Patreon Exclusive | Mix-up | Part 3

 THREE

David sleeps longer than his brother. It’s because of the chemicals, it’s because of his brain. 

He’s not an expert on the virus. He doesn’t know what the Center injected him. All he knows is that when he wakes up, he’s alone in the bedroom. 

A bedroom that, apart from the full-sized bed, seems meant for a little boy. 

The brothers lay in the same bed at naptime. David remembers them snuggling together, just as they had done when they were little. Little for real. And didn’t that just seem right, at the time? Didn’t that just seem so normal?

Now, he is alone. He pushes back the comforter and finds himself in one-piece, blue pajamas. Even his feet are covered. His chest is decorated with three building blocks; red, green, yellow. Looking down at them, David feels the urge to play with the real thing. He thinks of the play room he had seen earlier and he smiles. Lots of games there. Lots of toys. Lots of fun. 

And then he shakes his head. Because those are the wrong thoughts. Those thoughts are for a three year old. They belong to Donald. 

It’s so quiet in the room. David feels a pang of loneliness; for his brother, who is so reduced but has also been his lifelong friend – more than just brothers, they are identical – and also for Mimi, who seems to know everything. 

Mimi is in charge. Mimi is in charge of little boys like Donald and David. 

The knowledge gives David a warm feeling in his stomach. A warm feeling too between his legs, because he needs to pee. 

It’s only now that David is conscious of the chunkiness around his waist, although wasn’t it obvious? He presses down gingerly on his crotch, as if he might set off a bomb. 

He’s wearing protective underwear. Probably the same as Donald. The lady who gave him the injection dressed him up, he can remember her doing so as he watched through bleary eyes and muffled brain. 

“Just imagine, both of you coming to the Center on the same day. Isn’t that funny!”

No. Not funny at all. Because there’s been a mix-up. David understands that, even as his mind fights to wake up fully, fights to turn ideas over in his head, his lazy and drugged head. There’s been a mix-up and David shouldn’t be wearing these blue pajamas. He should be at work. He works during the day and he gets money to buy stuff. That’s what grown-ups do. 

He gets out of bed. Time to go to work. He’ll need his normal clothes of course, although a part of him wonders if he could just wear the blue jammies. It’s not his fault after all, there’s been a mix-up, and they are very comfortable. 

He leaves the room. Because the door isn’t locked; it isn’t a prison. He walks down the hallway, turns the corner, and it’s easy to know where to go next. Follow the sound. Follow the noise. 

When David arrives at the doorway to the playroom, his heart feels full. There’s Donald, there’s his brother. They are twins, they are joined forever. Even though David hasn’t been the best brother recently, has he? Focusing on work, and then sharing the country’s anxiety over the virus. 

He watches Donald, who is sitting with new friends. A boy in blue overalls, and a girl in a yellow dress. It’s funny; they’re all big, just like everyone in the playroom. They’re all big but they all act little. 

“David!” 

He looks in the direction of the voice. There’s Mimi. She standing with a one of the special women, and David feels a sting of jealousy. 

But it’s okay. Mimi comes over and now she’s with him. She brushes his hair with her fingers. “Have a good nap, sweetie?”

David nods. 

“You sure look comfy in your jammies.” Mimi pats his stomach gently. 

Another nod. David doesn’t worry that she’ll think he looks silly in the blue pajamas. After all, he just looks like the others. 

Mimi gives him an approving look. “Wanna play with your brother? Wanna go play with Donnie?”

David frowns. Of course he would, but he can’t. He’s got his job. He has to go make money so he can buy stuff, like pizza and cookies and toys. “Umm, I gotta…” He gestures with his hands, pointing towards the doorway. 

“Hmm? What’s up?” Mimi tilts her face at him. And then she smiles with apparent understanding. “Do you need to be changed?” And that’s where she presses on his crotch with probing fingers, making David feel funny. What a strange feeling, to be touched there. He draws back, just enough for Mimi to notice. 

She chuckles. “It’s okay, sweetie, I’m a nurse. And we wouldn’t want you to be all wet and soggy, would we.”

Wet and soggy. That’s what Donald found so funny earlier. 

But it’s not that funny. 

“I’m not suh-suh-soggy,” David insists. “I’m not s’posed…” He waves his hands in frustration. It’s so hard to think in the playroom, with everyone being so silly and playing with such lovely toys. And it’s even harder to think when Mimi is stroking his hair and then touching his crotch. 

David makes a supreme effort to concentrate. He shuts his eyes tight and then opens them again. “I’m not s’posd to be here.” He points in the direction of his brother. “He’s the one. Not me.”

Mimi nods. “Honey,” she says. “It’s both of you.”

David shakes his head forcefully. 

Mimi strokes his arm, his fuzzy blue arm. “Yes, sweetie, you both have the virus. And you both belong here. Donald had it first, sure, but you were always going to get it as well.”

“Buh…buh…but I dint have no…” David grimaces with the sheer effort of trying to find the right word. And then his face brightens in triumph. “Sin-tuns! I dint have no sin-tuns!”

“Oh, honey.” Mimi gives him a sympathetic look. “You did. You just didn’t realize it. Remember when I took you both back from reception. That’s because you were both acting like little boys.” 

“Nuh-uh!”

“It’s true. When I showed you the playroom, you both wanted to play with the toys. And when I brough to you to the examination room, you both made a mess of your cookies.”

That’s not right. It can’t be. David thinks back, running through the memories. Yes, the toys look like fun. 

“Wanna play trucks!”

But wasn’t that just Donald. 

He can remember the cookie, its cloying sweetness. But he only ate it to show Donald how to do it. How to show his best manners. 

Or is he remembering it wrong? 

Mimi pulls David in a for hug. “Poor David, you’re all confused.” She pats his bottom rhythmically. “It’s going to be okay. You just need to have a happy pee time in your diaper, and then you’ll understand.” Mimi keeps the man firmly in her arms and keeps patting. “Remember snuggling with your brother. Remember napping with Donnie? When I saw you sleeping together so sweetly, I knew I’d done the right thing.” She laughs musically. “You were a little late to the party, but you belong here, honey.”

David squirms, but it’s a weak protest. He feels the pressure on his bladder. He should visit the bathroom, he’s not a baby. “Need the baff-woom,” he mumbles. 

“Silly boy, that’s what your diaper is for.” Mimi whispers the words in his ear. “Let it go, honey, and then you be just like your brother. You’ll be identical twins again!”

David wrinkles his nose even as he understands that he can’t stop from having an accident. It’s too hard, because he’s sick, he has a virus, just like Mimi says. It’s the only explanation for how he feels, how slow and silly and helpless. 

“Doan wanna be a baby,” he insists, his whisper matching Mimi’s. “Wanna be big.”

“I know,” Mimi says sympathetically. “But there’s no getting better from this. There’s no recovery. It’s a one-way street when you catch APP. That’s why we have the Center, David. To make your journey as pleasant as possible.” She strokes his back. “And it’s going to feel very, very pleasant, David. Your brother already knows, you should let go and then you can join him.”

David looks over Mimi’s shoulder. There’s Donald, making his wobbly way over to the blanket fort. He’s going to have fun in there, just like the others. Because he let go. Because…

“Be a soggy boy,” Mimi says, her voice tickling his ear. “Be a silly soggy boy for me.”

It’s as if his body is obeying a strict command. At first his body stiffens, and then he sighs, his shoulders lowering, his facial muscles relaxing, and he wets his diaper, a sudden hot flood that threatens to leak beyond the protective underwear and darken his pajamas. It’s so abrupt, so strong that he can hear a hissing noise.

“Good boy!” Mimi says. She keeps holding him close. “Doesn’t that feel better? Doesn’t that feel lovely?”

David chortles. “Thoggy!” he exclaims. 

She kisses him on the cheek. “That’s right, silly. You’re a soggy boy from now on. It’s rainbows and sparkles for you. We’re going to take such good care of you.”

David giggles. He understands about the sparkles. He can feel them between his legs, he can see them at the corners of his vision. And all that’s missing now, as his adult thoughts leave his mind in a flood, is that he needs something in his mouth. 

A thumb fills the gap, and he sucks on it enthusiastically. “Mmmg!”

Mimi pulls away and then inspects his crotch, feeling through the thick material of his pajamas. “Yes,” Mimi says briskly, “Just like your brother.” She beams at him. “Ready to play?”

David nods his head. “Pway!”  he babbles around his thumb. He points over at the blanket fort. “Pway wike Donnie!” 

“Good plan,” Mimi replies. She takes David’s hand and leaves him over to join his brother. 

THE END