Edits - Ch 4.1.3.1.1

Chapter 4.1.3.1.1 - He keeps living in a world of 2-year-old kids.

<<Previous (4.1.3.1) / Outline

Tim wanted to explore this strange new toddler world even further. While it might be awkward to cope with being so small, he was curious about what else had changed in his life. Besides, he had nothing to worry about. He knew he could undo this worldwide change anytime he wanted. He still possessed his phone and the app. Why not ride this out as far as he could?

After passing around boxes of tissues to dry the eyes and noses of the toddler students, the health teacher wrapped up the discussion by giving everyone the homework assignment of writing down a paragraph describing a time they felt emotional over the past week. When the bell rang, the small students stood up and lined up by the door, waiting for the teacher to turn the door knob they could barely reach. Then, they headed out into the hallways to make the relatively long trek to their next classes.

Tim made it to his next class and found it to be pretty ordinary. Other than having to cope with little fingers that struggled to control a pen as he wrote notes, he had no real difficulty with his work. The same was true for the next class.

Lunch was different. The tables in the cafeteria had been replaced with smaller furniture, which appeared to belong more in a daycare than a high school. There was no a la carte line. Everyone took a seat at a table and waited for their meals to be brought to them by the cafeteria workers, pushing around carts full of plates. Everyone was given the same fruit serving, the same chopped up green peppers, the same oat cereal, and the same little milk cartons. It was bland, but Tim could tell this food would offer better nutrition to a growing toddler than the fried foods he normally ate for lunch as a teenager. Still, he could tell that he was not the only one reacting to their lunch with disappointment and grudging acceptance.

Then, They were led to an open end of the cafeteria where soft safety tiles had been laid out like puzzle pieces over the linoleum. They were told to settle in for nap time. Tim chuckled at the absurdity of being told to lie down for a nap in the middle of a school day, but the other toddlers just grabbed pillows and tried to get comfortable on the floor. The yawning mouths around him were contagious, and he started yawning as well, his eyes drooping with a sudden sleepiness.

Tim lay down, and as soon as he got comfortable, he drifted off into a disjointed dream. In it, he was walking down a sidewalk in front of some houses. Everytime he approached someone—a child, an adult, women, men… everyone—he saw them begin to rapidly regress until they were a baby crying at his feet. Then, he stepped over them and continued his walk, regressing the whole world one person after another.

Tim woke up to a cool damp sensation around his crotch. He squirmed a little, testing if what he feared had happened was true. It was. He was wet. Remembering how he had seen other students request a diaper change before, he raised his hand and waited for one of their caretakers to notice him and weave her way to him through the other sleeping toddlers.

“Do you need a change?” she inquired.

Tim nodded, still feeling too drowsy to speak.

Without a word she reached down and lifted him in her arms. It felt oddly comforting to be carried. Tim hugged the woman around the neck as she securely supported him from below. They entered a bathroom, where changing tables had been set up. Other women were already in the process of changing diapers on other toddlers. The woman lay Tim down on an unoccupied table and undressed him in an efficiently businesslike manner. He figured that she must have done this hundreds of times by now. As soon as it had begun to feel awkward, being exposed in front of her, she had wet wiped him clean and positioned a fresh diaper beneath his butt. Moments later, he was securely diapered again and getting dressed. After disposing of his mess and a quick clean up, she lifted him off the table and carried him out of the bathroom, returning him to the napping side of the cafeteria with only a handful of minutes having elapsed since she had fetched him from the floor.

“Fank you,” he told her.

She gave him a polite smile and immediately sought out another baby with a wet diaper.

Nap time came to an end moments later, and they all yawned and stretched and got back to their feet. Then, they dispersed into the halls on the way to their afternoon classes.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully, the later classes being much like the earlier ones. At last, it came time for dismissal.

Buses arrived as they normally did. However, when Tim and the rest of the toddler students walked outside, the doors to the buses were closed. Realizing that the stairs onto the buses would be too steep for them, they lined up and waited until some adults came by to carry them onto the buses one by one. The benches now had baby car seats strapped to them. Tim watched as they were all strapped into seats one by one, their backpacks set on the floor beneath them, until the bus was loaded with baby passengers. It was a slow process, but, like with the diaper changing tables, it moved smoothly and efficiently. After a quick doublecheck that everyone was safely secured, the driver finally pulled away from the school and drove them back to their neighborhoods.

When they reached a stop, the adults would ask who was getting off there. A few little hands would be raised. Then, those toddlers would be unstrapped from their seats and carried off the bus with their bags to be handed to their parents or other caretakers waiting outside.

When they reached Tim’s stop, he raised his hand and was carried outside to his thankful mother, who seemed enormous to him now. Not that she was any larger than the other adults, but he could recall her relative size to him that morning. The last time he had seen her, he had been several inches taller than her. Now, she could comfortably hold him in her arms.

“Welcome home, my dear,” she said, putting on an upbeat attitude as she carried him home. “How was your day at school?”

“Diffwent,” he admitted, hugging her neck and smiling at the warmth of her embrace. “But good,” he added.

As they entered the house, Tim wondered how much longer he would remain at this age.

Did he want to grow up again at all?

He chooses to "undo all." (2)

He decides to stay at this age.

He wants to try making himself a little older.

He makes himself bigger again, but keeps his diaper.