Once Sue and Danny were secured in their own separate stroller they all made their way out of Gymboree and through the mall again. This time Brian wasn’t paying attention to the sights, his attention was locked on the toys attached to his stroller. He didn’t seem able to look away. Hitting at them over and over was just so enjoyable. Rachel felt just the same in the seat behind him. She lay back in her chair batting at the dangling toys, making them spin about and light up.
It seemed like no time at all had passed before they were at their destination and their mommies were lifting them out of the stroller. Rachel actually cried out when she was lifted free. She wanted to play with the toy more. She screeched at her ma-ma to make her stop but that accomplished nothing. Ma-ma just sat down on a seat with Rachel on her lap. It only occurred to Rachel a bit later that this was surely uncomfortable for ma-ma as she weighed at least as much as she did. Nevertheless ma-ma began to bounce Rachel on her knee, calming her down. The up and down motion was quite relaxing in fact. She liked the sensation as well as the knowledge she was safe on ma-ma’s lap.
Once she was calmer she was able to reflect on her recent behaviour. It troubled her that she so easily accepted playing with baby toys as fun and that she’d just screamed and babbled nonsense when she was upset, like that was a normal response to things going wrong. Just the idea that she’d thrown a tantrum over losing a flashing yellow baby toy was enough to make her feel like an idiot.
They were at a photography studio somewhere in the mall now. The waiting area they were in was not separated from the actual studio, so they could see the whole set-up. The walls were all painted black and there was a very complicated, expensive looking camera on a tripod in the middle of the room. There were several backgrounds available, but the one he had down at the moment was simple blue sky and clouds. There was a desk with a cash register and beside it a clothing rack with all sorts of outfits. The waiting area walls were covered in photos, some colour, some black and white. It appeared from these shots that the man here specialised in baby photos. That was probably a pretty good industry if people stayed babies for over twenty years.
The shots displayed showed naked or diaper-clad young men and women smiling eagerly for the camera. One had a teen girl clothed only in a diaper chewing on a big string of what were meant to be mommy’s pearls, giggling her pig-tailed head off. Another featured a twenty-something man in a plastic kiddie fireman hat and shirtless with blue-jean shortalls pulling a giant red radio flyer wagon in which a lanky teen boy was seated, he with a dumb infantile grin and naked but for a diaper as well.
Once Joy was satisfied that Rachel was calm enough she was carried over to a large play-pen in the corner and deposited there. The other babies were already all in it. Rachel noticed that Sue and Danny hadn’t really changed this time. It appeared they were now all about the same level of development. Those two and Meggy were happily lying on their backs or tummies gnawing on the simple baby toys in the playpen. Rachel and Brian still had enough self-control not to touch toys that countless young men and women must have slobbered over. This pen was surely rife with baby germs. That didn’t stop their baby-minded compatriots from offering them toys.
“Babababa,” Danny babbled to his sister, offering her a drool-soaked green teething ring.