"Enough is enough," screamed Gerhard. It was bad enough that his father-in-law Borden, after being warned not to, fooled with Gerhard's basement invention, the Electronic Youth Restorer, and succeeded in wrecking the device beyond repair while turning himself into a 2-year-old boy in the process. But then his wife Tina insisted on taking the regressed Borden into their household. "We must take care of Daddy," she said, but protected him from any parental authority or discipline, citing a more pressing need for empathy for his condition.
Borden, of course, refused to bow to his new near-baby status, despite an obvious loss of most of his adult abilities. He insisted that he still had status over Gerhard and Tina, and that they should follow his orders instead. This created a tug-of-war, in which Gerhard would try to do right by Borden as a child, but with Tina protecting him as her father. Borden rejected all of Gerhard's edicts involving bedtimes, food choices, and overall household rules. No longer a six-footer, Borden found he could express his displeasure by throwing tantrums that involved destruction of food and other in-home items, knowing Tina would always take his side as if being a healthy toddler was like being an invalid.
But it all boiled over when Gerhard and Tina threw a barbecue in their backyard. As always, Borden acted up. Using his youthful status, Borden freely insulted and played mean tricks on guests he didn't like. He overturned a bowl of spinach salad (Borden hated having to eat his greens). And he smashed his sippy cup of milk, then grabbed a bottle of beer. "Go to your room," a disgusted Gerhard said. But Borden instead began to run around he yard, screaming and taking off items of clothing.
"Stop him before he's naked," an exasperated Tina screamed. Gerhard gave chase, running after Borden around trees, through the flowerbeds, under lawn tables. Gerhard almost caught his regressed father-in-law behind the garden shed, had he not tripped over a recently doffed boy-size sneaker. Finally on the stairs to the deck, Gerhard grabbed Borden, just as he began to tug on the elastic band of his underpants. And then it happened.
"Enough is enough!" Gerhard screamed as he threw Borden across his knees on the stairs, and proceeded to administer the first spanking of Borden's second childhood. It went on for almost two minutes, full of sound, fury, and a few wails of tears. And then Gerhard stopped. What had he done? He looked with fear at Tina, but only saw her sigh with relief and demurely nod in approval. Gerhard scanned the guests who sat with frozen faces, until one guest began to applaud, then another, and then most of the crowd.
From that moment on, Gerhard again had control of his
household.
He has never resorted to spanking Borden since that day. He doesn't
have to, as Borden has become accepting of his reduced status
and has become well behaved. Perhaps too well behaved. "That's
one insipid little boy," other people cringe. And his relationship
to wife Tina has never been better. "Don't you think we should
have another child; perhaps a girl," Tina says while tousling
Gerhard's hair. So Gerhard's hard at work restoring his machine.
His miserably selfish Aunt Maggie will make a great baby daughter,
he chuckles.