Someplace Else

" Which is the way to Baby-land? "

" Anyone can tell;

Up one flight,

To your right;

Please ring the bell. "

“Don’t be afraid....”

I opened my eyes and saw three children looking down at me, and a bright bright light...

“Nice and easy sit forward”

Two pairs of hands reached around me to raise me up to a sitting position.

“Brain scans look alright... Can you speak?”

“Won’t know unless I try, eh?” I muttered. I scratched my head. Kids say the darndest things. Brain scans? “How did you get into my apartment? Did you hear me fall?” The doctor had warned me- this new medication would affect my blood pressure. I remembered getting out of bed fast, seeing stars, and then blackness creeping in around the edges of my vision until the room and I had been swallowed whole in the dark.

“Maybe we should scan him again.... just incase something changed!” Said a nervous voice.

“Sure thing Syd.” Said one of the two who had helped me up- a child of about 9 or 10 with green hair and a strong presence. It was impossible to tell if any of the kids was a boy or girl. They were all wearing dress up clothes, outfits that made no sense. The colors clashed, and I noticed crooked hems and missing stitches on the green haired one’s shirt.

“Alright kids, playtime over”

“Who are you calling KID?” The green haired child said, with balled up fists.

“Easy, Greene... I don’t think they know what they’re saying...” Said Syd.

The voice came with a tall lanky body, I would have guessed age 14, long silver hair, and wore scrubs. The child might have been a girl, and might not have. I gave up trying to guess and it didn’t really matter either. They were holding what looked like a combination between a helmet and a visor made out of something like white plastic and little bits of silver metal. I moved to stand and saw that I was in a hospital bed in a small clean room with a large screen on the wall beside me.

“Easy...” Said Greene.

“Where am I? Who are you kids and where are your parents?”

Syd and Greene looked at eachother. Syd set down the weird hat thing and motioned for the other two children to go. Greene took a step back and crossed their arms over their chest. I could tell they were strong. Syd pulled up a chair and sat facing me.

“What is the last thing you remember?” They asked.

“I passed out getting up from bed too quickly this morning to get ready for work.” I said.

“Where do you work?” Asked Greene.

“I work for an advertising firm in New York.”

“New York City?!” The two children said at the same time. They looked at each other again with a bit of terror, and absolute awe.

“Is there a Doctor or a Nurse?” I asked.

Syd shook their head “Both of us are both” they said “We take turns trading off...”

“No, no more games. I want an adult.”

Greene looked at me with a serious face and after a moment said “There are no Adults here.... You’re in Baby-land...”

I stood up and pushed them out of the way, or more like I pushed myself between and past them- they were very solid children and I found that I was very weak. I slipped through the crack in the open door and started to run, down open corridors, past open doors and large rooms and all of them filled with children, all of them staring at me. I turned a sharp corner and fell, and as I took hold of a nearby chair to get myself up I saw a child looking horrified with a thin stream of blood coming down from their hairline and falling down their forehead and then I felt something wet on my eyebrow and I reached up to touch it and the child did too and when I brought my hand down there was blood on my fingers and when I looked back up the child did too and I saw that it was my reflection. The child was me. I was a child.