October Halloween Exclusive - "Catching" - Epilogue

Epilogue

Harper sits on the living room carpet. Her legs are splayed, mostly because of the extra-thick diaper Mommy is making her wear. Mommy says that Harper is just a sweet, silly baby, that she needs to be in diapers. Harper doesn’t disagree. She doesn’t know the meaning of the word. She is content to sit on the carpet and chew on the shiny, plastic toy Mommy gave her. It’s nice to chew on things, and when she shakes the toy, it rattles!

Mommy and Daddy sit on the couch, drinking grown-up drinks and talking. Sometimes Harper looks at Mommy and Daddy. Daddy looks sad. Mommy looks sometimes sad and sometimes happy. Mostly happy.

“I just don’t…” Harper’s father wrings his hands. “What was she thinking? Why did she even agree to watch Avery? She had to have known the risks.” He holds out his hands and lets them drop. “What was she thinking?”

Harper’s mother takes his hand, squeezes. “Oh, you know our Harper. Always so hard-headed. I told her, ‘you’re 25 years old, that awful virus wants to gobble you up, and kids are the mostly likely spreader.” She shakes her head. “I told her, ‘Tina’s little girl is afraid of the dark, she’ll end up crawling into bed with you, and that’s the last thing you want, being so close to a child right now. But Harper actually said she was probably immune – honestly, young people and the nonsense they read on the Internet!’

Harper is at home now, the sleepover is done. Mommy and Daddy took her home, and Mommy cleaned her all up and dress her in pajamas she bought from a special store for special girls like Harper that are just as fuzzy and soft as her unicorn jammies. That’s good, because Harper can’t wear her unicorn jammies because she made a big, stinky mess in them.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Harper’s father shakes his head. “How could she be immune? Her blood type is O-negative. That’s the highest risk!”

“Oh, that was the other thing. She tried to tell me that she had A-neg blood! As if her own mother would be wrong about something like that! But Dan…”

“What?”

Harper’s mother pauses. She sighs. “That dress-up onesie.  Where did she get it from?” She laughs. “It’s not as if Tina had it lying around.” She squeezes her husband’s hand harder and whispers, “She must have brought it with her. Dan, she knew the risk she was taking. She went out of her way to expose herself to the virus!” She looks down at her twenty-five year old daughter with a soft smile, and then she says, “She wanted to catch it. That’s the only explanation.”

“No. Not my girl. She was so independent, such a free-thinker!” Harper’s father looks at her daughter and tears fill his eyes. “And now she’s…it’s like she’s been lobotomized!”

Harper’s mother shakes her head. “No, honey, it’s nothing like that. The virus sent her back to when she was a baby, but she’s still our Harper. You can see how happy she is, she’s our silly little girl, just like all those years ago.” She nods. “It’ll be okay. I’ll give up work, I’ll take care of her. It’ll be just like the old days.” She laughs softly. “In a way, it’ll be better. They don’t really cry or fuss, they’re just happy or silly all the time.”

The man nods. “It might not be for that long. I heard about some cases where they recover.”

His wife sniffs. “Maybe.” She looks into her daughter’s face. “I think she’s pretty far gone, though.” She changes her tone to that of someone talking to a toddler and says, “I think little Harper’s head is full of rainbows and unicorns, yes I do!”

The man sighs. “We don’t have any choice, I guess.” He frowns. “But what about the Center? Aren’t we supposed to take her there? I mean, we have to register her, and they have specialists, people trained in this thing. What if it’s her best chance of recovery?”

Harper’s mother laughs. “I don’t need a specialist to tell me what my daughter needs.” She leaves the couch and sits down beside Harper. She strokes Harper’s hair and earns a smile for her efforts.

Harper drops the rattle into her lap and reaches clumsily for her mother.

“Wanna hug, baby?” her mother asks sweetly. “Of course you do, lots of hugs for my sweet girl.” She puts her arms around Harper and strokes her back, and Harper babbles her approval, drool running down her chin. “Bah-bah-bahhhh!”

“Honey.” Harper’s father sits forward and looks at his wife and daughter with a pained expression. “If we don’t get professional help, she could end up like this for good.”

Harper’s mother looks up and nods. “I’ll call the center in the morning, okay? I’ll get advice. But I’m not going to dump our daughter in some hospital with a bunch of strangers. Okay?”

The man sits back. “Yeah, of course. Thanks.”

“Mommy will look after little Harper. That okay with you, hon. Mommy look after you?”

Harper looks into her mother’s smiling face. Mommy is talking to her, Mommy is saying sweet things.

Harper nods, as if she can understand what her mother is saying, as if her mind hasn’t been reduced to infantile idiocy. “Muhhh…muh-muh!” She babbles, a comically serious expression on her face, before she giggles and kicks her feet in delight at the ticklish, warm and wet sensation in her diaper.

“That’s my girl,” says Mommy, holding Harper’s face in her hands and kissing her forehead. “Mommy’s got you, and she’s going to take care of her baby for as long as it takes.”

THE END

This tale was inspired by special helper Joseph. You’ll see that I’ve not stuck to the letter of his suggestion, but it was fun to visit the A.P.P. universe this Halloween, and I hope you enjoyed the story. 

A young woman does some babysitting while trick or treating, but she's not (just) looking for candy, she's looking to catch the APP virus, but when she does she finds Halloween getting scarier the bigger things get  - Joseph