Circles within Circles – Ch. 23 (Tier 2+)

What a trip that had been!

Ethan was lost in thought as he strode across the twilit campus, ignoring the quizzical looks from the occasional passing student who recognized him. How weird it felt to be back here once more, after what seemed like two entire lifetimes of strange experiences. How utterly normal and plain and everyday everything here was. Classes were just as boring as before, as were most of his classmates and even the campus itself. There was the science lab, and there the ugly library, and over there through those trees the dorms where until just recently he'd lived…

Yeah, about that. Maybe the campus itself hadn't changed, but his living quarters certainly had.

He still wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but once he and Anneke had gotten back only last Saturday, they'd discovered that all kinds of half-truths and cover stories had already been communicated to the necessary authorities. They'd been absent "for mental health reasons," apparently; HIPAA regulations prevented the school from inquiring any further, and so the official-looking letters that Queen B's agents had supplied were convincing enough to anyone who cared to ask questions. That same medical professional had requested that Ethan receive off-campus accommodation, and it had been duly granted: permission for him to move into a certain apartment that just happened to be already occupied by one Anneke Bakker…

Oh, yes. He and Anneke were official roommates now.

He smiled unconsciously at the happy thought, awash in the emotions and sensations that such a development meant. Anneke was special to him – even before the blurry but nightmarish events of the past weeks, and definitely now more than ever. She was different. She understood him. She knew more about him now than anyone else – even Sandeep. And knowing that every day and every night he could be with her… well, it made him feel things. Very, very nice things.

But really, he pondered now as he wheeled Anneke's bicycle out the campus gate and mounted it… really, what had happened to them while they were gone?

It was all so strangely fuzzy in his head, what had transpired before that final day. He could remember something about a dark room, and the tinkling of a music box repeating over and over, and the chilling voice of some mysterious woman. He seemed to recall Anneke taking care of him, and telling him that everything would be okay. He remembered the thick bulge of something rubbery in his mouth… and even as he thought of it, he could feel his mouth tighten and suckle reflexively at the memory. Sucking… on a pacifier, perhaps. Just like the one he'd found in his mouth that day…

Oh, yes. That much he remembered: that final morning.

Perhaps it was for the best that no one else could see the blush on his cheeks as he pedaled steadily on toward the grocery store Anneke had asked him to visit on his way home. He was half-cringing, half-reveling in the memory of how he'd wakened: staring up at Anneke's anxious face, feeling not only the smooth shield of that pacifier pressing against his lips, but the incriminating, weighty bulge of a sodden diaper between his legs. Somehow he felt that he'd enjoyed himself in his dreams… and yet…

God, why on earth would he? It was such a weird thing to do, after all: to be dressed up and acting like a giant baby. Why, oh why was his mind troubled by these fragments of frankly embarrassing thoughts: of nursery rhymes, and pacifiers, and irrepressible delight surging up at the very thought of… of diapers? And what, if anything, did all of it have to do with the embarrassing wet puddle he'd wakened to find himself lying in this morning?

Okay, enough of that. Here was the store now. Time to quit obsessing and simply fetch those things for Anneke. Time to help her out. Time to be a… a good boy…

***

It was a minute until seven when he wheeled in at last, backpack full of his purchases, and locked the bicycle fast to its rack. Perfect. Now to head up the stairs to the apartment. He was getting hungry, that was for sure. Up to the first floor, and then the second. Just one more flight to go…

Buzz.

It was his cell phone. He reached for it as he climbed, wondering absently if it was Sandeep pestering him again. Or maybe just a silly campus test emergency notification. Hmm, let's see. Up the stairs. Pause before the door. Tap, tap, tappity tap. New text… from a strange number…

But as the words flashed up on the screen, it was as if the rest of the world simply ceased to matter. He didn't hear the thud of his phone to the ground, nor did he even notice the backpack slipping from his fingers. For as he sagged to his knees and dropped onto all fours, throughout his reeling brain there now echoed nothing but the tinkle of music… the cooing of a maternal voice… and the delightful babble of his suddenly babyish thoughts.

Mama. Hungry. Me want play. Toys. Mama want toys. Baby want baba. Want Mama. Me… good baby…

***

It hit Anneke at almost precisely the same time. The same Buzz. She reached for her phone instinctively, driven by the unthinking instinct of modern life. Of course she had a message. Maybe Ethan had forgotten his key or something? But that was him coming up the stairs, surely. Here, she'd go get the door… and check her message on the way…

Her hand turned on the knob, just as she glanced down at her screen. And even as the door swung open in her suddenly nerveless hand, her brain was reeling and echoing with half-forgotten mantras.

Uhhhh… What was this? It was baby Ethan! What a silly baby… "Come, baby," she giggled now, and as her fingers grasped at his fallen backpack and tugged it through the doorway, she waved impatiently at the crouching young man before her. "Come ON! Don't be dummy! You gotta come in!"

Oh, he did: crawling, gazing absently about, with a string of drool hanging from his slack-jawed lips.

"Ooh, what a mess!" Anneke exclaimed when she caught a glimpse of the saturated fabric of Ethan's jeans. "You peed your pants! Bad baby!" She planted her hands on her hips with all the indignation of a precocious four-year-old, and shook her head decisively. "Dat's 'cause you'se just a baby, that's why! You need ta wear a diaper!"

And off she tripped to the bedroom, driven by whatever weird combination of rational adult thoughts and hypnotic programming Queen B had seen fit to leave within her brain. She was big sister. She would fix silly baby Ethan. She would take care of everything!

Just like she'd been programmed to do.