„Let’s prepare breakfast, now that we’re up already.“, Alex’ dad suggested. To her surprise, Alex realized she was a bit hungry. „OK. Uh, could you set me down? I think I can walk myself.“ Her father put her on the floor. „But I’ll have to carry you down the stairs. Better hold on to my hand in case you lose your balance.“ Considering her falls the day before, this was probably a good idea. Alex held on to two of her dad’s fingers with her little hand. The few yards from her room to the top of the stairs felt very long with her short legs, and she had to concentrate on every step to avoid falling over, but slowly and carefully she made it all the way. „I guess you’re a toddler, not a baby“ her dad chuckled as he carried her to the kitchen.
Alex saw her phone on the kitchen table. „Can I have my phone, please?“ she asked. „Ok, why not. I need a few minutes to fry some eggs anyways.“ He set her down on the floor and handed her the phone. Holding it wasn’t easy with her clumsy hands, and the phone felt huge to Alex – more like a big tablet. There was no way she could use it while holding it, so she put it on the floor. She needed a second attempt on the unlock pattern, but managed to unlock it – just to realize she couldn’t read any of the characters on the screen. „What is that language? Why did you mess with my phone’s settings?“ she angrily asked.
„We didn’t do anything to your phone, sweetie! Let me have a look.“ Daddy picked up the phone and looked at it for a few seconds before speaking. „Alex, this is English... I’m afraid you can’t read any more.“ Alex was shocked. If she couldn’t read, she wouldn’t be able to use a phone or computer, meaning she wouldn’t be able to communicate with her friends or anyone except her parents. She refused to believe it – surely her parents were trying to trick her. „But I could read the books yesterday! That can’t be true!“ She yelled.
„Shh, indoor voice, sweetie!“ Her dad picked her up. „I understand you’re upset. But the books were picture books, maybe you just thought you could read the text because you remembered what it says?“ „Nooo! I’m sure I can read. Give me a pen and paper, I’ll show you I can read and write!“ „Ok, let’s try. But I’m afraid it won’t work.“ He put her back down and handed her a pen and a post-it. Alex realized that writing wouldn’t be easy for her – she couldn’t hold the pen properly and had to hold it in her fist instead. Still, she managed to put it on the paper and tried to write her name. But she only produced some squiggles that may or may not have resembled letters, and she had so little control over the pen it ripped through the paper. „Ugh! I’m just too clumsy! But that doesn’t mean I can’t read. Could you write my name for me?“
Her dad wrote on another post-it and handed it to Alex. She saw four characters on it, but she couldn’t tell in which writing system, if any. They were also very difficult to tell apart. Close to tears, Alex found herself intensely sucking her thumb again. Her dad crouched in front of her. „Aww, poor sweetie. But you will be able to read again, I promise!“ he said soothingly. Alex wanted to ask when, but as she tried to speak she found herself bursting into tears for the second time this morning.
Her dad picked her up and held her tight despite her attempts to squirm out of his grip. The world disappeared behind a veil of tears and a wall of her loud bawls, so she was surprised when she was handed over to her mom, who kissed her on her forehead. „Good morning Alex! What’s wrong?“ she asked. „I can’t read and I don’t wanna be a baabyyyy!“ Alex sobbed.
Her mom bounced her slightly. „Aww, I know, sweetie, I know…“ she mumbled into Alex’ ear. „Shhhh, I know…“. Alex realized her mom was doing what she herself did at the daycare to calm down the youngest toddlers when they cried. And it actually helped – she was slowly feeling better. She buried her face in Mommy’s shirt and listened to her parents talking. „So what will she have? I guess a few bites of scrambled egg are ok, but that’s not a healthy meal.“ „What about some fruit. We still have bananas. Do you want a banana, sweetie?“ Alex was still quite hungry, and scrambled eggs and a banana actually sounded good, much better than baby food at last. „Okay“ she said.
A minute later, she was sitting in her mom’s lap eating pieces of banana from a plate in front of her. She was glad to be able to eat on her own, without her parents spoon-feeding her. When her dad served the scrambled eggs, he put some on her plate but her mom prevented her from eating with her fingers. She also noticed there was little salt and no sauce on them, still she enjoyed the taste.
„Sorry for being so harsh with you yesterday“, her mom said. „It’s a new situation for all of us, but mostly for you. It’s okay if you’re in a bad mood, and we should accept that and try to make it better, not snap at you.“
„Thanks, Mom, it’s ok. You’re doing a lot for me, both of you.“ she looked at her father. „But can we try to do something about this? Try to get me… back to my real age, I guess?“
Her dad frowned, and her mom answered „But what should we do? Take you to a doctor and say ‚This is our 20-year-old daughter, she suddenly woke up as a baby?‘ Nobody would take us seriously.“ „But if they look at me they’ll see that I can talk, that I’m not really a baby!“
„Yes, but they’ll think you have some sort of growth condition and that we’re trying to make fun of them or become famous or something.“
„But there must be something we can do! I can’t just stay like this!“ Alex replied, close to tears again. Her mom pulled her back on her lap, so that she was leaning against her stomach, and put an arm around her.
„We tried to look it up on the internet, apparently there is no way known to medical science a person’s age can be reduced as it apparently happened to you. Doctors would laugh at us, consider us mentally ill and at best you’d be patient zero, a medical curiosity. If there’s no experience with something, there won’t be a cure either.“
„Ugh…“ Alex hated to admit it, but her parents had a point. „But what’s the alternative? You don’t want to raise me all over again, do you?“
„Well, we talked about that yesterday evening.“ her father said. „first we were shocked and wondered what to do, but then we went to your room and saw you sleeping in your crib and something… changed within us.“
„What do you mean?“ Alex asked.
„We felt this love, between us and for you as our child, that we haven’t felt in a long time. When I looked at you I saw a second chance to raise you, to be there for you this time, avoid the mistakes we’ve made, I’ve made in the past. Look, I was just out of college when I had you and I had to really focus on my career and work and I prioritized that and felt like a bad mother all the time. Now that we’re financially secure, I have much more time for you. I guess I’ll quit my job and try the stay-at-home-mom lifestyle for a while“ Mrs. Moon explained
„But everybody knows me as a 20-year-old and that you haven’t had a baby recently! Also, aren’t you way too old to be my parents now?“
„Hey! I’m 43, that’s not too old to have a baby. Also, people here know, but we aren’t going to live here much longer. We were planning to move to the house your grandma left us once you’d moved out. The tenant family is leaving by the end of the month, so we can move soon. Until then, we’ll pass you off as our niece and claim our daughter was off to college.“ Alex’ grandma, her father’s mother, had lived in a town about an hour away from the city. She’d passed away 5 years ago, so Alex hadn’t been there for a while.
„But… what about my friends?“ she asked and put her thumb back in her mouth.
„Hmm. Do you want your friends to know?“ her father asked. Alex thought for a moment. No, she didn’t want most of her friends to know she was a toddler. But her best friend, Samantha – it would break her heart to just move away without saying goodbye to her. „Owwy ‘am“ she replied.
„We can’t understand you, you’ll have to take your thumb out!“ her mom said.
„Only Samantha.“ she repeated. Her dad looked at her mom, who replied „If you think she won’t tell anyone, you can tell her. Tomorrow evening we’re going out for dinner on our wedding anniversary, so we need a babysitter. Should I give Samantha a call?“
„Okay. But I don’t need a babysitter!“ Alex protested.
„Of course you need one. We’ll be gone all evening, someone will have to feed you dinner and put you to bed.“ her mother replied. „And change your bum!“ her father added.
„Ugh, dad!“ Alex groaned, but her parents were right.
„What do you think about our plan?“ her mom asked.
„I dunno. I don’t really want to grow up again.“ She sighted. „But you’re right, there’s probably no way to get me back to my real age.“
„Well, think about the good things! You won’t have to worry about which college to go to, you don’t have to study or do homework for a while, you won’t have to work and best of all: no periods for the next ten years!“ her mom said, making Alex smile.
„Ok, but still… this is a lot to process. For my little brain, I guess.“ she said.
„Of course, sweetie. You can take all the time you need to think about it and maybe come to terms with it.“ her dad said.
„Let’s get you dressed!“ her mom said . She wiped Alex’ face and hands with a piece of kitchen roll, then carried her upstairs on her hip. „But why? It’s so warm, you let me stay like this yesterday as well.“ „But we’re going out. Although I guess these days you can wear just this in public if you want.“ her mom chuckled, poking a finger at Alex’ diaper.
„No! If we go anywhere I wanna wear clothes. But where are we going?“ Alex asked