Molly was sleepy as she was tucked in. Her teddy bear was tucked in tightly beside her and she looked at the smiling bear face as the carers retreated away from the dozing teenagers. Her eyes grew heavy but she had a thought that she wanted to put into place before finally falling asleep. Something that Jennifer had said. She pulled the reality altering device from the hidden pocket in the bear and quietly pressed the button. She had thought about the wording of this one carefully.

She guessed it must be about 3pm give or take an hour so 18 hours should be enough.
“For the next 18 hours girls my age won’t have learnt how to talk yet”

Molly felt smug with herself. Originally she had thought to simply say “teenagers her age wouldn’t know how to talk” but then she had realised that come tomorrow when she would want to set everything back to normal she wouldn’t be able to. This way by 9am the effects of her new reality altering would wear off and she would then be free to set everything straight.

The thickening of the air was already almost receding as Molly stared up at the cot bars that surrounded her. She opened her mouth, butterflies in her stomach, not from the effect of the reality altering, but more from the nervousness of what she was about to hear.

She needed a simple word. CAT. That would do. She pulled herself under the cot blanket so that she wouldn’t wake up her two friends as she tried to say cat.
“Buh” She giggled. “baaa burrr suh” She burbled to herself knowing she was trying to say cat but it came out different every time. She found she was drooling down her chin in her attempts to talk, and her eyelids began to get really heavy. She yawned and stuck her thumb in her mouth as she cuddled into her teddy bear.

Now Jennifer wouldn’t be able to complain at all about anything. Well she could complain but no-one would be able to understand her. Molly would finally be able to enjoy the remainder of her little baby trip in peace whilst still playing with her friends. With that thought firmly in her mind and a gentle smile on her lips Molly fell asleep.

She woke to the sound of babyish wailing. Loud. Very loud, babyish wailing. Clumsily she sat up in her cot and rubbed at her eyes. She looked at the clock to see what time it was but couldn’t understand the numbers or what exactly they meant. She looked over to see Jennifer really crying her heart out.

“What’s the matter?” Molly asked only it came out as concerned baby gibberish.

Alerted by Jennifer’s crying one of the workers rushed over.
“Awww little one, wassa matta? Come here”

Jennifer was hauled out of the crib and rocked soothingly by the carer.
“There there, it’ll be all right. Don’t cry. Shhhh Shhhhh” The carer cooed at Jennifer, but Jennifer continued to cry.

The worker patted Jennifer’s bottom
“Ahhh. I know what the problem is. Someone has a stinky bum don’t they. Yes they do. Yes they do! Let’s get baby all cleaned up so she can be happy again okay?” The worker continued to baby talk at Jennifer as she was laid down on a nearby changing table and began to have her wet and messy diaper changed.