Laura is unwilling to degrade herself and play with the toddler toys, but she doesn’t want to play on her phone and get caught with it. She’s exhausted from the stressful day, so she decides to take a nap. Someone will wake her up when they arrive, after all. Laura curls up on the floor and falls asleep almost immediately.
Mason is relieved when the toddler decides to take a nap. He’s got his own issues to deal with. He’s not supposed to be thirteen, he’s supposed to be thirty-five. But the dice he got in the mail wouldn’t stop rolling. Mason checks the dice case quickly. They seem to be secure. Glad to have both pressing issues resolved, he settles onto his beanbag chair and opens his book.
About thirty minutes into the train ride, one of the kindergarteners comes over to Mason.
“The baby’s smelly,” the kindergartener says, pointing at the toddler. Mason sighs. He walks over to the toddler. Sure enough, she reeks, and there’s a visible bulge in her diaper.
“I’ll get the attendant,” he tells the kindergartner. The kindergartener goes back to her friends and resumes playing. Just as Mason is about to walk away, he spots something out of the corner of his eye. A wallet and a dice case. A dice case identical to the one he has.
Mason quickly inspects the wallet’s contents. It contains a driver’s license for someone named Laura Peters, who looks a lot like what Mason would expect the toddler to look like as an adult. He swallows nervously. Could this toddler be a fellow regressed adult? Is this what he’ll be reduced to, if the dice keep rolling? A toddler who wets and messes himself?
The door to the car opens. Mason quickly hides the dice case and wallet in his pockets. The attendant comes in with a cart of snacks.
“Snack time!” the attendant chirps. Mason walks over to her.
“The toddler needs a change,” he whispers. The attendant looks over at the toddler. “She pooped.”
“Oh. Well, she’s sleeping, so I’ll change her after I hand out all the snacks,” the attendant says. She hands Mason a juice box and bag of goldfish. Similar treats are distributed to the other inhabitants of the car. Then, the attendant picks up the toddler and brings her to the bathroom for another diaper change.
Mason sits back in his beanbag chair and waits for the toddler to be brought out again. Once the attendant leaves, he can talk to the toddler and find out if she’s in the same situation as him. After what feels like ages, the attendant returns with the toddler.