Before Jess can say anything, or the employee can respond to her request, her tenuous control fails. Her bowels empty into her diaper. To add insult to injury, her just messed diaper is promptly flooded with urine. The employee raises an eyebrow at Jess’s soiled diaper visibly sagging under her.
“I pooped,” Jess says sheepishly. The employee sighs and flags down another employee walking past, a young man.
“Will, take her to the daycare and give her a change, please. I need make arrangements for her,” the employee says. Will nods. He takes Jess’s hand and leads her over to a door with a sign on it reading “Customer Services”. The two walk down a hall, Jess waddling and toddling due to her full diaper, and come to a door decorated with cartoon characters and a sign declaring it the “Customer Daycare”.
“Here we are,” Will says, opening the door. “We have a daycare for customers that need it temporarily.” Jess merely nods. Will picks her up and carries her over to a changing table, where he removes her onesie and proceeds to change her diaper quickly and efficiently. Once in a clean diaper, Will places her in a playpen and leaves the room.
Already bored, Jess looks around the playpen. She spots a pacifier and pops it into her mouth, finding the action soothing. Resigned to entertaining herself as much she can, Jess begins to play with the blocks in the playpen.
She’s been playing for about fifteen minutes, and wet herself again, when the unnamed employee from Customer Support comes in.
“Hi, Jess,” the employee says, walking over to the playpen. “I didn’t get to tell you me name, but it’s Trish.” Jess nods in acknowledgement. “So, I went through your phone contact list until I found someone to be your guardian.” Jess removes her pacifier.
“Gawdyen?” she asks. Trish nods.
“Yes. You’re already wearing a suit, and wearing two at once isn’t safe, so we can’t do anything to restore your age, unfortunately.” Jess’s heart sinks. “You will age normally, so eventually you’ll be an adult again. But that will take sixteen years, so you need a guardian to watch you and make decisions for you.” Jess reluctantly nods. “You should probably know that your guardian has already made two major decisions for you.”
“What?” Jess asks, nervous.
“The first one is that you’ll be moving in with them.” Jess nods. That makes sense; she’s a toddler, she needs to be cared for. “The second is that you’re no longer a college student.” Jess’s eyes boggle at that. “You’ve been pulled out of college. Don’t worry, though, you’ll still be visiting campus. You’ve been enrolled in the college daycare!”
Jess swallows. The daycare is staffed by students studying degrees relevant to childcare: pediatric medicine, child psychology, teaching. Things like that. She knows a few of the people who work at the daycare. Getting her dirty diapers changed by her former classmates won’t be great, but at least she knows they love what they do. And as long as the person who agreed to take care of her is all right, hopefully she won’t be completely miserable.
“Do you understand?” Trish asks. Jess nods. “Great. Now, let’s go meet your new guardian!” Trish picks Jess up from the playpen and carries her out of the daycare, down the hall, and into the main area of the store. The person standing at Customer Support, Jess’s guardian, looks up.