Chapter 11
Disney
Over the next several days, I noticed that all of my cousins were starting to get excited over our upcoming trip but seeing how I had never really been on a vacation before I was finding it hard to figure out what they were getting excited about I guess I would find out when I get there.
“All of you need to be in bed in thirty minutes.” My aunt announced shortly before Eight thirty the night before we were to leave on our trip.
“But mom it’s too early!” David whined on hearing this.
“Fine, if you feel that Nine is too early to be in bed you can go to bed now.” My aunt said before turning to Megan.
“Would you mind getting him ready. I still need to make sure everything has been packed.”
“Sure mom. I’ll get him ready.”
“But..” David started as his sister pulled him to his feet and started marching him toward the stairs.
“One of these days David you’ll learn when to keep your mouth shut.” Megan laughed as she herded her brother upstairs. We could all hear David complaining loudly the entire time Megan was giving him his bath.
A little before the time my aunt gave us to be in bed I headed up to my room to get ready for bed myself. As I got my shower I wondered what was going to happen to the freedom of getting my own baths and such if what I was having my grandfather check into turned out to be true. During one of our talks, Megan had told me that I was the only boy in the family that had been allowed to bathe without supervision before the age of 13. I was dreading the possibility of having to be checked up on while bathing. But, the thing I really wasn’t looking forward to was that someone else might take up handling all my diaper changes again. While I didn’t mind someone else handling it when we were in a hurry. I sure didn’t want to have it happen full-time again. After drying off and brushing my teeth, I walked into my room to find one of my overnight disposables laying out on my bed along with one of my sleep shirts. With a shrug, I started pulling out the bottles of lotion and powder out from their storage area under my night stand. Once I had my diaper area lotioned and powdered, I pulled the gloves I had on, and spread out my night diaper. In moments I had it pulled up snuggly between my legs and firmly fastened. Just as I was pulling on my nightshirt, my aunt came into the room with my nightly medication.
“Well, I see you’re getting better at this.” I was told with a chuckle as my aunt inspected my diaper. For my part I just turned red thinking back at how bad of a job I had done the first couple of times.
“I was just kidding Ian.” My aunt laughed as she picked me up and dropped me on my bed. With a small giggle, I worked my way under the covers and pulled my wolves onto either side of me.
“Make sure you get right to sleep. We’re going to be having to leave early in the morning to make our flight.” I nodded at this and curled up further under my blankets. As all the times before, the meds I was on knocked me cold inside of a couple of minutes. The next thing I knew Brad was calling my name while gently shaking my shoulder. He had learned his lesson about waking me up though. He no longer stood over me but off to the side when he shook my shoulder.
“Mom wants you to jump in the shower a do a quick rinse before getting dressed.” Brad told me once he was sure I was awake enough to understand and left the room.
“Oh and just leave your diaper on your bed once you’ve rolled it up, and taped it closed.” He added after sticking his head back through the door
“OK, is everyone packed and ready to go?” My uncle asked as we all gathered by the front door. We all murmured that we did.
“Make sure of it. Since we’re taking a shuttle to the airport there won’t be any turning around once we leave.” My aunt added. After a short scramble, we surprisingly found that nothing was missing. About this time the van taking us to the airport showed up. I could tell that the shuttle service had been informed of mine and David’s needs when the side door was opened and two car seats were waiting for us.
Once we got to the airport, David, I and, surprisingly, Brad were asked if we needed to be changed. I assumed that they had Brad in protection just incase he fell asleep on the flight out.
“I’m fine.” Brad stated slightly embarrassed.
“I’m a little damp, but should be OK.” I said since I had decided to wear one of my thicker night diapers. David just grinned a bit and shook his head that he didn’t need to be changed. I guess my aunt didn’t believe him since he was soon being escorted towards a nearby restroom by Meagan.
Just as Megan and David returned our flight was called. I was more than a bit taken back when my aunt pointed to my seat just as we entered the airplane. Since I came in flying coach I was expecting to get the same thing again. I guess my aunt and uncle were used to something better since we were all in First Class. I found the over sized seat more than a little hard to get used to. Given my size, David and I would have been able to fit in the same seat comfortably. About fifteen minutes after boarding, I heard and felt the plane revving up for take off. I tensed up a bit on this due to a memory I had of the first time I ever flew.
“You should have mentioned you didn’t like flying Ian. We could have gotten you something.” My aunt mentioned from across the aisle when she saw me tense up.
“It’s nothing. I just had a brief flashback from the first time I flew.” I told her with a small grin. Once we were airborne I relaxed enough to get the book I had been told to bring for the flight. I became so engrossed in what I was reading I didn’t even notice when they brought a small snack by. David, of course, was only to happy to help me out by eating it himself when he saw that I hadn’t seen it.
“How are you boys doing?” My uncle asked as we got off the plane in Orlando
“I could use a change.” I replied while hefting my bag. Brad turned a bit red but nodded as well. We didn’t even bother asking David since we already assumed that he was going to need one.
“Do you guys think you can wait till we get to the hotel, or does it need to be taken care of now?”
“I think I can wait.” I said after reaching into my pants pocket with my free hand and checking how the front of my diaper felt.
“Same here.” Brad said after doing the same thing. David just smiled a bit before letting out a very audible and wet sounding fart. My uncle just shook his head at this and waved over to Megan.
“Meg could you take the little stinker over and get him cleaned up while we go down and grab the luggage?”
“Sure dad. You want to meet in the usual place?”
“That should be fine. I doubt they’ve changed the lay out since last time”
“C’mon David let’s go get you cleaned up before you gas out the entire terminal.” Megan said with a laugh as she took David’s hand and led him off towards one of the family restrooms that were nearby.
“Hey dad, when are we going to have lunch? I’m getting hungry.” Isaac said as we finished getting our bags and stood around waiting for Megan and David to join us.
“We’ll get a light snack at the park. We’re having dinner at San Angels tonight so we don’t want you to get to full.” Brad and Isaac perked up at this but I was totally lost by the reference.
“Don’t worry Ian. You’ll like it.” Brad said on seeing the lost look on my face.
“I’ll take your word for it. What kind of food is it anyway?” I asked
“ Mexican. It’s over in the Mexico section of Epcot. You’ll like it I promise.” I just nodded again since I did like Mexican. About this time David and Megan rejoined us. I noticed that David was now sporting a pair of shorts instead of the pants he had on a short while before. Brad and I shared a knowing look, but didn’t say anything as our parents moved us towards a nearby bus.
“ I thought we’d be renting a car or something?” I asked Megan as we pulled away from the curb and started moving away from the airport.
“Nah, the rents have always used the bus service offered by the parks. They figure it’s cheaper this way. Not to mention they don’t have to worry about fighting traffic, trying to find parking places or paying for parking at the parks once we get there.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” I replied thinking back to all the bitching my father had done about what he was paying for car rental and stuff over the years on trips they had taken like this. I started wondering what might have happened with my life had they taken the same approach to transportation as my aunt and uncle. I soon realized that I didn’t really care any more about that. Them always getting a car of their own turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
“It’s good to see you smiling. Want to let me in on the joke?” Megan asked a few minutes later when she saw me smiling and chuckling to myself.
“It’s not so much a joke as a dark thought. I was just thinking to how ironic it is that my parents died in a car crash because they thought taking a bus was too plebian for them. And that they would probably still be alive had they decided to just use the bus service offered by the hotel.”
“I guess you still miss them at times, huh?” Megan said totally misreading the look on my face.
“Like hell. I’m glad they’re dead. I just sorry it wasn’t slow and painful. I guess that just proves you can’t get everything you hope for.” Seeing how shaken Megan looked, I felt I needed to explain a bit more so she could understand what I just told her.
“I’m sorry if I upset you Meg, but you need to see this from my point of view. Up till I can to live with you guys My life was nothing short of a living hell. My parents dying was they best thing that’s ever happened to me. In fact it probably saved my life. I wouldn’t be to surprised if my parents just had me disappear once that infection I had did the job it did on my bladder I know that Uncle Brian had mentioned that if it had gone any further it could have spread to my kidneys and probably killed me. Now enough of this crap. We’re supposed to be here having fun. So tell me what I can expect.” Megan did just that for the rest of the trip to the hotel.
I soon found out that we had a three bedroom suite. My aunt and uncle had one room, Megan another and us boys in the third. I was kind of surprised to see that diapers in mine, David’s, and Brad’s sizes already stored in one of the dressers. I was even more surprised when I noticed something that looked GoodNites laid out beside them.
“Figures.” Isaac said with a little bit of disgust as he eyed the pants. Taking one, Isaac headed for the bathroom after grabbing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.
“Isaac had a couple of accidents on a trip several years ago. Since then mom and dad have insisted that he wear them on trips just incase. I‘m just glad that they got rid of the crappy Trim-fit style and made them a bit thicker. Dad said they were like this when they first came out.” Brad explained as he took a pair of the pants for himself.
“Ian, mom wants to see you in their room.” David said coming into the room Knowing what this was about, I nodded and headed for my aunt’s room.
“OK, Kiddo, up on the bed and spread ‘em.” I was told with a laugh when I entered the room.
“So how are you doing so far?” I was asked once I had pulled my pants off and assumed my position on the changing mat my aunt had spread out on the on the bed.
“I’m doing fine.”, I said honestly, “But you might want to sit down and have a talk with Megan.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, she saw me chuckling to myself after we had gotten on the bus at the airport and I had asked why we hadn’t rented a car. I told her what I was smiling and chuckling about and I think it might have shocked her a bit.” I went on to tell my aunt what I had said to Megan.
“I’ll have a talk with her in a minute. Just do me a favor OK?”
“I’ll try.”
“In the future, don’t be quite so blunt and honest went talking about your parents.” I started to protest slightly at this.
“I know your doctor said you should be as honest about this as possible, and with your uncle and I that’s fine, but not everyone will react the same way So just keep your answers toned down OK?” I was asked gently as my aunt finished taping my diaper closed. Once this was done, my aunt pulled me into a light hug. I guess she thought I needed to be comforted or something thing. Not that I was going to complain. With all the hugs and such us kids got., I soon got used to them. What was even better is I was no longer flinching as bad as I used to if at all. I’ll never understand why my real father didn’t just turn me over to someone else in the family if he didn’t want me. Of course if this had been the case I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet my Maternal grandfather. He’s still the only decent person I had met before coming to live with my aunt and uncle.
Thirty minutes after leaving the hotel, I found myself standing at the front gate of the Magic Kingdom. Even now, Twenty-five years later, I still have trouble putting into words exactly how I felt at the time. I do know that Brad and Isaac were both really embarrassed when they had their fanny packs checked and the guard saw the extra pants that were inside of them. It didn’t bother me so much about my backpack getting checked. But then, I was also used to this kind of thing by now. Not to mention that even with the slight bagginess of the shorts that I had on it was still kind of obvious that I had on something other than normal underpants on under them.
“What to you kids want to hit first?” we were asked as we started walking down main street once we had gotten inside the park.
“Space Mountain.” Brad, Isaac, and Megan said almost simultaneously. With the way their parents laughed at this I could tell this had to be some kind of ritual with them. The only one that didn’t look all that pleased with this answer was David.
“You don’t have to go on it if you don’t want to.” I heard my aunt tell him softly. The rest of my cousins had pulled ahead of us talking wildly.
“Do you want to give it a try Ian?” A voice said next to me. I jumped a bit at this since I hadn’t realized that my uncle was walking next to me
“I guess so.” I told him in a kind of awed tone. I was still trying to take in everything I was seeing.
“I know this must be kind of mind numbing for you. But, I think you’ll really enjoy it after a while.” I heard as my uncle put an arm over my shoulder and sped me up so we could stay with our group.
I was kind of surprised at the length of the line when we got to building the ride was in.
“If you think this is a long one wait till you see what some of the popular rides are like.” Isaac laughed when he saw the expression on my face.
“Hey kids, instead of waiting in line why don’t you each get a fast pass and we’ll go get a small bite to eat while we wait.” My uncle suggested. This must have sat well with my cousins because I soon found myself being led over to a row of ATM-like terminals and was told to put my entry card into one of the slots.
“That will let you go to the head of the line when we come back at the time on the ticket so don’t lose it or you’ll have to wait in the longer line.” Megan explained as I looked at the ticket I was now holding in confusion I nodded at this then turned to catch up with everyone else.
“So what do you think of everything so far?” I was asked a few hours later
“I’m not really sure. I’m still trying to get everything sorted out. I’d heard my other family talk about trips like this in the past but thought they were just trying to mess with my mind.”
“You mean my brother never once took you on any vacations?” My uncle interrupted with a slight edge in his voice.
“The closest I ever got to a vacation was when they sent me to live with my grandfather in Japan for a couple of years a few months after I went to live with them, while your brother did some work in South America and took his family with him. And even then I only was taken to the beach every once in a while. The rest of the time I was training.
“What do you mean training?” My aunt asked while trying to de-stress her husband from what I had just said.
“Well, my grandfather is a highly regarded member of the martial arts community over there and he was training me so I could pass on what he knows. I guess he knew my time with him was short so I given a crash course of what he knew. I got pretty good at it to.”
“If you got so good at it why did you let them do all that stuff to you?” Brad asked.
“Let’s just say the first time I did use what I was taught had some grave consequences for me. How about we change the subject? This one is starting to bum me out.” Everyone seemed to agree with this since the subject was changed right after I said this. By the look in my uncle’s eyes I could tell this was going to come back up later that night.
“How’s everyone’s pants doing?” We were asked shortly after my conversation about how I was enjoying myself.
“I could do with a change.” I said. I was kind of pleased with this fact since for once I was able to actually feel that I needed to go even though the feeling hit just moments before my bladder released. I took this as a sign that my bladder was getting better and with a little hope I was on my way to regaining full control of it again.
“What about the rest of you?” my cousins were asked.
Brad and David both indicated that they were doing OK. David, of course, got checked anyway I was a bit surprised when Isaac turned a bit red after putting his hand in one of his pockets. I took this as his way of discretely checking himself.
“OK, let’s go get it taken care of then.” We were told as we were led towards a nearby restroom.
“Isaac you can go into one of the stalls to change while I take care of Ian here.” my aunt said as she handed my cousin a small pack of wipes. Isaac went into a stall muttering to himself while I was led over to a row of changing tables I could tell that these were designed for larger kids in mind, as well as normal kids, since they looked like they were bolted to the walls and looked more like they were counters than anything else.
“I hope your dad and I didn’t upset you to much a little bit ago.” I was told as my shorts were pulled down exposing my very wet diapers. From they looks of them, I could tell I must have used them a few more times than I actually could tell.
“You didn’t all that much. How I’ve been treated before is something I need to get used to.” I said as the tapes were noisily pulled away from the front of my diaper. I was half way through my diaper change when Isaac came out of the stall he was in carrying the wadded up pants he had just changed out of. Though I didn’t say anything, I could tell that they had been wet more than once. This led me to think that Isaac was just making a show of not liking to wear them. This was all but confirmed when Isaac grinned a bit when he was me watching him. We both lucked out that no one else came in while we were changing I knew this wasn’t going to last though.
“OK people, let’s pack it in and get started back to the Monorail. We need to be over at Epcot in one hour and I’d like to get our names in early” We were told several hours later. David of course started to complain a bit, but Megan got that shut down right a way.
We happened to luck out by getting up to the Monorail station and on board just before it pulled out. We Hit the front gate at Epcot about thirty minutes later. Once we were in the park, Megan ended up having to keep a hold of me so I didn’t get lost as I kept stopping to take a look around.
“We need to keep up Ian. I know you’re a bit overwhelmed by everything but you’ll have plenty of time to look around when we come back. Besides, I’m getting hungry.” Megan said with a chuckle.
“Whoa.” I said as we started walking up the steps to the building San Angels was in. This got practically everyone in our group laughing. Once we were in the building and my uncle had our name in for our reservation he let us start wandering around as long as we stayed in the general area of the restaurant. Since we were now inside and the lights were on the low side I decided to take off my sunglasses and see if I could manage without them.
“Are you sure you want to do that Ian?” My uncle asked when he saw what I was doing .
“Yeah. With how the lights are in here and in the restaurant I should be OK.” I said as I blinked a few times to get my eyes used to light. I could see my uncle keeping an eye on me for a while but after seeing that I wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort walked over to my aunt and started looking around Twenty minutes later, I saw Megan waving at me and guessed that our table must be ready.
“OK kids just so you know we’re on one of their dining plans so your meal will include a drink, appetizer, main course, and a dessert.” We were told once we had been seated. I was slightly disappointed to see that I had been given a kids’ menu and more to the fact that the menu had nothing on it that I found edible.
“Find something already, Ian?” my aunt asked when she saw me set the menu down after just about two minutes of looking at it.
“Nah, I couldn’t find anything I liked on it. Would it be Ok if I looked at one of your guys’ menu when you’re done with it?”
“Why don’t you move over a bit Ian and you can share mine with me.” Brad announced on hearing my complaint. Just as I moved my chair over a bit the waiter came back to take our drink and appetizer order.
“Aunt Mary, may I have one of the Margaritas please?” I asked when the waiter got to me.
“Sure. I don’t see a problem with that.”
“I’d like one of the non-alcoholic Lime Margaritas please.” I said turning back to the waiter. Brad and I had decided to share an order of the Nachos for our appetizer.
By the time our drinks and appetizers had shown up we had all decided what we had wanted for dinner. It took a few minutes for the waiter to get to me but I wasn’t in a hurry.
“And what would the young gentleman like?” My uncle was asked in reference to me.
“He’s sitting right there. Why don’t you ask him yourself.” My uncle replied looking a bit put out that our waiter was treating David and I like little kids.
“I’m sorry, but that doesn’t come in a child size. Perhaps if you were to look on the child menu you would find something more to your liking.” I was told in a slightly condescending tone. Seeing that my uncle was about to loose his temper at this, I put my hand up to let him know I would try to handle this first.
(“Can you understand what I’m saying?”) I asked after motioning for him to lean forward and switching to Spanish.
(“Yes.”)
(“Good, because I’m only going to say this once. If you don’t lose that condescending tone you were just using on my brother, father, and I, I’m going to have the manager come out here and we’ll discuss your attitude with them. Now please write down what I’ve just ordered. OK?”) I told him softly.
(“Understood, sir.”) Came the stiff reply as the waiter stood back up and wrote down what I had ordered. He quickly finished taking my Uncle’s order and quickly departed.
“Jeez Ian. What did you say to that guy?” Brad said softly as the waiter walked away.
“Nothing that Uncle Brian wouldn’t have told him.” I replied though I could see Isaac smirking on the other side of the table.
“OK Isaac spill it.” My aunt said on seeing the look on his face. I just shrugged when he looked at me.
“Ian, requested the guy to lose the condescending attitude he was using or he was going to call the manager over and he would have the waiter explain his attitude to him.”
“I can understand that, but Ian why did you tell him this in Spanish?”
“To let him know that if I did have to call the manager over I would be able to understand them if he started using Spanish. Don’t worry I was polite to him the entire time.”
“Alright.” we were told and the conversation switched to other areas. What none of us knew at the time, the general manager was at the table behind us and heard everything. He had then call the on duty manager and reported what he had heard. The rest of the meal went by without incident. By the time I had finished my dessert I was to the point of bursting.
“With the managements compliments.” My uncle was told when a different waiter handed my uncle the bill.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” my uncle asked the waiter
“Let me get the manager and let her explain it.” A few minutes later a lady walked up introducing herself as the manager on duty.
“I’m sorry but I don’t understand why we are getting the meal at no cost.”
“Our General manager had overheard the problem you were having with your waiter earlier and instructed me to let you know that this meal would be complimentary and that your waiter’s attitude with be addressed.”
“I see. Then please give your general manager our thanks for their generosity and our apology concerning any difficulty our waiter’s attitude may have caused” With a nod, the manager walked off and we left a few minutes later.