✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

39. Little Games

They raced off around the garden again, stumbling and falling. Ffrances watched for a couple of minutes before she was satisfied that they were both having fun. And then she went back inside the house.

Tess was chasing Gabby this time, and she caught her soon enough. She tickled the back of her knees this time, just enough to make Gabby acknowledge that she had been caught, and then it was her turn.

"I bet I'll catch you straight away," she said with a wicked grin. "You're too little to run. You're three now, and you need to hold onto something when you walk. You can only manage two or three steps without falling over if you don't want to crawl."

"Fine," Tess laughed and stuck her tongue out for a moment. "But I olny... only did this cause you want to be a little girl, you got to not keep making me littler. I want you to have fun but I'm not gonna be a baby. No more littler, okay?"

She didn't try to say anything else, but turned around and ran before Gabby could launch herself after her. She tumbled to her knees right away, but she was expecting it and shuffled along on her elbows before pushing herself back up and lurching a few more unsteady steps. Gabby barely moved to start with, laughing because she was so sure she had won. It was only when she got over the laughter and tried to actually give chase that she realised she couldn't run either. They were both in the same boat, with the same handicap pulling them back, but it was easy for Tess to get away because she accepted that she couldn't run, and was willing to use her few precious steps to jump across the thorns in the middle of the flower bed before she was back to crawling for a moment, and similar tricks.

It was nearly ten minutes before she realised that this wasn't as much fun anymore, and allowed herself to slow down enough that Gabby could catch her. She still found herself shrieking involuntarily as her cousin tickled her, but she at least knew that she was definitely winning now. She had let Gabby win, so she was still in the lead in her own mind.

The tickle torture seemed to go on forever, and Tess didn't know how long it had really been. But soon enough Gabby let her up, and said something mean about how she was really bad at this game. Tess knew that was silly, but she still pouted a bit. Now it was hard not to be upset whenever she heard her cousin say something that wasn't nice. Maybe that was what happened when you were little; another reason she didn't want to try it again. She was angry, even though she knew it was silly to be angry about, and she was sure that she was going to win this time. She wouldn't give Gabby a chance.

It turned out that chasing like this was harder than running away. It took her a long time to catch up with Gabby, and when she did it was by standing still for a second, holding onto one of the bigger trees to keep her balance, and then launching herself forward as fast as she could when she saw there was nothing in between them. She grabbed for Gabby's foot, and managed to land both of them on the edge of the flower bed. There was almost no spot on their clothes that wasn't muddy now, but somehow that didn't bother Tess like it normally would have, and Gabby didn't seem to care either.

Gabby's turn took almost as long as the last. Catching up with each other was getting tough now, and Tess wondered how long it would be before dinner was ready.

"Now, Gabby!" Ffrances's voice interrupted just as Tess was trying to position her hands to protect her most ticklish spots. "I saw a minute ago that Tess was being nice to you. She wasn't tormenting you once you knew you were caught, so maybe you can try being nicer."

"I am! She tickled me lots already. It's fair."

Ffrances didn't take her word for it. She tried to clean the dirt off both of their faces again, but Gabby refused and was too eager to start running. So Ffrances took Tess down to the side of the house and made an effort to clean her up, as well as asking if she was really okay.

"I'm too little," Tess answered, blushing a little.

"Do you want to stop? You can grow up again if you want."

Tess thought for a second, and shook her head.

"I promiseded Gabby," she said. "It's kinda fun, and I got to do this so she's not lole... lolo... lonely! I don't mind. But no more. I told her. No more littler now." She was blushing again as she noticed how hard it was to remember big words, but she couldn't help smiling as well. Knowing that she could change so much was kind of exciting, even if she was too little to think about why. And she'd always been the kind of person to laugh at her own mistakes.

"Okay, so you found your limit? Like, that's the regressed age that's most comfortable for you? So how old are you?"

Tess thought for a second. The questions were just a little bit too complex for her, and she didn't know how to answer. But she knew her age, so after a few moments counting she held up three proud fingers.

"Good girl. If Gabby tries making you any littler just call me, and I'll help you get back. Okay? So, you're happy to go out and play chase again?"

"Umm," Tess mumbled, and took a step towards the kitchen door. She didn't have the words to say, especially not the big ones, but a couple of tentative questions from Ffrances revealed that she wanted to use the bathroom before continuing. Ffrances made sure that she washed her hands first t  control the spread of mud, wiped her arms down, and took her shoes off before going back inside the house. It only took a few minutes, but it was enough to prove to Tess that she wouldn't like to be a child more than once. She felt protected, but also helpless, and that was something she would never be comfortable with. She didn't want to need help; but discovering the potential of what Ffrances could do made it worthwhile, and so she could put up with it for another half hour if it helped Gabby to fulfil her fantasies.