Me and Lyra were bouncing around the lounge, rolling on the floor and waving our dolls. We were probably both feeling big enough to have done something more serious, but I think neither of us wanted to be big right now. We were having too much fun. Not much time went past, before Mummy came in again with Penny, who was blushing so much she was like a beetroot. That was something else to giggle about, but I didn't let her see my amusement for now. It was too important to make sure that my friend was feeling okay, after a few minutes that must have been very embarrassing.
"Are you okay?" I asked her again.
"Mmmhmm," she said, giving a little nod. "I think that was a bit of a surprise. I should have expected it really, I mean, I'd talked to your Mummy about it, but only in a kinda rough way. But I chose to... I mean... I didn't take my pills, so it's my fault. And I think... it's not that bad, right? I barely felt it."
"Yeah, that happens sometimes," I said with a shrug. "You're not too upset?"
"Nope," Penny shook her head decisively. "I think I'm feeling a bit... Umm, the word you used was 'fuzzy', right? Like there's all pink fluff in my head. Like Reggie." She cuddled the plush giraffe, and then I had to join in, just making sure that Reggie was still as soft and fluffy as I'd remembered. So that was how Penny's thoughts felt; it was a good description.
"That's okay," I said. "We all get fuzzy sometimes. You can just relax and watch stuff and you don't have to care."
"Yeah, it's kind of nice. But I feel like... I wanted to tell you all the... like, that I'm okay. It's really hard to think of the words, but I know I have to try because it's something important and you might worry."
"Thank you," I said, and shifted from cuddling Reggie to hugging Penny. I was glad to know that she was still happy, but I was a bit nervous about her trying to keep being a big girl, or thinking that she needed to for my sake. But I could feel my brain starting to melt again, so I was sure it wouldn't last too long.
"You can just let go if you want," I added, a moment later. "We're allowed to be babies today, no serious thoughts. Just fun stuff."
"I will. I dunno how to stop trying now I managed it, but maybe it'll all just go away again. It's getting harder anyway. Should we play the game some more now? I might not be able to count soon."
"We can watch cartoons?" I said. "Or you can help me brush Reggie's mane and tail. He likes pampering, and that's super easy."
"How about both!" Lyra said with a giggle, beaming like she was really proud of herself and it seemed like the cleverest idea in the world. And it was a really good idea; I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it. That was another sign that my brain was starting to go into baby mode, and I kind of wondered how far it was going to go today. Would we be giddy and playful, or would we forget how to walk and talk?I knew that Mummy would have chosen, and I would love it whatever we ended up doing; but right now I still had enough thoughts in my head to be comfortable.
Between us we managed to gather Reggie and all the most strokable toys, and a couple of little hairbrushes, to sit on the couch. Grooming my cuddlies could be a lot of fun, and I was really excited to try doing it with all three of us there. And Lyra was already fumbling with the TV remote, trying to find some cartoons that were the right age range for all of us. It looked like she knew what she was doing, but she had just enough fog in her head that she could be extra proud when she managed to get it right.
She picked some show I didn't really know, though the repeated words in the opening song made me quite sure that the title was Professor Apocrypha's Magnificent Gumball Machine. But before we could get into watching the actual show, or brushing Reggie's tail once we'd sorted it out so that we had one little brush each, my head turned towards a sound from the kitchen. The back door was opening, which I hadn't expected for at least another couple of hours.
"Oh, is Sarah home?" I asked, and then found myself blushing. I wasn't really sure why I was embarrassed; my big sister had seen me acting like a baby lots of times. But I wondered how she would respond to having three babies in the house. And I didn't want her to say something mean that might make Penny uncomfortable, when it was her first time actually needing diapers. "I thought she was staying out late tonight? Didn't she have a friend to visit?"
"I'll check what she's up to," Mummy said, and carefully closed the door behind her as she went through to the kitchen. I glanced at Penny again, and saw that she was just as embarrassed as I might have thought, hands coming up without thinking in a futile attempt to hide her face. I wondered if Mummy had let her get littler than me this time; and if she was going to be okay with that.
"I'm good," she squeaked, looking at me between her fingers. "It's embarrassing, I kind of thought only you girls would see me. But it's okay, a baby can't choose who else is around, right? I'm embarrassed but it's something fun to try."
"You don't mind?" I said. "If you want to still be a big girl, you could ask Mummy if you have to wear–"
"The diapers?" she asked. "I... uhh... that's why I was so scared about... forgetting my pills. It's going to be... I asked your Mummy what might happen, and she looked some of it up for me. If I'm a bit late I might feel a bit like a little baby. But if I... uhh... if I let it go far enough for that to happen, it might take nearly a day before I'm sure it won't happen again. Daddy won't find out if I'm staying here, but it kind of means... I need to keep on wearing them."
I tried to decode the words in my head. I didn't think Penny knew the full details, but she knew that Mummy was giving her something to help her feel all fuzzy and to wet the bed. And apparently Mummy had told her that if she had an accident, it might take her a day to get back to normal. The diapers she was wearing now were ones I recognised; the ones that I'd had, back when Sarah first started having little accidents at night. The safe ones, that wouldn't cause anything else. So I could guess that they were really just in case now, to guard against more accidents before the stuff had properly worn off. And it seemed like Penny was okay with that, so I didn't need to worry about her.
"I think we can–" Lyra said, but we didn't find out what she thought we could do then, because she went silent as soon as Mummy and Sarah came back into the room.
"Oh, they're so cute!" Sarah said, with an exaggerated grin. Just like when she was doing babysitting, and she had to talk down to kids a couple of years younger than her, so she could drive home that she was the big one. Penny buried her face in her hands again, and Lyra pushed herself back on the sofa as if trying to bury herself in the soft fabric. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. You're just... all the little cuties, aren't you? I know you're big girls really, I don't want to be mean."
"It's okay," Penny squeaked through her fingers, voice quavering. "I'm kinda like a baby now, right?"
"You look like one," Sarah said, and ruffled her hair. And that must have felt nice, because in a minute Penny was giggling again, and there was no sign of her embarrassment. Maybe that was because she liked being teased; or it could just have been that whatever wipes Mummy had used with her were starting to kick in so that she was finding it harder to be embarrassed and so much easier to laugh at everything around her. If that was true, I was just a little jealous that I wasn't feeling it yet.
"Sarah," Mummy started. "I mean... if it's okay with the girls, I guess I should ask first. But if they don't mind, would it be okay if I go out for a bit? I got a text asking me to help with something at work. The new girl hasn't been trained in the week-end net... well, some scary grownup stuff. I don't think they'll be any trouble, but I think they're all feeling a little less capable than usual, so I'd prefer to know that they've got somebody to look after them while I'm out."
"I thought Penny was being the babysitter," Sarah said, still a little more confused. "I had no idea that she's got this thing too. Do they think it's contagious now? I thought it was all from... you know... I thought it was something Alice had done that caused it, but when they've been spending time together and then another one gets the–"
"Please, Sarah," Mummy stopped her. "It's a complicated thing, that the doctors are still trying to work out. And there's more than one cause apparently, not just that one virus. But as far as we know, Penny's in a different... group from the others. She only gets the baby brain thing occasionally, and the doctors say she'll know in advance when it's going to happen. Her parents are a bit... well, you know they wouldn't understand. They'd say she's not trying hard enough, or something. So the doctor suggested that if this happens, she should make an excuse to stay with a friend for one night, just so she's not getting in trouble."
I nodded and giggled at that. Mummy had found the perfect way to put it so that Sarah would understand, even if what Sarah believed was almost completely different from what Lyra and Penny believed. It would be hard to keep the lies straight for much longer; but I was sure that I would be able to put everything together. And if I made a mistake, or said the wrong thing to the wrong person, they would just put it down to me being a dizzy, confused little baby who couldn't tell dreams from reality. And that thought embarrassed me so much that I was the one blushing now.
"It's okay," Sarah said with a shrug. "Yeah, I'll babysit for a bit if you need to go to work. Have they had dinner yet? And I promise I won't tease them too much. I know how much that can hurt, and you know I'd only have said it if I thought–"
"I know, honey. You always try to say the right thing. And if they get silly enough not to be embarrassed, I'm sure nobody will mind being called babies. Right girls?"
We all smiled and nodded, and I knew that we were going to have a lot of fun with my big sister as our babysitter. And even if we were embarrassed, none of us were going to be mad about it. In fact, I thought, we were just about getting fuzzy enough to giggle like babies no matter what she said, and enjoy a chance to play. An evening with Sarah as our babysitter could be the most fun ever.