Jason had another babysitting assignment. He didn't particularly dislike babysitting and a few of the older children that he looked after were friends of his own younger brother so he knew the family, the Hiatts, pretty well. The younger kids could be pretty unruly. Jason himself was nearly 18, he'd just graduated from highschool and was preparing to go to a local community college in the next town. He was going to start looking for a job but doing some babysitting would help him in the meantime as far as spending money was concerned.
There were four children in the family, three boys and a girl: Broderick, the oldest boy, was 13; his eight year old brother Sam; followed by Russel, an unruly kindergartener who had a penchant for running around without any clothes when he was at home and was almost perpetually filthy; and Lyssa, a very sweet and well-behaved toddler of almost three. The baby girl would be even more pleasant to look after were Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt more diligent about having her toilet trained.
Fortunately for Jason, they'd decided to take their daughter with them. They were to be spending a large portion of the night at a company party and daycare would be provided for very small children. As he made his preparations to leave that afternoon, he was relieved to discover that he would not have to be dealing with diapers that evening. And it was fortunate that Broderick would also be home; he tended to be very independent and responsible, so the majority of Jason's responsibilities would be looking after the two middle boys.
Jason gathered the necessary things he thought would be useful while watching the boys as well as keeping his own self occupied in his backpack; a collection of super nintendo games, some writing and reading materials and possibly schoolwork as it was very likely that the Hiatts would not be home until well past midnight. Jason was always a little bit apprehensive about babysitting, simply for the degree of work and concentration involved. He had a reserved and quiet disposition and while he was not undersocialized he did prefer to be alone than to be around other people. And so looking after kids took a lot of mental effort for him. When he was ready, he left.
Unbeknownst to him, his apprehension was echoed in the Hiatt household. "Mom! I don't wanna stay home this weekend, I wanna go hang out with Mike! An' I'm too old for a babysitter anyway," Broderick said.
"I know, honey, but I need you to be here to help Jason look after your brothers. They listen to him better when you're around to set an example," his mother responded calmly. "And anyway he's going to be here in just a minute. I thought you and Jason got along?"
"Yeah," Broderick said, "But I mean he's just too quiet. He doesn't do anything. You pay him to watch us an' he just watches us an' that's all he does."
At that moment there was a knock at the door, and Mrs Hiatt said, "That would be him. I want you to be good for him and do whatever he asks you to do for help," she said, gathering her baby daughter into her arms. Mr. Hiatt descended the stairs into the small foyer to open the door and welcome Jason in with a firm handshake and an impeccable corporate smile. Jason smiled shyly in return and shook the gentleman's hand, his other on the shoulder strap of his tattered backpack. Mrs. Hiatt provided him with instructions as to when to put the kids to bed, the two little boys at nine and that Broderick was to be in bed no later than midnight. There was ice cream in the freezer and they rented some films to watch if they get bored, etcetera. Babysitting stuff.
Broderick took the time to slink quietly off to his room. The other two boys were in the back yard playing with Sam's ninja turtles in the sandbox. Russel was in his skivvies as per usual. Broderick was not going to be babysat tonight.
He hadn't much chance to try it out, but lying in the dirt in the park earlier in the week Broderick found a pocketwatch. At first examination, it looked like a cheap potmetal thriftshop affair, but it still worked. And, well, pocketwatches are sort of cool looking. To his astonishment, it was still in working condition. It had a single knob on top of it for winding the internal spring and setting the time as well as a single small button on the right side of it; and a series of circular chronographs on its face that displayed not only the standard hour, minute, and secondhands, but days and months of the year and a scrolling year display similar in appearance to a car's odometer.
Broderick discovered the different functions of the watch through experimentation. But to his greater astonishment, he discovered that this pocketwatch had a peculiar effect on how time affected a person. By winding the knob in a certain direction with the button held down, and then clicking the knob down to its base position (the knob could be pulled out and pressed back down in addition to being wound, you see) the watch would quickly drain the years off of a person to the extent that it was wound. The process could then be reversed by holding the button down, and the years would be released back onto the person that was holding it. This much Broderick had learned, to this point he was his own test subject. Up until tonight.
He thought about his approach carefully. He still wouldn't be able to go anywhere tonight but he could have some fun with his pocketwatch before his parents got home. The question was simply keeping Jason under control without his brothers becoming a problem for him also. If he made jason 13, they would still be on equal footing. Ten, or eight, or even five, and he could still make himself an unruly menace. And then, grinning to himself as he thought about it, reducing Jason to a toddler would be perfect. He could humiliate him just enough that even if Jason were somehow able to convince anybody else that he'd been transformed into a baby he would be way too embarassed to tell it to anybody. Because that's what kind of person Jason was. Broderick carefully wound his watch for 16 years, and left his room to go talk to his babysitter.
Sam and Russel were still outside. Jason was sitting at the kitchen table watching them through the sliding glass door, and scrawling idly in a notebook. "Hey, Jason," Broderick said, "Checkout this watch I got." He handed it to Jason who examined it quietly. Jason tended to treat Broderick with the respect of an equal, but Broderick intimidated him sometimes. The oldest boy was very outgoing and popular at his school, and for a junior highschooler that was a feat. "Watch what it does when you press that thing on top down!" Jason good-naturedly complied.
Click. Suddenly the hands on the face of the watch were spinning very, very fast, and in the wrong direction. Jason blinked and watched, oblivious to what was happening to him as this was taking place. He squinted and his brow furrowed, and he looked up at the young adolescent standing over him with an expression of confusion on his face. Before he was able to get any words out, he shrank. Quickly.
In another moment Jason was in a tent of a t-shirt and sitting in bluejeans that enveloped his waist loosely, like a sleeping bag, that draped over the chair. Broderick casually retrieved his watch from the small child's lap as Jason looked up in astonishment to ask, "What you do?" Jason could not believe the sound of his own voice, a piping little-boy mewl.
Broderick sat down, smiling affectionately at his baby babysitter. "That's what this watch does, Jas'n. It can make somebody grow older or younger. And it just made you really little." He put the watch back into his pocket, and folded his arms on the table as he spoke.
"Bu' why me?" Jason asked, becoming more and more frantic. "Howcome you do this? I wan' be big!"
Broderick clucked his tongue paternally. "Aw, don't be mad, Jason. I didn't do it to be mean, I just don't wanna be babysat anymore. So I get to babysit you now. I hope you know what this means. You better be good." He raised one eyebrow as he said this, with a look that asked Jason if he was about to challenge this young man's newfound authority.
Little Jason's eyes widened. Less than an hour after he'd walked in the door the situation had gone completely out of his control. One moment he was dutifully carrying out his responsibilities to look after the boys and the next he was nothing more than a child, a toddler at best, and it looked as though he would be spending the rest of the night completely under Broderick's control. His lower lip started to tremble as the magnitude of his situation started to dawn on him. "Wh- what.. what you gonna do wiss me?" he asked fearfully.
Broderick's expression softened as he reached over to take Jason under the armpits and settle the child in his lap, swaddled in his t-shirt, and rocked him gently with the experience that came of having a baby sister. "Shhh, it's okay. Shh. First we need to get you into some clothes, 'cause I don't think those'll fit you no more. Ok?" Jason nodded quietly, not sure what else to do and soothed by Broderick's reassuring manner.
But at that moment the other two boys came storming in, no doubt after some other toys in Sam's room. They halted quickly when they saw their older brother holding some unknown baby in his lap. "Whosat?" Sam asked, and Russel ran around the table to get a closer look. Sam soon followed. A very frightened Jason pressed himself closer to Broderick.
"Whoa, whoa, back up, guys. You'll scare 'im. Look there on the chair," Broderick instructed.
The presence of a large pair of jeans with briefs inside and shoes and socks resting on the floor at the cuffs mystified the two boys. It looked very much as though somebody had been yanked right out of their seat like in a cartoon. Russel was the first to make the connection. "They're are his!" he said with some excitement, pointing at Jason. "Who issat?"
Broderick smiled. "It's Jason."
Both boys stared at their brother as though he'd said something profoundly stupid. "Nuh-unh," Sam insisted. "Is you really Jason?" he asked the tiny child. Jason nodded hesitantly, clutching Broderick's shirt with one hand. In another moment both of the two younger brothers erupted into hysterical giggles. "How'd you do that?"
Broderick simply frowned and shrugged. "Unno. But it looks like we gotta take care of him tonight so I need you two guys to help me and not cause any trouble, ok? I'm gonna go change his clothes and then in a minute we can play nintendo. It looks like he brought some games."
"Okay!" Sam said, and Russell simply started jumping up and down and flapping his arms, hooting like a rooster. Broderick got up and carried Jason off to his little sister's nursery, cradling him carefully. Jason, who was already reserved by nature, now had a shy and frightened toddler's demeanor and was too overcome by the noise and excitement generated by Broderick's brothers to say anything or try to negotiate himself back into his proper age. Not only had he been conquered by the oldest boy, now he had been made the group property, lower in status even than the kindergartener who refused to remain clothed. It was like a bad dream.