One Summer’s Day, part III
By- G.K.S

Chapter Three: Operator, Can you Help Me, Help me if you Please…

“Give me the right area code, and the number that I need.”

Hearing my mother on the phone I looked up from where I was building a sand castle with Heather. Penny was sitting sullenly as far away as she could and still remain on my mother’s beach towel.

“Hey Penny, sweetie dear…if you don’t want to build a sand castle maybe you’d prefer to swim in the kiddie pool?” Heather called over to Penny, without ever looking up from making a turreted tower on the side of the castle. I laughed at that, realizing that Heather was in fact baiting her mother/wife/sister.

“Yeah Penny, why don’t we all go have fun in the children’s pool,” I said, not pronouncing my words very well. Meanwhile I took a little plastic hand shovel to smooth out the top of the castle.

“Shut up!” Penny replied bitterly.

“You might as well make the best of the situation, my little honey bunny,” Heather chided.

“This is your fault!” she screamed, climbing unsteadily to her feet, obviously still un-use to walking on such short little legs.

“My fault? My fault? MY FAULT!” Heather lisped back, exasperation clear on her face.

“Yes, you! Your fault!” Penny screamed, stomping her little foot, and her little white flip-flop sandal

Heather was red in the face, looking like she was going to pitch a tantrum before she suddenly smiled and went back to focusing on sand castle building. “Oh Penny, don’t get so upset. You’ll make yourself cry and then your makeup will run.” She said. Then Heather pantomimed smacking her forehead, as if with sudden realization, “Oh wait Penny! That’s right! You’re a little tighty-whitie diaper wearing baby. Just like us! You can’t wear makeup anymore! AHAHAHHHAHA!”

I laughed, because neither me or Heather has to wear diapers. We’ve both managed to retain our bowel and bladder continence from our previous lives. Penny didn’t either, but I suspect she’s a right little bed wetter judging by her cry baby attitude.

Penny turned bright red in the face and screamed wordlessly back at Heather in anger, screeching and sounding exactly like a three year old girl who was pitching a level ten tantrum. Then she suddenly fell back on her bottom and started bawling loudly. What a cry baby. My mother just looked at the three of us with a bewildered expression.

“Can you keep it down over there, we’re in a public place.” She said, as if expecting us to act maturely. Or at least Penny anyways…neither I nor Heather was making such a racket. Penny evidently didn’t hear, or more likely she did, but couldn’t stop the flow of tears. What a baby.

Listening to Penny bawl, I looked Heather in her little blue eyes and giggled, “What’s she making such a big deal about. It’s only for the weekend. What a cry baby.”

Heather grinned, showing her pearly white baby teeth, “Uh huh, but she always was a cry baby. Even as a grown up, she just hid it better by being bossy.”

“I heard that!” Penny lisped out under all the crying.

“Good!” Heather replied with a grunt and a little smirk that followed.

“Well Heather, I think it’s finished!” I said smiling down at the pretty sand castle we’d made. The walls were all straight and smooth. We did a good job. I felt so proud.

“Yup,” Heather responded with a happy smile, the sun glinting off her eyes.

Just then we were interrupted by my mother, “Hey, would you three like to do some shopping at the mall after this?”

With a mock horrified look on my face I answered, bangs swaying in the breeze tickling my forehead all the while, “No, I’m always reading stories that include endless shopping. Let’s do something else please.”

“I agree,” Heather chimed in, her tiny voice making me smile.

Penny was still bawling like a baby, before I turned to my mother, “Mommy, can I have a dollar?”

My mother gave me a questioning look before digging in her purse, which was lying on the towel next to her, and handing me a one dollar bill. Clenching the bill in my podgy little hand, I unsteadily got to my feet and without another word to anyone, tromped off, a Snow cone stand firmly in my sights not fifty yards away.

I had to wait in line, which was hard…because I have the attention span of a squirrel, same as any other three year old. But I managed to wait it out, as the adults in front of me got what they wanted and got out of my way.

It was finally my turn, and skipping two feet to the concessions window, I realized I was too short to see in. Confusion…I felt confused, what should I do? I need a snow cone.

Aha, I know! I yelled quite loudly in an attempt to gain service, “Hey!”

Before long a blonde haired girl, looking to be about seventeen leaned out of the window and looked down at me, her hair back in a pony tail. “Yes little girl, did you need something?”

“Snow cone please,” I replied, handing her the dollar bill.

She laughed, and took the money, “What flavor?”

“The blue kind please,” I replied, wondering why I was feeling so confused. The magic makes me act like a three year old around strangers…that must be it.

“Blue kind? Oh…you mean Blueberry,” she questioned, arching her eyebrows and smiling at me.

“Kay!” I replied with enthuse, my eyes wandering around my immediate surroundings, my mind already wondering what mischief might be had in the immediate vicinity. I spied a fat lady lying on a towel lying on the sandy beach just a ways away and considered running up and poking her.

I was saved from such an embarrassing act by, “Here you go.”

Looking up I saw the concessions server girl…or whatever she was, handing a blue snow cone towards me. Aha! This is what I came for!

Grabbing it, I scampered off with a mildly sincere, “Thank you!”

I stopped halfway down the beach, wondering exactly where I was suppose to be scampering off to. Aha, I was saved from being lost, when I saw my mother waving at me from a short distance away. And simply seeing her seemed to cause my mind to switch gears.

“Now I remember!” I said to myself, “I bought this to give to Penny, so she’d shut up!”

Having explained the situation to myself aloud, I finished my scampering and got to my mother and Heather…and Penny too. I stopped in front of her, and handed the snow cone to her, frowning all the while, because I wished I could eat it. She took it out of my hand, and pulled her arm back as if she was going to throw it at me! I ducked quick, but fortunately the snow cone wasn’t wasted, because Penny suddenly got a funny look on her face, and started eating it with a weird smile.

“I wanna throw it at you,” she said between bites, “But it’s so good! What’s wrong with me?”

“You have the brain of a three year old. Duh!” I said in my silly little girls voice, finding my way over to Heather all the while.

“How come she gets a snow cone and I don’t?” heather whined, once I sat down next to her.

“Cuz, I’m tired of listening to her whine, pout and cry without end.” I answered with a slight stutter.

“Oh, yeah…good idea.” Then she smiled, “That takes you know, planning skills and stuff to pull off.”

“Yeah, it was hard! Glad that my mission is accomplished,” I said, sighing with relief.

The afternoon flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to go.

“Alright kiddies, we’re going home, but I have to stop at Wal-Mart on the way there to pick us up something to eat for tonight…and tomorrow night.”

“Aww,” me and Heather groaned simultaneously, and my mother took our hands and began leading us off, Penny also in tow.

As we wear nearing the locker rooms, some lady stopped my mother and us by reaching down an pinching my cheeks…quite uncalled for I at that, I think.

“My, you have three little ones!” she squealed, looking us all over.

My mother looked at her, and gave her the once over, glance, “Uh…yes?”

“My, my, how did you manage to get three that are so close in age?”

“Oh you know, lots and lots of…you know.”

“Hehehe,” childish laughter from me and heather, “Hahaha.”

The woman gave us an odd look, and then muttered something before hurrying off. Penny just looked around in confusion causing me and heather to giggle at her, as she asked, “Huh?”

Finally making it to the locker room, I sat down on the bench next to Heather, Penny on the other side of her…the three of us were sharing a locker since we were so little. Pulling my clothes out of the locker, I simply stared at them for a moment, “Momma, I need’s help!”

Don’t you love my improper grammar?

“Oh, okay honey.” My mother replied as she took her wet swim suit off.

“Haha, you’re naked.” I laughed watching my mother pulled off her wet bikini swim top, causing Heather and Penny to notice and giggle too.

“Yes, yes sweetie. I am.” She replied with a knowing smile, while she started putting on her street clothes. Her knowing little smile caused me to realize how silly I was being, but I dismissed it as proper behavior considering my age.

After she finished, she helped the three of us get dressed and packed our swim stuff away in the duffel bag she brought along.

“Right, now we can go.” She declared with a grin, looking down at the three of us dressed in our little t-shirts and blue jeans. Me and heather were still wearing our flip flop sandals, but Penny was wearing Barbie sneakers that came with her transformation.

“Kay!” Heather and I chorused simultaneously. Penny just looked around with a bewildered expression.

“Where?” she asked.

“To Wal-Mart; you stupid!” Heather pandered, giving her a petulant little frown that caused me to giggle.

“Am not stupid!” Penny declared boisterously, as our mother led us out of the locker room.

“Are too!” I shouted, joining in the verbal mayhem.

“Okay you three, quiet down.”

“Yes ma’am,” the three of us replied, forlorn expressions displayed by all three of us.

“There, there, no need for pouting. Let’s get to Wal-Mart and then get home.” My mother replied. “The quicker the better for all of us.”

The drive seemed to go quick, I suppose it was do to my short attention span. One event sort of distracted me to another and before I knew it, we were there. I always hated Wal-Mart as my old self, it is after all, the official White Trash emporium. I felt dirty just by being there. I haven’t been there yet as my new self, so I’m not sure if I’ll still hate being there.

As my mother unbuckled me out of my car seat, firmly grasped me and picked me up, I smiled and kissed her cheek. She smiled brightly at me and ruffled my hair, saying, “My baby girl.”

“That’s right, I am!” I lisped, merely a whisper in her ear.

She held me in her arms, and took Heather’s hand, and Heather used her other hand to grab Penny, and that’s the way we made our way up to and into the store.

Looking around from the high vantage point of my mothers arms, I realized that indeed, Wal-Mart still made me want to have a bad case of diarrhea, sheerly out of disgust. I hated this place.

My mother expertly made her way down the aisle and over to the grocery section of the store. Super Wal-Mart indeed.

“Beth is that you?” a man’s voice asked. Still held in my mothers arms, I craned my head around to look at a man who seemed to be addressing my mother. He looked to be just under six foot in height, was clean shaven and had brown eyes and hair.

My mother looked at him confusedly for a moment or two, “Jake Neily?”

“In the flesh,” he replied with a grin.

“How clichéd,” I expounded loudly, as I slapped my hand over my mouth in surprise.

The man looked shocked for a moment, before smiling at me, “What a well spoken little girl. I wish my five year old son had such a vocabulary.”

I just looked at him with a little frown on my face, and after several moments his smile faltered a bit at the edges, like a loaf of bread that was falling during baking. Seeming unsure of himself he refocused his attention back on my mother.

“So how have you been!?” he asked.

My mother set me down at this point much to my protest, smiling profusely at the man all the while. She was seemingly smitten with him, and completely ignoring me and Heather. Penny too…wait a minute, where is Penny? Looking around I didn’t see her anywhere.

Nudging Heather, I whispered, “Penny is gone!”

“What!?” Heather asked, bewildered by the news.

“She’s gone!” I replied, my lisp worse due to my excitement.

“Gone?” Heather asked, seeming more confused than bewildered, now. She just looked all around once more and asked, “Huh?”

I realized that the three year old effect was back in play for some reason…probably because this strange man came over and undid our usual more mature state of mind. I felt it coming on stronger in me as well, and realized we had to act fast if we wanted to find Penny without alerting our mother who was thoroughly in conversation with that man. The two of them had become absolutely oblivious to everything else around them. It reminded me of how deer got hit on freeways more often during mating season. Something about them being fixated on other deer and following and chasing each other without paying enough attention to their surroundings…and then getting run over by cars, trucks or other motor vehicles.

“Come on,” I whimpered, tugging on Heather’s hand. “We have to get away from him and find Penny, before we both stupefy to the point of being our true age for the duration of his visit with my mother.”

“Kay!” Heather said, smiling at me toothily.

I took her hand, and led her away, as my thoughts too became increasingly jumbled. We scampered along the tile floored aisle, our little flip flops making smacking sounds as we skipped and scampered along, holding hands.

“Where’s Penny?” I asked.

“There!” Heather answered loudly.

“Where?” I asked, rubbing my ear, wincing.

“There!” heather said again, pointing at a clothing aisle just across from the grocery section.

“Penny!” I shouted, as I skipped towards her, Heather in tow.

“No, go way!” Penny shouted, running away from us. “You’re bad! Both you’s!”

“Huh?” I asked, perplexed? Bad? Bad why? At this point I became distracted by one of those mounted television sets that department stores liked to mount on the walls, for what other reason. Sponge Bob Square Pants was on…I hate that cartoon! Or at least I used to as a grown up boy…but I couldn’t take my eyes away from it. Heather was watching too.

Suddenly heather looked around, on a commercial break and declared, “I’m lost!”

“No we’re not,” I answered with a confused little frown.

“Well I am!” she answered.

“But you’re with me,” I replied.

She looked at me and frowned, clearly three years old mentally, “Still lost.”

“No!” I answered yet again.

“Both us is lost,” came her reply.

This was confusing me more than anything, so grabbing her hand I led her off again, wondering what we we’re suppose to be doing.

“What are we doing?” Heather asked uncertainly, looking like she might start crying.

I thought as hard as I could, but could only answer, “Avoiding pedophiles?”

Her eyes started tearing up at that point, and I had five seconds to talk her out of crying. “We’re…look! A fat lady!”

“Where!?’ heather asked, suddenly excited, sounding for all the world like an excited three year old girl.

“There!” I said; pointing at a fat lady who was shopping for bra’s in a nearby clothing aisle. I scampered towards her, dodging in, out and between racks of clothing, Heather following me with ease.

At this point we both became more stealthy, and much quieter in our movements, in order to successfully sneak up on her. I crawled under a fully loaded clothing rack and peeked out at the fat lady from the other side. It was dark under the clothing rack, which apparently was loaded with moo-moo’s and very large shirts made for women.

I giggled, realizing the very obese woman would never see us since we were hiding in rack, almost completely obscured by the clothing all around us. I peaked at her from a gap between a floral print and a leopard print; getting ready to spring my attack.

I tapped Heather, and nodded at her, “Follow me.” Then I turned and shushed her, “Sshhhhh!”

With unnatural quickness I sprung out from the rack, and pointed at the woman, who nearly jumped out of her shoes at our sudden and surprising appearance.

“Arrggghhh! There she blows!” I yelled, mimicking the proper pirate sounds at the proper times perfectly, “It’s Moby Dick! The Great White Whale! YArrrgh!”

“Captain Ahab, we can’t let her get away!” Heather declared, her blue eyes flashing with mischief. Her stupor from before seeming to melt away.

“Get the harpoons!” to which Heather and I pretended to be picking up invisible objects and holding them like we were going to jab them at her.

“Now!” I declared, losing my fake pirate accent.

I jumped forward, Heather too, causing the woman to scream in genuine fright. I poked her roughly in her lower stomach with my finger and yelled, “Got her!”

“Time to reel her in!” Heather declared next to me, also roughly poking the woman.

“You brats!” she screamed, red in the face with rage.

“Yargghh!” I declared in my fake pirate accent once more.

I watched as Heather grabbed a plus sized bra from a neighboring rack, and I decided to do the same.

“Yes Captain, reel her in!” Heather declared, seeming a lot less like a three year old with every passing minute. Must be the excitement?

Heather then not surprisingly tossed one end of the bra and looped one strap over the woman’s arm, I quickly did the same to her other arm, while maintaining a firm hold on my end of the support device.

“Heave!” I declared.

“Ho!” Heather answered.

In unison we started pulling the woman, to which she screamed at the top of her voice, “Let go of me, you little beasts!”

“Now we’ve got her,” I said, ignoring her protests.

In a sudden moment of genius I ran around the woman, stretching the bra around her like some kind of obscene rubber band, hooking the two ends together behind her back so she had trouble reaching…due to her immense girth. Heather seeing my example, did the same, and right quickly we had her all bound up in the two double F sized bras. With her arms bound at her sides she struggled in vain, screaming “DAMN YOU TWO! Little beasts I say, UNHAND ME!”

Stepping back a bit I admired my work, declaring, “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum!”

“I smell the blood of an Englishman,” Heather reciprocated.

Grinning like a meek little shark I dramatically answered with, “Be he alive, or be he dead!”

“I’ll have his bones to grind my bread!” Heather answered.

Just then our bound giant bellowed, and in a moment of surprising strength the woman stepped forward and kicked me right in my middle, HARD. I hadn’t thought to restrain her legs or feet. The blow was so hard it knocked me backwards onto my back. I knocked my head on the floor in falling backwards, which made me really dizzy and made me literally see stars.

Struggling up to my little knees I huffed for breath, having the wind knocked clean out of me, doing everything to avoid crying. She moved forward, making to stomp me…she’d gone hysterically out of control! Her foot nearly avoided landing on my arm as I rolled out of the way! A near miss, by not more than an inch or two.

“Wooohhh!” I hollered as I ran for my life. Heather at my heels.

The fat woman gave chase, but was over the hill in age, and despite being an adult couldn’t keep up with our quick little legs. With tears running down my cheeks, I was crying hard by the time we ran around and ducked behind some shelving selling magazines.

Bawling loudly and in obvious pain I doubled over holding my stomach, “Owww!”

“Kayla!” Heather shouted in worry, squatting down next to me.

“Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea,” I wheezed, while huffing amidst my crying, the tears flowing freely now.

“We we’re being awful, yes, but to kick a toddler in the stomach? That wasn’t your fault Kayla,” Heather said, comforting me by wrapping her round little arms around me and holding me tight.

Despite bawling my eyes out, I managed to sputter as I wiped streams of tears from my cheeks, “Sure was fun though.”

Heather didn’t smile at my attempt at humor, “Oh Kayla, are you alright?”

“Noooo-,” I cried, with both my arms still folded over my stomach tightly.

“I can’t believe we did that,” Heather said, looking scared as she hugged me.

“It wasn’t completely our fault. Being three years old mentally is kinda like being drunk and high at the same time,” I answered, with a heavy lisp on certain sounds.

“Yeah, but how did we manage to say all that stuff? I mean, reciting lines from Moby Dick?”

I looked at her and pondered that for a moment, “I’m not sure. Intense emotion seems to override certain aspects of the behavioral magic. And we were both feeling intensely mischievous, and were looking for a distraction.”

“What were we doing before that?”

I looked at her, suddenly remembering, “Trying to find Penny!”

“Oh yeah!” heather said, smacking her forehead with her podgy little hand.

I struggled to my feet, still in a great deal of pain, “We’ve got to find her!”

Just then the fat woman slid around the corner…I watched as her fat face swiveled, and her beady eyes focused on us. She saw us! Heather realized this too. The fat woman did a slow run of sorts toward us, yelling all the while. Oddly enough, her immensely fat arms were sill restrained at her sides by the over-sized brassieres we’d tied her up in.

Heather looked at me with a momentary smirk, “Captain, it’s making to ram us!”

I looked all about theatrically, yelling, “ABANDON SHIP!”

With that we broke into a quick run again, the fat woman screaming wordlessly at us, loud enough for the whole store to hear. She gave chase and we we’re once again outrunning her with ease. This time though, I had managed to catch my breath despite my tummy still hurting.

I was getting very tired from all this excitement, but I couldn’t lay down to rest In the middle of the store, especially with the obese woman in hot pursuit. I was betting Heather was tired too!

Suddenly Heather grabbed my arm, and pointed off to the side, “Look!”

I looked, seeing who she was pointing at, and screamed, “PENNY!”

Heather pulled my arm and we both changed direction, heading off down a side aisle. The fat woman attempted to follow, but due to her immense girth and weight couldn’t make the turn, sliding into a nearby display. Looking back I saw children’s large playground-style bouncy balls flying in every direction. The wire cage holding them falling over with a thunderous crash.

“Wow, this is just like an episode of Benny Hill!” I shouted to Heather as we dashed towards Penny, and some strange man who had a hold of her arm. Watching while running, we saw her call for help, only to have his oversized mitt of a hand clamp down over her mouth. Only then did he notice us, which distracted him from the fat woman’s bouncy-ball wipeout, just down the hall.

“What are you doing with her!” I screeched.

Penny saw Heather and I, her eyes wild, “Help me! HELP!”

We had a brief moment of respite before the immensely obese woman was almost on top of us. She skidded to a half in front of us, Penny…and the suspicious man. In a moment of brilliance I thought up a plan of how to deal with both the man and the woman.

I looked at the man with a pleadingly distressed look and screamed, “DADDY! SAVE US!”

Then, grabbing Heather’s hand I dashed around behind the man who still roughly had a hold of Penny. The stunt worked, the Fat woman rounded on the man and bellowed, “SO! These little shits are YOURS?!”

The man looked shocked, “Wait! What?”

“Right little MONSTERS! You should be ashamed!” She yelled at the top of her voice.

While she was screaming at the man, we attempted to pry his hands off of Penny with no success. Penny looked at us, as she struggled against her captor, “Help you two! He said awful dirty icky things to me! He wants to do gross stuff!”

I spared a brief glance at him, hollering “PERVERT!’

Pulling Heather to the side, in a moment of inspiration I kicked the fat woman in the shins as hard as I could, causing her to topple forwards. The man, seeing his impending doom, let go of Penny in an attempt to ward off the toppling giant of a woman. She collapsed on top of him with a loud, “OOMPH”

I pulled both Penny and Heather safely away from the temporarily subdued adults. I heard fast falling footfalls and looked up to see none other than mommy running towards, with the man from earlier following behind her. She looked absolutely hysterical.

“Oh my god! Where have you three been?” she asked in a terrified jumble. “Do you know how worried I’ve been?”

I didn’t answer right that moment, instead I dashed into her open arms with a loud, “Mommy!”

Heather and Penny hurried over too, hand in hand, both look very scared. Suddenly Heather looked around and said, “That woman hurt Kayla! Kicked her! Kicked her!”

We we’re all back to three year old speech unfortunately. But we we’re safe, because my mommy could handle anything! Or anyone!

“What…did…you…say?” My mother asked in seemingly quiet voice, but with a dangerously dark undercurrent to the tone. Her eyes focused on the fat woman who made no attempt to get to her feet, the man beneath her making protesting noises while trying to push her of.

“Kicked her in the tummy! Look mommy look!” Heather said, pretending that my mommy was hers too.

Quickly and efficiently she bent down and pulled my shirt very gently with her hands. Looking down I could barely see my tummy, and the area above it already had a dark bruise forming the size of a grown man’s fist, or perhaps slightly larger.

Raising back up she asked in a deadly calm, eyes fixated at the fat woman who had by now gotten to her feet, “Did you do this?”

“Monsters!” she yelled.

My mother suddenly had an odd look on her face, and looking, I realized that the fat woman was still all tied up in the two bra’s we bound her up in. I took the moment to explain the situation to my mother in an appropriate context, “She’s really weird mommy!”

Heather chimed in with, “The bad man tried to take Penny! He wanted to do icky things to her!”

The man with my mother approached him now, and grabbed him as he tried to make a run for it, folding his hands behind his back and forcing him to the floor while saying, “Hold it asshole, you aren’t going anywhere until the cops arrive.”

At that my mother made some quick phone calls. And cornered the fat woman and told her very darkly to stay put…or ELSE!

Us three little ones hid behind her all the while, because she looked for all the similarities like a lioness protecting her cubs. We KNEW we were safe hiding behind her.

-End of Part III-