Homeless Baby

Chapter One     

	It was a beautiful room, I spent thousands of dollars 
making the perfect  nursery for the twins. I even bought an 
extra large hospital style crib so  they could sleep 
together even when they got bigger, but not big enough for  
beds.   
	The room was all decorated in pastel blues, with blocks 
and cars and other  baby boy toys everywhere. It would have 
made a great nursery, if the twins  hadn't of died at birth.  
	I didn't have the heart to change the room, always 
hopeful that I  would someday get the baby boy I dreamed of. 
But with my husband gone, gone  off with his secretary, that 
seemed hopeless, until one morning.  
	For some reason I still don't recall I went in the 
nursery and was shocked  to fine a boy sleeping in the crib. 
He had to be at least 8 or 9, but the  large size crib held 
him comfortably. The window was open and that was clear  how 
he had gotten it. He looked harmless enough, so I went over 
to the crib. 
	I gently shook him until he woke up. He was groggy at 
first but when he  finally focused his eyes, he screamed and 
tried to run away. I grabbed him,  and stopped his escape. 
"Wait, who are you?" He struggled to get loose but  soon 
found I had to firm a grasp on him. Finally he stopped 
trying to escape  and looked down at the ground. "Mark" he 
said shyly, barely audible. "Mark,  what are you doing 
here." I saw a tear roll down his left cheek as he replied 
	"I'm sorry, I just needed a place to sleep, and I was 
going by your house and  I saw this crib was empty, I'm 
sorry, I won't do it again, please let me go"  He was still 
talking softly and staring at the ground. Tears were slowly  
rolling down both cheeks, the sight of this poor boy made me 
want to cry. 
	"Mark, where do you live, where are you parents" He 
started to cry harder now  and I moved my arms from a firm 
grasp to a tight hug, holding him against me. 
	"My mom's dead, don't know where my dad is" He said 
between his tears. "Where  have you been living?" Mark was 
growing more upset with each question, but I  had to keep 
pushing for answers. "No where, I don't have a home. My mom 
and  me were living in our car, but we got in an accident 
and....well I ran away  cause they would have put me in an 
orphanage. I tried to pull mom out of the  car, but I 
couldn't she was stuck and she wasn't moving. The sirens 
were  getting close so I ran into the woods, and then..." He 
stopped talking as he  could no longer speak he was crying 
so hard. I waited a few minutes before  asking "then what 
Mark?" He wiped the tears from his eyes and in a whisper  
said. "The car blew up. They think I did it in the car with 
her" I held him  tight and let him cry into my shoulder. 
When he was calm enough to hear me I  told him. "mark, do 
you want to stay here and live with me, I'm afraid this  is 
the only bedroom I have for you, but I guess we could change 
it." Mark  thought about it for a minute, and pulled back 
from me, sitting on the edge  of the crib, staring at the 
floor again. "I kinda like it this way" he said  as if he 
was ashamed of it. "So do I Mark, we won't touch it." I went 
to hug  him again, and that's when I first noticed that the 
crib sheets were wet. I  looked at Mark and his dirty jeans 
were also wet, and so was my shirt from  holding him. Mark 
saw my looking at him and started to cry again. "I'm sorry, 
	"I do that a lot, do you want me to leave?" I held him 
close unconcerned with  his wetness at the time. "No, we can 
take care of that. Why don't you lay  back down for a while 
okay?" He looked a little nervous, but he did lay back  on 
the crib mattress and pulled one of the blankets over 
himself. "no, that's  all wet Mark, Let me get you some dry 
ones. Why don't you take those dirty  wet clothes off, I'll 
find something for you to wear. I left him to get some  dry 
blankets and found an old night shirt of my X-husbands for 
him to wear,  it was way to big for him and I had to use 
safety pins to make the neck  smaller so it wouldn't slip 
right off him. I left him to rest wearing only  the 
nightshirt. I had some calls to make.   

Chapter Two    

	"Mark, Wake up honey." Mark sat up and rubbed the sleep 
from his eyes, he  was still tired and hadn't slept in such 
a soft bed for as long as he could  remember. "Mark, this is 
Dr. Ross, she's going to make sure your nice and  healthy 
and give you some shots you need to stay that way. Mark 
jumped up in  the crib and started to protest and cry. "No, 
I don't want any shots, Please  no" I held him close to me 
and calmed him down. Rather than fight him to get  the 
shots, I just held him tight and with my hand raised his 
nightshirt up  exposing his bare bottom, and Dr. Ross 
quickly gave him the first shot. 
	Mark  started to cry louder and held me tighter, but 
didn't try to fight it. The  other two shots he needed were 
given to him, and I held him a little longer  until he was 
sure she was done, and wouldn't stick him again. I laid him 
down  in the crib, and backed away so Dr. Ross could examine 
him. Mark was shaking  and it was obvious it had been a long 
time since he had seen a doctor. Dr.  Ross found that he was 
basically fine, but she noticed a scar on his tummy,  about 
where his bladder would be. That's when I informed her of 
his earlier  accident. She asked him about it more and found 
out that Mark had been  wetting himself since the accident, 
and he was hurt in the accident, but  never saw a doctor.   
	It was then we learned that he must have torn his 
bladder in the car  accident and would continue to have 
accidents forever. Dr. Ross and I  discussed the options we 
had away from Mark, and it was clear we only had one  
option. I went in to talk to Mark about it. "Mark, I know 
this is hard, but  your going to have to wear diapers to 
keep from wetting yourself." Mark just  nodded like he had 
figured that out a long time ago and stared blankly at the  
floor. "Mark, do you have anything to say?" Mark thought for 
a minute, then  looked right into my eyes as a fresh tear 
rolled down his cheek. "Will you be  my new mommy" I hugged 
him as tight as I could and told him I would be happy  to be 
his mommy. "And my first official act as your mommy is to 
get you in  the tub, when was the last time you had a bath?" 
Mark didn't answer, which  told me it had been a long time. 
I Carried him to the bathroom and sat him on  the sink 
counter while I filled the tub and added some bubble bath 
for him.  "Do you want me to leave you alone?" I asked him 
trying to respect his  privacy. "Please don't...I...I uh.... 
I don't know what to do" he said as he  started to cry from 
a feeling of helplessness. It was quite obvious it had  been 
longer than I originally thought sine he had a bath, I 
figured that his  mother most likely bathed him up until 
they had to live in the car so he had  never bathed himself. 
	I helped him into the tub and gave him a good 
scrubbing, before long his  nervousness turned to 
playfulness as he splashed in the water and played  with the 
bubbles. I spent a good fifteen minutes washing his long 
brown dirty  tangled hair. He whined a little as I struggled 
to free some of the tangles. 
	With his hair finally done, and most of his body clean 
I had to move to what  I knew would be embarrassing to him. 
I had him stand and cleaned his backside  well, and then 
turned him around to wash his front. Years of peeing his 
pants  had caused him to have a fairly bad rash and he cried 
softly trying to be  brave although I knew it stung rather 
bad. Finally done, I carefully dried  him off, and took him 
to my room. 
	I found some more clothes belonging to my X-husband and 
this time found a  T-shirt for Mark to wear. At his small 
height the T-shirt came down to his  ankles, which was goon 
seeing as I had no other clothes for him, his were  worn and 
had holes, and were also dirty and smelled of urine. I threw 
them  out not bothering to try to wash them. I took Mark out 
to the car so we could  go to get him some clothes.   

Chapter Three    

	Our first stop was at the local pharmacy, I consulted 
the pharmacist and  he recommended a brand of diapers that 
were made in sizes for older kids. I  bought two bags, and 
also some socks they had that would fit him. I paid for  the 
purchases and opened the bag of socks. I sat Mark on the 
counter as I  handed him a pair of clean white socks, and he 
put them on his bare feet. 
	The  look on his face showed that he was thrilled to 
have nice clean socks.   I also opened one of the two bags 
of diapers and pulled one of the crisp  disposables from the 
bag. "Do you..." The pharmacist pointed to a door and  told 
me there was a couch in back I could use. I thanked him and 
left my bags  on the counter, picked Mark up and carried him 
into the back room. I found  the couch and laid Mark on it. 
He pulled his shirt up to his chest to make it  easy for me, 
and also I think to tell me it was okay to diaper him. I had  
never actually diapered anyone before, but I managed to do a 
good job. I  stood Mark up and he pulled his T-shirt down. 
You couldn't tell he was  diapered, but you could certainly 
hear it when he walked. This didn't seem to  bother Mark, 
and it seemed to me he had already accepted it as a fact of  
life. I grabbed our bags and went on our way to Wal Mart to 
get him some  clothes that would fit.  
	Mark was wide eyed as we walked through the boys 
section. He was quite  happy and it was obviously like 
Christmas to him to be able to pick out nice  new clothes. 
WE got at least a dozen shirts, and 6 or so pairs of pants 
and  some play clothes as well. We got 2 dozen more pairs of 
socks and I let him  pick out some PJ's to wear to bed. Much 
to my surprise he went right to the  rack with footed 
sleepers on it. "My mommy used to put me in these" he said. 
	I held one up I thought was cute and asked him what he 
thought. He said "I  like it, but I think you should get 
this one" It looked the same to me so I  asked him why. 
"Cause this one has buttons...see (pointing out the snaps in  
the crotch) so you can, you know" I realized what he meant 
and thanked him  for thinking of it. We picked out 4 
sleepers with snap crotches in different  colors and then 
for an extra surprise I took him to the toy department and  
let him pick out a stuffed animal to sleep with and a few 
toys to play with.  
	In just under two hours we had spent 400 dollars, but 
that was nothing  really for a child's starting wardrobe. I 
would have to get him a lot more but  at east he had 
something to wear now.  
	I put the bags of clothes and toys in the trunk and 
decided to take mark  next door to the grocery store as I 
had nothing I thought a kid would eat. We  went down all the 
isles, he didn't seem interested in the candy or cookies or  
anything. We stopped in the baby isle to get some wipes and 
powder, and a thing  of Desatin to treat his rash, that's 
when he started picking things off the  shelf and putting 
them in the cart. "Baby food?" I asked him. He told me that  
baby food is all he has eaten since he's been on his own, 
because they are  only 40cents a jar and no one asked any 
questions when he bought them.  
	I told him he would have to start eating real food, and 
that I would be  making real meals for him, but after some 
pleading I agreed to let him get  some baby food to eat as 
snacks. He seemed to like the apple sauce and  banana 
pudding, as he grabbed more of them than anything else. 
"Anything  else?" I asked him. "Yeah, we need spoons" he 
told me. I told him I had  spoons at the house. "No, we need 
those spoons" He said pointing to the  Gerber rubber coated 
baby spoons. "Oh, the big ones won't fit in the jar will  
they?" Mark just smiled telling me I had guessed it, so I 
grabbed a couple  spoons and we left the baby isle. I got a 
gallon of Milk and some things to  make dinner from, and 
also returned to the cookie isle to get him some snacks  for 
later. We paid for the items and were finally ready to go 
home.   

Chapter Four  

	When we got back to the house I found that Mark had 
fallen asleep in the  car on the way home. He must be very 
tired, he had slept so much already and  he was sleeping 
again. I carefully carried him inside so as not to wake him  
and laid him in the crib. Then I returned to the car to 
bring in all the  bags, and put away all his new clothes. 
When they were all put away I kept  out one of the sleepers. 
I changed Mark's already wet diaper and managed to  get the 
sleeper on him. I covered him up real good with a blanket 
and put a  teddy bear under his arm, which he instinctively 
grasped tight close to him  as he rolled over in bed. I 
stood there just looking at that poor, adorable  kid, and 
said a silent prayer thanking god for my special gift. 
Expecting  Mark to sleep for a while I decided to get some 
more errands done. Just to be  sure he would be okay I 
raised the rail on the crib locking him in. I was  going to 
leave him a note but I didn't know if he could read or not, 
so I got  my mini-recorder and recorded the note and left 
the recorder next to him in  bed. 
	Mark had told me his last name earlier in the day and I 
had to check on  some things before I told anyone about my 
"son". I went to the library and  sure enough in the old 
news files I found the headline story "mother and Son  die 
in car wreck" Right in the story it said that they had been 
living in  their car to escape from Mark's father who was 
abusive to him and his mother.  That took care of the only 
loose end, so I knew it was safe to see a lawyer  about 
making Mark me legal son. 
	The lawyer told me he was sure I could easily adopt 
Mark as he had no  other family, he was presumed to be dead 
and he had for whatever reason ended  up in my arms asking 
me to be his mommy. 
	I did some more shopping to buy extra clothes for Mark 
and some new sheets  and blankets for his crib. Not sure of 
what he likes, I got him some Bugs  Bunny sheets, and also 
some solid colored ones. I was going to shop more, but  I 
was anxious to get back to my boy and not leave him alone 
for too long. 
	I got home and found Mark still in his crib asleep, I 
took the recorder  away and checked his diaper, which was 
damp but not wet enough to change yet.  It was getting late 
and I decided to go to bed myself as it had been a long  
day.   

Chapter Five   

	I was awakened to the sound of Mark crying loudly in 
his room. I looked at  the clock and saw it was one thirty 
in the morning. I put my robe on and went  to check on him. 
he was laying in bed awake, crying into his pillow. He  
jumped when I touched his shoulder and then hoped into my 
arms for a hug. I  asked him what was wrong, and he told me 
had a nightmare. I suggested he talk  about it so it 
wouldn't bother him any more. He looked both embarrassed and  
scared. "Can I tell you anything?" he asked with a deep 
stare in my eyes. I  assured him he could tell me anything 
he wanted to, and he suddenly just  started to put his heart 
out about how he ended up in my house. 
	He had been picked up by a business man passing through 
town. mark knew  what the man wanted and out of hunger and a 
need for some quick cash he went  with the man and allowed 
him to do sexual things to him. Mark hated every  second of 
it, but it was something he had to do to survive. When the 
man was  done, mark laid down in the back seat of the mans 
car and took a nap. When he  woke he found he had wet 
himself and the mans car, and when the man saw what  Mark 
had done, he threw him out of the car, without giving him 
the food and  money he had promised him. Cold, tired and 
hungry he walked down the street  looking in trash cans for 
food. My trash cans were right under the nursery  window and 
that's when he saw the empty crib. Giving up on finding 
food, he  climbed in the window and laid down for a nap. 
That's when I found him. 
	I figured he must really be starved by now and 
suggested we go to the  kitchen and get him something to 
eat. He followed behind me, holding my hand  and then sat at 
the table. I fixed him a bowl of oatmeal and gave him a 
spoon  to eat it with. He made a real mess of himself, 
having not had the chance to  be taught how to eat properly. 
He was used to baby food, and before that it  was mostly 
finger foods from drive through windows. Half way through I  
stopped him and cleaned his hands and face, and proceeded to 
feed him the rest  of the oatmeal myself. He really enjoyed 
the attention and quickly ate the  second half of the 
oatmeal. He had two more bowls that I fed to him before he  
was satisfied. It was then he said something I had suspected 
he wanted, but  wasn't sure till he said it. "I need your 
help" he said as tears started to  form in his eyes again." 
I don't know how to take care of myself." he started  to get 
choked up and sob as he admitted his lack of knowledge. 
Teaching him hot  to act and behave was something I had 
expected anyway so I assured him that  wouldn't be a 
problem. 
	 We continued to talk for a while, and I learned that 
he can read and  write, but that's about as far as he got. 
Also he has never been around other  kids and is scared to 
death to go to school. I would have to home school him,  
which was fine with me as I wanted to spend as much time as 
possible with  him. 
	I cleaned up the kitchen while Mark sat still in his 
chair. He was still  nervous about just moving around the 
house, no matter how many times I had  told him it was his 
home now. I led him back to bed and before I had him  tucked 
in he was asleep again.    

Chapter Six     

	Mark slept for two and a half days before he woke up 
again. In that time I  kept him dry and treated his rash. I 
fed him with a baby bottle just so he  wouldn't be too 
hungry again. When he woke up he seemed to finally be well  
rested and seemed to be in a great mood. I changed his 
diaper for him and let  him pick out his clothes to wear for 
the day. I sent him downstairs to play  and watch TV while I 
made his bad and gathered his laundry to be washed. 
	I found Mark sitting playing with a big pile of Lego 
blocks while  watching Barney and friends. As much as a 
despise that demented purple  dino, I said nothing and left 
him to his playing.......   
	Things got better as time went on. Mark got up every 
morning at a more  reasonable time, I started teaching him 
as he was afraid of school. Before  long he was legally my 
son, and we loved each other very much. He still sleeps  in 
the crib, he says it makes him feel better when he has a 
nightmare. Maybe he  always will, I don't mind, I like 
having a baby boy to care for.