A novel by Danny
Chapter 1
So, you’ve come back for more, have you? Well
that’s good because I have more to tell about myself. For those of you that
don’t know who I am, my name is Alvin Holloway. Several months ago I used to
live in a beautiful
Gee-whiz, how do I tell you about my new
friends? I guess there is no other option then to come right out and tell
you... I’ve become friends with six
Stacks is a freshman girl at my school but
that isn’t her real name, it’s just a nickname she picked up from playing hockey
which she is really good at. Her real name is Hillary Thennings but so far I’ve
only ever heard her being called that by her parents, everyone else just calls
her Stacks. Her step dad, Mr. Rawnwe, runs a famous French restaurant here in
Stacks’ has a younger step-sister named
Bertha and let me tell you that... well, how does someone go about describing a
girl like Bertha? She’s a unique piece of work in her own right. Though Bertha
says she isn’t into Goth, she sure dresses and acts like she is. She’s also
very anti-bathing, anti-deodorant and anything else that might make her more
palatable to the rest of the world. I found out recently that Bertha is a year
older than I am, but she is in the same grade due to being held back in fifth
grade. Lots of people consider Bertha a bully and the leader of the worst
bullies in our school but there is so much more to her than that. Bertha,
though cruel at times, has a tender and emotional side that only her closest
friends get a glimpse of every so often. She’s also madly in love with Larry.
There was a time earlier this year where Larry and I ended up competing for the
right to call Bertha our girlfriend, which is really weird because I didn’t
then nor do I now have any of those sorts of lovey-dovey feelings toward
Bertha. Actually, that idea is rather nauseating for me.
I guess you could say that Larry, who is also
my age is like the second in command of our schools bully gang; although, until
recently he’s not been doing a whole lot of bullying. You see, a while back he
and I got into a fight. We both got banged up but he came out on the loosing
end with a badly broken leg. He was in a cast for the better part of the year
and has had two operations. He’s got a metal plate and screws in his leg now
and about a month ago he finally got rid of his wheelchair and was allowed to
use crutches full time. When he was in the chair he seemed a lot more humble,
or maybe the word should be pathetic, but now that he is up and about, he’s
back to his normal evil self. Then again, he wouldn’t be Larry if he stayed a
nice guy the rest of his life. It was shortly after our fight that I learned
that Larry wears diapers too however he’s not a member of ILD.com. Larry keeps
his wetting problem very secretive. As a matter of fact, aside from Stacks and
me, no one outside of his family knows and Larry doesn’t even know that I know.
However, Larry knows about me wearing them but he doesn’t ever bring it up now
that we’re such good friends. Actually, there was this one day about two weeks
ago when I had a diaper failure in English class. Larry helped smuggle me to
the nurse’s office without anyone finding out. That was one of his rare good
moments.
I guess if I am telling you about Larry, then
logic says I should tell you next about his twin brother Christian or Chris as
he prefers to be called. Actually, Chris HATES
being called by his real name. Although Larry and Chris are twins they look and
act nothing alike. Whereas Larry is outgoing and always getting into trouble,
Chris is quiet and most of the time goes unnoticed by everyone around him. The
main reason Chris is so quiet is because he has a really bad stuttering problem
and because of that, he almost never talks. Oddly though, Chris can sing like
nobody’s business and he’s an amazingly good drummer too. He and his band, The
Glass Gloves, played at my twelfth birthday party and boy can they rock. Chris
and Larry were both born prematurely with underdeveloped organs. For Larry it’s
just his plumbing, I mean like his kidneys and bladder; but Chris, has a lot of
other problems besides his plumbing such as his lungs and his guts and stuff
like that. However, when Chris wasn’t even one-year-old he had an operation
that partially fixed his lungs. He’s allergic to just about everything you can
imagine, he sleeps in an oxygen tent at night and takes like a hundred
different pills everyday. Besides all that, he’s basically a normal guy like me.
There is one other thing about Chris; I’m sure you’ve already guessed that he
wears diapers too, but unlike his twin brother he is a member of ILD.com,
though he doesn’t like people in the real world to know about it. Actually,
only Stacks and I know that he is really Wet_Dwaggy on ILD.com; not even his
brother knows about that site, which is amazing in and of itself. Besides the
fact that they are twin brothers, Chris and Larry have very little to do with
each other. Chris has become my best friend in the whole wide world although we
almost never were friends. When I first found out about his needing to wear
diapers Chris was mortified and it took Stacks, forcing the two of us to talk
one day after school to get us past that. She had locked the three of us inside
the nurses’ office at the end of the day and wouldn’t let us leave until Chris
and I were friends. From then on Chris and I have been best of buds. At school
we don’t hang together very much because he doesn’t like being seen with his
brother but when we are not at school we hang out together all the time. For
obvious reasons he can’t sleep over with me but I’ve slept over at his place a
few times. He and I had planned ahead and didn’t tell his parents about my
wetting problem at night; we kept that a secret just between the two of us. The
few times I have slept over, I have made sure I got changed at home before
going there and I just slept in my clothes in a sleeping bag on the floor. Then
the last time I stayed over I took my stuff with me and after having my bath
Chris helped me get diapered in the bathroom.
My other two friends who basically live in
Larry’s shadow are BB and Fish. BB, whose real name is Bruce Spawlding Junior,
is actually the exact same age as me. We only discovered that about ourselves
when I invited him to my birthday party. The party ended up being a double
party, mostly because Bruce’s parents hardly ever remember his birthday.
However, we’ve since learned that I am older by thirteen hours and twenty-seven
minutes, a fact that I remind him about every chance I get. BB is also a member
of ILD.com and is known as BB-N2-TB-DL but also goes by the name Baby Bruce.
And yes, you guessed it; he’s a diaper wearer too. Although, unlike the rest of
us he doesn’t need to wear them; he only wears them because he likes them. I
know... it took me a while to get used to that idea too. Another fact about BB
is that he is gay and doesn’t care who knows it. I guess he can get away with
that because he hangs around with the likes of Bertha and Larry and no one is
going to risk getting on their hit list.
And then there is Fish, whose real name is
Dana McKaty and now you can see why he’s called Fish. What boy would ever want
to be known by a girly name like Dana? I mean, that is just asking to get teased
by classmates. However, I guess the same argument can be used for having a name
like Fish. Of course, upon learning Fish’s real name and being the good friend
that I am, I started calling him McCatfish. Boy, he really hates it too! For
the most part Fish is a Xerox copy of BB as far as personality and the fact
that he too is gay and a diaper wearer. Although, I guess that is were the
similarities ends because Fish has a legitimate reason for wearing diapers. For
the first few months that I knew about Fish’s diaper wearing I thought it was
only because he has a problem with wetting like me, but I’ve since learned, and
he doesn’t know I know this about him, the reason he has a wetting problem is
because his old man used to regularly beat the crap out of him. When he was
something like two and a half his dad had kicked him so hard in the back that
he nearly killed Fish. Fish spent almost a year in the hospital and he didn’t
start walking until he was over four-years-old. For all that, his old man only
spent eighteen months in jail and I guess he still sometimes hits on Fish. Fish
is also a member of ILD.com and goes by the screen name of PampersBoy. Oh and
if you haven’t guessed yet, BB and Fish are an item.
Those are the friends I’ve made here in
Joey, who is only eight-years-old, is
probably my second best friend in the whole-wide-world next to Chris. You know
something funny about him? When I first met him I thought he was only five or
six. I guess that is because he is kind of on the short side and his mother dresses
him like he’s still that young. Joey’s like the little brother I never had. And
his mom and dad are like my second set of parents. I even call them mommy and
daddy now and Joey does the same with my parents as well. It gets kind of
confusing when we’re all together, but it is also kind of funny at the same
time. Joey and his mom were just here to visit during spring break and boy I
miss them so much already. Something really weird about Joey and his mom is
that I met them before I found out about ILD.com, however sometime after I met
them I found out that it is Joey’s mom and dad that run the ILD.com website.
They are known as Mommy_Beth and Daddy_Phil and Joey is known as LilPrince.
However, I’ve been sworn to secrecy about their real world identities. About a
month after I found out about ILD.com and about Joey and his parents I found
out that my parents knew about them and their site long before I did. I’ll tell
you more about that later. As for Daddy_Phil, I actually only ever knew him
online because he was in the military fighting in the war in the
Now I want to tell you about my sweetheart.
Jacquelyn is my age and lives down in
Chapter 2
OK, I have been ragging on my new friends for
their oddities concerning diapers and I suppose it could be argued that I have
lead you to believe that I am the only normal person in all of Lewiston, Maine.
But I’m not... because as I just said in the paragraph above, I too wear
diapers because I am a bedwetter. It started out as just a thing that my
parents were making me do while we were on the road but after we finally
reached our destination the diapering didn’t stop. Actually it got worse. I had
a few daytime accidents and because of that my parents and my grandparents as
well, all felt that I needed to be diapered day and night. At first I had been
totally against it but after a while I got used to the idea and well, frankly
it is no big deal anymore. OK that isn’t really true; it’s still a big deal. If
it weren’t I wouldn’t be scared every waking moment that someone at school
would find out.
Each and every morning of this past school
year I have awoke, walked to my armoire, stripped off my wet diaper and placed
it in the diaper pail within the armoire. I would then mark an X through
another day on a calendar which I had put on the inside of the left armoire
door. I had made the calendar myself using the computer in my grandparents
Media Room. Each day I marked off meant I was one more day closer to returning
to
When I had found out that I was going to be
able to complete in the Teen Surfing Competition this year I knew that I had to
do something to be ready. Sitting on my butt watching the snow get deeper and
deeper wasn’t going to do it, so at breakfast one morning I happen to say
something to John about wanting to figure out a way that I could make sure I
was ready to compete. That is when Grandfather suggested that I use the weight
room in the basement. Before then I didn’t even know their house had a
basement, let alone their very own weight room.
There hadn’t been time that morning for
Grandfather to show me the weight room so I had to wait until after school.
When the final bell had rung I launched myself from my desk, and ran out of the
classroom and the school before anyone could stop me. I had run all the way
home only to find that except for Micah, no one else was home.
Finding the basement turned out to be easier
than I had expected. You see, my grandparent’s home is huge and I’ve gotten
lost in it on more than one occasion. When I arrived home and realized that yet
again my parents and grandparents were both out, I raced to the kitchen where I
found Micah. She was sitting on a stool eating Fish Balls and watching As The World Turns. And no, they were
not the kind of Fish Balls you are thinking, so get your mind out of the
gutter! Anyhow, I asked Micah how to get to the basement and she told me, “Go
to foyer, go past stairs like you go to garage only do not go to garage, go to
basement.”
I know what you are thinking, those directions
were a bit lacking on actual directions but I had learned early on that Micah
doesn’t like it when I bug her during As
The World Turns so I didn’t press her for more details.
I did as she had said, I raced back to the
foyer, dropping my bag at the bottom of the steps, then shot down the hall and
instead of taking a right through the door that lead into the garage I went
further down, something I had never done before, to the door at the end of the
hall. Sure enough, when I opened that door there was a wide staircase just as
beautiful as the one that lead from the foyer to the upstairs only this one
lead down to the basement.
Now, calling my grandparents basement a
basement is like calling the bathroom that is off of my bedroom an outhouse.
The basement is decorated just as nicely as the rest of the house and except
for the lack of windows, you’d never know that you were below ground-level.
The first two rooms I looked in were not what
I was looking for. The first was completely void of furnishings, I mean not a
stick of furniture only artwork lining every wall with lights above them that
came on when I opened the door.
The second door opened to yet another fully
furnished bedroom; I think that brings the count of bedrooms I have found up to
twelve.
The third door I opened, which happened to be
the only door on the left side of the hallway, turned out to be the weight
room. Again, calling it a weight room was totally an understatement. Yes it had
weight lifting equipment but it also had a heck of a lot more. There were
treadmills, stair machines, rowing machines, a large area with wood floors,
mirrors and a long brass bar which I could only guess was for ballet dancers
because that is the only thing I had ever seen that I could compare it too.
But what really caught my attention was what
my nose was detecting...
“Chlorine?! Oh—my—goodness! We have a pool!”
I shouted even before I had physically seen it.
As it turned out, it wasn’t a pool, per say,
but what is known as a Lap Pool, which is kind of like a small pool where the
water moves instead of the swimmer. Now a real pool would have been cool but a
Lap Pool turned out to be the perfect thing for me. The minute I walked into
the Lap Pool room, which was on the far side of where the stair machines were,
the lights came on automatically and so did the Lap Pool.
Ok, I will confess that I nearly jumped out
of my own diaper when those water-jets came on. I’m not normally that skittish,
but I hadn’t expected that to happen so it startled me.
Anyway, when I saw all that water moving and
frothing I knew I had just found the perfect indoor training place for surfing.
If you had seen me running home from school that day and then seen me running
from the weight room up to my room, you would have thought that my sprint home
had been in slow motion. I mean, it was like I had a rocket attached to the
back of my diapered butt as I ran up both flights of stairs and into my room.
The first thing I did once I reached my room
was to pull my surfboard off the wall; it was about to get its very first taste
of water. I then ripped my clothes and wet diaper off, leaving them lying in
the middle of the floor and then pulled on a pair of shorts.
Running back to the weight room, while
carrying a long-board isn’t exactly an easy thing to do. I had to slow down to
navigate the turns and corners but eventually I got down to the Lap Pool which
came to life once again as I walked in.
“Man that is too cool!” I said to myself.
Without testing the water for temperature or
anything I set my board beside the pool and jumped in feet first. It was a lot
deeper then I had expected and the water was both cold and warm. The water in
the pool was cold but the water coming out of those jets was quickly heating
everything up. However, not fast enough for my poor balls which had crawled
back inside of me for warmth.
Actually, the Lap Pool was so deep that when
I had jumped in I didn’t hit the bottom. I tried to tread water but the current
was so strong that I was quickly washed to the back of the pool and had to swim
like mad to get back to my board. Oh sure I could have just grabbed the side
and pulled myself along the edge but where’s the fun in that? That dang current
was so strong, that as I was trying to swim against it, it pulled my shorts
right off of me. I guess the shorts I had picked out were too big for me when I
didn’t have a diaper on under them. Oddly enough, it was because of that rather
humorous event, that from then on I only ever went in the Lap Pool when I was
naked.
That first day surfing in the Lap Pool didn’t
work out quiet as well as I had expected. Each time I would try to put my board
in the water and get on it the current would wash me and the board backward.
When I explained to John, and then showed him, what I was doing he had the
brilliant idea of tying the nose of the board to the front edge of the Lap
Pool. After that, indoor surfing became an everyday thing. I would get up in
the mornings, head down to surf and then John would join me later and we’d work
on strength and balance training before school. I also trained most afternoons
too but not every afternoon ‘cause sometimes it took me all afternoon and
evening to get all my homework done.
Actually, John and I have been getting along
a lot better and those months we spent working in the weight room together
really seemed to help the two of us mend the bad blood between us. I can’t tell
you the last time he yelled at me and we haven’t butted heads in months, except
for the whole hair thing but I will tell you more about that in a minute. Oh
and while I am on the subject of John... you will notice that I am still
calling my dad by his first name. Well, you see a while back, I started feeling
bad about that; I mean I really have been hard on him. How he has managed not
to knock my block off at least a hundred times, I will never know. I tried
calling him dad again but it just felt too weird. Even he seemed to act weird
the few times I tried it. So I went back to calling him John and we both seem
to be ok with it now.
Chapter 3
As the end of the school year neared I had no
idea that something other than the competition was fast approaching that would
change my life forever. When there was only three weeks of school left, and my
excitement had built to a fevered pitch, something horrible happened that
nearly stole every bit of joy and yearning that had been building up inside of
me.
I remember nearly everything from that
dreadful day in extreme detail. I was sitting in second period. We had a
substitute for the second day in a row because our regular teacher had a baby.
Actually she had the baby at school in and the school nurse had delivered the
baby in the nurses’ office; but that is a story for another time.
I think most of us were nearly falling asleep
listening to our Sub going on and on about the improper use of commas when the
distant sound of a low pitched, long lasting horn could be heard. And then a
minute later the P.A. system came to life and our school Principles voice sang
out.
“Your attention please. Your attention please.
To all school staff, this is a level four announcement. I repeat this is a
level four announcement.” There was a pause before he continued saying, “Until
further notice all students are to remain in their present classrooms. No
students are permitted to leave their classroom for any reason without being
accompanied by a teacher, a hall monitor, or a member of the school staff.”
Immediately following the announcement
everyone in our class began whispering and buzzing until our sub called for
quiet.
“I am sure that there is nothing to be
concerned about. We shall continue the lesson as normal.” And then began
lecturing again as if there had been no disturbance.
I leaned over to the girl sitting to my left,
“
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Shore
alarm.”
Of course that meant nothing to me and I
didn’t get to ask for further information because the P.A. system came back on.
“Your attention please.” Our Principle said, “Would
the following students please pack up your belongings. Someone will be by to
escort you to the office momentarily. Rudy Gentry, June Carrington...”
Roughly twenty or more names were called,
including my own. Out of those names I had recognized only a handful including
the proper names for BB and Fish as well as those of Larry and Chris.
Within five minutes of the announcement Mr.
Casting, our school Principle, walked into the classroom along with my friend
Stacks, who’s a hall monitor at our school and another teacher, whom I had seen
in the halls before but had never met. Before that day I didn’t even know her
name. I later found out that she was Mrs. Pilut and that she teaches
eighth-grade Biology. Mr. Casting and Mrs. Pilut looked right at our Sub while
Stacks scanned the room and then locked eyes with me. As long as I live, I will
never forget the pain and hopelessness I saw in her eyes that morning. I
remember feeling an incredible emptiness deep inside of me and I didn’t know
why... but I would, very soon. Mr. Casting talked with our Sub in whispers and
then the Sub’s face sagged as she covered her mouth and gasped.
As Mr. Casting turned to face us, out of the
corner of my eye I saw movement over by the door. I looked and saw a police
officer standing in the hallway, just outside the classroom with another girl
whom I didn’t know. Mr. Casting cleared his throat as he looked at each of us
and then glanced at Stacks. I guess he had expected to find me ready to go, but
I hadn’t even budged an inch. I also figured that he hadn’t remembered what I
had looked like from earlier in the year because he hadn’t called on me until
after Stacks pointed me out to him. Then again I suppose I had changed my look
quite a bit that year. I had grown nearly a full half inch and I was wearing my
hair longer, actually I hadn’t had it cut in several months. My bangs now hang
over my eyebrows and my ears cannot be seen at all. It had been a huge tension
between me and both my parents and grandparents a couple of weeks ago when I
had returned home one Saturday afternoon with my hair died purple. My friend
Bertha had done it for me using a mixture of Kool-Aid. A couple years ago that
was the big thing in
“Mr. Holloway?” Mr. Casting called out and his
voice sounded remarkably empty and void of happiness much the way Stacks eyes
had been.
I guess I nodded my head in acknowledgement
because he then said, “
I was barely able to say, “A-a-am I in
trouble sir?” however, as I was speaking Stacks was shaking her head ever so
slightly and I got the message. I guess that’s one of the perks of knowing your
friends so well. You can speak volumes with just a look, a wink or the nod of a
head.
BB, who had transferred into our class
earlier that year, was slouching in his seat and trying not to be noticed. He
had got himself on Mr. Casting’s bad side, which is saying something, when he
and Fish were caught vandalizing the girls gym locker room. Actually, they were
toilet papering it, but our gym teacher had called it vandalism; I guess
because it sounded worse than saying they were TPing the locker-room.
“No son, you’re not in any trouble.” Mr.
Casting said, “I just need you to come with me.”
I glanced over to BB and I guess I gave him
away because Mr. Casting then said in a less than kind tone, “Mr. Spawlding,
you need to come along too.”
BB gave me a sarcastic expression which made
it clear what he was thinking. I could hear his unspoken words, “Gee thanks a
lot Alvin!”
I tried to express my apology using only my
eyes but BB wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was stuffing his textbook into his
tattered canvas bag; I did likewise, putting my book in my backpack and
clipping my mechanical pencil to the front collar of my wool sweater.
I think that police officer scared the crap
out of BB because he was unusually quiet. He walked with his hands shoved
deeply into his pockets, his bag hung from his left shoulder and he was keeping
his head hung low. At any other time I would have laughed because I had noticed
that there was a hole in the side of BB’s canvas bag and I could clearly see
the bright white plastic of an extra diaper. BB would die if he knew that it
was visible, but I don’t think anyone else had noticed it.
Stacks was walking behind us with that other
girl and I wanted to turn around and ask what was happening but couldn’t. That
police officer had his hand resting on the back of my neck while Mr. Casting
and that other teacher lead us down the hallway toward the office.
We walked into the office and I saw that
Larry, Fish, Chris and a few other students I didn’t know were sitting there
like a band of guilty looking desperados.
In the office, none of us spoke a word. There
were a few nervous glances shared, but overall we were all to frighten to
speak. I had tried to ask Fish what was going on but all I got from him was a
shrug of his shoulders.
When my grandmother walked into the school
office alone I think I nearly crapped myself. She didn’t even look my way as
she was greeted by the Vice Principle and then escorted to his office. No more
than two minutes later she came out, motioned for me to come with her and we
left.
“What’s going on?” I asked even before we
were out of the school.
“Not right now.” Grandmother said.
As I was escorted out of the school I
stopped, turned, looked my grandmother in the eye and was about to speak when
she put a finger to my mouth.
“All in due time,” was all she said.
I tried to ask more questions but she had
taken hold of my arm and was in essence dragging me to the car while she
sniffled into a lace handkerchief.
She opened the back door and pushed me in as
another, much older rust bucket of a car pulled up behind ours. A woman emerged
looking totally distraught, but I didn’t have time to find out who she was
because Grandmother closed the door, nearly hitting me with it in the process.
Finally, as we began moving she started to
tell me what had happened. “There was an accident this morning at the
shipyard.” she said as though she were reading a newspaper headline to me.
To say I was confused would have been an
understatement. Why would there be so much hoopla at school over something like
that?
Then she told me why, “There is a fire; it
has spread to several of the fishing boats.”
The way Grandmother was speaking scared me. I
sat silently and listened as she continued, “Your Grandfather left immediately
after getting the call. We don’t know yet how bad it is or if the fire is out,
but we do know that at least two ships have already sunk and that a lot of
crewmen are unaccounted for.”
I sat there in the backseat very quietly
thinking about what she had said. We were nearly home when I asked, “Does mom
and John know? Are they with Grandfather?”
At first she didn’t answer me and I didn’t
really think anything about it at the time. When she did answer all she said
was, “I spoke to your mother and she asked that I pick you up.”
About three hours later I was sitting in the
media room with Grandmother, Micah and Liam, the gardener, watching the news.
It was bad, very bad. They said that five boats had sunk and three others were
badly damaged by the fire. At first they said that three people had been found
dead but every few minutes that number climbed higher and higher. At last count
there were seventeen people that had been killed and there were still many more
unaccounted for. At one point we even saw my own mom on the news.
“There’s mom!” I shouted so incredibly loud,
as I sprang from my seat toward the big screen.
We had only seen her for less than half a
second as the camera panned past a crowd of people. She had been kneeling on
the ground and another woman was hugging her as my mom cried hysterically.
I wish I had never seen that because in that very
instant my entire world came crashing down around me. For maybe three seconds I
stood before that enormous television screen frozen and lifeless as my brain
began to understand why I had been singled out at school and brought to the
office. I turned around; Grandmother, Micah and Liam were all standing and
looking at me with worried and anxious expressions.
I think I said it before I actually knew I
had thought it. “My dad is dead isn’t he?”
Micah rushed toward me, scooped me into her
arms and pressed my head into her bosom. Then I lost it! I totally lost it.
Micah and Grandmother were on the floor holding me and crying right along with
me as Liam, who is a well build
It took forever before they were able to get
me calm enough to understand that we didn’t know for sure if my dad was dead or
not. But that didn’t really help. I had seen my own mom crying on TV and why
else would she do that?
Chapter 4
Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime,
we heard my mother call out, “Hello?
I literally leaped over the furniture and
flew from the media room. I found both mom and a short lady police officer
standing in the foyer. Mom looked horrible and when she saw me she began to cry
again. I didn’t even bother to acknowledge the presents of the officer as I
threw my arms around my mom and wailed.
When mom had come home Liam had left us. I
presume that he went to his own home. Micah on the other hand didn’t leave, but
she did vanish into the kitchen only to return soon after with hot tea and
small cucumber sandwiches for all of us. But none of us could eat.
Mom, Grandmother and I sat together praying,
watching the news and waiting. Sometime during the late afternoon, while lying
in my mother’s arms, I had cried myself to sleep. They didn’t put me to bed but
instead left me to sleep right there. I suppose they didn’t want to walk away
from the TV for even an instant. I only awoke again when mom was trying to
change my overly soaked diaper.
“Ssshhhhh.” She said when she saw my eyes
open, “You are so wet that you are about to spring a leak.”
I had been asleep for over two hours. During
that time Grandfather had called to say that he wouldn’t be home for a while
and to say that we shouldn’t give up hope. To me, that didn’t sound like
something Grandfather would say. I honestly think Grandmother made that up to
try to make mom and me feel a little better.
It was after dark before Grandfather came
home. We had just heard them announce on the news that the death count was up
to twenty-seven and dozens more hurt or missing.
I had never seen my Grandfather look as old
as he did when he walked into the house that night. The lines in his face
seemed to have been etched deeper and his shoes scrapped the floor as he
walked. His clothes were covered in soot and filth and there was a rip in his
left pants leg just below the knee. I don’t know why, but it was his shoes that
really stood out for me. They looked like something a hobo might be wearing;
not something a multi-millionaire would have on.
After Grandmother and Grandfather started to
head upstairs so that he could get out of his dirty clothes and get cleaned up,
mom took me up to my room. We didn’t talk to one another; I think that if we
did, we’d both begin to cry again. She helped me out of my school clothes,
changed my diaper once again and then helped me into my pajamas.
Without being asked or told to do so, I went
over to my bed pulled down the covers and climbed in. Mom sat on the side and
petted my head until I fell asleep.
Grandfather, after returning home had taken a
shower, put on a fresh set of clothes and left again. He didn’t return until
breakfast time the following morning.
Grandmother, mom and I had been sitting at
the table in silence. Two fried eggs, a strip of bacon and a half slice of
buttered toast lay on a plate before me. They had long since gone cold. There
was no sound at all, but the clinking of my fork as I stabbed at the gelatinous
yokes.
We hadn’t heard him come back home so when he
walked into the room we were all surprised. He stood in the doorway, his cheeks
red from recently dried tears. I remember thinking how odd it seemed to see
someone as solid as my Grandfather appearing so fragile.
Grandfather opened his mouth like he was
going to say something but then closed his mouth and licked his bottom lip. I
remember the words he said exactly; they are etched into my mind forever.
“Witnesses said that John had pulled two men from one of the burning boats and
had gone back to help another when the fuel tank exploded.”
I sat in my seat and sobbed but mom
completely came apart. She collapsed to the floor screaming. Micah had come
from out of nowhere as did Liam who I was surprised to see back. Liam had
carried mom up to her and John’s room before the doctor came and after the
doctor left Micah stayed with mom. I guess when you are rich, doctors still
make house calls because one came and gave my mom a shot to make her sleep.
Later that day we found out that one of the
two men my dad had saved was BB’s father. Bertha and Stacks had come over and
told us. I didn’t see them because I had been upstairs taking a very long
shower. Actually, I was sitting under the falling water weeping. Micah had been
the one to talk with my two friends and then passed their news on to us.
I don’t know how much my Grandparents pay
Micah, but they need to pay her a heck of a lot more! In the days to follow
Micah pretty much took over the house, taking care of everyone, including me
and you know what I mean when I say that right? Grandmother, who at first had
been strong, seemed to run out of strength after the first day and seemed as
though she were almost hollow inside whenever I would see her. Grandfather was
hardly ever home; if he wasn’t at the hospital visiting those that survived the
fire then he was working and visiting families who had lost loved ones. He
would only come home to shower, eat, sleep very little and then he’d leave
again.
Chapter 5
On the third day mom finally got out of bed
again because we all had to go to the funeral. There was no viewing as there
was no body found to put into the casket. Instead, we went to the docks were
the fire had happened and tossed a wreathe into the water when they said my dad’s
name.
It was after two names were read that I saw
Larry and Chris toss wreaths into the water. Later, I found out that those two
wreaths were for their father and uncle.
As we were heading back to the car a man came
up to us. He was walking on crutches and at first I hadn’t realized who he was,
but then I saw BB walking behind him looking at the ground.
“BB!” I said, glad to see him.
When he looked up at me he smiled and then
did something weird; he hugged and kissed me on the lips right there in front of
everyone.
The man was BB’s father. He took my mother’s
hand and said, “I am Bruce Spawlding, uh, senior. We’ve not met yet but I have
heard a lot about you from my son Bruce here. You’re husband save my life and
the life of my brother.”
Mom had already been crying, but when he said
that she erupted with even more tears and fell on his neck.
BB finally stopped hugging me and said, “I am
really sorry about your dad.”
I couldn’t respond. I just nodded my head but
I do remember thinking about how fast word had spread about John. I’m not sure
how the news got out, but the day after we had heard about it flowers started
arriving from so many people that after a while the house looked and smelled
like a colorful garden. You know the one bad thing about that? I don’t think I
will ever be able to look at a flower again and see it as beautiful.
BB went on to say, “I finally got to talk to
Fish this morning and one of his cousins was in the hospital because his leg
got burned. I saw Larry for a minute yesterday too but I didn’t get to talk
with him.”
Finally finding my voice I said, “I’ve not
talked to him or Chris either.”
BB screwed up his face, “Did you know their
dad and uncle were killed?”
For some reason BB’s words acted like a
double edge sword cutting right through my heart and I began to cry again,
which caused BB to respond by hugging me again, only tighter than before. I
don’t know why, but I didn’t want BB to let go of me. I wrapped my arms around
his back and locked my fingers together as my tears soaked his shirt.
BB’s dad had, crying now too, continued to
say something to my mom and grandparents, which I hadn’t heard most of until I
picked up on him saying, “We tried to keep John from going back aboard that
boat,” his voice was really breaking up bad as he said, “but he wouldn’t hear
it.”
Finally, it took Grandfather forcing my arms
apart to pull me off BB. He then walked me to the car where I laid my head in
my grandmother’s lap and cried all the way home.
Chapter 6
Sometime during the night, while I was sleeping
Grandmother and Grandfather had to call an ambulance and have my mom taken to
the hospital. I hadn’t heard anything and only found out about it the next
morning when Micah came in to see if I wanted any breakfast.
“She is very tired and the doctors will take
care of her for while.” Micah told me.
I am not supposed to know this, but I
overheard Grandmother talking to someone on the phone and she said that my mom
had taken a lot of sleeping pills and that is why they called the ambulance.
Maybe that should be affecting me more then it is; then again maybe I am just
overdosing on emotions and can’t feel anymore right now.
Never in my life have I felt as lonely as I
did the rest of that week. I tried to go online to ILD.com but I just didn’t
feel like chatting or answering emails. And television had become something to
avoid because it was to depressing when I would see another news broadcast,
talking about the accident. At one point I had thought that I’d be safe
watching cartoons, but they even interrupted Tom and Jerry to do more news.
On Sunday afternoon however, something good
finally happened. I was sitting in the kitchen with Micah watching her make
something she called Haggis when Grandmother walked in. At first I hadn’t
noticed that for the first time since the wreath ceremony Grandmother had taken
the time to put on makeup and do her hair up nicely.
“
I figured that it was probably one of my school
friends come to see how I was doing, but when I reached the foyer I got such a
shock.
“JACQUELYN?!” I squealed loudly when I saw
her standing there with a large suitcase beside her and a big piece of paper
hanging from a string around her neck.
It felt so good when Jacquelyn gave me a hug.
It was such a shock to see her finally after so many months.
“Why are you here?” I then shook my head, “No
wait...How did you get here?”
“Your granny bought us a plane ticket.” She
said.
“She did?” I asked but then quickly said,
“Wait, did you say US?”
Boy when Jacquelyn smiled, I nearly melted on
the spot. She took a step back, reached for the knob of the door and opened it.
I had fully expected to see Jacquelyn’s family but instead, standing there
smiling ear-to-ear was my young friend Joey as well as his mom and dad. Up
until that moment I had never seen Joey’s dad; I had only talked to him online
in the ILD.com chat room or on Instant Messenger. I knew that he had only
recently returned from the
“JOEY!” I shouted and pounced on him, nearly
causing him to fall over backward.
I started to cry, not sad tears but happy
tears because I was just so happy to see all of them. However, when Beth hugged
me my tears turned from joy to tears of sorrow and I squeezed her as tight as I
could and wailed like a baby. I felt as though if I could squeeze her tight
enough it would make everything that had happened go away and bring my dad
back.
We hugged and cried for the longest time
there on the front stoop of the house in front of God, the neighbors and
everyone. It never even occurred to me that all I was wearing was a white onsie
and a pair of sweatpants which didn’t really hide the fact that I was wearing a
diaper beneath them. The onsie had been my Grandfather’s idea from earlier in
the school year to help hide the fact that I was wearing a diaper under my
clothes. It holds the diaper up tight to my bottom in the back and keeps it
from sagging when wet. The onsies that Grandfather had made especially for me
are made of heavier material then normal onsies you can get online and the leg
openings are lower on the leg, kind of like boxer-briefs. Instead of snapping
in the crotch like baby onsies do, most of mine have a flat zipper that goes
from the left leg all the way up to my chin. I do have some with snaps but I
don’t like those as much as the zippered kind; Mom and John say the snapping
ones are better for changing. Grandfather had them made in lots of colors and I
even have some that have long legs and sleeves for the colder days and for
those, the zipper goes from my left ankle to my chin. The one thing I like best
about these onsies is that once I got them on, they look just like a real
t-shirt that’s been tucked into real underwear because they got a fake
underwear waistband and even a fake Y-front to make them look more like real
underwear.
“
I released my python like grip on Beth and
pulled the three of them through the door.
“I take it our arrival is a surprise?” Phil,
Joey’s dad, said to me as he messed up my long greasy hair.
I wiped at my tears and nodded my head.
“I just wish we could have been here sooner.”
Beth said to Grandmother.
“The important thing is you are here now.”
Grandmother said to her.
However, Phil wasn’t done with my hair just
yet. He tousled it, and then tousled it some more before finally saying, “What
on earth is this mess atop your head?” he didn’t say it mean or nothing but he
wasn’t exactly joking either.
You see, like I said before, Phil and Beth
are more like a second set of parents to me then anything else. Even though I
had never actually met Phil in the real world, it felt like I had because I’d
talked to him on the computer so much. Most of all the kids that come to
ILD.com identify them as Daddy Phil and Mommy Beth but I don’t, I mostly just
call them mommy and daddy but for the sake of confusion as I tell you about
this I will try to remember to call them Daddy Phil and Mommy Beth. Even my
real mom and John were totally cool with me calling them Daddy and Mommy
because they had known all along about them and their website since the day we
met Joey and his mom at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Canada.
I’m kind of getting off track here but I will
take a minute here to tell you that when I first found out that Mom and John
knew about ILD.com and about how Joey was what they call a Preteen Baby, I
flipped out; but only for a day or so... then I was cool with it. I mean, I’d
found ILD.com totally without my own parents telling me about it and I had
begun to embrace the idea of wearing diapers before I learned that they already
knew, so it didn’t take me long to accept all that. Actually, once it was out,
life got much easier and all the tension that the diapers had caused between me
and my parents was gone. Now, let me get back to what I was saying.
Totally ignoring Phil’s hair comment, I turned
to Grandmother and hugged her, “Thank you!” I said with a sniffle and then
pulled away and said reproachfully, “Why didn’t you tell me they were coming?”
“What?” Grandmother said trying to play
innocent, “Did I forget to tell you? Well you will have to forgive an old lady
and her failing memory.” Her mouth stretched into a tight, wicked grin, which
made her lips go all white.
Chapter 7
Jacquelyn was given her own room at the other
end of the hallway. I think that was probably Grandfathers idea because he
knows how much in love we are and he wouldn’t want us sneaking into each others
room at night. Phil and Beth were put in a room across from my mom and John’s
bedroom but I had insisted that Joey bunk with me.
“I have that totally huge bed Grandmother!” I
complained when it was suggested that Joey would sleep in the same room as his
parents.
After getting settled in, Grandfather
returned and took Grandmother, Beth and Phil to the hospital to visit mom.
Micah had agreed to keep an eye on Jacquelyn, Joey and myself but we didn’t see
too much of her except to bring us a snack of fried, caramelized apple slices
topped with crushed walnuts and vanilla ice-cream. Mostly Jacquelyn kept an eye
on Joey and me; she sure had grown up a lot since I’d last seen her.
For over an hour I had forgot about all the
horrors of that week and was once again happy. We sat at the table laughing and
talking while eating our snack.
“Boy I still can’t believe you guys came!” I told
them with a mouth full of food; some of which was dribbling down my chin.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full!” Joey said
while giggling as ice-cream dripped from his chin too. We had only just started
eating it and he already had the stuff all over his face like babies do with
their food.
“What was that thing you were wearing when
you got here?” I asked Jacquelyn.
“Huh?” she grunted and scrunched up her nose
in thought. Boy she is so dang cute.
“He means your ticket.” Joey said, spraying
chewed bits of apple as he spoke.
“Oh yeah, it was my plane ticket.” She said
and then explained that her parents had put her on a plane at the
“Were you scared?” Joey asked.
“Well,” she said slowly, “Maybe a little at
first but then they started a movie on the plane and I was ok after that.”
“What movie?” I asked.
She laughed as she said, “Son of Rambow. It
was the funniest movie I have ever seen in my life!”
“Son of Rambow?” I laughed, “You have got to
be kidding me.”
“I ain’t allowed to watch war movies.” Joey
said.
Jacquelyn rolled her eyes as she said, “It
wasn’t a war movie. It was about two boys making a war movie. You guys would
like it.”
We continued talking and laughing for a while
but eventually the conversation hit on a subject that forced me back to the
reality of the moment.
“We got out of school yesterday for the
summer.” Joey announced.
“Really? We’ve been out since last Friday.”
Jacquelyn said and then she asked me, “Are you out of school yet?” and almost
in the same breath she asked, “Did you pass?”
I had been shoveling a spoon full of
ice-cream into my mouth as she asked and in that instant my mind flashed back
to that dreadful morning, the same morning I had been dreaming about every
night since it happened. Suddenly I was back in my English class and hearing
the Shore alarm blaring off in the distance.
“
“Huh? Oh sorry. What did you say?” I asked
apologetically.
She repeated her question, “Are you out of
school for the summer?”
I shook my head, “Supposed to be two more
weeks left.”
“Oh that stinks!” Joey snorted.
I hadn’t even given any thought about having
to finish the school year but thanks to my two friends, I was now. How could
Grandmother torture me by bringing my friends to visit me when I won’t be here
to see them because I will be in school?! And then an even worse thought
occurred to me.
“What’s the matter?” Jacquelyn asked me and
if you really want to know, what she said next could have gone without saying.
“Did you poop your diaper?”
I couldn’t do anything about the blood that
had instantaneously rushed to my face but I did my best to pretend that she
hadn’t said what she said.
“The Surfing competition!” and even as I said
it I could see that dream vanish before my very eyes like a puff of smoke.
I looked down at my bowl of half eaten apples
and ice cream, most of the ice cream was gone already. Then I glanced over at
Joey who was trying hard to not look at me.
“What?” I asked him.
Joey quickly stuffed his mouth to overflowing
and looked at me with phony sincerity.
I pointed at him with my spoon, a drop of ice
cream dripped onto the table. “Boy,” I said, “you better talk or I will sick
Jacquelyn on you!”
“Excuse me?! Sick Jacquelyn on him?”
Jacquelyn said angrily, “What do you think I am? Some kind of dog for you to
order around.”
“Oh boy!” I mumbled under my breath, “Uh, I
didn’t mean it like that!” I said trying not to laugh. I’d set Jacquelyn off
like that before while talking to her on the phone and even once in a letter I
had wrote to her. She had wrote back with a five page letter telling me how
dumb I was to say whatever it was I had said in my letter. I suppose I haven’t
actually said so, but it was during our phone calls and all the letters we
wrote one another that I had realized that I was in love with her.
She waved her spoon as though she were
dismissing my words before they could reach her ear.
I looked back to Joey and said, “You see what
you did! Now my woman is mad at me!”
I should have quit while I was behind.
“Your woman?” Jacquelyn said now holding her
spoon like a weapon.
Suddenly a blob of ice-cream splattered the
right side of my face. I looked at Joey and he was sitting there, his spoon
held up and obviously looking as guilty as anyone can look.
“Oh no you didn’t!” Jacquelyn said to him but
I was already scooping deeply into my bowl, preparing to return fire. However,
I never got the chance to retaliate.
“FRIZ!” Micah shouted from the doorway.
In a calm but threatening tone Micah said,
“You make mess and Micah hang all tree you from ceiling by toe nails.”
The ice-cream that had hit me in the face
slid off my cheek and went splat on the rug below. Micah then announced loudly
as she took an aggressive step toward me, “Ah-ha! Mess! Now Micah get mean.”
But it was obvious that she was only pretending to be mad. All three of us
decided to pretend to be scared, at least I think we were pretending as we
screamed and ran from the room. Unfortunately Joey had tried to duck under the
table but that only slowed him down long enough for Micah to capture him.
Joey squealed like a pig getting gutted as he
tried to wiggle his way free.
“We have to save Joey!” Jacquelyn said in a
commanding voice.
“Joey who?” I laughed and didn’t even slow
down until I reached the stairs.
I turned around and saw Micah coming out of
the dining room holding Joey upside down by the ankles.
Jacquelyn screamed again and came running
over to me, “She’s going to eat him!”
Micah stopped and said, “No—No—No! Little
boys to chewy, taste like dirt,” and then the corners of her mouth curled up
and I swear I saw horns sprout from her head as she said, “but little girls
taste like pudding.”
Jacquelyn and I tore up the stairs screaming
all the way and we didn’t stop until we got to my room. We didn’t hear Micah
chasing us and we had no idea if Joey was being skinned and stuffed into the
oven.
“Boy your cook can be scary!” Jacquelyn
whispered.
“Oh believe me; you don’t ever want to call
her a cook to her face. Make sure you say Chef or she’s libel to cook you too.”
I warned her.
“Good to know!” she said holding tightly to
the back of my onsie.
After a minute or two we peeked out of the
door; we didn’t see anyone in either direction so we felt safe in venturing out
in search of our captured comrade. We quietly crept down the stairs but we
couldn’t hear any sign of Joey or Micah.
“Do you think maybe she is already cooking
him?” Jacquelyn giggled nervously.
“Better him then us.” I quietly laughed too.
First we checked the dining room, the mess
we’d left had already been cleaned up so next we moved on to the kitchen door.
Ever so slowly we swung it open but still we didn’t find Micah or Joey.
“Where do you think they went?” Jacquelyn
asked.
Right then from behind us Joey asked, “Why
did you guys leave me?”
I think I screamed louder then Jacquelyn did
but she had shoved me out of her way and leapt into the kitchen. All three of
us were laughing hysterically. Joey was on his butt just outside the kitchen
door holding his stomach while Jacquelyn leaned against the counter to keep
from falling over from laughter.
“Joey you scared the crap out of us!” I
snorted.
“Good thing you are diapered then!” Jacquelyn
said and despite the fact that I knew that she knew all about my diapers I
still blushed again.
“Where did Micah go?” I asked Joey.
He was still laughing so hard that he
couldn’t answer so he shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh my stomach hurts!” Jacquelyn cried.
“OK-OK, no more please!” Joey pleaded as he
fell backward and began to roll around on the floor, “You should have seen
yourselves!” he roared.
Joey was laughing so hard that he farted,
which only made the situation that much funnier.
The rest of the day the three of us talked
and played together. I showed them where I had begun training for the surfing
competition, which I knew I wouldn’t be going to anymore.
Chapter 8
A couple hours after they had left, my
grandparents and Joey’s dad returned; they were all looking tired. Joey was the
first to realize that his mom hadn’t returned.
“She’ll be back in the morning.” was all the
explanation Phil offered.
Now I had fully expected that my two friends
and I would spend what remained of the day hanging out together but it seemed
that Joey’s daddy had other ideas.
The three of us were in the Media room when
Phil came looking for me. I had been showing them the computer I used when I
was talking to them online and writing letters to them when Phil came in and
asked if he could talk to me alone. It wasn’t a big deal, he says stuff like
that to me all the time online and then we go into a private chat and we talk.
A few of those private chats were ‘cause he found out I was doing bad things
online but most of the time it was just so that we could talk without other
ILD.com members butting in.
I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Sure.” And
then looked at my two friends and said, “Be right back.”
Little did I know that I wouldn’t be right back.
Outside of the Media room Daddy Phil said,
“Let’s go up to your room.”
Again I shrugged and lead the way. As we
neared the top of the stairs, just to be sure, I asked him, “Am I in trouble
again?”
Phil smiled and said, “You tell me.”
I couldn’t stop a chuckle from escaping as I
remembered how he’d tricked me with that line once before.
“Oh no... you aren’t getting me like that
again.” I said pointing up at him.
Phil smiled wider and gave me a playful push,
“Get going smartly pants.”
“Don’t you mean ‘smarty pants’? I asked and
he tried to give me a shoe in my backside but I was too quick for him.
In my room Phil closed my bedroom door before
going over and sitting on the side of my bed.
“Goodness, you sleep on this thing?” he
commented when he felt how soft it was.
“I know! It’s murder getting out of it in the
mornings too.” I said.
He then slid off the bed and sat himself on
the floor, leaning backwards against the side of the mattress. He motioned for
me to join him so I settled down directly in front of him.
“So what’s up?” he started out saying.
“What’s up with what?” I asked back.
Using his eyes he pointed to my greasy,
stringy purple hair and I understood what this talk was going to be about.
Subconsciously I ran my fingers through my
hair, which signaled that I got the message.
He didn’t probe me or bombard me with a bunch
of questions, instead he sat there looking at me and waiting. I had experienced
that same thing in our private chats but I’d never had to endure it while he
was looking at me. Up until this visit I had managed to keep my hair secret
from him and Mommy Beth but now I found myself telling him all about my reasons
for letting my friend die it purple and why I had insisted on not getting it
cut.
Now, I cannot tell you how he did it because
frankly I haven’t got a clue, but before we were done talking I had agreed to
let him take me to a barber to get the purple washed out and get my hair cut.
I had figured that we’d go somewhere the next
day but then he said to me, “If you don’t need changed right now, why don’t you
put on some pants and we’ll go.”
“Right now?” I said.
“Yeah right now.” He said pushing me over as
he stood up.
“Um,” I mumbled as I realized that I
definitely did need to be changed.
Daddy Phil and I had talked online at length
about this very situation. Mommy Beth had changed me before at their place in
“You want me to get your Grandmother?” He
asked.
“No, I think you’ll do Daddy.” I said
jovially.
I got up and opened the armoire.
“Wow!” he exclaimed when he saw all the
diapers.
“Yeah, mom just bought a bunch right
before...” I started to say but couldn’t finish because I was going to say
right before John died.
Phil then did something that caught me
totally by surprise. He swept me into his arms and hugged me for a very long
time. He didn’t let me go until he was sure that I’d got all my tears out.
When he put me back on my feet I rubbed the
tears away using the back of my arm. He put a single finger under my chin and
made me look up at him as he said, “You can have as many of those as you want,”
meaning the hugs.
I won’t lie, the first time having Daddy Phil
change my wet diaper felt kind of weird but he was just as skilled at it as
Mommy Beth and in no time I was changed and fully dressed. He had picked out a
pair of blue jeans and a bright blue onsie with red around the collar and both
the wrist and leg cuffs with a matching fake underwear band. Over that he
pulled on a blue sweatshirt and then told me to sit on the floor so that he
could get my shoes and socks on me.
I hadn’t done any of the dressing myself,
Daddy Phil had done it all and once he had both of my shoes tied and helped me
to my feet, only then did I realize that he’d tied my shoelaces together. I had
tried to take a step and fell forward only to have him catch me.
“HEY!” I complained and laughed at the same
time.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” Daddy Phil
laughed too as he flipped me over on my back and tied them right this time.
Before we were leaving I pulled a blue denim
jean jacket out of my armoire and pulled it on because I know that it was still
nippy outside even though it was nearly summer time.
I guess he had already talked it over with
Grandfather because when we went out to the garage the two of us got into one
of Grandfather’s other cars.
It seems that, either Grandfather had already
told Daddy Phil where the Barber shop was or he had showed him before they came
back from seeing mom, because we drove right there without getting lost even
once. I found out when we walked in that they had conspired with the barber
because he greeted us as we stepped through the door.
“Ah, this must be the mop you were telling me
about.” The barber joked as he shook Daddy Phil’s hand as if they were old
friends.
He must have been in his fifties I would
guess, with a marine style hair cut and a mustache that was trimmed so straight
that he must have used a ruler.
I gave Daddy Phil the meanest look I could
muster and all he did was laugh it off.
The Barber then turned his attention to me,
“I think to start," he put a single finger to his lips in thought,
"we had better wash your hair.”
I looked up to Daddy Phil for reassurance.
“He’s not going to bite.” He said to me.
“I’m more worried about having an ear snipped
off.” I mumbled.
The barber washed my hair seven times before
he sat me up and began cutting it. All the while my back was to the large
mirror so I couldn’t see what he was doing but it sure seemed like he was
cutting an awful lot off.
“Don’t cut it too short.” I said but Daddy
Phil was sitting across from me and told me to let the man do his job.
“I better not look like a goof when you’re
done!” I quietly said only loud enough for myself to hear; or so I thought.
The barber leaned down and whispered into my
ear, “When I am done every girl in town will want you.”
After what seemed to be nearly forever the
Barber asked Daddy Phil, “Well what do you think?”
I didn’t think Daddy Phil’s reply was at all
funny.
“Do you think it is orange enough?” he had
said straight faced.
“ORANGE!” I shouted but he started laughing
and I knew he had been pulling my leg.
The Barber turned me around so that I could
see myself in the mirror and I couldn’t believe how totally cool my hair
looked. It was back to my normal color, maybe a bit darker since it wasn’t as
sun-bleached anymore and he hadn’t cut it as short as I had thought. Well, the
back was a lot shorter and my bangs no longer hung in my eyes but I still had
bangs and my ears were still covered. And it wasn’t combed all neat and proper
but instead looked somewhat like the messy windblown style. Kind of the way I
used to come home looking like after spending an entire day surfing. My skin
also didn’t seem quiet as pale now that my hair was back to normal. It felt
good knowing that I hadn’t totally lost my tan yet.
“So does it meet with your approval?” The
barber asked me.
I was still gawking at myself in the mirror
so Daddy Phil answered for me, “I think he likes it.”
“I more then like it! It’s perfect!” I said.
“Can’t get much better praise than that.” One
of the other Barbers commented.
When we got back home you should have seen
the way everyone was carrying on when they saw my new haircut; especially
Grandmother who just gushed all over me.
“Now he looks like the Grandson I remember.”
She had said.
Grandfather’s reaction was less verbal. He
just looked at me and winked his approval.
“
“Nooo!” Joey said dramatically, “He looks
like my brother Alvin again.” This was probably the best complement anyone
could have given me.
When it was time for bed I didn’t want to go
because I didn’t want to mash my hair with a pillow which was sort of a goofy
thing because it was kind of a messy sort of style. So what would sleeping on
it matter anyway?
Jacquelyn said goodnight to us and even gave
Joey and me a sweet little hug before skipping down the hallway to the room she
would be sleeping in.
As he had done before Daddy Phil came in to
change me and Joey too. However, I wasn’t put back into one of my normal
diapers from my armoire but instead Daddy Phil put a different kind of
disposable diaper on me. I didn’t know it until he was done and I tried to
stand up. It was so very, very thick that I could hardly walk. As it was, I had
to stand kind of like one of those big Samoan wrestlers with my feet apart and
my knees bent.
When Joey was done being diapered he sat up and
laughed at the way I was standing. “Daddy he looks funny.” Joey said.
Joey was wearing the same kind of diaper only
a size smaller. It was totally white except for the blue strip on the front
with small pictures of Elmo and Big Bird smiling back at me.
“Alright you two, you don’t have to go to
sleep right away but you do have to get into bed.” Daddy Phil announced as he
scooped up Joey and tossed him onto the pulled down bed. Joey was instantly
lost in the fluff of the bedding.
“AAAaaahhhh! The bed is eating me!” Joey
crowed.
I laughed as I too was lifted off my feet and
launched into the air above the bed. I actually had some hang time before
gravity pulled me down. When I hit the mattress there was a chain reaction
effect which caused the bed to expel Joey back into the air.
“Whoa, that was fun!” Joey said when he had
landed again.
Daddy Phil tucked us both in, kissed us both
on the forehead and then said, “Try not to make a lot of racket and don’t stay
up talking all night.”
“OK Daddy,” Joey said.
“Night Daddy,” I said too.
There is no way of knowing how long the two
of us lay there talking before we both drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 9
A voice could be heard as if calling
longingly for me from a great distance.
“Aaalllvvvviiinnn.”
I gasped at the sound of my name and looked
around for the source, finally squinting into the darkened crowd before me.
The voice became less sing-songy as it called
my name again.
“Aaaallvinn.”
I spotted a girl standing at the far end of
the school hallways. Suddenly she and I were only a few yards apart and I was
able to recognize that it was Stacks, although she looked younger and less
sporty. She called me again though this time she sounded annoyed that I hadn’t
yet reacted to her beckoning.
“
I took a step forward as I shouted, “Stacks?”
She was holding a sea creature known as a
Southern California Solitary Anemone. The Solitary Anemone has a body that is
shaped like a big can or cylinder that can be as much as a foot tall and ten
inches across. Seeing Stacks holding this thing was odd since most Anemone, the
Solitary Anemone included, have a ring of stinging tentacles which surrounds
its mouth. These tentacles contain a toxin which can paralyze and have been
known to even cause death.
Stacks gently blew across the tentacles and
they became a glistening cloud of purple bubbles, drifting toward me and
encompassing my head. She then leapt from atop a grassy mound, which I hadn’t
noticed before and glided gracefully toward me as if the wind was spiriting her
to me. I attempted to catch her, but we ended up falling backward onto the
ground landing on my back with her sitting on my stomach and reclining against
my elevated knees. We giggled for a while and then looked deeply into each
others eyes. I sighed. Stacks puckered her lips and leaned forward; it was
apparent that she intended to kiss me.
Suddenly the sky changed to overcast gray and
the warm green grass around us became cold, white snow.
Stacks gasped again and drew away. A look of
shock filled her face.
“What's wrong?” I mumbled to her unable to
form the words properly.
It was me she was gasping at because suddenly
I was lying on the icy ground wearing nothing but a diaper and fuzzy yellow
slippers. Something else was happening... I was shrinking, becoming smaller.
Stacks gasped again.
I continued to shrink and change until I
looked exactly like the baby pictures I’d seen of myself.
Stacks screamed a horrible life-wrenching
scream like you hear in old-time Dracula movies.
I felt a puerile cry force its way out of my
throat like the howl of a feral toddler. Lightning flashed all around us and
then Stacks suddenly was gone and I was in my bedroom.
I took a deep panicked breath as I awoke. With
my heart still racing I quickly checked my head, then checked that everything
was the proper size. I finally let go a breath of relief when I realized it had
all been a bad dream.
“Dang
And then it occurred to me that this had been
the first night that I did not dream about that horrible morning. Oddly, a part
of me felt bad about that; almost like I was letting John down by not dreaming
about it again.
I tried to move but couldn’t. It was as if
something was holding me down; then I remembered that Joey was in bed with me.
We had gone to sleep with him curled into a ball to my left but now he was
lying directly on top of me with his head resting on my chest. I tried to roll
him off but my right arm was pinned under him. It was completely numb and
lifeless. I dreaded the pain that would come once I was able to free my arm.
“Joey,” I whispered but he didn’t as much as
stir.
“Joey,” I said a little louder this time. He
moved but not in a good way. He had brought his left leg up in an attempt to
curl into a ball again but what he had done was to sink his left knee into my
groin.
“OOOH!” I moaned and that woke up Joey for
sure this time.
“What’s the matter?” Joey asked with alarm.
“Oh get off!” was all I could manage to say
as the pain pulsated throughout my entire body.
As Joey came off of me I reached down with my
awake hand and cupped my balls. It was only then that I realized that my diaper
was missing.
“Damn Joey you kneed me right in the balls!”
I moaned.
“No I didn’t!” he shot back defensively.
“Oh man, trust me! You did!” I told him.
My bedroom door swung open and the light from
the hallway blinded us both.
“The light! The light!” Joey cried out as he
thrust his head under a pillow to protect his eyes.
Grandfather had heard the commotion I had
been making and came to see what was wrong.
“Joey moved in his sleep and kneed me right
in the nuts!” I moaned still cupping my aching balls.
However, what Grandfather seemed to be more
concerned about was the fact that I was lying completely nude in bed with
another boy, “Boy, why aren’t you wearing a diaper?!”
That is when my sleeping arm decided it was
time for the pins and needles.
I moaned even louder than before, “Oh! Oh!
Oh! Arm is walking up! Oh! Oh! PINS AND NEEDLES! OOOOOH!”
As if on cue the door to my bathroom opened
suddenly and a blurry eyed Micah appeared. When Grandfather saw Micah emerging
from my bathroom he became enraged and forgot about me for the time being.
However I didn’t like the way he was talking to Micah. After all it had been
Micah who’d taken care of us all since John died and my mom ended up in the
hospital and now he was yelling at her and accusing her of overstepping her
roll in the house. They were making so much noise that it woke up Grandmother,
Mommy Beth, Daddy Phil and even Jacquelyn too.
Micah tried to explain that she had been
changing my diaper because I had wet so much that it had leaked out and started
to get my pajamas wet too and she was using my bathroom to wash her hands when
she had the need to use the facilities and then fell asleep on the toilet.
When I thought things couldn’t get any worse
Grandfather finally shouted at Micah, “My dear madam, your services in this
household are no longer required. Please gather your belongings and leave at
once!”
You need to remember that during this whole
altercation Joey and I were in bed and I was naked. Of course I had pulled the
covers over myself to hide my nudity from Jacquelyn; everyone else had already
seen me naked.
When Grandfather had tried to sack Micah that
is when Grandmother stepped in and stopped all this insanity.
“That is entirely enough from both of you!”
Grandmother shouted.
She then began poking Grandfather in the
chest with her finger as she explained to him just how dumb he was being, “And
as for you firing Micah, it will be a cold day in hell before I let you do
that! You should get down on your knees and thank this woman for all she has
done for all of us in this house!”
Grandmother said some other things that I
won’t repeat here but the idea is that she made Grandfather see how he had
jumped to conclusions, lost his temper and said things that he should never
have said. When she finished with Grandfather she turned to Micah, hugged her,
kissed her cheeks and told her that as long as she wanted, she was welcome to
stay.
Without saying another word to anyone
Grandfather stormed out of the room. After that everyone went back to bed
because it was still very early and the sun wouldn’t be up for a couple hours. Grandmother
told Micah she could take the next day or two off if she wanted to but Micah
said she would rather be with all of us. Before Grandmother left, she put me
back into a dry diaper while Joey’s mom changed him.
Amazingly, within minutes Joey was out cold
again. Honestly I think that boy can sleep anywhere and anytime he feels like
it. However, there was no chance at all that I would be able to sleep anymore.
After lying there for about twenty minutes thinking about what had happened, I
decided that I might as well get up and head down to the Lap Pool for some
surfing practice.
Chapter 10
It was difficult to get out of my bed without
shaking it too much and waking Joey again, nonetheless I somehow managed it. I
got my swim trunks and robe from my armoire and decided I would change when I
got down to the weight room. I made it as far as the second step before I heard
someone whisper my name.
“
I turned and saw that it was Jacquelyn and
she was walking on tiptoes toward me.
When she reached me she asked, “Where are you
going?”
“To the basement to practice surfing.” I told
her.
“Can I come?" she asked in a cute sort
of way that made it impossible for me to say anything but yes.
“Wait for me, I just need to change.” She
said as she tiptoed back to her room.
I don’t know why people say it takes women
forever to get dressed because it took less than two minutes for Jacquelyn to
return wearing a robe and a two piece swim suit. I on the other hand was
planning to change downstairs in the bathroom.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“I brought it with me silly!” she said and
before I could ask her why she would bring a bikini to
I quickly caught up to her and together we
made our way down to the weight room and to the Lap Pool.
We decided to just sit beside the pool while
the water heated up, which I knew wouldn’t take very long at all. We were alone
for the first time and spent the time talking about what had happened earlier
and other stuff too. I even told her that I hated my Grandfather. She told me
that I shouldn’t say that I hate anyone.
“Ok then, I don’t hate him, but I don’t
really like him right now.” I said.
“That’s alright.” She said with a slight
shrug and a nod, “I think your Grandmother was right. He was taking his
emotions out on Micah and that wasn’t right.”
As we talked Jacquelyn moved her hand closer
and rested it on top of mine. I looked at her and smiled my approval.
She smiled too and then asked me, "Got
any plans for this summer?"
I took a moment to think about that before
saying, "Don't know now."
"Because of your dad?" she said
solemnly.
I nodded as a small lump tried to form in my
throat.
Several minutes passed with neither saying
anything but then Jacquelyn moved her hand under mine and we locked our fingers
together.
"If that hadn't happened, I mean with
your dad, what would you have done?" she asked.
I started to softly kick my feet in the water
as I answered, "Well, you already know that we were going to
"So you're not going anymore?" She
asked.
That thought hurt so much that I couldn't
verbally answer. All I could do was shake my head ever-so-slightly.
"That's too bad." She said.
I looked at her and nodded in agreement but
once we made eye contact neither of us could look away. It felt like an
electrical storm between us. Jacquelyn leaned toward me a little and I could
feel the electricity building. I leaned forward too and tilted my head to one
side as our lips made contact.
The kiss was short and gentle.
We both seemed to be feeling uncomfortable
and nervous but she smiled and we kissed again only longer. As we kissed she
pushed me backward until I was lying on the floor with my feet still in the
water.
Jacquelyn then reached up and cupped the side
of my face as we continued kissing.
"You're trembling." She commented.
"I-I know---can't help it." I
softly replied.
She moved her hand from my face to my bare
chest and said, "Relax," before kissing me again.
Her hand slid down my chest, tickling my
ribs. It came to rest on the waistband of my swim trunks where she began to rub
her fingers in tiny circles and boy that really tickled. I squirmed and she
broke our kiss.
I giggled playfully as I told her, "Hey
that tickles!"
She smiled, leaned forward and kissed me
softly on the lips before saying, "It's ok."
"Sorry, I'm kind of new at this." I
confessed.
Her smile reassured me. It was clear that
Jacquelyn is ever so much wiser then I am when it comes to... well; I am not
sure what to call what we were doing.
She slid her hand from the waistband of my
swim trunks back up to my nipple. My entire body shuttered as her finger traced
around my right nipple.
In a soft breath-filled whisper she said,
"We won't do anything you don't want to do."
She started to kiss me again when we both
heard, "Are you guys in here?"
It was Joey coming into the weight room.
Jacquelyn and I panicked as we both quickly
sat up and pretended that we hadn't been doing what we'd been doing.
"There you guys are!" Joey said
when he saw us sitting with our feet in the lap pool.
"What do you mean there you guys are?”
Jacquelyn said to him perhaps a little too quickly, “We've been right
here."
Joey put his hands on his hips and said,
"I thought you guys went outside without me."
"This early? Why would you think
that?" I asked not really meaning for it to come out sounding so rude.
Joey shrugged his shoulders, "It’s not
early. It is almost eight o’clock.”
“Eight o’clock!” Jacquelyn and I said at the
same time.
We’d been talking so long that we had
completely lost track of time.
“Did you guys go swimming?” Joey sounded as
though he was feeling left out.
"It's not swimming, it's surf
training." I said to him.
"But why? You ain't going surfing no
more." Joey said and I am sure he didn't mean for his words to be so
hurtful. But they were. Actually, they cut me more than any knife ever could.
I didn't want Jacquelyn to see me cry so I
quickly slid back into the water and gripped my tethered surf board before the
current could wash me to the back of the lap pool. Boy the water was sure warm
too. I dunked my head under the water so that my face would be wet to hide any
sign of tears. When I came back up I used my hand to wipe the water from my
face. That is when I noticed a large wet spot on the floor were I had been
sitting only seconds before. I wasn’t wearing a diaper, only my swim suit. We
had talked for such a long time that I must have peed my shorts.
“And Jacquelyn didn’t even say anything about
it.” I thought to myself, “She had to have noticed.”
And then it occurred to me that maybe she had
noticed and liked it. I mean, I do know that she really liked seeing boys in
diapers. Jacquelyn was looking right at me and for some reason I felt
uncomfortable so I dunked my head under the water again. This time I stayed
under as long as my lungs would allow me. When my lungs started to ache for
fresh air I kicked the water hard, pulled myself up and straddled my board. A
second later I was standing up and surfing with my back to Jacquelyn and Joey.
After another ten minutes or so, Joey's dad
came in dressed in bright yellow slacks and a yellow, flowery, Hawaiian style
shirt. He looked like a big banana with legs. Jacquelyn was the first to laugh.
“What?” Daddy Phil said, while standing there
looking utterly clueless.
I was laughing so hard I lost my balance,
fell into the pool and was quickly swept to the back by the current.
“Daddy you look like Big Bird from
“Good thing King Kong isn’t around,”
Jacquelyn began, “Or he might try to peal you.” Apparently she had been
thinking the exact same thing as I was. Boy I love that we think alike.
“Oh yeah?” Daddy Phil said making like he was
going to get her. But before he could even get close she jumped into the Lap
Pool. She had been smart enough to catch the side of my board when she did,
otherwise the current would have swept her right down to Daddy Phil.
"Alright you three,” he said playfully
sounding adult-like, "breakfast is about ready." And then almost as
if part of the same thought he asked, "Why are you three swimming so
early?"
"It's not swimming, it's training!"
Joey said to him.
Jacquelyn had already started to get out of
the Lap Pool when I asked, "Five more minutes?"
"OK, but then you need to come up and
eat before it gets cold." But then he told Jacquelyn and Joey, "Why
don't the two of you head on up and get changed now."
Joey stomped his foot and asked with
irritation, “Why do I got to change? I ain’t been swimming.”
Daddy Phil pointed at Joey’s pants which were
showing signs on the front right pant leg that his diaper had sprung a leak.
Jacquelyn wrapped a towel around herself,
took Joey by the hand and they took off without saying another word.
I didn't watch them leave; instead using my
feet against the side of the pool I pushed off, gripped either side of my board
and pulled myself on.
Daddy Phil watched as I stood up and began
surfing the current.
"Wow that looks hard." Daddy Phil
commented.
"Nah, this is easy; the real ocean waves
are tougher than this." I said.
He walked to the far end of the lap pool
where the front of my board was tied on.
"Not much chance of catching real waves
in
"Even if I had a dry suit it is way too
cold to surf around here." I said moving back on my board about half a
step to bring the nose up more. This allowed me to have more control of the
board in the Lap Pool.
He continued moving around the pool until he
was behind me, "Well, if the weather wasn't a factor, would you be
interested in surfing here?"
I didn’t have to think about that before
answering with, "You better believe it!" and for a split second I let
myself be distracted. That was all it took for me to loose control of the
board. It went one way and I did a belly flop into the pool where the current
grabbed me and propelled me away from Daddy Phil.
When I reached the back wall I spun around
and put my elbows over the side to support myself as I coughed.
Daddy Phil had rushed to where I was and
squatted down in front of me as he said, "Nice wipeout."
"No it wasn't! It was a stupid mistake
that shouldn't have happened!" I said chastising myself.
"Ah, don't beat yourself up.” He then
asked me, “Do you know why we fall?”
I couldn’t believe Daddy Phil had just asked
me that. I looked at him and said, “Oh come on! That is from Batman!”
He laughed, “That doesn’t make it any less
true, does it.”
I smiled as a form of agreement and
surrender.
He reached down into the water to help me
out, “Come on; get out of there. We'll get you diapered and then get some food
in your belly. Beth is cooking this morning. I convinced Micah to go ahead and
take the day off. She's been working entirely too hard."
Daddy Phil put his hands into my arm pits and
lifted me right out. He then wrapped a towel around me and dried my dripping
hair.
“And while you guys are eating,” he
continued, “I am going to take care of a couple things."
He
started looking for the controls for the pool and I had to tell him, "It
will turn off automatically when we leave the room."
"Really?” he exclaimed, “Now that is
fancy!"
We weren't even halfway through the weight
room before it happened. I hadn't been wearing any diaper 'cause I had been in
the pool so my bladder emptied into my swim trunks and ran down my legs.
"Ah man!" I groaned and came to a
stop.
For some reason I started to cry, which was
really dumb 'cause it’s not like I haven't had accidents in the past few
months. And besides I had just had an accident while sitting, talking with
Jacquelyn so I don’t know what the big deal was about this particular time.
"Hey, hey, hey." Daddy Phil said as
he squatted down so that he was at my eye level, "It's just a little salty
water! It's nothing to get so upset about."
And I knew he was right but even still, I
couldn't stop crying.
Daddy Phil then pulled me toward him, I
buried my face in his chest and the two of us lowered to the floor. Daddy Phil
didn't even complain or even comment on the fact that he was sitting in the puddle
of my pee while cradling me in his arms and letting me cry.
"Go ahead! Let it out!" he said as
he patted my back, "Just let it out!"
And boy did I ever let it out. We're talking
a flood of snot and tears that would have rivaled the Biblical flood.
“I want my mom and dad back!” I sobbed.
“I know you do.” He said.
I kept saying it and he kept holding me
tighter and tighter.
I didn't hear Grandmother come in while I was
crying. I guess she came to see what was taking us so long. When she seen and
heard me carrying on like I was she asked Daddy Phil to carry me up to my room
and she would have my breakfast sent up to me but I objected.
"No, I am ok." I said while still
huffing and wiping my face with a corner of the towel.
"You should rest a while child."
Grandmother suggested.
I shook my head and wiped my snotty nose with
my towel which smelled of pee and chlorine.
"We should at least get you cleaned
up." Grandmother said taking my hand and helping me up.
"I'll clean up in here." Phil told
her.
Grandmother led me out of the basement and up
to my room. Thankfully Joey and Jacquelyn didn’t see me carrying on the way I
had. Grandmother wanted me to take a bath but I argued for a shower and she
gave in. It was a quick shower after which she helped me get diapered and
dressed. She was pulling out a pair of corduroys from the armoire as I was
zipping up my onsie.
"No not those, they are too small."
I told her.
She replaced them, pulled out a pair of black
jeans and held them up for approval.
"How about these?" she asked.
I nodded my head, "Yeah those are
good."
She helped me get dressed which I guess was
an excuse to talk with me.
"The doctors said your mother will
probably be staying with them for a week or so. Maybe in a day or two you will
be allowed to go visit her."
It had been explained to me when mom went
into the hospital that because of my age I wasn't allowed to visit her in the
hospital. It was something about kids carrying more germs than adults or some
garbage excuse like that. At the time I bought it until I had overheard an
earlier conversation as to why she was really in the hospital.
"Grandmother?" I said softly.
She was pulling a black and white striped
shirt over my head. "Yes?" she said.
My words came out so soft that I was
surprised she could even understand me. "I know my mom took a bunch of
pills."
Grandmother stopped and looked at me as if
she were trying to Vulcan Mind Meld with me. When she did speak her voice was
stained and brittle sounding, "Your mother is going to be just fine.
Losing your father hit her hard.” She swallowed before continuing, “But I
promise you that she is going to be fine."
I didn't say anything after that because I
couldn't think of anything else to say.
When I was fully dressed I looked down at
myself and thought how cool I looked with a black and white shirt, black jeans
and white trainers.
Grandmother stood back and appraised my
outfit. "You know what would go great with that outfit?" she said
thoughtfully.
I looked down at myself again before asking,
"What?" but she had already
taken hold of my hand and was leading me out of the room.
"Come with me," was all she said.
I followed her down the hallway and soon
realized that we were heading to the forbidden room; her and grandfathers
bedroom.
Not even once in all the time we have been
living with my grandparents, had I stepped foot into their bedroom. It had been
made completely clear that I wasn't allowed in there and I never questioned
that rule.
When we reached the door and Grandmother
opened it I stopped in my tracks and pulled my hand free from her grasp. I
didn't even attempt to look inside but purposefully stayed a couple steps back.
"
After the way I had been warned to stay out
of there I guess I'd imaged it to be something totally amazing or something top
secret. Like maybe my grandparents were really Russian spies and their bedroom
was where they hid all their high-tech spy surveillance stuff.
I hesitated for a moment before taking my
first step into the holy of holies. As I walked in I felt disappointed because
not only was it void of technical spy gear, it was completely un-amazing. It
was just another bedroom like all the other bedrooms in this enormous home.
Granted it was as lavishly decorated as the rest of the house but still there
was nothing to warrant the strict KEEP
OUT rule they had placed on their room.
At first Grandmother seemed to have vanished
but then she emerged from a walk-in closet carrying a belt.
"I nearly forgot I had this." She
told me.
It was a shiny white belt with a silver
colored buckle and matching eyelets that went the entire length of the belt.
She had me stand by the closet door as she
laced the belt through each loop in my pants, spinning me as she worked her way
around. When finished she pulled me into the walk-in closet, which was HUGE and
had me stand before the largest gold framed mirror I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Wow,” I exclaimed softly; not at my
reflection but at the overwhelming size of the mirror.
Grandmother leaned down and kissed my cheek;
which was something totally out of character for her.
“So you approve?” she asked.
I nodded my head even though I hadn’t really
seen myself yet. I then contemplated my reflection and combed my hair with my fingers
before giving myself a double thumbs-up.
She patted my cheek and said, “You are such a
handsome young man.”
Chapter 11
When I arrived downstairs for breakfast Joey,
Jacquelyn, Mommy Beth and Daddy Phil were already sitting at the table and
nearly done eating. Beth had apparently only just got back and I was told that
Grandfather had left early that morning. It wasn't unusual for him but after
what had happened this morning I was glad he was gone. You know, Grandfather
can be so cool sometimes but the majority of the time he is a first class twit.
I’ve probably said that before but it’s worth repeating.
When Jacquelyn and I made eye contact she
gave me a meaningful wink and I may have blushed. I also think that I
subconsciously reached up and touched my lips where she had kissed me only a
short time ago.
I suppose all that crying before had caused
me to work up an appetite because I ate three pancakes, two fried eggs and two
pieces of toast with butter and cinnamon-sugar on them. I also drank a tall glass
of apple-juice and almost all of my milk before I was full.
Everyone else finished eating long before I
did, in spite of this they all stayed at the table and continued talking as I
ate. When I had gulped down the last of my apple juice Daddy Phil and Mommy
Beth informed us that they were taking us somewhere special that day.
It turned out that the secret Joey had been
keeping the previous evening while we had been eating our apples and ice cream
was that his mom and dad were taking us to this place called
I was more than a little miffed to find out
that all this time, about an hour south of this frozen wasteland known as
Lewiston, Maine, there is an indoor water park that’s open year round. It has
its very own indoor wave machine were you can surf some pretty awesome waves
that reoccur every six and a half minutes.
Excited? Um, maybe just a LOT! The only
downside to it was that Joey and I were made to wear swim diapers but at least
I was allowed to wear my regular board shorts over them otherwise that would
have been a Major-league case of embarrassment! Joey on the other hand, wore
his swim diaper and nothing else.
Now, I have seen toddlers before wearing
diapers and swim diapers on the beaches of
Daddy Phil took Joey and me into the guys
changing room at
There is one real gripe I have against
Completely unceremoniously Daddy Phil handed
me a blue swim diaper that was covered in red and yellow shooting stars. I just
stood there glaring at it as though it were some totally alien object that my
young mind could not comprehend. Quite the opposite, Joey was so excited that
he practically ripped off his clothes unreservedly unmindful of anyone else in
the changing room. Oh, and yes, there were others in there with us. Most of
them seemed to be trying to masquerade themselves with the pretense that they
hadn’t noticing that someone Joeys size was wearing a very wet disposable
diaper but I could tell that they had seen him. There were also a few younger
guys that didn’t have the couth to act like they hadn’t noticed. They were
staring right at him with big eyes and hanging jaws.
I suppose Joey is still small enough and
young enough that seeing him in a wet diaper wasn’t a total surprise for the
strangers in the room. But I am twelve for pity-sake! For a split second I had
thought of asking if I could go change in the car but then Joey said something
and the thought was lost among the hundreds of other random fear fueled
thoughts bouncing around in my head.
“You better hurry
Finally I leaned my surfboard against the
wall and started slowly pulling my shirt over my head all the while hoping that
everyone else would vacate the changing room before I got to my pants.
Unfortunately just the opposite happened. Four more boys about my age came in
and loudly started undressing as they talked and laughed.
“You should have seen her! She was smoke’n!”
One of the boys said.
“Yeah you could see right through her shirt!”
another said.
The heavy set boy who’d come in with them
added, “Still, she’s not as hot as Angelina Jolie!”
They all agreed with him and carried on
talking as they swapped their street clothes for Speedos.
I was sunk, I had no other option then to
undress in front of eleven strangers (I
counted) and let them see that I too was wearing a diaper. As to whether
mine was wet or not, that remained to be seen. Sadly, it was; and more so than
Joeys seemed to have been.
I sat myself down on the concrete bench to
untie my shoes and straight away felt my backside warming. At first I thought I
was wetting my diaper again, but then I realized that the concrete benches and
floor were heated. That actually distracted me from my fear of being seen in
public wearing a diaper. I pulled off my left shoe and sock and let my feet
rest against the warm floor. Boy that sure felt good. I did the same with my
other shoe.
Daddy Phil saw me just sitting there and
asked, “You ok?”
“Yeah, it is just so warm,” I said with a nod
toward the floor.
Daddy Phil put his hand to the floor and
remarked, “Beats bare tootsies on an icy-cold floor any day.”
By the way, tootsies are what Daddy Phil calls
toes. I think it is a Canadian thing or something. There is kind of a
semi-funny story about the first time I heard him use that word. We had been
chatting online at ILD.com with five or six other; actually it was the very
first time I had chatted with Daddy Phil. Everyone else in the chat-room
already knows about Daddy Phil’s playful side but I hadn’t yet learned that
about him. He had said something about hanging someone up by their tootsies.
Don’t ask me why I did so, because I don’t know but immediately I had thought
that tootsies was slang for testicles and said something quite derogatory.
Daddy Phil had realized right away what I had been thinking and explained
tootsies are toes. Boy, I was so dang embarrassed that I thought I was going to
die.
Anyway, Joey was ready to go. He was hopping
up and down almost on his tiptoes while chanting, “Come on! Come on! Come on!”
Daddy Phil turned his attention to me. I
suppose he had assumed that I was waiting for him to help me get changed too
but when he started to reach for my pants I pushed his hands away.
“I can do it myself!” I objected.
“Well then hurry up slowpoke!” He said as he
tickled my naked ribs.
I laughed and squirmed, “Daddy stop!”
Daddy Phil then leaned close, put his mouth
right next to my right ear and whispered, “Hook your thumbs under the waistband
of your diaper and pants and pull them both down at the same time.” He then
pulled back and waited for me to acknowledge that I had understood his
instructions.
There was nothing to be done about it other
then to suck it up and drop my drawers so I nodded to him that indeed I did
understand. I swallowed dryly, stood up, loosened my belt and unbuttoned and
unzipped my jeans. As I was doing that Daddy Phil started to change too. I
hadn’t noticed right away because I was too focused on everyone else in the
room, but he had positioned himself so that, for the most part, he was blocking
the view of the others in the room. When I caught on to what he was doing for
me I quickened up and did as he said. I hooked my thumbs under the waistband of
the diaper and with a single quick movement I pulled down my pants and the wet
diaper all the way down to my ankles. Don’t think for a second that that trick
was easy, because it wasn’t. The diaper had been put on me pretty tightly but I
was still able to muscle it off of me.
I stepped out of the bundle of diaper and
jeans and just as quickly slipped on the swim diaper followed by my board
shorts. When I had my shorts tied tightly around my waist Daddy Phil moved back
over to the bench to finish pulling off his other shoe.
I looked over to him, smiled knowingly and
whispered, “Thanks”, to which he simply smiled and messed up my hair for me.
Once Daddy Phil had changed into his swim
suit, we put all our stuff into a plastic basket and gave it to this geeky
looking teenager who then gave Daddy Phil a round, blue token on a string. On
the token was the number M-71 which corresponded to the cubbyhole which he had
put our basket of clothes into. Daddy Phil put the string around his neck and
we headed out of the changing room. On the way out he dropped both wet diapers
into a plastic trashcan.
When we stepped out of the changing room, it
was like stepping into an altogether different world. In a weird sort of way,
it felt as if I had come home, even though I had never been to
There wasn’t a strong scent of chlorine in
the air like you normally get at public pools. Also, there wasn’t a bunch of
concrete everywhere. Instead, it was like a combination water park, beach and
boardwalk all under one big roof. They even had a sandy beach area where you
can lay out and soak up some of the artificial sun. I later discovered for
myself that the sand was even artificial. It was designed to completely
dissolve in the water which in my book, only added to the awesomeness of it
all.
Boy we had such a great time and I loved the
fact that I got a chance to see Jacquelyn in her two piece bikini again and let
me tell you... she’s HOT with a capital ‘S’ for Sizzlin’!
Besides the wave pool,
One time, when I went down the big tube slide
with Mommy Beth, we somehow ended up getting spun around so that when we came
out we were upside down and on our backs. We hit the water and skimmed across
the surface like two big skipping stones. Daddy Phil got a recording of that
with his camcorder so that she and I got to see it. Boy was it funny!
In a lot of ways Surfing at
It was so funny to watch Daddy Phil try to
surf. He kept wiping out. Surprisingly, after two failed attempts to stand up,
Jacquelyn actually stayed on the board her third try and rode that wave all the
way. Yeah, her form sucked but heck she had never been surfing in her life so
she was doing GREAT!
I so badly wanted Joey to get a chance to try
it but he was too chicken after seeing his daddy wipe out. Mommy Beth didn’t
want to surf; instead she filmed all of us.
Ok, I will confess that the first wave I took
caught me by surprise and I went down but after that I didn’t fell any more.
There was an older guy there, maybe fourteen
or fifteen but I am not sure. He was kind of lanky in build, lightly tanned and
had kind of brownish and shortly cut hair, though it was difficult to be sure
when it was wet. Around his neck he wore an all white Puma shell choker and he
could have passed as a
He paddled up beside me as I was about to
take my last wave before lunch time. He politely introduced himself and asked
for some surfing pointers. He said his name was Meek and I later learned that
was short for Minkus. To me, the name Minkus sounded stupid, but I didn’t tell
him that. I can only imagine how bad it must have been for him growing up with
a name like Minkus. I am sure he was beat-up on a regular basis in school.
Naming a child Minkus? You might as well tattoo ‘Beat Me Up’ on their forehead.
Conversely, the name Meek sounded cool and was the perfect name for a surfer.
“We’re about to have lunch,” I told him as I
got ready for the next wave, “but if you want we can catch-up afterward?”
He even sounded like a Cali-surfer when he
said, “Righteous!” and gave me the hang loose hand gesture that only tourist
and movie surfers use.
We both took the wave at the same time but he
was tossed from his board almost instantly. I would have ridden the wave all
the way had this stupid little girl not paddled herself right into my way.
Jacquelyn skipped over to me as I was hulling
my board out of the water. She hugged me from behind, “That last one was so
cool when you dove off your surf board to miss that little girl.”
I looked at Meek who was paddling his board up
to us and I asked, “See ya after lunch then?”
“Yeah man. That’ll be choice!” He responded
before heading for another wave.
“Who was that?” Jacquelyn asked.
“Just some guy asking for points.” I told
her.
“What are points?” She asked.
“Points is short for Pointers; you know, like
tips on how to do stuff better. He wants me to give him some surfing points.” I
explained.
“Oh...” Jacquelyn said and I could tell that
she wasn’t really too interested. I guess she was more hungry, than anything
else.
“We are over there,” she pointed to a picnic
table over on the boardwalk area.
“Well then, lead the way kind miss!” I said
trying to be overly dramatic.
Chapter 12
There were a number of food stands at the
water park. From what we could tell, they all had the same food. I guess there
was more than one so that there wouldn’t be a long line. After a quick
impromptu vote we opted to get our lunch from the Tiki Hut. Joey got two
corndogs and Jacquelyn chose to have a tenderloin sandwich, which when she got
it, turned out to be nearly as big as her head. I only had a regular cheese
burger with nothing else on it. Joey’s parents shared an order of Chicken
Fingers and each of our orders came with a mountain of potato wedges, an
assortment of dipping sauces and a 44 ounce soda. I hadn’t heard how much it
cost us to get into the park, but our lunch was a small fortune. All that food
cost over fifty dollars. That was highway robbery; or maybe I should say
Boardwalk robbery. I made sure to thank Joey’s Parents no less than six times
during our meal.
We had only just started eating lunch when
Joey leaned over to his mom and whispered something. Beth then nudged Phil and
softly said, “Your son needs you.”
Phil, with a chicken finger hanging out of
his mouth, looked at Joey and started to get up. I guessed right; Joey had
soiled himself and wanted to be changed. As he was standing up, Daddy Phil
looked at me and I knew what he was thinking.
I rattled my head from side to side
vigorously but tightly so as not to draw unnecessary attention my way.
The cool thing about swim diapers is that
they don’t act exactly like real disposable diapers. First off, they don’t
really keep the pee in. They are designed to keep your poop in and let fluids
pass. I had figured this out on my own after the first time in the water and
noticing that the diaper hadn’t swelled up like disposables do when wet.
I suppose I should tell you how I know that
disposable diapers swell up when you get into the water. Gosh, I really don’t
want to tell you this; but I will. You see, one weekend, sometime in the middle
of the school year, John had only just put me into a fresh diaper when I went
downstairs, sat at the table and promptly spilled a whole class of Coke down my
front. Without being told to do so, I went to change my clothes and take a bath
so that I wouldn’t be all sticky. However, since I was wearing a clean, dry
diaper I didn’t want to have to ask to have a new one put on me after I washed,
so I decided to wear the diaper into the shower. Not one of my more brilliant
ideas but hey, now I know; right? Now you know why I didn’t want to bring it
up. Anyway by the time I climbed out of the shower the diaper had swelled to at
least twice its size and I ended up having to have John come back up to my room
and re-diaper me yet again. Boy he sure teased me a lot about that, but I knew
that he was only having a little fun with me.
Jacquelyn, who was sitting right beside me,
whispered into my ear, “Where are they going?”
With my mouth stuffed with potato wedges I
whispered back, “Think he needs changed.” although it didn’t come out sounding
anything like that. How she understood me I will never know.
It took her a couple seconds to process the
information and then all she said was, “Ok” accompanied by a single shoulder
shrug.
Joey and Daddy Phil soon returned with Joey
now sporting a green swim diaper with a wide single red strip that ran from the
front through the crotch and up the backside. I’d never admit to it, at least
not in public, but I kind of liked the ones with the shooting stars better.
As we finished our lunch we talked about what
we had already done so far that day. It was fun recounting some of the more
enjoyable events, such as when Joey had gone down one of the slides head first
on his belly. When he hit the water at the bottom his swim diaper had come
right off of him. He didn’t even notice until he was out of the water and
people were laughing. Joey didn’t seem to care in the least that everyone got
to see his pee-pee.
After everyone was dutifully stuffed, Mommy
Beth wanted us to head over to the beach area to rest and let our food digest,
but I objected. I knew that you shouldn’t go swimming right after eating and I
wasn’t planning on it. Instead, I wanted to go talk with that guy, Meek, for a
while. Once I had promised her that I wouldn’t go in the water for at least a
half hour, she let me go. I tried to get Jacquelyn to come too, but she said
she was stuffed and just wanted to lie down.
I walked around for about fifteen minutes
looking for Meek but couldn’t find him anywhere. I had started to wonder if
maybe he had left or something. Since he was nowhere to be found, I decided
that I’d play with Joey in the artificial sand for a while.
I was making my way across the boardwalk when
I started to feel the need to go number two. Also, a good portion of that 44
ounce soda had worked its way through me. Even though I was dreading using
those open toilets, there was no other option, because I sure didn’t want to
end up soiling myself the way Joey had done. I don’t think I could live down
that sort of humiliation at such a public place.
When I walked into the Changing room there
were two boys, one about my age and another much younger sitting on the first
two toilets. They looked a lot alike and though I didn’t really think too much
about it, I guess they must have been brothers. I noticed right away that they
looked completely out of place in
They were sitting on adjacent toilets; the
older one was loudly trying to explain to the younger boy why that old joke,
‘Is your refrigerator running?’ wasn’t funny. I don’t think the younger boy had
a clue what the older one was talking about; he just thought it was funny and that
was all that mattered to him.
There were also three men, one on the can the
other two at the sinks and then I finally found Meek! He was at the far end of
the line of toilet bowls standing over a young naked boy who looked to be maybe
four or five years of age; maybe even a bit younger. The young boy, who didn’t
look anything like Meek, seemed to be straining desperately to void his bowels.
Meek had his back to me, showing me his nearly nonexistent rump tightly wrapped
in that bright yellow Speedo.
“Don’t try so hard.” I heard Meek say to the
boy.
The young boy whimpered and strained, “It
won’t come out!”
“Don’t try to force it or you might blow your
butt off. Then what will you use for sitting?”
I nearly laughed at the way Meek made that sound,
but I didn’t because the contents of my bowels were now paining for release. I
knew that if I didn’t pick a toilet and quickly, I would have a serious
problem.
I took the first unoccupied toilet I came to,
which happened to be right next to the two Asian boys. Counting the toilet that
the man was using, there were exactly six toilets between Meek and myself.
Just as I had done before I hooked my thumbs
under the waistband of the swim diaper and my board shorts. With a swift and
fluid movement I pulled them both down to my ankles and quickly planted my
backside on the toilet. Part of me wanted to try to hold it in until after Meek
left. I don’t know why, I just didn’t want to poop with him right there. I
squeezed my poop muscles but the pressure inside of me was too much for me to
hold back any longer. There were three loud combination fart and splash sounds
inside my bowl followed by one long juicy fart.
Both of the boys next to me stopped talking
and looked my way. I felt my head glowing red. All I could do was focus my eyes
downward and pretend I didn’t know they were looking at me. I was also hoping
that Meek wouldn’t turn around too.
As I was keeping my eyes directed toward the
floor I realized that in my haste to sit down, the swim diaper had not stayed
concealed within my board shorts. It was turned completely inside out and
standing up between my calves. I might as well have been carrying a large neon
arrow that blinked, ‘Watch the Funny Diaper Boy Poop!’
I almost reached down to stuff it into my shorts
but that would have just made the two boys look down. Then they surely would
have seen the pristinely white insides of the swim diaper.
As soon as I was sure they had looked away
again, I took my left hand and punched the diaper down into my shorts. It
wasn’t completely out of sight, but at least it wasn’t right out there for all
to see.
As I sat there pooping I thought back to all
of that dang food I had ate at breakfast time. At the time it had made me feel
so good going in and now, several hours later, I wasn’t feeling so happy with
its loud exit.
When I thought I was done, I wiped myself
clean and stood up to pull up my swim diaper and board shorts. At first I tried
to do them at the same time, but the dang swim diaper rolled up in the back and
I had to push my shorts back down to straighten it out.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t double checked that
Meek was still in the same spot, so when I bent over again to pull up my board
shorts I bumped right into the younger boy that Meek was following out.
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I tried to play it off
while standing there with my shorts around my knees and my swim diaper out
there for all to see.
“Oh hey
That was when the boy said, “Meek look!” he
pointed right at my swim diaper, “He gots one same as me.”
Not meaning to, I looked down and saw that he
too was wearing a swim diaper with yellow shooting stars.
“Sheller that isn’t nice!” Meek snapped at
the boy.
Oddly, Meek was the one to blush first, but I
quickly followed up with my own impression of a red light bulb.
Meek tried to apologize, “Sorry man. He
doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.”
When I didn’t respond Meek said, “Uh, I have
to take him back over to his mom. If you still want, maybe we can meet up at
the...”
For the life of me I have no idea where he
said, but it ended up not mattering because we found each other a short time
later.
I don’t remember doing so, but I must have
nodded my head or responded in some manner, because Meek took the young boys
hand and led him out. I was only like twelve feet from the door, but in that
short distance Sheller never once stopped looking at me in my swim diaper.
Once they were gone I quickly became aware of
the fact that the other two boys were staring at me too.
You would think that it couldn’t get any more
embarrassing than that, but it did. Slowly I turned my head until the older of
the two boys and I made eye contact.
“Why are you wearing a diaper?” he asked.
Do you remember me telling you about the
first time I met Joey and how I had passed out from embarrassment? Yeah well,
that was nothing compared to how I was feeling at the instant the boy had asked
me why I was wearing a diaper.
I am not sure what I might have done next,
maybe run for my life or something, had not a large Asian man walked in, just
as the boy had asked the question. When I say large, I mean HUGE! The guy was
at least six foot tall and he had to weigh in excess of 350 pounds. He was so
large that, when he walked in, his enormous bulk practically eclipsed the light
from outside the changing room.
He was wearing matching flowery-blue Hawaiian
shirt and shorts and was also Asian. The second I saw the man I felt that I
knew him from somewhere, but couldn’t place him right away. It was probably
because of everything that had happened in those few minutes before he had
walked in.
“As a matter of fact,” he started saying in
extremely broken English. He spoke loud enough that the boys attention was drawn
away from me and to him, “all the real professional surfers wear those, so they
don’t miss out on any of the good waves.”
I couldn’t believe my ears but still, the
second the boys’ attention was off of me, I had bent over and yanked my board
shorts all the way up.
The large man continued talking to the two
boys as he asked them, “Remember how I told you about Astronauts and Racecar
drivers?”
Both boys nodded in obedient unison.
“It is the same thing for real surfers.” He
said and then thrust out a hand with five sausage-like fingers.
“Mr. Holloway, I’ve been hoping to meet you
all day!” He said as he nearly shook my arm off at the shoulder.
It had been so long since someone had
recognized me that to be honest, it caught me off guard. I was holding my shorts
in place with one hand and had the mountain of a man trying to remove my other
at the shoulder.
Finally, I found my own voice as I asked,
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
The younger of the two boys rudely spouted
off with, “Well you should; he’s famous.”
Before the boy even finished talking the
older boy almost knocked him off his toilet with an elbow to the chest.
The large man released my hand and bowed to
me as he said, “Asashōryū Akinori.”
I am sure you have no idea who
Asashōryū Akinori is, but I sure did.
The instant I had heard his name I remembered
where I had seen him before. It was my turn to gush, because I was standing
almost toe-to-toe with one of the most famous Sumo wrestlers in the world.
“I-I-I,” was all I was able to say as I was suddenly
overcome with Star Shock.
He smiled.
I lost control of the volume of my voice as I
began to shake all over and nearly lost my grip on my shorts.
“OH MY GOD! I SAW YOU WRESTLE LIKE TWO YEARS
AGO!”
Mr. Akinori wasn’t anything like I expected
him to be. I guess I had always imagined that he would be this exceedingly
disciplined and rigid man, but he behaved completely opposite of what you might
expect a Sumo Champion to be. I guess that was because he was on semi-vacation;
he and several other Sumo wrestlers were doing a world wide tour to promote
youth Sumo wrestling but on this particular day he was enjoying
Now that I think back on it, it was actually
kind of funny because the two of us were both acting star struck with the
other. Come to find out, Mr. Akinori had been a fan of mine since he saw me win
my first surfing title. That was also when I had become a fan of his, because
he had wrestled and won in an exhibition match the night before.
Nothing more had been said about me wearing a
swim diaper and frankly, after having met Mr. Akinori, I had forgotten that I
was supposed to be embarrassed. It wasn’t until we were driving home and I was
thinking back on that meeting that it dawned on me just what he had done for
me. It isn’t true that real surfers wear swim diapers. He had lied to those two
boys, who turned out to be his nephews. He knew who I was and how embarrassed I
was feeling and came to my rescue. I ask you, how cool is it that someone so
world famous and important would do that for someone like me?
Mr. Akinori bowed to me and then shook my
hand again while telling me that he was honored to have met me. He then asked
if I was going to be competing again this year. I almost chose not to tell him
the truth simply because I didn’t want to disappoint him.
I reluctantly shook my head as I said, “I
can’t.” then I told him the reason why.
His countenance fell when I told him about
how my dad died and how my mom got sick afterward. I didn’t actually tell him
that mom was in the mental ward at the hospital for trying to kill herself. He
reached out with those two huge hands of his and placed them on my shoulders
while saying something in a language I didn’t understand.
“You would honor your fathers’ memory by
continuing the dream you shared.” He told me; of course I cleaned it up because
his English had suffered with his emotional empathy for me and mom.
I guess I have Mr. Akinori to thank for
planting the seed of hope inside of me which would quickly begin to grow into a
full fledged idea. The idea was that, somehow, I was going to find a way to get
to
Mr. Akinori thanked me repeatedly and told me
that he was truly honored to have met me.
“It was an honor to have met you too.” I told
him as we again shook hands.
As I slipped out of the changing room I
frantically tried to tie the string to my board shorts while running for Daddy
Phil and the others to tell them about meeting Mr. Akinori. I found them all
lying on a beach blanket on the sand.
“You guys are never going to believe who I
just met in the bathroom!” I exclaimed as I ran up to them and nearly fell on
top of Mommy Beth whom Jacquelyn and Joey had buried in the sand.
I told them all about Mr. Akinori and how he
said he was a fan of mine. He said that he’s going to be in
After telling them about meeting Mr. Akinori
I picked up my surfboard and headed out in search of Meek. I found him talking
to some older girls over by the biggest water slide. When he saw me coming he
quickly waved me over and introduced me to his lady friends.
“
Lacey was the first to speak, “Wow, so you’re
really famous huh?”
I felt my face flushing and I tried to shrug
off the adoration, but then Monica asked, “So are you going to compete again
this year?”
I realized then that Meek had figured out who
I was. I mean it was on my surfboard but then again.
I shrugged again, “Nah, probably not.” And
even as I said it, in the back of my mind, almost like an afterthought, a still
small voice could be heard saying, “One way or another I’ll be there!”
Although each of them had done so, Trish
frowned the most, “That’s too bad. Meek says you are really good.” When she had
said that, she reached out and ran a single finger over my right bicep, which
was still clinched because I was holding my surfboard. A shot of electricity
raced from my arm to my brain at her touch. I’ve no idea what that was all
about, but dang it felt good!
At first Meek and I didn’t get to do too much
talking about surfing because those three girls were hanging all over us. Now I
am not complaining, I’m just making an observation, that’s all. Actually, I was
really enjoying the attention; that is until I saw Jacquelyn standing on the
other side of the pool looking angrily my way. Even from that far away I could
tell that she didn’t like the fact that those girls were being so clingy.
I made up some excuse to get Meek and me away
from the girls. He picked up on the hint and the two of us headed for the water
with boards in hand.
Once in the water I told Meek, “I think I’m
in the dog house with my girlfriend again.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I saw her watching me and I don’t think she
liked me hanging around with the girls.”
Meek laughed, “Don’t sweat it. I know exactly
how it is. See that guy over there?”
“The one with the green striped towel draped
over his shoulders?” I asked.
“No, the one with the Black Speedo.”
“Oh yeah! What about him?” I asked.
“That’s my boyfriend and he gets incredibly
jealous whenever I spend a little too much time talking to another guy.” Meek
said.
“Boy friend?” I asked not really intending
for it to come out the way it did. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I
mean... uh... it’s cool. I got a couple friends at school that are gay too.”
“So I’m guessing since you have a girlfriend
that you’re not gay?” Meek asked and did I detect a hint of disappointment?
I didn’t mean to laugh but I did, “Nah, I’m
not but I am totally cool with it if you are. I mean, I don’t care who someone
likes as long as they are happy.”
“Wow, that’s really a mature attitude to
have.” Meek commented.
During the time we spent surfing I found out
that Meek wasn’t just gay, he was the Student President of his schools chapter
of something called Youth-Quest. I had no idea what that was and had to ask. It
turned out to be an after school group for gay teens and teens with one or more
gay parents.
“Yeah well...” I started to say but instead
decided to ask a question. “Does your boyfriend mind me hanging with you right
now?”
Meek redden slightly but didn’t answer.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, when I told him who you are he said
that he really wanted to meet you but he doesn’t want you to think he is a
stalker or something.”
“A stalker?” I laughed and was about to say
something else, but there wasn’t time because the next wave was coming, “Strike
that! Catch this one so I can see what you got!” I said and I turned my board
and got ready to duck-dive under the wave so that I could watch Meek surf it.
Meek took off paddling for all he was worth.
I guess he hadn’t had a chance to really prepare himself because as soon as he
stood up I knew that he was going into the water.
“Your feet were all wrong,” I said to him as
he paddled back up to me.
“Yeah?” he grunted as he coughed up some
water he had swallowed.
“You have to point your front foot in the
direction you want to go. You also had all your weight on your back leg. You
shouldn’t have any weight on that leg at all. It is just for balance.”
Meek looked at me as though he thought I was
joking with him.
“You’re not messing with me are you?” Meek
asked.
“No way man! I wouldn’t do that.” I said just
before sliding off my board.
I flipped my board over so that the fin was
up in the air.
“In the early days of surfing, boards didn’t
have fins to keep the board going straight. The surfer had to drag his back foot
in the water like a rudder.”
“Really?” Meek asked with astonishment.
I popped the fin off my board and then
flipped my board back over.
“Watch, I’ll show you.” I said as the next
wave was heading toward us.
I rode the wave while dragging my foot through
the water and even had to maneuver when some young kid from earlier nearly
crashed into me.
“Dude! That was righteous!” Meek said when I
paddled back to him.
“Here get on my board and give it a try.” I
said.
“No way man! I could never do what you just
did.” Meek said while holding his hands up as if I were some Wild West bandit.
“Come on. You might eat it but you might
not.” I said.
Meek pulled himself up on my board and I got
on his, which was one of the park rentals.
“I’m going to ride this next wave with you.”
I told him.
I am glad I did because I got to see that
much of the problem Meek was having, was due to the cheep rental board he had
been using.
“Man this board sucks.” I told him when I
came up after wiping out.
“You think so?” He asked.
“I know so! It’s no wonder you keep falling!”
I said and then asked, “I didn’t see. How did you do without the fin?”
“It was tough, but not as hard as I thought
it was going to be.”
“Did you stay up?”
Meek was beaming, “Amazingly, I did.”
I popped the fin back on my board and we
surfed together for over an hour. By the end of that time Meek was doing great.
I had also pretty much mastered that cheep rental board, although I seemed to
wipe out about every third or fourth wave.
“So you got anymore points for me?” Meek
asked as we both headed for our towels to dry off.
“Yeah, if you are serious about surfing, then
I’d suggest you get your own board.” I said rather dogmatically.
He dried his hair with his towel as he asked,
“Got any idea where?”
I thought for a moment before I said, “If you
want, I know this guy back in
“Really? That would be choice!” Meek said
excitedly.
He then asked, “You got an email address? I
could write you and then you could email his contact info.”
“Contact info?” I thought to myself. Sheesh,
he shifted for surfer to geek so fast I nearly got mental whiplash.
“Yeah, but can you remember my email?” I
asked.
“Come with me to the changing room. I have
something to write on with my clothes and things.” He said and then asked,
“Want me to carry your board?”
“Nah, I got it.” I said heaving it under my
arm and walking across the boardwalk with him.
As the two of us made our way to the changing
room we continued talking.
“I have to confess something,” Meek said,
“The way I knew you were you; I saw on your board there...” he pointed to the
bottom of my board which had, in huge fancy blue and white letter that covered
the entire bottom, ALVIN HOLLOWAY and running through the middle of my name in
gold was, 2X Jr. Surfing Champion.
Meek cocked his head to one side as he said,
“I still can’t believe that you are really THE
Alvin Holloway.”
“That reminds me,” I started to say and I
stopped to look around for the guy in the black Speedo.
I spotted him reclining in one of the deck
chairs and watching the two of us intently. I waved at him and then motioned
for him to come over. It looked like he nearly broke his leg trying to get out
of that chair.
“HI!” he all but shouted, as he jogged up to
us.
“
“Oh my gosh! Are you really Alvin Holloway?”
Pepper was almost drooling on me; that is how excited he was.
“You know me?” I asked.
“Are you kidding?!” Meek said for him, “He’s
got all the famous surfers taped up all over his bedroom walls.”
“Huh?” I grunted.
Pepper was nervously twisting his towel. “I
cut them out of magazines or print them off the Internet.”
Pepper looked to be about the same age as
Meek, but he was in a lot better physical shape. He looked like he exercised on
a regular basis. He had neatly combed black hair, parted in the middle. His
eyes were a light shade of brown and I must admit that I was kind of miffed
that he had a deeper tan then I did. Unlike Meek, he had no piercing and wore
no jewelry save for a single Dog Tag and a key on a twine and leather chocker
about his neck. Upon closer inspection I saw that the Dog Tags was stamped with
‘Abercrombie and Fitch’ and the key was stamped with ‘AaF’.
“
Pepper went nuts! “OH MY GOSH! YOU’RE GIVING
US YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS?”
People around us were starting to stare.
“Uh Pepper, you’re being a smidge
embarrassing.” Meek tried to say softly.
I would have said that he was being more than
a smidge, but I remained polite. Then again, I was feeling generous and decided
to put Pepper over the edge.
“I’ll do you one better than that, I’ll give
you my autograph if you like.”
Yep, I was right, that did it. Pepper started
jumping up and down fanning himself with both hands.
“OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY
GOSH!” he was alternating between screaming and making howling sounds.
Meek looked like he wanted to find somewhere
to hide but I was getting a kick out of Pepper. He was like so out there with
his excitement and didn’t care that he was acting like a total goof. If you ask
me, more people should feel free to be that open and natural.
Suddenly a massive shadow enveloped the three
of us from behind me. I had still been looking at Meeks glowing red face when
it suddenly went completely void of color. I looked to Pepper who wasn’t
bouncing anymore but was standing there looking up.
“Oh shit!” Pepper exclaimed in a high terror
filled tone that reminded me of those two cartoon chipmunks, Chip and Dale.
“Are they your bodyguards?” Pepper asked.
I turned around and saw Mr. Akinori standing
there looking all kinds of mean. On either side of him was an equally large
Asian man who both looked younger then Mr. Akinori. Logic said that they had to
be Sumo wrestlers as well.
“Ah man,” I crowed at Mr. Akinori, “you
scared the life out of me!”
He bowed respectfully and asked if I was ok.
Apparently he had heard and seen Pepper carrying on. He had assumed that
someone else had recognized me and was hounding me the way some diehard fans do
at times.
“No, no!” I said to Mr. Akinori. I looked at
Pepper and Meek who were both were standing stone still, “This is Meek, he’s a
surfer too. We just met today and this here,” I pointed at Pepper, “is Meeks
friend Pepper.”
“Guys, this is Mr. Asashōryū
Akinori.”
Mr. Akinori bowed to Meek and then to Pepper.
Hesitantly they both bowed back.
Right then Daddy Phil appeared.
“
I then introduced Daddy Phil to Mr. Akinori.
I didn’t know the other two men so Mr. Akinori introduced them for me. He had
said their names, but I am sorry to say that I cannot remember them. I also
forget the word Mr. Akinori used to describe them; it was something like disciple
but that isn’t exactly right. Maybe later I will ask Daddy Phil if he
remembers.
Mr. Akinori asked again if I was sure that
everything was ok. When I reassured him that I really was fine, he smiled,
bowed and apologized.
As they were walking away, Meek rumbled,
“That was so cool!”
“Why don’t you come spend some time with us
for a while?” Daddy Phil more told me than asked before heading back to the
water slide where Joey and Jacquelyn were waiting.
“OK, I will be right there.” I said.
Meek, Pepper and I went into the changing
room. Meek presented his token and in return received his basket of clothes. He
fished around until he found a small blue zippered pouch. It turned out to be a
New Testament Bible inside a zippered cover. I would have never taken Meek as
the Christian type, especially since he is gay, but then again I guess it
doesn’t matter either way. I know this much about Jesus, he used to hang out
with thieves, prostitutes and tax collectors; so I guess it is reasonable to
believe that he wouldn’t have a problem if someone was gay.
Besides containing a New Testament Bible
there was also a small ink pan and some scrap paper that I was able to write my
email address on. I didn’t really want to use one of the scrap pieces of paper
to sign for Pepper so I asked the guy that was in charge of guarding the rows
and rows of baskets if he had a nice piece of paper or a post-it note. All he
had was an
You would have thought that I had just given
him a check for a million dollars the way he hugged it to his chest.
“Since we’ll be able to swap emails, maybe we
can arrange to meet up here again someday.” Meek suggested.
“Hey yeah!” I agreed.
As Meek was returning his basket of clothes
the guy took it and asked me, “So are you someone famous or something?” I could
tell the way he said it that he was one of those kinds of people that only care
about what they can get for something from a famous person. I guess Meek and
Pepper picked up on it too, because they both had something to say back.
Pepper was the first to reply, “Don’t you
recognize the King of England when you see him?”
“Yeah, he’s a right royal pain in the...”
Meek started to say, but I gave him a playful shove.
“Hey!” I growled while laughing.
He continued as the three of us made a quick
exit, “What did I say your majesty? Please don’t have my head chopped off your
majesty!”
And just before the three of us popped out
the door Pepper did a very fancy bow, waved his arm royally and said, “May God
be with you on your noble quest for a clue!”
All three of us laughed however I had failed
to take into account the fact that I had been carrying my board around with me,
which had my name spelled out for all to see. Later in the day it would prove
to have been a catalyst to something considerably unpleasant.
Chapter 13
I would have liked to have spent more time
with Meek and Pepper. Despite Peppers initial excitement at meeting me, he
turned out to be a really cool guy. I also wanted to spend more time playing
with Joey and Jacquelyn. Besides, since they live closer, it was more likely
that I would get to see more of Meek and Pepper than I would Joey and
Jacquelyn.
It took some doing, but I managed to talk
Joey into letting me take him on my surfboard. The way I got him to try surfing
with me was to tell him that if he would do it, then I’d help him build a big
When Joey’s head came back out of the water
he spat out a mouthful of water like a human water fountain, swam to the edge
of the pool, pulled himself out and said rather unyieldingly, “Now we got to
build a castle.”
“But we didn’t surf, we just wiped out.” I
argued.
“
“Oh alright!” I surrendered and made my way
out of the pool.
What was so cool about building the sand
castle was that at first it started out as just Joey and me, but after a while
Jacquelyn came and joined us. Then some other kids started helping too and
before long there were more than a dozen of us building, digging and forming
the castle. We had bridges, a huge moat and lots of tall towers. Our castle got
so big that we were running some of the adults off so that we could have the
sand under them.
We played in the sand for nearly two hours,
prior to deciding that we wanted to go swimming one more time before our
wonderful day at
Mommy Beth and Jacquelyn slipped away to the
girls changing room while Daddy Phil and Joey stood by the pool holding my
surfboard and waiting for me to come down the big slide one last time. In
hindsight, I should have left without that one last trip down the slide.
When I reached the top I found that same
little kid that I’d seen with Meek earlier. He was too scared to go down the
slide by himself and was carrying on, making a scene. From that high perch I
scanned the entire park for Meek but couldn’t spot him among the throngs of people.
I then turned my attention back to the boy. At first I couldn’t remember his
name and had to ask him.
“Do you remember me?” I asked.
Sobbing with a big snot bubble hanging out of
his nose he nodded his head.
“What was your name again?”
“Sheller,” he whimpered.
I looked up to the slide attendant who looked
both irritated with the sobbing child and longingly hopeful that I might take
him off his hands. I returned my attention back to Sheller.
“Sheller, would you like to go down the slide
with me?”
Sheller hesitantly nodded and the snot bubble
popped.
I looked back to the slide attendant whose
eyes expressed genuine relief that someone was getting rid of the problem child
for him.
I lowered myself into position and without
telling him to do so Sheller jumped down onto my lap. For a dreadful split
second, as he seemed to hang in the air, I feared that my poor balls were about
to suffer from the sudden impact. Thankfully he missed them and instead my legs
took the full brunt of his weight.
“Hold me tight!” he grunted and I wrapped
both arms around his middle.
“Tighter!” he squalled as we started out
decent.
I’m surprised his head didn’t pop off, that
is how tight I hold him all the way down the slide.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeee!” he squealed as we flew down
the tube.
When we reached the corkscrew part of the
slide we actually made a complete one-eighty spin so that we were going down
backwards. Sheller screamed and I’m not sure if he was screaming because he was
scared or if he was having fun. We emerged from the slide like a couple human
cannonballs and went airborne. My back hit the water first in a sort of
skimming backward flop. We had been going so fast that, when we entered the
water, the force of it pulled Sheller out of my arms. Thankfully he was a good
swimmer. The instant my head came out of the water I knew something was wrong.
My back was stinging almost the way it might
if I’d scrapped it across a coral reef. That is when I noticed that floating
all around me were fragments of something whitish. Have you ever tried to flush
the toilet only to have it just swirl around and shred the toilet paper without
sucking it down? Well that is what it was like; it was as if someone had tossed
in wads of toilet paper or something. Others in the pool started panicking and swimming
for the sides because they didn’t know what the white stuff was either. Sheller
pointed at me and exclaimed in a very loud voice, “Your diaper came apart!”
I became instantly aware that below the
waters surface I was completely nude; both my board shorts and the swim diaper
were gone. The force of the water had not only pulled Sheller out of my arms,
it had also pulled off what little I had been wearing.
Back in
Someone else came down the slide and when they
hit the water it scattered the bits of what was left of the swim diaper.
I spun around while treading water, trying to
find my board shorts. That’s when yet another girl came out of the slide and
nearly collided with me. Unfortunately it had caught me by surprises. The
splash the girl made threw water over my head and I gasped in a lung full of
water; I think maybe even some of the shredded diaper fill stuff had come in
with the water.
“
I am so thankful that Daddy Phil had been
there because I sure did swallow a lot of water. The instant he seen that I was
in trouble he had dove in to help me. Once he had me at the side of the pool I
coughed and choked up water in an attempt to clear my airway. It seemed like
forever before I was able to get a halfway decent breath of air into my lungs
again. By then a crowd had formed around us as well as several park attendants
and two lifeguards had come over.
I don’t know who had thought to cover me with
a towel; it wasn’t one of our towels but I am so glad someone thought to cover
my shame. You know what is funny? I never did get my board shorts back. No
kidding!
When I was able to get up, Daddy Phil had
secured the towel around me and we walked to the changing room together with Joey
worriedly holding my hand as I continued to cough and clear my throat.
“Thirsty?” Daddy Phil tried to tease me.
I gave him a dirty look as I coughed again
followed by a small burp that tasted like pool water.
“That was so embarrassing!” I lamented.
He raked his fingers into the back of my hair
and massaged my head, “Embarrassment is just a part of growing up.”
“You should have got changed when I did!”
Joey commented.
“I am sorry but I didn’t even think about
it.” Daddy Phil began as we neared the changing room. “After about four or five
hours the chemicals, which some pools use, begin to break down the glues used
in the construction of disposable swim diapers.”
Of course that had been news to me. I do,
however, remember that when we had first entered the water park, I had noticed
the distinct lack of chlorine in the air. I guess whatever
While Joey and I headed for the center of the
changing room to shower off, Daddy Phil leaned my board against the far wall
and then went to retrieve our clothes and things.
As soon as we finished washing, we both
wrapped towels around ourselves and went over to sit by my board while we
waited for Daddy Phil, who seemed to be taking an awfully long time.
“You feeling better?” Joey asked me.
“Yeah, I just forgot for a minute that I
wasn’t a fish.” I joked while trying not to remember how embarrassing it was to
have everyone looking at me and knowing that it had been my swim diaper that
had disintegrated in the pool.
Joey made a weird sort of face, then asked,
“Didn’t you say you have a friend named that?”
“Named what?” I asked.
“Fish,” Joey said while making a fish face.
Wow, Joey’s mind sure works fast! I hadn’t
even picked up on that.
You know, I just had a disturbing thought. I
wonder if they had to close the pool after my swim diaper fall apart, until
they got the gunk cleaned up. Yeah, I bet that would make me a real popular guy
if I were ever to return to the park. I can just hear them now. “Hey look,
there goes the diaper boy who ruined our fun!”
Joey and I were sitting, minding our own
business and talking about the sandcastle we and many other kids had made.
“Then two boys came and stomped it all.” Joey
said. His upper lip curled up like a snarling dog as he said it too.
I felt a twinge of irritation at hearing
that.
“Really?” I replied.
Sure it was only a sandcastle and I know they
are supposed to be a temporary thing but even still, I hate jerks that stomp on
sandcastles just for the fun of it. My good friend Gary back in Chula Vista,
felt the same way and would chase off anyone he seen doing that sort of thing.
Speaking of
While Joey and I continued talking I noticed
that Daddy Phil was talking animatedly to the guy in charge of guarding
everyone’s clothing and other personal effect. Though we couldn’t hear any of
the conversation, Daddy Phil’s body language told us that he was upset about
something. At the time, I wasn’t sure why, but I started to get a bad feeling
in my stomach.
My attention was suddenly diverted away from
Daddy Phil when a frantic looking and winded Meek came skidding to a stop on
the wet concrete floor after running into the changing room. He positioned
himself near the middle of the room and bent over. With hands on knees he
panted for air as he quickly scanned the room.
“Oh there you are!” Meek wheezed when he
spotted me. He crossed over to where I was sitting, still wearing nothing more
than the towel.
“You alright?” I asked him.
“Me?” he grunted with mild shock, “Someone
told me you nearly drowned.”
“Drowned?” I laughed half amused, “I only
chocked on a little water is all.”
Meek stood erect, sucked in a deep breath and
punched a fist into his other hand. He groaned out the words through clenched
teeth, “I am going to pound Sheller.”
“Who’s Sheller?” Joey asked.
“My lil’ dweeb of a cousin.” Meek churned
while looking toward the doorway he’d only just entered through.
Meek then turned back to me and asked again,
“So you are ok for real?”
“Yeah,” I answered with a mild gesticulation.
“Little Gitt had me believing you were bad
off. He even said that you lost your trunks and dia...” he stopped before
finishing the word. He had seen me wince at even the near mentioning of that
word. “Sorry,” he said and continued, “that just slipped out. I mean the, ‘You
know what’.”
“Yeah, his diaper exploded all over the
pool!” Joey said totally missing the whole idea that I didn’t want that word
blabbed out. I think I must have turned volcano red!
“Oh,” Meek purred, showing the same signs of
discomfort that I was feeling.
“Uh, is he your little brother?” Meek asked
gesturing to Joey.
“Nah, Joey is my best friend, but we are
almost like brothers.” I said and Joey seemed to glow at this distinction.
I didn’t notice Daddy Phil come back over
until he was right there with us. He was holding his own clothes but that was
it.
“What?” I asked when I seen how upset he
looked.
“They seem to have misplaced your clothing!”
he said and I could feel the fire inside of him as he spoke.
What he had said didn’t register right away.
Actually Joey and Meek got it before I did.
“We don’t got no clothes?” Joey asked almost
sounding glad of that fact.
“They lost someone else’s clothes again?”
Meek barked in disbelief.
Daddy Phil looked at Meek as if to say, “Who
are you?” but he didn’t actually say anything.
“Daddy, this is my new friend Meek. He’s a
surfer like me.” I said.
“Ah yes, I saw you two surfing together
today.” Daddy Phil said while extending his hand to shake Meeks.
“Nice to meet you Mr. Holloway.” Meek said
politely.
“No—no!” I quickly interjected, “He’s not my
real dad. I just call him daddy.”
Still shaking his hand Daddy Phil said, “I am
Joey’s dad.
“Oh ok, now I get it!” Meek said with a grin.
“So you said they have lost other peoples
clothing?” Daddy Phil asked.
“Yeah they totally lost Peppers’... I mean my
friends clothes last month.” Meek said.
“Wait,” I said finally realizing what we were
talking about, “I don’t have anything to wear home? I can’t go home naked!”
“Don’t be silly!” Daddy Phil said in a
fatherly tone, “The attendant is getting the manager now. I am sure he’ll find
your things.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Meek said and I don’t
think he even knew that he had said anything at first.
All three of us looked at him concernedly.
“I mean, they didn’t find my friends stuff.
Instead they gave his mom a check to go buy him some new clothes.”
Suddenly I became very concerned of the fact
that all I had to wear was a towel. The idea of going shopping for clothing
while wrapped in a towel when the weather was still not all that warm was not
very appealing.
About then this short, brown-haired guy
wearing a brown necktie, white shirt, pressed chocolate brown slacks and
scuffed black dress shoes walked up to us. The guy didn’t look old enough to
drive, let alone be the manager of the entire water park. One look at his name
tag revealed that he was in fact not a full fledged manager. He was only an
Assistant Junior Manager — whatever the heck that means. His name tag read,
David
Mauston
Asst.
Jr. Manager
His face was literally covered in pimples and
blackheads and was so greasy, that it looked like someone had smeared Vaseline
all over his mug. I wanted to ask him if he had ever heard of this cool
invention they call ‘SOAP’, but there was no way I would ever say something
like that aloud.
“I am Mr. Mauston, how can I help you today?”
the guy asked and he sounded as young as he looked.
I was sure Daddy Phil was going to bust out
laughing when he saw that Assistant Junior Manager guy. How he managed to hold
it together, I will never know.
Daddy Phil explained the situation and then
they went back over to the... What do they call that room anyway? I mean
shouldn’t it have an official title like “Clothing Booth” or ‘Clothing Keep’ or
something cleaver like that. Ok so anyway, they went to that place where
people’s clothes are kept to talk to the guy in charge of guarding the clothes.
That was when Meek had an idea.
“You know what?” He said in a half whisper,
“I bet that one guy that was in there before took your stuff. Remember he
thought you might be someone famous?”
Before the thought had time to settle in
brain he added, “Maybe he figured out who you really are and is going to try to
sell your clothes on eBay or something like that.”
As ridiculous as that sounded, it was the
only explanation that seemed to make sense. The three of us dashed over to
Daddy Phil where Meek repeated his allegations. The Assistant Junior Manager
asked the guy currently in charge of guarding peoples belongings who had been
working before him. With that information the Pimple faced Manager left the
changing room with Daddy Phil following after him. Before he left, Daddy Phil
told Joey to go out front and tell his mom what was taking us so long.
I was glad that I didn’t have to sit and wait
by myself. Meek kept me company, talking about surfing stuff which really
helped to keep my mind off the violated emotions I was experiencing.
While we sat there several guys came and
went, but one stood out because of his t-shirt. I don’t know why we thought it
was so funny, because it really wasn’t; yet we still laughed a lot over it. The
guy’s shirt read, “Just because you have
one doesn’t mean you have to act like one.”
“That sounds like something Pepper would
say.” Meek mused comically.
“Seriously?” I posed.
“For sure; he’s crazy like that.”
“You know something?” I pondered
thoughtfully.
Meek pulled his left knee to his chest,
wrapped both arms around his leg and rested his chin on his knee.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I like Pepper. I think you are lucky to have
a boyfriend like him.” I told him.
“You really think so?”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
“It must be tough; living so far away from
your girlfriend.” He said sympathetically.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“With my Pepper,” he began and I thought it
was cute how he called him ‘his Pepper’, “I get hugs and kisses anytime I
want...” he faltered for an instant, “Well, not anytime, but you know what I
mean, right?”
I nodded without making a sound because in
that ever so brief instant an image had formed in my mind of him and Pepper,
lying side by side, locked in a passionate embrace. Their lips pressed tightly
together, their arms and legs wrapped around each other like two intertwined
octopodes.
Meek continued, “That’s because he only lives
ten blocks away.”
“Oh,” I said as I began to understand what it
was he was trying to tell me, “Yeah, that part is hard.” I confessed, “But we
get to talk online almost everyday and sometimes for hours and hours. I like
that a lot; but you are right. It isn’t the same.”
The erotic mental image of Meek and Pepper
abruptly vanished only to be replaced by another piece of erotic imagery. This
time it was an image of Jacquelyn and myself, sitting beside the Lap Pool in
the basement of my Grandparents home. However, this time neither of us was
wearing any clothes but like Meek and Pepper, we held each other passionately
kissing and exploring one-another’s bodies with our hands.
Thankfully my mental sexcapade was
interrupted before Meek had realized I wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.
Joey had returned only a couple minutes before the pimple faced Assistant
Junior Manager came back with Daddy Phil.
“What took you so long?” I asked when I seen
Joey strolling back in as though he was simply walking along some beach on a
sunny afternoon.
“Wha?” Joey said and I realize he had a mouth
full of something.
“Are you serious? Someone stole our clothes
and you stopped to eat?” I said accusingly.
“Ith noth fud!” he tried to say.
“What is it then?” Meek and I asked at the
same time.
“Gaum”
“Wow! How many pieces of gum do you have in
your mouth?” Meek asked with a chuckle.
Joey held up seven fingers and tried to
smile.
Right then the Assistant Junior Manager and
Daddy Phil walked in and somehow I had expected them to be dragging that
attendant guy back with them, but they were alone. However, it didn’t go
unnoticed that in Daddy Phil’s arms were all of our missing things.
“You found them!” Meek exclaimed.
“Thanks to you.” Daddy Phil told Meek.
“So it was that guy?” I asked.
The Assistant Junior Manager nodded and said,
“He has been fired. I wanted to call the police but your father here wouldn’t
let me.
He sounded upset that Daddy Phil had done
that. To be honest I didn’t see why he hadn’t tried to press charges.
That manager guy turned out to be a pretty
decent guy. He gave us a ton of free passes to the park and a fist full of
Aquaboggin Bucks that can be used for food or at the souvenir shop.
After the manager guy left us Daddy Phil gave
half the passes and Aquaboggin Bucks to Meek. At first Meek wouldn’t take them
but Daddy Phil has a way with people.
“If it hadn’t been for you, we may never have
got the boys clothes back.” He had told Meek.
Reluctantly Meek took it but not without
saying, “If you ask me, that guy should have been put in jail.”
“No, he is just a young kid who did something
stupidly impulsive.” Daddy Phil said. “We all make mistakes.”
“I don’t know,” Meek said, “I bet Jesus would
have slapped the crap out of him.
Meek again thanked me for the surfing points
I had given him before running out of the changing room. Daddy Phil gave Joey
and me both a pair of Pull-Up diapers to put on before we got dressed.
Chapter 14
Back in the car and headed home Daddy Phil
told us the funniest joke. Let me see if I can remember how it went;
“Deep in the back woods of
Soon, a baby boy was brought into the world.
“Whoa there!” said the doctor, “Don’t be in
such a rush to put that lantern down. I think there's another one coming.”
Sure enough, within minutes he had delivered
a baby girl.
“Hold that lantern up, don’t set it down
there’s another one!” said the doctor.
Within a few minutes he had delivered a third
baby.
“No, don’t be in a hurry to put down that
lantern, it seems there’s yet another one coming!” cried the doctor.
The redneck scratched his head in
bewilderment and asked the doctor, "You reckon it might be the light
that’s attractin' 'em?”
Jacquelyn and I got it right away and laughed
like crazy, but Jacquelyn had to explain it to Joey before he got the joke.
Daddy Phil told a bunch more jokes however,
that was the only one I remember, probably because it was the funniest.
“So did you have fun?” Grandmother asked as
we arrived back home.
“No, we had a great time!” Joey squealed with
delight.
“Best ever!” I said as Daddy Phil handed me
my board to carry it up to my room.
Jacquelyn and Mommy Beth came in behind us
carrying our wet towels and chatting among themselves. I never actually
confirmed it, but I think Mommy Beth liked having another girl around for a
while.
Joey and I started to head up the stairs as
Grandmother called after me, “
I stopped and looked back.
“We both need a change first.” I said as if
it were nothing out of the ordinary for me to say.
“I will see to them.” Mommy Beth offered.
And to that Grandmother informed her, “I think
I will give you a hand my dear.”
After a quick change by Grandmother while
Mommy Beth tended to her son, she ushered me out of my bedroom and to
Grandfathers study. We reached the door but that is all the farther she went.
“I will see you downstairs for dinner.” She
said and walked back toward the steps.
All the excitement from the day seemed to
evaporate, leaving me feeling nervous. Only one other time had I been summoned
to my Grandfathers study and that was when I had gotten into some trouble about
three and a half months into the school year. My friends and I had decided that
we wanted the day off from school. Playing hooky was something I had become
quiet good at back in
With my heart pounding and my ears ringing I
raised my hand to the door knob and turned it. The door silently opened and I
looked in to see, that aside from the fire in the fire place and some music
quietly playing, it didn’t seem like there was anyone inside.
“Grandfather?” I called into the dimly lit
study.
At first there was no response, just the gentle
crackling of the fire and the pleasant playing of what I took to be some kind
of soft jazz.
“Grandfather?” I called louder.
“Ah good,” Grandfather said when he heard me,
“Come in boy; come in.” it sounded like he might have said something else after
that, but I wasn’t sure.
While still standing outside of the door,
with only my head inside his study I asked, “Grandmother said you wanted to see
me?”
He made a sound, which I took to be him
clearing his throat. “I did? Oh yes right! I did!”
My eyes tracked the direction of his voice to
a large, high-backed brown leather chair sitting to the left of a small orange
glowing fire.
“Well don’t stand there half in and half
out.” He said as his hand and arm came into view beckoning me to enter. “Come
in, come in.”
Don’t ask me why, but for some odd reason I
was feeling very uncomfortable, like I was trying to sneak up on a sleeping
lion.
I crept into his study, almost on tip-toe as
I slowly advanced toward the fireplace.
“Come join me here.” He said pointing with a
smoldering cigar at an identical chair to the right of the fireplace.
When I lowered my freshly diapered bottom
into the chair, both my diaper and the shiny leather sang out a mingled chorus
of crinkles and squeaks.
I looked up at him and that is when I noticed
Grandfather was talking on the phone. Without looking at me he offered me the
phone.
“Would you like to talk to your mother?” He
asked.
Now you might think that I would have pounced
on that phone like a hungry leopard would a wounded gazelle, but I didn’t.
Instead, I hesitated while considering the small bit of electronics wrapped in
a handsome black plastic covering.
“Come on boy. She doesn’t have a lot of
time.” Grandfather said while jiggling the phone at me.
He then stood up and placed the phone to my
ear.
Mechanically I said, “Hello?” and then took
hold of the phone for myself.
“Oh sweetheart! It is so wonderful to hear
your voice again!” came my mother’s voice, “I have missed you so very much.”
I didn’t know what else to say, so I said the
only thing that came to mind. “Grandmother said that the hospital won’t let me
come see you because I might spread germs.”
Mom was quiet for a moment and then she
started to weep, but only for a brief moment.
“
Mom’s voice trailed off. I felt an uneasy
comfort in knowing that like me, she was still finding it difficult to draw
reference to that horrible day.
She sniffled, coughed and then started again,
“He told me that some of his happiest memories were of the two of you surfing
in the dawn of morning.”
I was crying as I listened to her and was
glad that, after giving me the phone, Grandfather had returned to his chair and
wasn’t looking toward me. Still, I turned away from him, in case he turned back
around again.
After a long pause in our conversation, where
the two of us listened to the other crying, mom spoke and said what I already
believed to be true.
“
I sighed, “I know. It’s ok.”
But then mom’s voice became stern. “No!” she
snapped, “No, it is not OK! Your father and I wanted you to compete again! Your
father wanted so desperately for you to try for the teen championship.”
She was yelling into the phone now, “It isn’t
OK!”
I guess Grandfather could hear mom yelling
into my ear because he had turned around. Though I couldn’t see him I knew his
eyes were on the side of my head.
“Mom really, it’s ok.” I wept.
I heard mom say something away from the phone
and then the call went dead. I just sat there looking at the receiver in my
hand and hoping that mom’s voice would return.
I heard a sound behind me; I think
Grandfather had cleared his throat in an attempt to get my attention. I pressed
the red button on the phone and without looking, I handed it to him.
There was a long drawn out silence in the
room while grandfather let me stare at the fire and get all my tears out.
“How was your day?” he finally asked while
smoke swirled around his head.
“It was good.” I said sheepishly looking
around as though I were expecting something or someone to jump out and grab me.
“Get all that surfing nonsense out of your
system did you?” he said while shifting in his chair. His words had been
partially masked by the groaning of the leather.
“Excuse me?” I asked not sure I had heard him
right.
Instead of repeating himself he said
something completely different.
“Had a visit from Carl...” he fumbled
briefly, then recovered, “your school principle.”
My only response to this news was to raise a
single eyebrow. For a wonderful day I had forgot that the school year wasn’t
over yet, at least not here in
“I am sure you will be glad to know that you
have been transferred into the next grade.” Grandfather said with nearly no
pageantry.
“What?” I grunted confusedly.
Grandfather puffed on his cigar, blew smoke
at the fire and then added, “They have elected to close the school early this
year. Skip all that end of year testing and whatnot.”
“So I don’t have to go back at all?” Even
though I said it, I don’t think the idea had fully sunk in just yet.
“Well don’t sound so happy.” Grandfather
scoffed at my lack of excitement.
“Huh? No...I mean, yeah... uh... I am... I
mean... Well.” I couldn’t seem to get a single thought to complete.
“I’m afraid that isn’t all I have to share
with you.” He said as he tossed what was more than three-quarters of a cigar
into the fire. Before continuing he leaned forward in his chair, took up the
fire poker and stabbed at the dwindling fire several times until the flames
began to dance once more.
“Thing is, your mother will be coming home in
a few days.” He said as though this were bad news.
I started to speak but he held up a hand to
silence me.
“She is still not wholly well; but I believe
it will do her better to be here with her family than inside...” his words
trialed off, except I knew what he was about to say.
“She will have a nurse here to look after her
day-and-night until she snaps out of this depression that has hold of her.”
“Snaps out?” I thought, “She lost her husband
and he says it like that?”
Despite him trying to silence me once again I
managed to ask, “What day is she coming home?”
I am not certain what I was feeling for sure.
Mostly excitement to have mom coming back home, but also something else that I
couldn’t identify; then Grandfather named it for me.
“Your Grandmother has told me that you know
why your mother was sent to the hospital in the first place.” He said as he
raised his fingers to his mouth and then remembered he had already discarded
his cigar. He looked at the fireplace remorsefully before continuing.
“It will be important that you not let your
mother know how embittered you are with her.”
“What’s embittered mean?” I asked.
For the first time since I had entered his
study and sat across from him he looked at me. I mean really looked at me. He
cleared his throat again, brushed his chin with his thumb thoughtfully and then
said, “It means angry and unhappy.”
My only reply was to look at the lavish rug
beneath my feat and burble out a single, “Oh.”
He told me what to expect in the coming days,
such as when my friends were scheduled to leave, when he thought mom would be
home. Then he dropped a bombshell on me.
“There is one bit of unpleasant business I
need to discuss with you.” Grandfather said with more emotion than he had thus
far shown during our little chat.
With no idea what to expect I leaned back
into the leather backed chair and braced myself for anything.
“What can you tell me about the broken vase
from the third floor hallway?”
For several moments I sat looking dumbly. I
had no idea what he was talking about at first; then like a flash it all came
back to me. More than a month back I had been amusing myself one boring Sunday
afternoon with a game of Frisbee football. I had made a Frisbee from an old
cardboard box I had found. I had been tossing it inside the house and chasing
after it while I tried my best to dodge the make-believe opponents. I pretended
to be going back for a long pass when I bumped into the table at the end of the
hallway. The only thing on that table had been a tall, top-heavy green and
white vase. I hadn’t even realized that I had sent it tumbling to the floor
until I heard the crash of glass. I think I would have confessed to breaking it
then and there, had I not been told at least four times earlier that day to
stop playing rough in the house. To keep from getting into trouble, I had
collected all the shards of glass, taken them to my bathroom and spent the
remainder of that day gluing them back together. I guess I must have done a
pretty good job of rebuilding the vase because it had taken this long for
anyone to figure it out.
OK, Grandfather had me dead to rights and we
both knew it. I should have come clean but I guess I was scared. Instead I lied
like a rug.
“What vase?” I asked, trying to sound
innocent and clueless.
He pointed across the room. There, sitting in
the middle of his desk, were the remains of the green and white vase in
question; it was once again in several pieces.
Now, on more than one occasion Grandfather
has given me his speech about how much he detests lying. Evidentially, he felt
that I needed to hear it once more. The painful thing about this speech, it
lasts from anywhere between twenty minutes to over an hour. This time I had no
idea how long it took, but it felt like the long version. I think that the
speech is his way of torturing me into spilling my guts, because in the end I
always seem to tell him the truth. This time was no different. I told him I had
broken the vase and then attempted to mend it using Elmer’s Glue, which in
hindsight probably wasn’t the best glue to use on a container that is sometimes
filled with water and flowers.
I wasn’t punished; at least not right then.
Grandfather said he would talk with me later. Boy I hate when he does that. It
means I get to sweat bullets until he decides what sort of punishment I will be
forced to endure. I suppose that in itself it is part of the punishment.
With our conversation at an end, I knew this
because Grandfather had stood up and was moving toward the door, I quickly
blurted out, “I want to go to
Almost immediately he began shaking his head.
“My boy, I think it is time you gave up on foolish ideas such as those. It is
time for you to accept that your life is here now and get on with living.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. No, that’s not
true, I could believe them. It was just like Grandfather to be so cold-blooded.
Yeah, he has his moments where I actually think there is a human heart beating
in that old wrinkled shell of a man, but those are few and far between.
“My dad wants me to compete.” I said with
tears in my eyes, though they were not tears of sorrow but of anger.
Like an inhuman machine he said, “Your father
is not here anymore; I am.” His voice was cold and business like, “I have to
start looking after your future. With that in mind; after your friends have
left...”
I tried to cut him off but he quickly
squelched anything I had to say by exclaiming loudly, “Excuse me! I am talking
and you will listen!”
Grandfather made eye contact with me one last
time, “Indeed they are.” He cleared his throat, straightened the collar of his
smoking jacket, smoothed his eyebrows and continued, “After your guests have
left, you and I will have another talk.”
And that was it. He left me sitting alone in
his study, shaking with anger as enormous tears flowed down my face.
Lord knows how long I sat alone in the dark.
The only light in the room came from the quickly dieing fire. I am sure it was
at least half an hour, maybe more before Grandmother came looking for me. I had
stopped crying but one look at me and she knew I was madder than she had ever
seen me. Without saying a single word she reached down, took hold of my wrist
and pulled me to my feet. She then led me out of the study, down the hallway to
my bedroom and into my bathroom where she washed my face and neck with a cold
washcloth.
After depositing the washcloth into the
laundry shoot she took hold of my left hand and the two of us walked out of my
room and down to the dining room.
Once again Mommy Beth cooked and though
Grandmother at first turned her nose up at the plate set before her, she did
taste it. You should have seen her face light up.
“What is this astounding sandwich?”
Grandmother asked as Mommy Beth sat down with us.
“Sloppy Charlies,” Mommy Beth answered with a
prideful smile.
“You mean Sloppy Joes,” Jacquelyn corrected.
Mommy Beth replied with a slightly cheesed
off titter, “I most certainly do not. They are Sloppy Charlies.”
Though I didn’t feel much like eating, I took
a bite of my sandwich and the wonderful flavors filled my mouth. Try as I
might, I could not place the unique flavor of the meet. It for sure wasn’t
beef.
Jacquelyn poked at her bun with her finger,
“What’s in it?”
I could tell by the sound of Jacquelyn’s
voice that she wasn’t too keen on the red stuff that was oozing out of her bun.
Joey was the one to answer with a cute little
giggle, “It’s tuna fish!”
“TUNA?!” Jacquelyn shrieked loudly and made a
gagging face, “That’s just sick!”
Grandmother adopted a stern expression by
forcing the corners of her mouth down.
“Young lady! Please use your inside voice!”
She replaced her sandwich on her plate before
continuing to verbally instruct Jacquelyn on the proper way for someone to act.
“You should taste it before deciding whether
you like it or not.”
Effectively rebuked, Jacquelyn grudgingly
picked up her sandwich and nibbled off a small bite. We all waited with fevered
expectation to see if she was going to spit it out or not. After a pensive
pause, which seemed to last an eternity, Jacquelyn’s eyes grew wide and she
announced, “Hey, this isn’t half bad. Actually, it’s more than that, it’s
really good.”
Grandmother’s expression softened, “Now see.
After all that fuss and it turns out you do like it.”
Grandmother smiled as she complemented Mommy
Beth with, “My dear, I will have to insist that you share the recipe with
Micah.”
Mommy Beth wiped a drip of mustard from
Joey’s chin as she said, “Well it couldn’t be easier. You dump a can of Hormel
Sloppy Joe mix into a sauce pan along with six cans of drained tuna fish and
heat it up.”
“Fascinating!” Grandmother commented as she
took another bite of her sandwich.
“This is delicious Mommy.” I said revealing
the partially chewed contents of my mouth.
Grandmother leaned over and tried to poke me
with her boney finger, except I had instinctively flinched away thinking she
was trying to tickle me or something. I don’t know why I thought that because
that wasn’t something Grandmother was inclined to do.
“Swallow before speaking please.” She said.
Grandmother made a thoughtful sound as she
savored another bite. “Is this something you came up with?” she asked.
Mommy Beth humbly told the story, “A couple
years ago there was a mix up with Phil’s military pay and we had to go over two
months without a paycheck. Our cupboards were getting in every respect bare. I
had a can of Sloppy Joe sauce and several cans of Tuna fish. With a momentary
hesitation I decided to give it a try.” Mommy Beth smiled, “And well, it turned
out to be so good that they ask me to make it almost every week since.”
Grandmother sat what was left of her sandwich
down before saying, “Even the name is catchy. Sloppy Charlies.” She said it
several times before asking, “I get the Sloppy part, but why Charlies?”
Daddy Phil was the one to explain that it was
named after the StarKist Tuna fish mascot.”
“It sounds perfect!” Grandmother said, “We
should look at getting these sandwiches into our restaurants.”
“Really?” Daddy Phil said nearly choking on
his water.
Grandmother seemed to be beaming with
excitement as she said, “I think we might have something here that could be a popular
lunchwich.”
“Oh my!” Mommy Beth exclaimed, “Do you really
think so?”
“What’s a lunchwich?” Joey asked loudly.
Grandmother smiled, “Inside voice please.”
“Sorry,” He said and asked again in a softer
tone, “What is a lunchwich?”
“Thank you.” Grandmother said as she smiled
across the table at Joey. “That is an expression we use here in
“Is there a dinnerwich?” Jacquelyn asked.
Before Grandmother could reply Joey piped off
with, “Or a breakfastwich?”
She smiled with amusement and said, “No, I’m
afraid not but we do have snackwiches. But those are typically only finger
foods served at parties or small gatherings.
With that Grandmother scooted her chair away from
the table and excused herself momentarily by saying, “Let me make a quick phone
call.”
While she was gone everyone was buzzing with
the idea that Mommy Beth’s sandwich was going to become famous in
She returned with an unreservedly aberrant
smile splitting her face horizontally.
“If you are willing to, tomorrow morning
we’ll go meet with the gentleman that is in charge of what is served at our
restaurants.”
Mommy Beth and Daddy Phil were keen on this
idea and for the remainder of our meal it was all that everyone talked about.
Well mostly anyway. Joey wanted to know more about snackwiches and Grandmother
was all too happy to explain it to him.
Chapter 15
After dinner, while everyone else had
gathered in the media room to watch Shrek
the Third on DVD, I managed to slip away to the kitchen where I grabbed the
cordless phone and hid myself away in the pantry. I knew that with the time
difference between
Amazingly, my call to
“Thank you for calling The Shack. How might I
help you?” Came the unfamiliar voice of some young sounding lady.
After recovering from the shock of not
hearing
“May I ask who is calling?” the lady politely
asked.
“Tell him it is
“
“Alvin Holloway.” I said.
“You mean Alvin Holloway the Junior Surfing
Champion?” she asked.
“Yeah that’s the one.” I said feeling
slightly annoyed now.
“I am sorry, but I think Alvin Holloway moved
away or something like that. Besides, I don’t think he ever really worked here.
He just sort of hung around maybe.” She said.
“No! I am
“Oh!” she said and for a full second I
thought that was all she was going to say, but then she said something that
totally blew me away.
“Um... yeah...
“WHAT? MARRIED?” I shouted into the phone.
“Like oh my gaud! You like totally yelled in
my ear!” she whined and I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her.
“But-but-but, did he leave a number or an
address where he could be reached?” I pleaded.
“No, sorry! Hey I got to go now! Thanks for
calling. Bubye!” she said and hung up just like that.
I sat, stunned with the phone still to my
ear. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. At first I was so exceedingly
mad that she had hung up on me the way she did. I then wondered if maybe
someone was playing a dirty trick on me.
The phone started making that really annoying
beeping sound indicating that it was still off the hook. I quickly yanked the
phone from my ear and turned it off, but I didn’t climb out of the pantry.
Instead, I sat down on a large overturned cooking pot and stared down at the
lifeless phone in my hands.
I had no idea I had been in there as long as
I had until Jacquelyn opened the pantry door and said to me.
“There you are! You’ve missed half the movie already!
What are you doing in here anyway?”
“
“You mean that old surfing guy you told me
about?” she asked.
I simply nodded my head, stood up, handed the
phone to her and drug myself all the way to my room. I was probably in my room
all of five minutes before Jacquelyn came in.
“You ok?” she asked in a very sweet sort of
way.
When she had come in I had been inside my
armoire getting out my pajamas. I shook my head to indicate that I wasn’t ok.
She then did something I hadn’t expected.
She walked up to me, took my pajamas and
things away from me, laid them on the bed then returned and gave me the biggest
hug. I hated that I did it, but I started to cry there in her arms.
“He sold The Shack and everything.” I mumbled
not really to her, but just sort of thinking aloud, “I can’t believe he sold
it. And he didn’t write to me or call or anything to tell me he was getting
married. And what’s he doing getting married? He’s too old to get married!”
“I know it is shocking news and more so that
you had to hear it from a stranger.” She started saying though I don’t know how
she knew I had heard it from a stranger.
I don’t know why I am so lucky to have a
girlfriend like Jacquelyn. I mean, how many girls out there would not care that
their boyfriend wets his pants and bed?
The two of us sat on the floor leaning
against the wall. We didn’t really talk; we only sat quietly while holding onto
one another. She softly kissed my cheek and rubbed my chest through my shirt
until I stopped crying.
After a while I said, “I’m sorry.”
“What for?” She asked almost in a whisper.
I shrugged, “For everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“You came up here to visit but everything
here sucks right now. I wish everything wasn’t so sucky!”
She placed her hand on my right cheek and
pulled my face around so that we were looking into each others eyes.
“
I think I might have smiled back at that.
She leaned in closer, never closing her eyes.
I leaned in to. Our lips touched and we began to kiss; at first soft but soon
it had developed into passionate kissing. Unlike before when we had been making
out down in the basement by the Lap Pool, this time we both seemed a lot more
comfortable with what we were doing.
Jacquelyn’s hand, which had been rubbing my
chest through my shirt started to move lower. Her fingers found the hem of my
shirt and slipped underneath. They felt warm and soft as they slid across my
belly; stopping momentarily to trace a circle around my bellybutton. Suddenly,
realizing what she was doing she stopped and pulled away. But I took hold of
Jacquelyn’s hand and placed it back on my stomach. That was all the prodding
she needed to keep going. We kissed again, only longer and more passionately
then before.
I wanted so desperately to touch her but
feared she might not like me to. You know, it is funny how you can be thinking
about something like that while at the same time be thinking about how
wonderful all of it felt. I decided to try touching her. While still kissing I
slowly lifted my right hand and soft as I could I allowed it to come to rest on
her left thigh. Unbelievably she moaned her approval. I began to slide it up
and down; each time moving my hand further and further up her hip, then her
side until my hand came to rest beside her small breast.
I had been so focused on getting my hand to
her breast that I hadn’t noticed she had been working her fingers under the
waistband of my pants. She nearly had her whole hand inside when I had finally
got up the nerve to cup my hand over her left breast. At that same moment she
had pushed her hand into my shorts and squeezed the front of my diaper directly
above my rigid penis. We were both breathing hard through our noses, as our
mouths were locked together. She continued to squeeze and massage the front of
my diaper while my hand explored her wonderful chest through her shirt. I was
just starting to build up my courage to try to put my hand under her shirt when
she suddenly pushed me away so forcefully that we both slid across the wooden
floor a couple inches.
Before I had a chance to ask why she had done
that my bedroom door swung opened and in walked Grandfather.
“Busted!” I thought.
“What are you two doing alone in here?” He
asked.
Jacquelyn answered, “
He pointed out of the room and said, “You two
need to get downstairs.”
Jacquelyn jumped to her feet and flew from the
room but I didn’t as much as budge.
I looked at Grandfather with every fiber of
my being loathing him.
What I said next was probably the meanest
thing I have ever said to anyone. “I wish you had died instead of my dad!”
Grandfather was visibly stunned as though I
had hit him upside the head with an aluminum baseball bat. One look into his
cold eyes and I could tell I had stuck a lethal blow.
Anger and raw emotions boiled out of me. I
rose to my feet as if a great hand had come out of the sky and lifted me. My
hands, balled up into rock solid fists, hung to my side.
With a tongue of fire I lashed out again, “I
hate you! I hate you and I wish you were dead!”
As he seemed to wave from my verbal thrashing
I took a bold step toward him.
“I wish we had never come here and I wish you
weren’t my Grandfather! You ruined everything! You made us come here! Because
of you my dad is dead and my mom almost was too!”
Fueled by rage I took another step, cocked my
right arm back ready to strike out in violence.
I hadn’t seen it coming. Actually, I was on
the floor holding my right cheek before I even knew he had slapped me across
the face. He had hit me so hard that I had gone down with a single swing of his
old wrinkled hand.
With tears flooding from my eyes I looked up
into his eyes and this demonic voice came out of me.
“If I were bigger I’d kill you!”
Surprisingly, Grandfather is a lot stronger
than he looks. With the same speed he’d used when hitting me, he reached down,
grabbed me by my right arm near my bicep and jerked me to my feet.
“I think that is about enough from you!”
Grandfather said through thin white lips and clinched teeth.
I shook my head and that same devil voice
came out of me only about ten times more powerful, “Everyone would be happier
if you would just die!”
Grandfather grabbed my other arm and shook
me.
“That is enough!” he hissed.
I shook my head again but didn’t have a
chance to say anything else because he lifted me by my upper arms and tossed me
face first onto the bed. Before I knew what was happening he had pulled down my
pants and tore away my diaper.
He said something but I honestly cannot
remember what it had been. His left hand was pressing down on the middle of my
back and he must have somehow also had my legs pinned down because I tried to
kick but couldn’t.
The first blow landed square on my left butt
cheek and felt as though he had struck me with red-hot metal. I screamed and
struggled but it was useless. The second blow struck higher and centered. It
hurt just as much as the first had.
All in all I received ten hard swats with his
hand before he stopped. Well I think it was ten, I lost count after the sixth
hit. I was hurting so badly that I didn’t get up right away. My hands found my
burning bottom as I turned my head and with tear swollen eyes I saw him from
the back only briefly as he was walking out of my room and leaving my bedroom
door open.
It wasn’t until later that night, after
everyone had gone to bed that I noticed my surfboard was missing from the wall
across from the foot of my bed.
After Grandfather had left my room I pushed
myself off the bed and staggered to the bathroom with my pants still around my
ankles. My tattered diaper was still fastened around one leg and trailed behind
me. I was relieved when I looked in the mirror and did not see any lasting mark
despite the side of my face still feeling hot from the slap. I twisted my body
so I could see my bright red backside in the mirror. My butt looked like I had
sat in fresh red paint.
I washed my face with cold water and splashed
water all down my front in the process. Still crying a little I pulled off my
shirt and tossed it down the laundry shoot. With a little frustration I finally
got my shoes off and my feet freed from my bunched up pants. I didn’t really
think about it at the time but I tossed everything down the laundry shoot, torn
diaper and all.
Without turning on the water before climbing
into the shower stall. I closed the glass door and didn’t even bother with the
hot water. All I was interested in was the soothing effects of cold water. The
first blast of cold water hit me in the chest and it felt like someone had
punched me.
By the time I came back out I was nearly blue
all over. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably and my limbs struggled to
obey my brains commands. I stood before the mirror once again and chuckled to
myself at how small my package was after suffering from what seemed to of been
a twenty minute long ice shower. Another quick inspection of my backside in the
mirror showed very little signs of redness. When I was satisfied that my bottom
and face no longer looked red or swollen I flipped off the light switch.
I was walking out of the bathroom when I
received a small shock. Standing in the middle of my room was Mommy Beth.
She smiled, “Didn’t mean to give you a
start.”
I was standing there still wet ‘cause I
hadn’t dried myself. My arms were rapped around my chest trying to get warm and
my dang teeth were still chattering away.
“
Due to shivering and my teeth chattering so
much my response came out sounding something like this, “C-c-can y-you h-help-p
m-m-me g-get r-ready f-f-f-for b-b-bed?”
“Wasn’t there any hot water?” She asked but I
didn’t reply.
Looking at her nearly caused me to start
crying again. As it was, I couldn’t talk anymore. I gazed at her longingly.
She held out her arms and said, “Come lie
down on the bed.”
I nearly tripped over my own feet as I tried
to walk to the bed and fell into her waiting arms. She helped me onto the bed
while saying something about never understanding why little boys are always
doing silly stuff like taking a shower with no hot water or taking a bath with
all their clothes on. I supposed that last part was something Joey had done
before.
She quickly diapered me and then helped me
into my pajamas before she put me under the covers and tucked me in good and
tight. I was still very cold but my teeth had stopped chattering.
“I’m going to go get you some hot milk to
help warm you up inside.” She had said but by the time she had returned I was
already sound-asleep.
I guess I was really tired because I don’t
even remember waking up when Joey was put into bed with me.
Chapter 16
I didn’t see my Grandfather for the remainder
of the week and if you ask me, I couldn’t have been happier about that. I never
told anyone what had happened between us. Perhaps it would have been better not
to have bottled it up, as my dad used to say, but even after nearly a week I
was still fuming mad!
As for my surfboard, amazingly no one asked
me about it. I was sure that at least Joey or Jacquelyn would have noticed, but
even if they had, they didn’t let on. Maybe they knew everything that had
transpired but were kind enough not to bring it up? Nah that couldn’t be the
case.
The following morning Joey was the first one
to wake up. He said I had had been talking in my sleep and kicked him.
Apparently I was having a bad dream and was really mad about something in my
dream. I don’t remember anything about the dream, but I believed Joey when he
told me about it.
It was still really early in the morning and
neither of us thought that anyone else would be up yet. Joey suggested that we
go take a bath together like we do at his house.
“Didn’t you get enough of playing in the
water yesterday?” I teased while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Joey pulled on my left arm, “Come on, it will
be fun!”
“I got a better idea.” I said sitting up in
bed. “Why don’t we go downstairs to the Lap Pool instead?”
Granted I didn’t have my surfboard, because
Grandfather had confiscated it, but that wasn’t why I wanted to go down. The
Lap Pool is bigger than a bathtub and would be a lot more fun. Plus there would
be less chance of us waking anyone else up if we got too loud. Joey was all for
my idea and jumped out of bed.
We didn’t bother changing into swim trunks or
putting on robes and slippers or anything. We went down dressed exactly the way
we had been put to bed, wearing our diapers and pajamas. I had been right in my
assumptions that no one was up. It wasn’t even four in the morning yet and the
house was still quiet dark and foreboding. Joey clung tightly to my right hand
as the two of us crept down the stairs to the front foyer, across the cold
marble tiled floor and down into the dark basement. When we walked into the
weight room all the lights came on automatically. Joey and I both quickly
covered our eyes and moaned about how bright the light was. I found the light
controls on the wall next to the door and slid the control knob all the way to
the bottom. The lights went out again.
“Now it is too dark.” Joey said with a hint
of fear in his voice.
“It’s ok; we’ll only need the lights in the
Lap Pool room.” I said while reassuringly putting my arm around him and guiding
him through the darkness.
Before stepping foot inside the other room we
stopped and covered our eyes. Once inside I did as before and turned the lights
off because the lights under the water were more than enough for the two of us.
“Whoa that is cool!” Joey gasped at seeing
the steady glow of blue light coming from beneath the water that began to flow.
While Joey pulled his shirt off I went around
and turned the pool controls way down so that the water was hardly flowing at
all.
Joey had got his head stuck inside his shirt
and I had to help him.
“
“Are we going to go skinning dipping?” he
asked me while dancing on his tiptoes with anticipation.
I stuck my left foot into the water to see if
it was warm enough yet, it wasn’t because I had turned the flow down so far. I
went back around to the pool and cranked that sucker all the way to maximum.
“Should be nice and warm in a few seconds,” I
said.
I had barely got the words out before Joey
leapt into the air and did a cannonball into the pool. When he reemerged he had
already been swept to the far end of the pool.
“Whoa buddy!” he exclaimed as he tried to
pull himself back out, “that was totally the coolest!”
I started to walk around to help him, but
stopped when I seen that he was able to get out on his own.
“You are insane!” I said as I returned to
turn the flow back down again.
“No leave it fast! It’s more fun!” Joey said.
“OK,” I said right before I launched myself
into the air and did my own cannonball into the pool.
Now I hadn’t figured on it hurting as much as
it did. When I resurfaced I exclaimed, “Oh my butt!”
Joey giggled when he said, “Did you crack
it?”
Chuckling I said, “Shut up shark bate!” and
splashed him.
It took a minute or two for me to realize the
reason it had hurt was because my backside was still tinder from last nights
whipping. I started to get mad all over again until Joey managed to dislodge my
thinking. He had jumped over my head and into the water again. He came up right
behind me, clutching tightly to my ribs and then started tickling me. I quickly
spun around.
“Hey! No fair tickling!” I laughed.
Joey squealed when I poked him in the belly.
He tried to swim away, but the current was much too strong for either of us to
swim against. I caught him by the foot, pulled him back to me and then dunked
him.
He came back up laughing, “Do it again!”
“I got a better idea.” I said, “Let’s get out
and go to the other end. We’ll get in real slow and see who can hold on to the
side the longest.”
“That isn’t fair!” Joey griped, “You are
bigger and stronger.”
“OK, then I will go in first and see how long
I can hang on for. Then you try and however longer I was then I will go in that
many seconds before you on the second try.”
Joey scrunched up his nose and grunted,
“Huh?”
I started pulling myself out of the water,
“Come on let’s just do it!”
As I was coming out of the water Joey poked
me in the butt with his finger and I felt a tiny twinge of pain. Actually it
felt exactly like getting a shot with a needed in the butt.
“You got a bad diaper rash on your butt!” he
announced playfully.
At first I argued, “No I don’t.” but then
realized that my backside must be showing some redness again which the warm
water had brought back to the surface of my skin.
I decided to play it off by saying, “Guess I
will just have to tell mommy to use lots more cream when she gets up.”
I acted like I was helping him out of the
water, but when he was almost all the way out I pushed him back in.
He resurfaced complaining, “You did that on
purpose!”
Laughing I said, “Uh, yeah what was your
first clue?”
The two of us played in the water until we
both looked like a couple of raisons.
“What time do you think it is?” Joey asked.
“Don’t know.” I answered, “Want to go back up
to my room and play for a while?”
We didn’t bother drying ourselves off. We
slipped our pajamas on and I carried our two diapers back up with us. We had
ascended the basement stairs and were heading for the main staircase when I
noticed that Joey was walking strange. He was walking bowlegged and had a
double fisted death grip on the front of his pajama pants.
“What are you doing?” I asked in a strong
whisper.
“I got to goooooooo and I ain’t got no diaper
on!” he whined almost as though he were pleading for me to make the pressure
within his bladder suddenly go away.
“You do not have a diaper on.” I corrected
him.
He started dancing from one foot to the other
and back again, “That’s what I said!”
“Why didn’t you just pee in the Lap Pool like
I was doing?”
“I didn’t need to g... wait you peed in the
water?” Joey said with a sickly face, “I swollered some of that water!”
“Then you also SWALLOWED some of my pee.” I
said teasing him about the way he had said ‘swollered’ like he was some back
woods country bumpkin.
“Well come on, let’s hurry!” I said as I
quickened my pace, skipping every other step on the way up and dragging Joey by
the elbow.
Joey nearly made it back to my room. He only
needed to go another twenty feet or so to have reached the bathroom, but he
lost the battle and flooded his pajamas. He peed all over himself, the floor
and even got pee on the area rug that ran the entire length of the hallway.
“Joey!” I sighed.
“I didn’t mean too!” Joey whimpered and I had
to hush him because he was making to much noise.
“Ssshhhh! You are going to wake someone up
and get us in trouble!”
He was still holding the front of his pants
despite the fact that he had peed a puddle on the floor.
“Run to my bathroom incase you are not done.”
I told him and I took off running after him. His wet bare feet slapped the
wooden floor so loud I feared that Grandfather might wake up and spank Joey
like he had me.
I had been about two strides behind Joey. It
had been enough of a delay in my arrival at the bathroom that Joey had already
pushed the door closed. I turned the knob and went in only to find Joey was
standing inside the shower stall.
“Why are you in there?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to drip all over!” he whined.
“Ok. Then, um, stay there while I get the
hallway floor wiped up.
Armed with a small arsenal of towels I ran
back to the hallway and did my best to soak up all traces of pee. As for the
wet spot on the ridiculously long rug? Well, all I could do was to throw down a
towel and step on it until I couldn’t get any more moisture to come out. To my
horror, when I pulled the towel back up the bottom of it had some of the colors
of the rug on it.
Upon returning to the bathroom with the now
wet towels I found Joey still standing in the shower anxiously awaiting my
return.
“Are you going to stay in there all day?” I
asked while stuffing the towels down the laundry chute.
“I’m sorry.” He softly moaned.
“What?” I asked from across the bathroom.
“I tried to hold it in.” he whimpered softly.
“It’s ok, I got it all cleaned up. I don’t
think anyone will know now.”
“Maybe we better put our pajamas down the laundry
chute too and get a shower now.” I suggested.
As I was stuffing our things down the chute
Joey commented, “I wonder what it is like going down that.”
“Want to see if you can fit?” I asked not
even remotely serious.
“YEAH!” Joey said way too willingly and again
too loud.
“Would you stop making so much noise?” I
stoutly whispered.
Joey fastened his hands over his mouth and
for a brief instant I thought about the fact that he hands were still covered
with his own pee.
It was twenty minutes after six when we
walked out of the bathroom. Since Joey liked playing with the automatic diaper
pail thing inside my armoire, I let him deposit both diapers into it. We were
closing the armoire doors when we heard a soft tapping on my bedroom door. It
swung open and in walked his mom wrapped in a warm looking olive-green sweater
and wearing a tartan skirt.
“You boys are certainly up early.” She
started to say then noticed that we had wet hair and were butt-naked.
“Where are your diapers?” she asked.
I was the first to tell her, “We went
swimming downstairs.”
The information I had shared didn’t seem to
sit to well with her, but thankfully she didn’t get mad at us. She did however
order the two of us to lie down, side by side, on my unmade bed.
This turned out to be the first time I ever
experienced a simultaneous diapering. I mean Mommy Beth diapered Joey and I at
the very same time. She first slid a fresh diaper under each of us and then did
each following step, first to one and then the other.
When she was applying the diaper cream to
Joey he told him mom, “Mommy,
“He does?” she asked while looking lovingly
into my eyes.
I was a little nervous that she would realize
while applying the cream that it wasn’t a rash at all, but if she did, she
didn’t let on about it. However She did apply a lot of that white diaper cream,
which made my room smell like a baby’s nursery.
While she was powdering Joey he was playfully
poking me in the side.
“Joooooey stoooop!” I giggled and tried to
wiggle away from him.
Mommy Beth pulled his hand away from me and
told him to stop or she would tickle him until he peed. Knowing Joey, I
expected him to keep it up just so she would tickle him, but he didn’t.
With each diapering step Mommy Beth had first
done Joey and then me but after she came back from the bathroom where she had
been washing the cream and powder from her hands she pulled my diaper up
between my legs first.
Joey protested, “Mommy you were supposed to
do me first!”
But she had already finished taping my diaper
into place before he even finished whining.
It wasn’t until we stood back up that I
realized, that for some reason, my diaper felt extra thick on me. I looked down
and it appeared to be the normal white disposable diaper except it looked
thicker and I had trouble standing because my legs wouldn’t go all the way
together.
Reading my mind, Joey told me after his mom
had left us alone to play, “Sometimes mommy and daddy uses stuffers.”
I had to ask what a stuffer was and he
explained that it was like extra diaper padding so that the diaper could hold
more pee.
About an hour or so later Daddy Phil came in
and gave us both big good morning hugs and he even sat on the floor to play
with us for a while. Joey and I had been making a house of cards, but it kept
falling when we would try to do the floor for the second level. Daddy Phil
helped us get it all the way to almost having the third layer done before it
fell again. After that he got us both dressed; of course getting dressed was
even fun because we wrestled and played at the same time. It wasn’t until
Jacquelyn seen us at breakfast and said something that Joey and I realized that
his dad had dressed us alike with blue jeans and white button up shirts.
Chapter 17
The remaining days we had together were
packed with loads of fun spent with Jacquelyn, Joey and me having the best time
of our lives. We played inside and out, driving the adults crazy. We even had time
to hang around online, visiting with our ILD.com friends. Boy were they
envious, that I got to see and play with LilPrince and Roo in real life. I
could only imagine how they would all act if they also found out that I was
real life friends with Sissy4U a.k.a. Stacks.
I also made sure to email Meek. Through email
we swapped phone numbers, addresses and were able to talk on the phone several
times. I didn’t send him the info about The Shack basically because
I even talked with Pepper on the phone
because he was sleeping over at Meeks. As you might expect, Pepper went just as
nuts at getting to talk with me on the phone as he had when he met me at the
water park. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the attention a little.
At the dinner table the night after
Grandfather had spanked me, everyone was present except for Grandfather. I was
glad I didn’t have to ask where he was, Daddy Phil had been the one to bring it
up.
“Will Alastair not be joining us this
evening?” he asked Grandmother.
“I’m sorry to say he was called away on
business this morning and won’t be back until late.” Was her initial answer,
but then her countenance fell and she added, “Alastair doesn’t handle loss
well. When our son passed away back in ‘78 Alastair did the same thing he is
doing now. He became withdrawn, short tempered and pored himself into his
work.”
Mommy Beth then said, “Everyone deals with it
in their own way.”
“My mom never told me she had a baby brother
that died.” I said.
Grandmother leaned back in her chair and
played with her pearl necklace. “Oh darling, Henry wasn’t a baby when he passed
away and he was older than your mother as well. I am not surprised that she
never spoke of him. The two of them never got along.”
She paused a moment to take a sip of water,
“It happened in the spring on his seventeenth birthday when we lost him.”
God knows I shouldn’t have asked but I did.
“What happened?”
Grandmother didn’t answer at first and Mommy
Beth said, “
But Grandmother spoke up, “Oh no, it is
alright.” She said to Mommy Beth and then directed her words to me, “Henry went
surfing one afternoon with his friends from school and never came home again.”
“He was surfing? Here? In
“
Jacquelyn who had been sitting as quiet as a
church mouse beside me and holding my hand under the table finally found her
voice. She asked, “Did he drown?”
I looked back to Grandmother to see her
softly shaking her head.
“No one really knows for sure what happened.
Henry’s friends were not able to join him so Henry went surfing alone.”
“So he died while he was surfing?” Joey asked
but it was the way he asked. Like he was almost going to cry.
Again Grandmother was shaking her head and
fidgeting with her pearls to the point that I was expecting them to break. “The
Coast Guard searched for three days before calling off the search.”
“Oh that is so sad.” Mommy Beth said tearfully.
I sat back in my chair; suddenly I felt like
I had been punched in the gut.
“Henry?” I said to myself.
Everyone else continued the conversation, but
not me. My mind had gone off on its own. I don’t even remember eating my dinner
or anything else up until bedtime. I kept thinking about what Grandmother had
said; playing it over and over in my mind.
It had been Meek who, when we were later
talking on the phone, figured out that perhaps the reason my grandfather was so
against me surfing was because of what happened to Henry.
I forget which day it was that two of my
friends from school came to visit. I think maybe it was Wednesday or was it
Thursday; oh, it doesn’t matter either way. Stacks and BB had come over to meet
Daddy Phil and Mommy Beth in person. You know something that is funny, tall and
tough Stacks cried when she first met Mommy Beth. I think she cried because she
was so excited to finally get to meet them and hug them in real life. Once she
got over her initial exhilaration she, Jacquelyn and Mommy Beth went off alone
for some ‘Girl Talk’ is what they called it.
BB who is normally not shy started out quiet
but after Daddy Phil got a hold of him and held him on his lap for a while he
totally came out of it.
I wish there weren’t so many secrets between
us all as to who is a member of ILD.com and who knows what about whom. It would
have been so cool to have everyone come over to meet the creators of ILD.com.
We could have had an awesome sleepover
BB and Joey turned out to be like long lost
Brothers. They acted the same and kept saying the same things. Boy we sure
laughed a lot because one would start saying something and the other would then
finish it. Then they would yell at that person to stop it.
I didn’t get to talk with BB or Stacks to
much, they were too interested in talking with their online Mommy and Daddy.
Anyway I can talk to them anytime I want. I did however get to ask Stacks two
things before she left.
“What do you think of Jacquelyn?” I asked her
while sitting in the media room.
Stacks leaned close and whispered into my
ear, “I think she is perfect for you.”
“Really?” I said almost giggling over the
idea that Stacks, someone I care for and whose opinion I strongly value, thinks
my girlfriend and I are perfect for each other.
The other thing I asked was whether she had
seen any of our other friends. She said that except for BB and her half sister
Bertha, she hadn’t seen Larry, Chris or Fish since the wreath service.
“I heard that Larry and Chris’s mom sent them
to stay with their aunt for the summer somewhere in
One evening, while I was hiding in the pantry
once again, I was talking with Meek and Pepper. I told them how my Grandfather
was trying to get me to stop surfing, how he had taken my surfboard away from
me and how I wanted so badly to go to California to compete. I suppose deep
inside, all three of us knew that we’d never be able to pull it off, but we
began making plans to run away and hitchhike all the way to
Regrettably, the inevitable day came when it
was time for Jacquelyn and Joey and parents to fly home. Boy I was super bummed
out about that. I didn’t want them to leave. I even tried to talk Daddy Phil
into staying an extra week but he said his vacation time was all used up and he
had to get back to work. I made the mistake of telling him he didn’t have a job
because he was in the military. I got tickle tortured for ten minutes due to
that little comment.
I suppose it was a good thing that their
flights were so early in the morning. We didn’t have time to get all depressed
and brood. From the moment Mommy Beth woke us up, everything went super fast.
Joey and I took one last shower together and even one last towel fight in the
bathroom afterward.
Jacquelyn came into my room fully dressed and
ready for breakfast. Mommy Beth had just finished diapering Joey and I. We
weren’t even dressed yet. I suppose for Jacquelyn, it was the icing on her
cake. It was the one thing she had so desperately wanted to see during her
visit; me in nothing but a diaper.
“Jacquelyn!” I squealed and tried to hide my
diaper with my inadequate hands.
“Oh hush up you big baby!” she teased.
I acted like I was going to fight her and she
adopted a threatening pose.
“Oh you want some of this again?” she said,
referring to the other day when she and I were roughhousing. I like to think
that I let her, but truth be told, she overpowered me, pinned me to the floor
and partially stripped me to get to see my diaper. She had done the same thing
at her place when I had first met her.
I chuckled and waving her off by saying, “Not
a chance.”
“That’s because you know I would whoop your
diapered butt again!” she said and then softened.
Breakfast was only cold cereal and juice. And
as soon as we were done eating we headed for the airport. Grandmother and I
tagged along to see them off and I am glad of that. It gave me that much more
time with my friends.
We arrived at the airport and surprisingly we
didn’t have to carry the bags all the way inside. There was a nice guy right
there on the sidewalk who checked the luggage in, took care of their tickets
and told them to which gate they needed to go to.
Due to security reasons, Grandmother and I
had to say our goodbyes inside the lobby area. Since we didn’t have tickets, we
weren’t allowed past the security checkpoint.
I didn’t think the airport would be so
crowded that early in the morning but it was. There were people rushing all
over the place.
Saying goodbye was hard and I cried. Mommy
Beth promised to let me come up and visit later in the summer. Jacquelyn
surprised me and everyone else when she gave me a goodbye kiss on the lips
right there in front of everyone.
Joey first made a groaning sound and then
teased us about it. “Jacquelyn and Alvin sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love; then comes marriage; then comes baby Alvin in a baby
carriage! Sucking his thumb, peeing his pants, doing the Hula-Hula dance!”
I tried to chase Joey, but Daddy Phil told us
we weren’t allowed to run around in the airport. I had to settle with
threatening to get him back some other time.
Chapter 18
I sat quietly in the backseat staring out the
passenger side window while Grandmother drove her and me home. At one point she
had tried to strike up a conversation with me, but I wasn’t in the mood to
talk. The past few days had been unreal. For the better part of six whole days
I was happy again but now that my best friend and my girlfriend had gone I
again felt lost in the blackness of pain. I felt transfixed by the gloom of a
gray world that once again finds itself caught between post-winter melting and
pre-spring promises. It had been my first real winter and I must say I much
more prefer a sandy Christmas.
After staring out the window for a good long
time it suddenly dawned on me that we were not going home the same way we had
come.
“Are we going home?” I asked, speaking for the
first time since getting into the car.
“I want to stop and see your mother.” She
said.
“Do you think they will let me see her this
time?” I asked even though I already knew they wouldn’t and I was right.
I sat in a waiting room watching the morning
news while Grandmother went in to see her daughter. The news ended and
unbelievably they hadn’t once talked about the accident. It’s amazing that
after only a week and a half the dock tragedy had become old news.
While I sat there
several people came and went but for the most part I was alone. I had stopped
paying attention to the television and I wasn't
really thinking about anything when the strangest thought popped into my head.
I don't know where it came from or why it was suddenly in my head but none the less,
there it was. Like I said, the though was strange; it had occurred to me that
when someone tries to kill themselves they always leave a note. I believe it is
known as a suicide note. But mom didn't leave one, at least not one that I knew
about. Perhaps one of my Grandparents found the note and either hid it or threw
it away so that I wouldn't see it. Then again, maybe mom never cared enough to
write a letter or even a short note for me. I forced myself not to think about
it anymore.
A young man, 18 or 19 maybe, walked into the
waiting area with a small child who was frantically trying to free herself from
the confines of a thick yellow sweater.
“Willie help me!” came the sweetest sounding
little girls voice from somewhere within the sweater.
Her head finally emerged from the confines of
the knitted apparel. She had the biggest, roundest cheeks I’d ever seen on a
little girl. I’d say she was no more than five. As her head came free from the
sweater long curly brown locks of hair fell about her shoulders. Her smiling
green eyes landed on me and she raced over, put both hands on my knees and
pulled herself up onto my lap.
“Lucie!” the young man charged after her and
pulled her from my lap.
“Sorry about that.” He told me.
“That’s ok.” I said.
He sat her on the floor in front of a small
children’s play table and pulled a coloring book out of a canvas shoulder bag.
He gave her a small box of crayons and she started coloring right away.
“Want to color with me?” she asked after a
few minutes.
“Huh?” I grunted while looking to the young
man who was lost in some sports news wrap-up show on the television.
I slid out of my seat and sat myself across
from the little girl.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“
“My Daddy gots a booboo in his head.” She
told me while coloring a dog green.
For a small child she was doing quite well
with staying inside the lines.
“My mommy is here too.” I told her as I
picked up a blue crayon and started coloring a balloon that the dog was
holding.
“I gots this many dollies.” She held up seven
fingers.
“I had this many,” she put down one finger,
“but now I got this many.” The seventh finger rose again.
“How many dollies you gots?” she asked.
I chuckled, “I don’t have any dollies.”
“You want to play with one of my dollies?”
she asked and before I could say no she was up and pulling at the canvas bag.
“Willie I need my dolly!” she whined.
Willie’s attention was pulled away from the
TV for a minute while he reached into the bag and pulled out a naked Barbie
doll.
Lucie handed the doll to me and said, “You
can play with it for a minute.”
“Thank you.” I said as I pretended to hug it.
“How come she doesn’t have any clothes on?” I
asked.
Lucie shrugged and went back to coloring.
I held the doll to my chest with one hand
like I was holding a baby and Lucie smiled her approval. We continued coloring
until my Grandmother came back to get me.
When Grandmother came out she was smiling.
“The doctor said your mother will be able to
coming home tomorrow.”
She seemed upset that I hadn’t got excited
over that bit of news.
Grandmother saw the naked Barbie doll cradled
against my chest and I felt my face go read. I handed the doll back to Lucie
and thanked her for letting me hold it for a while.
She waved with those big round cheeks of
hers, “Bye Alwin.”
“Bye Lucie” I said as I pulled on my coat and
walked out with Grandmother.
Once we were home I went to my room where
Grandmother had followed me in, changed me and then left me alone for the rest
of the day.
But before she walked out she said, “I think
I enjoyed it better when the house was filled with your friend’s laughter.”
I hadn’t even gone down to eat lunch so when
I thought it must be about dinner time I was more than a little ravenous. I was
starting to think about heading downstairs when I heard a sound behind me. I
had been sitting on the floor reading a surfing magazine and spun around on my
diapered butt to see who or what had made the noise. Standing there framed by
the open doorway was Grandfather.
“I see your friends have gone home.” He said.
I didn’t respond; not even a nod.
“Your mother will be returning tomorrow.” He
said as if mom had been away on vacation.
Again I did not respond.
“I take it you are still mad at me?” he
asked.
I didn’t even blink.
For a full minute he didn’t say anything
else. He stood there looking at me as though he were trying to decide his next
words.
“Micah is back too.” He said.
I finally spoke, “Good.”
“And you and I have some unfinished
business.” He said.
My eyes narrowed as though focusing two laser
beams onto his forehead. It was only then that I remembered about the vase
incident.
The thought crossed my mind like a line from
a movie, “What more can you take from me?” and had I actually said it I
probably would have had to pick my teeth up off the floor. No, I didn’t say it;
instead I stood motionless and said nothing.
“I am not mad that you broke the vase, but
that you tried to hide it.” He said and when I didn’t seem to react he added,
“Your punishment starts now.”
Through clenched teeth I asked, “What
punishment?”
“You are not allowed to use the weight room
for the remainder of the summer. That includes the Lap Pool.”
Completely ignoring what he had just said I
asked, “When do I get my surfboard back?”
He seemed to hesitate for half a second, as
though he hadn’t expected me to ask that.
“You don’t.” he said as if he had just thrust
a knife into my gut.
Now I lost my cool. “YOU CANNOT DO THAT! IT
IS MINE! MY FRIEND MADE IT ESPECIALLY FOR ME!”
“Young man, you had best get control of that
temper.” Grandfather said in his same cold tone.
I didn’t lower my volume at all. “IF YOU
DON’T GIVE IT BACK...”
Grandfather cut me off, “You will do what
boy?”
Suddenly something occurred to me. It was
like a cool breeze had blown across the back of my neck. A chill ran down my
spine causing me to tremble.
“I’m not Henry.” The words came out of me
nearly inaudibly.
“What?”
“I am not Henry!” I said at an almost normal
level.
Like had happened a few nights before
Grandfather seemed to stagger and sway.
“Excuse me?” he asked his voice cracking.
But I didn’t say another word. I stood there
unresponsive still staring into his dull eyes until he looked away. That is
when I knew I had got to him.
Nothing else was said. Grandfather turned and
walked back out of my room and wasn’t seen the rest of the night. However, that
wasn’t the end of it.
Feeling high as a kite for having stood up to
my Grandfather I made my way downstairs to the dinning room, but found that it
was dark and the table hadn’t been set. I didn’t really know the exact time so
I decided that I’d go to the kitchen and see Micah. Maybe if I gave her my
puppy dog eyes she would make me something to eat.
Sure enough Micah was there and boy was she
happy to see me.
“Micah you are crushing me!” I struggled for
breath as she tried to hug me to death.
“I missed Al-bin!” She said and still hugging
the stuffing out of me she began to shake me back and forth like a rag doll.
“Micah I can’t breathe!” I wheezed.
Finally she released me from her bear hug.
“Hey how come you haven’t made dinner yet?” I
panted.
She gave me a funny look.
“What?” I asked.
Without saying anything she went over to the
oven, opened the door and pulled out a plate covered with aluminum foil.
“I missed dinner?” I asked with amazement.
“Al-bin, it is after seben.” She said.
“What?” I asked while looking at the clock on
the wall.
I exclaimed loudly, “Wow!”
I was disappointed when Micah uncovered the
dish. With her return I Somehow had been expecting something exotic, but what
she had for me was ordinary meatloaf, mashed potatoes and brussel-sprouts. Oh
because I was so hungry I still ate everything, except for those vial sprouts
and it was delicious and. While I ate I told Micah about everything I’d done
with my friends while she had been away.
As soon as I finished eating I started to
take my plate to the sink but Micah, thinking I was leaving snapped at me.
“Al-Bin!?”
I jumped at least a foot in the air and
dropped the plate. Thank goodness it didn’t break, but it sure was loud.
“Micah you scared the shit out of me!” I said
and no sooner was the words out of my mouth then I quickly covered my mouth
with my hands.
She stood there looking at me the same way my
mother looks at me right before she is about to go off on me.
“Oh Micah, I am so very sorry! I didn’t mean
to say that.” I said.
“Al-bin got dirty mouth! Maybe Micah
shouldn’t give Al-bin Lamingtons.”
I had no idea what Lamingtons were, but after
what I had just let slip out of my mouth I wouldn’t have been surprised if it
were Austrian for a swift boot to the backside!
“Please don’t be mad at me!” I pleaded.
Micah stepped toward me raising both hands
and I flinched, thinking she was going to brain me, but instead she hugged me
again only this time she lifted me off my feet while smothering me.
“Al-bin is mostly good boy.” She said.
I gasped in a desperate breath when she
released me and nearly collapsed to the floor as my feet hit the cold tiles.
Micah thrust both hands into my armpits and
hoisted me into the air. For a fear filled second I worried that she was going
to toss me out of her kitchen for cussing but then she literally dropped me on
the counter. I felt the diaper squish under my weight and new that I was in
needed of another fresh diaper. Sitting on the counter like I was made me feel
like a child half my age.
She stuck her head into the refrigerator and
pulled out a silver tray of...
“Uh, Micah what is that?” I asked while
eyeing the cube shaped brown and white things on the try that she was holding
under my nose.
“Lamingtons!” she said as if I should know
what a Lamington was.
“Those are called... Lamingtons?” I asked
just to be sure I understood her.
She explained that they are delicious moist
cake, coated with chocolate, then tossed in dried coconut. Of course I
Englished it up, because the way she said it wasn’t as easy to understand with
her heavy Austrian accent.
I started to reach out for one but she
swatted my hand away. She went back to the refrigerator and pulled out a small
red bottle. With two fingers Micah held the bottle in front of my face so I
could read the label. I knew the bottle instantly. John used to use Tabasco
Sauce on his eggs in the morning.
“Stick out tongue.” she ordered.
Instinctively I slammed my hands over my mouth.
With one strong hand she pulled my hands away
from my face and forced them into my lap. Holding the bottle in front of my
face she also brought up a single Lamington so that they were both right in
front of my nose.
“Stick out tongue.” She repeated.
I shook my head.
She brought her face to within inches of my
own. Her eyebrows were close together and her eyes squinted.
“Stick out tongue!” she said in such a way
that I feared what might happen if I didn’t obey.
Reluctantly my lips parted but only enough
for the tip of my tongue to come out.
“More.” She said.
I reluctantly obeyed.
Again she held the bottle of Tabasco Sauce
and the Lamington in front of my now extended tongue.
Still looking like she wanted to chop off my
head she asked, “Al-bin want hot on tongue or sweet Lamington on tongue?”
I pointed to the Lamington.
“Then Al-bin never say naughty words again?”
she asked while shaking her head.
With my tongue hanging out of my head I
answered, “Ah pomuth.”
She smiled and put the Lamington on my tongue.
Boy was I relieved when she returned the bottle of Tabasco Sauce to the
refrigerator.
All in all, I ate three Lamingtons and boy
were they yummy. I also suggested that the same sort of thing would be good
with a white cake covered in pineapples and coconut. She promised to try to
make me something like that soon.
It was really weird going to bed that first
night without Joey there beside me. The bed felt empty and big. It took forever
for me to be able to fall to sleep. I tried counting sleep and when that didn’t
work I tried counting dolphins. After a while I gave up on sleep and to the
bathroom to splash my face with warm water. When I returned to bed and was back
under the covers I realized I had left the bathroom light on. I almost got back
up to turn it off but then my eyes landed on the bare spot on the wall where my
surfboard was supposed to be. It was while I was focusing on that blank wall
that I finally fell asleep.
Chapter 19
I would love
to tell you that mom's homecoming was a wonderful and joyous reunion; but it
was neither of those. Grandfather and Grandmother left for the hospital at
exactly 8:07 a.m. and didn’t return again until 11:56 a.m. I know the exact
times because I sat staring at the clock on the kitchen wall watching every
second tick by.
Micah was
there with me, but we didn’t talk. Well she tried to but despite her best
efforts to engage me, I stayed religiously focused on the clock.
From all
the way in the kitchen I heard the motor of the garage door whining as it came
to life.
“There
home!” I shouted to Micah and ran from the kitchen.
I didn't
know how angry I was with her until mom stepped through the door from the
garage. She held out her arms longingly for me; I didn't move.
"Did
you leave a note?" I blurted out.
"What?"
she asked, her arms still outstretched.
"Did
you forgot to write a suicide letter or did you just not think to leave me
one?"
Grandfather
started to move past mom to intercept me. He was building up to charge me down
and stop me from saying another word but mom reached out and took hold of his
arm to stop him.
"I
didn't think..." she started to say but changed her mind, "
"Really?"
I don't really believe that I was thinking at this point. Anger had taken over
all controls.
What came
out of my mouth next was nothing sort of poison but it needed said... I needed
to say it!
"It's
a bit hard for you to love me when you're dead, isn't it?"
Grandmother
and a nurse were holding mom; Mom was holding onto Grandfather and they all
were looking at me with complete unbelief twisting their faces.
Mom
whimpered out what I am sure she thought was a heartfelt apology, “I'm
sorry."
“Are
you?” I asked as if spitting on her.
"
I know I
said something to her but for the life of me I cannot recall what I said.
Whatever
it had been, they must not have heard me either because mom said, “What?”
I shook
my head both to indicate that it didn’t matter and that I was so disappointed
in her.
“It's
different now?” she said.
She had
me with that one. I had to ask, “How’s it different?”
“I feel
better.” She offered as though it were supposed to make everything I was
feeling just go away.
“Maybe at
the moment!” I said.
“
“No dad,
it’s ok.” Mom told him.
I don’t
know where it came from but a power I didn’t know was in me expelled the
following words with deadly force. "Feeling better right now doesn’t help
me!"
Grandfather
and Grandmother recoiled but mom didn’t so much as flinch. I think she had been
expecting it and had been ready for it. Either that or she was so medicated
that she hadn’t felt a single thing.
I’m sure
that the Premier of China had called up the President of the
The
instant those last six words were out of my mouth all the anger in me turned to
tears. I ran to mom and threw my arms around her. The two of us crumpled to the
floor and wept for the longest time.
“Mom,
please don’t ever leave!” I hysterically wept within her arms.
Later
that afternoon while sitting at the table and eating a late lunch alone, Micah
came in and handed me a postcard which had just arrived in the mail. On the
front of the postcard was a picture of the
Dear Alvin,
Call this number A.S.A.P.
and be sure to call collect.
0-1-619-555-4279
"Eddie
would go",
Someone
else might have read that note and thought that the only message contained was
to call that number but being a life long surfer I also picked up on
“Oh my
goodness! Micah thank you so very much!” I said while jumping up from the
table, hugging her around the waist and running from the room.
I nearly
collided with the wall as my stocking feet slid across the kitchen tiles while
attempting to retrieve the phone. It took three tried to dial the number
because I kept hitting the wrong buttons.
“Operator,
how might I help you?”
Still
breathing hard I said, “I’d like to make a collect call.”
“One
moment sir.”
The line
went quiet for what felt like an eon. Then I heard the operator say, “I’ve
connected you with your party. Have a nice day.”
“Hello
“
Oh it sounded
so good to hear
“I just
got your post card like two minutes ago.” I said still shouting.
“You
don’t have to yell. I can hear you fine.”
“You
sound good.” He said.
“I am.
Well not really, but are you really getting married?” I said very quickly.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!
Slow down
“Sorry! I
am just so glad to talk to you again.” I said.
“Alright,
I am glad to hear from you too. Now for starters, are you alright?”
“Yes and
No.” I said and then went on to tell him what has happened and I do mean
everything. I told him about dad, about mom and about how Grandfather had been
treating me.
“Oh
All I
could think to say was, “Yeah.”
“Your
moms back home then?” he asked.
“Yeah,
just this morning but she has been sleeping since she got here.” I told him.
We talked
a bit about mom and then he switched the subject to Grandfather.
“Now what
is this crap about your Granddad?”
I
repeated again how Grandfather had been treating me, how he had taken my
surfboard and how he said I wasn’t allowed to surf anymore. I wanted Gary to
somehow make Grandfather stop being so mean to me, to make him give me back my board and to
allow me to go to the competition in California. But what could
“Where
are you anyway?” I asked abruptly.
“Manzanillo.”
He said.
“So you
are in
“Are you
really getting married?” I asked again.
“Not
getting... got.” He said.
I didn’t
understand what it was he had just said and had to ask, “What?”
“I am not
GETTING married. I GOT married.” He said while making sure he emphasized the
right words.
“YOU GOT
MARRIED?” I shouted.
“Sure
did.”
“TO WHO?”
I exclaimed.
The line
was quiet for a second then
Right in
the middle of what
After
hanging up the phone I turned around and suddenly realized that Micah had been
there the whole time I had been talking.
I watched
as her lips parted and was ready for her to comment somehow on one or more
things I had said to
“Huh?” I
asked back.
“The lil’
boy’s mother,” she started out saying.
“You mean
Joey’s mom? Her name is Beth.” I said.
“Ah yes.
Beth gave recipe for Sloppy Tuna. She say you like it.” Micah said.
“Um, it
is...” I went on to explain it to her all the while watching her closely to see
if she was going to react in any way to what she had overheard. The instant I
got the feeling that she was placated I ran out of the room.
After
spending the remainder of my evening on the computer I eventually made my way
up to my room where I once again found Micah. He was turning down my bed and
quietly humming to herself.
Don’t ask
me why I did what I did next. Perhaps the devil inside of me wanted to have a
little fun. With her back to me I crept up behind her quiet as a church mouse.
When I
was directly behind her I shouted, “HI MICAH!”
But she
didn’t scream, jump or nothing. She kept pulling down the covers and fluffing
the pillows.
I started
to reach out and touch her with a single finger. Right before I actually made
contact she spun around and said, “BOO!”
I fell
backward onto my butt laughing.
“Micah
that isn’t fair! I was trying to scare you!” I giggled.
“You too
loud.” She said while bending over and grabbing me by the ankle. “Micah hear
you coming from all the way downstairs.”
She
pulled on my leg until I was from the middle of my back to my toes was off the
floor. She then proceeded to tickle the bottom of my foot.
“AAAAAAAaaaahhhhh!
I squealed and thrashed about trying to get free.
“Al-bin
need laugh more.”
Unable to
get away from her and her not letting up on the tickling I started to cry out,
“UNCLE! UNCLE!”
When she
finally let me go I found out that she didn’t know what saying ‘Uncle’ means
and had to explain it to her.
She
helped get me ready for bed and tucked me in good and tight. She even gave me a
kiss on my forehead and told me that she loved me. When she was about to turn
off the light and close my door I saw something that caused me to exhale as
though I had just seen a ghost.
“Al-bin
ok?” Micah asked.
For a
second I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had to blink twice to be sure.
“Al-bin?”
Micah had come back into the room and was standing next to the bed, “Al-bin
alright?”
I nodded
to her and asked if she would leave the light on for me. After she left I lay
there looking at my surfboard hanging on the wall where it belonged. I fell
asleep wondering if it had been Grandfathers idea to put it back or if mom had
something to do with it.
The End
Note from the Author:
Thank
you to all that have taken the time to write to tell me how much they have
enjoyed
If
you haven’t got your fill of