"I.....I've already promised Jamie I'd be his Mommy," Mary stammered.
"Then it's all settled," said Alice with professional satisfaction at a difficult situation successfully managed. Laura finished rediapering Jamie, then picked him up and handed him to Mary. Jamie hung limply from her hands like a wet dish towel.
"Oh my poor baby!," exclaimed Mary.
She took him in her arms and cuddled him to her. Jamie whimpered in exhaustion and tried to hide his head in the hollow of her shoulder. She pulled him back from her shoulder and looked into his face.
"Honey, can you talk? Jamie, do you know who I am? I'm Mary, your wife, speak to me!"
Jamie struggled mightily to get out some words but all that came out was a baby's babble.
"Come on Jamie! Try! Try and say something for me. Tell me my name. Come on, Honey. Say M-a-r-y!"
Jamie pursed his lips and said, "mmm....ma"
"Listen," Mary said excitedly, "he's trying to say my name!......Did you hear him? He made the M' sound!"
Jamie pursed his lips again and tried valiantly to speak, "mmm......ma.....mama!"
A look of disappointment came over Mary's face, for a moment she had thought he could still talk. "There, there Sweetheart. It's alright. I know you tried your best. I guess Dr. Walsh is right. I'll have to be your Mommy," Mary said, hugging him close to her bosom and patting his diapered bottom.
Alice smiled and said, "Well, there's no doubt who Jamie thinks is his Mommy!"
Everyone chuckled and the atmosphere in the room lightened noticeably. "Mary, I'm going to give you a prescription for some mild tranquilizers. You may not need them, but if you do I'd like you to have them. I'll talk to Dr. Thorson, the staff psychiatrist, about setting up an emergency appointment for you next week. Laura, I think it would be a good idea if you drove Mary home in her car. She doesn't need to be driving after what's happened today. Ben can follow you in his Suburban and take you back to the University. If Mary feels up to it, maybe you can take her to K-Mart to buy some baby things for Jamie. You might also stop by a grocery store and pick up enough food to last a few days. I'd like Mary to rest for the next couple of days. She needs the time to adjust to the situation."
Alice smiled again at Jamie and she continued, "That will give mother and her new baby time get to know each other."
When they got home, Mary took Jamie into the house while Laura brought in the new playpen Mary had bought at K-Mart. They set up the playpen and put Jamie in the pen while they unloaded the car. Mary had bought enough baby food and formula at the grocery store to feed Jamie for a month. They had just got the last bags out of the car when Ben drove up in his Suburban. He had been delayed at K-Mart waiting for the stockboys to load all the baby furnishings Mary had bought.
They had stopped at the grocery store first. Mary proceeded to fill a cart with several packages of disposable diapers, formula, baby food, powder, lotion, soap, shampoo, conditioner, 2 large boxes of baby wipes, sun block, a rectal thermometer, children's Tylenol, a nipple-type medicine dispenser, a home otoscope, plastic disposal bags for disposable diapers while traveling, diaper rash ointment, nose syringe, enema syringe, Q-tips, disposable bibs for traveling, Dreft detergent for baby clothes, diaper pre-soak, bleach, fabric softener, room deodorizers and a little food for Mary.
Then they went to K-Mart. Ben was astonished at the amount of money she was spending on Jamie. When he had suggested that she was spending too much money and she didn't need most of what she was buying, Laura and Mary had given him a condescending, pitying look. As a bachelor, he had never realized how expensive it was to take care of a baby. First it was the furniture; a playpen, a crib and mattress, a baby gate, a dresser with changing pad, a nursery lamp for the dresser, a rocking chair, a high chair, a bouncer-walker, a baby seat for the car, a portable playpen/crib, and a stroller. Then there were the clothes; playsuits, crawlers, one-piece suits, tee-shirts, cloth diapers, diaper covers, plastic panties, socks, shoes, and sleepers. She had almost filled a cart with clothes alone. Then linens and accessories; a dozen sheets, a comforter, a crib blanket, a padded crib bumper, an electronic nursery monitor, bath towels, a dozen terry and plastic bibs, a half-dozen lap pads, two dozen washcloths, bottles, two dozen nipples, feeding spoons and plates, a feeding mat for the floor, pacifiers, baby food storage racks, a nipple rack for the automatic dishwasher, nipple and bottle brushes, electrical outlet covers and cabinet locks, organizers for washing baby socks, a baby seat and sponge pad for the tub, a dirty diaper pail, a diaper bag, a cloth high chair for traveling, a protective plastic seat cover to go under the baby seat in the car, insulated bottle warmers, curtains and wallpaper borders and appliqus for the nursery, a night light, story and picture books, tapes of nursery rhymes, and toys.
Mary had managed to fill three shopping carts with baby goods without even putting the furniture in the carts. They filled Mary's trunk and backseat with the groceries and sundries from K-Mart. His Suburban was packed all the way to the front seat when the stockboys had finished loading the furniture at K-Mart. Ben was impressed with Mary's earnestness in trying to be a good mother. Ben wasn't sure what kind of mother Mary would make Jamie, but it was obvious she intended to try her best. "Mary is such a good woman," he thought to himself, "It's a shame that this has happened to her. She deserves better. She's too young to spend the rest of her life with only a baby for company. She needs to find another man. Who knows, she might be interested in me. If Jamie h adn't found her and married her before I met her, things might have been different. I might have married her."
Ben hauled the furniture into the hallway next to the spare bedroom and began to move the furniture that had been in the bedroom into the garage. Mary and Laura came in and helped to assemble the furniture and put things away. Within two hours they had finished. There were three 40 gallon plastic garbage bags of wrapping and cardboard cartons at the curb to attest to their efforts. Mary went inside to get Jamie and carried him in her arm to se them off.
"Wave bye-bye to Uncle Ben, Jamie," she said, taking his arm a waving it up and down.
Jamie grinned and waved clumsily. Ben blushed in embarrassment at Jamie and tried to cover his feelings by patting Jamie's head like an affectionate uncle.
Ben said his goodbyes and was rewarded with a big kiss on the mouth by Mary. Laura hugged Mary, kissed Jamie on the forehead and wished them luck, then got into the Suburban with Ben.
Mary came in the house and put Jamie in his playpen, then went into the bedroom to change. It had been an exhausting day. She decided that no one was going to visit her that night and simply removed all of her clothes without redressing. She would spend the evening in the buff.
Mary returned to the living room and sat down on the sofa. She looked at Jamie standing in his playpen watching her with his hand in his diaper. She looked closer to see what he was doing and was surprised when she realized that Jamie was masturbating. Mary didn't scold him, as long as he didn't do it in public, she didn't care.
"Let Jamie have his fun, she thought, he's only a little baby now. He can play with his wee-wee to his heart's content."
Mary thought about their love making session this morning, Jamie had really been an exceptional lover as a teenager. Just thinking about it made her horny.
"I'm going to have to do something about having a lover now that Jamie's a baby. There's no way I'm going to be celibate for the rest of my life. Hmm....I wonder if Ben would be interested in me. He's smart, good looking, and easy to get along with. A girl could do worse than to marry him. He doesn't have a girlfriend at the moment and I know he's not gay. Ben must feel awfully guilty about Jamie. I should tell him I don't hold him responsible for what happened. It wasn't his fault. I'll call him tomorrow and see if he would like to come over. As Jamie's best friend, he'd probably feel obligated to console me. You know what they say, there's only one way to "comfort" a widow!"
Mary got up from the sofa and picked up Jamie. "It's time for your dinner, Sweetheart! Mommy has some yummy strained carrots and peas for her little baby."
She put him on her hip, carried him into the kitchen and put him into the high chair. She tied a bib around his neck and opened a jar of strained vegetables.
"Open wide, Sweetie," she said ladling a spoonful a vegetables into his mouth. He grimaced at the taste of the baby food and tried to push it away.
"Now Honey, don't be naughty. Mommy wants you to eat all your veges," she told him firmly as she spooned another mouthful into him.
Mary was more than slightly upset with Jamie; he hadn't told her that he had been suffering from a potentially fatal disease and then he had taken an untested "drug" without consulting her. That was a hell of a way to treat his wife! His fate was karmic justice for the way he had treated her. She' d take care of him; she'd feed him, dress him, change his diapers and wash his dirty behind, but she'd be damned if she'd feel sorry for him!
Besides, she hadn't wanted to have a baby. She was perfectly happy with the life she had. As far as she was concerned, her marriage to him was over. She had married a man, not an infant! She'd bed the first eligible man she could find, and do it right in front of him if it came to that. She smiled at the thought as she spooned the tasteless puree into him.
Everybody believed he couldn't think because he had the body and reflexes of a baby. Wouldn't it be fun if he could still think? She could imagine how he'd feel if Ben came over and screwed her on the living room floor in front of him. Jamie would go crazy with jealousy and wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He couldn't even talk! All he would be able to do is stand at the side of his playpen and cry!
She could picture it clearly, there he'd be, his tiny hand clutching the top of the playpen rail, sucking his thumb and wearing nothing but a wet, drooping diaper. He'd be forced to watch while they lay on the floor naked in front of him, moaning and grunting in adult pleasure, totally ignoring the helpless infant he'd become. He'd get horny and masturbate himself in sexual frustration. She'd notice and point out his infantile sexual antics to Ben and they'd laugh at his childishness. He'd be so embarrassed, he'd probably start bawling! Then she'd take him out of his playpen and put him in his crib for the night while they continued to party. He'd end up with a hell of an Oedipal complex!
There'd be a odd sort of justice in that, he'd have stolen the secret of eternal youth from his best friend and as a consequence had lost the ability to enjoy his wife's sexual affections. It was only right that his best friend would "assume" his marital duties and receive the "favors" to which Jamie was no longer entitled or able to appreciate. She noticed that the food dribbling down his chin was accumulating on his bib. Mary scraped the food off of the bib and fed it to him again. "Waste not, want not, baby!," she thought to herself.
From the look on his face she decided he must really hate this food. She sneered at him mentally, "Ohhhh poor baby! You don't like the taste of baby food? Well, that's just too bad. That's all you're going to be eating from now on. If you think you don't like that, just wait until you get your first case of diaper rash. You'll really be unhappy then!"
She fed him the rest of the jar, then cleaned him up and took him into the living room to give him his bottle. Mary sat down on the sofa and arranged him on her lap, laying him back against the crook of her arm. She put the nipple in his mouth and watched him as he eagerly began to suck.
"He really is adorable!," she thought. "All the University wives are going to be jealous when they see him, he really is a cutie! I'll have to put him in something that emphasizes what a irresistibly helpless baby he's become. Maybe I can find a baby doll dress to fit him, something sweet with ruffles and lace in baby blue with matching rumba panties. He won't mind, he'll probably enjoy all the attention. Maybe I should have a baby shower for him. That's an idea, I'll have a party to let him get acquainted with his new age group. Nothing big or expensive, just a few of the wives who have babies. They won't have to bring anything but small gifts, I've already bought everything I need to take care of him. I can see him crawling on the floor with the other babies. He'll drool, coo, pee himself and dump in his dydee just like the rest of them. He'd be so humiliated if he could still think! No one would listen to him. No one would pay serious attention to anything he did. No one would ever believe he was anything but a mindless infant. He'd just be another silly, diapered baby in a playpen full of silly, diapered babies. All my friends would do is smile at him and tell me what a pretty baby he is! He'd be mortified!"
She wondered what he'd do if he saw one of her friends breast-feeding her baby. Men were such infants about such things. He'd probably sit on the floor and gape in amazement. With a little luck, maybe she could con her friend into giving him a little titty. Wouldn't that be something! He'd lay in her lap, his legs kicking while she took her breast out of her bra and guided it to his mouth. Then he'd take the tit all the way to the aureola and start sucking. His reflexes would kick in and he'd gorge himself on her milk. Even if he grew up physiologically, he'd never be the same. The thought of him spending the rest of his life craving women's titties, not for sex, but to satisfy physical hunger, made her grin. She hoped he really could think! It would be a shame if her fantasy couldn't come true!
She wanted to punish him for letting her become a young "widow". Mary thought that she should find a daycare center to take care of him for a few hours each day. She could imagine the look on his face as she left him standing alone in a playpen, clad in nothing but a diaper and surrounded by strangers. The expression of abandonment and helplessness would be priceless, she'd have to get a picture. She'd enjoy seeing him utterly humiliated by having unfamiliar women treat him like a baby.
She wanted to see him helplessly pee and poop his dydee in front of the entire staff of a daycare center. There he'd be, a shamefaced squalling baby in sopping dydees, waiting for someone to come change his diaper and clean his dirty bottom! She wanted him to experience the ignominy of being considered a witless tot whose foolish yearnings were beneath contempt.
In a daycare he 'd be subject to all the indignities of babyhood. If his diaper drooped, they 'd put their hands down the front of his diaper to see if he was wet without any thought for his privacy. If they found that he'd peed his diaper, they'd strip him naked on a changing table and chatter about how cute his little wee-wee looked. Then they'd cleanse him brusquely and change his diaper with a splendid disregard of his personal dignity. He'd find out how exasperating being completely helpless and dependent is! If he became fussy, they'd bounce him on their knees and soothe his wounded infant id with baby-talk. If they thought he was thirsty, they'd give him a baby bottle. He wouldn't even be given the chance to belch on his own; after he finished nursing, t hey'd hold him against their shoulder and burp him.
He'd learn the frustration of having strangers be in full control of him. He'd be fed, played with and put down for his naps without the slightest concern for his wishes. He'd simply be another baby to be cared for in a room full of babies to be cared for. If he interrupted them with his babbling, they'd put a pacifier in his mouth. If he tried to take off his diaper or touched anything but his toys, they'd slap his hands, scold him and tell him he was naughty. If he became really troublesome, they might pull down his diaper and spank his bare bottom!
The thought made her shiver in anticipation. She wanted him to suffer, to see him humiliated the way he'd humiliated her by not trusting her. She wanted to savor the sight of him crawling half-naked and helpless on the floor in front of everyone, whimpering and crying incoherently for her to pick him up and take him home from the daycare center! If this was his punishment for stealing from his best friend and betraying her, she wanted to enjoy it!
Mary sighed and took the bottle from his hands. She'd never do any of those things. "Well,..." she thought reconsidering, "....I might take him to a daycare if I was busy and couldn't find a babysitter."
She was a Mommy now and he was her baby. She'd take good care of him. Mary smiled down at her infant husband maternally.
"Poor baby, you've lost your life. You made a desperate gamble to regain your health and squandered your maturity and your wife in a single weekend. You thought you were only risking a life you thought was already lost. You didn't realize how much everyone valued you for what you had made of life. All that will be remembered of you now is what an adorable baby you became. The healthy body you've regained was bartered at a terrible price. You'v e traded the treasures and privileges of adulthood for the body and mind of an infant. Everything that you've accomplished and worked for is gone. Your knowledge and profession are only memories.
At least you seem to be happy as a baby. You'll spend the rest of your life babbling and cooing in delight at the world around you. You've escaped the death that haunted you. Your only concerns now are whether you're hungry and need to be fed, or whether you're thirsty and want your bottle, or that your diaper needs changing. Your world has become too small to compass evil thoughts. Your magnificent sex drive has been reduced to innocent acts of infantile masturbation. The adult pleasures have been replaced by simple urges; your pacifier, your thumb, peeing your diaper, are all it takes to please you.
You're content to feel protected and secure, surrounded by the trappings of infancy. You'll have the same schedule as all my friends' babies. I'll wake you in the morning, change your diaper and give you your bottle. Then I'll feed you and put you in your playpen with your toys while I clean house. I'll put you down for your nap a few hours later. After your nap, I'll change your diaper again and feed you your lunch. Then you'll spend the afternoon crawling around the living room floor and playing under my watchful eye. You'll take another nap in the afternoon and have your diaper changed before I feed you your supper. After I've given you your bath, I'll put you in your crib for the night.
By eight o'clock you'll be fast asleep, resting for another day of feedings, naps and diaper changes. You'll never grow older, never change, you'll always be my baby. Poor, poor, Jamie, your wife has become your Mommy and your best friend has become a doting uncle. The only friends you'll have from now on will be the other babies who share your playpen. As they grow up and go to college, you'll still be in your nursery wearing diapers. Honey, I still love you even though you can't be my husband. I'll take care of you for the rest of your life." She'd love, cherish and nurture him like any other Mother would do for her baby. She couldn't bring herself to hurt him, she was only angry with him for abandoning her.
"I shouldn't have been angry with him. He was only trying to save his life. He wasn't deliberately dishonest. He just didn't know how to tell me. Look at him, he's such a sweet baby!," she thought as she carried him to his crib to tuck him in. "Just the same, she thought, "I'll call Ben tomorrow and see if he' d like to come over. I saw the look in his eye when he helped us set up the nursery. Now that I'm no longer married, he's free to date me. I wonder how good a lover he is?," she thought wistfully.
She really did enjoy having sex on the living room floor, she and Jamie had often made love there. Of course, she would have to leave the playpen where it was and have Jamie in the pen while they made love. Mary was sure that Ben would understand. She couldn't leave Jamie unattended, he was only a baby!
Jamie was too young to comprehend what they would be doing, so it would be okay to make love in front of him. Maybe Ben would fall in love with her and move in with them, then Jamie would have a Daddy and a Mommy!
Later that night, Jamie woke up after having the strangest dream. He had dreamt that he had his illness had been cured and in the process he had been changed into a baby. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and tried to remember the rest of the dream. Just before he had woken he had dreamed he had peed and was lying in a crib wearing a wet diaper.
Jamie yawned sleepily and thought, "My subconscious must be terrified of death! It's regressing in order to escape. I guess I'm going to have to make an appointment with the University psychiatrist to get some counseling before it starts to affect my work." He moved his buttocks slightly to get more comfortable in bed and was surprised when his bottom seemed to glide across the sheet.
"What am I wearing?," he thought and put his hands down to his hips to check. When his hands felt the plastic, Jamie began to panic. He stuck his hand under the front of the diaper and felt the soggy absorbent padding squish beneath his fingers.
"Oh God," he thought in terror, "Oh please God, don't let this be happening to me!" He opened his eyes and looked around the nursery wildly, then began screaming for Mary, but all that came out of his mouth was "Ma-maaaaa!"
One year later, on the exact anniversary of Professor Farr's disappearance following the discovery of his terminal illness, a notice appeared in the student newspaper; "Married: Mary Farr to Professor Ben Thomson of the Chemistry department. The marriage ceremony was small, attended only by the Minister, the Bride and Groom, Dr. Alice Walsh, pediatrician at the University Health Clinic and friend of the family, and Laura Stevens, Professor Thomson's Lab Assistant. Mary's son by a previous marriage, the infant Jamie, was left in the care of the women of University Daycare Center during the Wedding and Reception that followed."
Finis coronat infans