Chapter 10 – Proud Mary, Big Wheels and Hash Browns on the Side
I woke up a few minutes before my alarm and turned it off before it could make any loud and annoying sounds. I swung me feet out of bed and with a stretch; I stood up with that early morning awkwardness. Some people bolt out of bed ready for the day; I ain’t one of them.
Mom and Kevin were sitting at the kitchen table talking, but low enough that I couldn’t hear what they were saying. When I passed by them, they stopped their conversation.
“Good Morning! Sleep well?” Mom asked.
“Great! I think,” I replied while washing my hands at the sink. I sat down and grabbed a biscuit from the plate in the center of the table.
“Next to the last day of school for you both, eh? Have you got summer plans, Kevin?” Mom asked.
“Well scout camp, but that’s not until August. Other than that, I can’t much think of anything. Just gonna hang out I guess. Specially now that I can hang with my best friend again.”
“Well, you boys hurry and eat so you can get ready for school. Todd, why don’t you take a shower in my room so Kevin can use your bathroom?”
“Sure thing, Mom,” I told her and she got up from the table.
“See you tonight. Be good and have fun today!” With that, Mom headed out the door to work.
“Dude! Go ahead and use your own bathroom. I’m not gonna take a shower, I have P.E. first period, so it seems a waste,” Kevin told me.
“Well, your call. Is your diaper wet?” I asked, and the fact that I was asking my best friend if he had peed his diaper was not lost on me.
“Yeah, a bunch. See?” Kevin said standing up. Even with the plastic pants and through his PJ’s you could see the diaper was sagging.
“Well don’t you at least want to take a shower to get the pee off?”
“Oh, I guess you’re right.”
So, I ended up using Mom’s shower after all. Kevin was already back in my room when I got there.
“I know I’ve already imposed, but can I take a diaper home today after school?”
“Sure, I don’t mind. In fact, here!” I grabbed my diaper bag off my door and pulled out the two Savemax diapers, which I had been avoiding since opening the Prevail. I handed them to Kevin.
“Thanks man, I really appreciate it!”
“Not a problem!” I picked up my pre-shower plastic pants, “What did you do with your plastic pants?”
“I washed them out and hung them in your bathroom, didn’t know what you did with them but figured that would be okay.”
Surprised by his answer, I said, “That’s exactly what I do with them, thanks!”
I came back a second later after having washed my pants out, too. I opened my top drawer and tossed him some underwear. “Grab what you want out of the closet.”
Kevin looked at the boxers I threw him and frowned “Todd, you got anything less boxery?”
“Umm, I think so,” I said tossing him a pair of briefs instead.
“Cool, I know beggars can’t be choosers, but I hate boxers.” Kevin explained. “But they’re okay on you, I mean; I just don’t like to wear them.”
“Whatever!” I said stepping into some jeans, and feeling a twinge of regret at not being diapered. I feel that way most days now.
Kevin and I left for school and what was going to turn out to be another unremarkable day. At lunch, Kevin sat with us and if this surprised anyone, they certainly didn’t act like it. In fact, the only thing said out of the ordinary, aside from introducing Rob to Kevin, was when BB said to Glen “See, I told ya they’d kiss and make up someday.”
“Shut up BB, the only one I kissed lately was your mom!” Kevin said.
Which prompted Glen to say “Did you know, Kevin? I’ve been wondering about what it’s like, kissing his mom, without having to do the deed myself. Could you tell me, did her mustache tickle?”
This caused all of us, including BB to start laughing.
“So Rob your Birthday is right around the corner isn’t it?” Glen asked Rob.
“Yeah, weekend after next; then Todd’s is three days after mine!” Rob said.
Glen got this excited look about him, “Hey Kevin, now that you two are back on good terms, think we ought to revive our old birthday tradition?”
“Defiantly, and we can induct Rob here into them, too.”
“What’s that?” Rob asked curiously.
I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Sure, Glen and BB knew about Rob’s diapers but if we did this, they’d damn sure would know about mine too. Well probably, know about Kevin’s too, because I had this sinking suspicion that Kevin won’t pass up any opportunity to get diapered. That was just letting too much cat out of the bag. Yet how much had I lost from being afraid these last two years and how much had I gained in the last two weeks? It seems like just about everyone has found out about my diapers and so far nothing bad has happened. What did I have to lose anyway?
“Since we were all in kindergarten we have got together on our birthdays and had a party and a sleepover,” I explained.
“That defiantly sounds cool. We could get together at my place! I’m sure my folks wouldn’t mind, and we could always head out to the woods and camp if the weather looks good!” Rob offered.
That settled it; everyone thought the idea was great. Well, I was warming up to the idea, but under the circumstances what could I do? Besides, it would be great to have the old gang reunited. We agreed to have our party, not this Saturday, but the next. Pending approval from everyone’s parents, of course.
The rest of the school day passed without incident and I was in a great mood when I finally got home that afternoon. Mom’s car was in the driveway; I guess she had gotten off work early.
“Hi Mom, I’m home!” I called out when I stepped through the back door.
“Weird, no reply, mom must be busy somewhere,” I thought to myself. So, I took my school bags up to my room and emptied my gym bag into my hamper. I knew I wouldn’t need them since I wouldn’t be having P.E. tomorrow because of the half-day. My book bag was lighter than normal, too, having turned in most of my books today. School was almost over!
I walked down the hall and found mom’s door closed. I could faintly hear running water and figured she must be taking a shower. I decided to go ahead and put a diaper on, but in doing so, I noticed that I was down to only a few Prevails left. I was going to have to open another bag soon.
I figured I had a few minutes to surf the web while Mom was in the shower; so I booted up my computer and after checking out my normal gaming sites, I checked my email. Kevin had emailed me and boy did he ever send me a list of sites to visit.
I had only just begun to go through the sites when Mom came out of her room. “Hey there, kiddo!” She hailed, “How was school?”
“Okay, I guess. Boring mainly. We turned in all our books and stuff, so I guess we’re not gonna do much tomorrow, either.”
“Poor guy-all bored at school!” mom teased, “It’s too bad you won’t remember this by the time you get to working. Kids just don’t ever really know exactly how good they have it until it’s gone and you are a slave to the rat race.”
“Ha-ha! Yeah, you’re probably right,” I laughed back.
“Going to go shopping tonight, I’m out of town on Friday and will be gone until the middle of next week,” Mom said.
“Am I going to stay with Rob then?” I asked.
“Sure are! Talked with Sarah about it Monday night when we got home.”
“Cool! I was going to ask about staying over there this weekend anyways. Kevin, Glen and BB are going to come over and were going to get together for a birthday sleepover just like the old days!”
“That’s wonderful news! Are you nervous about having Billy and Glen find out about your...”
“My diapers? A little, I suppose,” I said, “But Rob said they spent the night at his house last weekend. So they had to know about Rob, probably Rick too and they didn’t seem to treat Rob any different at school today.”
So we locked up the house and headed out so we could shop. Although mom hadn’t specified, I figured we were driving out to Jerson when we turned away from town. I mean, we don’t have much in the way of shops here in Simonsville beyond one grocery and one hardware store. It was just about 10 minutes ‘til 5:00 when we pulled up to Tucker Family Pharmacy where Mom and I had stopped last weekend. I really didn’t know why we were stopping, I still had two unopened bags of diapers at the house, but if Mom wanted to buy me more, I certainly wasn’t going to argue with her.
We walked to the back of the store where the old soda bar had been turned into the pharmacist’s counter and checkout. Cheryl was nowhere to be seen; instead, a small short man with silvery-white hair was behind the counter.
“Can I help you?” The man asked, and I noticed right away that he had a trace of a delta accent in his voice, as if he was from Louisiana or Mississippi.
“We’re here to pick up an order for Arlen, please.” Mom explained.
“Oh you must be the folks Cheryl done told me ‘bout. I’m John Tucker, nice to meet ya!”
“Nice to meet you, too!” Mom said and I followed with, “Nice to meet you, too Mr. Tucker.”
He reached across the counter and shook Mom’s hand and then mine. “It’s nice to meet you both! You must be Todd?” he asked.
”Yes, sir,” I said back.
“Well Todd, let’s see what we have,” he said as he bent down to fetch some items from beneath the counter.
He placed two small sacks on the counter, each with a sheet of paper stapled to the bag with ‘Arlen’ written across it. He reached in the first bag and pulled out several small individually wrapped items.
“We have 4 pair waterproof pants in plain white. We have 4 waterproof pants, assorted prints.” He said checking each item before putting it back in the bag. “In this bag we have Stay-Tucked undershirts, three no-legs, and two with legs.”
I wondered to myself what he meant by Stay-Tucked? While I was examining the contents of the bags, trying to see what kind of print I had gotten on my plastic pants Mr. Tucker went through the big swinging door at the back of the pharmacy.
“Thanks Mom!” I said to Mom while Mr. Tucker was gone.
“You’re welcome, but thank your Aunt Sarah, too! She and I talked when we got home Monday night and she gave me some advice on some things you would need.” She told me before continuing, “I was surprised the turn around on the order was this quick though. I only placed the order yesterday morning.”
“Oh our supplier is in Birmingham and I was up that ways anyways yesterday afternoon! So I picked up your order personally rather than make you wait.” Mr. Tucker said returning with a large cardboard box.
“Well thank you very much Mr. Tucker! That was very kind of you to do that.”
“It wasn’t any trouble at all, promise!” He told mom as he studied a green piece of paper. It looked to be a second or third copy of something and I guessed it was an invoice of some kind.
The big box was a case of SecurePlus brand diapers. I read the side of the box and did the math in my head, 6 bags of 12 were, uh, 72 diapers. “That ought to last a bit.” I thought to myself. Mom paid for the items and we were about to take everything to the car when Mr. Tucker asked. “Todd, you look about what; 15 to me, that right?”
“15 in a week and a half,” I told him.
“That right? You know, you can work at 15 don’t you? You have a job lined up for the summer?”
“No sir, I don’t have any plans.”
“We’ll how’d you like a job?”
“I’d love too, but we live in Simonsville and I have no way to get anywhere.”
“See Cheryl mentioned you at dinner Sunday night, about how you were so upfront about your needs. Other young people your age would be embarrassed about needing protective garments such as these, yet Cheryl said you seemed absolutely fearless to her. Well there are a lot of kids who find themselves needing dia...; um protection and they sometimes need someone to talk to who might understand.” He said, pausing as if he didn’t know how to continue.
“It’s okay, Mr. Tucker, I call them diapers, too,” I said, surprised at how bold I could be with a stranger; and to think at lunch I was worried about what Glen or BB would think, and now here I am batting the word diaper around as if it were the stuff of casual conversation.
“See that’s exactly what Cheryl meant. You see, besides running the pharmacy, each summer I also work as administrator for camp Ontonko. It’s a regional camp for kids with continence problems. I found out about the camp when looking for a camp for my own son to attended when he was just a boy.” Mr. Tucker continued, “The camp did wonders for John! The biggest benefit for him came when he served as a Junior and then a Senior Counselor. Seeing how those experiences helped John so much, I found myself becoming more involved with the camp each year. Even after John had quit working at the camp I stayed on helping in different positions until finally one year the Regents Board approached me to see if I would be interested in becoming Administrator of the camp when the current Administrator retried.”
Mr. Tucker paused only for a moment before going on, “The camp runs from the last week of June to the third week of July. As a Junior counselor, if you are interested, you would be responsible for helping the campers with their daily activities, enforcing the rules and in general doing any of a thousand things to keep everything running smoothly. You’ll also be training for a senior counselor’s position. The pay would be a small per diem, paid out at the end of the season. You would work a basic five weeks and earn $500, with a matching $500 in scholarship money, for when you go to college.”
Mr. Tucker gave me a second or two to absorb all he had just said before asking, “What do you say?”
I was excited, five hundred bucks was a big deal to me and that would defiantly help with me saving for a car! A camp for diapered kids? As if I would mind! As long as Mom liked the idea, I was more then set to take his offer. “Mom! You think it would be okay?”
“Well Todd, taking a job is a big commitment and responsibility. The scholarship money does sound nice, but I think we should discuss this some more before making a decision.” Mom said before asking him, “Would that be all right, Mr. Tucker?”
“Why, sure! We won’t be sending counselors up until 3 days before camp starts. If you could call me soon and let me know, that would be just fine. While we don’t require it, we do prefer our counselors to have an understanding of what our campers have to deal with on a daily basis. My John, he learned so much through his summers at Ontonko! Why don’t you go to our camp’s website and fill out the counselor’s application and return it to me here next time you come into town?” Mr. Tucker added handing us a card for the camp.
“Will do Mr. Tucker! Oh, and thanks again for the quick turnaround on our order!” Mom added as she picked up our two bags leaving me to get the case of diapers.
We left the store, and I was surprised to see it was almost 5:30 already. It didn’t seem like we were in there a half hour, but I guess time flies. I barely noticed where we were going as I was so wrapped up in the idea of $500. I was brought out my woolgathering when we pulled up outside the Target store.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Mom said as we got out of the car.
“Just thinking about Mr. Tucker’s offer,” I admitted and then added, “I’d be a great way to make some money and a good way to help some other kids, too.” I added the “helping other kids” part with hopes that it would help sweeten the deal for Mom.
“Five weeks is a huge commitment, Todd! Your scout camps have always been only a week and during that time, you were camping - not working.” She paused for a moment and then said, “I truly think this is a great idea and a wonderful opportunity for you. I just want you to make sure you think this through.”
Mom had obviously never been a boy scout, nor been to scout camp. “Not working” indeed! On the other hand, she did have a point, which did need some consideration. “I’ll think about it, but weren’t you the one telling me I needed to work to understand how good I had things?”
“Oh, so now you’re going to use my own words against me? You know for each time you do this, your kids will do it twice,” Mom chided as we walked through the front door.
I left mom and went over to electronics where I looked at the new release games and DVD’s. I stopped at the games kiosk, where they had a PS2, Xbox and a GameCube out running demos and I played there a little bit. Sadly, they didn’t have much of anything good out to play so the kiosk didn’t hold my attention for too long. There just wasn’t much of anything I wanted, game wise, right now and there weren’t any good movies released to DVD lately. So bored with their selection, I went looking for mom.
I walked each aisle slowly looking down its length trying to see Mom. I finally found her in Ladies Clothes, where it looked like she was getting some things for her trip.
“You like this blouse?” Mom asked holding it up.
“Yeah it’s nice, I guess,” I said hoping this was the right answer and that it wasn’t some trick question.
“Okay I’ll get it then,” she said, putting the shirt in the front of the buggy that she was pushing. “Why don’t you go see if you can find some summer clothes? I’ll be over in just a few minutes,” Mom said, shooing me towards Boy’s and Men’s wear. “Maybe you should get a new pair of swim trunks, too, if you are going to camp.”
”For real?” I stopped and asked.
“Yes, for real! But I still want you to think long and hard before you make your final decision.”
I headed for Boy’s and Men’s Wear and picked out some swim trunks. I had just started to look at other clothes when mom came over. I showed her the trunks I picked out and she nodded her approval.
“Todd, do you like these?” Mom said holding up a pair of camouflage cargo shorts.
“Uhuh!” I said, nodding my head.
Mom rummaged on the rack and found a pair for me.
“Um, wrong size!” I said when she put it in the basket.
“It’s a size larger than you normally wear so it will fit better over your diapers,” Mom said, holding them up, “See, it has a drawstring with elastic in the waist, so it will still fit snuggly, but will give you some diaper room, too.”
“Oh. Cool!” I said, I wouldn’t have thought about that.
We picked out several other pairs of shorts, all but one pair in a larger waist size. Mom also got me a couple new pairs of jeans in a larger waist size as well. We had started to head toward the front, just getting to the edge of Boy’s and Men’s Wear when Mom turned the cart around and steered back toward the back.
“Here, I noticed too many of your socks had holes in them. I can’t let you go to your aunt’s for a week with holey socks,” she said as she picked up a new pack of socks for me. “While we are here, do you need any shorts?” She said pointing at the packs of boxer shorts hanging on the rack.
“I think I’m fine there. Thanks, anyways,” I said and we wheeled our way back to the front.
Mom paid for our stuff and we loaded our purchases in the backseat of the car. We pulled across the parking lot to the Waffle House, which shared the corner along with the gas station.
The chilly air of the Waffle House was in sharp contrast to the heat outside, and it felt good walking through the door. We took our seats at the bar, something I had always liked to do ever since I was little, so much so that it had just become habitual when we ate at a Waffle House. The waitress set down two waters and got our drink order as we grabbed the menus from the little holder. For those of you who don’t know, a Waffle House is a small, squat, ugly, little yellow restaurant, which serves breakfast food 24-hours a day. Waffle House’s dot the interstates of the south and are usually referred to as the Awful Waffle or some other less than flattering and wholly undeserved nicknames.
“What ya have, hon?” The waitress asked Mom.
“Chicken and eggs, eggs scrambled, scattered smothered covered,” Mom said.
The waitress then asked me, “And what you gonna have?”
“I want pork chop and eggs, over medium.”
“You want anything in your hash browns?” she asked.
I thought for half a second before saying, “Scattered, smother covered and chunked please.”
“Okay, be right up in just a minute.” The waitress said and then walked about two paces down from us and called the order to the cook who repeated it right back as he started to cook our food. The bar offers the best view of the grill and watching a cook at the waffle house is entertainment enough on its own. The eggs were cooking, the pork chops were under their little silver dome and Mom’s chicken breast was on the grill sizzling away. For those unfortunate souls who haven’t had the pleasure of Waffle House food, you should understand that Waffle House hash browns are a science unto themselves. Every now and then, you can tell someone from up north or out west is in town as they have this perplexed look when it comes time to order, especially if they heard some one regular order first.
The language of Waffle House hash browns is not that terribly complicated once you get the hang of it. Scattered denotes that the potatoes will be cooked loose rather than in a ring, Smothered, meaning that they will be served with grilled onions. Covered means covered in cheese. Ask for Diced, and they add diced tomatoes and Chucked means they will add diced ham. Topped will get you Bert’s chili and Peppered means you will get jalapeńo peppers. Each variation is, of course optional, and it seems everyone has an opinion of exactly what combination is the best, but from my years of observation I would say “Scatter, Smothered, and Covered” was the most common by far.
Mom and I talked a bit about me taking the job. I think she was worried that I might take the job as Junior Counselor, hate it, and then be stuck away from home for five whole weeks. I assured her that even if I did hate it that I would grin and bear. I told her that if I could endure an entire year of school then I could endure five weeks as a camp counselor.
I had just finished wetting my diaper good and proper when the waitress brought our food to us. Our conversation ended at that point as we both were so wrapped up in eating that we said very little until we’d both nearly cleared our plates. After I had finished almost all my food, I didn’t eat my grits (I know being a Southern-Boy, I’m supposed to like them and all, but yuck!), I just sat there and squished my diaper into the stool enjoying the sensation.
Mom was just about finished with her meal when she leaned over and said, “Todd, go take care of your self or quit fidgeting one.”
“Sorry” I quietly said. I didn’t realize she had noticed what I had been doing. I might have actually gone to the bathroom to change but I hadn’t brought my diaper bag in with me.
We headed home and mom had me leave the packages from the pharmacy in the car. After putting my other new clothes away, I went straight to my computer and pulled up Camp Ontonko’s web page. The web page explained their mission to help kids with continence issues and went into detail about their activities and programs. I saw that there were two sessions each, both two weeks long, as opposed to a single four-week program, like I had assumed. I printed the application and filled it out as best I could on my own.
I got to the bottom section of the second page, which said, “Camp Ontonko is dedicated to providing an environment where campers build confidence and self esteem while learning to overcome the unique challenges presented to those with incontinence issues.” It went on to say, “While incontinence is not a requirement for employment, we believe that campers will have a stronger response and learning opportunity when working with staff and counselors facing similar issues.” And then in bold letters it said, “Please check as many of the following boxes as apply; Enuresis, Encopresis, Incontinence bladder, Incontinence bowl, wear protection night only, wear protection full time.
I checked incontinence and wear full time. In the space for notes I wrote, “Mainly bed wetter, but have occasional day accidents so I use protection full time.” I took the application out to Mom and asked her to look it over.
She read over it, nodding her approval until she turned it over to the second page. “Accidents? What’s accidental about deliberately peeing your pants? That’s not entirely honest, is it, Todd? ” Mom asked.
“No ma’am, not exactly.” I admitted. I knew it wasn’t perfectly truthful, but I hadn’t really thought it as too dishonest.
“Well since Mr. Tucker admired you for your honesty and your forthright nature.” she gave me a look, “Don’t you think it would be all the more unfair to lie to him?”
“I guess I didn’t want to write down I just like wearing diapers during the day, too.”
“Well, you don’t have to put it so flippant, Todd. There are ways of saying that you just like them that doesn’t sound so glib! Couldn’t you have said that you have nighttime problems but wore them during the day for additional security? On the other hand, you could have just simply put bed wetter, wear full time. That way you are honest, no one will really question that, and if they do, at least they will know where you stand. Besides, Mr. Tucker might not see your enthusiasm for diapers as a bad thing; he might be hoping your enthusiasm will wear off on the other campers and make their situation a little more bearable for them. It might be important for those children to know an older kid who not only wears diapers but also sees something positive in wearing them.” Mom paused but only briefly, “Some of those kids probably see diapers as a curse and you might help them to see otherwise, or at least show them it’s no big deal!”
Boy, did I feel about an inch tall. I took the application back from her, went back to my room and printed another copy, which I then redid, putting in Mom’s suggested changes. It wasn’t that I was trying to lie the first time; I think I was just afraid he might not want me if he thought I was a diaper boy, if he even knew what one was.
I gave Mom the application with the revised changes and she said she would drop the application off on her way to work tomorrow. It took me forever to fall asleep that night, between the excitement at being a camp counselor, school ending for the summer and Kevin and I having patched our friendship up, I was just a bundle of nerves.