SUSIE = Sarah
DAVID = Daniel

Ignoring my protests she pushed me inside. I cursed the strength of these baby reins as I struggled in vain to get out of Sarah’s pushchair. I could not believe what was happening to me, Mother must have used the rings while I slept, but she could have taken Sarah’s clothes off me, instead she left me in her cot, now everyone I knew was going to see me in a baby dress, I would never be able to hold my head up in public again. I might have been better off staying in Sarah’s body, I had never known such humiliating shame.

Everyone I knew seemed to be in the cafe, they all crowded around me laughing and pointing at me calling me a baby.

“LEAVE ME ALONE I’M NOT A BABY,” I screamed bursting into tears which only served to increase their amusement.

“He’s a cry baby, take him home and put him back in his cot,” someone suggested.

Jennifer agreed that that was a good idea and with great delight she wheeled me home.

“I’m going to suggest that you are kept in baby clothes for the rest of your life Daniel,” Jennifer announced as she led me into the nursery. “I’m sure your mother and father will agree.”

“NO PLEASE JENNIFER DON’T PUT ME BACK IN THE COT I DON’T WANT TO BE A BABY,” I screamed.

She just laughed at me. “I think it would serve you right if you could only talk like a baby,” she grinned, “then you would sound like Sarah and we wouldn’t have to put up with your pathetic voice.”

“NO…….NO……I DO….GOO-GOO GA-GA GOO-GOO-GOO,” I wailed as my words turned to baby gurgle.

“That is much better Sarah she mocked now here’s your dummy,” she laughed pushing against my lips.

“GOO-GOO GA-GA,” I gurgled loudly in protest, shaking my head refusing to take my dummy.

“Come on Sarah take your dummy…….Come on Sarah take your dummy……” Jennifer’s voice was insistent and the latex teat pressed against my lips.

“Come on Sarah……” I opened my eyes to see Jennifer standing over me trying to give me my dummy, she was huge.

“I AM BACK AS Sarah,” I screamed in terror, waking fully, the nightmare I just had was just a bad dream, this was reality, mother hadn’t changed me back into my real body, I had dreamt the whole thing.

Jennifer lifted me up to comfort me.

“There there baby, Jennifer is here,” she cooeed.

“Please Jennifer, you must realise it’s me Daniel,” I sobbed in unintelligible baby talk, my head on her shoulders.

Here I was in my girlfriends arms, but not as her boyfriend as I should have been, but as my little sister Sarah. Jennifer continued to pat my frilly bottom and coo her soothing words. She walked around the nursery for a while and I hugged her tightly my head swimming with the smell of her sweet perfume.

“There, there, baby,” she repeated over and over again, patting my frilly padded bottom as she moved around the nursery. I felt a paroxysm of shame as she removed my dress, I had had dreams at the thought of Jennifer seeing me in baby clothes, but this was anything but erotic, this was humiliation in the extreme as my girlfriend removed every stitch of my clothing.

“You don’t know how lucky you are Sarah,” she smiled as she slipped a fresh soft nappy under my bottom.

“LUCKY!!!” I sobbed “HOW IS BEING TURNED INTO A BABY LUCKY?”

She unwittingly answered my baby gurgled question.

“You get to wear these lovely frilly baby dresses, you get looked after and loved by your family, you don’t have to worry about anything. Growing up, having periods, getting a job, getting pregnant, getting married you are soooo lucky.” She smiled pinning my nappy together. “Sometimes I wish we could swap places.”

“If she only knew,” I thought, “she would never put herself in this position.”

She pulled a pair of plain pink plastic baby pants over my nappy, then began threading my feet into one of Sarah’s all-in-one bed time suits. These were specially made for Sarah and I had often wondered what it would be like to wear one, now I was going to find out. The sleep suit was made from soft fluffy pink cotton, the feet had little pads underneath so the material wouldn’t be damaged when Sarah walked about in it, it completely covered my legs in soft warm cotton. She pulled it over my be-nappied bottom and threaded my hands into sleeves. At the end of the sleeves were shapeless mittens that were elasticated at the wrist. When Jennifer pushed my hand into them the elastic gripped my wrists tightly, they had been made that way so Sarah did not scratch her self while she slept.

Jennifer turned me on my stomach and proceeded to fasten the row of poppers running from my bottom to my neck. I was swaddled in thick fluffy pink cotton, looking every inch an 18 month old baby. Jennifer picked me up and carried me over to the mirror and I saw myself blush at my reflection.

I WAS A BABY.

She took my arm and forced me to wave at myself.

“Hewo baby-waby,” she cooeed.

I burst into tears.

“Oh dear,” she said in sympathy, carried me over to my cot, picked up my dummy and pushed it in my mouth.

“There, there, baby,” she comforted me.

I heaved great sobs as she took me out of the nursery and into my old room trying to find Sarah who was now her boyfriend. “Where’s that big brother of yours?” she asked. “He was in here a minute ago, look he’s left his computer on.”

COMPUTER!!!!…COMPUTER!!!!!

That was it, my computer, that was how I could tell Jennifer who I really was. I looked around to see the computer, Sarah had left it on a word processing programme. My luck was turning, all I had to do was get to that key board. I reached out for it and gurgled excitedly.

“Oh! Does baby want to play on the computer,” she giggled taking me over to it.

This was so easy, my nightmare would soon be over, just let me get to those keys I gurgled reaching out for the keyboard as she sat at the computer desk. She leant forward to allow me to reach, I smiled for the first time since I had used the rings, I was saved.

“Go on Sarah,” she encouraged me by getting me as close to the keyboard as she could. I studied the keys as I wrote, I had developed quite a fast typing speed over the years, but only if I concentrated on the keys and not the screen. Without looking up I began to type, I was going to put who I really was, how I’d used the rings, how Sarah was really ME and finish with the sentence

“YOU MUST HELP ME.”

Once she saw the words on the screen she would know that the toddler on her knee had her boyfriends mind.

But to my absolute frustration and horror I found that as my be-mittened hand tried to press the selected key, several others went down with it, the mittens were so thick I could not press one key down at a time no matter how slow I typed. I looked at the screen to see lines of gobbledy- gook.

“OH NO PLEASE DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN” I wailed hammering the keys in utter frustration, once again a means of communication was denied me, this time due to these thick baby mittens.

Instead of showing Jennifer that I was a grown boy trapped in a little girls body, all I managed to do was give a show of childish petulance as Jennifer took my frustrated actions as just another one of Sarah’s tantrums.

“Don’t cry Sarah, here let me help,” Jennifer smiled.

Jenniffer took each of my little mittened hands in hers.

“Now what shall we write?” she mused.

“M..Y..N..A..M..E..” she read each letter out aloud as she pushed her fingers down on the keys, my hands forced to follow. “I..S..S..U..S..I…E. My name is Sarah,” she read the sentence out. “Who’s a clever girl then.”

Try as I might I could not release my hands, I had to try to write her a rescue note somehow.

“PLEASE JENNIFER LET ME GO, TAKE THESE MITTENS OFF, I HAVE TO TELL YOU WHO I REALLY AM,” I gurgled loudly.

“What’s going on,” I heard my former voice say. I turned sharply to see Sarah stood at the door, what used to be my face pale as Sarah looked at us as using my computer.

She knew that I could use it given the chance, and if I did her new found freedom would be over.

“Look what Sarah has written Daniel,” Jennifer called Sarah over.

He was visibly shaking as he approached, expecting the worst.

“Isn’t she a clever baby,” Jennifer gushed showing him what she had helped me to write.

“D….d….did she actually write that?” Sarah stammered nervously.

“No stupid, how could she have written it, she’s a baby, I wrote it. But clever little Sarah helped me didn’t she?” Jennifer cooeed standing up, to allow Susan to take our place, Jennifer taking me further from my source of salvation.

“NO NO LET ME GO!!!” I screamed, writhing in her arms to try to break free.

“Shush, shush, baby,” Jennifer bounced me up and down, holding me tightly.

“What’s wrong Daniel, you look rather pale?” Jennifer as he sat down.

“I thought you had deleted some of my files,” Sarah replied with a sickly smile.

“We wouldn’t do that would we Sarah?” she cooeed. “We only wanted to write your name didn’t we baby? Are you sure that’s all that’s wrong Daniel? You still look very pale. I hope you’re going to be all right for later,” she giggled.

“I’ll be fine don’t you worry.” Sarah recovered her composure and I watched the computer screen went black as she pulled the plug and put it out of my reach.

Once again my hopes were dashed. I buried my face into Jennifer’s bosom and broke my heart.

“She is out of sorts isn’t she?” Jennifer addressed Daniel.

“Yes she’s been acting up all day, we just don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Sarah lied, she knew exactly what was wrong with me.

“I AM A BOY TRAPPED IN HER BABY BODY,” I wailed.

“Mum thinks it’s a virus or something, she’s taking her to the doctor tomorrow,” Sarah continued.

“A DOCTOR CAN’T HELP ME,” I sobbed.

“Once we have seen Dad off at the airport,” Sarah finished.

Another wave of anguish washed over me at the reminder that Dad was leaving the country with the rings.

“I hope it’s nothing serious,” Jennifer said in a concerned tone.

“SERIOUS….” I sobbed “BEING LEFT AS A BABY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE WAS A LITTLE MORE THAN SERIOUS……IT WAS TRAGIC.”

“Hopefully it will be all over tomorrow,” suggested Sarah, the double meaning in the statement was lost on Jennifer.

Jennifer carried me downstairs into the kitchen, she placed me in Sarah’s highchair, securely strapped me in, then dropped the plastic tray into place. My legs swung uselessly as there was no foot rest as I watched Jennifer through my tears prepare some food. She place a pink spouted toddlers beaker on the tray, fitted a full bib around my neck and put a plastic dish of food in the micro-wave oven. Waves of nausea welled up inside my small stomach as the realisation that I would not escape from my predicament before Dad left with the rings reared it’s head, so I was not thirsty or hungry, even though my stomach was empty.

Then an idea struck me all of a sudden, if I showed them that I could do things that the real Sarah could not do they would become curious, ever since Sarah had refused to use the rings the only thing I’d done is bawl like a baby, Sarah had acted similarly on many occasions, why should they think there was anything wrong.

What I should have been be doing was acting completely different to how they would expect the real Sarah to behave. That was the key to getting out of this mess, I had been playing into Sarah’s hands with my temper tantrums as mum had called them.

Act like a you are in a babies body, they’re bound to notice something’s wrong. I had very little time to convince them that I wasn’t Sarah. My eyes dropped on the two handled beaker, I reached for the handle with one hand attempting to drink like an older child, but once again these thick mittens thwarted me, all I managed to do was push the beaker around the tray, until it eventually fell to the floor. Jennifer smiled condescendingly as she waited for the micro-wave to warm my food. She picked the beaker up and put it on the tray, put both my hands on to the handles and raised the spout to my lips.

“I just love the way Sarah drinks her juice, she’s so cute,” she smiled talking over my head.

“Yes Sarah is cute, everyone says so.” Mother smiled appearing at my side, she ruffled my hair. “How’s my little munchkin? Any better baby?”

“She had a bit of a tantrum after she got up, but she seems to have settled down a bit,” Jennifer told her.

Another aspect of babyhood was being demonstrated to me, the way they talked about me as if I didn’t have an opinion, which as a baby I didn’t.

“That’s because her favourite baby-sitter is here. Sarah loves her Auntie Jen-Jen doesn’t she?” Mother cooeed holding my beaker up to my lips ensuring I had a good drink.

“And I love Sarah,” Jennifer grinned. “You look sooo cute in your pink baby grow. How could this sweet little baby be actually sixteen years old, it’s impossible to tell.”

“I know,” mother agreed. “Sarah’s my pretty wittle baby-waby forever and ever,” mother gushed in baby talk.

DING.

The micro-wave announced my food was ready. Jennifer dipped her finger in the bowl to ensure it wasn’t too hot, drew up a seat and proceeded to try and feed me. I shook my head, I wanted to demonstrate that I could actually feed myself, I needed to show them I wasn’t a baby. I shook my head from side to side and gurgled loudly trying to ask for the spoon. Jennifer attempted to put the blended dinner into my mouth, all I managed to do was get food all around my cheeks, down my chin and down my bib. Instead of making them think I was a grown boy trapped in Sarah’s body, all I did was present them with a picture of babyhood.

Frustration welled up inside me again and I felt my lip quivering as I was about to burst into tears. I had to stop crying I told myself, that was another sure sign of babyhood.

“She may still be off her food, Jennifer,” mother said noticing my reluctance to eat. “There’s a bottle in the fridge, she can have that later, I’ve put something in it to make her sleep.”

“Fine Mrs. W.” Jennifer nodded taking the food and beaker from my tray, wiping my face with a cloth, then wiping the tray clean.

Mother and Jennifer continued to chat away, both looking at me, as I desperately thought of someway of demonstrating I wasn’t Sarah. But being strapped in a highchair, wearing a pink baby grow made it impossible to present anything but a perfect double of Sarah.

I admonished myself for not thinking of this idea sooner, if I hadn’t been wallowing in self-pity and despair I might have brought my plight to mothers attention before now. Time was ticking away, those rings would leave this house, indeed this country for good tomorrow and I would be trapped as Sarah forever, every second counted.

“Are you ready honey?” Dad called from the hall.

“Coming Frank,” mother answered. “We will be quite late, tell Daniel not to wait up.” Mother turned to Jennifer. “And don’t do anything you might regret later,” she added.

“Whatever do you mean?” Jennifer blushed.

“You know what I mean Jennifer, I was once young too remember. Sometimes taking risks go wrong, when they do it can ruin your life forever,” mother lectured her, but she turned back to look at me, as if lecturing me. “I’m just saying make sure you take ALL the precautions you can, you don’t want to let one minute of foolishness cause you regret for the rest of your life do you?”

I certainly would do if I didn’t convince them I wasn’t Sarah.

“No Mrs. W,” Jennifer answered contritely.

“Nighty-nite baby, be good for Auntie Jen-Jen,” mother cooed, shaking her head for some reason, a smirk across her face, and was gone.

Jennifer removed my bib, replaced my dummy in my mouth and took me out of the highchair. I ejected the dummy, that would only add to my baby appearance, but ejecting it did too.

“WAS THERE NOTHING I COULD DO THAT DID NOT LOOK BABYISH,” I screamed loudly in baby talk, again only adding to my baby appearance.

Jennifer put me in the playpen in the lounge, poured baby toys in from a big box and went to find Sarah.

“THIS IS HOPELESS,” I cried. How could I not look anything like a baby, I was in a playpen, I was wearing a pink baby-grow, I was surrounded by baby toys, there was nothing for me to demonstrate my real identity.

Then I spotted the alphabet bricks.

Hope rose in my small heart as I crawled over and began sorting through the dolls, balls, rattles and other baby toys to get to the bricks. The mittens forced me to use two hands for each operation, I realised how babyish this looked as I sat straight legged picking up baby toys with both hands, but I didn’t care, the alphabet bricks were my route to freedom.

“AWWWWW doesn’t she look cute playing with her toys,” Jennifer gushed walking back into the room holding on to Sarah’s hand.

Sarah looked a little surprised to see me acting so babyish. My former face raised its eyebrows, I knew I had to be careful. If Sarah spotted the bricks she would remove them, I couldn’t risk that so I picked a doll from the pile of toys and hugged it to me, forcing a little smile.

“I know someone that’s cuter,” Sarah responded to Jennifer’s statement and threw what used to be my arms around Jennifer’s waist

I turned each brick over in my hands reading each letter. I had to figure what words I could spell with the letters before me, it was like doing an anagram with baby bricks, only this anagram would save my life.

As I concentrated, Jennifer’s bra hit the floor, followed by her skirt and her panty-hose. Sarah had kicked off her shoes, Jennifer removed Sarah’s socks and slacks. They entered into a heavy petting session. I set about putting the bricks together to form the words I had decided on, I had a little smile to myself as Sarah was falling into the same trap as I had done