Burt & Wayne: Bedwetters in Diapers

 

J. Nash

 

 

            This wasn’t going to be fun. I had been very worried about having to move to my cousins’ for two weeks while my parents took advantage of a chance to go to Europe. Nathan and I are old enough that we could have stayed home on our own, but my Mom said that she wanted the extra supervision for me that my aunt and cousins Denny and Burt could provide. It’s because I still wear diapers at night. My Mom insists on ‘babysitters’ for me. Each night I am put in cloth diapers and plastic or rubber pants at about 7 pm. Nathan mostly does it, but she wanted him to have help available. So off to Aunt Sophie’s we went. Denny and Burt already were aware that I was a bedwetter, but now they were about to see for themselves what a big ‘baby’ I still was.

            I arrived there in shame carrying my diaper pail, with ‘Wayne’ written on it in magic marker, thanks to my brother. As if there could be any confusion as to who owned it. It contained my plastic mattress cover, my rubber sheet/change pad, cloth diapers, plastic pants, rubber pants, diaper pins, baby powder, diaper rash ointment, medical gloves, and much to my further disappointment and horror, the leather strap that was used for my fairly frequent spankings, something I was really hoping they would forget to include. My ‘baby’ stuff was bad enough. As I said, my cousins already knew that I was a bedwetter, but now the prospect of their seeing me in diapers like an infant filled me with dread. And so did thoughts of getting a spanking maybe right in front of them, or at least within their hearing.

            I was surprised. Denny did the usual mean teasing stuff as he noticed my diaper pail: ‘Hey dude, I can’t wait to see you in your baby pants!’. But Burt didn’t take part. Burt is my age, and Denny is the same age as Nathan, that is, just a few months younger. I thought maybe Burt was maybe just being a nice guy. Well, he was, but then his Mom dropped a bombshell.

            “Nathan, you can put Wayne’s diaper pail in the spare room. I’m going to move Burt in with Wayne. It makes sense to bunk the bedwetters together, that way you and Denny don’t need to be disturbed by it. I know it’s a nuisance.” Burt was a bedwetter! I didn’t know. His face turned crimson.

            “Burt still wets the bed?” Nathan asked. The poor kid looked like he wanted to sink through the floor. I knew the feeling well.

            “Yes. Almost every night. Poor Denny is at his wits’ end with the disruption and the smell. Well, Wayne here has just inspired me come to a decision. I’m going to borrow some of his diapers, if that’s ok, and put Burt in them, along with some of Wayne’s plastic pants. We’ll see if that improves things any. At least it will control the wetting. It doesn’t make any sense to have one bedwetter in diapers and one not..” Poor Burt had tears in his eyes.

            “It does make sense to have the babies together,” Denny said. “And in diapers. Did you hear that, Burt? You’re going to be wearing diapers, just like Wayne!” Besides being almost exactly the same age, Burt and I were the same size and weight—slim, slightly small for our age. He has black hair and blue eyes, while my hair and eyes are brown. Now Burt watched nervously as Nathan unpacked my diaper pail. He put my noisy plastic and rubber pants in the top drawer of the dresser in the spare room. He knew I would have to share the dresser with Burt, so he stacked my diapers on the top, where they would stay in plain sight, just as at home. I have diapers from Babykins and RP Diaper Designs. They are thick, and I have lots of them. My Mom also uses flannelette baby diapers triple folded lengthwise as inserts to prevent the possibility of leakage. When she talked about the extra diapers and their purpose, witty Nathan said ‘No leakage, but extra freakage.’ I could see Burt imagining how he was going to look in these thick cloth diapers, pinned on like a baby with blue diaper pins, and plastic or rubber pants over them. Instant regression right back to babyhood! He looked totally miserable, and I couldn’t blame him. Nathan tossed my plastic sheet onto one of the two single beds. He put the leather strap on top of the dresser beside my diapers. Burt looked surprised to see the strap, but he didn’t say anything. It was obvious what it was for. Once everything was out of it, he positioned the diaper pail at the side of the dresser.

            “Burt, I assume you have a plastic sheet on your mattress in the other room? ‘Cause I’m getting your bed and I’m sure not sleeping on any plastic sheet.” Burt fidgeted, looked at the floor.

            “Yes, I do.”

            “Well go get it, please, and put it on that bed. In fact, you can both put plastic protection on your mattresses, right now.” Nathan was taking charge. It’s what he does. It was embarrassing to be putting noisy plastic sheets on our beds, but we both did, and I’m sure Burt was thinking about worse things to come. I know I was.

            I think Burt sort of avoided me all afternoon, as if I was a walking reminder of the shame that was about to happen to him. Finally the time came. It was only 7 pm.

            “Ok babies, let’s go upstairs and put you in your diapers for the night,” Nathan said. He said it in front of Denny and his friend Cody.

            “What? They wear diapers?” Cody said, incredulous. “How come?”

            “Sure do, cause they’re both bedwetters,” Nathan said. “You’ll see.” We all went upstairs. I was very upset that my cousins and a stranger were going to see me naked and then being put in diapers. I’m sure Burt felt the same way. He seemed in shock, as if he couldn’t believe what was about to happen. Nathan put my rubber sheet on my bed. I didn’t need to be changed on a rubber sheet, but that’s the way it was. Nathan told me to make up two sets of diapers. I have to fold two flannelette baby diapers and place them lengthwise along the inside of my thick ‘youth diaper’. Then I fold the sides of the youth diaper into the center, and it’s ready. I did this twice, conscious of the eyes on me, and on the diapers. The diapers were clean, but looked like they had obviously been worn and wet many times.

            “Man, I can’t believe they actually wear those,” Cody said. “And you even use diaper pins?”

            “Yep. Blue baby ones. Plastic baby pants too,” Denny said. “And talcum powder.”

            “Johnson & Johnson powder, even! They really are just like toddlers!”

            “Totally. Ok, babies, now get undressed, please. Everything but tee-shirts comes off. Socks are ok”

            “No.” Burt was taking a stand.

            “No?” Nathan asked.

            “Me either. Not in front of these guys.” I was nervous, but still...I had to do something. This was so humiliating!

            “Well you know what? Newsflash! You both just earned yourselves a spanking. You’re both getting the strap. Now do what you were told or we’ll make you, and for our trouble you’ll get a double what you have coming now. Burt, have you ever had your butt spanked with a leather strap before?”

“No.” He looked scared. “I don’t get spanked.”

            “Well, you didn’t wear diapers either, but now you do. So this is your first? Well, trust me, you don’t want to get double. Just ask Wayne.”

            “It hurts pretty bad,” I said. My mouth was dry. The fight was already gone from us.

            Nathan looked at Denny and Cody. They were into it. Resistance was pointless. Burt realized it too. Slowly we both started to take our jeans off. Then our boxer shorts. We looked at the ground. We knew we were being stared at, and that made it harder.

            “Who wants to go first? Burt, you can be first. Next time remember: don’t argue. Now I’ll get you to lean over the bed, here, with your hands on your diapers. And by the way, when you take a shower tomorrow, ask Wayne for his razor, and get rid of that hair down there, ok? It’ll help prevent diaper rash. Next time I diaper you, I want your skin to be as smooth as Wayne’s.” I had no hair down there, which made me look even more babyish, and made Cody and Denny snicker even more. Burt was silently crying as he leaned over the bed, hands on the waiting diapers on the rubber sheet. It rustled, and had a distinctive smell that always added to my shame. Nathan picked up the strap. As always with me, he made Burt wait, so the anticipation and humiliation of the punishment could properly sink in. Then he started the spanking. It was slow and methodical. Burt winced with every stroke, and so did I. Watching someone getting spanked is painful, but doing so knowing that your turn is next is excruciating. Almost double the pain. Here I was, semi-naked, waiting for a spanking after which I would be put in diapers by my step-brother in front of my cousins and a stranger. What could be worse? At least now they were distracted from me as they mocked Burt, but not for long! Still, I felt badly for Burt. This was his first spanking, and would be his first time in diapers. He must have felt terrible, totally humiliated. Yesterday he was just a bedwetter. Today he was a spanked and soon-to-be diapered bedwetter wearing a fellow bedwetter’s cloth diapers and plastic pants in front of his peers. Totally controlled and dominated. At least I was kind of used to it, not that you can get really used to that sort of thing. No, you can’t.

Nathan spanked him about twenty times, hard. The leather made a harsh sound as it struck his skinny butt, and Burt was really crying by the end of it. I find it’s the humiliation as much as the physical pain that makes you cry. Being bare-butt spanked as a teen is demeaning enough, but being spanked by a guy your own age or even younger, with the knowledge that after that he’s going to diaper you and do it in front of other teens, and that tomorrow the whole thing will be repeated, if that’s what he decides, well, that’s a lot to deal with. That could make anyone cry, including me.

            “Ok Burt, wait over there and I’ll attend to your diapers in a minute.“ He hid his face. Cody and Denny laughed and made jokes about Burt’s crimson butt and how mine soon would be also. My face was already that color.

            “Wayne, your turn to be spanked. You know what to do--bend over the bed.” I got the same number as Burt after also being made to wait an eternity for my punishment to begin. I didn’t cry at first, but the shame of it all finally overcame me and I sobbed. When it was finally over my butt was stinging, and I’m sure it was as red as Burt’s. I felt totally belittled, and of course worse was coming. Again, Cody and Denny laughed and jeered. I hung my head.

            “Wow, that’s gotta hurt!” Denny said. “I’d just behave if I were you guys!”

            “Yeah, and try and keep your diapers dry too…” Cody added.

            “Ok Burt, lie down on the diapers.” He did as he was told, and in a minute he was powdered and pinned into his (my) Babykins. I knew it must feel so strange for him. Unreal.

            “Denny, get me two pairs of baby pants out of the top drawer.” He handed Nathan two pairs. One was plastic, one was Babykins rubber pants. He put the plastic pants on Burt, making him lift up so he could slide them over his diapers. Burt was silently crying again.

            “Ok, that’s it, you’re done.” Burt got off the bed and stood up. At every move his plastic pants rustled. I knew that feeling of thickness between the legs, the smell of baby powder and residual urine from the diapers, the inescapable noise of the plastic, the utter and complete shame of being in diapers and plastic pants. He looked so miserable.

            “Man, you look like a total baby,” Cody said. “What a freak show!” Now it was my turn. After powdering me, Nathan pulled the diapers up between my legs, pinned them on tight as always, then put me in the rubber pants. Then I was standing beside Burt newly spanked, in diapers, with nowhere to hide from the derisive gazes and comments of Nathan, Denny, and Cody. We were as helpless as infants, and at their mercy, not that they had much.

            Cody pointed at me. “Check it out. It’s The Urinator, and his sidekick Pee-Wee.” They all laughed.

            “Maybe the babies would like pacifiers,” Denny teased.

            “Nah, I pacify them with the strap,” Nathan joked. “It works better.”

            “Thanks for taking care of their diapers, Nathan,” Aunt Sophie said when she saw us. “That’s a big help.”

            “No problem.”

            “Did you have to spank them? I thought I heard the strap being used.”

            “I did, but I probably won’t have to next time. We’ll see.”

            “Well, you boys look ridiculous, but if it means your beds will stay dry, then so be it. Don’t you feel silly in your diapers, Burt?” He didn’t need to answer. “Well, you’ll just have to get used to them. You’ll be wearing them until you’ve been consistently dry for one full month.”

            “Yeah, like that’s going to happen,” Denny laughed.

            Of course we weren’t allowed to wear anything over our shameful waterproof pants, and I know that Burt was just dying in his disgrace. He didn’t speak, just looked at the floor most of the time, and was on the verge of tears. I wasn’t feeling too good either, but at least it wasn’t all new for me. Since I was put back in diapers, I was never allowed to wear anything over my plastic or rubber pants, no matter who might be around. My Mom called it ‘creative shaming’—the shame of being seen in diapers was supposed to make me stop wetting, but if anything it had the opposite effect. I wanted to say something to comfort Burt, but what could I say? That things would get better? Not really. They wouldn’t. Not to feel dumb for being in diapers? Nope. To ignore the teasing? You couldn’t. Being made to openly wear diapers and plastic (or in my case rubber) pants was simply the worst that could happen to a kid. No wait—we got spanked first. What was there to say? It didn’t help that there were two of us, in fact maybe it made it worse because we were a constant reminder to each other of how low we had fallen, how much dignity we had lost. Diapered teenage bedwetters! What could be more disgraceful? Maybe Cody said it best: “You guys need to grow up, dudes. Fourteen and still wearing diapers! And I bet you’ll both pee them tonight, too! That’s sooo lame!”

            We were finally allowed to go to bed. I could hear Burt’s plastic sheet and/or pants rustling, and again felt sorry for him on this first night of diapers. The diapers would feel so strange on him, and his noisy plastic pants would make him hot and be a constant reminder of his new status as a helpless, bedwetting baby. Perhaps, if he was like me he would fall asleep and wake up completely forgetting that he was now wearing diapers, only to have the horror and shame of it roll over him all over again. Maybe he’d find himself silently crying himself back to sleep at the indignity and hopelessness of it all.

            I woke up wet, as usual. I didn’t ask Burt if he was, thinking it was none of my business.

            “Does Nathan have to change us out of our…stuff?” he asked. I guess he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘diapers’. Just then Nathan came into the room.

            “I assume you’re both wet?” He kept a record in a notebook.

            “Yes.” I said. It was no use pretending otherwise. I smelled.

“Me too,” Burt admitted.

“Okay. Your baby pants and diaper pins can stay on the dresser and we’ll use them again this evening, and your diapers go in the pail. Make sure the lid goes on to contain the reek. Then clean yourselves up. Burt, just so you know, when you start getting low on diapers, you or Wayne hand wash them in the sink in the basement, then hang them up to dry down there. You don’t use the machines for your smelly diapers. Got it?”

“Yes.” He looked kind of pathetic in his plastic pants. I noticed his diapers were sagging a little, and I could make out his blue diaper pins through the plastic. He was wet. Not doing diapers in the washing machine meant that they always kept a little bit of urine smell. You could never get rid of it, and as soon as you were wearing them your body heat would bring it out. It was a baby smell that I hated, one more constant reminder of my shameful need. As I looked at Burt in wet diapers I was reminded that my diapers had come from this kid Russell after he became dry from chronic bedwetting. His mother had waited for three months of dryness to make sure he didn’t relapse. So I got his used cloth diapers, plastic pants, rubber pants, diaper pins, change pad, and diaper pail. It was weird to wear diapers that another kid had worn and wet; now I would be wearing diapers that had been peed by Russell, Burt, and myself. Of course I’m sure it occurred to Burt that he was wearing diapers that had been wet many times by me (he didn’t know about Russell). I didn’t like the idea, and tried to not to think about it. In the evening we were careful to avoid a repeat of the awful spankings. We cooperated, and once again were diapered in front of Denny who sarcastically commented on Burt’s new smooth look in the diaper area. No hair. This time Nathan put the rubber pants on Burt, and I got the plastic ones. They hadn’t been washed, of course. Later, Cody came over.

“Are those two toddlers wet already?” he asked. “They kind of smell.” Nathan laughed. “Well, what do you expect?”

“Hey Denny, could you do me a big favor?” Nathan asked a couple of days later.

“Like what?”

“Frank has some movie passes, but we have to go like now. Could you diaper the babies for me?”

“Oh sure. I guess so.”

“Thanks. If they give you any trouble, just spank them. And Wayne and Burt, if that happens and you resist, you’ll get double when I get home. Got that?”

“Yes,” we both said.

It was our first time being diapered by Denny. Of course it was embarrassing. He sent us upstairs to get ready—that is, to get undressed and to prepare our diapers. It was weird to be with Burt, waiting helplessly for someone—a kid—to come and put us both in diapers. We didn’t say anything about it, but it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Finally Denny came, and he diapered Burt first, and put him in plastic pants. Burt kept his eyes tightly shut the whole time. I had to wait for my turn. Not fun.

“To me it’s unbelievable that you guys still need diapers,” he said. “It’s so freakin’ retarded.” He never bothered to hide his contempt for our bedwetting. In fact that was a pretty common attitude amongst teens who knew about it, and there were a lot in my case. Socially, being known as a bedwetter who wore diapers was about the lowest you could get. Now Burt also would also be known far and wide as a diapered bedwetter. Denny diapered me, and I was careful to offer no resistance then, or as he put me in my plastic pants. A spanking from Denny would have been too tough to take, and he had made it plain that he’d like nothing better than to do it. “I’m warning you guys, if you give me half a chance, I’ll spank your little bedwetter butts,” is what he said, and we believed him.

We went downstairs, and were shocked to find that there were visitors. It was friends of the family—Valerie, and her son Jason, who seemed to be our age, and Emily, maybe a little younger. They were amazed that Burt and I were wearing diapers.

“How come they’re in diapers?” Jason asked. He seemed incredibly surprised.

“Go ahead and tell him, boys,” Aunt Sophie said. I couldn’t speak. I was sort of stunned.

“Um, sometimes we still wet the bed,” Burt stammered.

“You’re bedwetters?” Jason was smirking a little, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Um, yes. We don’t do it on purpose.”

“Gross. I can’t believe you still need diapers,” Jason said, staring hard at mine.

“The diapers are a practical matter, if you think about it. The boys get a decent night’s sleep, and they don’t smell up the whole house. Burt is new to them, but Wayne’s been in diapers for quite awhile. Burt will be wearing them until he stops wetting. In fact we’ll be going to a medical supply store before Wayne and Nathan go home so that Burt can get new ones and plastic pants of his own. Right now he’s in some of Wayne’s,” Aunt Sophie said, “but we’ll soon fix that.” Burt looked crestfallen.

“Gross,” Jason said again.

“Um, I could baby-sit them sometime, if you want,” Emily said to Aunt Sophie. “I’m trying to earn money for our trip to Disney World.”

“Hear that guys?” Denny said. “Emily’s going to baby-sit you and change your diapers. Cool.” Burt looked in a panic.

“Well I can, and I’m willing,” Emily said. “To me they’d just be like babies. No big deal. I’ve changed lots of babies’ diapers.” Burt looked like he was going to cry. I felt the same way. Emily changing our diapers? No way!

“Who changes their diapers now?” Jason asked. He was asking just to be mean.

“Nathan usually does, but I just finished changing them,” Denny said.

“They don’t make a fuss?” Jason asked.

“No, ‘cause if they do they get a spanking,” Denny said.

“Whoa, they even get spanked! Do they wet their diapers every night?”

“Wayne does pretty much. It’s Burt’s first night in them, but he wets almost every night also.”

“Whoa! Not to brag, dude, but I’m working on getting my pilot’s license while these guys are still in toilet training, and not doing too well, it sounds like.” It hurt to be described as not toilet-trained, and Denny laughed. “Can you believe it? Wayne and Burt flunked toilet-training,” he said.

Of course I never thought that Emily would actually be called upon to ‘baby sit’ us, but it did happen. Aunt Sophie and Denny and Nathan were going to a wedding, and as the reception would run rather late, it was decided to leave Burt and me behind. My family has a strict rule about my having to be in diapers by 7 pm, and there has never been an exception. It’s that ‘creative shaming’ thing again. There was no way we could go to the wedding in diapers (for one thing we didn’t have pants that could fit over them). So we would stay at home, with someone to watch us. It was Denny’s suggestion that we ask Emily. Probably it was mainly to embarrass us, but on the other hand he liked her, and this would earn her some money. It was decided that we would already be diapered when she arrived—that way there would be no need for her to see us naked, not that anyone much cared—to them we were just babies, our dignity didn’t matter much. So we were in our diapers at 5 o’clock when Emily rang the bell. It was strange—we felt really awkward around her and didn’t know how to be—I mean she could have been a girlfriend, or at least a friend; instead here she was ‘babysitting’ us in our diapers. For her part she more or less treated us like babies—not with baby-talk or anything like that—it was just plain that she thought us to be unworthy of her attention other than as diapered, weak, bedwetters. She wasn’t mean about it, we were just far beneath her, that’s all. She dismissed us as infantile. She said it herself—we were just babies to her.

When Emily’s boyfriend came over, I guess it was the last straw for Burt. After some derisive teasing from Gary, Burt wet his diapers. We had been in them since 5 pm, and I guess pressure built, and the shame of being in diapers in front of Emily and Gary was too much. There was no way either one of us could have asked Emily permission to use the bathroom. Way too embarrassing So he soaked his diapers, then looked like he was going to cry.

“My gosh, what am I going to do with you?” Emily said when she realized he was wet. “I thought you two were just bedwetters.”

“Man, I can’t believe this,” Gary said. “You’ll have to change him. You can’t just leave him wet like that, he stinks. Kid, you’re unbelievable.”

After consulting with Aunt Sophie by phone, a plan was worked out. Burt was to get out of his wet diapers, I was to prepare new ones, and Gary would powder him and partially diaper him. Once the diapers covered him, Emily would pin them on and put him back in plastic pants. Again Burt just closed his eyes and didn’t say a word, but I knew how hard it must be to submit to being diapered by some guy you never even saw before and his girlfriend. Emily was careful with the pins. It was obvious she had done this many times; she said that Burt was just the largest ‘baby’ she had so far diapered.

“Gary, check in the top drawer there and see if there are some snap-on plastic pants. If we have to change him again it will make it easier,” she said. “And while you’re at it, check Wayne’s diapers to see if he needs changing too.”

“I’m dry,” I said. How lame! Having to tell my babysitter, in front of her boyfriend that I wasn’t wet! How much lower could I sink?

“Check him anyway,” she said.

 So that’s what happened—Gary tugged on the waistband of my plastic pants, making them rustle, and exposed my diapers. It was one of those excruciating moments only a diapered bedwetter can know about. He looked at my blue diaper pins. Then he looked at me with such derision and shook his head. I felt totally overwhelmed.

“This one’s still dry,” Gary said, “for now, anyway.” He ‘playfully’ spanked me on my plastic pants. I cried out of embarrassment.

“Ah, don’t cry, big baby,” he laughed.

 Emily snapped Burt into his plastic pants, and we spent the evening trying to stay away from Gary, who insisted on calling us the ‘diaper-twins’ and referring to our ‘baby-pants’. At one point he called Burt over, made a show of checking his diapers as he had mine, then ‘playfully’ spanked him too.

“Good boy! Still dry! For now, anyway.”

“Hey, diaper-boys!” Gary called out. We reflexively looked up and were hit with the flash from a digital camera he had taken out of his backpack.

“Good one! Here, have a look.” He showed us the photo on the camera’s screen. There we were, Burt and I, side by side in bulky cloth diapers and smooth plastic pants that looked shiny from the camera’s flash. Our faces were clearly visible, with expressions of trouble and shame.

“Here’s the deal,” Gary said. “First one to find your photo on the Internet wins a free set of brand new…DIAPER PINS! YAAAY!”

“Oh Gary, you’re mean!” Emily said, but she was laughing. The two had been cuddling and kissing.

“So do you babies sleep in cribs?” Gary asked.

“They’re bedwetters, Gary, not really babies,” Emily said.

“What’s the difference? So do they sleep in cribs?”

“No. They sleep in regular beds, but with a plastic or rubber sheet to protect the mattress in case their diapers leak.”

“Diapers, rubber sheets. Sure sounds like babies to me. Tell you what, Emily—send them to bed, and we can you know—have some time.”

“What, now? It’s like a quarter to eight.”

“So what? You’re the babysitter. You can do what you want.”

“Hmmm. You have a point. Ok guys, you heard Gary. Time for bed.”

So we went to bed at 7:45 so that our babysitter and her boyfriend could make out in front of the TV. At that point we didn’t care about being in bed—we were glad to be away from Gary and Emily, but when I thought about Gary, who after all was a peer and a stranger who had teased and belittled us, changed Burt’s diapers, checked mine and then Burt’s, taken our photo maybe for the internet, and then got our babysitter to send us to bed early, well, the day stacked up as my most humiliating one so far. I’m sure Burt felt the same way. We couldn’t talk about it.

“Are you guys both wet as usual?” It was Nathan. It was Saturday and we were going home tomorrow. And yes, we were both wet.

“Well get yourselves cleaned up. We’re going to the diaper store to get Burt some supplies. Maybe you too, Wayne. Perhaps you need some new baby pants?” Oh, man! Of course it wasn’t a ‘diaper store’, it was Regency Medical Supplies, but they certainly did sell diapers, and I just hated going there. Nathan and Denny needn’t have come, but of course they did, just to rub our noses in it.

My legs get weak as we enter the store, and weaker as we approach the section for incontinence. Today as we entered, my Aunt spotted someone she knew just inside. It was a lady with a boy around our age. They greeted each other.

“What brings you here, Jessica?” asked my Aunt.

“Oh Derek here hurt his arm in wrestling. We need a compression bandage. And you?”

“Believe it or not I have a son and a nephew who still need diapers. So we’re here for that.” My Aunt never minced words. She didn’t care who knew we were still in diapers at night, and also called it ‘creative shaming’. She got it from my Mom.

“You’re joking,” Jessica said. Derek’s jaw dropped. They could tell who was being talked about because of our extremely red faces.

“They actually wear diapers?” Derek asked. He had braces on his teeth. His voice cracked.

“Yes. These two still wet the bed and wear diapers at night, I’m sorry to say.” Derek shook his head in disbelief. Burt and I wanted to die.

“Denny and Nathan, why don’t you go over and get the boys what they need—Burt can have a dozen Babykins cloth diapers, and six Babykins waterproof pants, I don’t care if they’re plastic or rubber. Oh and get him a change pad too. And get a couple of pairs of plastic pants for Wayne, to make up for the wear and tear Burt caused to his. Thanks. I’ll just be here talking to Jessica.” Derek regarded us in a funny way—sort of half smirk, half disbelief.

“They’re still in diapers!” he laughed.

My heart sank as we approached the incontinence section. There was everything for an incontinent person or bedwetter—disposable diapers in many varieties, cloth diapers, plastic pants, rubber pants, change pads, bed pads, you name it. I cringed as the salesman stepped up to greet us. He was just a kid himself. I’m pretty sure he was the son of one of the owners. I had met him before when we had come to buy a replacement plastic mattress cover for my bed. I think at the time my mom was trying to shame me by making me aware that diapers were available for chronic bedwetters like me. She had told him I was a bedwetter, and he asked if we would like to purchase some diapers. She said she’d think about it and maybe come back. But then the Russell thing happened.

“What can I do for you, guys?”

“Burt here needs diapers,” Denny said matter-of-factly. “For bedwetting.” Poor Burt. “And Wayne here needs some new plastic pants,” Nathan said.

“Oh I remember you. Wayne. You came with your Mom, right? You wet the bed, still. Ok, for the diapers, were you thinking disposable, or cloth?”

“My Mom said Babykins cloth. A dozen,” Denney said.

“Ok, looking at Burt’s—it’s Burt, right? Looking at Burt’s waist I’d say a size medium Babykins would do fine. They pin on, and have to be worn with waterproof pants. We have a vinyl pant, a rubber pant, both very durable, and a new nursery print plastic pant.”

“We’ll take two of each for Burt.”

“And two for Wayne. Nursery prints, please,” Nathan said, grinning.

“They’re very popular with caregivers,” the kid said. I think he was laughing at us.

As soon as we were informed that the store had nursery print plastic pants, I knew that’s what I’d be wearing that very night. So would Burt. We got his change pad, loaded everything in the car, and stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home to get the other items he would need—flannelette baby diapers like mine, baby powder, Desitin ointment, diaper pins, and a diaper pail. Denney playfully pointed out pacifiers. I think Burt was overwhelmed at the scope of his new ‘baby’ status, and he looked like he was going to cry any minute. Having to wear my diapers must have been bad enough, but to now have his own supply of diapers, pants, pins etc., must have brought it home that he would be living in shame long-term.

For some reason it was Denny who diapered us on our last evening, and I knew what was coming. Burt was first, and once pinned into his very own diapers Denny went to the dresser and came back with a pair of the new nursery print plastic pants. They had bought two similar pairs for each of us. Both were snap-on. One was called ‘Aussie Bears’ and was basically a yellow pant depicting koala bears and other things. He put these on Burt, who winced as they were noisily snapped on him.

When my turn came I had to lift up while he slid mine under my diapered butt and snapped up a basic blue pant that featured recurring images of babies in diapers. When my Aunt saw us she said, sarcastically, “Oh you two look cute!” Nathan laughed.

“Wayne’s wearing his baby baby-pants!” he said. I was, and Burt was wearing his own diapers and plastic pants for the first of what would be many, many months. We’re in touch through e-mail, and he tells me he rarely has a dry night. Denny is still diapering him, and he has been baby-sat several times by Emily, who never fails to bring boyfriend Gary to make his life miserable. Poor Burt. He doesn’t get spanked, though. Just that one time, which he told me he’ll never forget. I bet.