Sarah stripped me, put me into a dry nappy and cleaned me up, she put another pair of frilly panties over the top of my nappy, then put me in the playpen. I just had to get out of this situation, if I could just get to those rings, I thought. I cursed the strength and height of the playpen bars as I made a futile attempt to escape. Sarah stripped the cot, gathered up the clothes I had just ruined and turned to leave the nursery.
“Suck your dummy Daniel,” she ordered, “it will make you feel a lot better, it did me anyway.”
She left.
Once again I felt waves of self pity cursing through me as I tried to come to terms with my situation. I was trapped inside Sarah ’s body, sat in a playpen just four foot square, a baby prison made especially to keep me inside, my freedom restricted to four square feet of padded plastic that was the floor of the playpen.
“I am nearly an adult,” I cried. “I can’t spend my life in a playpen.”
I was used to having my freedom, being able to go where I liked, when I liked. At my age I was just making the transition to manhood, years of growing up through all the stages of life. Being rewarded with a little more independence at each stage, to the point where my parents now treated me like a young adult, encouraging me to make my own decisions, to forge my own destiny through life. That was all gone, in one moment of sheer stupidity I had thrown my freedom and independence away, I was right back at the beginning, I was a baby again, but this time there would be no growing up.
I put Sarah’s dummy into my mouth, she was right I did get some solace from sucking it.
“Calm down, calm down,” I kept telling myself. “Sarah will see sense she will change us back,” I told myself unconvincingly.
I heard a car pull up outside and the front door opening .
“I’m home,” mother’s voice called out.
Hope surged through me; I crawled quickly to the playpen side and stood up.
“MOTHER,” I shouted, unable to interpret the gurgles that came from my mouth.
“Hi mom,” I heard Sarah say in my voice.
“What’s wrong with Sarah?” mother asked.
“She’s been sick. She woke up crying, she was real cranky, I tried to comfort her, then she was sick,” my old voice said. “I’ve stripped her cot, changed her nappy and put her in clean baby knickers,” it added.
“Thanks Daniel you’re a good boy for that, but I did tell you not to get Sarah as wound up as you did this morning, I knew something like this would happen,” mother sighed.
“Sorry mom,” Sarah apologised.
Mother strode into the nursery.
“MOTHER MOTHER I AM Daniel HE IS Sarah,” I cried excitedly.
“Calm down baby.” Mother smiled at my loud baby gabbling, picking me out of the playpen and carrying me downstairs.
“NO…..NO…..NO…..MOTHER PLEASE YOU MUST LISTEN,” I screamed.
“You ARE in a state with yourself young lady,” mother smiled in the comforting way she always used when Sarah had been fractious in the past.
She placed me in Sarah’s playpen in the lounge.
“Here’s Jemima,” she sang handing me Sarah’s favourite dolly.
I threw it clear across the playpen with all my baby might, frustration at not being able to communicate caused tears of anger to pour down my cheeks. Sarah walked into the room I pointed at her in my body and gurgled my explanation for my frantic state.
“Yes honey, that’s Daniel your big brother, no he won’t play with you while you’re like this, babies play with baby toys, you play with your dolly,” mother continued to smile, turning to face my former body.
“Aren’t you getting ready to going out?” Mother asked Sarah.
Sarah did not know about my date with Jennifer, my girlfriend.
“You’re seeing Jenny this afternoon aren’t you?” she asked.
“Am I?” Sarah creased her brow.
“Well that’s what you told me, you said you were meeting at the cafe and probably going to the cinema,” mother informed her. “But remember to be back by 7 pm, you know your father and I like to go out the night before he goes back abroad.”
“O.K. mother,” Sarah smiled. “I remember now, thanks.”
“Daniel doesn’t seem to be himself today,” Mother mused audibly as Sarah left the room. I gave my mother an imploring look, my eyes were all I had to communicate with.
“What’s the matter baby, do you want to go out too?” she smiled. “I know, let’s get some fresh air shall we?” She pulled me from the playpen. “Mummy is going to buy her little girl a lovely ice-cream to cheer her up,” she informed me carrying me back to the nursery.
She felt inside my nappy, it was still dry, she congratulated me and dumped me in the playpen. She took out a dress and bonnet from Sarah’s wardrobe, a pair of frilly ankle socks from the set of drawers and picked up Sarah’s black Mary Janes.
Just a short while ago I dreamed about wearing all the clothes she carried over to the playpen. My dream was now a nightmare, if I didn’t get those rings and put one on both mine and Sarah’s fingers then I would be wearing baby dresses for the rest of my life. Mother sat me on her knee as she dressed me talking to me all the time, as she used to with Sarah, as if I were a baby. Tears flowed from my eyes as my baby gurgling failed to make her understand that I was actually Daniel her son.
“You certainly are out of sorts today Sarah, you don’t seem your normal happy baby self,” she cooeeded feeling my forehead to test my temperature prior to tying the frilly bonnet over my now long hair. “There you are as pretty as a picture, is that what you wanted?” She gushed picking me up and showing me off to the mirror. “You love wearing your pretty outfits don’t you?”
The feelings of excitement I felt when I first saw myself in the mirror in Sarah’s body had long gone, I shivered with fear as I watched mother bounce Sarah up and down in her arms trying to amuse her, I saw that fear in Sarah’s little tear stained eyes, my tear stained eyes.
Sarah breezed into the room.
“You look smart, doesn’t your big brother look smart Sarah?” mother asked.
Sarah had put my light grey slacks on with my light blue polo shirt.
“Sarah looks sweet,” she remarked taking me from mother. “I just love her cute little bonnet.”
“I’ll just get my purse, can you put her reins on for me.”
“How are you coping in there Daniel?” she whispered buckling the pink leather baby reins around my chest as I sat on her grey trousered leg. “You must be getting to realise how awful it was for me in that pathetic little body.” The leather straps were over my shoulders now. “At last I’m free and there is no way I’m ever going back.”
“Please, Sarah,” I gurgled giving her my most imploring look.
She just looked very guilty and shook her head.
“Daniel have you been our bedroom?” mother brusquely entered the nursery an accusing look on her face.
“Err…err…Yes,” Sarah admitted.
Then I noticed what mother had in her hand, it was the wooden box, she had the rings in her hands. Waves of elation swept through me, she must have realised that we had changed minds.
“Did you take this out of your fathers drawers?” she asked sternly.
I saw my former face blush red and recognised signs of panic in my old eyes. Sarah’s game was up I thought confidently her masquerade as me short lived, she would soon be back where she belonged in the body I now occupied.
“Errr….yes…..I…..errr…was….errr……looking for a…..a….a pair of Dad’s socks to go with these slacks,” Sarah lied.
“Do you know what is inside this box?” she asked.
“Errr…..No mother,” Sarah lied again, “I didn’t open it, I just moved it.”
Mother flipped the lid, the two gold rings shone in the afternoon light, the red and blue crystals seemed to glow.
“MOTHER TAKE THE RINGS OUT, MAKE HER WEAR ONE,” I gurgled loudly in baby talk reaching out for the rings that would rectify this terrible situation.
I felt Sarah grip my reins tightly as I reached forward.
“No baby they’re not toys to be played with,” mother admonished me.
“WOW!!! mother they look valuable,” Sarah said, her face flushed with guilt.
“They are very valuable Daniel, they were loaned to your father by Professor Achmed. Your father brought them home to show them at his convention, they’re from Ancient Egypt Mother,” explained.
Now she will do it, now she will force Sarah to return to her body and allow me to get on with my life.
“Take a good look at them Daniel, your father will be taking them back with him to Egypt tomorrow,” mother smiled letting Daniel study them for a while before closing the box lid.
I saw the look of utter relief on my former face as the feeling of nausea surged through me again at mothers revelation that the rings were leaving with Dad.
“NO NO NO MOTHER DON’T LET HER GET AWAY WITH THIS,” I gurgled reaching for the box tears streaming down my face.
“I said NO Sarah, they are only to be handled by adults,” mother snapped.
“She just likes the way they shine, she loves anything bright,” Sarah smiled. I could see she had recovered her composure.
“Don’t you think those rings should be in the safe if they’re so valuable, mother?” Sarah suggested whilst she tried to get me to take my dummy. “What if we were burgled or something? I’m surprised dad left them in his bed side drawer.”
Mother flushed this time.
“Yes you’re right Daniel, I’ll put them away before we go out,” she said.
“OH NO!!!” I sobbed if mother puts them in the safe I will never get to them, Dad was leaving for Egypt tomorrow, I would never see them again, I would be trapped like this forever, no one will know that I’m not Sarah, no one but the real Sarah, who was looking at me with a guilty smile, I cursed her.