Chapter Eight

“Fine,” Theo huffed, sliding out of his seat under the table before crawling out.

“Good luck,” Ewan said, giving Theo a thumbs up - which gave the boy a jolt of determination to go through with it, feeling for the moment that Ewan, his big cousin, was actually counting on him for something.

Theo made his way over to the table where Jessica was. He could see her phone sitting on the table right in the open. He thought for a moment on Ewan's suggestion of just taking the phone, but for some reason it caused Theo to only think of the trouble he would be in if he were caught. He didn't know why, but for some reason the idea of getting in trouble was playing on his mind - giving way to a certain level of fear at the prospect. Stupid as he knew it was, the thought of his Mom or any of the other adults chastising him only made Theo more uneasy.

He had never been one to back down from a fight with his Mom, and at times had welcomed the opportunity - if only to make her feel just a bit of the anger he held for her. So why now did that seem like such a harrowing idea to him? Theo pushed the thoughts aside, deciding it was best to avoid such things for the moment. Besides, he didn't need to put himself in such a situation. He was six years old now, so all he had to do was turn on some of that little kid charm he now possessed and Jessica probably wouldn't be able to say no to any request from him – it surely worked for Luke most of the time.

Theo sidled up to the table where Jessica was seated. None of the adults seemed to notice he was there. Mom and Jessica were leaned in close together as they both peered at Mom's phone looking at photos from the graduation, deciding which one's were worthy of being printed out to be kept as adorable reminders of the day's events. Uncle Rob was also concentrating on his phone, tapping away furiously, no doubt answering a deluge of work emails that had piled up in his inbox. Theo took a moment to steel himself for what he was about to do, before reaching out a little hand to tug on Jessica's shirt sleeve.

“Oh Teddy, do you need something?” Jessica asked, turning around to see her adorable little cousin vying for her attention.

“Can I borrow your phone for a bit?” Theo asked, making his little voice as syrupy sweet as he could.

“What would you need that for?” Jessica asked, a smirk appearing on her lips, amused by the request of the little boy in front of her.

“I umm… I’m really bored and wanted to play a game and well uhh Ewan told me you had really cool ones,” Theo said, trying to come up with something convincing enough to tell her that made his request seem realistic.

“Oh he did, did he?” Jessica said, shooting a glance towards her brother.

“I'll be really careful with it, I promise,” Theo said, morphing his face up into the most hopeful sort of pleading he could, even sticking his lower lip out a bit.

“I think Ewan was telling you a big fat story,” Jessica said, not able to hold out a little laugh at seeing Theo's expression. “I don't actually have a single game on my phone. But if you're bored, I think there are plenty of games on the kids menu you can do. I bet Luke would be more than happy to play some tic-tac-toe with you .”

“That's a great suggestion,” Mom said, jumping into the conversation. “Besides Teddy you know the rules about playing games on the phone. Thirty minutes a day after dinner - and that's only if you eat all your food.”

Theo felt his shoulders slouch at the childish restriction on his screen time. He guessed he should have expected a rule like that after hearing what Charlie had said earlier, but in the moment it felt completely controlling - in a way that made Theo's eighteen year old self bristle.

“Although I suppose it is a special day,” Mom said, seeing Theodore's dejected look. “If you go back to the table and behave like a good boy, afterwards when we get back to the house I'll let you play that cute little train game you seem to like so much on my phone for a whole hour.” Mom said before she and Jessica went back to looking over photos, clearly thinking that Theo would be placated enough by the offer to send him scuttling back to his table immediately.

Theo balked for a moment realizing what the game his Mom was referring to was. It had been a game that Charlie had been obsessed with when he had been around Theodore's current age. You could put together long chains of trains, provided the player answered a few simple math problems, and then you would drive them around tracks to different stations where the player would then be met with simple words to spell out. It was a game certainly meant for the littlest of little kids.

Theo could only scowl at the insinuation that he could be convinced to do anything with the promise of being able to play such a childish game. He looked at Jessica's phone still sitting on the table unguarded. The occupants at the table, having gone back to their own activities, made it so that Theo could easily just take the phone with little notice. Theo gave one last look back at his own table, each of the boys watching him. Ewan motioning with his head goaded Theo on, while Charlie sat with a sort of nervous look on his face.

Theo turned back around. It was now or never. His hand shot out, grabbing onto the phone and pulling back quickly - however, in his haste, his hand knocked into the glass of water sitting near Jessica, sending it toppling over and splashing its contents all over the table. Jessica gasped as Mom and Uncle Rob wasted no time in throwing down napkins to contain the mess with the reflexes befitting two parents who were no strangers to sudden spills. Jessica sat wiping some water off of her legs and dress, yet she wasn't too wet. Theo looked down to see that most of the water had splashed heavily onto him, his shorts bearing the brunt of the damage as he now stood phone in his hand - looking as if he had peed his pants.

“Theodore Parks, what on earth do you think you are doing?” Mom said, causing Theo to see her marching over to him with an angered expression on her face. “You were told no, and then you just tried to take it! And look, now you've caused a spill.” Mom said as she snatched the phone out of his hand giving it back to Jessica. Theodore could say nothing as the overwhelming fear of seeing his Mom upset with him gripped him into silence. “Look at your pants,” Mom then exclaimed before grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him off towards the bathroom.

“Just what on earth were you thinking?” Mom asked again as she yanked down the wet shorts from Theo as they stood in the bathroom. She then spotted the wet spot on the front of Theodore's underwear and gave another sigh, though thankfully for Theodore she took it for a wet spot caused by the spill rather than the embarrassing truth.

“Mommy…noooo…” Theodore protested, completely humiliated, but he was powerless to stop his mother as she removed his underwear and ran both items of clothing under a hand dryer. Theo could only shiver from the coldness - another woman walked into the restroom giving a little smile as she walked past the little boy covering himself with his hands. Theo felt as if he might actually pass out from embarrassment, his little boy brain and his adult mind so overwhelmed by the situation that they seemed to shut down like a crashing computer.

Luckily, the woman was swift to leave - but it seemed to take ages before Mom finally turned around and re-dressed the lower half of the boy.

“Anything you have to say for yourself?” Mom finally asked, her anger having subsided, yet the sternness in her voice remained.

“I'm sorry,” Theo could only mutter, still feeling too anxious and scared to say much more.

“Well I'm not the one you should be apologizing to.” Mom said before leading him out of the bathroom and back over to Jessica to make him apologize properly before bringing him back to the table where his cousin's and brother sat.

“Don't think that just because you said sorry that means you aren't still in trouble. When we get back to the house you are going on a time out young man, and if I get any more problems you can expect to be sitting there for the rest of the afternoon.” Theodore looked up at his Mom with a saddened look as he continued to shiver, knowing that punishment was still imminent. “Are you cold?” Mom asked with a sigh, noticing the shaking.

Theo just nodded his head.

“I'm cold too,” Luke whined a little. Mom told the boys to wait a moment as she walked off before returning a couple seconds later with two red hoodies in her hands.

“Charlie, help out Luke,” Mom said, tossing one of the sweaters across to Charlie.

“Okay,” Charlie said before turning to Luke. “Arm's up Lukey.”

Mom then proceeded to pull the sweater over Theo, not even giving him the option to attempt to put it on himself.

“We match,” Luke said as Theodore turned around to see Luke was wearing the same hoodie that yesterday Theodore had worn around his waist at the middle school graduation. Theo then looked down at his own sweater to confirm that he was indeed matching with Luke, the sweater from yesterday having duplicated.

“It's a good thing thing we found them on sale yesterday when we went shopping,” Mom said smiling at Luke for a moment before turning her attention back on Theodore.”Get back in that booth,” Mom ordered, which caused Theodore to whimper a little as he crawled over Luke and Charlie to take his seat. “Now I don't want you out of that seat for the rest of the time we are here,” Mom said with a wagging finger. “Remember - you are on thin ice with me young man.”

Theo plopped his chin onto his hands a sulky pout on his face, completely humiliated at the dressing down he had received - both figuratively and literally.

“Charlie, watch him,” Mom said, issuing a serious order to her older, more responsible son.

“I will,” Charlie said, placing a hand on Theodore's back. Satisfied, Mom walked away. An awkward silence descended upon the table. Theodore felt like he was at the bottom of a deep dark well - having thoroughly been put in his place confirming his new status as nothing more than a six year old little boy. The feeling of Charlie's hand slightly rubbing his back gave him a little comfort as he felt like he was about to cry.

“Sorry about that Ted,” Ewan finally spoke up, giving Theodore a good natured smack on the back. “Guess that was a little too much to ask of you. It's a shame though, I really needed that phone.”

“Why would you need Jessica's phone?” Charlie asked.

“She has administrative permissions on her phone,” Ewan said. “If I had gotten it, I could have put them on my profile too. Then I could have taken off all the stupid restrictions my Dad has on me. It's really annoying when my game console switches off every night at ten on its own.”

Theodore could only look at Ewan with a scowl. Theodore couldn't believe how stupid he had been. How could he have let himself be talked into such a dumb stunt - and for what? So Ewan could play video games later into the night? Theodore could only shake his head. He should have known that Ewan had ulterior motives. Yet something he had said piqued Theodore's interest. He still wasn't sure what had caused him to get younger, but right now his only lead was something to do with the house. If he was going to have any way of figuring out whether or not it was true, he was no doubt going to need those administrative permissions as well. Yet even if he did have them it wasn’t like he was really going to be able to make heads or tails of the inner workings of the complicated technology powering the house - but there was a person who just might.

Theodore looked over at Jessica, seeing her chatting away with her Dad. Jessica had enough knowledge that she just might be able to figure out what was happening and be able to fix it. Most importantly though, unlike Uncle Rob, Theodore might just be able to convince her that he was indeed the same age as her. Sure, they may not have been close but they had gone to school at the same place for four years. Theodore knew things about the inner workings of Holyoke and he also had knowledge befitting a high school student - and that could be enough to convince her. Theodore knew that he had to switch up his game plan. He couldn't do this alone.He needed help and there was only one person that he could turn to.

***

16:05

By the time they had eaten, paid the check, and driven all the way home, Mom seemed to have all but forgotten Thedoroe’s uncharacteristic bout of kleptomania. Indeed, it was likely the boy would have escaped any further penalty at all if he hadn’t looked so glum. For some reason, the incident continued to eat away inside Teddy - his pudgy tummy all twisted up and his precious Kindergarten features puckered into a permanent pout at the thought of his naughtiness.

He didn’t know why he felt so guilty - he had barely caused any harm after all. If anything he should have been angry! Mom had completely humiliated him in the bathroom, and he’d been too frightened to utter a word of protest. He tried to summon some righteous indignation, but for some reason those angsty adolescent feelings were entirely out of reach for the six year old, instead obscured by an overwhelming desperate desire to please his Mommy.

“Alright, grumpy-guts.” Mom tutted, taking a purposeful hold of his little hand and leading him into the living room. “We’ll just do 30 minutes in time out and then you can go play, alright?”

Mom’s attitude was a far cry from the searing scolding he’d received in the restaurant. Her sulky little son seemed to have learned his lesson after all, and she was now more concerned with comforting the shell-shocked tot - while still holding firm on the punishment she’d dolled out earlier, of course.

“I’m sorry Mommy…” Theodore mumbled again, really meaning it this time. He felt like he was about to burst into tears, completely overwhelmed with a bizarre cocktail of unfamiliar needy emotions. He felt so small and vulnerable, as if he might shrivel up and die like an unwatered plant if his Mommy didn’t hug him right this second.

To his surprise, she did hug him - pulling him into a warm comforting cuddle. Theodore didn’t know how to react, a warm fuzzy feeling spreading all through him like a sip from a warm spicy bowl of soup. He nuzzled his head up to her chest, looking up at her with confused watery big blue eyes as she continued to hold him in the warm hug.

“Why did you hug me?” he asked flatly, rather baffled.

“Didn’t you want a hug?” Mom asked, just as confused.

“Um…yeah.” Theodore admitted. “But I was naughty…” he added.

“Sweetie, you still deserve a hug when you're sad - even if you were naughty..” His Mom told him. “I love you no matter what. But you have to learn not to take other people’s things, okay?” She lectured.

“Err…okay.” Theodore agreed. A jittery excitable energy ran up his spine, all those lingering bad feelings he harbored against his mother seeming to dissipate - if only for a moment.

“Let’s do time out on Mommy’s lap.” Mom decreed, not even asking before she heaved him up onto her knee as she sat down in an armchair - putting both hands over his tummy like the safety bar on a rollercoaster ride. “How’s that?”

Theodore blushed, feeling a strange mix of lovey-dovey affection and abject humiliation at finding himself perched on his mother’s knee like a comically overgrown toddler. Mom seemed to take his lack of response as acquiescence - if she even required his consent at all - ignoring his fidget and wriggles and firmly keeping him rooted in place as she absentmindedly switched on the radio.

A 30 minute time-out may have sounded easy enough, but to Thedore’s six-year-old mind the circumstances he had found himself in were pure torture. Not only was he unfathomably bored, the droning talk radio Mom seemed so invested in prickling at his ears like nails on a chalkboard, the boy was completely mortified. When Ewan wandered past at around the 20 minute mark clutching his games console, Theodore thought his cheeks were burning so hot they’d leave a permanent sunburn. The conniving preteen only smirked at the site of Theodore however, not daring to make any snide remark lest he be subject to the same puerile punishment.

“Alright sweetie, that’s time.” Mom eventually relented, moving her hands away to let him hop down. Theodore did just that, wincing as he rubbed the numb spot on his bottom. “What did you learn?” Mom interrogated.

“Not to take things that aren’t mine.” Theodore droned obediently.

“Good boy.” Mom praised. “Alright, go play. Mommy loves you.”

Thedoore scampered off as fast as he could. As humiliating as the punishment had been, it was blessedly short-lived - not taking up nearly as much time as the equivalent he’d suffered the day before. He made a beeline straight for Jessica’s room, dead set on putting his latest plan into action.

As he approached the slightly ajar door however, the boy realized he didn’t have even the semblance of a plan. What was he going to do? Just rock right up and tell her he was eighteen? She’d laugh him out of the room! He suddenly felt very timid, fidgeting awkwardly from foot to foot as he racked his brains for the best possible approach. Try as he might, however, he just couldn’t concentrate. He felt like he’d just drunk ten cups of black coffee, his mind buzzing every which way - but never on the problem at hand. He didn't understand why he felt so jittery. He felt like he was overflowing with nervous energy - just like a real six year old. Maybe he needed some time to gather his thoughts, first? Or maybe it wouldn’t hurt to get one more calming hug from Mommy? He felt a familiar ache in his bladder, his legs wobbling involuntary in an impromptu potty dance. Maybe he just needed to go pee?

“Teddy?” Jessica called from behind the door. “Is that you?” Still overcome with unexplainable nerves, Theodore bit the bullet and peaked shyly around the door. Jessica was sitting at her desk in front of her laptop, a complex-looking dense paragraph of code open on her screen. She smiled, rolling her eyes at the boy’s bashfulness. “I thought so. What are you doing lurking out there?”

Theodore padded into the room proper, still with no clue how he might possibly go about explaining his bizarre situation. He decided he could maybe work up to it. “Um…nothing.” he answered, sounding very guilty indeed. He pointed at her computer screen. “What are you doing?”

“Just working on something for my Dad.” Jessica explained, going on to think out loud. “I’m trying to figure out when all these new systems got installed. If it wasn’t me and it wasn’t Dad…well, I don’t know. But they can’t have just appeared out of nowhere!”

“Can I see?” Theodore butted in at once, feeling a jolt of excitable energy. Could these ‘new systems’ have something to do with his regression? He got up on his tippy toes, extending a possessive grabby hand towards the keyboard - only for Jessica to slap it away.

“Teddy - no.” The boy’s cousin scolded him firmly. “What did your Mommy tell you about touching things which aren’t yours?”

Theodore felt a pang of shame, but still mixed in with a whiny desperate sense of entitlement. “But I wanna see!” he complained. He found himself tugging at Jessica’s sleeve, desperately trying to capture her attention. “Can’t I see? It’s important!”

“No, Teddy!” Jessica repeated. “This isn’t a toy. It’s not for little boys.”

The firm rebuke elicited a strange sense of panic in Theodore. He needed to see that computer right now! If he couldn’t fix things now, who knew how little he would be by tomorrow?

“But…but…” he stammered, feeling himself getting emotional. He took a deep breath, trying to find the words to explain himself – but all he was capable of was a panicked disjointed scramble of whiny begging. “But I gotta see because…because if I don’t then I won’t ever be big again, and I was big just like you - I was eighteen - but then I woke up and, and-”

Jessica wasn’t listening, getting up from her desk and effortlessly picking him up under the armpits to deposit him outside her door. “Sorry, Teddy.” she told him, not unkindly. “But I really need to work this out tonight. If you wanna play pretend, why don’t you ask Luke?”

She didn’t give him a chance to reply before she closed the door, the sound of a bolt locking confirming his failure. It was all Theodore could do not to burst into tears. He’d been so certain Jessica was the solution, but now the hope he’d felt at the restaurant had turned to bitter disappointment.

The boy didn’t have long to wallow in his sorrows however, another tingle in his six-year-old bladder reminding him of a more pressing concern. He groaned, scampering down the hall towards the toilet. Why had the urge come on so quickly again? Was his reduced anatomy really so incapable in the pottying department? The last thing he needed on top of everything else was to soak his pants.

He came to the door, only to find it firmly shut - the fingerprint touch pad looming high above. Theodore got up on his tippy toes, trying to reach it, but it was a good three inches out of reach. He let out a groan of frustration. This wasn’t fair! He crossed his legs, squeezing on his bladder. As humiliating as it was to admit, it was clear he needed some grown-up help. He needed to find his Mommy. But as desperate as he was, did he even have time for that?

“You have to say the password.” a high-pitched voice squeaked. Theodore whirled around, seeing Luke watching him from his own bedroom door across the hall.

“Huh?”

“You gotta say the password!” Luke repeated, pointing at the closed bathroom door. “If you can’t reach the lock.”

“Then tell me what it is!” Theodore demanded, pressing down as hard as a vice grip on his bladder.

Luke bit his lip, as if considering. “Will you play with me?”

“What?”

“If I tell you the password, will you play Teddy Bear picnic with me?”

Theodore groaned. “Can’t you play on your own?”

“Nuh-uh.” Luke shook his head. “You can’t have a picnic on your own. Plus, you’re Teddy, so you gotta be the teddy bear!”

The boy bristled, reminded of the taunt the middle school bullies had kept repeating the day before. He thought of the elementary school bullies from that morning, too, and how he’d barely escaped drenching his pants. If he didn’t get through the door in the next five seconds, he knew he wouldn’t be so lucky this time.

“Please, Luke. Can you just tell me the password!” he begged.

“Promise you’ll play!” Luke demanded. It was obvious there was no escaping his ultimatum.

Promise to play
Run to find Mommy