I was looking forward to seeing Andrew again at lunch, but kindof dreading talking to Evan and his friends. I served a tray ofunidentifiable gloop an... went to our usual table, where Evan and a coupleof his friends were already sitting, but Andrew wasn't there yet.Evan's buddy Wyatt was talking as I sat down: "...thing wouldn't work,man. We did everything you said, but when we went inside, the doorsdidn't close and -- Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Wyatt." He waved to meand Evan nodded,. "Only an hour. You cut it close that time, though." I nodded, and looked into the back of the car. The infant and mother were there, still passed out. They'd probably both be groggy for at least a day. "Yeah, one more push and I would've transferred into the baby. I'd be trapped there until I got old enough to fuck." I'd had that happen in the past, and it was never pleasant. The last thing I wanted to go through was another childhood. I took a moment to look Argyle's new form. Simply put, the soldierswere slowly losing any awareness of ever having been adults.The effect continued for a few moments more. Then, as if by magic, theyellow barrier disappeared. What met the eye were 40,000 babies, allhealthy and all no more than six months old, laying on the field. A fewbegan to cry; others managed to lift themselves enough to start crawling.Near the front of the mass of naked infants, a single child sat fighting tofree herself from the uniform of an adult, a uniform it no. My mom took Dan to the airport late Sunday afternoon, and when she got back home, she put the baby in its playpen and lightly knocked on my door. “Come on,” I said. She came in. I was lying on the bed, playing a video game. I put down the controller as she sat down next to me on the edge of my bed. She looked so good. She had regained some of her tan while in Florida. “Hi, there,” she said to me. “You haven’t said much since I got back from vacation. You doing okay?” My mom was still concerned.