The Judy took out a rubber tipped spoon and dipped it into the rainbow colored glop.Dante opened his mouth and she spooned it right in.Thank goodness she wasn’t doing the stupid “here comes the choo-choo train” routine.He was feeling too hungry right now to want to wait on some stupid game.
The glop wasn’t bad at all.It was chilled from the refrigerator, and actually tasted a little bit like an applesauce slushy.What caught Dante off guard, though, was how the stuff expanded in his mouth a moment after touching his tongue.His cheeks puffed out as his mouth became more crowded, and Dante swallowed the stuff down as fast as he could.A little bit of the stuff burst from his unprepared lips and dribbled out onto his chin, sliding down onto the bib.
“Whoops!”the Judy cried out, not actually sounding surprised, as she used the baby spoon to scrape some of the food off of Dante’s chin.”Good thing we put that bib on you, huh Dante?”Instantly Dante realized that this food was designed to make him need a bib and thus feel more dependent, more helpless, more babyish.Rather than losing his cool, Dante just smiled, nodded, and pretended he was giving her the middle finger.
“Thassa good boy!” the Judy praised.”Now give me just two more bites, and it’ll be Lysa’s turn, then Midori’s turn, then yours again.”Dante accepted that he couldn’t do anything to make this situation better, and accepted the two spoonfuls; mouth exploding applesauce and all.
Then, their Judy went to Lysa and did a similar routine. Three spoonfuls, then switch. Then to Midori.Then back to Dante.This routine continued till the Judy was scraping the bottom of the bowl and Dante was feeling good and full.The other babies were finishing up at about the same time.
“All gone,” Dante’s Judy proclaimed as she spooned in the last of the expanding glop past Dante’s lips.There wasn’t even enough left to leak out of his mouth, so Dante just gulped the stuff down.“Now, time for a milky ba-ba and a niiiiiice nap.” the Judy said as she collected the bowls, threw them down a bottomless trashcan, went to the fridge.
Dante shot Lysa a look.“I thought you said…?” he began.
“I said they feed us the milk AT LEAST twice a day.” Lysa interrupted.“Sometimes they do more.I’m guessing it’s because of those three.” she said, indicating the three struggling prisoners in nothing but their diapers.“They wouldn’t calm down enough.”, she said.
The ginger Judy in the green dress had already managed to force the nipple of one bottle past the lips of one of the struggling boys, and his eyes had gone vacant.The Judy let out his tray enough so he could move his arms and hold up the bottle himself. The broken girl in the wet diaper accepted hers without struggle and was just starting to smile idiotically from behind her bottle.
“When someone makes a lot of trouble here,” Lysa said, “they make it harder on all of us.Just let it happen,” she sighed resignedly, “and it’ll be over with before you know it.”
Dante did his own sigh, as the Judy in the scrubs handed him a bottle filled with the milk of human kindness.He accepted it and drank in the creamy liquid.
Instantly, his cares melted away as his thoughts became more infantile. He was engulfed in a sense of peace and serenity.He was so lucky to be here, he reflected.It was as if everything was going to be okay, no matter what.Dante could literally do no wrong here.He could play all day, or laze around, even pee himself, and no one would scold him.No Mrs. Applegate to quiz him.No parents to lecture him.This ruled!
Even though in the back of his mind, he knew this was all a lie, honestly, it wasn’t that different from being drunk.When you’re drunk you can rush to the bathroom, puke up the 5 rum and cokes you just power chugged, clean up a little bit, look in the mirror, and say “Damn, I look good.”Then go back to the party for more rum and cokes.You know you don’t really look that good, and you know it’s all a booze induced feeling of euphoria; but right then, you don’t really care because you’re euphoric.This was even better though, because there was no hangover, guaranteed.This milk got rid of hangovers.