In Reverse, Part 15 (Final Part)

Story post 2 of 3, Post 10 of 33 for May

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The lab told me today that I'm 19 months old. That's annoying, but it's been almost a week since I was last aged, and I'm only a month younger than I was before. The serum is clearly working. My regression is slowing down! At this point, I've adjusted to my situation pretty well. The physical limitations my tiny body has placed on me are decidedly annoying, but it kind of balances out. Now that I'm incontinent and in diapers, I don't have to worry about stopping whatever I'm doing to use the bathroom because by the time I realize I have to go (IF I realize I have to go), I've already started going. The worries of my adult life are now long past me, hovering somewhere far over my head. My job, bills, politics: all of them are things I no longer have to worry about. I can work with the lab whenever I want, but mostly, I get to play. I have a good family taking care of me, protecting me, feeding me, changing my diapers whenever I need it. It's not such a bad life now that I'm here.

One of the great things about my condition is that I have a sort of adult mind combined with the curiosity and imagination of a child. This is one reason the lab has kept me around and involved in what they've been doing. My brain learns faster than theirs now, and I have a very different perspective on most things than they do. A lot of my ideas aren't practical, but they get the team thinking leading them to ideas that are practical. I've actually helped them solve many problems this way. It's a great feeling and something I'm very proud of.

Today, they were talking about a protein in the original serum that they had narrowed down as the main suspect for my continued regression. They thought if they could weaken the protein, they might be able to stop the regression once the serum stopped being injected.

"Why don't you just coat the protein in a membrane?" I remembered the word for the outer layer of a cell, but I wasn't quite sure of its use. Still, they got the gist of what I meant.

Dr. Nelson smiled at me. "It's not that simple, Mikey. We'd have to--"

"Hold up." Wilson broke in. "You're right, it's not quite that simple, but he might have the right idea. If we could find the right chemical to attach to the protein, we could limit its effects. Mikey may be onto something."

Everyone saw the sense in what Wilson said, and from that simple suggestion, they pursued a whole new avenue that looked really promising.

As the conversation, Nelson smiled at me and said jokingly, "This is why we keep you around here, kiddo."

It's been several days since I last wrote in my journal. Not much has happened this week, and I've been busy playing. But I have to write today because the lab checked me again, a week since my last check. I'm still 19 months old. My regression has finally stopped!

Dr. Wallace gave me the news in her office. "At this point, we're going to stop administering the serum and monitor your condition. If you don't regress any further, we'll know we've stopped it permanently."

"What if I do?"

"We're going to watch you very closely, Michael. If you slip any at all, we'll restart the serum, which we now know will stop the regression."

"Will I start to grow again?"

"We don't know that yet. We expect you will, but this is all new to us. It may take a while, or it may happen immediately. We might have to jumpstart it somehow."

"How fast will I grow?"

"We don't know that either. We've all agreed that we're not going to try to accelerate your aging because we don't want to risk taking you too far in the other direction."

I nodded. "That's okay. I'm not in any hurry to grow up again."

We had a big party in the lab this afternoon to celebrate our success. It wasn't just saving my life. It was also the success of what we'd set out to do in the first place. We could reverse aging, and we could now stop that process. More testing had to be done, of course, but my experience has fast-tracked the project and moved it ahead by years.

Three days off the serum and still no further regression. They're gonna keep watching me, but we're all starting to relax more. We've all kept my condition a secret up until now, but since it's all been figured out and I've been cured, Dr. Wallace has finally published an article about the project, me, and my experiences. The news exploded, becoming a massive story overnight. Suddenly, every major network and newspaper wanted to talk to me, my family, and the lab team. We granted several interviews to satisfy people's curiosity and help them understand, trying to choose the more respectable outlets. The kids and I appeared on the Today Show to give us a friendlier appearance.

"So, you're basically a man living in the body of a baby, right?" The interviewer asked me. "You still have the mind of an adult?"

"For the most part, yes. I've forgotten a lot of things I used to know because my brain has shrunk along with my body, but most of what I learned when I grew up the first time is still in there."

"What has this experience been like?"

"A roller coaster ride of emotions. When I first got younger, it was great. I looked better, had more energy. Then I kept going, and I started to get scared. The younger I got, the more scared I got."

"What were you scared of?"

I motioned to my tiny body. "This. I was afraid of becoming a baby. It's hard to be a grown man, independent, and think about becoming a tiny person who has to rely on everyone else for everything."

She nodded her head. "And is that how it is for you now?"

"Pretty much. There's not a lot I can do for myself. I can still walk and talk, but that's about it. My kids do everything else for me." I glanced up at the three of them sitting beside me.

"How does that feel, being cared for by your own kids?"

"At first, it was really embarrassing, but then I learned to let go, and I got used to it. This is pretty much how life goes, anyway, you know? In a circle. We take care of our kids when they're little, and they take care of us when we're old, except now they take care of me now that I'M little."

She smiled. "Do they do a good job of it?"

I smiled back. "Yeah, they do. Ethan's been a great dad, especially since he never asked for this. Sophie and Thomas stepped up too. They've all done their part. I couldn't ask for a better family in a situation like this."

It's been a month now since they stopped giving me the serum, and I still haven't regressed any more. In fact, I'm now 20 months old. So, I'm growing again at last. It looks like I'm going to have to do that naturally, the same way I did it before, gradually, and I'm okay with that. Meetings are already being held to decide if I'll need to go to school or not when the time is right. I know I need to re-learn a few things, so I'll probably have to have some schooling. That's okay too. The only thing that bothers me is that thought that I'll now probably outlive my kids, that they'll probably die some time in the future. But that's a long way off. In the more immediate future, I'll have to be potty-trained again. For the time being, the kids are still changing me. Naturally, Tommy won't change my poopy diapers, but he doesn't mind getting a wet one if Sophie and Ethan aren't around. He makes a pretty good babysitter that way.

The best part, though, is that the lab agreed to let our neighbor Mrs. Bennett begin a clinical trial of the original regression serum. Now that its effects on a person have been studied and an antidote has been developed, they're okay with taking some controlled risks. She's already shown some improvement on the drug as her brain has started to heal from the Alzheimer's. That means we now have a cure for dementia, and that makes every bit of my experience worthwhile. Her memory hasn't improved enough to understand what's happened to me yet, but when it does, we'll explain it to her, and she'll know how she came to be cured. Ethan joked that that should entitle us to free babysitting any time we want. He has a point, and I laughed when he said that. I do that a lot here lately. I realized as I look up at the world that for the first time in a very long time, I have a whole lifetime of possibilities ahead of me. What I have is a gift, a fresh start like no one has ever had before that will probably double my life. In the years to come, I can use my notoriety to do almost anything I want. But for now, there's a snug, comfortable little toddler bed sitting in the corner, full of all the dreams of childhood.

The End