Synopsis:

Scott was on his way west to meet up with his friends to start a new life in L A. What he came across in the desert after his car broke down would change him forever. He wondered if his friends would recognise him once they finally met again. He didn’t think this was what his friend’s intended when they said, "start a new life."

Chapter Sixty-Three

Having spoken to Jenna privately and got her assurance that she would discuss her idea with Richard and Cathleen, Sara went and talked to Kim.

"Sure, I'll stick around," was her reply, when asked to oversee the process.

That evening, after dinner, Sara got Maggie dressed in her nightgown and sat her down on her bed.

"Maggie, I have something to discuss with you about your promised 3 year old body," Sara said, reaching out and taking Maggie's hand.

Maggie looked up at her mother with wide hopeful eyes, knowing her mother always kept her promises and tried to sit still while jumping up and down inside. Maggie's thoughts were bouncing up and down as well. 'I'm going to get my body, I'm going to get my body,' was the mantra her mind kept repeating.

Kevin entered the room then, cued by a thought from Sara. He sat down on the other side of Maggie and took her other tiny hand in his, smiling, as he looked at Maggie in her cute kitten covered nightgown.

"We think it's time to live up to our end. We have promised to give you your dream body, and now it time for that to happen," Sara said, speaking for Kevin as well.

"We love you and will care for you for eternity, but we care for the adult in you as well, and we don't want to see that part of your soul leave us, so we came up with this idea," Sara explained carefully.

After we change your body into that of a three year old, we will use the glasses to block your adult thoughts and memories from that of Maggie the child. She will be the innocent we picked up in Indianapolis. We will alter your memories so you'll think that you were always our little girl. You'll keep your memories of the trip here and everything that's happened since, but edit the adult memories out. You'll find that you will just be a little girl, like any other normal child your age."

"So what will happen to my adult mind?" Maggie asked astutely, reminding them that she wasn't just the cute child she appeared to be.

Kim thinks we can cause a split that will allow the adult part of your mind be an observer in your body, experiencing your joy and innocence in being a child. We hope she will act as a conscience for you without actually saying anything. All of us have a tiny voice inside, which tells us if what we are doing is right. If we plan it right, the adult in you will colour your thoughts without verbal interaction. As you grow up, your minds will begin to merge until it is fully integrated at around 18 years."

"Wow! dat's a long time," Maggie exclaimed.

"We hope to do something for you, similar to what we did to someone in Australia, for when danger looms," Kevin added.

"Yes, should you be in severe bodily danger, the adult mind will fully integrate with the child to help, then once the danger has passed, will disappear again." Sara explained further.

"So I won't remember you knocking into me on my bike, or giving me a loaner body, until you returned for me?" Asked Maggie sadly.

"Not until your 18 at least," answered Sara truthfully. We hope that the adult part of you will be like a guardian angel for the child in you, always there to look after you."

"Mommy? Can I say thanks and goodbye to eberyone first, for I gets liddle, and don't's remember no mores?" Asked Maggie, looking up at Sara, tears standing guardian in the corners of her eyes.

"Of course you can honey," answered Sara with a sob, crushing Maggie tightly to her breast.

Kevin held onto Sara, knowing how much this was tearing at her heart, as he fought the same tears himself.

Kevin took Maggie from Sara and carried her downstairs to allow Sara time to conceal her tears. Kim as usual, being one jump ahead, had rung Jenna and asked her and Richard to come over to say goodbye. Setting Maggie down, Kevin and Sara watched, as Maggie thanked her chat room friends for always being there for her. Jenna fought hard not to burst into tears knowing that the person she had known for so long was finally going to get her wish.

Jenna held on the Richard, after Maggie had hugged him as well. She was both happy and sad; knowing part of Maggie would be asleep until the little girl grew up. Her decision on Cathleen having the same done, hinged on what Maggie would be like tomorrow.

Maggie thanked Amelia, Julie and William, before coming back to Kim.

"I want to thank you for the gifts of the Shelke, and the Krin that gave me my dream. Without you, none of this would have happened and my mommy wouldn't have been going past my town and ended up giving me the most important gift." Maggie told her.

"I did little, but supply the technology, honey. There are the ones to thank," she replied, pointing to Sara and Kevin.

"I knows," Maggie nodded, before running back to Sara.

"I was just hanging on to life when you happened by," Maggie started, taking hold of both her parent's hands. "I need to thank you for saving me and the kitten within. I have so much to thank you for. Just believing the child in me and not just ignoring her presence as a figment of a warped mind, I thank you. You could have left me in that loaner body and not returned for me, but you didn't. You gave me something even greater than a young girl's body; you gave me love and took me into your hearts."

With that, Maggie, Sara and Kevin clung to each other in a hug where tears fell unashamedly.

Jenna and Richard turned away and wrapped each other in a similar hug, as Maggie's emotional outpouring, had them in tears as well. The others in the room were similarly afflicted.

"We promise to love you like no other," promised Sara, through her tears.

"Probably more than one of our very own children," offered Kevin.

"More?" asked Maggie, trying to work that one out.

"We will love any of our children that we are blessed with," explained Kevin. "How could we not? After all, we will be their parents, but we chose you to be our child. Parents don't get a choice, but to love their own children, no matter what."

"I's special?" Maggie giggled, reverting to her childlike persona.

"You is indeed," Kevin replied in same.

"I'm ready," Maggie said finally, reaching up to Sara to be lifted into her arms.

Sara took Maggie upstairs to her bedroom, with Kevin and Kim following close behind. Maggie was placed in her bed and made comfortable, as both Kim and Sara put on the glasses that would change her life forever. Giving one final round of thanks, Maggie settled back to accept her new life.

It took many hours, as both Kim and Sara used the advanced hypnotic techniques that the Shelke had developed for their glasses. Finally it was done and the two parents kissed their now sleeping child. Kim promised to stay the night, just in case, but said everything went exactly as planned. Sara and Kevin went downstairs to give those waiting the heads-up on the situation. Jenna hugged Sara, knowing exactly how she felt, wondering if she would have the same courage to do the same for Cathleen.

Morning came at last and Sara woke early, slipping out of bed to check on Maggie. She found Maggie half dressed, playing with Kurtain. Half dressed, because now that her adult mind was sleeping, she hadn't managed to fasten her favourite dress she had tried to put on. The back was undone, not that it seemed to bother her much. Maggie squealed in joy when she heard her mother enter the room, still dressed in her nightgown.

"Look mommy, I taughted Kurtain a trick," she giggled, demonstrating by holding up a hair ribbon and making Kurtain stand up on only her rear legs, as she pawed at the dangling ribbon.

"That's cute honey, how are you feeling?" Asked Sara, seeing little change in Maggie's behaviour.

"Me's not sick," stated Maggie emphatically, thinking her mommy wanted her to stay in bed. "Can I goes show Cathleen Kurtain's new trick?" Maggie asked, sliding off the bed, which rucked up her dress.

"After breakfast," Sara insisted, straightening her daughter's dress, while Maggie pouted at the delay.

"Want me to do your buttons up?" Sara asked, seeing if she could illicit any frustration from Maggie, at her lost ability at getting dressed by herself.

"Yes mommy," Maggie said simply, showing no sign of frustration.

Sara hugged her daughter, knowing that until she grew up a bit more, Maggie would really need her more than ever to fill the duties of a mother. Sara watched Maggie dash out of the bedroom, heading downstairs with Kurtain in hot pursuit. Sara went to get a robe, knowing her help in the kitchen would be needed, as Maggie looked for something to eat.

"How is she?" asked the now awake Kevin, as she was about to head downstairs.

"She's just fine, just a bit more dependent on me," Sara answered, moving to the bed and giving Kevin a kiss.

"Go…I'll be down in a minute," Kevin told her, shooing her towards the door.

Sara slipped out and headed to where the noise in the kitchen, told her where Maggie was. All that day, Maggie was quietly observed by Sara and Jenna, as she played with Cathleen and the pets.

"There doesn't seem to be much difference in the way she acts," confided Jenna, as she and Sara took a quiet moment together.

"No, there's not. I think Maggie was already living her life as a child, as much as she could, before last night," agreed Sara.

"Cathleen's agreed to have the same done, so I've decided to try it tonight, before I lose my nerve," Jenna nervously informed her.

"Good, it will be better now than later," Sara agreed. "Cathleen could mention something by accident, which might cause some problems, if Maggie's memories don't match what Cathleen lets slip."

So it was done, with similar results.

Two days later, Cathy came by to pick up her cat.

"I'm staying with John, for now, if you must know," answered a blushing Cathy to Sara's query.

"Nice, I'm so happy for you," Sara told her, seeing the obvious signs in Cathy's manner.

"I'll be around, his place isn't that far away," said Cathy, as she reached down to pick up Roadblock, who was rubbing against her legs. "Ooph, you feel like you have put on more weight than ever," she complained, as she struggled to lift the cat.

"I think that cat is too smart for its own good," laughed Sara. "Roadblock worked out a way to get fed here and fed again next door."

"I think I'll rename her, Detour," Cathy laughed.

In the days that followed, life returned to a semblance of normality to an outside observer. Amelia became a teacher to the children, giving them lessons, which would allow them to learn how to live as normal female adults when that time came along. They weren't the only ones being taught, as both Jenna and Sara sat in on the unofficial lessons, although Sara was the one most in need. The built in programming only went so far, and there were nuances that even the more advanced Shelke technology couldn't help with.

"After all," Amelia had commented. "They are Shelke, where I'm human, female, as well as a mother," Amelia said smugly.

Kim asked if she could put devices up to observe everything that was being taught, so that future body constructs could be further refined.

Nobody had any objection, knowing that this intrusion into their privacy was for a good cause and would be discrete.

Julie came and went, as she and William divided their time between the condo and Huang's place in Hollywood, where William either as himself or as Huang, gave Bob a hand at setting up a new satellite dish at his new home with Cindy.

Bob had explained that by having at least two dishes running, if the Nemesis was detected, a more accurate distance could be extrapolated by triangulation methods.

Julie wanted to have her mother live with them when they moved down to Huang's place permanently, but knowing that Amelia was helping the others learn, she didn't press the matter. Amelia knew that Julie needed little advice from her, having learned most of what she needed already. Amelia needed to feel useful and not just sit around a fancy place doing little but cook her daughter's meals. Not that she objected doing that, but being with little girls and big girls for that matter, who really needed her sage advice, made her feel young again, something she wouldn't trade for the high life. Amelia would visit with her daughter for a break for a week or so, before returning to the condo before Julie could get sick of her being underfoot.

Sara and Kevin practiced with their gifts while in a nexus, as did the others. Kim was often gone to help others who were on the cusp of forming their own Nexi, teaching them how to focus and develop this most fantastic of unions.

So time passed, and the years rolled by, until one day, the threat everyone had dreaded, came calling.

To be continued.

  

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 © 2005 by Prudence Walker. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, and compilation design) may be printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without the express written consent of the copyright holder.