A few nights later, I was actually pretty curious about a few things, so I decided to ask mom about them. They mostly concerned how she came across this amazing youth mixture.

“Mom, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” I said, “Where in the world did you find this mixture? I mean, it’s like magic. I would have never thought in a million years that it would be possible to knock off a few years temporarily and become a baby again.”

“I was wondering when you were gonna ask me about it, John,” she replied. “Well, if you remember, your uncle has been an archaeologist for quite a while now. He was studying some old ruins somewhere in Asia, I forgot where exactly. Anyway, as he was talking with some of the local people about their culture, a legend about a ‘fountain of youth’ came up. I know you’ve probably heard a little bit about this legend before. Well, your uncle, probably because he was a little crazy, took this legend very seriously. Although his focus was studying a variety of old temple ruins, he took some time out to research these legends and find out as much as he could about them.

“He studied hard about the subject, and with his brilliant mind, he pieced together many of the connections he found in his research. While doing some of his archaeological work one day, he ran across some similar symbols and markings that he had seen in his studies. Using the clues he had come across, he discovered a secret passageway that led to a magical fountain of water.

“Being very careful, he found some mice in the temple and caught them. He gathered some of the water from the fountain and managed to somehow get it inside of the mice. As he saw the mice become smaller and younger, he realized that he had indeed found this silly fountain of youth legend to be a reality.

“He didn’t have long left in that area, however, so he filled a few bottles of it and had to return to the U.S. He somehow managed to seal the passageway for good so no one else would ever find out about it.”

“Why didn’t he tell anyone about it?” I asked. “I mean, he could be the richest and most famous person in the world with a discovery like that!”

“Well, think about it. Your uncle thought through all of his possible options, but he kept it a secret for the sake of humanity. You know the kinds of people in this world, John. They would find a way to replicate the formula and use it in wars and who knows what else. I mean, imagine turning enemy troops into helpless little babies and them bombing them! No, your uncle decided this was something he didn’t want to fall into the hands of the wrong people.

“However, he couldn’t keep it a complete secret. He couldn’t help but show it to your father. Your dad was completely excited about it, and being the brilliant chemist that he was, he analyzed some of the water and figured out a recipe to make a mixture that would do the same thing. Of course, this mixture only lasts for a few hours, but my mixing in different amounts of different ingredients, you can vary how many years younger you become. Later we’re going to turn you into a toddler rather than an infant to give Carol more experience with different age groups.”

“So how did you find out about it?” I asked.

“Well, your uncle didn’t really want a part of it anymore. He was excited about the discovery, but he had other things that he had to do. However, your dad had to tell me about it since he was so excited. Before he died, he wanted to make sure that I kept it a secret and only told you or in some cases a few other people. That’s why I haven’t mentioned it until now. I had actually just about forgotten about it until I heard about Carol’s need to be taught how to baby-sit.”

It was kinda weird to think about my dad again. Thankfully we still had enough money. He had left us just enough so mom could get by as long as she worked, and I had extra money to spend as long as I earned it. I missed my dad, though, and even though he was always the one encouraging me to be strong and manly (even as a little kid!), I saw him in a lot of my old pictures hugging me and loving me when I was a baby. He had died right around when I was ten. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a baby again; maybe it sparked up memories of my dad.

Anyway though, with my questions answered, we went to bed and didn’t talk about it again for a while.