PART FOUR
As soon as Vicky got home from school, she rushed to her closet and looked through her dresses.
Aunty got Danny settled in the nursery. She un-buttoned his shortalls and checked his Pullups for wetness, but he hadn't had an accident, he was still a big boy.
When Aunty Sarah came in to Vicky's bedroom, Vicky had already laid out the special pink dress - with a peter pan collar and puffy sleeves - out on the bed.
'Can I wear this dress, Aunty Sarah, please? It's so pretty!'
Aunty Sarah smiled. 'Of course you can, you'll look adorable in it.
A quick bath and Vicky was dressed, feeling extra special in her dress, thick white tights and shiny pink mary janes. Aunty Sarah even put Vicky's hair into pigtails, tied with pink ribbons.
'There now,' said Aunty Sarah. 'Don't you look lovely.'
Vicky beamed with pleasure. She was so excited about Jenny's party.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Aunty Sarah carried Danny downstairs and answered the door. It was Amanda, who was baby-sitting Danny for the evening.
Vicky raced downstairs and put on her coat.
'Great dress,' said Amanda with a smile, 'you off to see your boyfriend?'
Vicky giggled. 'No, silly, I'm going to Jenny's birthday party.'
'Ah, I see,' Amanda said. 'And this must be Danny'.
Danny, feeling rather shy, turned away from the sitter and hid his face in Sarah's hair.
'Come on, Dan, say hello to Amanda,' Sarah said. 'She'll be looking after you tonight.' But Danny didn't say a word.
'I can see he's going to be trouble,' Amanda joked, 'It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.'
Sarah gave Amanda her mobile number and left with Vicky.
Amanda took Danny upstairs to the nursery.
'Now, then, big guy, you can play quietly in here until tea-time, okay? I've got homework to do so I don't to hear a peep out of you.' She lay Danny down in his crib and put the gray plush rabbit in his lap. 'There you go, big man, I'll see you later.'
Amanda left the nursery and went downstairs.
Danny was left by himself, looking at the toy rabbit and feeling rather sorry for himself. He wasn't used to being left with a stranger, and Vicky had got to go to a special party. Amanda was just a boring grown up, she didn't seem fun at all, and...
Suddenly, Danny thought about what she had called him. 'Big Guy.' He was a big guy, he was a big boy, not a baby. He didn't need a baby-sitter, he didn't need...and that was when it all came back to him.
Daniel gasped as he realised how he had mentally regressed. And he felt a stab of fear as he understood that Sarah had done nothing to stop the regression, and in fact had actively encouraged it. What was she up to? And what was she planning to do with him and Victoria?
He had to get help. He had to get to Victoria - if he had been so close to becoming a real toddler, surely Victoria was just as close to becoming a real little girl, especially at a birthday party filled with primary one schoolchildren.
Danny cried out to the baby sitter, cursing his clumsy voice. 'Manda! Manda!'
Amanda stomped up the stairs, coming to the nursery via the bathroom. 'Hey, squirt, I just remembered, your mum told me that you still had some cough medicine to finish.'
Daniel looked at the bottle of pink liquid and said, 'no, 'manda, don't wan' medin. Bad medin, Dan big boy!' It had only been a few days, but Daniel had forgotten how to speak like an adult. His brain simply couldn't manage the job.
Amanda sighed and picked Daniel up, sitting down with him in her lap. 'I don't have time for this, kid, ' and pinched Daniel's nostrils. Daniel's mouth opened in surprise, and Amanda forced the teaspoon of pink liquid into his mouth, forcing Daniel to swallow.
Terrified that the final dose of medicine will cause a final and irreversible mental regression, Daniel pushed himself off Amanda's lap and runs to the nursery door, but he can't reach the door knob.
Amanda laughs and walks over to the door, and puts Daniel on his back on the floor. 'What you running away for, huh? Not afraid of a little tickling, are you?' And she starts to tickle Daniel's stomach, making it difficult for him to think straight.
His quick breathing and rushing adrenaline makes the pink liquid work all the more quickly, and soon Danny hears the sound of a baby laughing, and he suddenly realises that it's him. This is a lot of fun. He dimly remembers that there was something he was upset about, but he can't quite remember what it was. Yes, Amanda is the baby-sitter, and he is the baby. Everything else fades away, the grown-up thoughts and plans, and all that is left is the feel of Amanda tickling him and he giggle uproariously, and barely notices when his bladder relaxes and he soaks his pull-ups.
Amanda, however, is quick to see the spreading wet patch on the crotch of his shortalls. 'Oh dear, Danny, I think someone needed to go potty, hmmm?'
Danny looks down at his wet crotch. 'Danny do a whoopsy,' he says, a look of faint surprise on his face.
'You sure did.' Amanda says. 'I think you're too little for training pants, kiddo. Ah, here we go.' Amanda cleans Danny up and puts a thick night-time nappy on him.
Danny smiles up at his baby-sitter, happy with the attention and enjoying wearing such a soft and dry thing. He doesn't make a peep of complaint as she dresses him in the blue fleecy footed sleepers. On the contrary, they're warm and fuzzy and make him feel sleepy and cared for.
But five minutes later, Danny is sitting on Amanda's lap, drinking his ba-ba without a care in the world.
***
Vicky has a wonderful time at the party. There were games, and wonderful food, and she was so happy when the grown-ups told her how pretty she looked in her pink dress. Best of all, the only children at the party were little girls - no yucky boys allowed.
After Jenny opens her presents, which included some toys and clothes that Vicky was very envious of - they sit cross-legged on the living room floor with a slice of birthday cake each.
'This is a brill party,' said Vicky.
'Yeah,' Jenny agreed, 'I got some great presents, and I'm glad there's no boys here. Even my little brother wasn't allowed to come, he's at my gran's.'
Vicky said, 'I've got a little brother, too.' She thought of Danny, at home with the baby-sitter. She wishes she'd had a chance to play with him before she'd come to the party, but she'd been in such a rush. Vicky hopes that Danny isn't in a sulk with her.
Jenny said, 'my brother's called Mark, he's three. How old's your brother?'
'Oh, he's just a baby, he's not even two. He's called Danny.'
But there was something funny about that. Because Vicky was suddenly sure that Danny was supposed to be older than her, that really he was a big boy. Her paper plate fell out of her hands and into her lap as she realised that she had almost been tricked into thinking she was a little girl. And hadn't she told Aunty...no, Sarah the big secret last night? She wasn't sure, but she thinks she might have told Sarah where the money was.
Victoria knew that she had to get home to Daniel, that they were both in serious danger. The journey from Sarah's house to Jenny's had only been a short walk, and Vicky thought she could remember the way. If only she could sneak out of the party undetected, she could get back to Danny and perhaps they would find a way out of this trap.
Jenny interrupted her thoughts, saying, 'Do you want to come up to my room and I can show you what Mummy and Daddy got me for my birthday. It's really cool.'
'Oh, yeah...sure. Umm...why don't you go up first, I have to pee, but I'll come up after that.'
'Okay, see you in a tick!' Jenny said and raced upstairs to her room.
Heart thudding in her chest, Victoria went out of the living room and into the hallway. The front door was right there, and with no one in sight, the coast was clear. Victoria reached up for the doorknob with both hands, praying that it wasn't locked. The door opened and she sighed with relief, when a voice behind her called out, 'Vicky, honey, are you okay?'
Victoria turned slowly around. She knew that if she was distracted, then she might lose her adult thoughts, and the way things were going, she might never get them back again. 'I was a bit hot,' she said to Jenny's mother. 'I was just opening the door for some fresh air. It's okay, I wasn't going to go into the street or anything like that.'
'That's good, Vicky. It's awfully dark outside and not a good place for a little girl to be by herself. Have you seen Jenny, I was going to give her this.'
'Oh,' Victoria said, 'she's upstairs.'
Victoria wondered how she was going to get out of the house now. She cursed her bad luck at having been spotted like this. Worse still, it was getting hard to keep her plan clear in her head. And then Victoria looked at what Jenny's mother was holding in her hands. It was a doll.
It was such a lovely doll, and Vicky wanted to touch it, just for a moment. 'Yeah, Jenny's upstairs and I...I'm going upstairs too, so she can show me her big birthday present.'
That wasn't the plan, though, was it. That was what she told Jenny, not what she was really going to do.
Jenny's mother smiled, and held out the doll. 'Well, then, why don't you take the doll up with you.'
Vicky thought it might be a bad idea, to hold the doll when she need to keep thinking like a grown up. But it was such a nice doll, and it couldn't hurt to hold it for a second. She took the doll from Jenny's mother and smiled.
Jenny's mother said, 'well, look at the pair of you, both in such lovely pink dresses!'
Victoria had to giggle, it was true that the doll had a dress very like her own. It's own party dress, white tights and pink mary janes. Just like Vicky. There was nothing wrong with liking the doll, she was silly for having worried about that. After all, Jenny's mummy was all grown up and liked the doll, so Vicky could like the doll too and still be a big girl.
'Yes,' said Jenny's mummy, 'You look so cute, let me take a photo, ' and she picked up her camera from hallway table.
Vicky stood up straight, as she knew she was supposed to, and gave a big smile, as Jenny's mummy sized up the photo and said, 'you both look pretty as a picture, a perfect couple of princesses', then pressed the button on the camera.
Vicky was dazzled by the flash for a moment, and felt unsure of what she was doing next. She closed her eyes and felt a little dizzy, but holding the doll in her hands, she suddenly felt very clear about things. She opened her eyes and said, 'It's such a lovely dolly,' Mrs Thomson. I'm going up to Jenny's room, now'. And she went quickly up the stairs and into her best friend's bedroom.
***
It wasn't hard putting Vicky to bed that night. She was practically asleep on her feet. Sarah dressed her in her Little Mermaid pyjamas and stroked her hair as she drifted off. Then she looked in on Danny, who was sleeping peacefully in his cot.
Sarah smiled. It had taken a couple of hours to track down the money, once she had dropped Vicky off at the birthday party and go on to Daniel and Victoria's flat. Now she has all the money, transferred not to Daniel's US account but to her own company's account. Add to that, the money the American woman would pay for the cute British orphans, five-year-old Vicky and baby Danny, this had proved to be a very profitable exercise.
And in a way, Danny and Vicky did get away with it. In twenty four hours time they will pass through United States immigration without a hitch.
All they have to do is grow up again.