Terry's Summer

	"Have fun, Terry," his mother said as she kissed him 
goodbye, an action that left him feeling more than slightly 
embarrassed in front of his two cousins. "Don't give your 
Aunt and Uncle too much trouble, OK?"
	Terry watched as the car pulled away, carrying his 
mother and father away for a long summer vacation, their 
first in years. Like most sixteen year olds, he wanted to 
believe himself far more grown-up than he actually was 
capable of being. He tried to pretend that he didn't need 
them any more, and that these next two months would be a 
lark, but discovered that he actually had tears in his eyes. 
	Jesus! What an idiot I am, he thought. It's not as if 
I'm never going to see them again. He wiped the trace of 
moisture away before anyone could see it, and turned, 
smiling, to these relatives with whom he would spend the 
summer. 
	Aunt Mary and Uncle John both worked, and he knew he 
would not see much of them, but he looked forward to 
spending time with his cousin Bill, only a year younger than 
him. Janet he could do without, but he knew from past 
occasions when the families vacationed together that his 
twelve-year-old cousin would insinuate herself in 
practically everything that the boys would do, so he decided 
just to make the best of it. Maybe she was old enough not to 
be such a pest anymore.
	The first few weeks were every bit as much fun as Terry 
had hoped they would be. Bill and he played tennis, biked, 
and swam over at the lake; Janet usually came along too, but 
she did have other friends around, and, he discovered with 
some relief, she indeed had grown a bit and was not as much 
of a pain as she had been only a year or two earlier. 
	Early in July, though, Bill took sick. Aunt Mary had a 
doctor come in to look at him, a real Marcus Welby type, 
complete with a black bag. Terry had seen such things on old 
TV shows, but he could hardly believe that this guy was 
real. Life in small towns was surely a lot different than 
what he was used to in the city. 
	Bill's illness wasn't life-threatening, as it turned 
out, but it was serious enough to curtail his activities for 
several weeks, and he slept almost all the time. He was 
forced to stay in bed, even when he was not sleeping, and 
Aunt Mary kept careful watch on his condition. She even took 
time off her job as an assistant at the town's small 
hospital to take care of her son. Dr. Welby had told her 
that he needed to be monitored regularly, in case any 
problems should develop. She believed him when he said that 
there was no reason to fear, but his caution did make her 
tense.
	Terry and Janet went riding together a couple of times, 
but it was never the same without Bill, so Terry found 
himself staying home a lot, despite the tension in the air. 
He began watching a lot of television and sleeping very 
late. His aunt mentioned it a few times, but he shrugged it 
off, and she never really confronted him; she was too busy 
worrying about Bill, who was not improving as rapidly as she 
had been told that he would. One afternoon, as Terry was 
lazily fishing for something to wear, Aunt Mary came into 
the room that he shared with Bill carrying a tray. She was 
irritated to find him still in his pajamas.
	"Terry," she said, "can't you do something to help out 
around here instead of sleeping until lunch time?"
	 Terry indicated his cousin, lying quietly on the bed. 
"I'm just waiting for Bill to improve," he said.
	 "Bill would improve a lot more quickly, young man, if 
you eased the situation here by being helpful instead of 
making it worse by being selfish. Honestly, I don't 
understand you. I thought you were such a joy for the first 
few weeks, but ever since your cousin has been sick all 
you've been doing is moping and lying around; you act just 
like a baby."
	Terry didn't know what to say, and his aunt had begun 
busying herself with something or other for Bill, so he 
returned to his apparel search, hoping that she would just 
go away. When he had finally found something, and she had 
not left, he decided to change elsewhere. Turning to leave, 
he saw for the first time what she was doing. She was taking 
Bill's temperature, and she was using a rectal thermometer.
	 Terry dropped his clothing, he was so surprised, and 
he couldn't suppress a small chuckle. Aunt Mary, apparently 
through with her business, turned around suddenly.
	"What are you laughing at, young man?" she asked.
	He smiled. "Nothing."
	"There's no laughter in nothing. What do you think is 
so funny about Bill's condition?"
	His cousin said nothing; he was probably too 
embarrassed about being seen that way, Terry thought. Aunt 
Mary kept pressing for an answer, refusing to leave him 
alone when all he wanted was to leave. Finally, he blurted 
out, "It's just very silly, that's all. You're taking his 
temperature as if he was a baby! I'm sorry, OK? It just 
seemed funny."
	"How dare you laugh at your cousin's condition!" She 
stared at him for a moment. "You know, I've been wondering 
lately if perhaps you might be coming down with whatever it 
is that Bill has. You've been sleeping a lot, and you look a 
bit pale. I think we need to take your temperature too."
	Catching the glint in her eye, he immediately shot 
back, "Not in the rear, you don't."
	"You can take it any way you want, Terry, but I would 
like to make sure you are not sick. Now come here and get on 
the bed."
	Terry wanted to do just about anything else, but he 
obeyed his aunt for the sake of harmony. "As long as I can 
take it in the mouth," he said.
	"Sure," she replied, hovering over him. "You can have 
it in the mouth or in the rear, as you choose." She smiled, 
and something about it made Terry a bit uneasy. "But, 
whichever you choose, you're going to have to use the same 
thermometer Bill just used; it's the only one we've got."
	He stared at the thermometer which had so recently been 
in the backside of his cousin. Bill, who had been lying in 
bed listlessly, watched him from across the bedroom. His 
aunt continued to hover over him with the thermometer; there 
was no escaping it. 
	 "All right," he said so quietly she almost could not 
hear him. "In the rear."
	"Good. Now roll over," she commanded, and she swiftly 
had the thing inserted into a place he had thought she never 
would even see. Terry lay still for several long minutes, 
until he felt her remove the thing from his rear. He reached 
down to pull up his pajama bottoms, but her voice stopped 
him.
	"No, Terry," she said. "You do seem to have a bit of a 
temperature, and your listless behavior might indicate that 
you're getting this thing too. I think I'd better at least 
do for you what we did for Bill at the start." 
	 She called out into the house. "Janet, bring me the 
enema bag for Terry."
	Terry had no idea what an enema was, and he was not at 
all sure he like the sound of the word.
	"What's an enema?" 
	 "Something to help clean out your system," she 
responded as Janet entered the room. "Fill it with warm 
water, will you, dear?" she said to her daughter. Janet 
looked at Terry and smiled before she left.
	Janet re-entered a minute later carrying a rubber bag 
with a hose. Her mother asked her to come in to assist her, 
and Terry quickly found himself on the receiving end of a 
highly embarrassing two-quart enema.
	When it was all over, and he had expelled the enema in 
the customary way, he lay red-faced on the bed, stunned at 
what had just transpired. His aunt came back into the room, 
carrying some white cloth. She pulled down his covers and, 
before he could even react, slid it beneath him as he lay on 
his back.
	"What is this?" he demanded.
	"Just something to help contain any more of the enema 
that might be in there."
	Deftly, she pulled the cloth between his legs, and only 
then did he realize that it was a diaper. 
	"Oh, no," he cried. "No way!" He ripped the diaper out 
from beneath him, irritated and confused by his aunt's 
actions.
	Suddenly, his agitated temperament turned to anguish, 
as, before he could even begin to control it, more of the 
enema exploded onto the bed. The room reeked. His aunt 
looked at him reprovingly.
	"You've been acting like a baby lately, Terry, and this 
is the last straw. I can't believe that you would let this 
happen."
	He tried to explain to her that maybe it happened 
because she had done this to him with no reason or warnings, 
but she was not listening. She called out to Janet, and 
Terry found himself subjected to being cleaned up by his 
young cousin. Then his aunt pinned him into another diaper.
	"You will keep it on this time," she said, and left the 
room. Terry lay on the bed in nothing but a diaper. Bill, 
still weak from his illness, looked at him but didn't say 
anything. Terry would have pulled a sheet over himself, but 
there were none; he had soiled them. Then the door opened 
and Janet walked back into the room carrying sheets. Terry 
tried to hide his diapered body, but there was no place to 
go.
	 "It's OK, Terry," she said. "I'm just going to change 
the sheets for you." 
	He looked at her, very embarrassed. Then he remembered 
that she had helped clean him off before, and he suddenly 
couldn't look at her anymore. He stood in his diaper while 
Janet made his bed. As he watched, he became aware of a new 
terrible pain in his bowels; almost with no warning, 
whatever was left of the enema erupted into his diaper. He 
doubled over with the suddenness of the expulsion. Janet 
looked up, having heard as well as smelled his problem.
	"Oh God," she said, "not again." She called to her 
mother. "He's messed himself again!"
	Aunt Mary called up the stairs. "I'm in the middle of 
something, Janet; can you change him?"
	Terry stood there in a messy diaper, incapable of even 
summoning an argument. Meekly, he submitted to the change. 
After what he had already been through, it seemed almost 
natural. And he felt so tired that it didn't seem to matter. 
Then he climbed into his bed and went to sleep.
	When he woke up, Aunt Mary was there with Dr. Welby. 
They told him that he had been ill for a couple of days, and 
that he had been sleeping so soundly that he had required a 
couple of diaper changes, and he had not even awakened 
during them. The doctor smiled as he said that Terry was out 
of the woods, that he would be fine, and that he should be a 
"good baby" for his "auntie."
	All of the rest of the summer, Terry was treated like a 
baby.  Aunt Mary would not let him out of the diapers, and 
even Bill, after he got well, got into the act of babying 
him. They made him some play clothes in babyish styles and 
some Dr. Denton-style pajamas, with feet, and kept him in 
these things--and in diapers--twenty-four hours a day. They 
took turns spoon-feeding him and made him drink from a 
bottle, and all of his eliminations were into the diapers. 
Forced to wear the diapers, and weakened by the disease, he 
found himself losing control completely. By the end of July, 
he realized that he actually needed the diapers. And then 
there was a new problem: his parents would be back soon. But 
that, at least would end this horrible experience. And he 
consoled himself with the thought of how angry they would be 
with his aunt for having done this to him.
	On the day his parents arrived, he overslept. When he 
awoke, soaking wet, and heard their voices, he scrambled to 
the stairs to tell them what these people had done to him. 
But his mother and his aunt were already talking, and, as he 
reached the stairway in his Dr. Denton's, he was shocked to 
hear his mother say in a completely calm voice, "Do you have 
extra diapers I can use?"
	He ran down the stairway to protest, but his mother 
just hugged him and said, "Don't worry, Terry; Mommy will 
handle everything." She patted his behind. "You're wet, 
aren't you?" Then, having him lie down right on the living 
room floor, she changed him as if he were two years old.
	Terry's life changed forever that summer. He spent 
every minute from then on in diapers. His friends at school 
did not know why he was exempted from gym class, but Terry 
needed to be changed twice a day by the school nurse and 
spent his afternoons in the house with his mother. When he 
graduated from high school, many of his classmates decided 
to go buff under their robes. Terry did also, but not quite: 
he wore only a diaper under his. When he brought his fiancee 
home to meet his parents, it embarrassed him when his mother 
began to tell her all about how best to feed and change him, 
and what kind of plastic pants were best. But when the 
ceremony came, he was of course wearing diapers under his 
tux. And when his daughter was born, Terry's wife had two 
babies to take care of. She would just lay them both side by 
side on the bed and change one after the other, then give 
them their bottles before doing her chores. 
	Lying there one day, he worried about a time when his 
daughter would be out of diapers and he would still be in 
them. And he worried about her teenage years, that his wife, 
or his mother, who still changed him when she visited, would 
enlist his daughter to help with his diapers. But there was 
nothing he could do about it, so for now he just rolled 
over, sucked on his bottle, and went to sleep.
	The End

	(baby k)