The Drug of Growth

 In the living room Becky’s father Tom took out a drug brought from a bioengineering company he worked in. It had no labels except for a plain one with “Age Progression Drug” printed on it. Otherwise, the bottle was no different from the average medication, which he was taking home regularly.
Becky noticed the bottle and asked Tom, “Age Pro-gre-shun Drug?” “It’s progression, my girl,” Tom replied. Becky was only 3 and too young to comprehend complex words like “progression”, and mistakes like that were understandable.
“What’s that? Is it candy?” Despite the apparent “Drug” label and its non-resemblance to any kind of sweets Becky had ever seen, it was close enough to children vitamin pill Tom often gave her as some kind of “candy”. Lies are bad, but for her to swallow the vitamin they were necessary. The pink color of the pills further reinforced that image Becky had in mind.

Tom picked up the bottle and sank into deep thought. “Each pill results in age progression of 1 year and rapid acceleration of mental age growth*. To reverse the effect try our Age Regression Drug. Effectiveness not guaranteed and side-effects vary from none to disability and death. Consider carefully before use.” Tom read the small text on the side of the bottle, and in his mind his wife’s want and his reason combated.

His wife Joan mothered Becky at the ripe age of 44, and through in vitro fertilization after one and a half decades of attempt. Child-bearing at this old age meant the loss of 15 years of precious growth in Becky, and when the idea hit her she was uncomfortable. She thought, “could we warp the fabrics of time for us to have the appropriate age?”
It was either reinvigorating Joan or skipping Becky’s childhood, but neither time warping or changing someone’s age were a thing of fiction- until Tom’s company initiated a new research in human growth and regression. Now that the research was in its human testing phase, he informed Joan of the groundbreaking discovery, in which Joan saw the only hope.
There was a small surplus of one of the drug since one of the subjects died of uncontrollable ageing and his portion was spared. Being in the right position as the head of testing process, Tom secretly embezzled the portion and placed it in a prototype bottle given to him by a friend in the marketing team.

Though aware of the project, Tom was not truly clear of the drug’s potency as it was kept secret to the testers, so he had to refer to the bottle for any effect. And he counted, 1, 2, 3, a total of 14 pills, enough to age Becky from 3 to 17. That would close the gap just right if Joan ever used that, he reminded himself.
The idea would be his wife’s pleasure, but to himself, it was his worst decision: first he went against his conscience to loot from his company which had deep trust in him, and then he was about to erase his dear girl’s childhood…
Joan came in and took the bottle away. I could had stopped it at the last moment, Tom regretted.

Becky stood in the bathroom naked, only facing a ready Joan. “Come on, you will have those candies. Now count them and eat them one by one.” Without knowledge Becky obliged. By the time she finished all that was in the bottle, the one standing in front of Joan was no longer an infant, but a girl at her high school age. Long hair of a nightly blue color had grown, tied by her mother into an outdated hairstyle.
Joan went out to pick the teenage clothes she had prepared beforehand, but she couldn’t find her husband. He had left.

Tom left in the grief of his baby girl’s loss to age- something he made real firsthand by bringing the drug to a willing Joan. With beer he was revelling in the temporary relief of drunkenness and in forgetting that his girl was no longer there. He decided to stay away from home for some time, or even leaving Joan with a divorce, to start a new life. But for tonight he needed a bed and breakfast.

The first thing to do for the now grown up Becky was to enrol in the local high school, of course, even though her mind was far less than ready. School were almost incomprehensible at first, but by the end of the day she got the idea of most of the subjects. On top of that, new friends were made, something she was eager to do as a newcomer to both the environment and age, though everyone treated her as mentally stunned as it was wont.
At the end of the day, with the new sketch book and crayon, Becky drew the scene of her first day in school, something she was glad of meeting so much new friends and having so much fun!



Tom sneaked into the backyard of his house not to be discovered, and he witnessed now adolescent Becky drawing as if she was still stuck at 3. Tom remembered the small note after the asterisk:

*Mental growth rates vary across users and aspects of mentality. Additional information including (but not limited to) personality, memories and knowledge.

All art used here are under fair use.