Chapter Eight:

The trip to the studio had been a lot less eventful than the trip to the hotel, although I bailed out once we were there to go home. I had to change clothes because my staying in the hotel was a last minute decision. By the time I arrived on-set mid-morning, Baby Luvs was playing on... a jungle gym? Inside? The lighting behind her was stark and on a green sheet. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“You know, Abe, it would be cheaper to just take her to an actual real life park, you know that, right?”

”Jenny let me tell you a thing or two about business, maybe even three things because I like you and this is a gift so you should write this down, that’s what you should do.”

I rolled my eyes so hard I could have gotten motion sickness.

“You look at Baby Luvs in front of a screen and you see an expense, Jenny. That’s what you see, you see an expense. I see sponsorship, I see investors’ money. That playscape, Jenny?” I was gonna strangle him if he forgot my name one more fucking time... “Sponsored. Free. The post production of this scene? Sponsored, that’s what, sponsored. Adult Baby Play Equipment, by AyyBee Ltd.”

Sigh. I guess that explained the crib, too...

Abe constantly impressed me. First the crib, and now this indoor playground. I had to admit, the green-screen was overkill, but a welcome alternative to going out in nothing but a diaper and a t-shirt. Today, though, I was wearing a short frilly dress with my hair up in pigtails. I climbed up the bars onto the top platform and slid down the ladder with a bright smile.

"Mommy!! Mommy, wan' swing! Push me!" I ran over to the swing, toddling with the thickness of my diaper. I didn't even try - it all came so naturally.

“She’s a natural isn’t she? She’s a natural,” Abe chewed on his cigar with a proud smile like he was talking about his actual child. “She’s gonna make me rich.”

I’d had enough of listening to the portly man masturbating verbally and approached to do my job, click click click. This was an act, right? Leona was just playing for the camera, that’s all she ever did. I knew that even from my limited time in knowing her. Click. Up skirt. Diaper. Wet? Damn. What a pro. And so damn cute.

"Mommy, I'm hungry."

"Mommy, I'm wet."

"Mommy, I'm sleepy."

Betsy tended to every little whim. Sometimes she would reflect some annoyance, but she never let it show on camera. She was, after all, a professional! And I got everything I wanted. Bottles and sandwiches. Changes for the camera. Even a long nap in the middle of the day on top of my stuffed animals. This wasn't so bad... and even wetting myself wasn't as terrible as I thought. As long as it was warm and Mommy - err, I mean... Betsy changed me quickly.

"Hey, you awake?" The cameramen were drinking coffee in one corner of the room and I'd had to kneel down and shake the sleeping baby girl from a half-slumber to get her to notice me. "Abe said they're on break to setup the next scene and if I want to take you to the park behind the backlot and get some nature pictures, I can. Come on."

"Mm... dun wanna go outside..."

"Nobody's out there, I scoped it out."

I tried swatting her away with my sleepy hand, but Jackie picked me up under the arms and set me on my feet with all the finesse of a mother. I looked up at her in my tired delirium, bewildered and blushing.

"D-dun do that... I get up myself..."

"Of course you can, come on." Gosh, method acting or what? I looked away so she didn't see me biting my lip and then put my hand in hers. You know. Like a parent and child. #nohomo. Whatever. Ugh! "Abe wanted nothing nothing more than to keep you under studio lights. A girl your age needs sun, no whining," Leona would never have let me be stern like that.

I pouted and followed sleepily behind Jackie, my hand in hers, as she led me into the back lot. The sun was out, high in the sky. It couldn't have been later than mid-afternoon. I tugged down the hemline of my dress, though it did nothing to cover the puffy pink diaper, and peeked around the corner. Well, I was wide awake now...

"I dun wanna."

"Smile." By the time I got my camera up and clicked the shutter, she'd slipped immediately like memory foam into a rehearsed smile, and then followed immediately with a pout.

"You look cute and nobody's going to see you, we're in an industrial area." The only reason there even was a park here, with a wooden fort from the late 70's, was because there used to be a child correctional facility on the same lot. "And you want a break from Betsy, right?"

"Mm. Yeah, I suppose that's true," I said in a voice that was somewhere between Leona and Baby Luvs. I sat my padded butt down on the old wooden playscape and kicked my feet. There really wasn't anybody out here, was there? And the fresh air was really nice...

"Otay. Wanna play wif me?" I reached out and bopped her camera. "Tag. You're it!"

Still not Leona, huh? Like, alright, okay, I got the acting, I did. And maybe it was easier to stay in character this way, but I did have a job to do! "Okay but when I catch you, you gotta pose for five pictures for the camera every time, okay?" I didn't expect her mischievous grin.

"You won't catch me anyway," I chided and stuck out my tongue. I ran up the playscape, waddling all the way to the top, and slid down the slide on my soft behind. The dress flew up over my face and flashed the pink plastic diaper to the rest of the empty lot, but I wasn't worried anymore about someone seeing. I was more determined to win!

Having an expensive film camera around your neck was no way to chase after a child the size of an adult woman, so I set it down on the weathered bench and chased after her. And she was pretty quick, too! I thought for sure I was going to have to let her win, to run slow, but it took me a long time to catch up to her - and only because I cheated and ran up and over the wooden fort and barely managed to tap her on the shoulder. "Gotcha." Pant. Wheeze. Jeez. "Ready for your," gasp, "pictures?"

She was bent over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath and I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Wow, you're out of shape, huh? But fair is fair. Five pictures! How do you want me to sit? Lifting up my dress like this? Or bending over?"

"Sh-shut up, okay! I don't.. I'm not out of shape, I'm just..." She was enjoying this way too much! I snapped my camera up off the bench and took a deep breath, trying to steady my hands from shaking. Click: her dress lifted, her body tilted, her smile giddy and free like an oblivious child. Click: Baby Luvs from behind, bent over to investigate something. Click: The grown up baby girl climbing the fort, legs bowed, diaper perfectly in frame. Click: Legs spread at the top of the slide. Click. Motion shot, high shutter speed, giggling with her arms up, halfway down the old steel slippery dip itself.

"You're so cute, what the heck even.."

"Come on, I'm it. I'll count to ten."

I could have counted to a million, it didn't matter. A minute later, I tapped Jackie on the top of the head before she could throw herself down the slide.

"Like I said. Out of shape. Absolutely. Now gimme the camera - it's my turn!" She stared quizzically. "You got five pictures when you tagged me! It's only fair I get five of you."

Uh. It was my turn to be frozen, and I looked at her, like she'd spoken some other language, then down at my camera, and then back up at her. I didn't let anybody touch my precious camera - ever. But she looked so expectant, holding her hands out in front of her, elbows together palms spread open.

"You want... pictures of me?" Yeah it took me that long to make that connection, and my cheeks were burning by the time I'd gotten to the end of the question. Well fuck. I couldn't say no now. Lifting the strap off my neck, for the very first time... I handed someone else my camera. Was this who I was? A lovesick puppy? Now I was the one glad we were the only people around.

"Just this button here?"

"Well, there's a lot to it, but--"

"I can just turn this Auto setting on right?" I saw her cringe and my face lit up with a smile. "You gotta relax. Come on, show me relaxed!" I put the camera up to my eye and pointed it toward her.

Relaxed. Sure. Right. Yup. The woman I inexplicably had a crush on dressed like a baby and wanted to take pictures of me, using my camera that I never let anybody else so much as touch, and relaxed was totally something I could do. Breathe in. Think about... last night. In bed. The way she cuddled up to me? How sweet she looked? I felt something akin to butterflies in my stomach, exploding like the flash of my camera, and then the familiar click as she captured what had to be the dumbest little dreamy smile ever. Great. Dumbass smitten kitten face. Thats just the way I wanted to look…

"That was cute! Okay, now bend over."

"What?!"

"Hey you get to take pictures of my butt all the time, you're lucky I don't make you pull your pants down!" I huffed, but more like a child and less like an adult. The sort of child you can't win an argument against.

I turned so red so quickly that I couldn't even look at her - honestly, I think bending over was probably the preferential alternative to her seeing how flustered that dumb little notion had gotten me. I swallowed my pride and leaned over for her. No matter how she dressed, she was an adult. Some part of her obviously liked me, right? She wouldn't want this if she didn't. Maybe she was just using her little kid self to mask her feelings, the way I hid mine in photography? Yeah. That was probably it. Click.

It was a waste of a photo - just a shot of Jackie's jeans. Oh well. I took two pictures of her acting silly - gosh she was so uptight, I swear - and then passed the camera back to her.

”Okay, for the last one, point it at us." I ducked under her arm and reached up behind her to give bunny ears.

I hated the idea of just blindly taking a picture like this, but I knew my camera like the back of my hand and knew exactly how to get a good framing without even looking. She was cuddled up close to my side - I didn't see her hand above my head - and I felt warm. Happy. This moment could have lasted forever, but we were due back inside any minute. Smile, Jackie. Click.