By Danny
February 26, 2004 Thursday
Maybe it was because I was at home and in my own room that I slept as long as I did. I’d gone to sleep yesterday evening and slept right through the night, past morning and didn’t actually wake up until nearly noon today. I also don’t think I moved a single inch while I had been sleeping. I was in the exact same position as I had been when I laid down last night and my covers were still neat and in place.
It took several minutes for me to wake up. I just lay there looking at my ceiling for quite a while. I was enjoying the quiet and peacefulness and the fact that I wasn’t hurting in the least bit. Well, not until I tried to move. Having lain so still for so long, my entire body had stiffened up. I tried to sit up but that was useless and nearly took my breath away at the sudden and stabbing pain. Rolling onto my side was out of the question as was moving my legs over to the side of the bed and letting them drop off. Following several different failed attempts to get out on my own I conceded that I was stuck and needed help. “Mom? Dad?” I called and waited.
After a minute with no reply I called louder, “MOM? DAD?” Still nothing. I waited thinking maybe they were just outside or something before I tried again but this time with as much effort as I dared without overly hurting myself, “M-O-M! D-A-D!”
My ears strained to hear any sign of them but heard nothing. Fear and panic started to set in. I’m not sure why, but it did. With one more effort, I tried to sit up on my own again but the pain was too much.
“M-O-O-O-O-M-M-M-M-M!” I bawled and then wrapped my arms over my chest, cringing and gasping against the throbbing.
Dad came running into my room, “What is it?” He asked excitedly and a little out of breath.
“Where were you? I have been calling!” I whimpered as I cradled my ribs.
“I’m sorry son. I had fallen asleep at my computer.” He said bending over me. “You OK?” he asked, putting the back of his hand on my forehead.
“I-I can’t get up!” I continued to whimper.
“You need to go to the bathroom?” Dad asked.
That was a good question. I stopped and concentrated on my body but there was no sensation or urgency what so ever. “No, I just want to get up.” I answered.
“Ok let me help you.” He said pulling my covers off of me. I was shocked to see that I no longer was wearing any clothes and that the hospital diaper I’d come home in had been replaced with a white, disposable diaper. It was also obvious that I’d not only wet it but from the smell that wafted into the air as Dad pulled back the covers, I’d also messed myself while I’d been sleeping. The look Dad gave me was hard to read and the second the smell hit my nostrils I started to weep, which was not a good idea as that caused my chest to ache more.
Despite Dad’s best efforts to comfort me, the humiliation of lying there in a wet and soiled diaper while my father looked down at me and fanned the air in front of his face with his hand and moreover, the idea that sometime in the night, He or Mom had come in while I’d been sleeping to undress and change my diaper, was more then I could stand.
Dad had sat himself on the edge of my bed and was leaning forward and hugging my head to his shoulder and was making shushing sounds to try to quiet me. “Ssshhhh it’s all right. It’s all right.” He kept repeating softly as I sobbed into his shirt.
The more I cried the worse was the pain and I guess maybe it got to be too much for me to handle because the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes. Dad was gone but Mom was just finishing putting a fresh, clean diaper on me. There was also a cool wet cloth on my forehead.
She didn’t notice right away that I’d woke-up again. My chest was still hurting but my tears and sobbing had stopped. I could also smell that awful ointment that my doctor had given Dad for my eye and I supposed Mom had reapplied some of it again. One relief was that the poop smell was gone. Without raising my head, I moved my eyes to see that my bedroom window was open a few inches and also I noticed that it was covered in water droplets. I guessed it must have rained during the night or maybe was still raining. It wasn’t particularly dark outside but I could tell that the sky must be filled with clouds and blocking out some of the sun’s light.
As Mom was pulling my covers back up to my chin, she saw that I was awake again. “Oh, hi there! You OK sweetheart?” She asked, as our eyes met. I didn’t answer but nodded my head.
Dad returned with a glass of water and another pill for me to take. It was difficult to do and Dad had to help me sit up just enough to be able to drink from the glass. A little of the water escaped over the side of the glass and dripped down my right cheek onto my pillow. Mom cleaned it up with the rag from my forehead.
Dad gently lowered my head back to my pillow and patted the side of my face with his hand as I exhaled. I’d not noticed until that second that I’d been holding my breath while he was holding me up to somehow lessen my pain. It didn’t really help.
“You OK there slugger?” Dad asked, still leaning over the head of my bed.
I nodded and allowed myself to breathe again.
“You want to try to eat something?” Dad asked.
I nodded again. My stomach felt like it had not had anything in it for days.
“What would you like?” Mom asked, wiping my face with the rag.
Without thinking, I tried to shrug my shoulders. My eyes slammed shut as I recoiled at the onslaught of pain again.
“Simon! Breathe!” I heard Dad say in a strong commanding Dad-like tone. My mouth opened and took in a breath. I held it, slamming my lips back together again.
“No! Breathe!” Dad ordered again as I felt him petting my hair. “Come on, breathe!”
I opened my mouth again and slowly let the air escape. I waited a second and tried to take in another breath slowly, then another and another. The pain began to subside a little and I was able to open my eyes again as Mom wiped the tears that had escaped my sealed eyelids.
“Just lie still. The doctor said your ribs would get worse before they started to get better. You just need to give them time.” Mom spoke softly as another tear rolled down the side of my face.
“It hurts so much!” I cried.
“Shhh” Mom cooed and I took another breath.
“How about some juice and maybe a sandwich. You won’t have to sit up to eat a sandwich.” Dad reasoned.
I didn’t answer but closed my eyes again and turned my head into Mom’s hand. She cradled my face and stroked my arm with her other hand. “I think that’s a good idea.” She said to Dad.
“PB and J sound OK?” I heard Dad ask. I didn’t answer again as more tears fell.
I heard Dad leave the room as Mom continued to coddle me and try to soothe me until the pain medication could kick in. “You’re friends Mike and Tater came by earlier with their little sister and mother to see you.” Mom said, still using her soft, motherly voice.
I re-opened my eyes and looked at her as she continued, “They just wanted to see how you were but I told them you were still sleeping. They left you those.” She pointed in the direction of my desk. I turned my head to see what she was pointing at. It was six of those foil balloons tied to the ugliest stuffed blue panther I had ever seen. I started to laugh at seeing the panther but stopped right away as it hurt too much.
“You’re Aunt was also here yesterday evening to see you but you were already asleep.” Mom added. It was nice of Mike and Tater to come see me and bring me the blue panther and balloons but I had no interest at all in Aunt Catharine’s visit.
Since Aunt Catharine had treated me the way she had in Wal-Mart the other day, I’d pretty much wrote her off my list of people I cared anything at all about. As far as I was concerned, she was a big fat cow that needed to be put down!
“She left you your birthday present. She thought you might want to open it early.” Mom said and she’d said the right thing to get my attention off of my pain. I perked right up at the word present and my eyes grew enormous.
“But maybe you should wait till you feel better?” Mom said. I knew she was teasing me now.
“Mom! Don’t torture me!” I whined. Dad happened to walk back into my room at that instant. “Oh boy! Well I guess his whiner is still working!” He joked but I forced myself not to laugh.
“First you eat, then you can open her present.” Mom said.
“Now wait a minute!” Dad protested. “He’s not getting any presents until he gets the yard mowed, the dishes washed, cleans out the garage and oh, I’ll think of a few more things later!”
I tilted my chin up an inch or so to look at Dad standing there holding a plate in one hand and a glass apple juice in the other. I squinted at him and in a completely straight face said, “I’ll get right on them after lunch.”
“Deal!” Dad said, smiling as he set the plate on my nightstand. Mom picked up one of the sandwich wedges off the plate and handed it to me. Dad had cut the sandwich in half diagonally and then again the other way to make four nice sized pieces. He’d also put a bendy-straw in my apple juice so that I didn’t have to try to lift my head to drink it. Mom helped me drink my juice by holding the glass and placing the straw in my mouth for me. It was still awkward but I was able to do it. As it turned out, I was really thirsty and Dad had to bring me a second glass of juice. I was able to get all four sandwich wedges down without any mess at all and only once did the straw pop out of my mouth and a splash of apple juice went up my nose.
Though the juice hit the spot at quenching my thirst, it also made me feel cold. While Mom took my empty glass and plate to the kitchen Dad went and got grandma’s old quilt out of the hall linen closet and put it over me. Grandma’s quilt is about twice the size of my bed and Dad left it folded in half as he laid it over me. I instantly felt warmer.
A couple of minutes later, Mom came back in carrying my present from Aunt Catharine. For maybe five seconds, I had the thought that it was probably something like underwear, or something equally silly. I don’t know of a single kid that likes getting underwear or socks as a present and people that give them should be shot! Seeing the size and shape of the present I knew it wasn’t clothes. My curiosity grew exponentially.
Dad brought in the bed tray from their bedroom and set it over my chest so that the present didn’t have to sit right on my chest when I unwrapped it. The gift was only about an inch tall but was about a foot square and was wrapped in green wrapping paper with a huge yellow ribbon on top.
As Dad sat next to me on my bed and Mom pulled my desk chair up next to him, I started fumbling to open the present. Thankfully, the pain pill was doing its job as I excitedly tore the paper off.
I froze at the sight of it. I looked at Dad and then Mom who were both smiling very knowingly. I looked back at the gift lying there on the bed tray in complete disbelief.
“Simon, breathe!” Mom reminded and I took a breath. I’d not realized I had been holding my breath from the excitement.
“Sh-sh-she g-g-gave . . .” I stopped, took another breath to calm myself, and tried again. “S-she gave me a laptop computer?” I asked in disbelief.
“Actually it’s digital journal notepad.” Dad said turning it and opening it like a book. He held it up for me to see better.
“You use this..” He pulled out a long pen-looking thing from the right side, “to write here on the right, just as you would in your notebook. It will understand what you wrote and display it as regular text on the left screen.”
I had not realized my mouth was hanging open as he talked. “I-I can’t believe she got me this.” I said, still in disbelief that my Aunt Catharine would one; get me something useful, and two; spend so much money on me.
“She asked me in the hospital what you might like and I’d seen one of the guys at work using one of these in a meeting. I thought you might like to have one.” Dad answered and then added, “It hooks right up to your computer so you can save everything you write now and you can even hook a regular keyboard up to it and use it like a word processor.” Dad turned it around and showed me where the keyboard could be plugged in.
I looked at Mom; she was positively beaming with pride. “I-I-I n-need to call her!” I was stuttering a little from my excitement. “I-I need t-t-to t-tell her th-th-thank you!”
Dad patted my thigh, “Now don’t get yourself too worked up! The last thing you need is to have an asthma attack. Just think how much that would hurt.”
The thought of it was enough to get me to calm down right away. “Ok” I said nodding my head and smiling widely as I stroked the edges of the pad with my fingers.
Mom went and got her cell phone so that I could call Aunt Catharine without getting out of bed. “Hello, Aunt Catharine?” I asked when I head someone answer.
“Hi Simon. How are you feeling?” she sounded like she’d been drinking again but she also was sounding nicer than I’d ever heard her when she talked to me.
“I’m good! I just opened your present!” My voice broke as I was over come with emotions. “Th-th-thank y-you s-s-so m-much!” I stuttered badly and Dad again swatted my thigh to let me know I needed to calm down again.
I took a deep breath and let it out before I spoke again, “Th-thank you so very much Aunt Catharine. It’s wonderful!” I was crying again but out of joy now and it didn’t hurt much, thanks to the medication.
“You are very welcome Simon and I hope you get lots of joy from it!” She said as her words slurred together.
“I-I will!” I said.
“I am glad!” She said. Mom took the phone back and continued to talk with Aunt Catharine while Dad started to show me how to work everything.
Despite my feeling groggy from the medication, we played with it for over an hour, learning how to access all its functions. I was still blown away by such an excellent gift from, of all people, my Aunt. Mom had lost interest along the way and left us alone. Mom’s not into techno-gadgets like Dad and I. Heck, it took Mom a couple weeks to get her cell phone figured out and she still has to get Dad to help her with it sometimes. Mostly ‘cause she hardly uses it and then will forget how to do stuff like get her voice mail messages.
While Dad and I were happily playing away, the front doorbell rang and a minute or so later, Mom returned with the now familiar Amazon Officer following behind. I suddenly realized that I had completely forgot what her name was.
I’d lifted my chin to see the two of them walking into my room. “Oh, hi!” I said at seeing her as she completely eclipsed the doorway behind her. “Look what my Aunt gave me for my birthday!” I said excitedly.
“Oh my! I’ve seen one of those before! Those are neat!” She said, leaning in.
“Yeah, I can write and check my email and it has an address book and everything!” I said.
“Ooo baby! I bet that wasn’t cheep!” She said, straightening back up again.
Dad stood up and shook her hand, “What brings you by today?” He asked, sounding friendly.
“Oh I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to check in on Simon here.” She said.
I had my chin cocked up again to see her. “I’m doing good, just really stiff.” I said.
“Yeah, I bet you are!” She said with a smile. “Well I don’t want to stay too long so I better get back to work. You take care of them ribs and don’t go getting into any trouble or I’ll come over here and whoop you’re behind myself.” She said, waving a finger in the air.
I knew she was joking. With a smile I said, “Um, I don’t think there is much trouble I can get into lying here!”
“Baby, I got three boys of my own and I learned a long time ago that they can get into trouble even while they’re sleep’n!” She smiled as she waved me off before turning to go.
“See you later now Simon-baby!” She said.
“OK, bye! Thanks for visiting me!” I said as she left.
Dad and Mom both followed her out of my room but I could still just barely hear them talking through the wall.
“I thought you both should know that Peter Alderman is missing. Apparently he ran away earlier this morning.” I heard the officer telling my parents.
Mom said something too but through the wall, I couldn’t make it out.
“Do you have any idea where he is at all?” Dad asked.
I overheard the lady officer answer. “We believe he’s going south to his brother’s. He said something to one of the other boys about his brother yesterday evening.”
The three of them must have moved away from the wall or went outside, because I couldn’t hear them anymore, even though I strained with all my might to listen.
I set my new present down on the tray and stared at the ceiling. My heart was racing at the thought that Peter might be coming back after me. I’m sure he still thinks that I somehow took those pictures of him. At that thought, my heart sank. “What if he knows and comes after Jasper instead of me?” I thought out loud.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” I heard Dad say and I cocked my chin up again to see him standing in the doorway looking concerned.
“He’s coming back isn’t he?” My voice shook as I spoke.
“No he’s not!” Dad answered in a somewhat stern voice, “And he’s not going to get Jasper either.” Dad continued, “They’ve already told Jasper’s parents about Peter running away so you don’t need to worry about him either!”
Dad continued to try to calm my fears and distract me from my worries as he sat back down on the side of my bed. We started playing with the Electronic Journal again. However, I was still thinking about Peter in the back of my mind.
“Hey Simon!” a voice from behind me called. I spun around to see Jasper walking toward me with his arm in a sling. Behind him were Bull and Tater. For some reason, the three of them were not wearing any shirts and had on shorts and snow boots. I should have asked what the deal was with their clothes but I was distracted again when someone else called my name.
“Yo, Simon, wait up!”
I recognized this voice as BJ’s as I turned toward the direction of his voice. He was marching up a hill from the back of the school with about twenty or thirty other students behind him but I couldn’t make out any of their faces.
As BJ got closer to the top of the hill, I realized he too was not wearing a shirt but instead of shorts, he was wearing a diaper. It was a big cloth diaper, with a sort of dull, yellow colored pair of plastic pants over them. He was also wearing snow boots, which was odd as there was no snow anywhere around. Heck it wasn’t even cold out.
I turned back to Jasper, Bull and Tater but they had gone. Walking across the street was Kyle with a single crutch and a wooden leg. He too was wearing a cloth diaper that looked to be big enough to fit someone three times his size.
“Kyle?” I said in astonishment at seeing him out of the hospital so soon.
“Hi diaper boy!” Kyle said to me. I felt an instant surge of embarrassment flush over me like a tidal wave. I tried to hush Kyle but he wouldn’t shut up. He kept saying it over and over again.
“Diaper Boy! Diaper Boy! Simon is a Diaper Boy!”
“Don’t pay any attention to him.” I heard BJ say.
I turned back to BJ and asked, “What?”
Jasper was now standing next to BJ. “Just ignore him. It’s the medication that’s making him like that.” Jasper said.
The group of kids that had followed BJ up the hill all seemed to be standing around talking to one another and were not taking any notice of those of us in diapers.
That was the instance when I realized that I too was only wearing a diaper, except I didn’t have on any boots. Instead, I was barefoot and my feet were blue from standing outside in the cold. BJ wrapped a nice warm fur around my shoulders that draped to the ground as though it were a robe of royalty.
“Thanks,” I said to him as I pulled it tightly over my chest.
Kyle, still singing his little chant, had started to dance around on his one foot waving his crutch in the air. “Simon is a Diaper Boy! Simon is a Diaper Boy!”
“I really wish he’d shut up!” I heard myself say.
“Who?” someone asked.
“Just look at him! He’s acting like a fool!” I said pointing at Kyle.
“Simon?” Someone called my name. I turned to see who it was. BJ and Jasper were gone now. In fact, all the kids were gone now, except for Kyle whom I could still hear singing his little tune.
“Simon?” This time I recognized the voice as my Dad’s.
I opened my eyes to see Dad looking at me with the oddest expression.
“What?” I asked.
“You were talking in your sleep.” Dad said.
“Huh?” I asked, not yet realizing that I had drifted off to sleep and had been dreaming.
“Who was acting like a fool?” Dad asked.
I blinked before speaking, “Kyle. He was dancing around with his crutch in the air and was singing.” I didn’t know what I was saying just yet.
“You mean the boy from the hospital?” Dad asked.
I blinked again, looked at Dad and fell back to sleep.
It seems that I’d fallen asleep while Dad and I had been trying to get the ‘E-book’ as we had started calling it, connected to my computer. When I woke up again, it and the bed tray were sitting on top of my desk. My room was sort of dark. From the light coming in my window, I guessed that it must be sometime in the evening by now and I think the rain had stopped, too.
The memory of my dream came back to me as a yawn escaped my mouth. I reached down and felt the front of my diaper; I was indeed wet again, very wet from the feel of it. Thankfully, when I lifted my blankets and took a whiff, I didn’t smell anything unpleasant. As I felt the front of my diaper, I couldn’t help thinking that for the little that I had to drink today, I sure did wet a lot.
I craned my chin up to see if my door was open and it was. At first, I was going to yell for help but the thought of having one of my parents come and change my diaper while I was awake and aware just didn’t sit well. I’d been fortunate enough so far to either be sound asleep or totally unconscious when they did it before. I didn’t think I was going to have that luxury this time and I didn’t think my pride could stand another attack of embarrassment. Not just yet anyway. I took a shallow breath before resigning myself to the fact that I knew that I was going to have to try to get out of bed on my own so that I could prove that I was able to take care of myself despite my injuries.
I rolled my head to the side to look and see what time it was but where my clock should have been sitting was Dad’s small television from his home office. I looked to my nightstand and sure enough there was the remote to the TV. Next to the remote was a tall, green and red cup with handles on either side, like the sort of handles you would see on a coffee mug. The cup also had a lid on it that was kind of like Dad’s travel cup he used in the mornings to put his coffee in so that it wouldn’t spill in the car on the way to work. Except on this cup, the lid looked a little different, like it had built-in sipper.
I managed to stretch my arm and get hold of the cup. It was heavier then I expected. I gave it a closer look and realized it was some kind of spill-proof cup like you would see a young child use but this one was taller and held quite a bit more than a child’s cup might hold.
“Cool!” I said out loud to the cup as I tipped it upside down and nothing came out. I put it to my mouth and sucked on it once before pulling it back out and saying, “Bluck! Warm apple juice!”
Not thinking, I rested the cup on my chest but only for a split second. “Ouch!” I cried to myself and set the cup on my bed beside me, holding it with one hand as I stretched to reach the remote with my other hand.
Even though the apple juice was warm, I drank it while I lay flipping through the channels on the TV. I’d not forgot about the condition of my diaper but I was not yet ready to try sitting up on my own just yet.
As I jumped from channel to channel, I figured out that Dad must have also hooked the TV up to the cable too. Heck, I didn’t even know I had a cable outlet in my room until now.
I ended up stopping on some show on the Discovery Channel about searching for some fish long thought to have been extinct but was recently discovered to still be alive. The show was actually kind of interesting though the fish was about the ugliest thing I had ever seen in my life.
When that show was over, I again started flipping through the channels and stopped when Mom came into my room. I muted the TV out of habit.
“Oh good you found the TV and your juice.” She said, sounding kind of glad. I mean more than normal.
“Yeah, thanks!” I said before asking; “Where’d you get this cool cup?”
“At Wal-Mart. I wanted to get something you could use without having to sit up or risk spilling all over your bed.” Mom said, readjusting my covers and tucking them up tight to my chin.
“It works good.” I said.
“Are you about ready for dinner?” She asked.
“Yeah!” I said, only just realizing how hungry I was.
“What would you like?” She asked.
“Macaroni and Cheese!” I announced.
“Do you think you can eat it while lying down?” She asked, not sounding too happy with my suggestion.
“Yeah! If you make it so the cheese is thick and cheesy!” I added.
“Ok!” She said, feeling my forehead with the back of her hand before leaving again.
Alone again, I breathed a sign of relief that she’d not tried to check to see if I needed changed. I was about to start flipping through the channels again but hesitated when, for an instant, I thought I’d recognized someone. Without realizing it, I’d ended up stopping on the evening news earlier. I un-muted the TV to listen and came in somewhere in the middle of the story being reported.
“. . . happened around two this afternoon. Three
apparently unarmed suspects walked into the ‘Stop and Shop Mart’ here at the
five hundred block of Jefferson Avenue and demanded that the two employees give
them all the money in the two registers. As in each of the other twenty-eight
robberies, believed to have been committed by the same suspects, they fled the
scene within two minutes of entering the establishment.
However, unlike their previous robberies, the three suspects then attacked the two employees, killing one and leaving the other with what is being reported as life threatening injuries.
Police are now asking that if anyone has any information
about this, or any of the other twenty-eight robberies, to please call your
local sheriffs department.
This is Samantha Keeler, reporting live for Channel 5
News.”
I muted the television after the report. I laid stunned and motionless for quite some time until I heard Mom coming back down the hallway with my dinner. I swallowed hard and shook my head so as to not look so alarmed when she came in. It didn’t work.
“What’s the matter?” Mom asked, “Do you need another pill?”
I was so glad she said that and I nodded my head. She brought the bed tray over and set it over my chest before putting the bowl of macaroni and cheese on it.
“Would you also like something colder to drink?” She also asked. I nodded my head again as she swept up my cup and was out my door again.
My appetite had left me. I stared at the ceiling lost in my thoughts. Mom was back before I knew it and helped me take my pill. I guess she thought I was hurting too much to eat and although I felt very uncomfortable having her do so, she sat next to me and spoon fed me.
While I ate she told me, “Your friend Jasper has been sent home today.”
“Yeah?” I said absently mindedly, thinking about what must be happening at their house. Would Bull tell his dad, the Coach, what had happened? Though it wasn’t really ever said, I got the feeling the other night when I was there, after my big asthma attack, that Bull’s dad not only knew about what they were doing but was also somehow involved in it. He was too cool about not sending me to the doctor when Bull and Tater had brought me to him for help. I’d been near death and yet, after a short time, he let Bull drive me home like nothing had happened.
Before too long, Mom had efficiently stuffed me to the point of near bursting. “I can’t eat anymore.” I said.
“Ok, you ate a lot more then I thought you would. That should help you feel better now.” She said.
Mom had always been raised to believe that if you are sick for any reason that you should eat and eat a lot! I imagine that is why Aunt Catharine is so fat. She’s always complaining that there is something wrong with her and I’m sure she eats all the time to try to make herself feel better.
Mom took the tray and placed it back on my desk. She’d just picked up the bowl to take it to the kitchen when she stopped, looked at me and finally asked the question I had been so hoping she wouldn’t ask. “Do you need changed?”
I felt my ears burn with embarrassment. I stammered and stuttered but couldn’t get out a single clear word. For a few seconds I thought she’d actually left without checking or attempting to change me but my relief was short lived. She came back into my room with a wet washcloth in one hand and a white, disposable diaper in the other hand.
I was so scared and embarrassed that I couldn’t talk. She set them both on my night table next to my bed and reached for my covers. I grabbed hold of my covers too and finally found my voice, “Mom, don’t, please!” I pleaded. My terror was completely evident in the tone of my voice.
She smiled, petted my head and said, “You can’t lay here in a wet or soiled diaper Simon! You will get a diaper rash!”
She reached for the covers again and I pleaded again this time with tears in my eyes, as my ears and face burned red, “Don’t, please!”
“Simon, I’ve already changed you three times since you’ve been back home from the hospital! It’s ok!” she said.
“Three times?” I thought to myself.
“And I must have changed you a hundred thousand times when you were a baby.” She added.
I wanted to protest further but she pulled the sheets and blankets all the way off of me so that even my feet were uncovered. The tears started to stream down either side of my face as my embarrassment overtook me. With both hands, I covered my shame-filled face as I felt her pull on one of the tapes.
It seemed to take forever for her to unfasten the tapes. She pulled the front of the diaper open and said, “You did need changed.” I was so lost to my emotions that all I could do was sob and hold my face.
“Sweetheart it’s just mommy!” She cooed.
I felt her place the wet cloth against my sack as she began to wipe the urine away. In my current state, I didn’t protest in the least as she pulled my legs open and reached in between my legs and cupped my boyhood.
In my head I kept chanting, “Don’t get hard! Don’t get hard! Don’t get hard!” over and over again.
She lifted one of my legs and pulled the diaper out from under me before wiping off my backside too.
“Oh Gawd don’t get hard!” I screamed in my head.
I felt her sliding the new diaper under me before lowering my leg again. As she pulled the front of the diaper up over my boyhood parts, the voice in my head that had been screaming now shouted, “YES-YES-YES!”
I felt her secure the two tapes in place before pulling the covers back up to my chin. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it sweetheart?” She asked in her motherly tone.
Still with my hands over my face, I nodded and heard her snicker. “All right! I’ll leave you to recoup.” She said. Not until I was sure that she was out of the room did I remove my hands from my face.
I was so incredibly relieved to have not gotten an erection while she was changing me. Had I done so I don’t think I could have lived through it. I would have died right then and there from embarrassment.
It took several minutes from my tears to stop. I wiped at my face with my arms and hands before reaching over and picking up the green and red cup again.
I watched TV for the rest of the evening, hoping that they would say something else about the robbery and whether they knew, or had any idea, who was behind them. The longer I lay there waiting and thinking, the more I started to wonder if it had been Bull, Tater and Runt. The news lady had said that three robbers had gone into the store. That would mean that there was either someone else waiting in the car (I wondered it if was Runt again) or that maybe Two-Toes was with them.
I found myself concocting the most amazing and lavishly implausible scenarios that would prove that it wasn’t my friends that had killed that store employee and left the other for dead. It wasn’t until I heard the telephone ring that I was finally zapped out of my dream-like state.
“Simon honey; are you awake?” Mom asked, as she peeked into my room.
I’d clicked the television set off when the phone started to ring. Somewhere inside, I knew it would be for me.
“Yeah, I’m awake.” I said slowly.
“Do you feel up to some visitors this evening?” She asked.
My heart shrank, “Who?” I dared to ask.
“BJ and Lowell want to come see you.” She said.
Relieved, I answered. “Yeah I’d love to see them!” I knew I sounded overly joyful that it was BJ but I also knew that Mom had no idea what was worrying me inside.
Before BJ got to the house, I polished off the last of my juice in my cup and Mom got me a soda after a little begging on my part. I could tell she was still having a little inner- conflict about having food and drinks outside of the kitchen and dining room. When she brought me the soda in another sipper cup Dad came in too.
“How you feeling?” He asked.
“Not too bad.” I answered, “Um, my back hurts though, from lying here all day.” I added.
“Yeah I bet it does.” Dad said rubbing his chin, “You want to try sitting up?”
Mom tried to protest but Dad had already reached one hand under my shoulders and I’d wrapped my arms around his other arm.
“No, let me do all the work.” Dad said as he started to lift, “Let me know if I hurt you.”
I didn’t make a single sound as Dad lifted my upper body so that I was sitting on my backside for the first time since leaving the hospital.
“Simon!” Dad said very softly. “You’re biting me!”
I’d not realized it, but I’d buried my face in his shoulder as he was lifting me up and I’d sank my teeth into his flesh so that I could bare the pain. I released my bite hold on his shoulder. “Sorry Dad!” I said, wiping my saliva off his shirt.
“That smarts!” Dad said rotating his shoulder and giving me a smile. “Are you OK?” He asked. He still had hold of my shoulder with his arm still behind me helping to hold me up.
“Yeah I think so.” I said as my eyes watered.
“You want to scoot back so that you can lean against your headboard, or do you want to rest like this for a few minutes?” He asked, placing a hand on my tummy and rubbing in a circle.
My eyes were closed and my mouth was hanging open as I breathed slowly and not too deeply. I nodded my head and heard Dad chuckle.
“Was that a yes for the headboard, or a yes for sitting here?” He was patting my tummy now.
“I think . . . both.” I said, leaning into his shoulder again but this time burying my eyes into his shirt instead of my teeth.
He removed his hand from my tummy and slipped it under my thighs as he gently lifted me off my bed and re-deposited me against my pillow that Mom had propped up for me.
My chest was hurting again from this little movement and I kept my face plastered against my Dad as his shirt acted like a sponge for my tears. Mom was stroking my hair from behind while Dad held me to him and patted my back softly.
Eventually the pain subsided again and I actually felt better sitting up than I had been when I was lying down. I’d just about finished the soda Mom had brought me when BJ and Lowell showed up.
“Hi ya Simon!” Lowell said, walking into my room. I had to twist my head around to see him and BJ coming in. They were both carrying one of those big grocery paper bags in their arms.
“Hi there Simon!” BJ said, sort of like the way he talks to his grandpa who’s 93 years old. Both of them had funny looks on their faces as they stood by my bed.
“Guys! I’m not dieing! Relax!” I assured them and they both seemed to loosen up some.
“What’s in the bags?” I asked.
“Comics!” Lowell said rocking on the balls of his feet.
“Yeah, Lowell thought you might want to borrow some of his comic books.” BJ said.
“Wow! Two bags worth is only some of your comics?” I said, watching the two of them stand there holding their treasures.
“Yeah, I have over a thousand.” Lowell said.
“Wow!” I said, “You can set some of them down!” I said sarcastically.
They set them on the floor next to my bed and Lowell sat down on my bed by my knee but popped back up super fast. “Oh sorry! I didn’t hurt you did I?” He was wringing his hands against his chest.
“Guys! Calm down! I’m not going to break! Sit!” I pointed at Lowell and then my bed. Lowell sat down, but very slowly. BJ pulled over my desk chair and for most of the evening, the three of us talked, read comics, and laughed some. I found out that Lowell and BJ had really hit it off at the hospital. They’d had to sit out in the hallway for quite a while before getting to come in and see me and that had given them time to find out that they both were massive comic books freaks.
Having them come over was some of the best medicine ever. For the couple hours they stayed, I felt little-to-no pain at all and just felt better all over. After a while, I noticed that Lowell was fidgeting around a bit more than normal and it took me a few minutes to figure out what the problem was.
“Hey BJ? Can you go get me some water?” I asked. Without any hesitation, he took the cup I’d been drinking soda in and zipped out the door.
Lowell was looking at me kind of desperately. “Top drawer on the right.” I said pointing to my dresser. The bathroom is down the hall on the left.
Lowell smiled the biggest and most precious smile I’d ever seen on his face. “Thanks!” He said, getting up and going over to my dresser. He pulled open the drawer and snatched out one of my Goodnites and stuffed it under his shirt. He turned around to face me. He was a little red in the face as he smiled again and took off for the bathroom.
He was back before BJ, which surprised me and he had that same troubled look on his face again. This time I knew right away what was worrying him. “Trashcan by the door!” I pointed over my shoulder. He smiled again and pulled a wet Pull-Up out from under his shirt and dropped it in the can.
It didn’t occur to me at the time but as I write this, I’m guessing that Jasper must have told him that I wear Goodnites. I mean, how else would he have known? With just looks, we both knew what each other was talking about without having to name anything.
No sooner had Lowell returned to his spot next to my leg than BJ came in carrying my water as well as one for Lowell and himself in the same kind of sipper cups as mine but in different colors. I felt a bit embarrassed that they had to drink out of such juvenile cups as I did but they didn’t seem to mind at all and took to them like they’d been using them all their lives.
BJ’s dad had stopped by to pick up the boys and came in to see me. I’ve always liked BJ’s dad. He is really big and fun to wrestle with. I guess I won’t be joining BJ in any two-on-one matches for a long time! Maybe I can be the referee and get Lowell and Jasper to team up with BJ? That would be fun!
Alone again in my room I started to feel tired. No sooner had BJ and Lowell gone than my fears about Tater, Bull and Runt returned with a vengeance.
Dad came back in and helped me to lay back down again. This time it didn’t hurt near as much. He just pulled on my legs and I slid right down with no effort at all. It could have also been that Mom had given me another pill to take a few minutes before but whatever it was, I was glad it didn’t hurt. Dad did point out that my ankle, which I’d nearly forgot about, was looking a lot better and was now only a dull sort of yellow color. You know .… the way bruises look before they totally disappear.
Mom came in one more time before they both left me alone to go to sleep. She re-dressed my eye and reapplied more of the vial smelling cream before kissing my forehead and wishing me a good night’s sleep.
It took me a while to fall asleep despite the fact that BJ and Lowell’s visit had really tired me out. I couldn’t get the news broadcast out of my head. Once I finally fell asleep, I had several unpleasant dreams about the three of them being hunted down by the police. In one dream I actually saw all three of them and Two-Toes shot and killed by Peter who was then shot by the police. You know, I think I watch too many cop shows on TV and they have affected my dreams and nightmares.