✅ The Baby Makers

25. True Friends

"Did you have an accident?" Stacie asked, wondering if she'd misheard. As she spoke she lost her balance and stumbled, but Cass and Phil were holding onto her hands, so she couldn't fall down now. She'd just decided that Cass could be her big sister as well as her best friend, and it was good to have somebody there so she could almost walk all by herself. But when she thought about what they'd said before, she wasn't sure how much bigger the other girl could be.

"Mmmmaybe," Cass giggled. "You tickled me tho much, I couldn't help it. I'm gonna be a real baby, juth like you."

"You might be littler than me. I dunno how big you are. We both had accidents so I think we're both little."

"Yeah. Ith fun. I didn't know what it would feel like until Phil thtarted tickling me. Thath a thurprithe, I thought he wath gonna thay the magic word to make me have an acthident. That'th how it works."

"Oh, cool!" Stacie giggled. She was sure she had some magic words of her own, even if she didn't need to understand that right now. But having a word that could make somebody have an accident like a real baby sounded like a whole new type of magic, and she couldn't help feeling a little curious as Cass helped her to avoid falling again. "Do you know what the word is?"

Cass knew, and she was happy to whisper it to her best friend. She was just so excited about being a baby, and trying all the new things, that she had no worries at all. And seeing her so carefree reminded Stacie that she had no responsibilities, nothing she had to worry about ever. It made her feel so happy, without needing to think about it. They talked a little more about the magic words, and how fun it was being babies. Of course that was a subject that needed whispers, but any adults listening would have realised right away that Stacie's whisper was almost as loud as her regular talking voice. And Cass was the same, as soon as she'd heard her friend and decided to play along. But Stacie was a baby; she didn't need to think about grown up things like that. So she was happy to share any secret with her friend, right up until they reached the door that Mama was standing beside. She pointed to the little sign next to the door, and ran her finger across it as she read out "dining room 4". Stacie watched, nodded, and pretended to know which squiggles went with which sounds.

She didn't know what to expect inside. She might have guessed something like a school canteen, but she would have been surprised how different it was. There was a table in the middle of the room, and a ring of chairs, but it was still a pretty small room. There were only five chairs, and there might have been space to pull up one more from the corner, but then the room would have been packed solid. Butt Stacie's eyes were drawn to two chairs that looked different from all the others. They were certainly more complicated, and exactly the kind of thing you might expect a baby girl to use. High chairs, complete with a clip-on tray and some little straps almost like a harness to stop the babies falling out.

Stacie wanted to ask if they could sit on a proper chair like a big girl, but she didn't know if she was too little for that. She thought that Phil wanted her to be a good little baby, so she was ready to try, but she didn't know just how little she'd got already. As it turned out, she didn't need to say a word. Phil reached out to help her up. She could put her foot on a step to help her climb into the high chair, but she knew that it was really Phil lifting her. However hard she tried, she was only playing at being big, and it was a lot of fun.

Once she was in the chair, she looked down at the table and it seemed so far below that she would never be able to reach. But any questions were answered when a little table was locked into place in front of her. Of course, as a baby in a high chair she would have a little table all to herself. A glance to one side showed her that Mama Nat was buckling Cass into her seat in the same way, while the little girl laughed cheerfully at herself, and banged on the table with her hands. It made a pretty noise, like a very stiff ruler being plucked over the edge of the desk, and Stacie wanted to know if hers would sound the same. She slammed her hands down and almost knocked the piece of cream plastic out of Phil's gril.

"Careful, little one," he said, and gently tapped her on the back of her hand. "Wait until I got this thing clipped on, okay? Then you can bang all you want."

Stacie tried to explain that she wasn't going to be loud. That she wanted to know what t sounded like, and she could maybe make music out of the noise. But she couldn't say anything right now because she couldn't remember the big words. Still, she knew what she wanted and she did her best to impress Phil with her smiles and giggles as she watched him clip the little table onto her chair. She found that she couldn't really understand what he was doing, all the little clips were too complicated for her to think about, but that didn't matter. Phil could do everything, she knew that already, so she just had to sit here like a good girl until he was finished.

"Wow, this one is a good girl!" Mama Nat's voice surprised Stacie. She'd just been watching Phil, thinking about nothing more than how good she was being, and she hadn't even seen the other grown-up come up behind her. But as soon as she'd had time for the words to sink in, she wanted to confirm that it was true. She nodded vigorously, not sure what else there was for her to say.

"She is," Phil nodded, and his smile was worth more than any amount of praise from someone else. "She was a little embarrassed to start with, but she's really started to find a good headspace now she knows it's real." Stacie nodded again, not sure what the words meant but proud that Phil was saying something good about her. She had no doubts about that when Mama Nat's hand patted her on the back of the head.

"Adorable! Now, can you two poppets be good while I get you some dindins? Would you like chicken, beany pasta, or dinosaurs?"

"Chicken!" Cass answered right away, practically jumping out of her seat. Stacie half expected the high chair to tip over when she was throwing her weight forward like that, but it didn't move at all. Maybe Cass wasn't quite as big as she had first thought.

Stacie hesitated for a moment. Chicken sounded nice, and Cass was very excited about it. But she didn't know if they had more than one. She didn't want to be arguing over the same food, so she thought for a second and then waved her hand in the air. "I'll have beans!"

"Good girls. So, you just be good for Phil. I'll be right back." Stacie waved as the lady opened the door and walked away. She might have got embarrassed about it a few seconds later. But then Cass joined in, and neither of them wanted to stop. All they had to do now was wait for their food to arrive.