When I woke up the day after becoming an adult, I was greeted by my two awards. The medal and the trophy just stood in place, reminding me of all the actual awards that I had won in the past. Would I ever see them again? Would this life—if you could call it that—as a hideous monster really be my end? But the worst question of all was: how had I settled into such a life?
I found
myself wishing for any kind of change and wanting to buy a car that, in this
new life, I could never afford. Anything to separate from the mundane routine I
was living.
I did not have the money for any satisfying change though, and so I settled for aiding Aspen’s life. She could do everything a toddler needed to do except speak. Talking was a long process with her. Perhaps she knew that I wasn’t really listening whenever she did babble something.
When she finally mastered her last skill on my day off, I was desperate to do something different. Anything! I called her father. He still seemed to be under my spell, because he agreed to meet me at the festival.
I got to the park and stood around in the cold for hours. Elliot never showed, so I returned to my shed, crying about my miserable situation.
It wasn’t until I was changed back into my tacky nightgown—it seemed to be all that I wore when not at work—that I noticed Aspen was a little different. She’d aged into a child, and not an attractive one at that.
She watched me clean up the toilet spill before I retired to my bed. I wanted to complain that she could do more than just watch, but did not have the energy.
To my surprise, she started on the grimy sink all on her own.
Then she took out her last usage of her training toilet.
Perhaps Aspen was not all that bad after all.
Who knew that cleaning was the way to her moms heart :p poor little Aspen.
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