Melissa walked with Molly to the car and she buckled Molly in the back ready for the trip north to Wichita Falls. They were quickly back onto the freeway north bound and they hadn’t spoken for about thirty minutes. Melissa looked into the front view mirror and looked back at little Molly who was sitting on the back seat playing with dolls as her long beautiful brunette hair waded over her face. She didn’t look eight years old at all, nor did she act like one. She called her ‘mommy’ and always walked along side her hand in hand with an innocent stare and want to play. She never cared about trying to look older than she was like other children, and really was like a two or three year old. Melissa continued to drive and kept on coming back to the idea that her daughter really wasn’t as old as she looked, maybe she just needed a bit more time to grow up.
As they went on for many more miles, Molly fell asleep and Melissa was only reminded of the long afternoons when she would lay Molly down for an afternoon nap. Melissa finally drove into the neighborhood of Wichita Falls where they lived and parked the car in the garage. She opened the back door and took sleepy young Molly in her arms and walked into the house. It was now only about 4:15 in the after noon, and she lay Molly on the couch as she watched TV for about an hour. At some stage, a Pampers commercial came on the screen and she instantly remembered about her thoughts in the car. The commercial showed a baby waddling around the house in just a diaper, with no worries in the world, rather like Molly. The diapers were child-like with plenty of Sesame Street characters and fluffy, comfy, babyish designs. Molly, who was still asleep, looked like the baby in the Pampers Golden Sleep commercial. Melissa could not help but think about Molly as a baby and how nice it would be for the both of them again.
Melissa turned the TV off and really thought about what the day had been like. Molly had shown her childish side, like always and she really just needed a little more time to grow up. Melissa thought that maybe the only way to give Molly that extra time to mature was through treating and caring for her like a young child of maybe two and a half. She remembered that some six years ago, she was changing four or five diapers a day and this made her think about how it would be now. She could have another baby again, to nurture and care for.
Molly slept and slept until the clock showed 5:20, and Melissa was going to share her thoughts with Molly as soon as she woke up. At 5:45 Molly woke up and her mother came in a simply said ’ Hey sweetie, did you sleep well?’ ‘do you want to watch some TV?’ Molly simply nodded yes to watching TV, and so she did for about twenty minutes. At about six o’clock, Melissa was getting anxious about breaking her thoughts to her daughter. She decided she would approach her daughter carefully by sitting next to her and coming slowly into the conversation. Molly was sucking on her thumb as she watched TV and Melissa thought again, and felt better about speaking to Molly about her idea.