Laura stared at the building in front of her. She was back at the daycare she had visited before. How had she managed to go in a complete circle like this? Unfortunately, unlike when she visited before, the daycare was open and full of people, so she likely wouldn’t be able to stop in to use the bathroom and then continue her quest for the magic shop.
Laura let out a soft sigh and decided to look somewhere else to use the bathroom. Before she could walk away, however, she felt someone pick her up.
“Now, what are you doing out here?” a voice asked. Laura was shuffled around in someone’s arms until she could look directly up at the face of the person who had grabbed her. It was a young woman wearing a colorful uniform and a nametag. Laura realized to her horror that she couldn’t read the woman’s nametag. The letters looked like random scribbles.
“How did you even get out?” the woman asked.
“Door,” Laura managed. The woman sighed.
“Donnie needs to be better about that,” she muttered. Then, still carrying Laura, she headed into the daycare. She set Laura on the front desk. “And you lost your name tag! Tell Miss Linda your name.”
“Laura.”
“What a pretty name,” Linda gushed. She grabbed a name tag and wrote something on it. Laura could feel the urge to poop growing stronger. She shifted uncomfortably. Laura opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the arrival of another daycare worker.
Linda and her coworker struck up a conversation, seemingly forgetting that Laura sat on the desk, beginning to squirm as she felt control over her bowels loosening. The conversation went on so long that Laura finally lost control. She was so upset to be ignored like this that she didn’t bother to be quiet or subtle, and instead grunted loudly and exaggeratedly. Hearing her grunts, Linda and her coworker looked over.
“Looks like someone is making a poopy,” Linda said cheerfully. Laura made direct eye contact with her as she pooped. Linda seemed slightly taken aback by Laura’s expression. Once she finished evacuating her bowels, Laura let loose her bladder for good measure, still glaring at Linda. Then she smiled viciously.
“I poopoo!” Laura chirped. Linda took a moment, but then seemed to recover from Laura’s staredown.
“You sure did!” Linda said. She stuck a name tag on Laura’s clothes and picked her up off the desk. “Let’s go get you changed!” Laura still had no plans to make anything easy for the woman that had picked her up off the sidewalk and waited until she pooped herself to pay attention to her again. So she began to fuss, squirming around in her soiled diaper and wailing at the top of her lungs.
“That’s enough of that, you’ll wake up the other babies!” Linda scolded. She took a pacifier out of her pocket and popped it into Laura’s mouth, startling her into silence. Laura suckled on the pacifier as she was carried over to the changing table and laid down. Linda quickly and efficiently changed her diaper, then, without putting her clothes back on, brought her over to a line of cribs and placed her inside one.
“Sleep well, little Laura,” Linda cooed. She walked away. Laura suckled on her pacifier in the crib, distressed to have ended up here and uncertain of what to do to get out.