He stepped into the hallway and almost collided with what appeared to be an Kindergartener. The boy was wearing regular business attire including a tie.
"Oh," he said. "Excuse me, Dave."
Dave looked down at the boy and then he recognized him. "Alex?" he said.
"Um, yeah," said Alex.
Dave was dumbfounded. Alex had been one of the younger employees in the office. Dave thought that his real age was somewhere in his mid-twenties. Now he barely looked 6 years old.
Alex looked up at him uncertainly. Dave made up something to say. "I... I just wanted to know if you will have that report done on time tomorrow for the meeting."
"Sure I will," said Alex. "Don't worry about it. I just have a few charts to finish up." It was strange talking with Alex like this about business reports with both of them looking like they belonged in a grade school instead of an office.
"Good. Thanks," Dave said and walked off.
He headed for his secretary and was again surprised to find a small child sitting in her chair. This time, the girl looked barely more than 4 years old. "Janet?"
The little girl turned her chair. She sat on a booster cushion much like the one at his desk, only hers was even taller than his own, leaving her almost eye-level with him while he stood next to her. She was still naked and still noticeably a bit muscular, like a mini-bodybuilder girl. "What can I do for you, sir?" she squeaked in a babyish voice.
"Um," Dave said. "I just wanted to know how you were doing."
"Oh, I'm fine," she said and smiled a cute little smile. "I was just getting through sorting through your mail. I'll have it in your office soon."
"That's great," he said. He paused a moment and decided just to come out and ask her, "Um, do you notice anything strange about the office?"
She looked confused. "'Strange' how?"
"About how the people look?"
She paused and looked around, another girl passed by them, she looked to be about 12, and wore a dress blouse and navy slacks. She carried a pile of file folders with her pressed against her nascent breasts.
"Not that I noticed," Janet said. Then she reached over to her desk and grabbed a spill-proof bottle and took a quick sip from it. "Everything seems normal."
"Okay," said Dave. "Um, one more thing..."
"Yes," she said and put down the kiddy cup.
"I know this is a bit personal, but could you tell me how old you are?"
"Certainly," she said. "I am 18 years old as of last month."
Dave nodded. "Thank you."
"No problem," she said. "I'll get the mail to you soon."
She turned back to her work as he walked away. He made his way to the cubicles and decided to walk down one of the aisles since he was too short to see over them now. He had a suspicion about what had happened, and he knew just the person to look at to confirm it.
He found her at the end of the aisle. Pam was ready to retire sometime that year, meaning that she was somewhere in her mid-sixties. The girl he found in her chair looked to be in her mid-teens. She was a gorgeous and vibrantly youthful young adult now, and she wore a low-cut top to show off her decently large teenage breasts.
"Hi, Pam," he greeted her.
She turned to face him and stood up. "Oh, Dave," she said. "I was just about to come see you." She reached over to take something from a shelf on her wall as Dave marveled at how comparatively tall and mature she appeared to him now. "I have these forms filled out for you," she handed him a stack of pages paperclipped together.
"Thanks, Pam," he said as he took the forms.
"You're welcome," she said and sat back down. "Been doing this job for decades now, and I never miss my deadlines. You can count on me."
Dave smiled. Pam barely looked old enough to drive, let alone to have done anything for decades. He nodded. It was clear to him now what had happened. He excused himself and headed back to his office.
He set down Pam's forms and hopped up on his chair. Sure enough, his feet dangled below him above the floor. He let them start to swing in an alternating rhythm as he figured out the details of what was had happened. "Pam is about 64," he said, doing the math out loud. "Now, she looks 16. That's a quarter of her true age. I used to be 36. Now, I look 9. Again, that's a quarter.That's it. Everyone is aging at only one forth of the normal rate now. They only grow a year every four years." Dave chuckled to himself. "Poor Janet is only 18, and now she looks like she's about 4 and a half. I wonder if she has to sleep in pull ups." The implications were mind-boggling. "Does that mean that people live four times as long? Are there 300-year-old people out there now?" He considered Janet's situation. "I can't imagine growing up like this. God, you wouldn't be able to walk until you were almost four. You might need to wear diapers until you were 8, probably even longer than that." He blew out a whistle. "That's a lot of Pampers." He tried to imagine being in high school while looking like he wasn't even old enough for Kindergarten. Then, of course, so would everyone else. All of grade school and high school would look like one big nursery school. "Well, at least there would be no more teenage pregnancies. I mean, people probably can't even have kids until they're in their 50s at least." He chuckled. "Instead of menopause, a girl in her 40s would be waiting for her menarche." There was so much to consider. "Do people get married older now? Do people stay in school longer? When are people allowed to drive... to smoke... to drink?" He found himself endlessly curious about the new world he lived in. "This is crazy." He smiled. "I mean it's crazy, but I love it."
Just then there was a knock at his door.