Inner Child

Jessica Smith hung up the phone.  The time was 5:32 in Dr. Wakeman’s Neurology Clinic.

Looking around, Jessica sighed.  “Tell the doctor that I’m not going to wait around any longer,” she told the assistant.  “I’m clocking out.”

Jessica quickly filled out her time card and placed it on the desk.  She then grabbed her coat, her purse and carrying case and left the office.

After leaving the office, Jessica took the elevator from the 27th floor to the 1st.  She then called down a taxi and told them to take her to the Riverside Apartments.  She wasn’t in the mood to eat out tonight.

After arriving at the apartments, Jessica took the elevators to the fifth floor.  She kept moving until she stopped at 506.

Once in the apartment, she started up the oven and opened up the freezer, pulling out a frozen dinner. After the oven got to temp, she placed it in and waited.

While she was waiting, she continued filling out the form.

“Another crazy experiment,” she sighed.

Suddenly, her cell phone rang.

“Oh, hi Paige.” She said.  “What am I doing?  I just got off of work and I’m making a TV dinner.  Work ran longer than usual and I had to deal with an angry customer.”

A brief pause.

“No!” Jessica shouted.  “Of course not!  I have not forgotten.  I’m still going out with Brad.  I just haven’t had the time lately.”

Jessica checked the oven.  Her TV dinner only had 15 minutes.  “Yes Paige, I remember.  Next week, right?  I’ll bring Brad and you’ll bring Steve.”

There was another pause, and Jessica sighed.  “Tomorrow’s Friday.  I know.  I have it off because I agreed to participate in this experiment.  What experiment?  They said that they can they bring people back to their childhood.  What?  Hypnosis?  I don’t know.  I just found it in the newspaper.  I get $300 for participating, okay? Yeah.  I already told you.  I have tomorrow off because I’m doing this.  Paige, I already told you.  I don’t know much about the experiment.  It’s something about my ‘inner child’ or something like that.”

More silence.

Jessica sighed.  “Are you still there?  Okay.  My dinner’s almost done and I still have to finish the forms for this whole experiment thing.  Yes.  If I don’t turn this in, I can’t participate and I can get my $300.  Yes, I’ll be there next week.  Yes, with Brad too.  And you’re bringing Steve?  Okay.  Sounds good.  I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

Jessica hung up and finished filling out the form.  She had her dinner, watched a little TV and went to bed.

The next morning, Jessica got up early.  She got ready and took her carrying case with her.  She took a taxi to a laboratory that was outside the city in the suburbs.

She entered the laboratory and took the paperwork out of her carrying case.  She showed the receptionist the paperwork.  The receptionist let Jessica through.

Jessica was then led into a small room with five other people, with a lab assistant nearby.

“I see you five are here for an experiment.”  The assistant said.  “Allow me to introduce myself.  I am Neil, and each of you are going to take part in a different experiment.  Our lab technicians will guide each of you to a different room. Until then, relax.  You will get your money at the end of the experiment.”

Moments later, the technicians took each one of the five people into a different room.

As they were leaving, Jessica approached Neil and looked at him.  “What about me?  Am I going to be in an experiment?”

Neil sighed.  “I’m sorry.  The request that we sent out was only for five people.  I guess we should’ve called you.”

“Called me?” Jessica whined.  “I called about the inquiry.  This lab called back and told me that I was selected.  You even sent me some paperwork to fill out.”

Neil shrugged his shoulders.  “It was a mistake.  We didn’t realize it until after we sent it out.  We’re really really sorry.”

Jessica threw the paperwork on the ground.  “You know what?  Forget it.  I will find another way to earn $300, or even more than that.”

Just as Jessica was about to leave, a doctor came in.

The doctor studied her and frowned.  “What is she doing here?  She’s not one of our colleagues.”

Neil looked at him with a sheepish smile.  “She’s one of our extra participants that we don’t need.  We only needed five, right?”

The doctor nodded.  “You could say that, but there’s one other thing that I just discovered in the research.  We actually need one more person.”  The doctor approached Jessica.  “What is your name, miss?”

“Jessica,” Jessica told him.

“Jessica?”  the doctor smiled.  “I am Dr. Mayberry.  Come with me. There’s one other thing that we need to test.

Jessica followed Dr. Mayberry into a small round room.   When asked, Jessica gave him the paperwork.  She was then strapped to a machine.  It was a bed that they laid her on and strapped her in, with a belt over her stomach and a helmet attached to her.

“We are going to find your inner child,” the doctor told her.  “After that, you will be able to remember everything about your childhood.  We will then let you go.”

Dr. Mayberry signaled his assistant to turn the machine on.

Jessica felt a strong tingle of electricity flowing through her.  After that, she was knocked out.

When she came to, she heard a little voice.

“Mommy?”  It sounded like a little girl.

Jessica opened her eyes and gasped.  She couldn’t believe her eyes what was standing before her….

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©2012  K. L. Walker