Feeling old before her time, Monique was trying to get in touch with her inner child. So when she saw a trickle of water emerging from a crack in the curve of a downspout on a house, the 32-year-old did what any child would do. She positioned herself underneath it.

As she felt the water splash off her forehead, Monique was elated. "I feel my inner child finally emerging," she smiled. She swayed her head back and forth into the drips and dribbles exuding from the pipe. Aroused by the youthful feelings building within her as she danced beneath the trickle, Monique attempted high kicks. She giggled as her shoes unaccountably flew off her feet. When a chance landing of one foot before the other resulted in a sock being pulled off, she delighted in wiggling her toes in the mud below. Twirling around, Monique shrieked with glee as her shirtsleeves seemed to flap in the air beyond her hands. Acting like a child certainly enhances one's imagination, she grinned.

Then what had been a thin stream of water became erratic, before declining to irregular drips. And then the flow stopped completely. "Awwww!" Monique grumped. "Time to put my inner child back in storage." But as she stared downward, she was amazed to see she now completely naked, her clothing scattered around her feet. Even more startling, her body was that of a very young girl. Monique snatched up her clothing and ran home.

"Don't you recognize your sister?" Monique said to Melissa, who stared in befuddlement at the tiny girl at the apartment door. "What happened to you?" Melissa asked. "I released my inner child," Monique grinned. "And left the rest of you behind," Melissa choked.

Monique couldn't explain how she got younger. That she soon began exhibiting the physical and mental abilities of a 3-year-old didn't help matters. So Melissa resigned herself to raising Monique as her daughter.

Four weeks later, while on a walk, Melissa and Monique came upon a house vaguely familiar to Monique, which was swarming with decontamination professionals in protective suits. The owner explained that he had rented the attic to an eccentric inventor who disappeared about a month before. He left behind his makeshift lab table, a chair, and a pile of clothes beneath them. He also left behind what the owner described as unknown toxic chemicals, a vat of which was spilled, contaminating the area around the table, and after leaking through some floor cracks, part of the roof leading to a gutter and the very downspout visible from the street. All would have to be hauled away and replaced.

The owner then spotted Monique standing under the curve in the affected downspout, her face in the air smiling and waiting for something to drip. "Get that girl away from there before something happens to her," he excitedly ordered Melissa.

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