Equilibrium

[Little Matt]

This is a short-short story I wrote a while back. I think it's almost completely disappeared from the Internet. So here it is again.

 

Karen quietly open the nursery door and paused at the threshold. Like so many mornings before her son was still sleeping soundly in his crib, his teddy bear nestled tightly but gently in the crook of his arm.  The mobile above him whirred silently as crossed the room. She slowly lowered the side and lifted the boy into the cradle of her arms. He stirred just long enough to secure his hold on Mr. Bear.

“Good morning baby” she cooed and rocked him for a moment before setting him down on the changing table.

Tommy opened his pale blue eyes and beamed up at her while she unsnapped his sleeper. “Good morning mommy.”

Karen collected the necessary diapering supplies from beneath the changing table. “Did you have any good dreams?”

He rubbed the sleep from his eye and nodded “Uh-huh, I dreamed we went to the zoo and saw lions, and birds, and a kangaroo...”

She mentally added a few packages of Pampers to the day's shopping list. Most kids his size had started school so it was lucky they still fit him so well. Real baby diapers were a small detail but important nonetheless in maintaining equilibrium.

“You must have seen a lot of fish too” she gently teased while untapeing his sodden diaper.

He giggled and blushed for a moment before quickly changing topics “Can we go to the ice-cream store today?”

Karen lifted him up enough to powder his bottom “It's been a long time since we've done that. If you're good we'll go.”

Tommy grinned and cheered “I'm gonna get chocolate chip.”

She laughed as she fasten a fresh diaper into place. “You have to have breakfast first silly bunny”

She lifted him to her hip and took him downstairs to the kitchen still clutching his bear. She secured him in his highchair and tussled his curly blonde hair. He talked eagerly of his dream and the proposed trip for ice-cream while his mother puttered around the kitchen preparing a bowl of oatmeal. It was no longer practical to feed him at every meal but breakfast afforded an opportunity to maintain the spell.

She sat down beside him and lifted a spoonful of oatmeal to his mouth. He ate happily, while he chatted with his mommy.

“Can we go to the zoo today too?”

Karen laughed and scraped the last of the oatmeal from the bowl “No honey, I don't think we'll have time for that today. You still want ice-cream don't you.”

Tommy nodded excitedly.

She wiped his face clean with a dish towel “Then maybe we should save the zoo for some other time.”
“OK, I guess we can do that instead” he agreed while she sat his down on his own feet.

“That's good boy” she playfully swatted his bottom “Now go watch cartoons while mommy gets ready.”

He padded into the living room and turned on the TV, flipping through several blocked channels before finding his favorite show, Zeke the Singing Hamster. He'd seen those blocked channels long ago but could remember little of them. He could recall that it upset mommy, and nearly reversed her magic. It was from incidents like this that she had slowly learned how to keep him. He'd grown bigger but now the routine was perfected.

He stretched out on the floor his his chin in his hands aimlessly waving his feet in the air behind him. As his mother came into the room a commercial caught his attention.

“Mommy, how come I can't wear those” he said pointing to the Pull-Ups ad.

“Now sweety, we've talked about this” She lifted him and sat down with him in her lap. “You know that would make you bigger, so big you'd big a real big boy. And if that happened you'd have to go away to school all day with no mommy or Mr. Bear.”

“I couldn't even take Mr. Bear with me?” He asked wide eyed.

She shook her head “Big boys don't get have those things any more.”

“And you couldn't come either?”

“No, big boys have to do all sorts of things all on their own. I'd have to stay home and start to become an old lady.”

“Then how come all those other kids want to be big?”

“I don't know baby” she said chucking him under his chin. “Now why don't we go get you ready for the day.”

She felt guilty sometimes for playing on his emotions. But she knew what she'd seen in the oracle and was worth saving her boy from that fate.

She dressed him in a pair of overalls with a Zeke the Hamster shirt underneath. The shirt was new, bought after Tommy decided Zeke was the best show in the world. Karen paused for a moment and tried to remember how long ago she'd bought the overalls.

“It's really a good thing you know how to keep me from getting too big”

“Yes it is. But you can help me a lot by being a good little boy.”

“You mean holding your hand and staying in my stroller and stuff?”

She knelt down to tie his shoes and looked him lovingly in the eyes “Exactly, always do what mommy says.”

Tommy smiled and hugged her tightly “I love you mommy.”

She lifted him into a hug “I love you too baby.”

She carried him out to the car and buckled him into his car seat before putting Mr. Bear safely in his lap. And they drove away for day out together and some ice-cream.

The End

 

[justme9000]

Such a sweet short story. Have you ever published anything besides this, Ages & Stages, Christmas & the Magic PJs, and The Error?

[Little Matt]

There's one I started called The Potion. About an 18 year-Old who mistakes an age regression potion his mother had been developing for an alcoholic drink. The regression effects are sort of all over the place so he's ends up in a 7 year-old body but it has more dramatic effects on his continence and emotional regulation. Don't bother looking for it, it's gone. The laptop I wrote it on bit the dust in spectacular fashion and I only ever posted it to one long-gone forum.

I do regular back ups now.

[Pierry Louys]

Someday you can post again ages e stages 

[Little Matt]

I feel like posting it here kind of commits me to continuing it, which I'm not really prepared to do. It's on other websites though.

[Pierry Louys]

Awww that’s ok ! Hope I continue someday