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Child of All Ages is a 6000-word short story by P. J. Plauger, about a little girl who is 2400 years old. It was first published in the March, 1975 issue of Analog.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Melissa is a little girl who looks 9, but her records indicate she’s about 14 years old. She confesses to a school counselor, a childless woman named May, that in fact she is 2400 years old, and that her father had been a wizard/scientist who lived near Athens, and that he perfected a method of stopping the aging process before puberty. As an immortal child, Melissa must always be taken care of by adults, since there are too many things that children are simply not allowed to do (get a job; drive a car, etc). It also means that she must be falsifying her records constantly, and that she must move on every five or ten years. May, her husband, and his father, agree to take Melissa in as their daughter for a few years. The grandfather tries to duplicate the anti-aging formula, but fails. When he dies, May and her husband become bitter about Melissa, and they call the authorities. Melissa evades them, and heads to another part of the country, resolving that with her next family, she will not be so free with the truth.

Reprints

This story has been reprinted in Donald A. Wollheim's The 1976 Annual Worlds Best SF.

Awards

Child of All Ages was nominated for the 1975 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, but it did not win, losing out to Catch That Zeppelin!. That same year, it was also nominated for a Hugo Award.

External Links

• Child of All Ages at ISFDB.org

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