Saving Blake

-A Work-In-Progress by Dan

Author's Note: This story, while fiction, is based on a real friend of mine who is (sadly) no longer here. This is the interpretation of a dream I had a few nights before the 4th anniversary of his death. A lot of it didn't make sense to me until I began writing it down. Blake, this one's for you.

Prologue (February, 2000):

It had been eight months since the tragedy. A nuclear power plant under construction in central Kansas had a major meltdown and killed nearly everyone within a 40-mile radius. The fallout sirens blared across the state. The local TV stations were stressing that everyone should remain indoors until things were deemed safe. A 150-mile radius was declared 'unlivable' due to high radiation readings. Everyone within that area was quarantined for several weeks to determine who had radiation poisoning and who didn’t. Thankfully since my town was about 65 miles from the disaster, no one had been poisoned. Since nobody could live in the 'dead zone', for years to come, everyone (500,000 people) who had lived in the area was relocated. Entire cities of people were moved to other ones who could accommodate the now homeless residents. Everyone in my city (15,000 people) was moved to Santa Barbara, California. The government and the company building the nuclear plant covered all the expenses: new homes, vehicles, clothes, and so on. Each family was also given $100,000 for living expenses.

My family was given a new 6-bedroom home, which was twice as big as the one we had back in Kansas. My best friend Blake and his family had moved into the house next door. He and I had been friends since the second grade. He was a new kid that year and was really shy. At recess I walked over to him and asked if he wanted a friend. He smiled and said yes so I sat down next to him and we got to know each other. He said that his dad had just gotten him the coolest thing called a PlayStation. He invited me over to play it and I told him I'd have to ask my mom. I had never seen a PlayStation up close so after school I begged my mom to let me go over to his house, which was only two blocks away. When she realized I wasn't going to stop asking her she said yes. When I got to Blake's house, he answered the door and led me to his bedroom. His room was huge! Every inch of the wall was covered by photos of him, his friends, and his family. I couldn't believe he had his own room. I had to share with my brother who was two years younger than I was. We played video games until my mom came to get me that evening just before supper. I played with Blake every day that week and on Friday he asked me if I wanted to stay the night. I called my mom and she said yes and that she'd bring over some clothes for me to wear the next day. That was the first time I had been allowed to stay up past 9pm (my parents were pretty strict about bedtime). I had a blast and had him over to stay the night the next weekend.

Blake and I became inseparable almost immediately. When I started wetting the bed a few months later, I suddenly stopped accepting his invitations to stay the night. I was totally embarrassed and my parents decided (with the help of my pediatrician) that it was just a phase and act like it didn't happen. This meant me waking up every morning in wet sheets. I would take a quick shower and go to school. While I was at school mom washed my bedding and replaced it. This went on for a few weeks and Blake was getting upset. He asked me at school one day if I didn't like him anymore. I told him that we were still best friends but I just didn't want to stay the night anymore. When he asked me why I started crying. I told him I wet the bed and he told me that it wasn't a big deal because he wet the bed too sometimes. He asked me what my parents did for it and I told him that Mom just washes my sheets. Blake told me that his mom had started buying him Pull-Ups to wear at night and that if I wanted to I could wear one too if I agreed to sleep over. I told him that I liked that idea and we planned our next sleepover. When I told my mom about it she asked me what I'd do about my bedwetting. I told her that Blake knew about it and was a bedwetter too. I went over to his house that Friday after school and we played PlayStation until his mom told us to get ready for bed. Blake had told her about my bedwetting so when she got out a Pull-Up for him; she grabbed a second one for me. I took it to the bathroom and put it on. It felt like thick underwear. That was the first time I woke up in a dry bed in weeks. I began to like the Pull-Ups and told my mom about them. She agreed to buy some for me and I wore them until I stopped wetting at age 12. Blake stopped a few months after me, or so I thought.

Chapter 1:

"All right, this next song's for my buddy Blake. Sing along if you know it.

"Some times in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow but if we are wise we know that there's always tomorrow. Lean on me, when you're not strong and I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on for it won't be long 'till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.

"Hey, who's got the annoying alarm clock? I'm trying to sing..."

I hate waking up in the middle of a really great dream. I reached over and hit the snooze button on the alarm clock. I'd been having the same one off and on for the past few weeks and couldn't figure out what it meant. The song "Lean on Me" was a great theme for my friendship with Blake. We'd been best friends for six years and both of us had had difficult times where the other would be there for emotional support. First was the bedwetting, then Blake's parents had divorced a year ago this march, then the meltdown. For only being 14 going on 15, we'd been through a lot but our friendship only strengthened. Blake was the first person I told I was gay. That had been quite an emotional time for me last fall. After I gathered up the guts to tell him, he just reached over and gave me a hug and told me it was all right. "I don't care if you're into dudes or chicks. Just so long as you're happy." he told me while I was crying hard enough to fill the swimming pool out back.

The alarm clock snapped me out of my daydream. God, that thing was annoying. My brother liked to turn the volume all the way up for fun. That thing could wake up the entire state of California! I made a mental note to get a new alarm clock with a CD player built in. When I shut off the alarm clock I realized I had another migraine. Stupid migraines! About a month after the meltdown, I began getting several migraines a week. The doctors said it was a result of being exposed to nuclear radiation. I just love modern technology. I got up and went into my bathroom and got out a bottle of Excedrin and took two pills. This migraine wasn't as bad as they normally are so I decided to toughen up and get ready for school. Usually when I get a migraine it's so bad I can't even see straight. After picking out my wardrobe I went downstairs to see what there was to eat for breakfast. My mom's not a morning person so that means if we want breakfast, we have to make it ourselves. After looking in the cabinets I decide to have the usual: strawberry Pop Tarts and a glass of orange juice. When I finished eating I realized that I had two hours before school started so I decided to finish an English paper that was due the next day. I tend to be a bit bizarre when it comes to homework. Some days I procrastinate like there's no tomorrow and other days I overachieve. Blake likes to pick on me because of this. He doesn't have much room to talk though because he is a total procrastinator. He knows just how long he can put something off before he gets into trouble.

Thirty minutes later when I finished the paper I decided to call Blake to make sure he's getting ready. He's got to have the worst attendance record at Woodrow Wilson High. Well, I guess that's not completely true. There is this one kid who's gone all the time because he's always being cast in movies and the like. He's gone so much I don't even know his name. Oops, I'm digressing. Back to the subject.

Blake's mom answered the phone and said that she's not having any luck getting Blake up and suggested that I might be able to persuade him to get up. I told her that I'd be right over. She let me in and said she appreciated me coming over. I told her that it wasn't a problem and that I can be pretty persuasive when I want to be. She just laughed and went to prepare breakfast.

I went upstairs to Blake's room and noticed that the door was standing open. I walked in without knocking so I could surprise him. I walked over to his bed and pulled his blanket off the bed. When I looked down I noticed that Blake wasn't wearing a shirt. Man, I just love looking at him. He's perfect. He has a hard time believing this though because he's pretty small for his age. While the average freshman at our high school was 5'6" or taller, Blake was just over 5'. Due to his height he tends to be pretty self-conscious. I sat down on the side of his bed and reached over and messed up his hair. He hates this and reached up and slapped my hand away and told me to leave him alone. If he's going to be difficult I decided I'd have to be just as difficult.

"Dude Blake come on, get up!"

"You can't make me," was his response.

"You wanna bet?"

With that I reached down and began to tickle him. This immediately caused him to squirm and roll over. When he did, his shorts slid down just enough to reveal the waistband of his 'tighty whities'. Instead of seeing the waistband of a pair of underwear, I saw the top of a Pull-Up. "Man," I thought to myself, "I thought he stopped wetting right after I did. If he did then why is he wearing a Pull-Up?"

I decided to ask him about it. "Hey Blake, why are you wearing a Pull-Up?"

Immediately he reached for his blanket and yelled "Crap! I didn't want you to find out. I've been wetting the bed for the past several months so Mom started buying me Pull-Ups again."

"Dude, that's cool! I told my mom that I wanted to wear them again and she said since I don't wet the bed anymore she didn't see the point." I was totally floored that my best friend was wearing Pull-Ups again. "By the way, you look pretty cute in them. Can I wear one to school today?"

"You want to wear one to school? Sure, I guess I could lend you one. He went over to his dresser and grabbed one out of his top drawer and handed it to me. "Wait, did you just say I was cute?"

Crap, I didn't know what to say. What if he freaked out when he found out I had a crush on him? Would he still be my friend? Without thinking, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "Yea I guess."

Blake pondered this for a moment and said, "Gee, thanks. I'm sure you're pretty cute in them too. Put it on so we can find out."

I put the Pull-Up on and he looked me over. "Yup, I was right. You're pretty cute too."

This statement caused me to blush and after a few minutes of awkward silence, I said, "Well, I guess we better get dressed so we're not late to school. By the way, you're mom should be almost done making breakfast now."

After Blake changed into a dry Pull-Up we both got dressed and went downstairs. Blake's mom invited me to stay for breakfast to say thanks for my help with Blake. I accepted and we ate a great breakfast and grabbed our bags and made our way to the bus stop to wait for the school bus.

When we sat down to wait, Blake looked at me and asked, "do you think anyone else at school wears diapers?"

"I don't know Blake. I guess we'll find out eventually if we're lucky."

...To Be Continued...

Sorry I can't post the rest of the story right now. My computer is acting up. I hope to have it up as soon as possible but since I'm moving out of state, it may be a while before I get access to the internet. I'll try my best!--dan