After lunch, everyone was sleepy, including the Daycare workers. They tucked each infant in his or her crib and made them comfortable while the melodious strains of lullabies from the Daycare’s sound system filled the room on que. Within minutes, the nursery echoed softly with the barely discernable snores of somnolent thumb-sucking infants. Two of the attendants took naps themselves in the large rocking chairs positioned at opposite sides of the room while the other two workers stood watch. After thirty minutes or so, the sleeping attendants were awoken and took up watch over the babies while the other two workers took their places in the rocking chairs to take their own naps. After two o’clock, the babies began to waken and the nursery took on life again. Diapers were changed, hungry infants were given bottles and changed again shortly thereafter. The sound system played light, bouncy Disney-style music as the infants renewed their round of play, pee and poop.
Andrew’s sense of embarrassment was dulled by the slowness and monotony that the afternoon brought. If any of the workers had pointed out his wet or messy diapers as a special case, he’d have been mortified. As it was, he was just another infant to be processed in the time-honored tradition of women; he was cleaned up, then put in dry diapers and allowed to rejoin his drooling comrades to creep on the carpet. They played in each other’s presence without a hint rancor for an hour, barely acknowledging each other’s existence before the afternoon bottles were brought out to be suckled and a new round of diaper changing began before the next nap. The lassitude of inaction had lulled everyone’s minds into a trance-like condition of non-thought. The lids of Andrew’s eyes were pulled closed by the first strains of the , he cringed and hid his head in the hollow of between her neck and shoulder. She told Krystyn that they had discovered that his programming had not been complete and the workers had subjected him to the full routine which Krystyn had ordered for all of her babies. Krystyn laughed when Gail told him of how he had been caught when he refused the spit-covered teething ring and how nauseated he had looked when the ring was forced into his mouth over his protestations. She continued her story by telling Kystyn how he had leered at her breasts and gave Krystyn a synopsis of the fantasy night she had proposed for little Jimmy and his consequent shame-faced countenance. Krystyn chuckled in delight at the tale while Andrew buried his burning cheeks even deeper into the nape of her neck in embarrassment. When Gail told her that from the attendants’ unobtrusive observations of him during his stay in the nursery, Jimmy had seemed to accept his fate even though he still had an adult mentality. Gail told Krystyn that towards the end of the day he had behaved as if he had given up all pretence of thinking like an adult and had started behaving like the other infants in the Daycare’s nursery.
“Soooo,” Krystyn said down to Andrew with a derisive tone, “Little Jimmy was faking after all! I should have known. All men are liars at heart. Well…from the sound of it, you’ve learned your lesson here. Just wait until you see the babysitter I have lined up for you! Once she gets finished with you, your psyche will be as differentiated and interesting as the overboiled homeopathic pap the Daycare feeds its babies for breakfast.” She rapped him lightly on his forehead with the second joint of her knuckled index finger to make her point as she chuckled, “Instead of having the semi-educated, sophomoric brain of a college student, your noggin will be filled with bland creamed oatmeal as befits a baby.”
Krystyn laughed again and said patronizingly as she patted the top of his head with head with four fingers of her hand, “Your days of being able to think like an adult are almost over, little Jimmy. Once my special babysitter gets done with you, the only thought in your precious little head will be for your ba-ba! I doubt you’ll even know when you’ve wet or dirtied your diapers!”