The Baby Box

by Chronos

E-mail forwarded to the Author

Other Stories by This Author

 

"That s the last one, son. Are you sure you ve got everything," his dad said.

"Yes, I think so. Unless you can get me a desktop Cray computer," he said with a smile. His Dad gave him a hug and wished him good luck and left him to face his first semester at Woodbridge University.

Wilson Honeysworth was WU's youngest student ever. A lanky kid, and at 14 was smaller than most 14 year olds, standing only 5' 4" and 104 pounds. But he wasn't a bad looking kid, kind of like a young Michael J. Fox. Wilson had graduated High School at ten and after attending three years in a G.A.T.E . program he was accepted at WU with the highest entrances exam scores in the eighty year history of the school.

Wilson was genius in every subject you care to mention, but he shone brightest in theoretical and applied physics. Some privately though he was even more brilliant than Einstein and Hawking combined.

Wilson knew it wasn't going to be easy at college. He had never had it easy. All the other kids teased and tormented him. Even some of his teachers felt intimidated by my his intellect, but this was college and he hoped the other student would act more mature. He settled in and started classes. The first couple of weeks passed without a problem, other than the fact that the class work was little more challenging that the GATE stuff. He was looking forward to working with Professor Morrison in temporal time physics next semester.

The trouble really started on the day the Political Science professor posted the grades from an exam. He graded on a curve and Wilson's grade really made the other students look bad, especially Kirk Justice. Kirk was WU s star quarterback, he had two clear goals in life: NFL Quarterback and, after that, the US Senate. After taking one look at the test scores, Wilson became the biggest threat to Kirk s plans. Wilson s score pushed his grade to failing!!

Kirk had to do something. He was too little and scrawny to simple beat-up by trying to pick a fight, damn! He was going to have to use his brain. Kirk tried to tease and torment him with words and little annoyances. Wilson was surprised to find the harassment amateur at best, and nothing he hadn t seen before and certainly nothing to throw him off in his school work. Then Kirk had a brain storm, in the best tradition of politics he had an idea to send a torpedo Wilson s way and her name was Rachel. Rachel was one of the girls that Kirk kept in his stable. She was bombshell if ever there was one and Kirk talked her into exploding all over little Wilson. She was sultry brunette, standing 5 6" and generously curious from her full and pouting lips to her 38DD down to round butt and shapely legs.

"Get him to tutor you and than tease him till he can t think straight!" Kirk told her. She winked and told him that little Wilson won t know what hit him.

The university didn t think Wilson would fit in traditional dorm life, so they had helped him make arrangements to live in a rented room just off campus. His landlady, the widow of the school s former Biology chairman and a former full Professor herself in genetic micro-therapy. Dr. Tilda Fornel was a nice, but quiet woman of 67, used to the eccentricities of academicians. She had fully retired from the university world after the death of her husband and teenage daughter about twenty-nine years earlier. She left Wilson pretty much to himself. She always kept a dinner warm for him when he didn t get home from the physics department. Which was often. Wilson had pretty much moved into the lab.

The boy had arrived at the university in early June, giving himself a full three months before the start of the fall semester to work with and get acquainted with Dr. Morrison.   Morrison, an oldish man in his late 70s, took an immediate shine to Wilson. Perhaps he saw himself at the same age. Whatever his motives, within weeks, he and Wilson were working together as if they d been doing it for years. Also a member of the Morrison "click" was Daphne Shellworth, a brilliant theorist in quantum physics. She was very tall at 6'5", a thin and lanky girl, awkward around anyplace but a lab. Working on her doctorate, her research skills and analytical mind made her Dr. Morrison s right hand for the past six years.

With her ever-present white lab coat and heavy black-frame glasses, stringy mouse brown hair and features that even a mother could only describe as "interesting," Daphne, at age 26, had already resigned herself to the single life and therefore devoted herself totally to her work. They made quite a sight to anyone who passed the lab. Dr. Morrison, portly and bald, generally wearing last night s dinner on his coat; Daphne, scratching her ear with a piece of chalk until it was almost permanently white; and young Wilson perched on a stool staring at the equations the three had been writing and arguing over for hours.

Morrison had theorized that time travel was possible, but not in the sense of H.G. Wells. He believed that time travel to the past was possible and practical given that it meant moving from one fixed point in the time-space continuum (the present) to another fixed point in the time-space continuum (the past). The future was not possible Morrison felt, since there was a place to leap off, but no place to arrive to. Evidently Hawking didn t think much of his theory, since the last time they argues about it, Hawking took fifteen minutes to work himself into giving Dr. Morrison the raspberries. If Morrison was the brain, it took Wilson and Daphne to come up with a practical application for a theory.

"What s the point of theories, Dr. Morrison," Daphne said. "If you don t try to prove or disprove their validity." Wilson, caught up in the moment s argument, ran to a board and erased three weeks worth of equations in his fervor to sketch out a means of proving or disproving their theories. In a feverish 72 hour stretch, the three worked on constructing a Temporal Time Displacement Accelerator. As the semester started, the team began assembling parts for the TTDA. Classes were something Wilson attended rather perfunctorily. He would have tested out of his classes if his professors would have let him. As it was, he d sit in class, writing and making computations, and making straight 100s on every test without ever paying attention.

By early September the team had begun constructing their device. Morrison kept insisting that form didn t matter as long as it worked. The device was a rectangular box approximately seven feet high and nine feet long. Cables like a mass of black spaghetti erupted from all over the device attaching itself to bank after bank of computers and other materials. Because Dr. Morrison was a Nobel-Laureate in physics, he had the access and pull to get materials and equipment that would have been beyond the university s budget. Without telling anyone (Why worry them), Morrison secured an experimental nuclear fission power source.

FAILURE AND SUCCESS

They were well into October, when disaster befell the team. They were standing around the blackboard arguing, after fourteen tries at getting the TTDA to function had failed. Daphne had raised an obscure point in theoretical mathematics, when Dr. Morrison stopped in mid-sentence and rubbed his forehead.

"Are you all right?" Wilson asked.

"Yes, my boy, I seem to have a headache," he replied. A moment later he slumped to the floor. While Wilson held the old scientist s head in his lap, Daphne called 911. Morrison had a stroke, a serious one.   After spending all that night at the hospital, and most of the next day, Daphne and Wilson were told by a doctor to go home.

"There s nothing you can do for Professor Morrison right now. He needs his rest. He s suffered a severe stroke, but I think he s out of danger. His left side is paralyzed and he can t speak. If you come back in a couple of days, I ll let you in to see him, but not before."   Wilson and Daphne returned to campus. Almost by mutual agreement they didn t see each other for a couple of days.

KIRK S PLOT  

True to her word Rachel set out like a cruise missile. She got Wilson s phone number from a student aid in the records room and called him.

"Hi, is this Wilson?"

"Yes, who s calling please."

"Hi, my name s Rachel Murning. You don t know me but, I ve heard your the smartest guy on campus. And I really need some help understanding calculus. Do you think you could spare an hour to help me out."   With the failure of the experiment and Dr. Morrison s stroke, Wilson had a lot a time on hands. He felt he could spare an hour or so, besides she sounded cute. He agreed and nearly fell off his chair when he she told him to come over to Sigma Iota Phi. Even he knew that you had to beautiful and stacked to be a Sigma lota Phi!!!

"Great! I ll see you at 4 p.m."   Wilson s eyes nearly popped out of his head. As he walk passed the entrance, there were girls lounging everywhere and wearing practicality nothing. It was like something out of a T&A film. He sat down and all the women gathered around him and flirted intensely with him. The smell of their perfume and the closeness of so many beautiful and sexy women had his head was racing and his heart pounding. Then, like the parting of the Red Sea, the women moved and there was Rachel. She was wearing skintight workout short and top.

"Hi Wilson! Thanks for coming over to help me with my studies. Come on, lets go up to my room." She said and took him by the hand pulled him out of the chair. Wilson found it very hard to walk and a cover his hard-on at the same time.   They went up to her room and he sat down, feeling very uncomfortable about being aroused. It s not that he hadn t been aroused before, just never in front of a real live girl. Not mention ten of them.

"You don t mind if I change into something more comfortable do you." She innocently, but with a wicked smile on her face. She stepped into the bathroom and purposely left the door open a little so if Wilson looked he could catch a glimpse of her changing. Her every action was choreographed to be as She slung out of the bathroom, wearing a pair of silk shorts and matching crop top, she had removed her bra and her large heavy breasts moved provocatively beneath thin material.

"You know Wilson your very cute. I m going to find it hard to keep my mind on my studies." She said as she sat on the bed in a coy pose.

"Wha ... what do you mean?" He finally managed to croak.

"I like you Wilson! I ve been dating that macho Kirk, but all he ever talks about is sports. I think I could like a silent intellectual type like you for a change," she said as she took him by the hand and led him over to the bed.

"Would you like a soda?" she asked.

"Sure."   With her back to him, Rachel shook the can as hard as she could. When Wilson popped the top, he was sprayed with jets of cola.

"Oh, Wilson, I m so sorry, You re clothes are covered."   Rachel innocently offered to let Wilson use her shower while she threw his clothes in the washer down the hall, that way, she said, they could study while his things were cleaned. Wilson took his shower, but had nothing to put on, so he stayed wrapped in his towel while he started to explain elementary calculus to Rachel, who all the time, ran her finger seductively around his ear.

"Wilson?" Rachel interrupted. "Would you like to kiss me? I mean, if you d like to, that would be okay with me?"

"Really?" he stammered.

She nodded her head seductively and started to rub her hand up and down his naked and hairless chest. He felt his penis stiffen as Rachel moved and pressed her large soft breast against his arm. He was paralyzed. She proceeded to strip the towel off poor Wilson whose 14-year-old body was willing to make up in lust what it lacked in size.

"My," Rachel purred and she took him in two fingers. "I ve never seen one this small and cute before, and so little hair. Not like that big old hairy Kirk. I ll bet your going to be quite a man when you grow up."

At that moment the door burst open and in came Kirk.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MY GIRLFRIEND!" he yelled.

Rachel leaped and squealed, "Kirk! It s about time you got here!"

"So Brainiac, messing with my girl. It s not bad enough that you wreck my grades. I ought to kick your skinny ass all the way across the quad."

Kirk began slapping Wilson across the face, neck and shoulders. Wilson was soon crying in pain, knotted up in a fetal ball on the floor.

"Don t hurt him, Kirk," Rachel yelled. "He s just a kid."

"Yeah, you re right, he s not worth getting in trouble with the Dean over. All right twerp, you ve got five seconds to leave."

Wilson staggered to his feet, tears in his eyes and nose blooded. "I need my clothes," he said.

"Well you should have thought of that before you tried to put that pitiful teeny-weenie into Rachel. Git!"

"But my clothes ...." Wilson insisted.

"I ll give you clothes," Kirk smiled as he threw Wilson the towel. "Put that on."  

Wilson started to wrap himself in the towel, when Kirk stopped him.

"No, I want you to pull it through your legs and knot it on both sides like a diaper. It s either that or walk home naked. Make up your mind."

Wilson, white as sheet, tied the towel around his loins. Kirk picked up his baseball bat and swung it at Wilson s head. Wilson leap out of the bed after the bat had passed over him and he darted for the door and down the stairs. The place was still filled with the sorority women, but now they were laughing cruelly.

He ran, naked but for his diaper towel, out the front door where Kirk s frat buddies were waiting with buckets of cold water and doused him. The door behind him closed and locked. The frat guys disbursed laughing.

Standing there drenched, he heard Rachel calling his name. Looking up, he saw Rachel and Kirk in the window, fondling and kissing each other. Then she stopped and threw a bundle out to him. It was his clothes, wet and tied in knots so hard, he couldn t get them untied. Picking them up, he walked slowly across the campus toward his boardinghouse, oblivious to the laughs and taunts being directed at him

FIRST SUCCESS  

Wilson retreated back to the only place he felt safe and secure on campus, Dr. Morrison s darkened and deserted lab. Letting himself into the locked lab -- only he, Daphne and Dr. Morrison had keys -- he sat on his favorite stool and did something he hadn t done since he was a very small boy -- he cried.

When he s gotten it out of his system, he stared for what seemed like hours at the blackboard. At some point his brain, unused to activity, began scanning the jumble of symbols and formulas on the board. His eye caught something.

"That s not right," he thought. "And if that s not right, then this part is wrong, and if this part s wrong, that means this equation is off as well."

With a fever, Wilson began checking and rechecking the computations. After several hours of work, he stopped and stared at the results.

"Of course it didn t work," he thought. "It couldn t have with the computers programmed the way we had them."   In the midst of his reverie, the door open and Daphne came in. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Look Daphne, look," Wilson cried, pulling her to the blackboard. "We had it wrong here, here and here, but we didn t notice."

"I did those figures myself," Daphne huffed. "I know they were right."

"Of course they were right," Wilson agreed. "But the problem was the information that you started with was wrong."

After reviewing his data, she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "It ll work," she said, breaking into a smile.

"Of course, it will," Wilson beamed. "We could make the modifications in a few hours. Test it and then break the news to Dr. Morrison. I know that the knowledge his theory was right will help him recover."

Suiting action to words, the two let themselves into locked and secure room holding the TTDA proto-type. It took close to eleven hours for even these two geniuses to program, reprogram, test, and debug their system. Finally, after more than 24 hours of straight work, the two sat at the console and looked at each other.

"Well, Daphne, that s the 20th test and the results are once again positive, I think we ve got it."

"So do I Wilson, but there s only one way to find out."

"I agree, and I volunteer."

"No Wilson, I think I should go. You have more knowledge of the operating system and the hardware than I do. We know the math is right, if there s a problem, it will be with the hardware, and that s your department."

Wilson reluctantly agreed.

"Before we go zapping each other off to the Roman Empire, we d better run a few smaller, less ambitious tests," Wilson said.

"Agreed," she replied.

"So how far back do you want to go for the first try?" Wilson asked.

"I don t know, how about a year?"

Daphne stepped to the front of the TTDA and activated the opening mechanism. A door silently opened and she entered the chamber. On the voice monitor, he heard her call out that she was ready.

"I m going to take this slow, Daphne. I don t want it to be a shock to your system."

"Okay."   Wilson initiated the program sequence and a flat computer voice sounded out a countdown.   Three, two, one .......   Wilson saw a blue sphere of light form and coalesce around Daphne. The TTDA power built in intensity. Then shut down. Nothing.  

Wilson called through the monitor, "Daphne, are you there? Are you okay?"

"Yes, on both counts, Wilson. What happened."

"Well the machine shows that a temporal time bubble formed around you, just as we predicted, but you didn t go into the past."

"Well let s not give up yet, Let s try going further back."

"How far?"

"Set it for 20 years. If I don t disappear into the past this time, then we ll know something is wrong with what we re doing."

"Okay, but I m going to use the lowest setting on the machine, just in case. Ready?"   Daphne gave the thumbs up and Wilson once again initiated the program sequence. Again the computer voiced the countdown and again a sphere of blue light formed around Daphne, This time the TTDA stayed on-line even longer, but the results were once again the same.

"Daphne, something s wrong, it s not working, you d better come out," he said into the monitor, sounded dejected.

"It should have worked," Daphne said upon exiting. "What went wrong?"

I don t know? But I m too tired to think anymore tonight, and we haven t been to see Dr. Morrison."   Daphne nodded in agreement and by mutual consent, they shut the system down and left for the hospital. Dr. Morrison s condition had not changed, but they were allowed to visit for 15 minutes.

Depressed from the failure of the TTDA and their visit to their mentor, the two rode home in silence in Daphne s 1980 Honda Civic. They stopped for a burger and ate in silence. Wilson kept going over the equations over and over in his mind. He looked over at Daphne, suspecting she was doing the same. Daphne looked different somehow, but couldn t put his finger on it.

"Did you change your hair?"

"No, why?"

"Nothing I guess."

DAPHNE S SURPRISE  

Daphne dropped Wilson off at his landlady s -- the first time he'd been home in over a week. On a spur of the moment, Daphne returned to the lab. Sitting in a desk chair before the board, Daphne began running all the equations from the beginning. Over the next hour, her thoughts were constantly interrupted by a shivering sensation that rippled across her body.

"I hope I m not catching something," she thought. Looking down she noticed her stockings had developed wrinkles.

"Cheap pantyhose," she thought. They must have stretched." standing she grasped the top of the hose through her dress and hiked them up. It was then she noticed her lab coat seemed to have gotten bigger on her. Her hands didn t come all the way out of the cuffs anymore. Then she noticed that all her clothes felt loose on her. Looking down her dress, which normally fell to just below her knees, she saw it now fell to almost mid shin.

"What s going on?" she thought. "Mirror, where s a mirror?"   Letting herself out of the lab, she left in such a hurry that she left her keys and purse behind her. Walking swiftly down the hall, she entered the Ladies Room. Fumbling, she found a light switch and turned it on. Facing the mirrored sink, she gasped at her reflection. Her dress and lab coat hung on her, her frame had shrunk nearly six inches, Daphne in a little more than two hours had gone from a 26 year old woman to a 16 year old girl.  

Daphne blinked and rubbed her eyes, but the 16 year old was still there. Suddenly she realized that the TTDA did work! It was sending her back in time but not the way they had envisioned it!

"Let s see, the first test was a year, and then twenty years. If I m about 16 than that s a year about every 11 minutes, if the rate is constant .... "

"OOPS" She said aloud when she realized she was going to be a five-year-old in about an hour ...... but her thoughts were interrupted by another shiver and the girl in the mirror suddenly became younger again.  

She actually saw her height decrease right before her eyes, loosing two inches in a moment. Her face the angularity of her jaw softened and her nose became smaller. The youthening was speeding up! She looked no more then 14 now, but strangely enough she liked it. Her face was actually pretty now. She had forgotten that she had once looked this way before she grew so lanky. She liked looking like the other girls and not some awkward oversized giant.

"Wouldn t it be nice to be a normal sized woman," she thought, but the problem was she wasn t a woman anymore. She was barely more than a child.  

She looked down at her ridiculously large clothing. Her shoes looked like boats on her feet. She tried to take a step toward the door but she started tripping over the hem of her dress which was puddling on the floor around her. She felt her cheeks turn red when her panties and pantyhose piled around her feet and ankles. Being a practical woman, Daphne removed her clothes, and redressed herself only in her lab coat. It was huge, but she could maneuver in it. She rolled up the sleeves so much that they looked like large donuts around her wrists. She gathered up her clothes and headed back to the lab, only to discover it was locked and she had left everything thing in the lab.

"Great! Locked out and turning into a child." she said. She had to find Wilson.

STUCK FOR THE TIME BEING  

Wilson was sitting in his room reading. He had always retreated into study when he was upset or depressed, it kept his mind from dwelling too much on his own problems. He d been reading books from Dr. and Dr. Fornel s library. He noticed that the Fornel s had clearly been ahead of their time, describing subjects such as cloning, gene slicing, genetic manipulation years before the rest of the world caught up. Evidently the couple wrote everything jointly, because he could find no materials by his landlady after the death of her husband.  

The last article they published before his death was a theory of gene splicing back in late 1968 -- or as they put it sharing genetic information between human and maybe between species. Cutting and pasting of traits .....  

PLINK ......  

Wilson looked up from the journals to the window where the sound had just come from.  

PLINK .......  

Something hit the window pane again. He cautiously moved too the windows and peeked out. Some one was standing outside on the lawn. It looked like a little girl dressed in a white coat that was clearly too large for her. She saw Wilson peek and waved frantically. Wilson open the window.

"Wilson! Thank God. Let me in. We ve got to talk!"

"Who are you?"

"It s me, Daphne! Let me in. It s freezing out here. I ll explain everything."  

Wilson went down and opened the door. There stood a girl wearing an oversized coat, she couldn t be any older than eleven.

"It s about time. Jeep, did you want me to catch pneumonia?" She said.

"Wait a minute, your not Daphne."

"Wrong! Thanks for being in on the show." she quipped. "The TTDA worked, but not like we thought. It was suppose project us back in time and it has -- but just our corporeal selves. In other words, it s just my physical body moving back in time. Thank God, we didn t set it a time before I existed!"  

She paused as another shiver ran through her again and right in front of Wilson s eyes she became younger, slipping back to a nine year old.

"It IS you." He said in almost a whisper. "Yes!" she said smiling, her teeth now showing the normal gaps of a pre-pubescent child. "And I think it s speeding up as I get smaller. It was a year every 11 minutes before, but it s been a lot less than that since my last regression and I just felt myself slip back some more."

"We d better get back to the lab. And see if we can reverse this."  

By the time they returned to the lab Daphne was a five year old, stumbling over the hem of her coat. She had such a hard time maneuvering that Wilson finally stooped over and carried her protesting in his arms. Back at the lab, Wilson powered up the TTDA and the computers. Daphne entered the chamber.

"I m going to use more power. Based on what we ve seen, using more power should speed it up." He told her.

"I m ready, but be careful, I don t want to wind up spread all over this lab like goo." She lisped in her child voice.  

Wilson entered 21 as the displacement factor and 90% on power input and ran the sequence. The computer voice sounded "Three, two, one ......."  

The blue sphere of light form and coalesce again around Daphne. The TTDA power built in intensity, until there was a loud bang the system went dark. Wilson ran to the chamber and opened the door. Daphne was a little dazed, but she seemed to be all right.

"What happened." She asked, still holding her head.

"I think I used too much power."  

Daphne felt the now familiar feeling but this time it was much stronger. She moaned softly and quickly aged to eight, another wave and she aged to twelve. "Well, it looks like I m heading back to beanpole city."  

Yet another wave an she aged again to fourteen, but then, abruptly, her aging stopped. A smell of ozone and burnt wiring filled the lab as Daphne exited the machine.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"I don t know," he replied. "I m figuring that I tried to run too much power through the capacitor relay and it burned out, initiating a cascade effect."

"In other words, I m screwed," she concluded.

"Pretty much so," Wilson agreed. "At least until we repair the TTDA." "Well, what am I going to do?" Daphne asked, holding up the arms of her now oversized labcoat. "I can t go back to my apartment, because I d get stopped trying to drive. I have nothing to wear, and even if I could get back to my apartment, it wouldn t help because none of my clothes fit me now."   She turned and perched on top of Wilson s stool, a study in pique, with her smaller teenage chin resting on her fist.

"Well, maybe some of my stuff will fit you," Wilson offered. "We re nearly the same size now. And at least it would be better than walking around with nothing on by a labcoat."

"Wearing boys clothes!" she muttered. "Who d have thought it d come to that!  

She stood and pulled the coat down and look at her chest, there was barely a rise where her breasts should have been. She unbuttoned the top button of the coat and peered down her front. "Nothing much there to cover up," she chagrined. "I never had all that much upstairs, but now I almost have less than nothing."  

In her mind, she could hear the taunts of her junior high and high school classmates ..... "Flatty Patty! Flatty Patty! Any new developments, Daphne?"

"God, don t tell me I have to go through that again!"  

Wilson put his arm on Daphne s shoulder and awkwardly patted it. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so. You know, being an ugly grown-up is bad enough, but I just don t think I go could face being a teenager again if I had to go through what I did last time. You just don t know what it s like Wilson -- being a girl, being smart, being awkward, being tall. Getting jumped ahead in grades. Everyone looking at you like you re a freak at the same time they re looking up at you because you re so tall. You just don t know."   Daphne started to cry softly.  

Wilson smiled and said, "Yeah, I don t much about being tall -- and all that girl stuff, but the rest of it is the story of my life."   He quietly, and with little emotion, told Daphne about his encounter with Rachel and Kirk, and what they had done to him.

"The bastards!" she said hotly. "Why didn t you call me. I ve got half a mind to go over to her room right now and give her a piece of my mind."

"Why don t you wait until you re in a better position to tell her," Wilson said with a laugh, pointing at her present appearance. "Right now, I d doubt she s take you seriously!"

Daphne smiled, held her arms akimbo and looked down at her diminished frame and laughed as well. She turned back to Wilson and realized that for the first time since she d known him that they were looking at each other nearly eye to eye. She leaned forward and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. Wilson broke into a blush, stammering. This made Daphne laugh even more, feeling as much like a teenage on the inside as she did in appearance. Poking him in the ribs, she leaned forward and kissed him again, this time on the forehead.  

Wilson began backing up, but Daphne had grabbed his hands and was trying to kiss him again. Wilson ran out of back-up room and bumped his head into the wall. Daphne, reached up and encircled his neck with her arms.

"Don t run, Wilson, I don t bite," she said, and before she realized it, she kissed him fully on the lips. Wilson, almost shivering, held his lips tightly together. Slowly, she kissed him harder, and gradually he responded, and before she even realized it, she had opened her mouth and slipped her tongue lightly inside of his  

She broke away from Wilson s lips, but her arms still held him about the neck. She head fell to one side in the classic look of puzzlement.

"You know, I never realized until know how much I liked you. I guess I knew it before but -- you know -- I m 26 and you re a kid, no offense, but now .... You re the first guy I ever met that I ever really liked and you re too young for me!"  

MAKING A FEW ADJUSTMENTS  

Tilda Fornel was quietly reading a book in the study when she heard the front door open and close.

"Wilson s home early, I wonder if he s hungry?" she thought.  

Passing to the kitchen, Tilda retrieved his dinner from the stove, covered it and took it up to his room. Behind Wilson s door, she could hear muffled voices.

"Wilson, it s me. I ve brought your dinner. May I come in?"

"Just a minute!" THUMP "I ll be right there!"  

BANG   THUMP   THUMP  

The door opened and there stood Wilson looking extremely guilty about something. Behind Wilson was another young boy about Wilson s age.

"Who s your friend Wilson?"

"Dap..... I mean Davy. A guy I met on campus."

"Nice to meet you Davy, have you known Wilson long?"  

The boy just shook his head. Tilda thought he was rather a strange looking boy.

"Are you hungry Davy?"

"Yes, ma am, thank you. I haven t eaten all day."  

When Tilda left, Daphne turned and punched Wilson in the arm.

"Davy????? Davy????? What were you thinking of."

"Well what was I supposed to say .... Excuse me Dr. Fornel, but you remember my colleague Dr. Daphne Shellworth. Yes I know she used to rather much taller than 5'5' and much older than she is now, but you see I stuck her in a time machine earlier tonight and turned her into a five-year-old. Right now, she s stuck at 14, until we can fix the machine. Yes, thank you, I will have another cookie." Wilson said sarcastically.

"Well, when you put it that way ...." Daphne said, squirming.

"What s the matter?"

"I need to pee. Where s the bathroom?"  

Daphne went down the hall and closed the door. As Tilda came up the stairs she heard the unmistakable sound of a female urinating. As small smile crossed her lips as she let herself back into Wilson s room. When Daphne rejoined them, Wilson was sitting in a chair staring at the floor looking very guilty.

"So Daphne, just how did you get yourself into this mess?"

TILDA BUYS IN  

All in all, Tilda took the two youngster s story with aplomb.

"So how long will it take you to repair the equipment?"

"We estimate 10-12 hours, if we both work on it," Daphne said. "I just had to have something to wear, I was cold in nothing but a lab coat."

"How long do you figure it would take if three people worked on repairs?" Tilda asked.   Daphne made a face, like she didn t want to hurt Tilda s feelings by saying the work was above her level of comprehension, but Wilson interrupted her.

"Those journals and books in the library by Dr. and Dr. Fornel -- that was you and your husband?"   Tilda nodded. "After Benjy and our daughter Marie were killed in the car wreck, I just lost interest in the academic/research fast track. Benjy and I had a number of high paying patents from our work. I lived off the interest and became a recluse. I was 37. I felt that I had died in that wreck with them. But after a few years, I started working again, but not like before. Just here, by myself. I ve been trying to carry on the work Benjy and I started. Philbert -- Dr. Morrison -- and I have been old and dear friends for a number of years. Did you think it was an accident that you wound up here, Wilson? Now, I ask again, did you want my help?"  

Daphne and Wilson nodded.

"Right!" Tilda said. "But before we go, let s see if we can t do something about your clothes Daphne. I think I still have a few of Marie s things about. You won t be much in style, but for the time you ll be in them, I guess they ll do."  

Grasping Daphne by the hand, Tilda told Wilson to eat while they got changed. Daphne was taken down the hall to a closed room. Opening it, she stepped back in time to an era nearly five years before her birth. It was obviously a young girl s room. Posters on the walls were The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and others. A large "Give a Damn" button was attached to a bulletin board. Tilda looked about with a sigh, but quickly recovered and opened a closet.  

Pulling out several pieces of clothing an throwing them on the bed, she told Daphne to see if there was anything she liked or that might fit her. Daphne picked up a peasant dress and held it against her body. Marie and she must have been nearly the same height, and she asked Tilda how old her daughter had been.

"She was 16 going on 60," Tilda said with a laugh. "You kids can t even begin to imagine what a college campus was like back in the 60s. We were going to change the world. Marie and her father were on their way to an anti-war rally when a drunk crossed left of center and killed them both. My baby was going to change the world, and she couldn t even save herself," Tilda said bursting into tears.  

Daphne, crying herself, hugged Tilda. They both looked at each other and smiled. Tilda raised her hand and brushed a lock of hair from Daphne s face. "You re a very lovely girl, Daphne."   Daphne snorted, "I m a lot of things, Tilda, but pretty ain t one of them! Look at me. This is about the only time in my life that I can remember looking like what a real girl should. When I step into that chamber and accelerate beyond 15 years, I ll shoot up so fast if I don t duck, I ll hit my head on the ceiling."  

Tilda opened a chest of drawers and brought out some underclothes. "They re clean, I assure you."   Stripping, Daphne put on the panties, but held up the bra and laughed. "This would be five sizes too big on me even after I m back to an adult!"  

Daphne picked out the peasant dress and Tilda helped her tie her hair back. "Are you so unhappy?" Tilda asked her.  

Daphne paused, "I have my work. I think the world of Wilson and Dr. Morrison, but I suspect that I ll grow old alone."  

Tilda walked over and gave the young girl a motherly hug, saying, "Let s go get you back to your right age."

PAYING THE PRICE  

Grabbing Wilson, the threesome made their way back to the lab. Any doubts that either of them had whether Tilda could be of some help were quickly erased, as she quickly and expertly began repairing damaged computer boards.

"Where??? How???" Daphne sputtered, as she saw Tilda knee deep a wad of cords.

"I told you I worked on my own for a the past 20 years. What do you think I used -- a Bunsen burner and a microscope? I may have dropped out, but I stayed up with the equipment. Have you ever heard of a virtual imaging system? That s mine. I wanted to be able to plot genetic sequencing and the technology didn t exist to do it. So before I could proceed, I spent a couple of years sorting that out," she said with a smile. "Hand me that wire stripper, will you dear?"  

Morning came and went, as did the afternoon. Around 6 p.m., the three suddenly that they hadn t eaten all day. They had finished the repairs but Tilda suggested eating before attempting to age Daphne back to 26. Wilson offered to go over to the snack bar and get some food.  

After he left, Tilda asked Daphne what they planned to do with the TTDA once it was repaired.

"I really hadn t thought," she answered. "Up till now, all of our energy was focused on getting it to work."

"You know, in the wrong hands, this could be a dangerous toy. I mean, it s literally a Fountain of Youth. You re living proof. You re a 26 year old woman who was rejuvenated into a child and then a teen, with no after effects. Can you imagine what some people might pay for that?"

"I don t know what we ll do with it, after all, despite all of my work and Wilson s, the entire concept is really Dr. Morrison s and he can t even enjoy it."  

Tilda knitted her brows in thought, "Have you considered the possibility of exposing Philbert to the TTDA s capabilities. You know -- shave a few years off of him, give him his health back?"  

Daphne s eyes widened. "Of course," she exclaimed. "Why didn t I think of that! We could rejuvenate him to a state before his stroke! Hell, we could make him a young man again."

"Well before we do that, we d better find out whether or not the TTDA would have a detrimental effect on an older person."

"How can we do that?"

"Well, we could try it on me first, take off a few years. If nothing goes wrong, we get Philbert over here somehow and rejuvenate him"  

As the two women conversed, Kirk looked out the window of Rachel s sorority and saw a sight that made him pissed. The little twerp was still on campus, he could see him walking across the quad to the Science building.

"I thought you said that would send him packing home to Mummy and Daddy!" Kirk yelled at Rachel.

"Enough is enough," he thought. I m going to go do something about that little prick right now."  

Grabbing his jersey, he headed toward the science building, followed by Rachel.

"What about the party?"

"It won t take long to knock the crap out of him." Kirk assured her as he slammed his fist into his hand. They walked into the darkened building. Rachel tugged on his jersey. "He hangs out in the lab, it this way," she whispered. The outer door to the lab was still open, so the quietly slipped into the room. There was a light under one of the doors. A window with blinds allowed Kirk and Rachel to see inside the inner room. The voices were muffled, but they could see Wilson and some other kid, a girl in a hippie dress. Both of them seemed to be talking to someone inside of the big box thing sitting in the middle of the floor.  

Kirk tried the handle to the door, but it was locked. They could hear the hum of machinery inside and flash of light. Rachel hissed at Kirk to return. In the room was another person -- a woman -- an old bat probably in her 40s or 50s.  

When Wilson returned, Daphne and Tilda confronted him with their idea. He saw the merit, but was not willing to use Tilda as a test subject for Dr. Morrison.

"Wilson, we need to know if the process will work on older people, or will it cause too much strain on their systems. I m the logical candidate to try. Test it on me, if we succeed, we ll age Daphne and then go see about getting Philbert over here."  

Wilson couldn t argue with her logic. She entered the TTDA and held up her hand. They decided to run three tests -- reducing her 5, 10 and then 20 years. If successful, Tilda would have entered the TTDA at age 67 and emerged at 32. Wilson set displacement factor and calibrated the power input back to 90% and then ran the sequence.  

They watched the now familiar bubble form around Tilda. Even before the machine had completely shut down it was obvious that it had made her a few years younger. After signaling that there were no problems, Wilson reset the machine for 10 years. Within minutes, Tilda had gone from a vigorous sexagenarian to handsome woman in her early fifties.

"Exiting the box, Tilda smiled and said she hadn t felt this good in years! It was at this point that Rachel and Kirk spied into the room. Although they couldn t hear what was going on, they saw Tilda enter the chamber, a flash of light, and then saw he change before their eyes. Within moments, Tilda s body youthened until she stood before them at age 32.

"What do you make of that?" Rachel whispered.  

I dunno, some kind of body building machine?" he answered. "You saw her, she looked like shit going in, now she s all slimmed down and toned up. It must be a body building machine. You know honey, I smell an opportunity."  

Wilson and Tilda were eating sandwiches when they heard a knock on the door.

"Campus security, the outer door was open, are you all right in there?"  

Daphne motioned that she would get it, but as she opened the door, a burly shoulder hit the frame and knocked her aside. Kirk grabbed her by the arm and dragged her in front of him.

"What s going on in here? Having a little party? Gotta new gizmo you want to share with your friends?"  

Wilson and Tilda jumped up and started toward Kirk. She spun Daphne into Rachel s arms. Rachel grabbed Daphne s hair in her fist and cruelly twisted it. Kirk slammed his fist into Wilson, doubling him up in agony on the floor. Before Tilda could say a word, Kirk slapped her hard across the face, drawing blood.

"Sit down and shut up bitch, before I really hurt you."  

Taking cord and duck tape, Kirk tied the three to chairs and taped their mouths shut. Turning to the TTDA, he looked it over.

"We watched your little demonstration," he said. "This is some neat trick, sort of a body developer, huh? Well, maybe this is something you could share with your old buddy, Kirk, huh Wilson?" he said as he pinched Wilson s cheek and then slapped it. "Now which of you geniuses is going to show me the on button?"  

The three looked at each other, but Tilda motioned to remove her gag.

"Yeah, lady, we saw what this box did for you. You looked like shit going in, but you come out a babe. What s the score? And don t try kidding me, I ain t stupid."

"Well, as you guessed, the device works on human muscle and bone tissue -- I suppose you could call it a growth mechanism." Tilda said, as Wilson and Daphne looked at her with wide eyes.

"In women, it accelerate the bio-morphic structure of the body, for want of a better word, making you more beautiful." Tilda put her hands to her 36 C sized breasts. "Before entering the machine, I was a 32 A"  

Rachel s eyes widened.

"Before you entered, we were preparing to run Wilson through the machine. If our calculations are correct, he would grow within a hour or so into a man who could kick your puny little ass to the state capitol and back."

"Be nice," Kirk smiled as he slapped her. "So how does it work?"

"Well I m afraid there s no on or off button, it would take two of us to operate the machine."  

Rachel and Kirk looked at each other and nodded. Rachel replaced the tape. We re going to leave you guys for a few minutes and get a few of our friends to come by for a demonstration. If this thing doesn t live up to expectations, I suspect we ll be pretty upset -- get my meaning...."  

Kirk and Rachel hurried back over to the NAME frat were the pajama party was just about to get started.

"Tony, Vince and Meatball! Get over here!" Kirk barked.  

The star receiver, running back and offense guard came at their Quarterback s call.

"Hey, you guys want kick the crap outta State this Sunday?" He said and they all nodded their heads. "Good, come with me."  

Rachel found three of here closest sorority sisters. Candy, Beth and Melody they were the best looking and most endowed as well as the most notorious bitches on campus.

"How would you all like to be prettier and have bigger boobs, too?"

"Yeah, sure Rachel," they all laughed at her.

"No! It's for real. That little geek Wilson has invented some beauty machine. I saw this ugly bag go in and come out a babe."  

That got their attention, and intrigued by Rachel's enthusiasm, they agreed to go. They returned after a few minutes Kirk and Rachel returned with three other jocks and bimbos in tow.

"Now, I'm gonna untie you two. DON'T try and do anything stupid. Understand." He warned as he untied and removed the tape from Wilson and Tilda.

"All right this is what your gonna do. Your gonna run Vince here through you little toy. And if he's hurt your gonna hurt understand."  

Wilson and Tilda exchanged glances. Vince stepped into the chamber with some protest about having to be the first, but Kirk said if he ever wanted to make a touchdown again while he was Kirk was quarterback he'd better do as he was told.  

Tilda asked Vince his age, saying she needed to calibrate the settings. Wilson watched as Tilda keyed in the information. She set the displacement level at 19 years and the power level at 35%. His eyes widened as he realized her plan. At this setting Vince would be little more than an infant in less than two hours. Everyone watched as a now familiar blue bubble formed around Vince for a few moments and then shut down. The door opened and Vince stepped out looking no different.

"I told you if you messed with me I was gonna..." Kirk hissed.

"That's to be expected. All of you are in great shape. I was flabby and down right homely. Vince and, well, you! Look at you, your practically Adonis" Tilda said, laying it on thick.  

She knew Kirk s type and flattery will get you every where with them. One by one they all stepped into the TTDA. Wilson adjusted the power and displacement levels constant to keep them regressing at the same rate.

"Hate to bulk and run, but we ve gotta party to get to. So if you would both take a seat we can get going," Kirk said pointing to the chairs.  

Wilson looked frantically at Tilda. "It'll be all right. Just do what he says." She replied calmly and sat down.

"Oh, and wonder boy! Don't get any ideas about running your self through that toy of yours. You may get big and strong, but me and my friends here could still kick your butt. So don't even try it." Kirk said as he bound and gagged them again.

"Nighty-night," he said as he turned off the light and locked the lab door.

TIME MARCHES BACK  

The liquor was flowing and the music was loud. Kirk and his buddies started pounding the brews down and making muscle man poses as soon as the stripped off their pant and shirts for the pajama party.  

The girl ran upstairs to change. They stripped down look at themselves and each other for any improvements to their beauty. Rachel looked at her face and it seemed softer and fresher looking.

"Look! Look at my face!" She said excitedly. They all looked agreed.  

Rachel put on a pink bra that was barley enough to cover her "DD" darlings and matching panties with hose, garters pumps. Candy put on a silky baby-doll, socks and pumps. Beth wore silk boxers and a matching crop top and Melody wore a spaghetti strap negligee that plunged to show generous amount of her abundant cleavage. The girls giggled about how sexy they were going to be and joined the party.  

Rachel breezed through the crowd of scantily clad collage students until she found Kirk. "Do I look any prettier yet." Kirk regarded her face and thought that she did look better! Her face was much fresher looking.

"Yeah, babe, you do look better."  

She squealed with delight and dance provocatively right at Kirk. Kirk looked at his buddies and flexed his biceps and downed another beer.  

The other girls looked at each other and noticed that they looked better too, fresher and younger looking. They couldn't wait for their tits to start getting bigger as well, and they were checking them every few minutes.  

Kirk and his buddies were getting drunker by the minute and it convinced them that they were getting larger when in actuality their muscles were becoming less and less mature.   Rachel was dancing when her boob suddenly pop out of her bra. She gasped and looked at her girlfriends. "I guess this bra is getting too small?" She giggled as she slipped it back in the cup. It was then she noticed that her bra was too large instead of too small. The others checked themselves and to their shock they seemed smaller too!

"What the hell is going on Rachel? I thought you said this thing was gonna make us bigger." Candy said as she looked at herself in the Jack Daniel's mirror. "I don t look sexier ... I look like ... like a high schooler, Rachel!"  

They looked at each other intently. Rachel's once impressive rack was smaller and higher on her chest. Beth's crop top was looking less cropped and Melody's negligee was starting to hang on her.

"Lets find the guys" Rachel said.  

After a few minutes they found them in the kitchen, a group of drunk seventeen year old boys.  

"Kirk! Kirk!? Something happening to us." She pleaded with him, but he was too far drunk to listen.

"Come on girls lets get them into the bedroom and decide what to do."  

They gathered up the incoherent boys and guided them into a back bed room. It was all the girls could do to get four groping, laughing and horny teens into a room. Melody lost her negligee when Vince lost his balance and grabbed it for stability. The straps broke and it slipped off slimming shoulders and piled around her legs. She gasped in shock at the sight of her nearly nude body. Her figure was slimmer and tighter and her breasts smaller and higher on her chest, even her nipples and aureoles were smaller and a lighter shade of pink.  

They laid them down. The girls were shocked at how young they appeared. Hairless faces and chests.

"O my God" Candy whispered at the sight of the nearly nude Melody. She had seen Melody nude often in the sorority and was surprised at how much she had changed. Melody ran to a mirror to see a seventeen year old staring back.  

The others joined her to look at themselves just a shiver ran through each of them and the faces staring back changed, suddenly regaining a look of innocent adolescence.  

Rachel stood numbly in shock and disbelief at the fifteen year old in the mirror -- and her far less developed figure that only yesterday was one of the best on campus was now a mere C cup again. Her bra and panty outfit looked silly on her now Candy looked around at the boys.

"Hey, the guys are getting younger, too." She said in a girlishly high sounding voice.   The shrinking size of their bodies was intensifying the effect of the alcohol and they had passed out cold. The girls struggled with the boys to get them all in the bed. Kirk, Tony and Vince were pretty easy as the effect of all the muscle building was disappearing. As the finished pulling Meatball up in the bed, now a pudgy fifteen year old they all felt another shiver and watched each other slip further back toward adolescence.  

Rachel let out a soft gasp as her bra, garter and hose slipped off her thirteen year old body. He breasts were now only pointy little cones topped with petite pink nipples. Beth's boxers had dropped around her ankles exposing her sparse downy little pubes. Candy's baby-doll was finally too large for her and it too slipped off her youthening body.

"O, Rachel! Let's forget about them. We've gotta get back over to that lab before we become children." Candy pleaded in a little girls voice.

"OK, we need to find something to fit us if were going across campus. They dug in the drawers and under the bed. It wasn't easy to find something that each could wear and as the felt ready to go, the now familiar shiver hit them again.  

Rachel let out a cry that changed pitch as her body returned to pre-pubescence. The room seemed to grow larger around them. They looked at each other and started to cry at the sight of four pathetic looking eleven year olds. Rachel's auburn locks was now barely shoulder length.  

Only a few moments passed this time before another wave hit them, reducing them nine year olds. They made a valiant attempt to leave for the lab, but they had forgotten that a party was raging between them and the door and scurried back into the room just as they regressed again to five year olds.  

No one heard the cries of the four small girls over the din of the music, even as it changed to the wails of four babies.  

ALL S WELL .......  

Wilson, Daphne and Tilda spent an uncomfortable night tied to the chairs. Campus security found them in the morning. The officer took down a statement from them. They told the officer that it was just they were surprised by thieves looking to take valuable equipment, but after tying them up, the thieves must have panicked and left without taking anything or bothering them.  

As soon as the officer was gone, Tilda burst into laughter, " I wish I could have been when Kirk and his gang realized what was happening to them."

"Shouldn t we go and find them?" Wilson asked. "I guess they ve learned their lesson by now."

"The only thing I want to do is get something to eat. Let's go get some breakfast. I'm starved!" Tilda said. "Besides, a few hours as babies won t hurt that group. They pretty much acted like brats before, let 'em BE brats for a little while. Let's let them sweat it for a few hours."  

They had breakfast at the campus pub, and all the talk was all about the eight babies found in a bedroom at Sigma lota Phi Sorority after the big pajama party. Preliminary investigations seemed to indicate that somehow, four members of the University s football team and four sorority girls had been reduced to infants.  

The television showed pictures of Kirk and the other three team members and then cut to county social workers carrying out eight screaming babies from the House.

"Those kids needed to start over again. They'll be better off, believe me!" Tilda said.

"But suppose find a way to tell the police who did this to them. I was nine and I remembered everything." Daphne remind.

"You re forgetting dear that 90% of our learning happens while were infants, up to three of four. Our brains are still growing. I suspect that they've got a week more or less before they forget what they know and who they are." Tilda called for the check and they all went back to the lab.  

First Tilda, then Daphne entered the TTDA and were returned to their appropriate ages. Wilson smiled wanly when the now very tall Daphne re-emerged from the chamber. There was now a more than a foot in height and twelve years between them.   After her trip through the TTDA, Tilda groaned, "I like being 30 a lot more than 70 -- I didn t ache as much at 30!"  

The three went to the hospital where they found Dr. Morrison awake, but weak from his stroke. He smiled bravely when he saw his two young friends enter, and his eyes widened when Tilda followed them into the room.

"It worked!" Daphne and Wilson exclaimed happily. "We got the TTDA to work!"   When Morrison cocked his head to the side Tilda took his right hand and said, "It s true Phil, your theory works. At it has a side benefit. I spent the last 24 hours as a 30 year old woman. Do you understand what I m saying?"

"She s right, Dr. Morrison," Daphne added. "It s more of an age reducing machine than a time machine. It got me, too. Before we figured it out, I was five and then 14 years old. We think we can make you young again -- rejuvenate you to before your stroke, but we have to get you out of here."  

Morrison nodded vigorously.

"Good," Tilda said. "I m going to talk to the doctors."  

While she was in the hallway, one of the doctors called to her.

"Tilda -- Dr. Fornel! Am I glad to see you! Can you look at a patient for me? This one s got me stumped."   Taking her into an examining room, Tilda saw a small child approximately one year old, lying on it s back on an examining table.

"This is one of those kids from the college. Would you believe it, but all my test indicate that this baby was a twenty year old woman yesterday."

"Really?" Tilda said. "How did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"Fingerprints, of all things. We don t know how or why -- whether it was biological, chemical or some other spontaneous event -- but eight of the kids from that party simultaneously regressed into infancy. We ll be studying them for years!" the Doctor said with a grin. "You interested?"

"You know I ve retired, but this is intriguing. If you don t mind, I d like to come back later and examine the children, maybe run a few tests. I ll look into it in my spare time."

"Sure Tilda, sure, just knowing you re helping will be a big relief for the parents. I guess you know it came as quite a shock when we called these kids parents and told them what happened."

"Which one is this?" Tilda asked, picking up the squirming infant.

"Her name s Murning .... Rachel Murning."

"Hello Rachel," Tilda whispered to the babe. "Remember me? Did you enjoy your beauty enhancement?"   The infant s eyes glared at Tilda as she recognized her.

"You really did this to yourself. If you hadn t taken part in that episode with Wilson and the towel, you might not be here. Now you re the one in diapers -- and you ll be in them for the next year at least. I hope you ll remember that."   Tilda handed the baby back to the nurse.

"I ll be back this afternoon to run a few tests. Let me have this child ... and the football boy, the something-back ..... Kirk I think his name is .... yes, bring him. Oh, yes, and draw me blood samples from both of them, I want to look at it!"   After saying good-bye to Dr. Morrison, the three went back to the Fornel house. Tilda invited them to the basement, which Wilson had never visited. Not surprisingly, it was a very sophisticated lab.

"I know you ve both had a busy night and day, but I was wondering if you d indulge me for one more favor?" Tilda asked. "I think we all know that s there s no way to reverse what we ve done to Kirk and his friends. I believe it would be a terrible mistake if the wrong people found out that a eternal youth was available through the TTDA, so we ve got to keep it quiet. I m going over to the hospital this afternoon and run a few tests on our young friends. The hospital thinks I m looking for a way to reverse the process, but all I want to do is determine, if I can, whether their minds will regress to the same state as their bodies, and if so, how soon."   Tilda went on, "I would like to take a blood sample from each of you -- Daphne, since you ve been through the TTDA -- I want to see if I can determine any cellular or genetic changes or aberrations. Wilson -- since you ve been untouched, you ll serve as my test benchmark."   The two young people agreed and Tilda drew her samples. Both Wilson and Daphne were exhausted, so Tilda suggested they go lie down for a few hours. Daphne used Marie s room and soon both were asleep.   Tilda spent the next few hours working in her lab, using the samples she had drawn from Daphne and Wilson. After a few hours, she had produced to vials of a clear viscous fluid. One she labeled Kirk, and the other Rachel.   Without waking her friends, Tilda went back to the hospital. She asked and received blood samples from Kirk and Rachel. Then she asked the nurses to bring the infants to her for an examination.   Kirk had spent a very confusing day. He was trying desperately to understand exactly what had happened to him. He was in a crib. He looked like a baby. He couldn't stand. And worst of all, the only sounds he could make were baby sounds. He could form a single word. Worse still, it was getting harder and harder to think straight.

"Ma .... ma.....ma ...teen."

"Oh, look he trying to talk, isn t that cute. I think he said mama," one of the pediatric nurses said as she pick him up and shoved a bottle in his mouth.   He overheard them talking.

"I heard Dr. Sturnburg say that these children are starting to exhibit more and more infantile behavior. That earlier this morning, it was still possible to communicate with them on a very primitive level, but they were self aware and cognizant. But now two of the girls and one of the boys have regressed mentally as well as physically into one year olds."

"What about the one you ve got?" the nurse holding Kirk was asked.

"He fades in and out, poor darling. He called me mama a few minutes ago, so I guess he s slipping away, too. Anyway, I need to get him fed and cleaned up, Dr. Fornel wants him and the Murning baby brought to her as soon as we re finished," she said, putting Kirk up to her shoulder and burping him.   A few minutes later, Kirk was placed in a rolling crib with another baby. The two were wheeled down the hall and left in a room with an oldish woman in a lab coat. Without a word, the doctor began a full and thorough examination of the two infants.

"That s all for now nurse, I was wondering if you could get me the med charts on the other six children?"   When she was alone with the two infants, Tilda went to her medical bag and removed two vials and two syringes. Turning to the two babies, Tilda said, "Well look at the two of you! I don t think either of you will make graduation this spring. I know both of you understand me, so I m going to make this brief. As far as I m concerned, both of you had everything in life -- wealth, privilege, intelligence, good looks, everything -- and both of you wound up as little more than bullies.

"You, Kirk, used your talents and abilities to make other people feel small. And you, Rachel, used your body like a weapon. Well, no more. I guess you both have figured out that I m going to leave you two as you are. You both turned out bad, so I m going to let you both start over again."   Taking Rachel, Tilda injected one of the syringes into the infant s bottom. She repeated the procedure with Kirk.

"Yes, Kirk and Rachel, I m afraid that you re going to have to do it all over again ..... learn to walk, talk, potty training, the whole nine yards. You ll have to go back to school and grow up all over again. But it won t be too bad, because you won t remember any of this life. But I m afraid that if I don t make a few adjustments, there s no guarantee that you won t turn out as rotten next time as you did this go around.

"Kirk, you ve been injected with a solution of, for want of a better term, a genetic overlay. Right now certain parts of your genetic makeup is being rewritten to make a few adjustments to how you ll turn out. You see, I used Wilson Honeysworth as my template, so this time, you ll grow up with your face on Wilson s body.

"And you, Rachel, I don t think you ll turn out as the prom queen this time around. I substituted your essential physical characteristics with those of my friend Daphne Shellworth. You're going to grow up tall and awkward, and I hope that by the time you're a teenager, that kids aren't treating "outsiders" as badly as they do today. I'll tell you two something else, now that we have the secret of the TTDA, I promise to check back on you two, to see how you turned out. If you don't run true to form and turn out to be big stinkers, I might see what I can do to alter your circumstances."   The nurse reentered the room and asked Tilda if she had completed her examination. Tilda nodded yes and the nurse smiles and said, "It's a good thing, Dr. Fornel. We need to get these two ready for beddy-bye, and I think one of them has made a stinky."  

ALL THINGS COME  

The next few months passed quickly for the trio. They spent much of their waking time trying to get Dr. Morrison strong enough to bring home. Daphne and Wilson, almost by unspoken consent, never mentioned their mutual attraction. But both noticed how much closer Tilda and Dr. Morrison had grown over the months.   By mutual planning they arranged for Dr. Morrison's permanent retirement and subsequent move from the cosy confines of the university campus. Almost unnoticed, Tilda Fornel sold her property and quietly left town. With some arm twisting from Morrison and Fornel. Wilson was permitted to test out of most of his classes and was now, within a year, finishing two doctoral programs ö quantum physics and metaphysics. He was, in fact, he wound up teaching most of the classes he found time to attend.   Hardly anyone noticed the disappearance of Dr. Daphne Shellworth. Even among the faculty and staff, there were probably less than 10 people who would have known Daphne if they saw her.   On their last night at the university, Tilda wheeled Morrison into the TTDA lab and while the three friends watched, their mentor entered the machine a broken man in his seventies and emerged 22 minutes later a vigorous man of 30. Within a few minutes, Tilda was rejuvenated into a 30-year-old woman.

"It's all decided then," Phil said. "Tilda and I are going on ahead and setting up our lab facility in Northern Idaho. Daphne will come with us, and Wilson will come at the end of next term."   Now it's important that you cover your tracks and not leave any loose ends, Wilson," Tilda said laughing. "Remember Philbert Morrison and Tilda Fornel are two retired old professors living in a retirement community in Florida. As far as the world is concerned, we're Allen and Grace Cullen. The next eight months will go by in a flash, you'll see."

"So you two are going to pose as man and wife?" Daphne asked.

"Who's posing!" Tilda/Grace laughed.

"He finally made an honest woman of me! We were married this morning at City Hall. Twenty-two years of sleeping together and I finally got him to the altar," Tilda said, punching the much red-faced Phil/Allen in the arm playfully.   Wilson looked at his watch and jumped, he was lecturing in 15 minutes. He took Morrison's hand, shook it and turned to hug Tilda. Finally he looked at Daphne. Both awkwardly started to offer hands, stop, try to hug, and finally stopped, looked at each other, and laughed.   Bending over and stooping at the same time, Daphne kissed Wilson on the cheek. Wilson held her tight, and whispered something in her ear. Daphne stiffened and turned away. Without another word, Wilson bolted from the room.   Daphne was softly crying. Morrison looked at his wife who motioned him to go on.

"What's the matter honey?" Tilda asked.

"He told me he loves me. And, Tilda, I love him, too. He's the first man I ever really liked and who liked me back. But look at us. We're like Mutt and Jeff. And if that's not enough, I'm 12 years older than he is."

"Well, Daphne, that is one problem we can fix."

"Yes, that's true, but in a couple of years, I'd just be a giantess again ö a freak! I'm sick of my life and I'm sick of myself. It's even an accident I'm here at all. My mother didn't want me, she dumped me as soon as I was born, and God only knows who my father was."

"There, there, honey, cry it out," Tilda said, as Daphne sobbed loudly on her shoulder.  

IDAHO  

The first week in June found Dr. Wilson Honeysworth approaching the Cullen Research Foundation in Fort Bason, Idaho. The past months had gone almost as quickly as Grace had promised. The only disappointment that Wilson felt was his estrangement from Daphne. She had never called him, or returned his calls in the past six months. Just an occasional letter.   He pulled into the compound and up to the lab. Before he'd gotten out of the cab, Allen and Grace had rushed up to the car, alternately hugging him and pounding him heartedly on the back.

"Welcome home, son!" Allen shouted. "C'mon in. C'mon in. Lots to show you!" he added.   The next hour was taken up with a thorough tour of the facilities. The Cullens hadn't wasted much time. It was an impressive facility. We're and independent research firm and think tank." One or two minor government contracts, but mostly business and industry work. That's where the money is, boy," Allen said.   They took great delight in showing Wilson his new office and research lab. But all the time Wilson felt an empty hurt in his heart that Daphne wasn't here to see him. He passed her office, at least he supposed it was hers, it had a few items he recognized, but she wasn't there. Finally, he could stand it no longer.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"She's up at the house waiting for you," Grace said softly. "She's changed over the past year, Wilson. You need to know that."   Wilson nodded, and started to walk toward the house in the distance. Grace started to follow, but Allen grabbed he arm and stopped her, nodding his head "no".   Wilson reached the house, stopped, squared his shoulders and opened the door. Entering, he was greeted by a servant. He asked for Daphne. The servant nodded, took him into a large study and closed the door. Wilson paced nervously by the fireplace. He looked up as the door open. In the doorway was a young girl, no more than 14, dark-haired, well built for a juvenile. She had dark brown doe-eyes. She crossed the room and stood in front of Wilson, staring in his eyes. Without warning she reached out and kissed him fully on the mouth.   Sputtering Wilson, broke away and backed up, eventually falling over an ottoman. Laughing with a soft pleasant voice, the girl said, "Why is it every time I kiss you, you fall over."

"Daphne???"

"Duh! Who'd you think it was, or do strange girls always come up and kiss you?"   Taking his hand, she led him to the couch.

"What happened to you?" Wilson stammered.

"It's a long story, but here's what happened. I guess you know I felt as much for you as you did for me, but I felt like such a freak. Grace told me about what she did with Kirk and Rachel. She injected them with genetic material from us. Kirk's going to grow up with your body, and Rachel, poor thing, is going to be a beanpole by 15."

"Tilda offered me Rachel genetic background. And, tempting as it was, I turned it down. I remember saying to her, I wished she was my mother. She stopped, left the room for a few minutes and returned with a vial that said Marie. It was all she had left of her daughter. The upshot was, to make the genetic transfer work, I'd have to be a kid ö an infant, in fact. And I'd have to stay one for almost a fortnight."

"We knew from what happened to the other kids that I'd never survive with my intellect intact. So we spent the better part of three months adjusting the TTDA until we were able to turn on and off mental regression as well as physical regression."   I entered the machine and found myself reduced to a six-month old baby. I was injected with the Marie material and spent the next two weeks as an infant. Then they slowly aged me. First to a two-year-old, then 4, 6, and so on. We stopped the process when I hit fourteen."

"Why'd you stop there?" Wilson asked.

"Why do you think, silly?" she answered, kissing him again. "I don't want to ever be apart from you again. And best of all, I now have a mother and father ö the Cullens have formally adopted me. I'm Daphne Cullen. Neat, huh?"  Wilson looked down, deep in thought.

"What's the matter, Wilson? I thought you'd be happy?"

"I was just thinking that I wish I was a better prospect for you, that's all."

"Well, I was going to save it for later, but we have a surprise for you, if you want it. We saved a sample from Kirk that we planned on offering you."

"I don't know," Wilson said. "Two weeks in diapers, for Kirk's body, I don't know if it's worth it."

"Well, I'm telling you that nobody will look after you but me. And don't go and get embarrassed about me seeing you naked, I plan to see you naked the rest of our lives. Now kiss me before I hit you."

Copyright 1997 by the author - Do not repost without permission.