|
|
| |
|
|
Mambo and Child
by Jennifer Loraine
Contact the author at jennifer@phuze.com
Angelica looked out of the battered taxicab window at the lush tropical forest rushing past. The asphalt highway was little better than a paved path through the dense foliage covering the mountainous terrain, but she didn't seem to mind. She had traveled this particular road every three months for the past two years and had gotten used to it. Every mile or so a wide dirt path would lead off to the left or right from the highway meandering it's way to a sugarcane plantation hidden in the jungle. She turned her head back to the front and watched as the first few houses of the village appeared in the distance. The white gingerbread of the ramshackle houses contrasted wildly with the green chaos that lay only yards beyond the houses's fences.
She sat up, tidied her dress and prepared herself to meet the unofficial mayor of the village, Madame Brigitte. A gaily wrapped gift sat in her lap, serving as a container for both the bright headscarf enfolded in tissue and the envelope stuffed with dollar bills in the bottom of the box. These gifts would grant her access to one of the most powerful Voudoun priestesses on the island of Haiti. The cab slowed and stopped in front of the largest building in the village. Angelica stepped out and looked up at the ancient bougainvillea covered mansion; it hadn't changed in the two years she had been coming here. The house, like Madame Brigitte herself, seemed to have a timeless quality that defied explanation. It was as if she was stepping into the past, a place where time itself was suspended and held at bay by some mysterious force. It was to this place that she had come to bring a little of that force back to the real world.
The late afternoon sky opened up and began to rain as she rang the tarnished brass doorbell. She was used to the rain too; Angelica had been a flight attendant on the daily Haitian run from Miami for three years and could not remember a day when it hadn't rained in the afternoon. The door opened slowly and there, standing in the dark hallway before her was an ancient wizened black woman wearing a ruffled pink party dress, a hot pink headscarf and matching "catseye" sunglasses. Angelica gasped slightly at the appearance of her patron, Madame Brigitte. It wasn't just the incongruity of the pretty pink dress on such an old woman, but the cigarette dangling loosely from her lips lent her a vaguely disreputable air that belied her respectability as leader of the tiny village. The old woman motioned to Angelica to come in and led the way to her sitting room. "Come in, child. Come in," she said as she opened the louvered doors to the sitting room and guided Angelica to the couch.
"How are you doing, Madame Brigitte?," she inquired politely as she sat herself beside the old woman.
Madame Brigitte smiled and said with a Creole accent, "Fine child, fine. What you have dere? You have gift for Madame Brigitte?"
Angelica smiled and gave the present to the old woman. "What you got for Madame Brigitte? Something pretty?," she said as she tore open the box.
She set the lid on the couch along side of her and removed the scarf from the box. "How pretty!," she exclaimed. "Dis be nicest scarf yet! You such good child! Always bring presents Madame Brigitte."
The old woman modeled the scarf on her head playfully, then folded it carefully on her lap and said, "How you be? Madame Brigitte see you be worried. Can Madame Brigitte help?"
Angelica nodded and began to explain her problem to Madame Brigitte. Within minutes she was sobbing like a little girl who had broken her favorite doll. Madame Brigitte listened silently until Angelica had finished then said, "Don' you worry youself abou' dat, child. Madame Brigitte take care of everyting. Here be potion Madame Brigitte made for you. You stay tonight. Madame Brigitte fix everyting. You see. Madame Brigitte fix."
She handed Angelica a small bottle and rose from the couch. She patted Angelica's shoulder and said, "You take nap now. It be long night tonight. Madame Brigitte nap too. You sleep here."
Madame Brigitte left the room, closing the doors behind her. Angelica took a tissue from her purse and blew her nose, then lay down on the couch to go to sleep.
When Angelica woke, it was late in the evening. She sat up and was brushing her hair when Madame Brigitte breezed into the room. The old woman smiled at her and said, "Good! You wake! Time you eat. Here, this for you."
She gave Angelica a plate full of black beans and rice and continued, "Yo u hurry. Not much time. Madame Brigitte be back soon."
Angelica took the proffered spoon and plate and began to eat. Madame Brigitte nodded, then turned and left the room. Just as she was finishing Madame Brigitte reappeared and said, "Time we go. You leave dat here. Come now. We in hurry."
Angelica put down the empty plate and got up from the couch saying, "Wher e are we going Madame Brigitte? Why didn't you wake me earlier so we wouldn't have to rush?"
Madame Brigitte grinned broadly and said, "No time for dat now. Madame Brigitte splain while we go. Come now, child. Madame Brigitte in big hurry."
She turned and left the room leading Angelica out the back door to a small dirt path at the edge of the jungle. As they walked on the path, Madame Brigitte began to explain, "You know Madame Brigitte Mambo. Right, child? You know what Mambo be?"
Angelica said, "It means you're a priestess right?"
"Dat right, I be priestess Voudoun religion. Mean I be given asson. You know asson, child?"
Angelica hesitated and said with some uncertainty in her voice, "It...It 's a rattle isn't it? A sacred rattle given to priests and priestesses?"
Madame Brigitte smiled and said, "Dat right, child. Asson sacred to Voudoun. It be made from calabash and snake bones. Very powerful. We go now to hounfor. Dat Voudoun temple. Be still now child. No talk. Madame Brigitte fix everyting. You see. You not worry. Everyone you friend here. You give gift Madame Brigitte when she make potion for you. Madame Brigitte give gift to village. All cept scarf. Madame Brigitte like pretty scarf," she said with a chuckle. "....Gift buy food, medicine for village. Everyone you friend here. I tell village you problem. They come. Everyone come help. Whole societe here! Even Houngan from next village here. All help. You get justice."
"Houngan?", Angelica whispered.
"Hush, child. Madame Brigitte say no talk. Houngan what you call priest. He help too!"
The path ended at a small clearing in the forest. Madame Brigitte stopped and gazed into the leaf shrouded darkness searching for the other members of her societe. Angelica saw that on the other side of the clearing was a tarpaper covered shack bounded on both sides by flaming torches. A tall post striped with brightly colored spiral bands set in a flat-topped stone base marked the center of the clearing. Madame Brigitte called out, "I be Madame Brigitte. I bring friend. Who dere?"
Instantly the clearing was ringed with blazing torches. Angelica could see almost one hundred people holding torches in the darkness. Madame Brigitte smiled; her teeth gleamed in the torch lit semi-darkness as she said, "Com e now, child. We fix problem."
Madame Brigitte led the way across the clearing to the shack and was met by an imposing black man in dark clothes and glasses, smoking a cigarette. He handed her a nearly full bottle of rum from which she immediately took a long gulping swig. She spoke to the man in Creole for a few minutes, then motioned to Angelica to come to her. "Dis Houngan," she said, indicating the man before her.
She pointed to the shack and said, "You go hounfor now. Here, drink first!," she commanded, handing Angelica the bottle of rum.
Angelica choked down a deep draught of the raw homemade rum and started to hand the bottle back. "Drink more! Ghd Nimbo want you be happy!"
Angelica raised her eyebrows questioningly at the sound of the unfamiliar name and took another long drink. Madame Brigitte smiled her approval and said, "Angelica good child! Be still like Madame Brigitte asked. You not know Ghd Nimbo, he Great Loa, a Great Egregor, he be ruler of death and re newer of life. He come tonight. He give you justice. Fix you problem. Go hounfor now."
Angelica pushed aside the tattered blanket serving as the door to the shack, entered and sat on the floor facing the wall with the "door" on her left and what looked to be an altar on her right.
The "altar" was constructed of old wooden packing crates and was illuminated by a battered kerosene lamp standing on it's far corner. The top of the altar was cluttered with various oddments of the Voudoun religion; multiple bottles of rum, mason jars filled with leaves and twigs floating in a brown liquid, cartons of Marboro cigarettes, bundles of black, brown and white chicken feathers, a baby food jar containing rusty coffin nails, assorted pictures torn from magazines, and bottles of cheap perfume laying amid piles of unidentifiable bags, bottles and pottery jars.
Two flags flanked the altar and rested against the wall behind it. Angelica could see that they had been embroidered and decorated with sequins to form a complex design, but the details were lost in the dim light. Outside the shack she could hear the villager begin to sing in their native Creole. Drums and rattles took up the beat, driving the song at a steady, intoxicating rhythm of seventy beats a minute. She could catch glimpses of bare chested men leaping and dancing in the torch light outside and once she thought she saw a woman break a flaming coal as big as a walnut from a torch with her fingers and put the glowing ember in her mouth!
Angelica began to wonder just what she had gotten herself into! She had heard rumors of what went on at Voudoun rituals but had never believed them. Spirit possession by the "Loas" or godlike spirits, the appearance of "Egregors" or spirit-auras that gamboled around the dancers' heads in multi-colored nimbuses, fire-eating, ritual sacrifice of chickens and other activities that were only darkly hinted at by her co-workers. They had seemed impossible when the other flight attendants had talked about them in the airport crew lounge in Port-au-Prince. Now she wasn't quite sure what she believed.
Suddenly the door covering was thrown aside and Madame Brigitte stood before her. The old woman's eyes were bright and wild from the rum's effects and her clothes were disarrayed as if she had been dancing the entire time Angelica had been in the shack. She took the banners from behind the altar and handed them to waiting hands outside the shack. Then she motioned to Angelica to get up and said, "Up child. You undress now. Time take bath. Be purified for Loa. Vite, vite!"
Madame Brigitte reached under the altar and slid out an enormous galvanized tub while Angelica disrobed. The Mambo put the tub in the center of the shack and began to fill it with the contents of the jars and bottles that had been sitting on the altar. When she had finished, she took a long wooden stick from behind the altar and began to stir the concoction. Angelica looked at the rank smelling, leaf and twig mixture with a sense of foreboding. Surely Madame Brigitte didn't expect her to bathe in that mess! Madame Brigitte looked up from her work and grinned at her as if she had heard Angelica's thoughts. The dirt floor at Madame Brigitte's feet was littered with empty perfume bottles, rum bottles and mason jars. "In child! Time for bath!", she said pointing into the tub.
Angelica stepped gingerly into the pungent brew as the old woman took a cracked water pitcher from the altar, dipped it into the tub and poured the contents over Angelica's head. "This is horrible!", Angelica thought, "I'll never get the stink of rum and cheap perfume off of me!"
She shivered as the rum laden mixture evaporated quickly in the warm tropical night and sent chills down her back. "It be good, child. You dry now," said Madame Brigitte briskly and handed Angelica a towel that had been new twenty years before.
Angelica toweled off quickly and redressed. Madame Brigitte nodded and said, "You be ready now. Vite, vite! Loa not wait for child! Child must hurry!"
The Mambo turned and held the blanket back for Angelica to exit. Madame Brigitte took her by the hand and led her to a bonfire next to the center-post in the middle of the clearing. The crowd of villagers became deathly silent as she approached the fire. The damp logs in the fire hissed and popped angrily as if the spirits had entered the fire itself. Madame Brigitte seated her by the fire and picked up a clay jar laying off to the side. The villagers began to clap their hands in unison as she reached in the jar with one hand and began to trace out the lines of a design on the earth with the contents of the jar. First she drew a box with two smaller boxes on top finishing the object with an ornate equal armed cross on the top. Then she drew long coffin shaped boxes on either side of the first object, Madame Brigitte explained the drawing to Angelica as if she was a small child, "See child? Dis Ghd Nimbo's verver! It be made with cornmeal. It be his sign! He come, give you justice!"
She continued to add flourishes to the design until she had made a complex dry painting about three feet long and two feet tall with yellow cornmeal. When she was finished, she put the clay pot on the ground and lit a cigarette with satisfaction.
The tall Houngan stepped into the firelight and gave Madame Brigitte a fresh bottle of rum. The old black woman grinned broadly, put the bottle to her lips and guzzled half of the rum before beginning a slow sinuous dance. Two drums, one moderately pitched and the other a deep resonant bass sounded and began to beat in time to the Mambo's dance. Madame Brigitte sped up and capered wildly as if she was a young woman only a quarter her age. She paused in the ecstatic dance and pushed the bottle of rum into Angelica's hands shouting, "Drink child! Drink! Drink in honor Ghd Nimbo!"
Angelica put the bottle to her lips and took a large swig. "More child! Drink all rum!"
She reluctantly put the bottle to her lips again and forced herself to guzzle the raw homemade rum. The fiery liquid burned down her throat, searing the lining of her mouth and stomach. She swayed unsteadily even though she was seated and set the bottle upright beside her on the ground. The Mambo nodded at her approvingly, then gyrated away to continue the rite.
Angelica felt ill; sweet potent brew she had forced down her throat made her stomach rebel and made her dizzy. She tried to watch Madame Brigitte's dance in an effort to keep from throwing up. Flashes of color appeared in her peripheral vision. The drums seemed to be beating within her head and the ground felt like it was trembling beneath her. She felt a presence, some otherworldly something, nearby. Her vision blurred and focused, then blurred again. Madame Brigitte appeared to be surrounded by brightly swirling lights. Angelica glanced at the crowd and realized there were rapidly moving lights around everyone. It was as if she could see into the souls of everyone present. The rum and the noise of the drums distracted her, she couldn't think! Suddenly she realized she wasn't alone; there were two beings in her body! She was there, but there was something else, something that threatened to take control of her body! She struggled against it briefly, then everything went black.
Angelica woke in the morning on the couch in Madame Brigitte's sitting room. The events of the night before seemed like a blur. She remembered drinking half a bottle of rum before she blacked out. "Strange," she thought, "I have a better tolerance of alcohol than that. I can understand it making me sick, but not making me pass out. They must have put something in the rum."
The doors opened and an alert, obviously hangover free Madame Brigitte walked in the room. "How does she do it?," thought Angelica, "She must have drunk four times what I drank and she could still dance. She moved like she had the body of an eighteen year old last night. She should be a mass of aches and pains today. Look at her, she doesn't act like she's suffered any ill effects from either the dancing or the rum. She has incredible stamina for such an old woman."
Madame Brigitte sat down next to her on the couch and said, "How child feel dis morn'? Ghd Nimbo come. He be pleased with you. You problem be fixed one month. You come back. One month. You hear child? One month! Ghd Nimbo big joker. He fix problem. You get justice. Joke justice. You like. You see. You be back one month. I give you potion to fix problem." The old woman got up from the couch and led Angelica to the front door saying, "Taxi waiting, child. See you one month. I splain then." Madame Brigitte kissed her on the cheek and saw her to the end of the porch, then turned and went back inside.
On the flight back Angelica thought about the problem she had brought to the Mambo. She was sure her husband had been cheating on her. It wasn't enough that he had lost his job and she had to support him. He had to run around on her too! He had plenty of opportunity to do it too. She was out of town at least three nights a week on flights while all he did was sit around the house. He had lost his job as a used car salesman in the last economic downturn and he hadn't worked since. He hadn't even applied for a job! If she hadn't had a job they would be living under a bridge for all the effort he put out. The only thing he seemed to be good for was sex, and lately he hadn't been much use for that either! If she hadn't given him doses of the youth potion she got from Madame Brigitte he'd have lain there like a limp balloon! (Of course she'd had to administer it in a very sensitive place for it to have the desired effect.) It was the potion that had given her the clue to his infidelity. She only took a teaspoon dose of the potion once every two weeks. At that rate the bottle should have lasted at least three months. Recently she noticed that she was running out in two months or so. Matt had to be using it while she was on her flights. She decided she would hire an investigator to find out who he was seeing.
Exactly one month later she was on the plane again coming home. Madame Brigitte had kept her promise and given her another "special" potion to solve her problem. And what a solution it was! She had broken into gales of laughter when Madame Brigitte had explained the potion's effects to her. She couldn't wait to go home and try it. She would be rid of her lazy, good-for-nothing, husband forever! Best of all, there wouldn't even be a body to dispose of. He'd simply disappear. Matt's girlfriend would be drawn unwittingly into his punishment and share in his fate.
Madame Brigitte had sworn the plan wasn't hers, but the plan of her patron Loa, "Ghd Nimbo". It didn't matter to Angelica who had concocted it. Though she had to admit she admired the fiendishly clever mind that conceived this plot. This was no mere poisoning, but a complex series of events that would be triggered the next time her husband used "her" youth potion. All she had to do is substitute the "special" potion for her own and pretend to take a flight out. Actually, Madame Brigitte had planned for her to leave town, but the temptation was too hard to resist. She'd wait until the potion had time to take effect on Matt and his erstwhile girlfriend and then walk in, catch them in "flagrante delicto" and tell them what she had done to them. She had never imagined her best friend was the one who had been sleeping with Matt. No wonder she hadn't caught them. It simply hadn't occured to her. She wanted to see the look on their faces when she explained to them they had been put under a spell by a Voudoun priestess.
"On second thought," she mused, "maybe I should sweeten the pot a little and increase his life insurance before I set my trap. Another couple of weeks won't matter. I should get something for all the trouble he's caused me. After seven years, I can get him declared legally dead and collect the insurance. Still, the police might use the insurance as an excuse to investigate me. The airline would probably suspend me until the investigation was over. It probably isn't worth the extra money." She decided she'd sleep on it before making her decision. Terri rolled over in her sleep and stretched her arm out intending to put it around Matt's chest. She stirred when she couldn't seem to find him. "Where is he?," she drowsed, "He wouldn't have gone home without telling me. Has he gotten up to go to the bathroom?" She opened her eyes and looked at the bathroom door. Terri could see the outline of the open bathroom door dimly illuminated by the moonlight. "Matt, Honey, are you in the bathroom?," she called.
Terri heard a soft rustling on the other side of the bed in answer. She patted the bed beside her, trying to find him. "Matt," she demanded in exasperation, "Where are you?"
A hand reached up and grabbed her arm, pulling it down to the bed. "Matt, is anything wrong?," she said in alarm.
Terri turned on the lamp on the bedside table and sat up to look at him. Her eyes widened and she screamed, "Matt, what's happened to you?"
He looked up at her and smiled sleepily, unaware that there was anything wrong. Terri shook him by the shoulders and said, "Matt, wake up! Something terrible has happened to you!"
He sat up groggily and said in a high-pitched pre-pubescent voice, "What do you mean something terrible has happened to me? I'm fine......."
He stopped in confusion, his voice had changed! He sounded like a little kid! He held out his hands and looked at them. He had the hands of a little boy! All the lines of age, the scars of experience had disappeared! Terri grasped the topsheet and pulled it away from his body, throwing the sheet to the foot of the bed. She gazed in horror at what had earlier been his brown thatch-thronged manhood. Only a small boy's bare penis remained of his sexual pride. It lay innocently between his small legs, denuded of all maturity and potency. Her lover had become a child!
Matt jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom and turned on the light. He looked at himself in the full-length mirror attached to the bathroom door and began to cry. Terri followed him in and stared at her lover s body. He couldn't be more than ten years old! Matt looked up at Terri, who now towered over him. "It's the potion! Angelica's potion! It's turned me into a little boy!," he cried, sinking to the floor in despair and began to weep.
Terri knelt beside him and hugged him to her chest, "There, there Matt. It's only temporary. You told me yourself the effects only last a few hours. Everything will be alright. I'll take care of you. Don't cry, honey."
She picked him up in her arms and carried him to the easy chair in the bedroom. Terri sat down in the chair, put him on her lap and held him to her bosom, trying to console him by patting him on the back. Matt wept miserably while she made soothing noises and rocked him back and forth. After a while he quieted and she pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped him in it. "He seems to be getting younger by the minute!," she thought to herself, "He looks like a five year old now!"
He huddled closer to her, seeking comfort in the nearness of her body. Terri looked down the diminished body of her lover. He looked so small and vulnerable. She felt an overwhelming desire to cuddle him protectively against her breasts. She reached over him and slid his bottom closer to her, then rested his head on her bosom. She had never felt this way about anyone before. He made her feel...so.....so maternal. Presently his hand crept up to his face and his thumb stole into his mouth. "Poor baby," she thought.
She watched as he regressed into infancy in her arms. He fell into a deep slumber as she continued gently rock him. When she was sure he was fully asleep, she got up and laid him down in the bed, still swaddled in the sheet, then lay down beside him and went to sleep/
The next morning Terri woke to find he had wet the sheet she had wound around him. She got up and left the room, returning a few minutes later with her hands full of small clothes. She carefully unwound the sheet from his tiny body and put it in the bathroom tub. Terri picked up his legs and slipped a fluffy white cloth diaper underneath his bottom and pinned it in place. "Thank God my sister left all her baby things in storage here. She won't mind if I borrow them. This is an emergency!," she told herself.
When she finished diapering Matt, she lifted his legs again and slipped a pair of yellow plastic panties over his feet, working them down his legs and over his diaper. Matt slept on, oblivious to her ministrations. She lay him in the middle of the bed and left him sleeping while she worked in the spare bedroom adjoining hers.
She finished an hour later and took him into his new bedroom. Terri kissed him on the forehead as she put him in his new bed and tucked him in. She went back to her bedroom and went back to bed. It had been a very trying night. She thought about how strange her reaction had been to Matt's transformation. She couldn't believe how calm she'd been. This wasn't like her, she thought. She should have called the police or someone in authority. What was she doing, trying to take care of him? He wasn't her baby. It was just that... that every time she looked at his little body, her heart melted. She wanted to mother him ...to take care of him. He looked so adorable sleeping with his thumb in his mouth. She shook her head in disbelief. What was happening to her? She had never had a desire to be a mother before. She didn't want to be tied down with a baby! The only lips she wanted sucking her breasts was a man's lips, not a babe hungry for his Mommy's milk! She remembered how he had caressed her breasts when they made love last night. She had practically climaxed the minute he had started to lick her tits. The very thought of it made her tits tingle with remembered excitement. She fell asleep smiling at the memory of their lovemaking.
When Matt awake later in the morning, the events of the previous evening rushed back to him. He lay on his stomach quietly with his eyes closed, trying to sort it all out. What had happened? He had used the potion before without any problems. Had he used too much? He hadn't used more than Angelica had used on him before, only a teaspoon, more or less. Were the effects of the potion cumulative? Angelica used it on herself twice, maybe three times a week with no problems. Even if he had OD'd, the effects were only temporary, they'd wear off in twelve hours. Surely twelve hours had elapsed by now. He was confident that if he checked, he would find himself back in an adult body lying in the bed next to Terri. It was just that if he wasn't back in his body, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't face the idea of being a tiny, helpless baby. He opened his eyes slowly, afraid of what he might see.
The first thing he saw made him think he was in jail. Bars rose from beneath mattress level to an angle high above his head. He turned his head to look up at the top of the bars and saw they were topped with a wooden railing. The bars were made of wood! He looked down toward his feet and saw that the bars ended with a large flat sheet of wood and took up again at the other side of the wooden panel. He was in a wooden box surrounded by bars on two sides! He saw something painted on the sheet and tried to focus on the pattern. It was a pastel colored picture of baby bunnies. He was in a baby crib!
Matt moved his legs trying to sit up. The sheet slipped on the plastic mattress protector and made it difficult to use his legs for leverage. He pushed down hard on the mattress with both hands and tried to draw his legs together so he could raise himself to a kneeling position. All he succeeded in doing was raising his chest and shoulders off the crib in an infantile version of a pushup. A warm bulkiness separated his legs, preventing them from coming together completely. He rolled over on his side and pushed himself up to a sitting position with his hand. Matt looked down to see what he was wearing. He noticed immediately that his flat well-muscled stomach was gone. In it's place was a fat, softly rounded tummy. He held back his belly with both hands so he could see. He appeared to be wearing large, semi-translucent, yellow plastic briefs. He could see that he was wearing something white underneath. He put his hand down and worked it under the elastic of the briefs. They were damp! No,.....they weren't damp, they were sopping wet! He was wearing diapers!
Matt screamed in rage and humiliation. He was still a baby! Angelica had done this to him. She had set him up! He didn't know how she had done it, but he was certain she had. He wailed at the top of his lungs, venting his fury with his absent tormentor. The door opened and Terri walked into the room with a smile that went from ear to ear.
"There, there Mattie, Terri's here. Don't cry little Mattie," she said, reaching over the crib rail and lifting him out by his armpits.
She carried him over to a white staggered shelved table and laid him on his back. "Does little Mattie have a wet dydee?," she cooed, putting three fingers down the front of his plastic panty to feel for dampness.
When her fingers encountered his soggy diaper, she withdrew them, grinned broadly, and tickled his belly button, saying, "No wonder poor Mattie is in such a state. His little dydee is positively soaked! Don't worry Mattie, Terri will get you into a dry dydee right now!"
She lifted his legs with one hand and removed the damp panty with a single movement of the other. Matt was so astonished by her treatment of him that he couldn't even protest. Within seconds she had removed the pins on both sides of the diaper and stuck the sharp tips into a bar of soap that sat next to the baby wipes and powder at the rear of the changing table. Matt was mortified. He lay on the table in front of his mistress, naked except for the soggy diaper still draped over his groin. Matt kicked his legs in anger and frustration. Terri lifted his legs again and whisked away the dripping cloth, then quickly put a clean diaper underneath his bottom. She opened the box of baby wipes and efficiently topped and tailed Matt while he writhed in embarrassment. He looked at her in horror as she smilingly opened the powder container and dusted his upper legs and pubes liberally with talcum. Terri picked up his penis and rubbed the powder into it with one hand. Matt felt his penis becoming more erect with every gentle rub of her fingers.
This was horrible! She would think that he enjoyed having his diaper changed! She saw his erection and chuckled saying, "Mattie likes his wee-wee massaged, doesn't he?"
Then she flipped him over on his stomach and sprinkled talc on his bottom, rubbing it into every fold of his skin and ending with the crack between his cheeks. He drummed his legs against the table in protest at her invasion of his privacy. He knew he had to have his diaper changed, but she didn't have to treat to him like an infant! Terri flipped him over again and briskly rediapered him. Matt was relieved that the operation was over, even if he was only wearing a diaper. He sighed in release and lay his head back on the table, then started as he realized she had picked up his legs again. "What she going to put on me now?," he thought in desperation. He watched in fascinated horror as she slipped a soft white plastic panty over his feet and worked it down his legs and over his diaper.
Terri picked him up from the table and seated him firmly on her right hip and carried Matt into the kitchen. She lowered his legs into a high chair, grasping his legs as they slipped under the tray and gently pulled them out in front of the chair while she settled his bottom down into it's padded seat. She stepped behind him and tied a bib around his neck, then pulled out a chair and placed it in front of the high chair. Terri went to the stove and spooned something into a small dish then came back and sat in front of him. "Time for breakfast, Sweetie. Open wide for Terri! That's a good baby!"
Matt yielded to the inevitable and opened his mouth as wide as he could to allow Terri to spoon in his breakfast. He was surprised to find that she had made him some oatmeal. While he was being fed, Matt availed himself of the magnificent view of her breasts. He wasn't the only one who had been transmogrified. Some of the potion must have rubbed off on her boobs when he had stroked between her breasts with his penis. Terri's breasts seemed to be twice as large as they had yesterday. They looked like they would jump out of her blouse at any minute. She fed him all the oatmeal in the bowl and then returned to the stove. Just as she was finishing preparing his formula from evaporated milk, water and some corn syrup, the doorbell rang. Terri left him in the high chair while she went to see who it was.
When Terri opened the door, there was Angelica standing in front of the door waiting with her arms full of gaily wrapped presents. Terri helped Angelica with the presents and invited her into the hall. Matt heard Angelica's sweet voice carry into the kitchen. "She's coming into the kitchen!," he thought in panic.
He looked for a way to get out of the high chair without breaking his neck.. "I've got to find some place to hide!" Just then Angelica rounded the corner and came into the kitchen. "I'm caught! She's found me with Terri!"
"There you are!," she said to Terri, shooting him a smile of evil triumph. Matt squalled in terror and peed his diaper in a rush. She walked over to the high chair, bent down to look Matt in the eye and said, "I see you have a little visitor. Are you seeing another woman, little man? Your Mommy will be upset when she finds out."
Terri ran over to Matt's defense saying, "This is my nephew Bobbie, he'll be staying with me for a few days. Isn't he the cutest thing?"
Angelica smiled, nodded and said, "He's one of the sweetest babies I've ever seen. He could stand to have his face cleaned though. He looks like he gave himself an oatmeal facial." Terri laughed and proceeded to wipe his face with the bib. Angelica looked at her watch and continued, "If you don't mind, I'm in a hurry. Can we all go into the family room so I can give you my presents? There's someone meeting me here at noon."
Terri removed Matt's bib before lifting him out of the high chair and swinging him over one hip. They went into the family room and sat on the sofa. Terri sat Matt on her lap facing Angelica and rested his head against her bosom, then waited until Angelica began. "Terri, it's time we dropped this charade. I know all about you and Matt. I've known for months. As far as I'm concerned our marriage is over. Since you want him, you can have him. I've had enough of his philandering and his laziness. I'm not angry with you, I know you couldn't help yourself. You fell in love. As for Matt, he's a pushover for a woman with big boobs. He never grew up. He doesn't want to work or take any responsibility for his life. He's just a baby who learned how to dress and feed himself and managed to get toilet trained. Any woman who gets him will spend the rest of her life taking care of him. It's a full time job; if she doesn't watch him like a hawk, he'll wander off like a two year old. I don't have time to take care of him. I have my career to think of. If you want to take care of him, then my responsibility for him is finished. There are plenty of real men who want to date a young, attractive flight attendant."
She smiled and continued, "As a matter of fact, one of them is coming to pick me up here at noon."
Matt gaped at her in open mouthed astonishment, she was seeing someone on the side! Angelica continued, "Terri, I hope the two of us can remain friends. I'll do what I can to help you with Matt, but understand he's your responsibility now. You're an heiress, you don't have to work. You have time and money to take care of him, I don't."
Matt started to cry, she was leaving him! Angelica looked down at him and said, "Poor thing, he must need his diaper changed. By the way, Terri, you look a little damp too! Did you know there is a big wet spot underneath your left boob?"
Terri looked down at her blouse; there was a huge wet patch that went all the way to her waist. She look at the blouse underneath Matt's head and saw there was another spot just like it under her right boob. What was happening to her? "Why don't you go and get into a dry blouse? I'll change the baby. Just point me to where you have clean diapers."
Terri nodded dumbly and handed Matt to Angelica. "I've set up a temporary nursery in the spare bedroom next to mine. You'll find everything you need in there." Angelica picked Matt up and said to him with a smirk, "Come on Bobby', we're going to get that dydee changed."
Matt was laying on his back on the changing table in no time. Angelica removed his panties while cheerfully prating baby-talk at him. This was humiliating! The only thing that could have made it worse was if he had shit in his diaper and he wasn't altogether sure he hadn't! She unpinned his diaper, lifted his legs and pulled the wet diaper out from under his bottom. She quickly cleaned him with a baby wipe and reached beneath the table for a clean diaper. Angelica felt her hand becoming wet. She looked back to see Matt helplessly peeing an arc of urine into the air, covering the table with a spreading puddle. "Naughty, naughty baby!," she chided. "Can't you at least wait until Angelica gets a diaper on you?"
She mopped up the puddle with the wet diaper, then quickly rediapered him. Matt blushed hotly in embarrassment. If she ever found out he had peed on her, she'd never let him forget it! She put a fresh pair of panties on his feet and slid them up his legs. When she slipped them over his knees, he saw to his anguish that they were colored a soft, translucent pink! She picked him up and carried him back into the family room and sat him on the sofa. A minute later Terri returned wearing a fresh blouse. Her face had an ashen cast to it; something had obviously shocked her deeply. "Angelica, something happened while I was changing my blouse. My breasts are filled with milk! The nipples are enlarged and swollen and when I squeezed them, they squirted milk everywhere! What's happening to me?"
Angelica smiled, nodded and indicated with her hand that Terri should take a seat while she explained. "As I told you, I've known about you and Matt for months. Do you remember the potion that I brought back from Haiti six months ago? I noticed that it was disappearing faster than I could account for. Obviously Matt was using it without my permission. So I talked to Madame Brigitte and she made a special' potion for Matt. I wanted her to punish him for running around on me. Philandering is considered a very serious crime by the Voudoun societes of Haiti. The entire village turned out to help her make the potion. It took her the better part of a month to make it. While I waited, I hired a private investigator to find out who Matt was sleeping with.You can imagine my surprise when I found out it was you, Terri! When Madame Brigitte told me what she had planned for you and Matt, I had second thoughts about what the potion would do to you. But I had given Madame Brigitte my word I would use the potion if she made it for me and one doesn't break one's word to a Mambo! Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you how you were dosed with the potion. Matt did it! After ten years of living with him I know his sexual preferences. I told Madame Brigitte how he likes to jack himself off by rubbing his dick between a woman's boobs. He massaged his dick with the potion before making love to you and then he unknowingly rubbed it onto your breasts with his dick!
The new potion has different effect on a woman than on a man. You see what it did to Matt, it turned him into a baby. It was designed to have a far subtler effect on a woman. You see one of the physical effects it had on you, it made your breasts start to produce milk. You'll never dry up, even when you're an old woman, they'll still be making milk! But don't worry about becoming an old woman soon, it's second major physical effect is to make you age very, very slowly. You're going to live a long, long time. The other changes it made in you are both psychological and spiritual; you've become his mother. Have you noticed how much pleasure you get from taking care of Matt? Doesn't the sight of his cute, little, diapered bottom make you just want to hold him and cuddle him all day long? Does his cooing and crawling enthrall you? You're in love with him! Not the love of a mistress for her lover, but the love of a Mommy for her baby! Nothing he does will ever make you lose your love for him. His fussing and squalling will make you want to run to him and comfort him. His worst messes won't bother you, they'll only mean he needs you. Even diaper changing isn't bad if you love your baby. You won't have any interest in other men, he'll be the center of your universe. From now until the day you die, you'll be his mommy. You won't miss sex very much though, you've been given something almost as good to replace it! You'll be able to nurse him! Madame Brigitte assures me that the potion makes breast-feeding extremely pleasurable for a woman. Once you start breast-feeding him, you'll begin to crave the touch of his tiny hands on your breasts. You'll want to feed him five and six times a day. You'l l wake up in the middle of the night wanting to feed him. He'll always be there for you, hungry, waiting for Mommy's titty. Just as you'll be there for him. When we planned to turn Matt into a baby we wanted to make sure the person who would take care of him would truly love him. I'm sorry it was you. Madame Brigitte has promised me that you'll be happy in your new life with him.
Unlike the potion Madame Brigitte prepares for me, the effects of the potion she made for the two of you are permanent. You see, there's a reason my rejuvenation potion is temporary; if someone is permanently rejuvenated, then his mind and spirit begin to rejuvenate as well. His memories are progressively erased until he has no recollection of having lived the years he has removed with the potion. The person's ability to reason, to think, are also affected. In effect, the age of the person's mind regresses to his new physical age. He becomes his new age, in both mind and body. Matt has the body of a baby today, within a year he'll have the mind of a baby as well. He'll remain a baby for the rest of his life.
Terri, since the potion merely extends your life rather than rejuvenates your body, it won't have any effect on your memory. Now that I've told you what's happened to you, I'll give the two of you your presents and leave. If you're mad at me, I hope someday you'll forgive me. I'd still like to be friends with you. The presents on the floor are baby clothes and toys for Matt and there are a few presents in there for you too! I've included a few things that might make your life as a mother a little easier; a dozen nursing bras (I hope I got the right size!), a nipple/pacifier rack for the dishwasher, baby food organizers for the kitchen and a breast pump set for yourself when you need to leave Matt at the daycare for a few hours. I've also included some disposible diapers and some baby food so you won't have to go shopping for him immediately."
Terri smiled, reached over and patted Angelica's hand and said, "Angelica, I'm not angry with you. I know you didn't have any choice. I'm still your friend. Besides, I'm pleased with the change. I feel like the happiest woman on Earth. Why don't you stay while we open the presents you bought us?"
Angelica hesitated for a moment, then said, "I really should be going. Maybe I can stay for a minute or two longer, though. Why don't we open two of Matt's presents?" Angelica bent over and chose the two smallest presents in the pile. It embarrassed her to be forgiven so easily by someone upon whom she had exacted revenge.
Matt sat motionless on the sofa with his eyes wide and his mouth open. He was dumbfounded by Angelica's revelations. He felt numb. Matt didn't know whether he should scream in outrage or cry in despair. Angelica hadn't merely emasculated him, she had reduced him to a state of helpless dependence! She had taken her sexual rival and converted her to the agent of her revenge. He had become a wet little plaything for his former mistress. Terri wasn't even concerned that his transformation was permanent! He would swear she was pleased with what Angelica had done. Terri didn't care if he was reduced to babbling infancy, it would only make him more manageable. They acted like his feelings were beneath consideration. He was a nonentity, a blob of noisy protoplasm that needed to be fed in one end and cleaned and diapered on the other! They were deliberating his fate as if he was a one-year old needing daycare and he was unable to comprehend the discussion. He had never been so humiliated in his entire life! The two of them had relegated him to a lifetime of infancy without even speaking to him! They made it apparent that as far as they were concerned, he already was a baby!
The thought made him feel queasy. He had the beginnings of a stomach ache which rapidly changed to one of desperation. He needed to BM! He tried to suppress the urge, but his bowels let go in spite of him. He could feel the warm, pudding-like mess oozing from his behind and soiling his clean diaper. He moved his legs uncomfortably and felt his bottom sliding in the sticky, slippery mess that coated his behind. His bladder followed suit; the area between his legs was growing warmer by the minute and he soon found himself sitting in a sodden, filthy diaper that would have made any baby proud. He felt his mind leave his body and he hovered, observing the diapered child sitting between the two adult women. His spirit reeled in anguish, maybe they were right! Maybe he was a baby! All at once he was back in his body, feeling small and vulnerable in a dirty diaper.
Terri picked Matt up and sat him next to her. Then Angelica shoved the smallest package into his hands. He sat staring at the foil wrapped box without moving while Terri opened the other gift. Terri's eyes lit up with delight when she saw what Angelica had bought Matt. "Oh Angelica, it's darling! Look Mattie, Angelica bought you a teddybear! Now you'll have a friend to keep you company in your crib. Look, it's even wearing diapers and baby pants, just like you!"
Matt groaned silently when he saw the bear. He dropped the small box and tried to hide against Terri's side. Terri picked up the other package and unwrapped it. Inside was a pacifier threaded on a baby blue ribbon. She put the ribbon over his neck and dropped the pacifier, letting it bounce against his stomach. Angelica told them she had to leave and would let herself out the front door.
Terri pulled Matt up into her lap and laid him back agianst her arm. He turned his head toward her and buried his face in her bosom. Tears welled up in his eyes and he began to weep uncontrollably. His shoulders trembled with emotion and he whimpered in defeat. Terri sensed his despondency and she gathered him closer to her, holding him to her by his diapered buttocks and pressing the soft, warm mess into his bottom. "Poor Mattie," she cooed, "All this talk has upset you. You haven't had your morning bottle yet. You're probably thirsty and tired. Mommy will get you your ba-ba and then you can take your morning nap."
She was about to get up and make his bottle when she realized she had everything she needed to slake his thirst right there. Terri unbuttoned her blouse and lifted her breast out for him to nurse. His eyes were closed and he bearly noticed when she slipped her nipple between his lips. Terri pushed on the top of her breast to get the milk flowing. A thin jet of milk squirted into his mouth. Matt's eyes flew open. She intended to breast-feed him! He struggled fiercely to free himself from her grip and kicked his legs in anger. Terri held his head more tightly against her breast. He put his hands on her breast and pushed hard against her boob, trying to remove her nipple from his mouth. The stream became a rush and his mouth filled with his Mommy's milk. Matt swallowed so he could breathe and was instantly consumed with the desire to suckle. His tiny hands stopped pushing her tit away, instead they began clutching her breast to allow him to pull it's erect teat deep into his mouth. He could feel the nipple resting against his hard palate as he moved his tongue in a stimulating, sucking, swallowing motion. He was rewarded for every movement with a small jet of milk that spurted hotly against his soft palate and throat. The taste of the milk was ambrosial; he was transported on waves of infantine delight as it trickled down his throat and began to fill his stomach.
She smiled as Matt moved his legs languidly in pleasure. Angelica was right, the potion had given her an ecstasy that was a pleasure equal to, if vastly different from, sex. She swayed, rocking in gentle time to the rhythm of his suckling as he awakened responses buried deep with the female psyche. Matt drifted in the hunger-fulfilling bliss, his humiliation and rage forgotten. He had forgotten everything, all that remained was the undeniable urge, the craving to nurse at Terri's breast. Nothing else was important, he was enraptured by the act of feeding. When Terri switched him to her other breast, the interruption of his feast made him whimper and fuss in annoyance. His sucking finally slowed and stopped as his small stomach became distended with milk. Matt's eyelids drooped sleepily, threatening to close altogether.
Terri picked him up from her lap with a Mother's contented sigh and rested his chest on her shoulder. She began to pat his back with exquisite gentleness. Matt burped hugely for her, making Terri chuckle in maternal satisfaction. She moved him down from her shoulder and nestled him in the crook of her arm, cuddling him close to the warmth and security of her bosom. Soon he was softly snoring in her arms. Terri smiled down at her infant son. She had never dreamed how pleasurable nursing was for the mother! That woman Angelica had mentioned,.....What was her name?......Madame Brigitte. She had been correct in her prediction when she told Angelica that she wouldn't be able to resist breast-feeding him several times a day. Terri had a feeling she was right about waking up in the night with the desire to feed him too. She took the pacifier laying unused on Matt's chest and pressed the nipple into his mouth. He stirred in his slumber and made feeble sucking motions with his lips. A whiff of his dirty diaper reached Terri. "Oh ho," she thought, "my little baby has a dirty diaper. After that big breakfast, I'm not surprised." "Come on sweetiepie," she said out loud, "let's go change your dydee."
Matt woke to find himself on the changing table again and Terri pulling a fresh pair of panties up his legs. "I've already wet or dirtied two diapers this morning alone. How many diapers will I go through in a day?," he thought in wonder. Terri picked him up and held him to her chest and began to softly sing him a lullabye. His eyelids drooped heavily as her gentle voice soothed him into slumber. When Matt woke again it was almost three in the afternoon. He sat up in the crib and looked around in wonder. Everything looked so strange and unfamiliar. He couldn't remember every having been in this room. This wasn't where he normally slept.
"This was a.....I'm in a....," he thought in confusion. Matt couldn't remember what they called the thing he was in. As he looked around the room he realized he couldn't name anything in the room! He looked down an saw he was dressed in something soft and thick that was fastened beneath the big, round thing he was looking over, ....what was it called?...He was sure he knew what that thing below his chin was called. ...all of a sudden it came to him...It was called a tummy! He grinned hugely, chuckling with delight that he remembered it was called a tummy. He looked down and patted the soft thing between his legs. It was covered with a thin, soft white thing that wouldn't let him touch the other soft thing between his legs. Matt sat in deep concentration and tried to remember what the thing between his legs was called. .....a dydee! That was it! It was called a dydee! He pushed on the dydee with the flat of his hand and was rewarded with a warm, wet pleasureable sensation. Matt saw a big fuzzy-looking thing that was sharing the place he slept in with him. He crawled over to examine it and discovered that it had a soft fleecy feel to it. Just touching it made him feel safe and happy. It's bright eyes looked sadly down at Matt. He was sure that they were the eyes of a friend. He pulled the teddy bear close to him and hugged it for company. The starlings roosting outside the nursery window chirped happily as Matt put his thumb in his mouth and began to suck it. That too made him feel good; it was almost like he was eating or drinking, but not quite. Matt looked up an noticed a sparkly thing hanging above him and squealed in delight. It moved and twisted in ways Matt couldn't have begun to understand or describe. He was enchanted. His eyes grew large in awe of the thing above his head as saliva covered his chin and dripped unnoticed onto his chest. The thing rotated in the sunlight and caught a beam of sunshine and reflected it onto the matress in front of Matt. He gurgled and cooed at the pretty white thing at his feet and tried to grab it in his hand. The thing's contant motion made it difficult to catch and he tried again. Matt grabbed at it again and discovered it disappeared when he tried to wrap his hand around it. Matt snatched at it angrily and found it had moved again. He squawked peevishly and tried to seize it with both hands only to find the sunbeam had danced away from him again. Matt screamed in infantile frustration. He wanted that thing! The door flew open and Terri rushed to the side of the crib saying, "What's wrong Mattie?"
He looked up at her and grinned, his anger momentarily forgottten. He knew her! She was his friend! Matt pulled himself up with help from the bars of the crib and looked at her. He was sure he knew her, she made him feel good! He loved this person. He even had a name for her, ...if he could only remember it. What did he call her?? Suddenly he recalled what his name for her was. He bubbled and cooed happily as he prepared to call out her name as loudly as he could. With infinite joy and satisfaction with his mental prowess he shouted, "Ma-ma!!" and held out his arms to be hugged and cuddled by his mother.
On the edge of the city, the thunderstorm that had blown in from the Gulf twenty-four hours earlier thundered it's final roar. The boom sounded remarkably like deep, bass laughter to those who heard the storm's peal of completion as the clouds dissipated in the bright afternoon sun.
Finis coronat infans
Contact the author at jennifer@phuze.com
Stories | Authors | Sources Contact the archive: radiox@neosoft.com
The Age Regression Story Archive - Mirror Site