I was dressed in a pair of shorts made of pink denim with a bib that had straps crossing over at the back and fixed on the waistband behind and out of my reach. Underneath I was wearing a white cotton vest with a line of buttons along the shoulder, presumably so my head would not get caught putting it on and off.
I was still wearing a terry nappy with a muslin liner to take the pressure off my nappy rash and it just made the whole outfit bulge at the seams. The nappy was so big that the white plastic pants had forced their way out of the leg openings of the shorts threatening to force the snaps at the crotch to pop open. I had a thick white terry bib tied around my neck and todayâs embroidered animal was a frog, I was relieved to see that I was no longer number 7, but âBaby Charlotte loves her Mummyâ.
Today I decided that I was going to work hard to retrieve my toilet training, because without control I was never to going to make it outside of the clinic. I planned to find some grown up clothes and a place to hide them in. I was still going to have to use my nappies, because with my hands in mittens I was never going to be able to do anything else, but I was going to make any wetting deliberate and try to hang on for as long as I could. I was going to re-learn how to take control, but it was going to be difficult. Unlike a toddler undergoing potty training and running around with no protection or with terry towelling training pants which would show or lead to an immediate recognition of an accident and feel uncomfortable very quickly, I was enveloped in a pure soft heaven that promised only total reliance on being incontinent.
My biggest problem was the lack of shoes, because with my lack of leg strength I was now put in soft woolly booties all the time. I decided to try and do muscle building exercises to get my strength back, but I would have to train in private whenever I could. As for my dummy dependence, I decided that I could work on that later, my speech seemed a major problem but I was sure that with a good surgeon I could be restored eventually.
Jane and Dr McClean interrupted my thoughts as I sat in my playpen. âCome on Charlotte we are going with Dr McClean to see some pretty pictures and listen to some music. You really will like it and it is the newest part of the clinic.â
Once again that dreadful insecurity came over me and I felt myself starting to dribble in my nappy. I suc-ked hard on my dummy to try and stop the flow and was rewarded with a modic-um of success. I smiled to myself, this was the first step to the road of recovery.
Jane fitted my reins and I set off on my knees to the lift. We all got in and descended to a low floor. The room we entered from the lift was dark, spotlights punctured the ceiling like stars in a night sky. We went into a large room with a semi-circular screen and sound surround speakers. At the focus of the semi-circle was a padded chair (it looked like a car seat to be honest).
âGet in Charlotteâ said Dr McClean âand we will start the show for youâ. I climbed into the chair and Jane pulled a fairground type restraint over my shoulders to keep me in place. My hands were held on the arms by Velcro straps which Jane gently applied. The headrest of the chair had two flaps that bent at right angles and held my head firmly in place. I was growing alarmed again and any decision I had made to stay dry was quickly forgotten as I wet my nappy.
âYou have been a very good baby girl Charlotte, but your mind is that of an adult full of long words and complex concepts which we want to take awayâ, said the doctor. âThis is the dangerous part of the procedure where we have made mistakes in the past and this new facility was added to the clinic to evaluate new and hopefully safer techniquesâ.
A bonnet with a pair of fitted headphones and mass of neural detectors was placed on my head and securely strapped into place under my chin. Doctor McClean took some special goggles and placed them over my eyes. âThese monitor eye movements and tell us what you are looking at in the picture, they also tell us whether you are awake or asleep! I am now going to fit a series of electrodes to you to measure your well-being. Everything you do will be monitored and fed into a computer and the programme you see will be monitored and determined by the results of your feedbackâ.
As if by magic she produced a hypodermic and shot it into his arm âto make you think straight sweetheart, a psychotic drug to muddle your mind without destroying it. I hopeâ she said.
The screen lit up with pictures of toddlers, the speech was infantile, a question was asked, I mouthed the answer around my dummy and was rewarded by a massive jolt of neural pain. Another toddler asked a question, I answered and was rewarded by stronger neural stimulation that made me gasp. Another toddler asked a question in broken English and again I mouthed an answer, but this time in infantile syntax and poorly structured grammar. My reply was rewarded with pleasure, neural stimulation that produced endorphins, the endorphins triggered happiness and I wet my nappy smiling and laughing. I was shown things like computers, cars, mobile phones and other technology â recognition resulted in pain, neural stimulation that threatened to tear the very heart out of my mind. I quickly learned to put such things out of my mind, to forget the words, to forget the names. Baby things brought me huge pleasure, my nappy, my dummy, my bib, my bottle, dolly, teddy, baby blanket all were allowed in my vocabulary. Every time I saw these objects I answered the question and would receive pleasure. It got to the stage where my mind made the association between those things allowed and those things forbidden. A fountain pen was shown and I shook my head, âno, no noâ I mouthed in absolute terror of the object âdonât know, not baby thing I mouthedâ. Torrents of neural pleasure fired into my bonnet, words of encouragement flowed through the headphones. The process continued for hours and hours, the drugs were replaced at regular intervals and slowly but surely my mind was altered to do their bidding.
Eventually the toddlers came back and spoke as they had at the beginning, they asked me inane questions to which I babbled replies behind my dummy in broken short sentences âme good baba, me do poopy nappy, me go wee weeâ, Jane and Dr McClean looked on in triumph, the first part of the process seemed to have been a total success.
âYou will have to talk to her only in baby talk Jane, there can be no adult conversation from now on and you must reinforce her new learning with total commitmentâ said the doctor. âShe is going to be confused and require praise whenever she gets the words right and you must ignore her whenever she uses an adult word, we have tried to cut down the number of words she uses to less than two hundred and that is a massive loss. Her world is now very pictorial and she will try hard to remember her words, but when she does remember she will associate that memory with pain and hopefully quickly put it out of her mind againâ.
The lights in the cinema went up, I grinned at Jane and the nasty lady (what was she called? OOOh pain, think of something else, Mummy good) as I suc-ked on my dum dum. I knew there was something I was supposed to do, but it made my head hurt so I thought about my nappy and as if by magic I wet it with no thoughts at all. âMe go wee wee in my nappyâ I babbled with my squeaky little voice.
âSheâs perfectâ said Jane âGood baby Charlotte, mummy change wet nappy sweetheart?â
âShe will have to come back Jane, you know that, we have to reinforce this for a long time until it is second nature. She is extremely receptive I must sayâ said the Doctor in a whisper as I jigged up and down in my seat waving my arms.
My training was almost over, I was reduced to a toddler in an adult body, totally incontinent, totally dependent on Jane for all my needs and not knowing what life had in store for me. I could hardly communicate with the outside world, and what words I had were said in a ridiculous way. The saddest part is that I now thought and enjoyed my life as a toddler.
Jane came in once I had been dressed in my latest outfit which was a pink bubble suit that flared out just beneath my arms and enclosed the bulkiness of my nappy. My bib announced that I was âTest Baby Charlotteâ and Jane told me in simple terms âCharlotte test all the new things for Mummyâ. I hadnât a clue what she meant, but I had a dummy in my mouth, a clean soft nappy on and brand new hand knitted soft woollen shawl to cuddle â what could be better in a new job?
End part 12