Story #6: Pampergeist

Things don't just get misplaced without reason. When an object from one room of the house, suddenly starts to appear in a different room, with no rationale to its relocation, there must be some core reason. The problem arose when there was no logical culprit. The same could be said for the TV channel mysteriously changing while in the middle of watching it, while the remote lay a few feet away from any fingers. Or perhaps turning away to get a glass of milk, and seeing that your plate has moved to a different place at the table. Todd knew that all of these events, which seemed to focus their reticule on him, must have some greater purpose and connection to one another. He could trace each red string to a singular concept of infancy. His parents didn't pay his theorizing any respect, since they had a theory of their own... It had started with the items that kept showing up in his room. He would find pacifiers, diapers, toys and bottles; they all belonged to his younger brother, but the tot seemed as oblivious as Todd did in figuring out how they got there. His parents had been confused too, but their line of questioning had been under the logic that Todd had absconded with the juvenile items. Then one morning during breakfast, Todd had placed his plate on the table and went to get some milk. When he had returned, his mother was pointedly asking why he had put his stuff on his brother's highchair! He'd denied it of course, but it had only been the two of them there at that point. The final oddity had been while watching cartoons after school. He had started out watching an action cartoon, but right before his mother rounded the corner, it had changed the channel to some stupid baby show. Todd of course defended himself; he was a big boy, no way would he watch such infantile shlock! He knew she was skeptical though, and after all the other odd behaviors, his credibility had been shot. After weeks of these strange events, his parents would finally sit him down and ask him to talk to them. Todd had thought this was them finally coming around and deciding to help him with his hunt for the unexplained. This was not that. They were gentle, but their dulcet tone didn't soften the blow of their accusations. They thought he was jealous of his baby brother! They thought he was trying to drop clues, when he had been the only one interested in finding clues this whole time! His parents thought they were doing something sweet, as they revealed a package of diapers in his own size, and elaborated that they'd be letting him have some baby-time to get this out of his system. Todd had done the reasonable thing and tried to refuse, but their insistence had been unwavering. Todd still hasn't quite found the cause of these unexplained phenomena, but he knows that the investigation is just getting started; only now, he'll have to do it with his rump padded to match the brother he definitely wasn't jealous of.