Looking from the other side of life

A story by Allie Elle copyright 2009-01-25

Part one: changes

David Townsend looked down the small strip mall his face grim as he took in the desolate sight of closed shops and lack of care. Gripping his briefcase in his left hand he slumped his shoulders, as a loss adjuster he really hated his job some times. He looked at his target a small mom and pop type store nestled on the corner, they had applied for a loss adjustment in preparation for liquidation of the store. He looked at the sign on the store “Poppin’s Little Miss Boutique”

He walked slowly and looked at the reduced display in the main window, the dresses and other accoutrements of girlhood were a bit faded. With a heavy step he pushed open the door and stepped in. A lot of the shop dummies were naked and there was only a small selection of items available. A matronly woman of middle aged stood behind the counter and smiled as he walked in until she saw the briefcase.

“Mr Townsend I presume?” Her voice was warm but guarded.

“Mrs Delware” His reply was polite and tinged with a bit of sadness. She nodded and motioned him into the back room and had him sit at the scuffed dining table that was in the kitchenette behind the store.

He sat down and placed his briefcase on the table like a shield and opened the clasps and pulled out a wad of papers in a manila folder and opened it up. As he looked over the figures his face became even more depressed as he saw that really the amounts that the shop brought in barely covered the costs of keeping the shop open. They had not paid a supplier in over four months so could not get a fresh supply in and were really down to last of the stock. He hated seeing stores like this go to the wall as he thought that the main chains were getting a strangle hold on peoples money. He could understand that people wanted cheaper clothes etc but smaller shops like this were more personal and sometimes the hub of a community.

His thoughts went back to the small town in England he had grown up in and some of the small shops that failed. The look of depression on his mothers face as her dress shop closed, how she became listless and distant. When he reached sixteen his mother finally had a breakdown and was hospitalised for eight months and his father became addicted to the bottle and his life became a hell that he had to try and survive. Mrs Delware was showing the first signs of the despondency of a woman who loved what she did but was fighting a losing battle.

As he looked around he saw pictures of a young girl wearing some of the dresses that the store would have carried as stock and a proud woman standing behind her. Mrs Delware made a pot of coffee and sat at the table opposite him with a sigh and made no attempt to try and make eye contact. To her he was a hatchet man sent by the banks to take her dream from her. She saw him looking at the pictures and a small smile crossed her face.

“That is my daughter she loved being girly and pretty, she was a blessing to us really.”

“She does look like she was enjoying herself, I guess by those pictures she will be in college now”

“No I wish she was, a year after the last of those photographs were taken she was killed on the sidewalk, a DUI decided to use it to avoid the cops.”

David was shocked just how emotionless she seemed as she talked about her daughter but he could see the pain in her eyes as she talked. The fact that the pain was still there helped David see her as a lost woman looking at ways of saving her memories. As he looked at the figures he noticed that there was another set of figures. These were in relation to the business small and rare payments but he could not see the receipts from what ever company had provided the dresses to fill them. He picked out that one sheet and turned it around to face Mrs Delware and her eyes became more guarded.

“Could you explain these payments please?” He asked

“Well not really without breaking a confidence Mr Townsend, as you are aware I do want to keep some of my customers private.”

The way she spoke David could feel she wanted to say more but he realised that it was close to the ending of the business day. He looked at his watch and nodded and sighed realising that he would be stuck in this town for a few days. He gathered up his papers again and he realised that he and Mrs Delware had actually been going through the papers for at least three hours. As he placed the folder back in the briefcase Mrs Delware looked at him.

“Mr Townsend I don’t know if you live around here or not but I feel this will take some time to rectify, I do really want to try and save my shop but I will understand if you say it needs to close.”

“Actually Mrs Delware I was hoping to get this wrapped up in an afternoon and head back to the city, but yes it will take a while I fear.”

As they spoke the bell above the store door jangled and both of them turned to look through the door. Framed in the light was the local sheriff as he looked around the store. He was a well built man and carried his uniform well; he smiled as he walked through the shop to the back and hung up his gun belt on a hook by the doorway. With a gentle grace he stooped and hugged Mrs Delware and smiled as he looked at David. He nodded as he sat down turning his chair around and straddled it; his eyes had a slight laugh in it as he looked at the briefcase.

“Well I guess you the fellow from the bank?” His voice had a southern drawl to it but was gentle.

“Yes Sir David Townsend from the first municipal bank” He stood and offered his hand.

The sheriff shook it firmly and then sat down again.

“Bill Delware and you already know my wife Louise Delware, please just call me Pa all the people I consider friends do” He replied.

“I don’t think I can do that Sir you have only just met me and it would not be professional to do so” David replied feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“Shucks David I don’t stand on formality around my table unless it’s younguns around it.” His voice held a laugh in it.

Well if you insist I will Pa” He returned the laugh. At that the atmosphere in the kitchenette became a lot more relaxed. The three of them sat drinking coffee and just talking over small things, David turned around and saw that outside had gotten dark and he looked at his watch. Another four hours had passed and it was nearly eight PM. Bill saw him looking at his watch and outside and he frowned as he noticed the time. Without another word Louise started to prepare a meal and David got up to make his excuses.

The two of them would not let him take his leave and insisted he stayed the night; he was not looking forwards to the drive back to the city only to drive back out the next morning. He sat watching the two of them so comfortable together and remembered a happier time when his mother and father were like that. To him it was like stepping back in time, hearing the laughter and teasing between the two of them although the accent was different, he could close his eyes and he was back in the rooms behind his mothers shop and his parents teasing each other after work. It made him feel warm a feeling he had missed for so long and he smiled.

Bill and Louise watched as the young accountant as a smile spread across his face, they nodded to each other and stopped. As they watched him they saw a tear roll down his cheek, his face became ashen. Louise had seen this in her days before she had married Bill and had opened the store when she worked as a nursing aide. Some of her patients had been children on their way to the county children’s home, the withdrawn look and the haunting from a trauma none of them could voice. With out a word she wrapped and arm around the young mans shoulder and hugged him close.

David felt the arms around him and subconsciously he buried his face in to the woman’s chest. He started to cry as he remembered his mother and father and how they were. As he cried a strange feeling started to cross over his body and he started to shake as if feverish. Louise felt this and gently touched his forehead as David’s eyes started to get large and he started to struggle to breathe. Gently Louise hugged him to her and started to remove his tie and looked at her husband. She nodded and motioned her head upstairs quietly letting her husband know this was urgent.

Bill watched his wife embrace the poor boy and nodded; he left the back room and headed upstairs, he had seen that look too often in his police career and he settled in the small lounge on the first floor and picked up the telephone. He quietly dialled the bank and reached their business desk that was manned twenty four hours a day in these dire times.

“Yup this is Bill Delware of Poppin’s little miss boutique, you send one of your boys to the store today, am afraid he’s taken Ill any chance his manager is till in the office?” He asked.

“Yes Mr Delware I think Miss Jones is still here finishing off some papers I will get her...,” the line went silent then a woman’s voice came on the line,” Hello Janice Jones can I help you Mr Delware?”

“Well your boy aint feeling himself at the moment and we think it’s best if he don’t consider work for a few days, we’ll get him to a doc but he sure is looking peaky”

“Mr Delware I must say thank you from the bank David is well liked by us and a hard worker we are sorry he has fallen ill if needs be we will send an ambulance and some one to collect his car”

“No need Miss my wife was a nurse’s aide I’m sure he will be back up on his feet in no time”

He finished the call and he heard the heavy tread of two bodies coming up the stairs. He poked his head through the door and saw his wife trying to almost carry David up the stairs but struggling. With out a word he stepped down picked the young man up and put him over his shoulder and carried him up the staircase. With out being told he carried David into the only spare room; it was a typical pre school girl’s bedroom down to the canopy bed and frills every where. In the ten years since their daughter had been killed they had never had the heart to alter it.

Louise started to undress David and she saw that his body was becoming flushed all over and she took a sharp intake of breath. Along his arms there were a series of bruises and as he lay there more appeared his face was becoming younger also. She stepped back a look of shock on her face and she watched as more and more signs of abuse appeared. She then turned to bill her face ashen and she was shaking, she pointed to the door and almost pushed him out of it.

“Bill this is bad, really bad” he voice was breaking in fear.

“Hun what is it?” Bill asked staying calm.

Louise looked back through the door her face drawn, she gently pulled the door closed and leaned against the wall. Her hands were shaking and she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly she turned to her husband.

“Darling that young man has got Chronos disorder somehow.”

“What in the tarnation is that?” Louise went on to explain about a few years ago a research experiment had gone wrong. A virus had been created but some how had escaped the lab that had created it. This thing was almost a fountain of youth, taking the victim back to an earlier age. What was being done was that David’s body was reliving past traumas as the bodies memory was being turned back.

With that Louise went to the lounge and called the local doctor and managed to get him to come out. Whilst they were waiting Louise went back to David and finished undressing him, fortunately he had passed out but she could see the pain on his face as his body changed. The doorbell to the shop rang a few minutes later and Bill went down and a young woman stood there. Bill recognised Julia Travis the local doctor and let her in.

“Bill good to see you again; Louise said you have a possible Chronos victim with you?” Her tone was all business.

Bill showed her upstairs and she walked into the bedroom and she immediately got to work taking vitals. As she worked David’s cell phone rang and Bill answered it, he recognised the voice as David’s boss and he answered her questions. As he talked Julia motioned for bill to give her the phone, he did and the doctor listened for a minute then looked at the ceiling.

“Yes I am sure he is well like Miss but I do need some information please, yes I am a Doctor” Julia stopped to take a breath.

“Has he been near any laboratories or hospitals in the last forty eight hours? Yes I see well I am afraid David won’t be returning to work, you see he has caught some thing that is causing him to regress physically and possibly mentally, yes it is the Chronos virus.” Julia hung up and whispered the word bitch.

With that she returned to her patient and stopped as she looked at him, as she examined him his genital area was changing as well as regressing. As all three of them watched the body started to shrink and regress and change. Slowly bones started shifting and changing and David’s penis was slowly transformed into the vagina of a pre teen girl as well as his body. Bill started to whisper a prayer as well as his wife and the doctor carried on the examination. With a nod she motioned for the Delware’s to leave the bed room. She used her cell phone and called her boyfriend to let him know she would not be home. She considered calling for an ambulance but she knew that really there was nothing a hospital could do.

Through the night she sat by this young persons bedside offering what help she could to ease pain. Each time she gave a shot for the pain she marvelled at the transformations that were taking place. As it neared midnight the changes started too slow and on the bed there laid a child of no more than two or three. Julia gently examined the body being careful not to wake the new child and as she worked Louise walked in and gasped when she saw the toddler girl laid there. Bill sleepily walked in and when he saw the child his knees gave way. The child on the bed was a copy of their deceased daughter at that age.

Part two: A new dawn

The morning gave way to bright sunlight and a warm day; bill called his deputy and laid the days duties on him saying that things had changed around his home. He did not elaborate, he and Louise waited for David to wake up during the remainder of the night Julia had diapered his small body. Julia walked down to the kitchenette and gladly took a cup of coffee as it was handed to her. Just as she started to take a first sip there came, the scream of a toddler just waking up from a night mare. Louise did not even stop to put her coffee cup down as she rushed through the door. Bill deftly took it from his wife as she ran past him.

Taking the stairs two at a time she rushed followed by the doctor, she reached the bedroom door and saw David sat up in the bed tears streaming down the small face. She gently picked up the sobbing child and rocked it against her bosom. David stopped crying his mind awash with a lot of feelings a lot of them were infantile. As he was cuddled he felt warmth spread between his legs and he realised he had just wet himself. After that he broke down again and Louise hugged him tighter, she then felt the diaper get warm and her maternal instincts took over with out think she went into mom mode.

“Awws is da wikkle pwincess all wetties?” Her voice like a mother talking to a baby

“Wha oo tawk bou?;” David looked shocked at what was coming out of his mouth, as he felt himself wet he also started to have the need to have some thing in his mouth and his chubby fist ended up there.

Louise watched as slowly comprehension started to fade from David’s eyes and his behaviour became more babyish. It was as if his mind was rewriting itself to accept his new role. Julia also watched as the regression became total. As she watched the changes she wondered if any of the former accountant’s personality was left. She watched as Louise changed the toddler and carried her down to the kitchenette. Whilst the women were upstairs Bill had gone out into the storage shed and pulled out the old high chair he had made for their daughter.

He had hoped that the furniture would have been passed on to his grandchildren. He never thought there would be another infant in the house. He saw his wife come down carrying the new child in her arms just clad in a diaper and she settled her burden into the high chair. The toddler looked around and giggled when she saw Bill.

“Daddy” was the only word that came out of her small mouth and Bill’s heart melted. Louise saw her husbands gaze soften when he heard that word.

A short while later after scrambled eggs had been fixed and fed to the group Julia left with a smile on her face. The new toddler seemed to be accepting her role, there did not seem to be any lasting trauma so she was happy just to arrange a check up. Through the day David seemed to settle further and further into the role of a toddler and just after lunch s/he started yawning. Louise took the child back upstairs and laid her down for a nap. Walking back down, she sat next to her husband as he sat thinking. Bill was looking through a set of photographs and Louise noticed they were all of their, daughter at the same age as David was now. She looked through them with him and settled into her own thoughts.

After about an hour they were jolted out of their thoughts by a scream and they both rushed upstairs just as they heard a thump on the floor. Bill outdistanced his wife reaching the bedroom first and he saw that their new charge had fallen out of the bed. He picked up the small girl and cuddled her close rocking her slowly. As David felt the warmth against him he stopped crying and settled in, his thumb found its way to his mouth. Just then Louise took him from Bill and settled him back down on the bed and started to change his diaper.

David lifted his head and looked his adult side had not totally gone and he looked down as the diaper was pulled down. Instead of what he was expecting he saw the area between his legs now held a slit and he screamed again. Through his nap he had thought that what he had felt earlier had been a night mare but this brought the reality back to him. He felt totally lost and looked at Louise as she fastened a cloth diaper around him followed by some plastic panties and he could not help but feel the love from her.

After he had been changed Louise picked him up and carried him down to behind the shop and on to the shop proper. Jiggling him gently she carried him to the rack of toddler dresses and looked at him measuring him up. She then picked a simple but girlish jumper dress outfit and dressed him in it. As he felt himself being dressed it seemed so nice to looked, after again even if he was a girl. He started to relax and enjoy the sensations that coursed through his mind and body and he realised just how much he had missed it.

Louise carried him back up to the lounge and settled him on the floor and Bill also joined them. With a sigh she started to tell David what had happened to him in a simple way about the Chronos virus and the change to his gender. Also she went on to tell him that really he had very few options as because of the virus he had no status. Bill also listened and he frowned, he was not willing to let this child become lost in the social care system as he felt responsible. Louise could tell what her husband was thinking and she agreed with him. She also felt responsible for this child and had bonded.

“David we have a very important question to ask you” Louise said slowly.
“Otay” David looked at them a simple smile across his face showing dimples.

“We can’t keep calling you David you do need a girls name and also we are wondering if you would become our baby girl?”

He looked at the two of them and he could see the love in their eyes and he missed the closeness. What he never told anyone is that in the confines of his small bachelor flat in the city he had often acted out like a child and had always wished to wear some of the dresses his mother used to make but was never brave enough to ask. Now he realised that it was his chance, he had never opened up to anyone and really the nightmare was a dream come true for him. Also he could feel the love that Bill and Louise felt for him and he smiled a bigger smile.

“Otay me be yu giwl” as he said this out in the street a small girl with angel wings smiled and looked up to the sky.

“Thanks boss” she whispered and faded from view.

Back in the lounge Louise had picked up the former David and cuddled him close to her, the two adults talked about names and other things and she listened. Her new name was to be Janie the same as the Delware’s dead daughter and well it was to continue her memory. Bill also listed the things he needed to do and that included putting the crib rails back on his new daughter’s bed. He then called the local judge and made arrangements for Janie to be welcomed into their family after making sure that Julia also sent the relevant information. After that was done it was time for the new families first dinner together and Janie really enjoyed it.

Epilogue:

The upshot of what had happened breathed new life into the shop, Louise having some one to model a new toddler range of dresses helped. Janice Jones even found ways to save the store and also the payment from the insurance company of the lab that David had audited before his transformation helped Louise start to open a fleet of shops. Janie loved modelling new clothes and the attention she got as spokes girl for Poppin’s Little Miss Boutique.

As she grew up she went through the usual tribulations of any young child until one near fateful day. She was playing out with a few friends from school out of the side walk waiting for her mother to close up the shop for the day. There was a screech of brakes and a car mounted the sidewalk and was heading straight for her. Suddenly from the other side of the intersection a police cruiser started its siren and lights and this was enough to break Janie from the trance and she dived into the shop doorway.

The car bounced off the wall and missed her and her friends and ended up in the street and the police cruiser pulled to a stop and Bill stepped out his side arm in his hand. Seeing his daughter was okay he hauled the driver out of the car. Shaking the shocked youth like a rag doll he almost threw the hapless driver to the ground until he looked at the car and saw that the front axel was shot. He then realised that this driver was legally too young to drink and just about old enough to not need a learners permit. He gently put the young driver down and picked Janie up and hugged her close as he checked her for injuries. He hugged her close as she burst into tears at the close call and she cuddled into her daddy as Louise came out and nearly fainted when she was told what had happened.

Janie’s life continued the way all young girls turning into women do and as her parents got older she helped out more in the business. When she reached twenty one she started dating a young man who happened to be called David. After dating for a few years they married and a year later presented Louise and Bill with a grandson. Janie loved being a wife a mother and a business woman her previous life forgotten and memories changed with love and compassion.

Fin