Birthday Stone

A wish can be powerful, so it is said anyway.  But many wishes never come true.  Yet what if a wish that was so desired was made upon a stone?

Another birthday, another year older.  Her friends would tell her to be excited about that, to enjoy her birthday.  But while she had been excited for her birthday when she was much younger, she now felt that they were just another day.
Just another day where her strongest wish never came true.

"Happy birthday!"  Lindsay's mum calls out, the rest of her family joining in.  Her friends had already called her earlier to say the same thing.  When she had been younger the idea of becoming 22 had seemed like a far away concept and she had been in too much of a hurry to grow up and be a grown up.
Only she found that as she became an adult she found herself wishing that she hadn't been in such a haste to grow up, after all that hype and excitement and dreams of what it would be like, she found the reality to be less than she had been expecting.
Now she tended to wish that she hadn't been so quick to grow up and had taken the time to enjoy her childhood.
She smiles and says thank you, just to be polite, while inside she really wanted to say that she wasn't enjoying getting any older.  She bit back the truth however, as she has been doing for the past few years.

The presents were handed to her and she opened them with fake excitement, knowing that none of the gifts were what she really wanted, something that would make her a child again, even a baby or a toddler, anything but a reminder that she was an adult.
She wanted toys to play with, not perfumes, jewellery and other reminders of the adult she was.  And not one gift was a toy.  She bit back her disappointment and said thank you for everything she received, while not really feeling what she was saying.
And then she saw one tiny gift, it was so small that she thought it was maybe another piece of jewellery.  Expecting more disappointment she opens the box and finds a small stone inside, it looked like any other stone and she thought someone was having a joke.  But when she looked up to say something no one seemed to see the gift in her hand.
With the stone was a small note with the words -

'Hold me when you make your birthday wish and what you wish for will be true, only one wish and you must be very clear with how you make that wish so that it happens exactly as you wish it to'

She removes the stone and examines it, it was unremarkable, a very plain looking stone.  But her curiosity tells her to hold it, just to see what would happen.
The cake is brought out and there is more singing, everyone but her was having fun.
"Blow out the candles, dear, and make your wish"  Her mum says after the singing ends.  Holding the stone tightly in her hand, Lindsay closes her eyes and as she blows the candles, she makes her wish, making it as clear as she can.
She stands back, smiling falsely, and the cake is sliced into pieces and served around.  Lindsay fights back another wave of disappointment and sits down.  She opens her hand to look at the stone and notices that something's different about the stone, where before it was unremarkable with nothing on it, now it had a small number 2and below the number were a few small symbols.
The symbols looked familiar to her, though she didn't know why.

Lindsay didn't notice that as she was examining the stone things were changing around her, at first it was barely anything but bit by bit things changed.  First it was the appearance of toys for a very young child appearing where the gifts for an adult had been, and then a play pen appeared tucked into a corner.
The chair Lindsay was sitting in also changed from a normal dinner chair into a high chair, Lindsay didn't notice until she realised that her chair felt different.
Other changes also began to take place, and no one seemed at all bothered.  Lindsay's clothing began to change, taking a much younger look from her jeans, top and shirt under that as well as her underwear and changing into a cute dress that a young girl would wear, her body changed to match the age of the clothing as well.
Her adult frame became softer, smaller.  All indications of her adult development melted away and where there had been a young woman of 22 years of age was now a baby girl of two years old, her clothing now that of an adorable dress and a thick nappy between her legs.
She tries to say something but all that comes out is words that sound awkward, as if she was learning how to fully speak again.  She looks to her mother and is surprised to see that her mother isn't bothered by this, if anything she seemed to not see anything strange happening at all.
"Does the birthday girl have something to say?"  Lindsay tries to say as much as she can and finds her words are awkward, clumsy.  "You'll get the hang of talking over time, sweetie"  A small piece of cake is placed before her and Lindsay wonders how she can eat it, her arms feel like they have a life of their own and attempts to grip the piece of cake tend to cause it to squish between her fingers.
Instead of crying though Lindsay giggles in glee and brings her cake covered fingers up to her face and smears cake over her face, then over her dress.  This was so much fun!
"I guess you're a bit young to have cake in the way it should be eaten"  Her mum smiles at her and gets another small piece and gently feeds her daughter.  After the slice of cake her mum takes a baby bottle from the table top and passes it to Lindsay who grips it as tightly as her tiny hands can mange and suckles away as the rubber teat enters her mouth.
She felt so at peace, so content.

After her little meal, Lindsay is taken to her nursery and her cake covered dress removed, then washed up and her nappy changed due to a small accident.  After her nappy change she is dressed in a one piece and taken back to the living room.
"Getting sleepy?"  Her mum asks.  Lindsay shakes her head, even though she was starting to feel tired.  "Very stubborn, okay, why don't you play?"  Placing her daughter on the softly carpeted floor, Lindsay then attempts to walk.  Due to her nappy being so thick she finds it awkward, her attempts to walk making her waddle.  After a minute or two of waddling she plops to the ground, clapping her hands in glee at the sensation as her thick nappy cushions her fall.
She decides to crawl and crawls over to a soft toy which she promptly chews on, then cuddles.  Her wish had truly come true!  She felt so free, so completely unburdened with her adult life.  And she noted that she was feeling less adult within the longer she was this young, yet that didn't worry her, she found that she wanted to become the age she now was in full.
She looks around for the stone and notices that it's gone, she didn't remember dropping it and her mum hadn't picked it up.  As her adult mind began to fade away she hoped that this time she wouldn't be in such a hurry to grow up.
Her last thought as an adult was 'This wasn't such a bad birthday after all' and then all that remains is a very young child.

As Lindsay crawled to her mum and motioned to be cuddled, the stone fades away and appears at another birthday party in case the same wish was made again by this other person.
The birthday stone was made for such a thing after all, but only went to those who truly needed it.

Maybe the stone will appear at your birthday.