[MyWorld08]

Hey everybody, sorry it's taken so long to post another chapter - been kinda' busy. So, here we go with the next chapter, but first - as always - a summary of Chapter 5. Toby experienced his first day of daycare and it didn't go so well. He does not want to interact with any of the other children. He also has his first diaper emergency - number 2! - because he can't get into the bathroom that the adult caretakers use. Frank, on the other hand, seems willing to do anything, no matter how humiliating, in order to escape.

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The Addict: Chapter 6

The next day began just as shamefully. Toby’s clothes and sheets were soaked. He was becoming a chronic bed wetter. Toby went into the bathroom and stripped off his wet PJs. Next, he climbed the toilette as a step-ladder up to the sink counter top where there was the full wall mirror. Toby stared at his infantile body, naked from head to toe, in disbelief. He had been like this for – how many days?, three or four, maybe a week. It was starting to sink in that it wasn’t going away. Surely he would have awoken from a dream by now.

Toby sighed heavily, “Is this really me?” he spoke watching the baby’s mouth in the mirror say the words. “Is this what I really am?” He ran his fingers through his hair then squeezed and tugged on the skin of his face. All of his senses told him it was real. He no longer felt panic, more like crushing reality. “If this is really me, what am I going to do?” He felt despair closing in.

Toby had no memories from when he was this young, only a few pictures to know what he had looked like. But, he knew the circumstances of his birth, and what was in store for this little toddler in the mirror. Toby had been an accident, a most unwanted accident. His parents had done their time, miserably, raising an older brother and sister. Both had put them through hell, and both had finally moved away when Toby came along. His parents had so looked forward to having this time in their lives for themselves, to see the world, to do all the things they had earned from the years of deprivation and misery raising their two children. Toby would be an anchor around their necks – or would have been.

They ended up doing all of the things they wanted, anyway. Toby spent much of those early days in the care of…a cousin…a neighbor…a barely known acquaintance..just about anyone who would watch him while his parents went on another cruise around the world. Oddly, Toby managed to thrive during this period. He never learned to miss his parents, and the odds-and-ends people watching him weren’t all that bad. He may have actually have been better off this way had his parents not run out of money by the time he was four.

Four was when his memories did begin – they were not good ones.

Toby’s only advantage was that during those early years he had not grown attached to his parents. Therefore, he learned to be independent to the greatest extent possible. By the time he was six he could cook his own meals, by eight he was buying his own cloths (with his parents money that they literally threw at him as he was going out the door), and by ten he had his first income, meager as it was, delivering newspapers.

He remembered taking himself to the hospital after crashing his bike while delivering those papers and breaking his arm. Oh, he had gone home first, hoping for a ride. His parents were ‘too busy,’ surely it’s ‘just a bruise,’ they told him as his wrist hung at an unnatural angle. So, back on his bike, he rode single handed to the hospital.

Children’s Protective Services should have taken him away then, but they didn’t. So the years toiled on.

College was the first moment of happiness in his life. He was finally free from his parents and paying for it himself. Like his parents had once done, he looked forward to a burden free future. Then, like an anchor, he was thrown back in the water. After a mere taste of freedom and a glimpse at the clear sky, he sank to the bottom of the ocean. The clock had been reset. He was staring at a baby in the mirror, waiting for his life to replay.

Toby leaned his head against the mirror. “I can’t do it this time. I can’t bear it.” Tears started to roll down his cheek. He forced himself not to cry out loud.

Next, he heard a soft throat clearing. Melissa stood at the door, her eyes averted from Toby standing naked in front of the mirror.

“What?” Toby said. “Do you mind giving me some privacy?”

“Sorry,” she still looked away. “I overheard you talking and just wanted to see if you were ok.”

“I’m fine,” Toby’s shaky voice betrayed his emotion.

“Look, I’m just guessing, but maybe things will turn out different this time.”

Toby gave up trying to make her leave. “I don’t get what you mean.”

“I mean, what ever happened before doesn’t have to happen again. Things could be better this time through.”

“But, I’m getting out of here, right?” Toby didn’t like the sound of where she was going.

Melissa thought a little too long before answering. “Yes…of course…in a few weeks, I’m sure of it. It’s just…”

“Just what? You don’t sound so sure.”

“Well, I still don’t know anything about the time machine. Even if – When – I take you home you will still be in that body.”

Toby rolled his eyes. “I think I already pointed that out. Frank only cares about getting out of here so that became the plan. I knew we would still be like this, but he doesn’t want to think about it.”

“I promise I’ll keep digging for information. But, if I can’t…I mean, while I’m looking, you’re going to be like this.” Now she turned her eyes up to him. “I just wanted to say that maybe this time things won’t be so bad.”

“You have no idea what my childhood was like,” he said bitterly.

“You’re right, I don’t. I’m only saying maybe this one will be better.”

“There’s not going to be a second time,” Toby said angrily. He had no intention of going through a second childhood. Toby brooded on his thoughts a moment. “I think there needs to be a different plan. You’ve got to help me convince Frank that we need to focus on getting our bodies back, not just escaping.”

Melissa placed Toby’s new – dry – cloths on the bathroom floor. “Here, I’ll leave you alone. I only wanted to help.”

Toby climbed down from the counter top and examined his cloths. Like his body, they were just as infantile. The shirt had cartoon giraffe prints, the pants as usual had snaps in the crotch for…his unmentionable. ‘Don’t they have ANY other pants!’ He felt that everything he wore directed attention to his diaper. Toby took his time getting into “costume.”

When he came out of the bathroom, dressed for the day, he saw Frank already standing at the door in FULL costume, ready for another day in daycare. Toby was dumbfounded. Frank actually appeared eager to go.

“You don’t have to start this soon,” he called across the room, annoyed.

Frank looked over at him still wide eyed, apparently happy.

“Come on! Give it a break! You’re not fooling me.” Toby wanted to discuss their escape plans and his issues with their current plan, when Melissa pointed to her watch. They were out of time. Toby stopped. Gulp! It was time to put the “thing” on again. Reluctantly he lay in the floor while Melissa went to work making use of the shameful snaps in his pants.

All ready to go, Toby wasn’t in the mood anymore to talk to Frank. Frank obviously didn’t want to talk, either. He was running ahead, too eager to get to the daycare room.

Once in the room, Frank abandoned Toby immediately leaving Toby to sulk and wander cheerlessly into the corner with the bookcase behind which he could hide most of the day. Frank was apparently faking a friendship with two other boys and would play the entire day without once saying a word to Toby. Toby would come out from his corner long enough to eat lunch, then return and wait for the inevitable. Today, the bathroom was either locked or guarded by a teacher.

This would set the tone for the rest of his week. Toby would discover that life as a toddler revolved largely around bowel and bladder functions. Someone in his daycare room was always being changed, or needed to be. He watched this continual process from his hiding place behind the book case. It was a disgusting reality that Toby refused to get used to. His only refuge was back in his room when he could rip the thing off. But then it would start again the next day: wet bed sheets; standing in front of the mirror staring at his young body in disbelief; making escape plans then getting into costume again; dealing with Frank’s maddening guise that he never let down.

Toby felt his life was spinning out of control. How long could four weeks drag on?