What a world this has become.
This is what Madeline thought to herself as she rang the doorbell to the Sunderland's Retreat. The 73 year old woman didn't consider herself conservative by any means, but perhaps it was simply a symptom of her advanced age. Even though she had retired from the daily responsibilities of motherhood, she nonetheless found herself being pulled back into her old role.
Over the course of several months, Madeline's weekly conversations with her adult daughter had become far too mysterious to the elderly woman. Madeline and her late husband had long accepted that their genetic line would end with their darling daughter Mary Ann, who was rendered infertile by a terrible disease in her late childhood. Though this sadly did not stop little Mary Ann's obsession with becoming a mom, which only became unhealthier as her daughter grew into adulthood.
Recently, her far-feteched worries had turned into outright suspicions during her phone calls with Mary Ann. Her 43 year old daughter had randomly found it in herself to supposedly become an adoptive mother to three adorable children in less than a year. She had raised Mary Ann to be a terrible liar and thus knew when her daughter was avoiding her insistent questions. All of this was why Madeline now stood outside the front door of her son-in-law's ancestral home.
Madeline was little different from the stereotypical elderly woman. She was small, frail, and skinny to the bone. Her long hair was shortened and greyed over while her skin was weathered from the daily stresses of a life lived long ago.
When her darling daughter Mary Ann answered the door, this was not the Madeline her adult daughter saw.
Indeed, the woman Mary Ann saw was some 40 years younger than the middle age daughter would have been used to. At 33 years old, Madeline still could not get over how gorgeous the Agetrip had made her. Her hair was long and light brown while her skin was silky smooth again. She felt tall, proud, and sexy as hell before her own daughter.
"Mom?" Mary Ann asked her. The middle age woman's more homely body unsure of how to react to sight of the young woman it subconsciously knew it nursed from as a baby.
To be frank, Madeline often found middle aged women in her daughter's age range to be quite adorable. In the struggle to finally gain authority over their adult lives and aspirations, these kinds of women usually let go of their young, luscious bodies for the simpler, chubbier bodies that often paralleled the children they held dominion over. It endlessly amused Madeline that the over protective soccer moms that ran around her were little different from the chubby little girls they once were back when Madeline was in the prime of her adulthood.
"Oh my goodness Mary Ann you look as lovely as ever!" Madeline sincerely said to her adult daughter. Letting the joy of the surprise over take her, Madeline quickly smooched her daughter on the lips as they hugged one another.
"Mom!" Mary Ann exclaimed adorable as ever, "What's gotten into you? Why did you get an Agetrip?"
"Oh come on my sweet darling! You know the elderly have priority on Agetripping!" Madeline half-explained as she rolled her luggage into the Retreat. "I simply couldn't stand to hear another word about your wondrous time as a mother and I finally just had to see my beautiful grandchildren myself!"
"Mommy who is this?" asked a beautiful little boy still overcoming a toddler's lisp, he had just entered the main room.
"And this must be little Brian!!!!' Madeline exclaimed as she rushed over and picked up the small preschool age boy and pecked his lips with her own. "I'm your mommy's mommy!!! Isn't that just grand baby?"
"You're our grandma?" said a slightly older voice but still all the precious.
"Why yes I am Jack!" Madeline replied as she put one little boy down and picked up the other, also giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "But I was thinking I could just be your Aunt Madeline while I'm Agetripping."
"Wow." Came Micheal's voice entering from the family room. He carried a beer can in his right hand while holding a baby girl in his left arm. "You look absolutely stunning Madeli....I mean mother." he complimented with enough slurring to betray his tipsiness from the beer.
"Oh by all means call me Madeline honey." she teased Micheal, "Same goes to you Mary Ann, wouldn't it be fun to roleplay as the the sister each of us never had?"
"I suppose so." Mary Ann answered.
"And just think how much fun drinking with me will be." Madeline said as she revealed the expensive wine bottle she brought along with her. "Now Micheal if you don't mind, I would just love to hold little Charlotte there."
The rest of the afternoon had been a very pleasant experience for all. The three adults got contently drunk as the three children mindlessly played about the house. After they all enjoyed a simple dinner of freshly ordered pizza and the kids finally went to bed, Madeline was able to get the conversation to turn serious.
"So you've kidnapped adults and Agetripped them into children?" Madeline asked while feigning surprise.
"Mother, it isn't that simple." Mary Ann plead, "We're giving them better, happier lives than they ever experienced when they were poor adults."
My goodness child!" Madeline shot back, "You're acting like all lower income people are just dolls for you to play with. Do you realize how my crimes you have committed? How have you even been Agetripping them anyway without getting caught?"
"That would be me Madeline." Micheal spoke up, "I built an Agetripper in our basement. Mary Ann and I have always just wanted a family you know? We know we're breaking the law but we also know that we're giving these people something they couldn't normally afford."
"It's clear you two believe you're doing good. That is for sure." Madeline told them. "But this will blow up in your faces sooner rather than later. Can't you guys see that?"
"Mom trust us we've been careful." Mary Ann assured her. "And I had every intention of telling you about all of this eventually."
"Eventually?" Madeline questioned.
"I just mean mom....you're getting old. I don't want you out of my life so I was hoping we could convince you to permanently join our family." her adult daughter claimed.
"As your daughter I assume." Madeline said. "Mary Ann. It would be nothing but a complete waste of time to be mothered by one's own daughter."
"You don't even have to be that young Madeline." Micheal butted in, "You could become a college student or even a teenager again. We wouldn't ask much of you except to babysit the kids now and then. Isn't that a better alternative than dying of old age in some nursing home?"
"I just want you to be apart of my everyday life again Mom. You know how much I would love that." Mary Ann pleaded.
Their words rang true to Madeline far more than she had prepared herself for. She had expected them to try and get her to be Agetripped again, whether through trickery or deception. Getting them drunk had been some measure of defense against such a possibility after all. But they spoke true, if not bluntly to her eventual fate. The Agetrip would wear off in a few weeks whether she reported back to an Agetripper or not; and then she would be a lonely old woman again.
She felt a change of heart overtake her, one that she hadn't plan for. "I think the alcohol is getting us all too emotional. I'm going to be 33 years old for a few more weeks yet and I would like to get to know my grandchildren better before we do something drastic. Does that sound fair?" she asked.
"Of course Mom!" Mary Ann said and rushed to hug her.
Despite her original intentions for coming here she was glad she ultimately did. She decided in the grace of her adult daughter's warm hug that she would indeed join the Sunderland family instead of going back to her old life. Of course, Madeline had yet to fully play her hand in this game and the old woman turned young woman saw many different opportunities on how she could enter the Sunderland family beyond Micheal and Mary Ann's formal offer.
What a world this has become. She silently mused to herself.