After the boys split up, Jake began walking home. It was late, and dark, but most nights this wasn't a problem. Perhaps that strange old woman had spooked him, but this time his imagination began running wild. Every tree became a swaying giant, and a hideous creature lurked in every shadow. He kept control until, near his house, he saw something moving. He froze. Even once he saw that it was a stray cat, he was too scared to move. Finally it looked right at him, and, terrified, he ran the rest of the way home. It wasn't until he locked the door behind him that he realized he'd been crying. Too his horror, his nine year old brother Ryan was still up, sitting at the kitchen table counting his candy. "Why are you crying Jake?"
"Um, nothing." he answered, wiping tears from his eyes.
"Were you scared?" his brother gloated, eager to have the upper hand.
"No, I wasn't (sob) scared!"
For some reason Jake couldn't stop crying, which was only making the situation worse.
"I bet you were scared! I bet you thought the monsters were real!"
At that Jake grabbed his brother, planning to wrestle him into silence. With a substantial size advantage, it wasn't hard for him to pin his brother at first, but right before his brother was going to yield, he suddenly felt a strange tingling in his arms. Before he knew what had happened, his brother had pinned him, and, no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't seem to break out.
"I guess you are a baby! Say it! Say you're a baby!"
"I'm not...ow!"
For some reason his brother, who had never been strong enough to hurt him much before, was inflicting a surprising amount of pain.
"Ow, ow, yes! I'm a baby! I'm a baby!"
"And I'm the big brother!"
"Yes, you're the big brother!"
And with that Ryan let him up, and Jake ran upstairs to avoid further humiliation.
Jake was suddenly struck by how tired he was, and quickly changed for bed and turned out the light in their shared bedroom. He couldn't sleep, however. He kept tossing and turning, but couldn't manage to relax. About half an hour later, Ryan came up and changed into pajamas, and then left the room. When he came back, he was holding a pacifier. Jake was about to make fun of him, until Ryan gave it to him. Before Jake could say anything, he found himself taking it from Ryan and sucking on it. He quickly drifted off to sleep.
At some point in the night, he had a nightmare, the first he'd had in years. He woke up and began crying uncontrollably. He wanted to stop, he wanted to get up, but he couldn't make himself do anything but lie there sobbing. Finally Ryan came over, tucked him in, and gave him a stuffed teddy bear. Jake calmed down and quickly fell back to sleep.
The next morning, things continued to get worse. After he showered, he went to his closet to pick out clothing. The first thing he grabbed was a pair of boxer shorts, but, as he stood naked looking at them, he realized he couldn't remember how to put them on.
He wasn't all that surprised when Ryan came over and said, "Time to get dressed Jake."
Jake was then treated to the experience of looking down at his little brother while he dressed him. First Ryan took the boxer shorts out of his hand and pulled out a set of briefs with little trains on them, and then helped Jake into them one leg at a time. Meanwhile, Jake just stood there, going along with it. Then Ryan found shorts and a t-shirt, both (Jake was relieved to see) reasonably plain, and finally socks and Velcro sneakers. Jake couldn't help but wonder where all of these clothes had come from.
Their father drove both of them to school, and Jake hoped that once he entered, things would return to normal. The first thing he did was go to the bathroom and check himself out in the mirror. The clothes weren't too bad, and the underwear wasn't visible. He looked a little odd, but not so much that people were likely to notice.
With relief, he finally went to his first period class. His first two periods were math and history, which he always hated anyway, but these were worse than usual. It wasn't just that he couldn't pay attention, it was that he kept feeling like people were laughing at him. It wasn't until the middle of third period that he realized he'd been sucking his thumb all morning.
Lunch was even worse. He could see people whispering and giving him odd looks. A seventh grader sucking his thumb made great gossip, and gossip travels quickly in a middle school. By fourth period English, his day had become a disaster.
English was actually Jake's favorite class, for two reasons. First, Michelle, the girl he'd had a crush on for a month was in it. Second, it was taught by Miss. Basil, the youngest, most attractive teacher in the school. The sort of teacher who could keep a room full of thirteen year old boys on the edge of their seat, even when talking about Shakespeare.
When Jake walked into the class, everyone started snickering to their neighbor. Everyone knew. Even Michelle. He planned to just stay in his seat and lay low, but it was not to be. Miss. Basil called him up to the blackboard to present a point about Twelfth Night.
And, of course, it was at that moment, in front of everyone: his class, Michelle, and Miss. Basil, that he wet his pants. He didn't even notice at first. He felt nervous, heard laughter, and then looked down to see a dark spot growing on his shorts, and urine dripping out his leg onto the floor. He froze, having no idea how to deal with what was, for all practical purposes, the end of his social life at middle school.
And then Miss. Basil said, "Well Jake, you should be more careful in the future. Lie down on my desk. "And, not knowing what else to do, he complied, not sure what she intended. Which is why he was taken by surprise when she pulled off his pants and underpants. Of course, he'd imagined her pulling off his pants, but not like this. Then she said, "Lift your butt," and he did, at which point she slipped a diaper underneath him and fastened it together.
"I'm afraid your pants are soaked, so you'll have to just wear the diaper for the rest of the day, Jake. Why don't you finish your presentation?"
And, against his will, he found himself returning to the front of the class and talking about Twelfth Night, wearing only a t-shirt and a diaper.
More than anything else, he wanted to leave, to run back home, to do anything, but for some reason he couldn't act as if anything was amiss. Even during science class, when, again, he was asked to stand in front of the class, and again felt himself using the diaper, he couldn't do anything but stand there and continue talking as if it were normal.
On most days Jake hung out with his friends after school to shoot hoops, and, despite his desire to go home, he found out that today would be no exception. By this time it didn't even matter when he ended up on the skins team. He could tell that cars were slowing down to point (and, worse, sometimes honk at) a thirteen year old wearing only a diaper. His friends were no better: the afternoon was filled with "gee, all your boxers in the laundry Jake?" and "so Miss. Basil finally undressed you!"
Finally, he returned home and ran upstairs. Ryan was in their room playing a video game, and welcomed him with a "Hey Jakey."
Jake gathered up all his strength to ask his brother what was going on. "Ry'n, can you change me?"
And so it was that ended up on a changing table (since when was there a changing table in their room?), with his younger brother pulling off his diaper and put on a pair of training pants. Then, without any difficulty, Ryan picked him up and carried him to his bed. Somehow Ryan had become much bigger.
Jake looked around, and saw that the room had changed. Ryan's side was the same, but Jake's sports posters were all gone. His plain sheets had been replaced with Barney ones, and his entire half of the room looked more suited to a five year old. He could remember being thirteen, and he knew this wasn't right, but he couldn't seem to make his body respond except as the five year old he knew he was.
"You know, Jakey, you need to learn how to use the toilet. You can't go to kindergarten until you can use the toilet."
Jake wanted to answer, but he realized his thumb was in his mouth, so he just nodded.