Goodbye Normal Jeans

A novel by Danny

Chapter 2

I didn’t have to go back to school for a couple weeks and I didn’t know why but I didn’t much care cause I didn’t ever want to go back there; I was planning on staying on our farm and working for the rest of my life. I figured I done had enough learning that I would ever need for working on the farm. Cows and chickens don’t care none about compound fractions or whether I am using the right verbs, nouns and gerunds when I talk. And anyhow, when I was in my old school I always got A’s on everything but in my new school I never got even one A on anything. Mostly they give me B’s on my school stuff and even sometimes, they would say my work was as bad as a C grade.

After a couple of weeks passed on the farm and I started to think I would never have to go back to school again this one big funny shaped brown truck came driving down our lane and stopped right in front of our house. You can sure guess that I was plum curious about that funny shaped truck but I was up in the hayloft of the barn pushing hay bails down to Kevin in the truck. So, I could not jump down and run off or Kevin would get after me and if he didn’t pa sure would when he found out.

Least Kevin seemed about as curious as I was so that I had time to stand and watch as ma came out to that truck and took four great big packages from someone. I never got to see who was driving that funny shaped truck and after a spell I seen ma wave and go back into the house as the truck drove back up our lain. Whoever it was honked his horn as he passed us and Kevin, he waved his hand kind of like he was saying howdy to someone he known.

I asked Kevin if he known who that was but he said he didn’t have no idea so then I asked him what kind of truck he thought that was and he said it wasn’t any kind of truck. Kevin started moving one of the bales into place and then looked up to me. I guess he was figuring I should have been ready to push down another to him but I was still watching the cloud of dust from the truck as it sort of hung in the air. Kevin fiannly told me that it was they call a Postal Van. Up until then I had never seen a Postal Van before but I seen plenty of them now.

I guess I was gawking too long cause Kevin threw one of his gloves at me and whacked me right in the face. It didn’t hurt none, actually it was pretty darn funny and made me sort of forget about that Postal Van for a while. Well I guess I didn’t really forget, I suppose I just kind of pushed it out of my head and got back to work before Kevin got after me.

I ended up having to wait until suppertime to ask what was in them four great big packages but ma said I should just never mind until I finished cleaning my plate. We was having boiled dinner again, which I like plenty... normally, but we been having it lots on account that ma sort of planted way too many cabbage seeds in the vegetable garden this year. She swears it was supposed to be head lettuce but them seeds popped up and grew into cabbages. That same thing happened a couple summers back but that time it was ma’s mater plants. Somehow ma got the pepper and mater seeds mixed up and we had so many maters that ma had us going all over the county giving away jars of canned maters to everyone. I never though I would get sick of fried maters, mater sauce, mater stew, and mater soup. Heck fire we still got so many jars still of canned maters from that summer, but pa complained and ma stopped cooking with maters for a while. I can tell that pa is getting that same look every time ma makes boiled dinner or stuffed cabbage rolls or even coleslaw. Pa is a long burning candle but I bet by the middle of winter we won’t be having cabbage no more for a while.

So, when supper was done I was about to ask about the packages again when pa looked at me and said I should go up to my room and wait for him to come up. Boy you can sure bet that I was scared. I sat on the side of my bed ringing my hands and trying to think what I had done wrong to get sent to my room. Any time pa ever told one of us to go to our room and wait for him, it meant that he was fixing on tanning us with his belt. I thought, and thought and thought but all I could come up with was somehow he found out that me and John-Jo had been out back of the church three Sunday’s back kissing on Mary-Ann Parker.

I must of heard our front screen door open and close a dozen times while I sat up there waiting for pa to come up.

Pa never came right up to tan us; he always left us sitting up in our room worrying and fretting for the longest time. I remember one time when Kevin had been caught throwing rock at people’s mailboxes on the way to school. Pa sent him right back home and said he was to go up to our room and wait. Pa left him up there until bedtime before he went up and tanned Kevin real good. I seen Kevin’s bottom the next morning and it was all black and blue and still even had big welts where the buckle had caught him. What was worst was that instead of going to school, pa made Kevin get out the tractor and clear the back pasture, which took Kevin until just before the sun went down. I felt so bad for Kevin cause he was crying when he came in the house cause he was hurting so bad and he took forever just to get up the steps to our room. He went to bed with no lunch or supper in his belly and he cried all through that night.

By the time I heard someone coming up the stairs, I was pretty darn scared and couldn’t help but to start crying. I seen pa walk in carrying one of the big packages, which confused the dickens out of me, cause I honestly expected to see him carrying his belt, not a package. Then ma came in next with another of the packages. Kevin followed behind ma with the last two packages, laid them down on his bed and left without even looking at me or saying a single word. Ma set her package down on Kane’s bed and pa put his package down on the floor at the foot of my bed.

Before I knew what I was doing I was blurting out how sorry I was, that I did not mean it and I would never do it again while sobbing in between my words.

Ma tried to tell me that I wasn’t in trouble for anything but I had, had too much time to sit alone and could not turn off my panic and fear just like that. I continued to cry until pa sat down beside me and for the first time that I can remember, he called me by my real name. He said, “Kristian we only wanted to talk to you in private. You are not in trouble at all!” but then he paused a second, rubbed at his stubble covered chin before asking in a sort of way that made me feel a little more reassured that I wasn’t in trouble after all, “Wait, uh, what did you think you were in trouble for?”

Ma swatted at pa and told him to stop making jokes when I was so upset. She then sat down on the other side of me so that I had ma on my right side and pa on my left both hugging me and trying to get me to stop crying long enough to hear what it was they wanted to talk with me about in private.

After ma and pa told me what was in them four packages I think I would rather pa had tanned me for a whole week. When they had come to my school and met with Mr. Glick, he told them that a boy my age still wetting and messing my pants was not something they could accept and if I was to continue attending that school then something would have to be done to better deal with my problem.

The solution ma and pa came up with was not such a good idea as far as I was concerned. They decided that the only way I was going to be able to go back to that school and get a real good education was for me to have to wear diapers under my school britches.

I screamed and cried for the longest time and even once, I tried to run out of the room but pa caught me by the seat of my britches and held me ‘til I stopped trying to get away. In the end, they won out. I really don’t think I had much chance of winning anyhow. It was plum past bedtime and I was sure my brothers were wanting to come get in bed and pa he was thinking the same thing cause he stood up and said he was going to go see that the girls was tucked in while ma helped get me ready for bed. Just before he walked out of my room, he turned, pointed his big finger at me and said that he didn’t want no more crying from me.

Now the way they had explained it to me, I figured I was only going to have to wear them diapers for school but I guess I had it all wrong cause ma, she made me take off all my clothes and then get myself on my bed. That was when I got my first look at the inside of the first package. Ma opened the one that pa had set at the foot of my bed and pulled out a big white bit of cloth. I thought for a second it were a towel for taking a bath but then I seen it actually was a big white diaper. Down in that package was some rubber pants and a big bag of diaper pins too that ma pulled out.

I was trying my best not to cry but it was powerful hard and I was glad pa had left cause I think I was still having some tears while ma pulled that diaper up tight and pinned it on me. I could tell that ma had a lot of practice at doing this cause she had it on me in practically no time at all and was pulling me back up so I could slip the rubber pants on over to keep everything inside.

Ma was nice enough to put them packages down on the floor by my bed where the others was not going to have to see them so well and she also let me get into bed and get all covered up before telling my brothers they could come up.

I pretended I was already sleeping when they came into our room and not a one of them said even a single word. They just got their clothes off, got into their nightclothes and hopped into bed.

The next day I found out from Kane that ma and pa had told all my brothers and sisters about the diapers and pa also told them that if they make one smart crack about me having to wear them that he was going to make them go to school in diapers too.

Also on that first morning, I found out that not all them packages was filled with diaper stuff. One of them had some new school pants for me that would fit over my diaper. I was hoping that I’d get some new pants for wearing at home but instead I got some of Kevin’s and Karen’s old jeans that ma put a new hem in so they didn’t drag the ground when I walked. They was still pretty dang big on me even wearing a diaper so I had to wear spenders to keep them from falling right off of me.

Ma and Pa didn’t make me go right back to school. They gave me another week at home to get used to wearing the diapers and having to have help with putting them on. I was still able to go get myself cleaned up if I did number two in the back of my diaper but I had to have help getting a fresh diaper on cause I couldn’t manage to get them pins done up. Karen and Kathy started helping me whenever ma was busy. They was pretty nice about it and didn’t tease me none. Seeing how I was used to everyone seeing me naked, I mean when nine people live in a three-bedroom farmhouse with only one bathroom you can bet there ain't much privacy for us boys. The girls get more privacy cause pa says they need it and I suppose he’s right.

One problem I had with wearing diapers was that I had to learn how to walk and not look like I was one of them funny looking birds we learned about in school. You know the ones that are all black and white and can’t fly even though they are birds? I can’t remember what they call them but that is what I think I looked like at first.

Every one of my brothers and sisters treated me pretty much the same except for Kevin. I don’t think he was too keen on me any more cause he hardly ever says nothing to me less it has to do with working the farm. I was starting to think maybe he didn’t like me anymore but then when pa said I had to go back to school the next day, Kevin took me out on the tractor to way out past the back pasture and right to the edge of our property fence line. For the longest time he didn’t say anything, he just kept picking up rocks and chucking them at the fence.

Finally, he turned to me and came right out and said that if I didn’t want to go back to that school that he would tell pa and ma that he wasn’t going to let them send me back. I didn’t know what to say about that so I didn’t say nothing for a spell and he went back to chucking stones again.

Now I really did not want to go back to school, not wearing diapers but I knew that if Kevin went up against pa like that, pa would win and Kevin would probably not come out of it to well. I was scared that maybe pa would get so mad that he might even make Kevin leave. I was just about to tell him that I didn’t want him to get pa mad at him when he turned around again and said something else to me.

He said, “Listen Nevada, I ain’t always going to be around to protect you from bullies. Sooner or later you’re going to have to start fighting for yourself.”

I seen he was starting to cry but he turned so I could not see and then he said, “Nevada, me and Meggin have decided we are going to run off and get married. I know pa would never let us if he knew so we are just going to go over to Indiana and get hitched.”

Maybe I was supposed to say something but I honestly didn’t know what to say. I known for a long time that Kevin and Meggin been dating but I never once thought they might run off to get married.

When I didn’t say nothing he went on talking with his back to me. He said that he know pa would never approve but he was sure that ma would forgive them someday. Kevin also said that he knew that once he and Meggin were married that pa would never let him come back to the farm again.

I’d been sitting on pa’s tractor that whole time listening to Kevin tell me all this. I weren’t crying cause I guess I was to surprised and maybe way down inside I knew someday Kevin and Karen would get married and have to have their own homes somewhere else.

We were both super quiet for a very long time before I finally came up with a question to ask him. Actually, it sort of just popped out my mouth kind of without my brain doing any of the work. I asked, “When you going?”

That must have been the right thing to ask cause he turned back around and was smiling when he said they was planning on going a week from today, while everyone is in church.

Next, I asked, “Will I ever see you again?”

Kevin surprised me cause he walked over nice and slow to the tractor like he was going to say something but instead he reached up and snatched me right out of the seat. He flung me through the air and dropped me kind of soft like on the ground. He was on me before I could react and was tickling the life out of me before he told me that the whole American army couldn’t keep him from checking in on me.

About half way back up to the barn, I got Kevin to stop the tractor for a minute, long enough for me to tell him that he was right. That it is time I start fighting my own fights and that I guessed Monday was as good a day to start as any.

Continue on to Chapter 3