasy, but he knew that it had to be done.

Emma pushed a button on the remote control and another nursery rhyme started to play.

"Just focus on the songs Jack, try not to think," she instructed.

He stood still and tried to focus on the lyrics of the songs, repeating them in his head.  Whenever he caught himself thinking about being a grown up he tried to stop and redirect his attention back to the music.  The noise was a welcome distraction and it stopped his mind from wandering.

Soon his train of thought became disjointed and he found it difficult to think.  He was no longer sure why he was focusing on the music, he just knew that he needed to pay attention to it.

Wheels on the bus go round and round...round and round. Mommy songs...round and round...Mommy look...round and round...bus go round...Mommy dance.

Chapter 19

Jack climbed into his new stroller, he couldn't wait to try it out.  He hadn't ridden in one before, but he knew that it meant that they were going outside and he had an insatiable urge to leave the confines of the house.

"Good boy, Jack. Now let's go for a little walk in the park shall we?" Emma suggested.

She buckled him into the stroller and pushed it out onto the driveway.  When Jack felt the summer breeze on his skin he let out a sigh of relief, he had desperately wanted to go outside but he was struggling to remember why.

Emma pushed the stroller down the sidewalk and Jack examined his surroundings enthusiastically.  He was awestruck by the sound of passing cars as they roared and hummed, he watched on in amazement as they sped by at what seemed like impossible speeds.  Then he gawked at the clouds in the sky as they floated by and marveled at their ever-changing patterns.

Everything that he saw invigorated him, filling him with a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity.  After staring at the clouds for a few minutes, he was distracted by a peculiar sound, he thought it sounded like a noise that an animal might make.  He looked around to see where the noise was coming from, then he saw a woman and an animal walking towards him.  As they got closer he recognized that the animal was a dog, he had seen them on the TV but he couldn't remember when he had last seen one in real life.

"Mommy, look!" he exclaimed, pointing excitedly.

"Wow, it's a doggy." Emma gushed.

Jack grinned as he watched the dog get closer.  He glanced up at the woman who was walking the dog, he briefly locked eyes with her and she smiled warmly.  Suddenly, he found himself thinking about another word, it was a word that he recognized but he couldn't remember it's meaning.  That word was "escape". He didn't know why the word had suddenly popped into his mind, but he felt that it was somehow important.

Emma pushed the stroller away from the sidewalk and onto a pathway leading into a park.  Jack stared in awe at the trees which towered over them, their branches reaching towards the heavens.  They seemed impossibly tall to him, bigger than anything he could ever remember seeing before.

"Look at those trees Jack, aren't they pretty?" Emma asked.

He remembered that they were called trees and he could recall seeing them on the TV, but he couldn't remember seeing them in person before.  He continued to stare at the foliage and he admired the intricate beauty of the individual leaves.

Jack had forgotten so many words that he was having difficulty understanding his own thoughts and motivations.  He knew that he used to be big, like a grown up, but he couldn't explain how or even when he became small.  He knew that he wanted to be big again, but he couldn't understand why.

He was plagued by contradictory thoughts and impulses.  He wanted to be big, but he knew that he needed to be a good boy for mommy.  He wanted to use big words, but he knew that mommy didn't like him using big words.  He could remember pretending to be a baby and he could also remember pretending to be a grown up.  The explanations for his memories eluded him and forward planning was becoming increasingly difficult.  Even the difference between imagination and reality was becoming blurred.

The trees, which moments ago had captivated him because of their strangeness, suddenly felt familiar to him.  As they moved deeper into the park, his feelings of excitement were being replaced by a creeping sense of anxiety.  He couldn't explain why, but he suddenly felt trapped. The confines of the buggy felt increasingly oppressive and a sense of frustration was building up inside of him.  He needed to get out.

Jack tried to squirm free but he was firmly buckled in, he groaned and kicked out his feet in frustration.

"What's wrong Jack? Are you okay?" Emma queried.

"Out, want out." Jack whined.

"Okay honey, you can get out and have a little walk, but then we need to go home, okay?" she explained.

Leaning down, Emma unbuckled Jack's restraints and he clambered out of the buggy.  Now that he was standing on his own two feet, he suddenly felt much better.

Emma pushed the buggy forward slowly and Jack walked alongside her.  Walking by himself made him feel like he was a big boy.

Suddenly Jack noticed that mommy was no longer walking alongside him.  He quickly turned around to check where she was and saw that she was now stood still, looking at her phone.

Then that funny word popped into his head again, "escape".  Try as he might, he couldn't remember what it meant, but he was overcome by an inexplicable urge to run away.

Turning away from her, he quickly took off in the opposite direction, running as fast as his legs could carry him.  But running wasn't as easy as he had hoped it would be. His diaper sagged between his legs, making it difficult to move his body in a coordinated fashion.  He could hear mommy calling out behind him.

"Jack, wait! Stop!" she ordered.

He felt like he was moving quickly, faster than he could ever remember moving.  But then he felt himself stumble and he fell forwards, the ground seemed to rush up to meet him.  Instinctively he managed to break his fall with his hands, but his legs scraped across the floor.  The palms of his hands stung and his knees felt like they were burning.  The pain overwhelmed his mind and his senses, he could no longer think, he could only feel.  He needed help, he needed someone to make the pain stop.

Jack groaned and his eyes welled up with tears, then he started to sob uncontrollably.

"Jack, are you alright?" she asked, "you shouldn't run away from mommy like that," she continued.

Jack looked up and saw Emma stood over him.  He had an uncontrollable urge to be held by her, he knew instinctively that she would be able to soothe his pain.

"Mommy!" Jack cried, as he held his arms aloft.

Emma knelt down to examine Jack's hands and legs for injuries.  Finding that his legs were grazed, she took some wet wipes from out of her purse and began to clean his wounds.  Jack continued to sob pitifully.

"Look! You've grazed your legs," she observed, "mommy will make it better, it's okay honey," she promised.

After she had finished cleaning Jack's legs she lifted him into the air and hugged him tightly. Once the shock of the accident had worn off Jack regained control of his emotions and his sobbing started to subside.  He felt at peace in her arms and he didn't want her to let go.  He remembered mommy telling him that she would make it better and she had made it better.

"You see, it's okay Jack, you're all better now. Let's get you back in your stroller and we'll go home and get some lunch," she explained.

Emma carried him back to the stroller and buckled him into it.  He no longer felt trapped, he felt safe.

"Come on, let's get you home and mommy will make you something to eat," she said.

As Jack watched the world pass him by from the safety of the stroller, he thought about why he had tried to run away from mommy.  It didn't make sense to him, running away from her had made him feel bad.  Then he remembered that it had something to do with the big word that he was thinking about earlier, the word "escape".  He didn't understand why, but that word had made him feel like running away from mommy.  He felt as though it must be a bad word because it made bad things happen.  He wanted to stop thinking about the bad words and think about things that made him happy instead.

Then he remembered seeing the doggy earlier in the day and he hoped that he might see more doggies soon.  He liked doggies.

 

Chapter 20

Jack enjoyed exploring in mommies room.  He had recently discovered that some of the large solid structures in the room were in fact hollow and contained hidden compartments.  He liked pulling on them to reveal what was hidden inside.  The last time he had played in mommies room he had found a shiny object that made nice smells, he liked the nice smells because they reminded him of mommy.  She had warned him not to play in her room anymore, but he wanted to find out what other interesting things he could find.

He was supposed to be watching TV, but when mommy started pushing the machine that made loud noises, he couldn't hear the TV anymore.  So he decided to go to mommies room and look for something to play with.

He crept into the room and walked up to a large brown structure.  He remembered finding the nice smells there and wondered if he might find them again.  Then the loud noises stopped and he heard footsteps behind him.  He turned around and saw mommy standing in the doorway.

"Jack, mommies told you not to play in her room, you'll make a mess. Now be a good boy and watch TV whilst mommy cleans the house," mommy ordered.

He understood that mommy didn't want him to play in her room, but he wasn't sure why.  He reluctantly waddled back into the living room and sat down in front of the TV.

"Jack, mommy is going out this morning and she can't take you with her, Sophie is going to look after you for a couple of hours whilst mommy is gone," she announced, "do you remember Sophie?" she asked.

Jack could remember meeting Sophie and being held by her.  He thought that mommy was telling him that he was going to see Sophie again.  But he didn't quite grasp the full meaning of what was being said.  Some of the words sounded unfamiliar to him.

"Sophie?" Jack replied.

"Yeah Sophie, remember the nice lady who came to see us? She's going to babysit you today for a few hours," mommy explained.

Jack understood that he was going to meet Sophie again, but he didn't know why.  Soon he was distracted by the songs coming from the TV and he gave no further thought to Sophie's pending arrival.  Eventually his concentration was broken by a knocking sound followed by the sound of mommy talking to someone.

"Jack, Sophie is here, come say hello," mommy said.

When Jack saw Sophie he felt a rush of excitement, but he wasn't sure why.

"Hi Jack, do you remember me? Me and you are going to have so much fun today." Sophie beamed.

Jack rose to his feet and walked over to her gingerly, his steps filled with a mix of anticipation and worry.  He wanted to see her, but something about her sudden arrival had troubled him.

"Hello," he replied timidly.

Mommy knelt down in front of Jack so that she was closer to his face, then she smiled at him and stroked his hair.

"Jack, be a good boy for Sophie whilst mommy is gone. I'll be coming back soon," mommy said.

Mommy kissed Jack on the head and then got back to her feet before stepping out of the door. When she closed the door behind her Jack was momentarily surprised, then it suddenly dawned on him that Mommy was going and Sophie was staying.  He didn't want her to go.

"Mommy, no," he whimpered.

"It's okay Jack, she's coming back soon, she won't be gone for long." Sophie explained

Jack's heart began to race and he could feel a knot in the pit of his stomach, he was scared.  He knew that mommy was gone and he didn't know when she would be coming back.  His lip started to quiver and warm tears began running down his cheeks.

"Mommy, Jack want mommy," he mewled.

"Shhhh don't worry Jack, I promise she'll be back." Sophie replied softly.

Jack looked up at Sophie and sobbed loudly before instinctively stretching out his arms.  Sophie reached down and placed her hands underneath his armpits, then scooped him up into her arms and embraced him lovingly.  Jack held onto her tightly and continued to sob.

"It's okay sweetie, mommy will come back, shhhh it's okay." Sophie promised.

Jack could feel her warm hand rubbing his back, it felt soothing and soon his sobbing started to subside.  He rested his head on her shoulder and let out the occasional whimper.  He felt safe in Sophie's arms and he didn't want her to let go.

Then he remembered that he had wanted to say something to Sophie.  He could recall wanting to tell her that he was a big boy.  He couldn't articulate to himself why he needed to say this, but he felt strongly that he had to tell her.  He felt somehow that if he told her that he was a big boy, then he would be a big boy.

He thought that there might be another word for being a big boy, a word that he couldn't remember anymore.  He briefly tried to recall the word, but then he stopped himself when he realized that mommy might catch him using big words.  He was sure that something bad might happen if he used big words.

After Jack had calmed down, Sophie carried him into the living room and placed him on the floor amongst his toys.

"Are these your toys Jack?" she asked, "show me which one you like the most," she urged.

Jack pointed towards a brightly colored push along tricycle.  He liked riding on his trike because it made him feel like he was a big boy.

"Wow, a trike, shall we play with it?" Sophie asked.

Jack grinned and climbed onto the tricycle.  He felt an urge to show Sophie what he could do. He also wanted to tell her that he was a big boy, but he knew that mommy wouldn't want him to say that.  He felt sure that if he told Sophie, mommy would know about it.  But he still felt compelled to tell her.

Sophie grabbed hold of the parent handle on the tricycle.

"Do you want me to push you?" she asked.

"No, Jack big boy," he replied.

"You're a big boy? Okay then, show me what you can do." Sophie said.

Sophie removed her hand from the parent handle.  Jack hadn't yet mastered using the pedals on the tricycle, so he used his feet to propel himself forwards.

"Look, look," he beamed.

"Wow you're doing it all by yourself, you are a big boy." Sophie gushed.

Jack was pleased with himself.  When Sophie called him a big boy he felt like he really was a big boy.  Now he understood why he had wanted to tell her that.  But as he continued to play with his toys he started to feel increasingly uneasy, like something was wrong.  Then it occurred to him that although Sophie had called him a big boy, he was still much smaller than her.  He wanted to be big like Sophie was.

He thought carefully as he played with a toy truck.  He had a vague intuition that he used to be big, but he couldn't put what he was feeling into words.

Sophie big, Jack small, Jack big, he thought.

He racked his brains but he was struggling to resolve the contradiction.  Then another word popped into his mind.

Was, he thought.

He felt as though that word would describe how he was feeling.

Jack stopped playing with his toys and looked up at Sophie, who was now sat on the couch.

"Jack...Jack was big," he announced.

"You rode your trike by yourself like a big boy didn't you?" Sophie replied.

Jack frowned as he struggled to find the words to get his point across.

"Jack was big," he repeated, stretching his right arm above his head.

"You will be big one day Jack, when you're a grown up like me, then you'll be big." Sophie explained.

At first he wasn't sure what she meant.  He thought carefully about the word "will" and tried to remember it's meaning.  Then he recalled that Sophie had told him "mommy will come back". His intuition told him that he would see mommy again, so he felt that the word "will" meant that something would happen.

Jack will big boy, he thought.

Jack felt reassured knowing that he would become a big boy.  He didn't know when it might happen, but it never even occurred to him to ask.  He no longer had words or numbers to describe the passage of time and hence no way of accurately measuring it.  In his mind there seemed to be no difference between something that would happen tomorrow and something that would happen in the distant future.  He knew of events that had occurred and of events that would occur, but all reference points had been lost.  Jack resumed playing with his toys and he soon felt at ease again.

Sometime later there was a knock at the door and Jack looked up from his toys to see mommy stood in the doorway.

"Hi Jack, did you miss me?" she asked.

He ran towards her excitedly and she scooped him up into her arms.  He listened intently as mommy and Sophie talked to each other, but he couldn't follow their conversation.  He understood the meaning of some of the words, but they were dispersed among a sea of words that sounded unfamiliar to him.

Good...Car...Toys...Juice...Boy.

He could only pick up on fragments of what they were saying.

Then Sophie said goodbye and stepped out of the door.  He wasn't sure why she had left, but he didn't want her to go.  Mommy tried to reassure him, but he was still confused.

When mommy carried him out of the house and over to the car, he realized that they were going somewhere.  He didn't know where they were going, but he wondered whether Sophie might be there.  After he had been buckled into the car seat, he started to feel sleepy.

When Jack opened his eyes he found himself in an unfamiliar place.  Mommy was carrying him through a strange room, it was long and lined with doors.  He sniffed the air and noticed that it had an unusual smell.

Mommy carried him through one of the doors into another strange room, where he saw a man sat down at a table.  The man had hair on his face and Jack thought that he looked funny, so he pointed at the man and laughed.

Then he remembered that he had seen the man somewhere before.  He looked around the room and it too seemed familiar.  When he heard mommy say the word "Palmer", he was sure that he knew the man.  He remembered being in the room before, but he couldn't remember why he had been there.

Mommy sat down at the table with Jack sat on her lap.  The man looked at Jack and talked to him, but Jack didn't understand the big words that the man was saying.  The man's voice sounded deep and scary, Jack didn't want to talk to him.  He listened to mommy and the man talking to each other, but he quickly got bored of trying to follow their conversation.

He whimpered and tried to get mommies attention, but she carried on talking to the man.

"Mommy, mommy." Jack whimpered.

"Just a minute honey, mommy is talking to someone," she replied.

Jack frowned and then wriggled restlessly in her lap.  Some time later, she picked him up and carried him out of the room.  He was glad to be leaving, he just wanted to go home and play with his toys.  Mommy carried him out of the building and into the parking lot, when he saw the car he was sure that they were going home.

She lifted Jack into his car seat and then pulled the harness down over his shoulders, before reaching for the buckle in-between his legs.  As the buckle clicked into place, Jack gazed up at her and smiled.

THE END

[kerry]

This is a nice story: well-written and enjoyable. I'm not sure that it makes sense—I don't mean the fantasy transformation, but the fact that the doctor doesn't follow up on Jack after he has left the hospital following a historic and miraculous event, nor does the press pick up on it—but I don't really think it has to. I suspect I would have liked it better without the affair; Emma could easily have just evolved to treat his in this way, and the notion that some drug exists that might help a hitherto unimagined malady is odd anyway. Emma's vindictiveness really wasn't necessary, but whatever. I liked the way you thought through the mental regression step by step and allowed it to happen in an inevitable way. 🙂

[zzzz50]

I agree with several of Kerry’s observations. I found the writing good, since the story started with the premise of a medical mistake I was willing to commit to the premise. His mother was mentioned briefly but never discussed again. I thought maybe this was going to create the tension in the story however she was never mentioned again. I fully expected Mom to show up and create more conflict, possibly fighting over a financial settlement to take care of the “baby”.

Even though there is some disappointment in this story I do commend Garvug on the overall writing skills and hope you continue writing.