Ben wiped Jamie clean and disposed of the materials just as Laura had done. Mary put a clean diaper under Jamie and stood silently while they prepared another enema for him. Laura took an enema syringe out of her lab coat pocket and filled it from the flask.
“Mary, could you turn him over on his stomach for me? When I’ve finished injecting the enema solution, turn him on his back again for me.”
Mary did as Laura requested while Laura lubed the syringe. The operation took less than a minute and Jamie was lying on his back again. Laura tucked the diaper up between his legs to catch the solution. Seconds later, soapy water began to spew from his anus into the diaper.
“Again,” Ben said, holding an empty bag for the wet diaper.
They gave Jamie enemas until the flask was empty, then disposed of the syringe in the bag. There was a knock on the door and Ben went over to see who was there. He opened it a crack, stuck his head out of the door, then threw the door open. “Come in Alice, Come in.”
Dr. Alice Walsh came in and he hurriedly closed and locked the door behind her.
“Alice, let me fill you in on what’s going on here.”
They huddled together in a quiet conference and then came over to the table. Alice set her bag on the table and took out a stethoscope. She listened to Jamie’s heart and lungs, then palpated his back. She took a oto/opthalmoscope from her bag and looked into his eyes and ears, then she took a tongue depressor from her bag and looked at his throat. Alice peeled his bottom lip down to look at his gums and teeth, then palpated the sutures on his skull. She turned Jamie on his stomach, then took a rectal thermometer from a small case, shook it down and inserted it in Jamie’s anus. He squirmed as she held him down for the measurement.
Alice took her ballpoint pen and ran it up the sole of his foot several times, then switched feet and repeated the procedure. His toes remained uncurled in response to the pen each time. Then she stroked the outside edge of the sole making the big toe flex. Alice stroked his palm with the pen and noted that his palm remained open. She put the pen in her pocket and turned his head in one direction then another, watching his trunk twist each time in the direction that his head was turned. Then she put her finger next to his cheek and brushed it lightly, noting that his head turned as she touched him.
Alice put her forefinger into his mouth and withdrew it when he attempted to suckle her finger. She stood him up on his feet and watched his stance, then tried to get him to walk. He collapsed without trying to walk, evidently preferring to crawl.
“Well,” said Ben, “What do you think? Is he okay?”
Alice looked at all of them gravely and said, “He’s about 22 pounds and appears to be healthy. He doesn’t seem to have any neurological damage as nearly as I can tell, but his reflexes seem to be those of a nine to ten month old baby. The only abnormality I could find was that his cranial sutures seem to be completely closed. If he were really an infant, that might be a problem, there wouldn’t be any room for his brain to grow. In his case I simply don’t know, it might not be a problem.
“What do you mean, it might not be a problem? Wouldn’t his brain be crushed if it grew?,” demanded Mary.
Ben put his hand on her shoulder and said, “She means that there’s a very real possibility that he might not grow, Mary. He might stay like this the rest of his life.”
Alice nodded in agreement and continued, “I would say that you have a miracle on your hands, Ben. You have a middle-aged man with the body of an infant. I see that you’ve got diapers for him. Have you diapered him yet? ”
They all nodded. “Has he………utilized a diaper?” They all nodded emphatically.