Simon's Journal

Volume II

Thirteen Nights – After the Crusade

Written by

Danny
Author of Thirteen Days

Chapter 3

PART 4 – Tuesday, March 02, 2004 – Those who live by the sword - Continued

All through dinner we kept shooting each other glances that showed how hard it was for us not to break into fits of laughter. When we were nearly done eating desert, Lowell finally outdid me. I still owe him for it, too.

“Mrs. Leonard, can Simon and I clear the table and wash the dinner plates?” Lowell asked. I tried to kick him from under the table, but he was too far away for my short legs to reach him.

Regrettably, Mom and Dad had both figured out what the two of us were doing. Mom, without missing a beat said, “Why sure you can, and thank you so very much! You are just the sweetest little man!”

So after dinner, Mom and Dad retired to the living room while Lowell and I cleared the table, put away the leftovers, then stood at the sink and washed all the dishes. Well, actually I made Lowell wash while I dried and put everything away since I knew where everything went.

We joked around. Lowell splashed me twice. Once on accident, and once on purpose. I snapped him with the dishtowel right on his diapered butt. He acted like it hurt, but I knew it didn’t. He was just acting again.

As I was putting the last fork into the silverware drawer Lowell leaned over to me and whispered, “I definitely need changed now.”

I spun around to face him, “When did you wet?” I asked.

“Just a minute ago while the water was running in the sink. That sound gets me every time.” He continued to whisper.

With a small chuckle I added, “Yeah, it does that to me, too.”

“You wet again, too?” he asked.

“I don’t think so.” I said with as much of a shrug as I could with my armor on.

Lowell looked toward the living room to be sure Mom and Dad were both out of site, and then pulled the front of my pants down just enough to check the condition of my diaper.

“Hate to break this to ya but . . .” Lowell started to say, but he didn’t have to finish. I’d looked down and saw for myself what he was seeing.

“Ah, dang!” I whimpered, “I didn’t even know I did it!”

With a grin, Lowell whispered back, “Sounds like you are becoming a Teenbaby whether you want to or not!”

“It’s not funny!” I continued my moaning. “How am I supposed to go back to school next week if I can’t keep from wetting myself all the time?”

Lowell pulled my pants back up and said, “Simple, just do like I do.”

“What’s that?” I asked, while hanging the towel I’d been using to dry the dishes over the handle of the oven door like Mom always did.

“Let’s go back to your room.” Lowell said, pulling on my shirt.

As we past through the living room, Dad asked; “You boys want to watch a movie with us?”

“Naw, we’re going to go back to my room.” I said.

Lowell looked at his watched, “Yeah, my Dad will be here to pick me up in about forty minutes anyway.”

“Okay, have fun!” Dad said, and the two of us went on back to my room.

I closed and locked my door again and was about to restate my question when Lowell, right then and there, kicked off his shoes and pulled his pants all the way down.

“Oh Yeah, I forgot you need changed!” I said with a smile.

“Can I wear one of yours this time?” he asked.

I countered his question with one of my own, “My disposable ones or the cloth kind?”

“The Attends Youth, like you was wearing when I got here,” he said.

I went to my dresser, “Actually, when you got here I was still wearing a double cloth diaper my Dad had put on me this morning. Mom changed me right as you got here.”

“Ah man! I would like to have seen that!” Lowell said, as he laid himself on my floor.

I got out the diaper and my box of baby wipes, as well as my diaper cream and powder.

“So, how do you wear your diapers to school like Jasper does?” I asked upon returning with the supplies.

“I wear Goodnites to school most of the time. Sometimes regular Pull-Ups, but I like Goodnites the best!” Lowell said as I unfastened his diaper and pulled it open. I’d fully expected him to be rock hard again but he wasn’t, and I was surprised at how small it looked when it was all soft.

I wiped him clean with the wipe, applied the diaper cream and lots of powder, “Geeze, take it easy! I’m not a doughnut!” Lowell complained.

“Well now you look like a powdered doughnut!” I said patting the side of his bottom.

He rose up and I slid the old diaper out from under him and the new, dry one into place. I made him stay up while I cleaned, creamed, and powdered his bottom too.

“What do you do when you are wet in the middle of the school day?” I asked while I worked.

“I keep a couple changes in the bottom of my backpack, and when I am wet I just go to the bathroom and change in one of the stalls.” Lowell said. Then he let out a giggle as I rubbed the powder between his legs. “Hey! Careful! That tickles!”

“Sorry!” I said, “And no one knows? I mean at school?” I asked.

“My teachers know, and the school nurse knows. Oh, and so does one of my friends, but she’ll never tell anyone.” He explained as I was taping the diaper into place.

“A GIRL KNOWS?” I nearly shouted.

“Yeah, but she’s way cool about it. She saw them from the back one time when I bent over in the hallway at school.” He said.

“What did she say?” I gave the front of his diaper a pat, “There, all dry again.”

“Can I keep my pants off, just for a while?” He bashfully asked.

“I got the door locked.” Was all I said back.

“Yeah, she was way cool about it.” Lowell sat up again, “I was walking home from school, and she caught up to me and told me that she saw.”

“Did you freak out?” I asked.

“At first I did. I got scared, but then she said that she’d never tell anyone.” He said.

I shot back, “And you just believed her?”

Lowell got a distant look in his eyes before answering, “Not really, I mean not at first but after a while I guess I did.”

“What do you mean, ‘after a while’?” I asked.

Squirming a little, he blurted out, “Okay, here it is! She’s my babysitter now! She comes over every Friday or whenever my parents go out and she watches me!”

I didn’t reply right away, but just sat they’re looking at him.

“Well, say something!” Lowell snapped.

“Why do you think that would be such a big deal?” I said flatly.

“Huh?” Lowell scrunched up his nose again, as if smelling something unpleasant.

“I think that’s kind of neat!” I said very matter-of-factly.

“Just neat?” Lowell asked, his nose still all scrunchy.

“Okay, I that it is cool, and maybe I’m a little jealous of you!” I finally admitted.

The corners of Lowell’s mouth curled up. Had he a mustache, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the points of it curl up too!

“No!” I said quickly.

Sneering like Hannibal Lector, he said in a very drawn out sort of way, “Wwwhhhhaaat?”

“No way, not going to happen!” I was waving and crossing my hands in the air as if signaling a racecar driver to cut his engine.

Dropping his sneer, he pulled out the big guns. With two big sad puppy dog eyes and a pouty lip he said, “Pawwweeeaaassse!”

I wanted to laugh, and had I not acted as fast as I did, I probably would have. Instead, I lashed out, grabbed his pouting lip, and pulled on it.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!” Lowell cried out!

“That’ll teach you to try using your cute eyes to break me!” I said while still holding onto his lip.

“Le-goooo!” he cried, and I released my grip.

He was rubbing his mouth and looking ticked. “That hurt!” he whined, “And you still got powder on your hand.

“Then don’t stick that lip out again!” It was my turn to sneer now.

“Brat!” Lowell said from behind his hand as he protected his lips.

I pointed my finger at him and said, “You better believe it, brother!” which made Lowell snicker, though he didn’t want too.

“Why won’t you?” He continued to whine, and I pulled the front of the diaper up and taped it into place.

I didn’t answer right away, and I was glad Lowell gave me a few seconds to think about my answer. I stood up, went over to my desk, and got out the jumbled pages of his story before answering. “I-I’m just not ready for that yet!”

I set the pages down on the floor as Lowell sat himself up, then I plopped down on the floor myself just to his right.

“But you’re still going to sleep over this weekend right?” Lowell asked almost as if he were expecting me to say no.

“Y-Yeah!” I said before I thought about it.

Lowell threw himself backward to the floor, throwing his feet into the air and kicking wildly, “YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!”

Grabbing his right knee, I pushed his leg back down, and he came up in the same motion. “I still got to ask my Mom and Dad first.” I added.

“I’m so glad! I really thought you were going to chicken out on me!” Lowell was smiling so big his face looked like a giant mouth with hair.

“Who you calling a chicken?” I teased, but he must have thought I was serious because he stopped whooping about and the smile fell from his face.

“Oh I didn’t mean it like that!” he said soberly.

“Lowell, I was teasing!” I said, letting him off the hook . His smile returned.

“So, does she change you and everything?” I asked, returning to the subject of his babysitter.

He sort of popped when he answered, “Yeah!” Then added, “And she feeds me and gives me a bottle!”

I must have looked stunned or shocked, because Lowell suddenly stopped talking and just looked at me for a couple seconds before asking, “Does that freak you out?”

“Huh, what?” I stammered having been caught off guard, “No, I mean not really. I just, well, it’s so hard to believe. I mean I believe you, but well . . . I have read about this sort of stuff in stories, but to actually have a friend that does it!”

In true Psychological techno-babble, that was light-years ahead of him, Lowell responded with, “So, you’re saying that you are having difficulty assimilating my preferred lifestyle into your limited sphere of judgment and thinking?”

With complete bafflement, I asked; “What?”

Again, Lowell fell backwards in laughter, and again I helped him back up by pressing down on his knee.

“What was that?” I asked again.

Lowell was still laughing, “You should have seen your face!”

I gave him a soft thump with the back of my hand on his leg.

Trying to keep himself from laughing, he attempted to translate what he’d said into normal words I’d understand. “I’m sorry. Man, that face you made was too funny. Okay, I basically just asked you if you are having a hard time with me being a teenbaby?”

“Well it didn’t sound like that the first time!” I gave him a push with my shoulder so that this time he fell over sideways.

“Hey!” he complained, and righted himself again.

“Yeah, maybe just a little, I mean I think it’s cool and all, but I’m still having a hard time believing it all.” Quickly realizing what I’d just said, I added; “Not that I’m saying you are lying or anything!”

“No, no! I understand what you mean and it’s cool.” Lowell said, grinning and chuckling.

The two of us busied ourselves on the floor, trying to re-sort all the pages of Lowell’s second chapter so that we could finish it. It proved to be a lot more difficult than he or I had expected it to be.

Lowell made the comment; “I think from now on I’m going to put page numbers on all the chapters so this don’t happen again!”

I added, “I think that’s a really good idea.”

Just about the same time that we got all the pages back into order, we heard a car pulling into the driveway. Lowell got up and scrambled to the window, which gave me a great view of him wearing one of my diapers. Which, on him, was obviously too big. It was high on his back, and puffed out almost as if he already had a load in it.

“Ah man, it’s my Dad!” Lowell complained and turned back to me.

He started to bend over and reach for his pants, but I was closer and faster. I snatched them away and said, “You been wanting to go run around with no clothes since you got here! Well, here’s your chance!”

“Simon! Come on!” He whimpered so excellently.

With a single finger, I gave him the come here sign and he reluctantly obeyed. I was still sitting on the floor, holding the now re-sorted pages of his story, while he stood only a few inches away from me. I was nearly eye to diaper with him. The front of the diaper looked as oversized as the back did on him, and it puffed out even farther than the back did. He also couldn’t put his legs together like he could with his Pampers diapers.

I set the papers down on the floor, reached my arms around him, and buried my face in the front of his diaper, hugging him around his bottom. I heard him giggle and then jokingly begin to hump my face. I released him, and looking up into his big eyes, I melted like chocolate left out in the summer sun!

“Thanks for coming over!” I softly said.

“Yeah, this was really fun! Um, can I have my pants back now?” he giggled again.

“Yeah I guess so!” I said, and held them open for him to step into. He held onto my head while he put his feet into his pants and allowed me to pull them back up. I had a bit of a hard time getting them buttoned and zipped up again, but I managed.

I swooped up his shirt and stood back up so that I could finish dressing him. This time, I didn’t try to capture his arms in his shirt, but slipped it on him properly. I also straightened up his hair so that he didn’t look like such a scruffy dog, and then gave him a small kiss on top of his head, just for good measure!

He sat on my bed and put his own shoes back on without untying them this time. He’d slipped the last one on as I was opening my door again. No sooner had I opened it than Mom yelled from the living room, “Simon! Lowell’s Dad is here!”

“We’re coming!” I shouted back.

I quickly helped Lowell stuff all his things into his backpack, and helped him put it on as Dad came to my door to hurry us along.

“I’m ready!” Lowell said bouncing his pack to get it positioned on his back better.

Dad turned away, heading back to the living room. I quickly grabbed the printed pages off the floor and stuffed them under my bedspread before following Lowell out to greet his dad.

“Hi daddy!” Lowell said cheerily.

“You ready to go?” Lowell’s dad asked him.

“Yep, got everything!” Lowell gave his pack another bounce.

“Did you have a good time!” Lowell’s dad asked.

Lowell shot me a sinister grin before answering, “Boy, did we!”

Then Lowell turned to Mom, “Thank you Mrs. Leonard for having me over for dinner. It was the best!”

“It was a pleasure to have you over, and you can come back anytime you like!” Mom said back to him.

“And thanks for helping Simon with the dishes!” Dad added.

“He washed dishes?” Lowell’s dad asked, “I can’t even get him to clean his room!”

“Daddy!” Lowell complained, while trying not to look embarrassed.

I gave Lowell a soft punch in the back of his shoulder and he spun around, “Keep practicing every day! I expect improvement!” I said to him.

“Yeah, I got an idea about that! I’ll email you about it when I see if it will work!” Lowell said, faking a punch to my gut, which probably wouldn’t have hurt with my body armor on, but I’d rather not find out.

“See ya!” I said.

“Yeah, see ya later, Simon!” Lowell said as he followed his dad out the door.

“Thanks again for having Lowell over, I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.” Lowell’s dad said from just outside the door.

“He was a perfect little gentleman!” Mom said back.

Lowell’s dad looked at him as Lowell brushed by him and joked, “My son? A perfect gentleman?”

“Daddy! Will you stop?” I only just caught a glimpse of Lowell, and he was beat red.

I watched as Lowell started to climb into the front passenger seat beside his dad, but he suddenly stopped, said something to his dad that I couldn’t hear, and then came running back up to the house.

“Mrs. Leonard?” Lowell asked, and I turned to see that Mom was standing right behind me.

“Did you forget something?” Mom asked.

“Uh, no, I wanted to see if it was okay for Simon to sleep over at my house on Friday?” Lowell asked, and a wave of panic flooded over me like a tsunami.

“I don’t see why not!” Mom answered him, “What do you think of that idea Simon.”

“I think it’s great!” I said, and couldn’t believe the words came out of my mouth.

“YES!” Lowell cheered, “Thanks Mrs. Leonard! See ya Simon!” He ran back to the car, nearly floating above the ground.

I watched and waved from our door as Lowell and his dad drove away before stepping back and closing the door again.

When I turned around, both Mom and Dad were standing side by side looking down at me.

“What?” I asked nervously. They both smiled knowingly.

“Okay, let me have it!” I said, hanging my head and waving them on.

“Why dear, what on earth could your son be going on about?” Mom jokingly said to Dad.

“Well my love, I honestly don’t know!” Dad joked back.

With my head still bowed so that I didn’t have to look at them I waved again and said, “You know you want too, I can take it!”

“Son, we have no idea what you mean!” Dad continued to joke.

“You know you want to ask why I can’t be that well mannered; that well behaved all of the time!” I said for them and added, “Come on, you know you’re just busting to say it!”

“My love, it seems our son thinks we revel in torturing him.” Dad said.

“He’s dear, I believe you are right about that!” Mom said, and I lifted my head to see the two of them grinning wildly, and trying their darndest not to laugh.

Shaking my head, I started for my room and just before reaching the hall I said; “Of all the families in all the world, I get stuck with a couple of clowns!” I thought I said it just under my breath, but they still heard me.

“We heard that!” they said in unison.

I spun around and tried to look innocent, but failed miserably. “What’d I say?”

Dad faked a step toward me. I spun around and took off for my room, but stopped at the door to look to see if he was still coming after me, but both of them had thankfully vanished from sight.

Feeling about as good as I possibly could feel without artificial means, I went to my computer and turned it on before going to my bed and retrieving the pages of Lowell’s story from under my bedspread.

I went over to my closet, opened the door, and sat the story in the bottom to read after I checked my email.

Back at my desk, I sat myself in my desk chair and opened my email. I had several from Mike, one from Bull, one from someone I didn’t know, and guessed it was probably Tater by the subject line, – ‘Tater skins are yummy’. I couldn’t help but to giggle at his humorous way of letting me know it was from him. I also had two emails from Jasper as well as three from BJ.

I decided to start with the oldest emails that I’d not yet read, and work my way through them all. I sent short replies to each one and was getting caught-up pretty fast until I reached Taters. It was about as long as a 20-volume encyclopedia. It took me a long time to read it. At one point, about two-thirds of the way through, I even started to doze off because he was going on and on about boring football stuff. I could easily sum up his entire email with a few short bullet points.

· Bull, Tater, and Two-Two’s were kicked off the football team.

· Bull’s Dad, the High school Coach, was put on unpaid leave.

· He and Bull don’t blame me, but Two-Toe’s wants me dead.

· He and Bull still want to be friends when all this blows over.

· I’m still their buddy!

Of course, he asked a lot of questions about how I was feeling and if I was working out at all. I did my best to answer all his questions with my return email and told him that I am glad we are still friends! I said a bit more stuff, but nothing earth-shatteringly important to note here in my journal.

Bull’s email was not long at all, but basically said the same stuff he’d said before, trying to reassure me that he didn’t hate me, or blame me in any way.

Mike’s emails were mostly him complaining about Tater. I think he was needing to vent some serious pent-up frustrations. I’m totally cool with that, and I told him so.

Jasper’s first email was just some silly joke he forwarded to me. I didn’t read all of it and just deleted it before reading his second email. He wanted to tell me that he’s going back to school tomorrow and wanted to know if I would be there too. So, I sent him back a reply to let him know that I’d not be back until next week and that was only if the doctor said I could.

BJ’s emails were great and made me laugh. I was glad I’d read his last too. No sense in ending on a down note when I have such a great friend as BJ.

As soon as I sent my last reply to BJ, another email came in. It was from Lowell.

Simon,

I really had a great time at your house today! I never guessed you would be as cool as you are! You and me are going to be the bestest of friends!

Here is my idea I told you about before I left. What do you think about me recording myself reading my story, and then emailing it to you as an Mp3? I’ve attached a small sample so you can tell me how I sound!

Thanks again, and I’ll see you this weekend.

Sure enough, there was a file attached to the email. I clicked on the ‘Save’ button on the screen. While it was downloading I sent him a reply.

Lowell,

Thanks so much for coming over! I think your idea is brilliant! I’m downloading the file now and will listen to it right away!

Simon

After sending my reply, I only had to wait a few more seconds for the file to finish downloading. In the meantime, I went in search of Mom to get me ready for bed so that I didn’t have to worry about her or Dad coming in while I was listening to the story file.

I found them both in Dad’s office. Dad was showing Mom something. I guessed it was a bill, but I didn’t pay attention.

“Mom, can you help me get ready for bed?” I asked.

“Oh my goodness! Is it that late already?” she said, looking at Dad’s watch.

She followed me back to my room, and while she got out the diapering supplies, I got on my bed and assumed the diapering position.

Now I had completely forgot that I was still wearing one of Lowell’s Pampers diapers until Mom pulled down my pants and asked, “What is this?”

I was so shocked and embarrassed at having been found out, I couldn’t think of anything to say for several awkward seconds.

“Where did you get this kind of diaper?” Mom asked.

“Ah, it-it’s one of Lowell’s.” I finally confessed.

Mom placed her hand on my thigh, and speaking in a soft but authoritative voice she said, “Simon, I don’t want you letting any of your friends changing you. If you need changed, you come see me or your father. Do you understand me?” I nodded that I did.

Not another word was spoken between us as Mom removed the Pampers baby diaper, replacing it with one of my cloth diapers and a pair of clear plastic pants.

I knew she was going to go tell Dad, because when she left my room she took the wet Pampers diaper with her, and she closed my bedroom door as well. While sitting on the side of my bed, face in my hands and wondering how I could have been so absolutely stupid not to have had Lowell put me back into one of my diapers, or to at least have taken off the Pamper before going to get Mom.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I kept saying and hitting myself in the head with the balls of my hands. “How could I have been so absolutely stupid?”

After a few minutes of punishing myself and realizing that Dad wasn’t coming in to yell at me too, at least not right away, I got up and went to my desk. I retrieved my headphones from my bottom desk drawer, and plugged them into the side of my computer, then started the file Lowell had made for me.

Hi Simon, this is Lowell. Sorry. That was dumb. Of course you know it’s me. Okay, so I’m trying to see if I can create an audio book kind of recording myself. This is really just a test and I’m going to read the rest of the second chapter for you.

I’m not real sure where we stopped so I’m going to guess and start where I think I left off. So here goes!

There was the sound of Lowell clearing his throat. Before he started reading, when everything was quiet, I thought that I could hear someone else talking in the background, but I couldn’t make out who it was or what they were saying.

In the first couple of weeks after I was released into her care, during the time I was not yet strong enough to fully care for myself, she would help feed me, bathe me, and even diapered me as I was too weak to walk outside to the outhouse. However, as my strength increased, so did my resolve that I would never again need anyone. In time, I took on more and more of my own personal care, including diapering myself. Diapers were something Miss Lillian Hassley insisted on since we were sharing the same bed.

When I knew I was strong enough, and healthy enough, I reached a decision I knew she wouldn’t like, but that I knew I had to do. Therefore, I approached Miss Lillian Hassley with my intentions, and her reaction was just what I had expected from her. I had decided that I was going to carry on my fathers dream and life’s work by going to Hamunaptra to find ‘Him’.

“That is out of the question!” She bellowed like the mannish person I’d met that very first time back in Jerusalem. It was also the first time she’d lost her cool so intensely since I’d known her.

“There is no way I am going to let you go down there!” She was squawking and almost spitting with furry. “I don’t care if you do think you can find the blasted burial site, there is no way I can let you go! What if the men that killed your father come after you next? Have you any idea how hard I’ve worked to keep anyone from knowing that you are here and still alive?”

She pounded her fist on the table, causing the plate before her the jump, tossing food everywhere. “No! Absolutely not! I will not allow it!”

I won’t lie, I was mad. I was burning inside with the power of twenty volcanoes, but I managed, somehow, to remain calm. “You will let me go, because I have to go. I have to finish what my father spent his life searching for; what he would still be doing right now if I …”

I could not bring myself to say it. Something inside me wanted to get it out, to finally confess the secret I was holding in for the past two months.

“If you what?” She shouted. Her head glowing with rage at the idea of me going to Egypt.

I looked her straight in the eyes, swallowed, and opened my mouth, yet I could not speak the words. I closed my mouth again, looked down at the table, and thought for a moment before I attempted to speak again.

“I know everything!” I tried to sound confident. I wasn’t so sure I was doing a very good job of it, but I was giving it my best try.

“What are you talking about, boy?” She was almost foaming at the mouth.

I was struggling to keep my cool, but was failing a little more with each word I uttered. “I know about the city of Hamunaptra. I know you have found it!” My voice steadily grew in volume, “and I know you needed my father to find a special burial site within that city!”

I paused as it became apparent to me that yet again, I had begun to wet myself. Nevertheless, I was too worked up, and too focused, to let my wetting my diaper be a deterrent. Miss Lillian Hassley had seen me wet myself on many occasions over the past weeks, and knew that my problem usually happened when I was excited or worked up. It had become a morning ritual. I would wake up and she would already have the bathwater run for me to wash in. I’d climb out of bed, strip off the diaper, leaving it on the floor by the bed, before making my way to the tub. Whenever I have one of my accidents, it was the exact same thing. She would just go fill the tub without saying anything, and I would strip and get in it. She was always good about seeing that my clothes and the diapers were laundered by one of the local ladies.

From across the table I looked her straight in the eyes and shouted, . . .

There was a pause at this point in the recording and then Lowell said, “Oh sorry Simon, I just realized that this is where I had stopped reading back at your place. Sorry about that! Good thing this is only a test, huh?” Then there was the sound of Lowell laughing into his microphone before he started reading again.

“I know who it is you are looking to find in that damned burial site. What’s more, my father was not the only one that could find it!”

Miss Lillian Hassley fell back into her chair. Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, and the anger in her face morphed into a sinister pale-faced grin. A bead of drool dribbled from the corner of her mouth.

“That did it!” I thought to myself, “I’ve won!” and I was right! I would be going to Hamunaptra. With my victory still hanging in the air, I turned so fast on my heels to leave that urine splashed from the hem of my pants and I stormed out of the room.

Once back in what was in essence our bedroom, I closed and locked the door. I looked down at my pants. They were totally soaked all down the front, and were still dripping onto the floor. I thought to myself, “Some great archeologist you will make Jonas; you can’t even keep from wetting yourself.”

I stripped out of my pants and diaper and rinsed them with the water from the pitcher on the table in my room. I retrieved my regular underwear from my pack, slipped them on; and then pulled on my dripping wet pants before I began to pack for my journey.

About ten minutes later, as I was leaving our little apartment, I nearly walked right into the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life. I knew her instantly as the girl I had watched that day from my window perch. She looked to be maybe two or three years my senior, perfect olive skin, and deep, black-in-black eyes. Her hair was black: cut in the manor of the days of the Shepard Kings that ruled the rainforest valley of the Nile, a thousand years before the first pyramids were built. She had ruby-red lips that seemed to smile at me, causing my heart to leap in my chest. She had the beauty of the Egyptian Queens that had been painted on the walls of temples and pyramids over countless ages. I had only set eyes on her before and now I was standing only two feet from her. She smelled of cinnamon, myrrh, and spikenard. For a moment I was speechless, I turned to set my pack down and when I looked back, she was gone.

“Where did she go?” I thought aloud. Twisting my head this way and that in an effort to find where she had gone. To my sorrow, I could not see her.

It was getting close to noon when I again approached Miss Lillian Hassley. She looked sternly at me for a moment, then smiled and pointed to a bag sitting beside the door.

I returned her smile. “Good! I am glad you are coming!” For the first time, I realized that despite my best efforts of keeping her out of my heart, she had entered anyway.

We left immediately. Miss Lillian Hassley had a car take us to the airport. On the way, I had time to ask her about the girl I had seen. I described her in perfect detail as Miss Lillian Hassley sat beside me with a knowing grin on her lips.

Once I stopped talking, she said, “Well Yeah, I think I have seen her around the past few weeks. Maybe she is hot for you, but is too shy to actually come up to you and say hello.” She sounded much like she was making fun of me, but I let her get away with it with just a rolling of my eyes.

Just as I was starting to shrug off thinking about her, I thought I saw her again, standing in a doorway as we drove past the abandoned building. However, I assumed I had just imagined it. “Yes!” I said to myself, “The worst of the worst of the worst has happened to you. There is nothing you can do about it. You must face facts Jonas, you are in love!” I groaned audibly at myself.

Once at the airport, we retrieved our tickets and went to board the plane. While Miss Lillian Hassley was getting our bags checked I realized that I was again smelling that same scent of cinnamon, mere and spikenard. That is when it hit me. I started pummeling myself in the side of the head for not having recognized it sooner. “Those are the spices used in mummification!” I thought aloud, “Only the ancient Egyptians used that combination of spices to cover the smell of death!” I quickly looked around for the girl, however I could not see her anywhere.

I did my best to put her out of my mind as we boarded the plane. It felt odd traveling without my father, but at least I wasn’t completely alone. About halfway into our flight, I had the feeling that I needed to pee. Unfortunately, I knew we were on a plane that didn’t have a bathroom. These little puddle jumpers, as father always called them, never have bathrooms. I sat in my seat with my legs crossed, trying not to think about it. However, I guess Miss Lillian Hassley recognized the signs and leaned over. “Can you hold it?”

I was squirming by now, “I don’t think so!” I whined softly.

She looked around the plane at the other passengers who were not paying any attention to either of us at all. She leaned back to me and was about to say something else, when she saw that I had already lost control. I had wet my pants for the second time today. She gave me a half smile, “Well I guess that solves that, huh?”

I just dropped my face into my hands in mock disgust and mild embarrassment. However, within a few minutes my embarrassment grew by a magnitude of a thousand. The inside of the plane’s cabin was already overly warm, and the smell of my urine-soaked pants started to make it’s way through the small plane. I just sat there, looking out the window, and tried to act like I didn’t smell anything.

Finally, after a long, bumpy flight, we arrived at our destination. After we landed, I stayed in my seat until everyone else disembarked the plane. I stayed directly behind Miss Lillian Hassley in an effort to try to conceal my wet pants. However, as I went past the pilot who was standing just outside the plane, he gave me a disgusted look. I walked as fast as I could to get as far away from the plane as I could.

Miss Lillian Hassley wanted to go straight to the camp but I told her that we must go into town and get a hotel room first. She protested, but eventually gave in; which was a good thing. I knew my father would not have gone straight to the camp, because that is what would have been expected.

It was starting to get dark when we finally arrived at the hotel. The dust kicked up by our open car had managed to stick only to the wet area of my pants, making it even more obvious that I had wet myself. As we went in to get our room, Miss Lillian Hassley surprised me by being able to speak the local language. They had only single rooms with single beds, with only two rooms being left available. We each rented one and went upstairs to settle in. I was on the third floor and she was on the second She did not like being so far from me, but I assured her that I would be fine.

As we reached the second floor, she turned to me; “Do you smell that?”

“Smell what?” I asked, knowing full well what it was.

“Don’t you smell it? Smells like, uh, spices or something. Somebody must be cooking or something.” she said, scrunching up her nose and heading down the hall.

“I’ll see you in the morning” she said, “and remember to keep your door locked, OK?”

I nodded and started up the last set of stairs. I could have told her what the aroma was; I had smelled that all too often running around with my father. It is the smell found when a hermetically sealed casket is opened for the first time in thousands of years, exposing the mummies wrapped in rust-colored linens and smelling of the ghosts of cinnamon, myrrh, and spikenard.

When I opened the door to my room, the smell of the funeral spices of ancient Egyptian tombs was almost overpowering.

No… no I am not going to tell you that a beautiful Egyptian princess of the days of Rah was waiting for me in the darkness, nor am I going to tell you that the mysterious girl was waiting there for me. This isn’t a ghost story; it’s a true story. There wasn’t anyone in the room. I turned on the lights and opened the window... there was no one in the room but myself.

After a few minutes, the smell dissipated and I went to bed.

The recording went quiet, except for the sound of Lowell breathing until he said, “That’s it now! That’s the end of chapter two. So, what do you think? Did you like the MP3 recording? Does it sound okay? If you want, I can try to record chapter three the same way, maybe make it better since this one is just something I set up kind of fast tonight to see if it would work.” There was silence again and then the recording stopped.

I had to log back into my email and let Lowell know what I thought of the file right away.

Lowell,

That was absolutely amazing! How did you make that file? What program did you use? I would love it if you could record chapter three the same way. It sounded great! I even heard you laughing at one point and I laughed too. How long will it take you to record chapter three? I’m going nuts here waiting to know what happens next in your story! Where did you learn all that stuff about mummies and Egypt? That was so cool! Did they really use those spices when they made mummies?

Simon

I paused a moment before sending that email. I thought about telling Lowell what had happened when Mom had seen the Pampers diaper, but in the end, I decided to just send it as is. No use making Lowell feel like he got me into trouble.

After sending the email, I logged back out of my email program, shut down my computer, and crawled into bed. I must have been really tired because I think I fell asleep almost instantly.

Next Installment:

Chapter 4 – Part 1 – Wednesday, March 03, 2004 – He no nuts, he cwazy!

** For the latest news on how each installment is coming along as well as answers to questions asked by other readers and so much more, visit me at www.talkhard.5u.com. As always, your thoughts matter to me very, very much, so please send any comments, questions, suggestions, or criticism to me at: [email protected] and I promise that I will reply personally to everyone that takes the time to write to me! **