This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
Before you begin this third volume in this series,

I would highly recommend that you read the first and second volumes

as each picks up were the previous left off.

 

Simon’s Journal - Volume I 
Thirteen Days – The First Crusade

 

Simon’s Journal - Volume II

Thirteen Nights – After the Crusade

 

ADMONITION:

The following narrative is nearly a complete work of fiction. Some events and characters were pulled from real life, but have been changed, enhanced and twisted to comply with my will. Any other similarity to actual individuals living or dead is completely unintentional, but it would be incredible!


WARNING:

The following story contains diaper use, violence, adult language and strong sexual content. If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and exploring their awakening sexuality doesn’t tickle your pickle, or if pickle tickling is illegal in your area, then I suggest you select something else to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simon's Journal

Volume III

 

Thirteen Sails
Adventures Abound

 

Written by Danny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter – 36

Let’s go home

 

With help from Fier and Sister Sarafina, we managed to find our way back to the Gulf of Mexico although it took us a while. I didn’t find out until after I was home again, that all over the news people all up and down the Mississippi River had been reporting sightings of an enormous ghost ship that could only be seen by the light of the moon flying a black pirate’s flag. During the day, we would hide the ship so that no one could see us.

How do you hide a ship as big as the Banachelli? Well, all I am going to tell you is that it isn’t an easy thing to do, but Fier managed to find a most ingenious method. It’s so incredibly simple, that even someone as addlebrained as myself could have come up with it, but even still it is nearly fool proof in its design.

By only moving the ship at night and hiding by day, we were able to sail that ship right up the Mississippi to the Ohio River and then up the Great Miami. We stopped only because the great ship couldn’t go any farther, but that didn’t matter, because we were close enough that we could walk the remainder of the way.

During our voyage home, I found out that nearly half of the boy’s aboard the Banachelli didn’t have homes and the Banachelli was all the home they ever knew or could remember having. Finally, on my last night aboard the Banachelli, while sitting in the office, which had since been stripped of all its finer things, Sister Sarafina, Fier, Jamie, Lowell and I decided that we would help those that wanted to go home and then return to the Banachelli to care for those that didn’t have anywhere else to go.

The following morning, 57 boys in total, plus a nun, a midget and a crippled girl walked off the Banachelli. In my arms was Vera, while her kittens were carried by my closest friends.

I had only made one demand of all of us boys that were leaving the ship that day. I’m not entirely sure why, but I wanted us all looking our best. Each of us cleaned up and got diapered, before we dressed in our gray uniforms. What I hadn’t expected was that every other boy aboard the Banachelli did the same thing, so that they looked their best while seeing the rest of us off. Even though I knew that I would be seeing the lot of them again, it was still an emotional goodbye.

We walked to a local public soccer park, where Fier made a phone call and within minutes dozen’s of police, FBI agents and god knows who else, swarmed onto the park. During the insanity that followed, thirteen of us boys slipped away with Fier, Cho and Sister Sarafina.

We didn’t get away cleanly, but we did get away. You see, someone I thought was dead had followed us out of the park. With Vera in my arms barely purring and a kitten in the arms of several of the other boys, we made our way across town to a small dead-end street, which I had only ever been too once before.

The house looked exactly as it had the last time I’d been to it, which had been the day I had hid inside from a man in an old rusted out van. Slowly, I alone stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door. When the door opened, a very old, much wrinkled man stood there, looking out at us with wonder in his eyes.

“Mr. Peterson,” I said, “I brought Vera home.”

When the man spoke, “Vera?” the cat perked up its ears and her mangy, bottlebrush tail flipped once.

“She saved my life!” I said, fighting against the lump in my throat.

The old man reached out with his thin, leathery hands and took Vera from me. Vera purred loudly for a moment, rubbed her head against the man’s hand and then she closed her eyes and died.

None of us said a word as the man stepped out of his house and walked around the side. We all followed in silent, single file to his back yard, where we buried the bravest, and most amazing cat I’d ever known.

 

Once Vera was buried, the man that had followed us from the park made himself known with just the clearing of his throat. It was a good thing he hadn’t meant us any harm, because when the lot of us heard him, every last one of us rounded on him with the idea of defending ourselves. However, we didn’t have to fight.

“No wait! Everyone stop!” Lowell said.

I stepped out from the middle of everyone and up to a heavily scared man, who was missing an eye.

“Tom? Tom Segal?” I mouthed in utter disbelief.

Tom held out his arms as if to say, “Ta-Da!”

“But how?” Fier gasped in amazement, but Tom didn’t get to say anything. He was blindsided by Lowell and Jamie, who had launched themselves at Tom.

“TOM’S ALIVE!” they both shouted.

“Boys please! Yes I am alive, but I won’t be for much longer if you don’t stop squeezing me so tight!” Tom said with an agonizing chuckle.

I turned around and looked at my dear friends, without who I surely wouldn’t have survived that ordeal. Then I turned to Tom and asked, “Can you make sure they all get home safe?”

Tom smiled as he leaned against the three. “I was sure hoping you would say that!” When he smiled, it made his scared face look much scarier than it did without the smile.

“Thomas you old dog!” Fier said and for the first time ever, I saw a side of Fier I’d never seen. Fier walked up to Tom Segal and the too of them shook hands like two old war buddies.

In a choked voice, Fier said to him, “You saved my life!”

“I was just returning the favor.” Tom said with a wink that I am sure only Fier understood.

Tom and Fier then began talking with Mr. Peterson, the sister and Cho. That made it possible for Jamie, Lowell and I to slip away unnoticed. At least we thought we were unnoticed, but Sister Sarafina had seen and snuck away too. She had guessed what we were up to and wanted to make sure we got safely to where we were going.

 

On the surface, I was feeling scared, apprehensive and even like I wanted to run away and not do, what I had to do next. However, deep inside it was something that I wanted and that want was stronger then all my negative emotions.

One last turn and we'd be on my street. I couldn't see my house yet and I took a deep breath, as I walked three steps forward and my street came into view. Seeing the street sign washed all apprehension from my body and I was about to take off running for home, when Sister Sarafina spoke from directly behind us.

“Boys?” she said softly.

The three of us jumped ten feet in the air and Jamie fell flat on his diapered butt.

“Sister Sarafina!” Jamie croaked, “You scared the life out of us!”

She smiled and said, “Well, just tink of it as payback for all da times da tree of you nearly scared me white!”

Though it pained me greatly to do so, I offered Jamie my hand to help him up again.

The Sister continued, “Why don’t the tree of you stay home dis time. I tink we can take care of everybody else wit outcha help now.”

She reached out and stroked my scared face with the back of her fingers, “You tree been trough so much. Go be happy boy and,” she wagged her finger at the three of us, “for the love of God, behave yourselves!”

“No way!” Lowell objected.

Of course Lowell meant, no way would we be staying home, but it sounded like he was saying no way to being good. However, before the Sister could make an objection of her own, Lowell added, “You know the deal!”

She didn’t try to persuade us anymore. With a soft but pronounced sigh she stepped up to us, hugged us in turn and then kissing my face she said, “I love you boys!”

With that, the three of us took off running up the hill toward my house. About half way there, I turned around, waved and shouted, “See you in a few weeks!”

Jamie, Lowell and I were two houses away, when I saw a man walking down the driveway wheeling the trashcan down to the curb. I slowed first, which got Jamie and Lowell to slow down behind me. We stood there watching the man that we all knew, but at the same time didn’t know. He looked familiar, but different too. We stood motionless, holding our breath and watching him for several seconds.

Maybe he knew he was being watched, maybe he was having that little prickly feeling on the back of his neck that made the hairs stand on end. Whatever it was, he looked directly at the three of us and all at once, the tears came rushing in.

At first no one moved and it was, as though we were all thinking that maybe it wasn't real. Maybe we were just dreaming... dreaming the same dream we'd dreamt about so many times. I was conscious of a pain in my chest, as though a consuming force was growing so big that it threatened to explode out of my chest. My limbs were trembling and the bones in my legs seemed to have turned to rubber. I looked to Lowell and he was holding Jamie’s hand so tightly that their fingers were turning white.

I looked back up to the man who still hadn’t moved and though broken and barely audible, I called out a single word, "Dad?"

Suddenly my dad exploded into a sprint toward us screaming, and as he reached the place we were standing, he fell to his knees before us. His face was drenched in tears and with a single hand he reached out and touched my chin.

"Simon? Jamie? Lowell?" he said so softly.

We threw ourselves at him and held onto him, as though the only thing that could save us from our all-consuming emotions was his welcoming arms. He stood up and lifted all three of us into the air, repeating our names over and over.

An all too familiar woman’s voice was then heard the air, "THEIR HOME!"

I lifted my tear-filled eyes away from my fathers’ neck and saw my mom running toward us. Dad lowered me to the ground and I took off running for her, with Jamie and Lowell right behind me.

"MOM!" I cried, as she embraced us.

She cried out, "You're here! You're here! You’re all finally here!" and then she pushed us away, but still held onto us. She looked into our flooded eyes, as though she needed to be sure we were real, then pulled us close again and hugged us even tighter.

The five of us stood in our neighbor’s lawn, sobbing and holding each other. Neighbors were coming out of their homes by the dozens, to see what the commotion outside was. It only took a split second for everyone to realize what was happening... We were home again... and alive.

 

The days and weeks that followed were crazy at best. Reporters wanting to talk with us, doctors poking us and cops asking tons of questions. The three of us spent that first night in the hospital, but we were together. They tried to split us up, but the nurses and doctors found out real fast, that if they even thought about separating the three of us into different rooms, they would have had a small war on their hands.

The second day Lowell’s parents came and took him. That was one of the most difficult moments for me. Then Jamie’s mom came and it became impossible for me to keep my emotions in check. At first, Jamie refused to leave me, but after I promised that I would call him the second I got home, he finally surrendered and left with his mom.

I, on the other hand, had to spend another day in the hospital due to the open wounds on my back, which were showing signs of infection. They wanted me to stay longer, but it would have taken every soldier from ever branch of the military to keep me there, so they let me go home, but with tons of antibiotics, swabs, bandages, etc.

At first, I didn’t talk about what happened. Because of the scar on my face and the whip marks on my back, everyone knew something really bad had happened, but I wasn’t talking and neither were any of the other kids that had left the ship. We had made an agreement and no one broke down and told.

I got a visitor the second day after being home. It was Tom and he came with a couple FBI agents in tow. I made it clear, that I wouldn’t say anything as long as the stiffs in the dark suites were around. Therefore, they went out on the porch and left Tom and I alone to talk.

Tom had already talked with Fier, but there was only so much information he was able to get out of his pint-sized friend. It was obvious that Fier was more loyal to me then to Tom. Though I told Tom some stuff, there were other things that I just couldn’t share and amazingly, he accepted that... to a point.

Tom knew about the drug that Madam-M had been giving us and that for years they had been trying to find out where the supply had been coming from. He said, for the past couple of weeks, since about the time we had taken over the Banachelli, the supplies coming into the United States had completely stopped. The problem was, nearly 500 gallons of the stuff was unaccounted for, as well as nearly 50 million dollars in US cash.

Now you might remember, that before I turned traitor to Miss-M, I had been taken into her every confidence. Well, you see I might have, maybe secretively, taken a map from her office that shows where that stuff is hidden. Though Tom didn’t seem too sure, I believe that he has guessed that I know where either the stuff is hidden; or at the very least could give him the clues he needs to find it.

So for the most part, I’ve already wrote about how life was once returning home. Mostly I was kept inside away from other people. That was more my choice then my parents.

About the only time I would venture outside our home would be, to go to the doctor, to see Lowell or Jamie, or to go over to my best friend BJ’s house. Of course, I never went anywhere alone and even if I did try to, I always had Tom and his fellow G-men spying me. Then came the day, when BJ’s parents came over to invite our family to join them on vacation at a very private beach house.

Boy was I sooooo ready for some serious time away. I had been spending so much time talking with my shrink that I was in need of some down time. The few days I spend with BJ and his family at the beach did more for my mental state, then any amount of therapy could do.

Before going to the beach, I was having second thoughts about rejoining the Banachelli. I was scared that going back to the Banachelli would only be a return to all the stuff I hated about that ship, but now I am sooo ready to go back! I am sooo ready for a new adventure and I am glad Jamie and Lowell are going with me too.

 

Chapter 37

 

** I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and as always, your thoughts matter to me, so if you feel moved to do so, I would love to hear from you. [email protected] **