This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
I would highly recommend you read the first volume of this story,

Simon’s Journal Thirteen Days – The First Crusade
before you begin this novel.

 

The following narrative is nearly a complete work of fiction.
Any similarity to actual individuals living or dead is completely unintentional.
If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and exploring their awakening sexuality is offensive or illegal in your area, then might I suggest you go read War and Peace or something equally stimulating.

 

 

Simon's Journal

Volume II

 

 

Thirteen Nights – After the Crusade

 

 

Written by

Danny
Author of Thirteen Days

 

 



 

Chapter - 6

PART 3 – Friday, March 05, 2004 – A Lose-Lose Situation

 

 

He once again puckered his lips and kissed my butt-cheek. When he pulled away, he had powder on his lips and on the end of his nose, which he partially wiped off with his hand and made a face as if it disgusted him.

 

“See! That wasn’t so bad!” I teased.

 

“Yes it was! Your butt looks like a powdered doughnut!” he said still trying to wipe off his lips.

 

“So does the end of your nose!” I said and with the fling of my wrist as if I were dismissing a servant I added, “Now go get your story so you can read to me!”

 

“Not here! Let’s go back to my room!” Lowell said and I could tell, by the way he was looking around, that he really did not want to read his teenbaby story down in the basement. Where he read it didn’t matter to me so much, so I gave in and the two of us tromped back up the stairs to his room with me following behind him, of course, so that I could again watch his diapered butt wiggle and listen to it crinkle.

 

“Do you have to get it off the computer?” I asked as we started up the second flight of stairs.

 

“No!” he said in a very hushed whisper.

 

“Oh, sorry!” I said whispering too.

 

Back in his room, he went directly to his closet and remerged a few seconds later with what looked to be a baby-blue colored T-shirt and a shoebox-sized box that had been neatly wrapped in white and green foil paper. Across the top was a bit of white paper with the words MY BUG COLLECTION  wrote quite creatively in red and blue crayon, which was taped into place with clear Scotch Tape.

 

“Bug collection?” I asked when I read the colorful letters.

 

“Yea, I keep my most valuable stuff in here! Both mommy and daddy hate bugs and would never even touch the box, let alone open it!” he said as plopped himself down next to me. He sat the box on the floor and said, “I forgot that mommy wanted me to give this to you when you got here! I can’t believe that I almost forgot all about it.”

 

He handing me the baby blue T-shift and since it had a picture or something on it I held it out to see what it was. On the front of the shirt, in very sparkly colors, were the letters, ‘B.S.’ and they were so big that they covered nearly the entire front of the shirt.

 

“What’s BS?” I asked.

 

“Look on the back!” he said almost bouncing with excitement.

 

I turned the shirt around to see two words across the back, ‘Baby Simon’.

 

“Oh how very cool!” I said dropping the shirt long enough to pull my own shirt off so that I could put the new one on. It fit better then I could have hoped. It was roomy enough to allow for my armor and for some growing room and yet it was short in that it didn’t even remotely cover or conceal my diaper. I had to stand up and check out the feel of it.

 

“Wow! Thank you!” I said.

 

“Remember when you were first starting to read my story and you asked why it said, ‘By B.L.’ and I told you…?” I stopped Lowell by finishing his sentence for him.

 

“Oh yea! BL for Baby Lowell and now I am BS!” I said excitedly.

 

“Yea BS for Bull Shi . . .” Lowell started to say.

 

“Don’t you dare say it!” I shook my fist at him and he fell over backward laughing.

 

When he was able to calm himself somewhat he sat back up and said, “Mommy said she wanted to get you something special for helping me with my reading. I told her that she should get you that shirt and have it say that.”

 

“Too bad you don’t have one like this!” I said.

 

“I do!” he said and jumping back up he went into his closet and emerged wearing his shirt that looked nearly identical to mine.

 

“Yes!” I exclaimed!

 

“Now we are twins!” Lowell said as we both sat back down by his green and white box.

 

He started to reach for the lid but I stopped him by grabbing his hand.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips.

 

“What was that for?” He asked as I pulled away.

 

“For the shirt!” I said and then leaning forward again I kissed him again.

 

When I pulled away this time, he was grinning ear to ear and asked, “What was that one for?”

 

“Because you are so cute!” I said and his little cheeks flushed slightly.

 

When I let go of his hand, he took hold of the box and pulled the lid off to reveal a treasure trove of teenbaby pictures, stories, poems and other miscellaneous items.

 

“Who are these of?” I asked picking up three pictures of the same boy, dressed only in a huge cloth diaper and plastic pants. The young boy in the photo appeared to be maybe six or seven years old and didn’t seem to mind someone snapping photos of him. In fact, he seemed to be hamming it up for the photographer whomever that might have been.

 

“That’s me!” he said proudly.

 

“That’s you?” I said with no small amount of astonishment, “Wow, you were really cute when you were younger!”

 

“So you are saying I’m not cute now?” Lowell joked; at least I think he was joking.

 

“No, no . . . I mean, yes! You are cute, uh, now too, uh, still!” I tried recovering but ended up stumbling over my own tongue.

 

Lowell laughed and said, “I’m just messing with you!”

 

He was riffling through several stories trying to find his own. “Hey, this is a good story! It’s about this kid who wets too and it is set way in the past on a ship.”

 

“What’s it called?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know. Someone emailed it to me a long time ago and it didn’t have any title on it. I tired to find it online because what I have here isn’t complete but I never was able to find it. It is still a great story.” Lowell said. “It’s got lots of boys that wet and this one boy keeps having these really bad dreams about the ship they are on sinking!” he explained.

 

“Oh wait, can I see that?” I asked and Lowell handed me the story while he continued looking for his own.

 

“Does this story have these two boys that find a younger boy hiding out on the ship?” I asked.

 

“Yea! How’d you know that?” Lowell asking with mild surprise.

 

“Yea, I’ve read that one online before, it’s called Titanic but it’s nothing like any of the Titanic movies I have ever seen on TV.” I said.

 

“Oh yea?” He said when I told him the title of the story. “How many diaper stories have you read?” he asked.

 

“Gee-whiz, I don’t know, but I have read a whole lot of them!” I said and then went into a long explanation of why a few weeks ago I began my quest to actually have my very own diaper boy sighting and because of it, the two of us met.

 

“Oh so that is why!” Lowell said in reference to his having seen me hiding in a clothes rack at Wal-Mart that first day.

 

“Yep, that’s why!” I answered and then seeing another picture in the box, I took it out. “Who’s this?” I asked.

 

“Which one?” He craned his neck to get a look at it. “Oh, you should know that one!” he said.

 

I held it closer to my eyes and it took a second or two before I realized, “Is that Jasper?”

 

“The red hair gives it away huh?” Lowell said smiling.

 

“Yea, well dang he had even more freckles when he was younger!” I said.

 

“Na, he said he gets more freckles in the summer time and that picture was only taken last summer!” Lowell said and then added, “Oh wait, here it is!” and handed me a crumpled and stained stack of papers.

 

“Dang what happen to it?” I asked.

 

“Well, it kind of got peed on!” he said.

 

Eeew!” I exclaimed letting the pages drop to the floor.

 

“Oh shut up! You’ve touched my pee before!” he laughed.

 

“Yea but still!” I said picking up the papers with only two fingers as if I was scared of being contaminated.

 

“They are dry! That happened weeks ago! I had to hide it in my diaper to keep my daddy from finding it and my diaper was very wet at the time.” Lowell said snatching it back from me. He started placing the pictures and papers back into the box, leaving his story lying beside him.

 

“Wait!” I said handing him the picture of Jasper as he was closing up the box to put it back in his closet.

 

“Oh yea!” he said taking and slipping it in the box.

 

As he was standing back up, he let go another small but audible fart and as before he excused himself with a quick, “Sorry!”

 

“Will you stop that!” I said and suddenly I was reminded of how Tater kept telling me the very same thing because I was always apologizing for everything. That thought lead me back to one of the things I wanted to do when I arrived here and that was to tell Lowell all about what has been going on with Bull, Tater, Runt and me; as well as what happened the other day. I mean about the man chasing after me in the van and me hiding out and having a run in with the old man BJ says eats people.

 

I was about to bring it up to Lowell when he said, “I can’t help it! It just happens!”

 

“No, I don’t mean the farting, I mean apologizing for it!” I corrected him.

 

“Oh, I just don’t want you to think I am being rude or doing it on purpose.” He said.

 

“Maybe you need to go poop?” I asked.

 

“I think I will soon.” He answered from inside his closet.

 

“Then you should go use the toilet.” I suggested.

 

“I don’t use the potty.” He said re-emerging and closing the doors.

 

“You don’t?” I asked in amazement, “Not ever?”

 

“Well sometimes but not very much. I just go in my diaper! That is what they are for!” he said plopping himself down right beside me and picking up his story.

 

“And your mom and dad don’t care?” I asked.

 

“No and neither does my babysitter.” He answered.

 

I had to take a second to allow that to soak into my head before I could respond again. “Even at school?” I asked.

 

“It has happened at school before but only a few times. Usually I do it a little while after I wake up or even sometimes before I go to sleep.” He said. “I have even woken up in the middle of the night and just let it out so that I could go right back to sleep.”

 

“And you can sleep all night like that?” I asked.

 

“Normally mommy or daddy changes me before they go to bed but I’m usually asleep by the time they come in. If I poop at night sometimes they will come to check on me and will change me but a lot of times they don’t find out until the next morning.” He said.

 

“Do you wake up? I mean when they come in to change your diaper?” I asked.

 

“No, not normally. Well, sometimes I do but then I fall right back to sleep.” He answered as he leafed through the pages looking for the place in the story where I was up to so far so that he could read it too me.

 

“Wow!” Having a loss for words all I came up with to say to that was, “Wow!” which I supposed did a fairly good job of expressing my amazement and jealousy. Then a though occurred to me, “Am I allowed to use the toilet?” I asked.

 

“Yea, you can if you want too.” He said and looking up from the pages added, “But you don’t have too! If you poop mommy or daddy will clean you up!”

 

I could tell from the way he said it that he was hoping I’d agree to stay clear of the bathroom while I was spending the night. In an attempt at avoiding having to decide at that moment, I tried changing the subject. “So are you going to read it to me in here?” I asked.

 

“Huh? Oh yea sure! Mommy doesn’t usually come up here unless I need her and I can hear her coming up the stairs anyway.” He folded the older chapters to the back and asked, “So you want me to start now?”

 

A part of me, now that I remembered I wanted to tell him everything, wanted to tell him now but another part of me was scared too. I did not know how he would react. I didn’t know if he would keep my secrets or if he would run and tell his parents or worse the police. I was still mad at Runt for the way he pushed me around today but now that I had cooled off some I didn’t want the police to find out where he is hiding and that, all along, I’ve still been talking to Bull and Tater even though none of us are supposed to be doing that.

 

Finally, my cowardness won out over my need to confide in someone and I said, “Yea go a head and start!” and so he did.

 

 

Hamunaptra
City
of the Dead

 

By B.L.

~ Chapter Five ~

 

 

We worked all night long, Uncle Max and I replacing the steel cable that had snapped so that we could once again lift the stone slab that had imprisoned Miss Lillian Hassley within the tomb she had so foolishly jumped down into. Uncle Max had tried in vain to get the local workers to return and help us rescue her but they did not want anything to do with the slab, the tomb or their jobs anymore.

 

The night seemed to be slipping away with incredible speed as we continued laboring by the light of only a couple lanterns. We hardly spoke to one another except when words were needed to get the job done. We knew we had to get that sandstone slab raise again though I think neither of us had much hope, but what could we do aside from what we were doing? While neither of us said it, I think we both were hanging onto the thin possibility that a miracle might have happened and we would find her still alive. I kept thinking to myself, if it was a snake, it might not of bit her; she might have killed it. Well that is what I was trying to convince myself of all through the night as the stubborn and now frayed cables cut our hands in an attempt at defying our efforts.

 

The sun was just beginning to appear over the horizon when we at last had the new cables in place and were ready to again lift the sandstone slab. Uncle Max started the cranes’ engine and just as before, it seemed that it was not going to move for a few seconds but then with the sound of stone rubbing against stone the slab shifted a couple inches and then begin to rise. With excitement and fear gushing through my body, I felt my bladder release as my pants were flooded with my hot urine but I did not care.

 

“Start pulling!” Uncle Max shouted over the engine.

 

We had tied a rope to one of the cables and ran the other end of the rope through a series of pulleys for leverage. As the slab rose, I pulled on the rope with all of my strength, which was surprisingly quite a bit given that the pulleys magnified the strength of my small body several times over. The combination of fear, hope and just plain exhaustion caused my brain to pump adrenaline through my vanes like poring whisky into the gas tank of an automobile. As I was pulling, I could feel the urine cooling against my skin and found it oddly pleasing. We had been working hard all night, but we were careful to drink plenty of water to keep ourselves hydrated as we were both sweating a lot despite the fact that after the sun went down it started air started to cool off quickly. But with the sun steadily rising now so was the temperature and there was a slight breeze, not strong enough to kick up the sand but just strong enough that now it felt as if I had my own personal cooling system built right into my pants.

 

I looked down for a quick check of the condition of my pants. They were completely soaked in front and because I was caked in sand and dirt it only made the pee stain all that much more noticeable.

I continued pulling on the rope, straining and causing myself to cough a little due to the lasting damage to my throat and lungs from the fire. Once I had pulled the slab clear of the opening, Uncle Max reversed the gears on the motor and the crane began to slowly lower the slab again until it came to rest in the sand beside the now reopened tomb.

 

I was back at the opening and was lowering the rope ladder down before Uncle Max had the motor turned off.

 

“Jason no!” Uncle Max shouted as he quickly sprinting over to me, “You are not going down there!”

 

I opened my mouth to protest but did not have a chance to say anything. Uncle Max had pushed me aside and was already moving into position to lower himself down into the tomb. He moved swiftly, even for a man his size, and it only took him a few seconds to reach the bottom. The sun was high enough in the sky now that as long as Uncle Max stayed near to the opening a lantern was not necessary.

 

There was no need for Uncle Max to tell me; now that it was morning and sunlight was finding its way into the room that for uncounted ages had been bathed in complete darkness, I could see her body lying just at the edge of were the light could reach and I knew we were too late. He looked up at me and looked as though he was going to be sick. I could not wait any longer; as soon as his eyes were off me, I scurried down the rope ladder.

 

“Oh my...” I gasped but was unable to finish my sentence as I stepped closer to what was left of Miss Lillian Hassley’s body.

 

Uncle Max looked over at me. The look on his face told me that he must have been lost in his grief because it was apparent that he had not heard me coming down the ladder. His face also told me that he was not happy about me having come down either but he did not balk at me just then. I watched as he knelt down next to her body while holding his hand over his nose and mouth.

 

A murmur escaped through his fingers, “No way a snake could have done this?”

 

Perhaps it was the fact that I was standing over the body of the woman that only a few weeks ago had saved my life or maybe I was just caught up in the extreme emotions I was feeling at that moment which caused me to react as I did. “A SNAKE?” I shouted a bit louder and with more energy then I intended.

 

“A snake could not do that!” my emotions were getting the better of me now.

 

Uncle Max looked up at me and seeing that his eyes were filled with tears, my anger fell out of me like water from a bucket. He spoke again but his words were barely audible, “I saw a caribou once time that a pack of wolves had...” his voice trailed off.

 

He shook his head, “We would have been too late even if the slab hadn’t fallen.”

 

Tears were rolling down my face like two mammoth waterfalls. I let out an almost silent sigh as I ran my fingers through my hair. The dirt and sweat stung as it made its way into the cuts on my hands and fingers caused by the steel cables. I looked around; it was hard to see farther into the room where the still rising sun was not able to reach as well. Without saying anything, I made my way back up the ladder, retrieved a lantern and climbed back into the room. Just before I reached the floor, again the ladder suddenly gave way and I fell onto my back with the ladder piling itself on top of me.

 

Uncle Max helped me back to my feet. We both looked up to the opening, expecting to see someone but no one appeared. I felt my legs going weak and I jumped as Uncle Max placed his hand on my shoulder.

 

“Don’t do that!” I demanded as I clasped my chest.

 

Uncle Max gave me a look that said he was sorry, “Now we are in a real fix.” He said.

 

I bent back down to look at the ladder and could see that it had been cut. I held the cut end up to show Uncle Max; he looked alarmed but seemed more concerned with Miss Lillian Hassley’s body, or what remained of her body. Ignoring the fact that someone had just cutaway our only way out of the tomb, he knelt again next to her and just looked at her for a while.

 

Trembling with fear, it took me a moment or two to get the lantern to work but once I had it lit, my eyes began to dance around the room. I was breathless at the sight that lay before me. I could see clearly now that the walls were all covered in gold. As if acting as a welcoming or maybe a warning two Golden statues stood about twenty feet further into the room. One of the statues I had faintly seen last night and from above I thought they looked like some kind of creature that was half goat and half bird. I could now see that the body was more like that of a horse but with more powerful looking muscles and with a tail like a whip. The tail had to be at least fifteen or twenty feet long and rose up over the statue as if it were being lashed about. The head of the statues were distantly that of the dragons of Komodo but were covered in short stubbly looking feathers also cast in gold. What I thought was a beak last night was actually a single long jade fang that extended about eight inches past its lower jaw and curving under slightly. As I said, they were two identical statues that stood on either side of the room with their tails meeting high above and intertwining together.

 

The walls, though covered in gold were also painted with a strange form of hieroglyphics that I had never seen before. The floor was indeed encrusted with red rubies that spanned as deep into the tomb as I could see. Several gold and silver sarcophagi with more red hieroglyphics inscribed on them were leaning against the sidewalls. However, what really caught my attention was what was in the center of the room. An enormous sarcophagus, the biggest I had ever seen or heard of, ever! The thing that made it stand out as so odd, I mean besides its massive size was that it was made out of ordinary stone. Everything in this room was obviously made of the purest and greatest of treasured materials. The tomb itself was a treasure greater then even King Solomon had and here, laying in the middle of all these riches was an oversized and yet un-remarkably plain, stone sarcophagus.

 

“Uncle Max?” I whispered.

 

He was still leaning over Miss Lillian Hassley’s body when I turned to look at him I saw that he was tapping the fingers of his left hand against his lips as if almost in some sort of meditative trance. I had to call his name three more times before Uncle Max finally looked up at me and I saw his eyes as for the first time he too was noticing the fabulous treasures of this room. I watched, as his eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. Slowly he lifted himself his feet and gazed around the room. I would have enjoyed watching the wonder on his face more had I not been so anxious and troubled by the mystery of the sarcophagus in the middle of the room.

 

“Uh, Uncle Max?” My voice cracked as I pointed toward the stone oddity.

 

He followed the invisible line my finger made and when he finally saw it too, he grunted with an obvious amount of uneasiness in his voice.

 

“Last night,” I started to say but had to stop and swallow because my throat was so very dry, “Last night, when we were looking in here, did you notice that stone sarcophagus?” I asked and the tone in my voice was beginning to scare even me. His eyes kept moving from the two statues and then back to the large sarcophagus.

 

He took one step and was at my side. Placing his hand on my shoulder he, ever so slightly, shook his head from side to side without speaking a word.

 

“Have you ever seen anything like that before?” I asked softly as if now worried that something might hear us.

 

“Never!” His voice broke as he attempted to answer me.

 

 

Lowell and I were so engaged in the story that when his mother called on the baby monitor to tell us that the babysitter had arrived we both screamed.

 

“What’s the matter?” His mother’s voice came out of the monitor sounding alarmed.

 

“Nothing!” Lowell spoke into the air so that she could hear him. “We were just reading and you scared us!” he added.

 

Her tone changed to that of a loving mother with a hint of humor, “I am so very sorry I scared my precious little boys!”

 

Lowell was smiling and giggling at her comment, I was blushing.

 

“Why don’t you two come downstairs for a while. Lowell, your daddy will be home in a few minutes too.” She said.

 

“We are coming!” Lowell said without moving.

 

“Can she hear you reading with that thing?” I asked.

 

“Na, if she was we could hear her too.” He said getting up and heading for his closet.

 

“Man just when the story was getting super exciting too!” I complained.

“We can finish it after bit!” he said from inside the closet.

 

When he reemerged I was looking down at my diaper, “Hey you wet!” he said stating the obvious.

 

“Yea!” I said and then had the thought of how I would look going downstairs to meet a complete stranger while wearing a wet diaper. “Uh, um, could you change me before we go down?” I asked sheepishly.

 

“Why? You are not too wet yet!” he said waving me off.

 

“Please?” I begged.

 

“You are fine! My babysitter has seen me in wet and poopy diapers all the time! She won’t care!” he said and started out of his room.

 

Lowell please!” I continued to beg but he didn’t stop. After hesitating for only a few seconds, I swallowed my pride and followed him.

 

We tromped down the steps while Lowell sang out some song in time with the thudding of his bare feet on the steps. I had heard the song somewhere before but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

 

Kirri a, kirri a, kirri a laisson.”

 

After he sang the same line twice I joined him and it went something like this: “Kirri a,” step down one step, “Kirri a,” step down one step, “kirri a laisson,” step up one step. We continued singing like that all the way down the stairs, of course it took us longer to reach the bottom but it was fun and I totally forgot about the fact that I had on a wet diaper, at least until we reached the kitchen.

 

When Lowell reached the floor at the bottom of the steps he continued walking in the same manner, two steps forward and one step back while we still sang the song.

 

Kirri a, kirri a, kirri a laisson! Kirri a, kirri a, kirri a laisson!” and when we were about to step into the kitchen out song changed as we continued to march in and around Lowell’s mother and the kitchen island and out pass was steadily forward with no back steps until the end of our song and our marching. It went like this, “Kirri, kirri, kirri, kirri, kirri, kirri, kirri, kirri a! Kirri a, kirri, kirri a laisson!” and as we both came to a halt Lowell called out, “Squad halt!”

 

Lowell saluted his mother so I, still standing at attention behind Lowell saluted her too. “Solders Lowell and Simon reporting as ordered mommy!” Lowell said still saluting.

 

“At ease solders!” he said with a smile, “What are you singing?” she asked.

 

Lowell shrugged, “I dunno! Just some song!”

 

At that, very second all our fun ended, at least for me, when into the kitchen walked a very pretty, brown haired girl, maybe a little taller then myself but looking a couple years older, at least. Lowell, his mother and I were on the far side of the kitchen island looking across the island at the girl. Boy was I glad to have the island between us, effectively hiding my diaper from view, at least for the moment. Now, seeing her is not what disturbed me as much as what, or rather who I saw standing just behind her. It was Mary, my Mary, from school!

 

Mrs. Vandoan said to Lowell, “Stephanie brought her cousin, Mary with her to help seeing how there are two babies to watch.”

 

My eyes met Mary’s and she was smiling that smile of hers that normally made my heart feel like it was on fire however this time I think my heart stopped all together. Now, amazingly enough, despite the fact that I had just wet my diaper only a few minutes ago up in Lowell’s room while he’d been reading, I now felt my diaper filling again and I was very much aware of the extra weight between my legs.

 

There was an awkward silence before Mrs. Vandoan asked, “Simon? Are you alright?”

 

Lowell too was looking at me; in fact, all four of them were looking right at me. I felt trapped within my own frozen body. There was Mary, my sweet Mary smiling at me like she always does and beside her as a girl that looked nearly as wonderful as my Mary. And there was I wearing nothing but a shirt and a wet diaper and standing less then 10 feet away, separated only by an island counter top and a cabinet.

 

I started to feel cold and there was a funny pain somewhere within my body. I don’t know, well I didn’t know at the time what it was, my brain didn’t seem to be functioning again. I broke my eye lock on Mary and looked up at Mrs. Vandoan who’s lips were moving but no sound was coming out.

 

I honestly think I was on the verge of another very serious asthma attack brought on by the sudden shock of the moment however as quickly as it started Lowell stopped it was the stupidest of ways. I didn’t see him actually due it but he told me later that he stuck his finger into his mouth to get it good and wet and then stuck it into my ear. It’s called a Wet Willy and it’s about the grossest thing ever!

 

As soon as Lowell stuck his finger into my ear, I snapped back into reality. Though I was still feeling cold and flushed and Mrs. Vandoan was looking at me very concerned I was back in control. I grabbed my ear and swatted Lowell’s hand away, “Ah Lowell that’s sick!”

 

“I think somebody’s in love!” Lowell said only loud enough that I could hear him.

I wanted to punch him but since his mom was standing right there I figured I could wait until later. So I settled for saying, “Shut up!” without moving my lips so Mary and Stephanie wouldn’t know I said anything.

 

Mary was still standing there smiling and looking so beautiful. The two of them stepped into the kitchen and Mrs. Vandoan asked me, “Simon are you okay?”

 

Lowell answered for me, “Yea he’s fine his just in LOVE!” and he said it loud this time, loud enough that everyone heard him.

 

I felt the coldness in my body being chances away by the warmth of my embarrassment.

 

Mary stepped around Stephanie and I saw her cast on her arm and remembered how she’d ended up with a broken arm. Still smiling she said, “Hi Simon!”

 

Oh boy was I being torn up inside. I was feeling both embarrassed and titillated by the presence of Mary in the room.

 

Lowell punched me in the arm, “You’re supposed to say hi back!”

 

I only nodded at Lowell so he punched me again and his mom said, “Lowell stop hitting people!”

 

“But mom he’s being a dork!” Lowell complained.

 

“It’s okay! I think I surprised you, huh?” Mary said to me.

 

I nodded my head in agreement.

 

I think Lowell had enough of me acting stupid. He grabbed my arm and pulled me past his mother and around to Stephanie.

 

“This is my babysitter Stephanie. She’s the one I told you about!” Lowell said tugging on my arm out of frustration.

 

Lowell, be nice now! I think Simon is just being shy right now!” Stephanie said and then patted my left check affectionately.

 

Mary started to come around the island and Stephanie and I tried to pull my arm free of Lowell so that I could keep myself, or more accurately, my diaper safely hidden from Mary’s view.

 

“Looks like you both could use a change!” Mrs. Vandoan said and that was the last bit that my poor ego could handle. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I could hear the voice inside my head screaming at me not to cry but I was powerless to stop myself. In one last feeble attempt at staving off the tears, I closed my eyelids.

 

What happened next, I think, is probably the only thing that saved me from a complete and utter emotional meltdown. With my eyes closed, I heard a small, almost inaudible stinker followed by a much louder one. I threw open my eyelids and was looking at the back of Lowell’s diaper when it began to expand. There was the unmistakable sound of poop oozing out of his bottom and into his diaper. I watched the whole thing happen and when he was finished pooping his topped it off with one last fart that sounded like someone was letting the air out of a balloon.

 

I looked over at Mary, her smile was gone and in its place was a look of complete amazement. Her chin was now hanging down, leaving a gaping hole were her smile had been only seconds before.  Stephanie then spoke to Lowell in a kind of muffled giggle, “Well if you didn’t need changed before you sure do now!” she held out a hand to each of us. Lowell took her offered hand without hesitation. I on the other hand just stood there; so, Stephanie reached down, took my hand, and started to lead up to Lowell’s room.

 

I had the loudest buzzing sound in my ears as I came into full view of Mary. The hole in the middle of her face was gone now and back as if it had never vanished was her smile, wider and brighter then ever before. My face must have looked like a red balloon about to burst ‘cause that is sure how it felt to me as Mary began to follow the three of us out of the kitchen toward the stairs.

 

As the four of us reached the top of the stairs, from down below we heard, “I’m home!”

 

“Daddy’s home!” Lowell shouted and tried to break free of Stephanie’s grip but she held all the tighter to him.

 

“You can go see your daddy when you have been changed out of that poopy diaper!” Stephanie said.

 

“But its daddy! I got to go give him his hug!” Lowell whined.

 

“I think he would like your hugs better if you didn’t smell like poop!” she said as we entered Lowell’s room.

 

After the four of us were in Stephanie said to Mary, “Mary can you please close the door so the babies don’t try to get away before they are changed?”

 

Lowell was still tugging on his arm trying to get free while I basically was so embarrassed at this point that I wasn’t putting up any struggle at all. I just kept looking down at my feet. Heck, Stephanie could have lead me half way around the world by my hand and I probably would have followed right along without saying a word or putting up any protest at all.

 

Mary closed the door and while letting go of me but still holding on to Lowell, Stephanie got out the changing pad and laid it out on the floor. Lowell was still struggling but Stephanie didn’t seem to mind at all. I guess it was all part of the game for both of them. With a bit of force, not too much she got Lowell to lie down on the mat and started to change him. Leaving me standing beside Lowell’s bed she began to show Mary how she changed Lowell’s diaper. Since Lowell was still putting up a little bit of a struggle she had Mary retrieve all the diaper supplies, which Stephanie had told her were everything was as she needed them.

 

“Oh my goodness!” Mary said when Stephanie opened Lowell’s diaper.

 

“Yep! Someone is a stinky boy!” Stephanie said to Lowell.

 

When the smell hit me, I had to put my hand over my mouth and nose to keep from getting sick. It was about the grossest thing I think I have ever seen! It was all green and runny and had smeared all over his diaper area, even in the front!

 

Geez Lowell you stink!” and it took me a second or two to realize that I had said those words.

 

Mary looked up at me long enough to shoot me with that smile of hers which was enough to shut me up again. “Your turns coming next!” Mary said to me.

 

My face, ears, and neck felt so hot and maybe for a nano-second I thought about bolting for the door and down the steps but the thought was gone before it had a chance to take root within my brain.

 

Stephanie had to use several baby-wipes to get Lowell clean again. When she slid the dirty diaper out from under him, she gave it to Mary who, despite her cast managed to get it rolled up into a ball and reusing the tapes, secured it closed.

 

“I think we need to take that one outside when we are done and put it in the trash.” Stephanie said to Mary and then, looking down at Lowell she asked, “What on earth have you been eating anyway?”

 

“Skunk berries.” Lowell cheered and laughed.

 

Mary and Stephanie laughed too as Mary sat the old diaper on the floor and began to open the new one.

 

“I don’t want that kind! I want one of Simons!” Lowell whined.

 

Stephanie and Mary both looked at me, “That is the kind Simon is wearing.” Stephanie said.

 

“No, like I had on before! From his bag!” he continued to whine.

 

I found myself pointing across the room to my bag. Mary reached for it with her good arm and pulled out on of the diapers I had brought with me.

 

“Yea!” Lowell cheered and clapped his hands above him and finally stopped trying to wiggle himself away.

 

Mary opened the diaper and as Stephanie held Lowell’s legs in the air, Mary positioned the diaper into place under him. While Stephanie continued to hold him up, she had Mary apply the diaper cream to his bottom and then gave him an ample powdering.

 

Dispite my embarrasement, I rather enjoyed watching them change Lowell. I think at the time I was sort of feeling as if I was trapped in some kind of dream and was unable to figure out if it was real or not.

 

Stephanie applied the cream to Lowell’s front and Mary applied the powder. Lowell was smiling and giggling the entire time. Before too long they had him taped into one of my diapers and with each girl taking one of his hands they helped him to set up. Instead of standing all the way up, he rolled over and crawled across the floor to where I was standing by the foot of his bed. He poked me in the front of my diaper and said, “Your wet!”

 

“I think you’re next!” Stephanie said to me but just as before, I didn’t budge until she took my hand and pulled me toward the changing pad. “What kind of diaper do you want?” Mar asked as she and Stephanie helped me to lie down.

 

When I didn’t answer Mary asked, “You want one of these?” She held up the first diaper, the one Lowell didn’t want to wear, “Or...” she reached down into my bag again to get one of my diapers, “one of these?”

 

While Mary had been reaching into my bag, Stephanie started to lift up my shirt to get out my diaper and she saw my armor. Lowell suddenly started talking super fast, the way he had that day he’d come over to my house. “That’s so he doesn’t hurt his ribs ‘cause he got beat up and was in the hospital and . . .”

 

Stephanie turned around and swatted Lowell on the thigh, not hard but it made a solid crack when her hand made contact with his flesh. “What did I tell you about talking like that?” she said in a very stern voice.

 

Lowell looked crestfallen. His bottom lip jetted out almost instantly and his eyes began to fill with tears as he rubbed the red handprint left on his thigh.

 

“I asked you a question!” she was pointing a finger at him and speaking very sternly.

 

Sounding as if he was right at the verge of a full out balling he said, “You said not too do it!”

 

I was, myself, feeling as if I was in trouble too and I hadn’t done anything! However, when Stephanie turned back around she was smiling again and I knew that it was just another part of the game for them. I heard the words coming out of my mouth before I knew that I had even thought them, “Holy Sh...” I caught myself at the last possible second and slammed my lips together.

 

My eyes went to Mary first because I heard her gasp. She clamped a hand over her mouth as if she had been the one that had said it. Then I looked up at Stephanie who was looking really mad.

 

Ummmm!” Lowell said as if everyone needed him to point out that I’d just cussed.

 

“I-I DIDN’T MEAN IT!” I shouted quickly to Stephanie and put my hands down to cover my thighs, hoping she wouldn’t smack my bare leg as she had Lowell.

 

“Somebody’s got a very dirty mouth!” Mary said from behind her hand that she still had clamped over her mouth.

 

I suddenly felt very bad. I mean for real, for cussing or nearly cussing in this instance in front of Mary. Dispite my embarrasement at having the girl I love seeing me in such a humiliating and humbling predicament, I felt like I’d just thrown mud in her face, or worse, Lowell’s poopy diaper!

 

“I’m sorry!” I said while looking at Mary and I genuinely meant it.

 

“Well, I think we can deal with that later. For now I think we need to get you out of that wet . . .” Stephanie started to say but stopped and was looking right at my diaper which was still in place despite the fact that she had already removed the tapes. Until that very second, I had no idea that I was again wetting myself.

 

“Why did I have to drink all those bottles?” I thought to myself as the blood again rushed to my head giving away my emotions to all three of them. I heard Lowell giggling as I threw my hands over my face to hide myself from Mary.

 

“Good thing we didn’t have him in new diaper yet huh?” Mary said with a hint of humor.

 

“I know someone else that likes to do that right after I change him!” I heard Stephanie say and knew she must be talking about Lowell because I could hear him blowing a raspberry at her.

 

I had a flashback within my mind to the first time Mom changed my diaper after Peter had kicked the crap out of me. I remembered how I filled my mind with anything and everything just to keep myself from getting an erection. I felt the front of my diaper being pulled open and I started searching my mind of the worst memories I could find. The first thing I found was when I was laying on the floor at school and Peter was kicking me but I quickly left that memory and grabbed onto the one of the man in the van. I saw myself running away from the van as if I were now watching it all on a movie screen. I could see myself, then the van and then me again. I watched as I leaped over fences and ducked under low hanging tree branches while trying to escape.

 

Funny thing was that as I was watching all of this on the movie screen within my mind, I could also heard Stephanie and Mary talking but they sounded distant. I could also hear Lowell over there by his bed giggling and laughing at me.

 

“Need a stronger memory! Something worst!” I told myself, “There, that one!”

 

It was the memory of the birthday party when mom found out that dad was having the affair. The weird thing was that there was no sound to it this time. I could see people talking, yelling and even screaming but it was like someone had hit the mute button. I watched the whole thing play out and without the sound I found myself examining everyone’s actions with greater detail then I ever had before. However, before I could get through the whole memory, I felt someone pulling my hands away from my face and my eyes came open.

 

I saw Mary looking down at me, “All done!” she said with her wonderful smile and she bend down and kissed me on my forehead.

 

Oh man, that was the best feeling ever! I just can’t put into words how great that made me feel. I think it sent me out somewhere in space, orbiting some distant planet in a far off galaxy. Heck, even when Stephanie was taking me to be punished for cussing I was still way, way out there among the stars.

 

“Can you watch Lowell while Simon and I go have a little chat?” Stephanie said to Mary as the two of them helped me to my feet.

 

Holding me by the hand Stephanie opened the door, led me out of Lowell’s room, down the hall and into the bathroom.

 

“Open!” she said pulling down on my chin.

 

Like an idiot, I had no idea what she was up too so I opened my mouth and before I knew it she stuffed a bar of soap in my mouth so far that it made me gag. However, she didn’t let a little gagging stop her from punishing me. She held it in my mouth long enough for the taste of the soap to get on my tongue. Let me tell you that Irish Spring soap is about the nastiest stuff I think I have ever had in my mouth.  When she finally did take the bar of soap out, I spent a good ten minutes rinsing and spitting into the bathroom sink. I didn’t see her leave the room and when I finally had the taste washed out of my mouth, I pulled my head out from under the faucet to find Lowell leaning against the door jam. He had the most satisfied and elated expression on his face. I pulled a towel from off the towel-bar next to the sink to dry my face.

 

“She’s done that to me lots of times!” Lowell said with a grin.

 

“Shut up!” I snapped at him.

 

“Why are you mad at me? I didn’t make you say that!” he said still grinning.

 

“Well you could have told me Mary was coming over!” I said stepping forward so that I could look past Lowell to be sure Mary and Stephanie were not within earshot.

 

“I didn’t know Mary was coming over! Honest!” he offered as if I would believe him.

 

“I don’t think I have ever been so embarrassed in my life!” I said rather dramatically as I dried my left ear.

 

“Yea you sure were red!” Lowell said smugly.

 

That was the wrong thing for him to say, “Yea well you’re an ass-hole!” I said out of anger! The grin left his face now and was replaced with a look of shock.

 

“Why don’t you go tell your precious baby-sitter I said that?” I said as I threw the towel on the floor and stormed from the bathroom, knocking him out of the way in the process.

 

He didn’t say anything right then but he did follow me back to his room. It’s kind of hard to look mean and act angry when you have to waddle like a duck when you’re wearing a diaper. When I was back in his room I went straight for my clothes and was putting one leg into my pants when he said, “Simon don’t go!”

 

“Shut up!” I barked at him.

 

Lowell closed his bedroom door and placed his body between the door and I as if he could be any kind of hindrance if I really wanted past him. “Simon please don’t go! Please!” he said except this time, without having to look at him I could tell he was crying.

 

I put my other leg into my pants and pulled them up to my diaper and I turned to face him.

 

“Please!” he cried as tears flowed down his face.

 

“How do I even know if you are really crying? I seen how good you are at acting! How do I know this isn’t just another part of your little baby game?” I knew I was being cruel but I was so worked up and so humiliated that I wanted to lash out and he was a waiting target.

 

“How could you let her come over?” and then another thought occurred to me, “Oh god, how am I supposed to go to school on Monday now? She’s going to tell everyone!” now I was crying.

 

“She won’t! She said she won’t!” Lowell sobbed.

 

“What?” I asked realizing what he just said or actually, what he did not say.

 

“When did she say that? I thought you said you didn’t know she was coming over?” My tears stopped, as anger once again became my prevalent emotion.

 

“I didn’t know that it was Mary that Stephanie was bringing over! All I knew was that she was bringing someone to help her. Stephanie promised that no one would ever know about any of this!” he cried.

 

“No one?” It felt like I had flames coming out of the top of my head. “The one person in the entire world that I absolutely don’t want knowing about my diapers and she just happens to walk into your house and see me wearing nothing BUT A DIAPER?” I could feel the fire of my anger engulfing every inch of me and erupting from my head and the tips of my fingers. Every word I spoke was like spewing molten hot lava and the scary thing was that I think I was enjoying it. I pulled on my pants until I got them over my fresh diaper. That was the first time I realized that Mary and Stephanie had put me into one of the diapers I had brought and not one of Lowell’s more babyish-looking diapers.

 

“Simon please!” Lowell blubbered, “I swear! I swear!”

 

I reached back into my bag and found my socks and leaning my diapered but against the rails of his bed, I lifted my left foot and tried to get my sock on but it was hard to bend like that with my armor on. That added frustration only helped to keep the fire burning in me.

 

Lowell finally left his post as door guard and crossed to where I was still struggling to put on my sock. He started to speak but only got out, “You are . . .” before his bedroom door opened again.

 

It was both Mary and Stephanie and when they saw that I was getting dressed and that Lowell was full out balling they both stopped in their tracks. “What’s going on it here?” Mary asked first.

 

“Simon is leaving!” Lowell bellowed and stomped his foot.

 

“Why?” Stephanie asked.

 

I expected Lowell to tell them why I wanted to leave but he did not. Instead, he just stood there sniffling and wiping his tears on the back of his arm.

 

“Did you two have a fight or something?” Mary asked.

 

I do not know what came over me just then but my mouth opened and I could not re-close it to save my life! “I didn’t want you to see me in diapers or worse naked! Why did you have to come over anyway?” I continued to regurgitate words into the air with such force that it seemed to knock Mary and Stephanie backwards a step or two. What amazes me even now, is the fact that not once during my tantrum did I stutter or get tongue-tied. I doubt I will ever understand the reasons behind that one!

 

When I was finally done spewing the hot ash of my words at them, no one said anything for a minute or two until Mary finally spoke up softly, “But I already knew! I saw you in diapers before today . . . a couple times!”

 

“Huh?” was all I could manage say.

 

“At your party? And when I came to visit you at your house?” she said.

 

Not knowing how to respond, all that came out was, “But?”

 

“Even with your pants on I could tell you had on diapers,” She brushed her hair from her face, “and I thought you looked really cute!” she said and . . . was that a hint of her smile I almost saw just then?

 

I was dumbfounded, speechless and bewildered.

 

“Just because you wear a diaper doesn’t mean I don’t like you any less. Actually, I think I like you more because you do wear them.” Mary had said but all I really heard was, “I like you,” and “I like you more!”

 

“Y-you l-like me?” as the words came out of my mouth I thought; “Now I start stuttering?”

 

“Alright, enough of this yelling and fighting! I want you too to hug and make up right now!” Stephanie said giving Lowell a small push toward me, “And stop acting like a couple of spoiled little brats!” and at that, she cracked a smile, which started Mary giggling, and then Lowell. Despite my best effort not too, I smiled too before bursting into a hearty belly laugh.

 

Lowell stretched out his arms and started to hug me but, still laughing, I pushed him away, “I ain’t hugging you! Get away!”

 

Lowell tried again and again I pushed him away, “No, no, no!” I said still laughing.

 

Lowell still had a tear stained face and water filled eyes but was giggling and grinning. He was still holding his arms open but did not try to advance on me again so I said, “Okay come here!”

 

He smiled wider and stepped toward me for a third time but I pushed him away again giggling, “Eeew no! Go away!”

 

“Simon, hug him right now!” Stephanie said this time shoving Simon at me.

 

So, I let him wrap his arms around me but instead of hugging him back I turned just enough to get him in a headlock.

 

“No not like that!” Mary laughed and Stephanie took a step forward, about to intervene but I had just enough time to give Lowell several hard nuggies right on the top of his head.

 

“OUCH!” he cried out just as Stephanie was pulling him free of my grasp. Actually, it kind of hurt my ribs, just a bit, to hold him like that but I didn’t let on to anyone about the pain.

 

After Stephanie made Lowell and I make up they weren’t about to let the two of us be alone again anytime soon, so after having me strip back down to my diaper and shirt, they had the two of us march down stairs where they could keep a closer watch on us. However first, we made a pit stop in the bathroom so that Stephanie could wash our faces for us.

 

We arrived back downstairs just as Mr. and Mrs. Vandoan were putting on their coats to leave.

 

Mrs. Vandoan said to the two girls, “I’ve left the boys dinner on the second shelf in the refrigerator. You will need to warm it up for them. If they are good you can let them having it in the basement if they want.”

 

She then turned and looked right at Lowell and I. “You two behave and if you give Stephanie or Mary any trouble at all!”

 

Lowell’s father, whom looked nothing like I expected him to look added, “There’s a surprise for the two of you downstairs.”

 

We needed no other prompting. Lowell and I tore off for the basement steps fast as lightning. Lowell’s mom yelled after us, “And no running!” but we did not slow down this time!

 

Lowell reached the bottom of the stairs first with me hot on his heals. That is when we both saw it; a full sized, genuine arcade game, Ninja Master 12 - Revenge of the Ninja’s with the Kung-fu style controls and the multi-directional control ball.

 

“YAHOOOOO!” Lowell shouted as he ran up to it and screaming at the top of his lungs, “THANK YOU DADDY!” I had to grab my ears because he screamed so loud that it made the teeth in my head vibrate.

 

It was a two-player machine and we didn’t waste any time at all starting up our first game. Several minutes later Mary and Stephanie came down too and plopped themselves on one of the sofas and started watching some boring girly movie but neither Lowell nor I cared what they watched. We played for a couple hours, sometimes I would be the red Ninja’s and sometimes Lowell would let me be the back Ninja’s but either way we both enjoyed it so much.

 

We probably would have continued playing all night long had the girls not made us go upstairs to eat our dinner of corndogs and macaroni and cheese made in the microwave. Lowell and I both planned to go back down after we ate to play Ninja Master 12 more but after we finished eating, the girls decided we needed to go lay down for a while.

 

We whined and complained but in the end, they won the argument and we both ended up in Lowell’s bed. The girls tucked us in and left us to take a short nap but soon after they left Lowell asked, “Since we are up here you want me to finish my story?”

 

“Oh yea that’s a great idea!” I said kicking off the covers. In a flash, Lowell had lowered the railing on one side of his bed and rolled himself out. I watched as he vanished into his darkened closet only to rematerialize seconds later with his green and white box tucked under his arm.

 

He didn’t come right back to bed but instead tiptoed to his bedroom door, closed it quietly and then leapt back into bed with me. He put the guardrail back up while I found the story in his box and then slid the box under the covers so that if the girls came back in they wouldn’t see it.

 

We both laid back against the pillow and with a small flashlight, I’ve no idea where it came from, Lowell began to read again but quietly.

 

 

We looked at each other and we both knew the answer to my question. Uncle Max still had his hand on my shoulder and was squeezing a bit too hard.

 

“You’re hurting me!” I cried softly.

 

“What? Oh, sorry Jason.” He said letting go of me and wiping his face with the same hand.

 

“Do you think Miss Lillian Hassley could have opened it?” I asked.

 

“That cover must weigh over fifteen tons.” Uncle Max took a breath, “There is no way any one man, or woman in this case, could have moved it.”

 

“Uh you stay here.” He said as he took a single step away from me and toward the sarcophagus.

 

“Are you nuts? I am not staying alone anywhere down here!” I knew I was not being brave but then had anyone else seen what Miss Lillian Hassley looked like... Whatever did that to her was obviously big and powerful and there was no way I was going to be alone. Of course, I know the irony of it all, especially given that I was told to say up topside and I didn’t listen.

 

He stopped, turned and looked at me. My expression must have been enough to convince him that I was serious. With a twitch of his head he said, “Okay, but stay close to me.”

 

He took the lantern from me and we both walked slowly over to the center of the room. I could feel the wetness of my pants and the fabric touched the skin of my legs. It caused chills to run through me which only magnified the fear I was already feeling.

 

After a few steps, my stomach let out a growl that caused us both to jump, “Oh crap I am sorry,” I said grabbing my belly, “I guess I am hungry.”

 

I gave Uncle Max a half smile hoping he would stop looking at me the way he was, but he did not return my smile but instead said, “How on earth can you be hungry?” he motioned toward Miss Lillian Hassley’s body.

 

I shrugged my shoulders and we continued over to the edge of the stone sarcophagus. I had to stand on my tiptoes to be able to see down into the stone coffin and what I saw, I hope I shall never see the likes of again.

 

“Uh what is it?” I muttered under my breath.

 

He handed me the lantern so that he had both of his hands free. I could see clearly now that it was the mummy of a man, a very large man; he looked to be as wide as three normal sized men dressed in a robe of gold cloth. He was not wrapped in linen bindings, just a robe of gold cloth with strange symbols woven into the cloth. Moreover, his head was not a mans head but more like that of some mythical beast with two rams horns protruding from his forehead and spiraling outward of either side of his head.

 

We both examined the mummified beast carefully; my heart was aching within my chest from beating so ferociously and sweat was flowing down my face as if they were great drops of blood. I moved to position myself so that I was looking up from his feet, across his enormous frame all the way up to those deadly looking horns.

 

When Uncle Max finally said something, he scared me so bad that I dropped the lantern. It hit the floor with a crash leaving the two of us in total darkness.

 

“Oh god, oh god, oh god!” I was mumbling in the dark.

 

“Do not move!” Uncle max said in a near whisper, “Do you hear that?”

 

I did not so much as breathe as I listened in the darkness. There was a sound; a very distant, almost non-existent rumble that seemed to have originated from deep within the bowels of the earth. It was low and hard and seemed to grow stronger and louder by the second. When the urge within my lungs cried out for oxogine, I finally allowed myself to draw in a much-needed breath and my nostrils became filled with the overpowering sent of sulfur mixed with cinnamon, myrrh and spikenard.

 

 

“That’s it for this chapter!” Lowell stated.

 

“Whoa that was incredible!” I exclaimed.

 

Sshhh!” he hushed me.

 

“I didn’t have any idea that was who was in the sarcophagus!” I said with as much excitement but in a softer voice.

 

“But what was making that sound?” I asked.

 

“Yea well you are just going to have to wait to find out about that!” Lowell said.

 

“Where do you come up with this stuff?” I was nearly shouting with excitement.

 

“Just out of my head mostly!” he said.

 

“I was thinking the guy in the stone sarcophagus was going to be some ancient god or a mummy or something scary like that was so much better!” I said.

 

“So who is that guy with the horns anyway?” I asked.

 

“Not going to tell you yet!” he said.

 

I rolled up onto my elbow and grabbing his arm I asked, “Can you read me the next chapter now too?”

 

“I would but I’ve not wrote that one yet! I mean I started it but I have never finished it.” He said.

 

“It’s not finished?” I asked.

 

“I told you before that it wasn’t!” he said crawling from under the covers.

 

“Well, you need to get it done!” I implored him.

 

“I know, but it’s hard now that the computer isn’t in my room anymore!” he said lowering the rail and rolling out of bed again with his green and white box in hand.

 

“There’s no time like the present!” I said though I knew he wouldn’t go for it.

 

“Na, maybe tomorrow I will get to work on it.” He said, “My daddy will be out of town after tomorrow afternoon and won’t be back for a week.

 

“So you think you will finish it with one more chapter?” I asked as he came back out of the closet again.

 

“I dunno! Just a little more to finish up and I should be done!” he said.

 

“Want to see if we can go back down and play Ninja Master 12 some more?” he asked as he opened his close and stepped in again.

 

“Yea sure!” I said and then once again remembering what I wanted to tell him, I interjected, “But first, there is something I want to tell you, but you have to promise to never, and I mean never tell another living person!”

 

“Oh yea! I forgot you said you wanted to tell me some secret spy stuff!” Lowell said from inside his closet.

 

“Yea! But first you have to promise!” I repeated.

 

Re-emerging from the closet he said, “Gee-whiz Simon! Yes, yes, yes! You can trust me! I think I have proven that already!” he knelt beside the bed as if about to say his bedtime prayers.

 

I began to tell him everything and I mean everything. I told him about the night I slept over at Taters and what we did together. I shared my suspicions of Tater and his little brother Mike as well. Lowell was a good listener; he would “Ooo” and “Ah” in all the right places. When I told him about the night I snuck out to go apologize to my brother and everything that happened while I was out he told me, “You are so stupid!” but I didn’t get mad at him for it. He was right; it was stupid but it happened and I can’t change that now.

 

Lowell seemed genuinely fearful when I told him about meeting the old man, Mr. Peterson and having been in his house and lived to tell about it. I was surprised when Lowell said he knew all about that man and about the stories of him killing and eating his family. “How come I have never heard of any of it before?” to which Lowell just shrugged.

 

When I finished telling him everything there was to tell, even right up to what had happened earlier today at the barn, what I had heard there and how Runt acted afterward, he started to look scared. Not the kind of scared like he is watching some scary movie but scared like he was worried something was going to happen to me.

 

After I was done Lowell made me ‘Pinky Swear’ and ‘Cross-My-Heart’, that I would never go to the barn again and that I would not go outside alone again; I had to promise as it was the only way to get him to settle back down and not go nuts on me. He tried to talk me into telling my parents or the police but I told him that I wasn’t going to do that, not again, not ever!

 

Later that evening, sometime after 8:30 p.m., after Lowell and I had been changed again and while we were in the basement, sitting in the dark and watching Stargate SG1 on the Sci-Fi channel we heard the phone ring. I fully expected Lowell to leap from his seat to answer it but he didn’t so much as twitch when it rang. It rang two more times before the ringing stopped. A few seconds later Mary called down the stairs, “Simon, your daddy is on the phone.”

 

Lowell muted the television and got up so that he could turn on a light. “There’s a phone right over there!” he said pointing me over to the stairs.

 

I picked up the receiver and said, “Hello?”

 

My dad’s voice came though the phone, “Simon, it’s dad!”

 

“I’m going to hang up now.” I heard Stephanie say through the phone.

 

“Thank you Stephanie!” dad said.

 

“What’s up dad?” I asked.

 

“Simon, were you with your friend Mike today?” dad asked.

 

Not sure why he would call me here to ask such a question I answered, “Yea, for a while. We went to the park.”

 

“Where did you go after that?” he asked.

 

“No place.” I answered, “After we left the park he went to wherever he is staying now to check in and I went home to check in with mom.”

 

“You’re mom said you went looking for him after that. Is that right?” he continued his questioning.

 

“Yea but I didn’t find him. Did something happen?” I asked.

 

“Are you sure he was going home?” dad asked totally ignoring my question.

 

“I don’t think he is allowed to go home. I guessed he was going to wherever he is supposed to be living right now.” I answered as fear mounted.

 

“And you didn’t see him after that?” he asked.

 

“I said I didn’t dad!” I answered.

 

“Alright, I believe you but I want you to get your things together. I’ll be there to pick you up in about fifteen minutes.” He said in a very normal tone, which didn’t help to ease my concerns as to why he was asking me all these questions about Mike.

 

“Pick me up? But why? Why can’t I stay?” I was nearly in tears now.

 

Dad’s voice went really sharp and almost yelling he said, “Simon! Get your things together and be ready to come home! I will be there in fifteen minutes and no more questions!”

 

The phone went dead after that. I hung up and turned to Lowell who looked white as a ghost. I opened my mouth to tell him I had to leave but he spoke first, “I could hear everything.” He said.

 

Mary appeared out of nowhere with Stephanie; Lowell told them what my dad had said.

 

“I better call you parents!” Stephanie said to Lowell as she picked up the phone and started dialing.

 

Lowell and I went back up to his room so that I could get dressed and get my things together.

 

I pulled off my new shirt and said, “You better keep this here. I don’t think my mom will like it very much.”

 

“Okay, that way you will have to come over again so you can wear it more!” Lowell said tossing it on his bed.

 

“So, what do you think happened?” Lowell asked helping me put my socks on.

 

“I don’t know!” I answered him.

 

Before we headed back down to meet my dad, Lowell fetched a pair of sweat pants and his bathrobe from his closet. Retrieving a pair of Spongebob slippers from under his bed, he slipped his toes into them and we left his room.

 

We had only just got back downstairs when the doorbell rang.

 

BING-BING-BING, BONG, BONG, BONG, BONG!

 

“Holy cow! Is that your door bell?” I asked as we reached to bottom of the steps. Lowell didn’t have a chance to answer me as Stephanie had opened the door am my dad stepped into the foyer. I made a quick assessment of his disposition and he didn’t look mad, but he also didn’t look normal either. As I was trying to zip up my coat, the phone rang again and Mary ran into the kitchen to answer it.

 

“You have everything?” dad asked.

 

“Yea!” I answered setting my things down.

 

“Mr. Leonard? Is Simon in trouble?” Lowell asked. Moreover, the way he asked made him sound like an innocent little boy who was loosing his best friend forever.

 

Dad leaned over and helped me to zip my coat as I was still fumbling with the dang zipper. “No Simon’s not in trouble.” Dad answered him.

 

“Then why won’t you let him spend the night with me?” I heard Lowell’s voice crack and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was genuinely about to start crying or if he was just acting again.

 

There was a flash of light against the open front door and the sound of a car pulling up. Stephanie, who was standing between my dad and the open door turned to look to see who it was.

 

“Mr. and Mrs. Vandoan are here.” She told my dad.

 

“You four stay here and I will be right back.” Dad said stepping back out the door and closing it behind him.

 

“What is going on?” I said out of frustration.

 

“I don’t know.” Mary said with a soft shrug of her shoulders.

 

Lowell ran over to the front window to look out but Stephanie yelled at him, “Lowell, stay away from those curtains!” and effectively stopped him in his tracks.

 

“But I want to see what’s happening!” Lowell whined and I noticed it was different this time. I made a mental note of how he sounded with he was genuinely whining and not just playing his little game.

 

“Why don’t you say goodbye to Simon and then go up to your room.” Stephanie told him.

 

I was still looking at Lowell who looked very insulted and put out by the suggestion and I think he was about to begin protesting when the front door opened again and Mrs. Vandoan came in.

 

“Thank you for calling us Stephanie!” She said pulling off her gloves. “Could you and Mary please take Lowell up to his room for a little while?” she no sooner finished asking when in came Mr. Vandoan and my dad.

 

“But I don’t what to go to my room!” Lowell whined just as his father stepped inside and heard Lowell.

 

Lowell Vandoan! Get to your room like your mother told you!” his father barked and as if God had commanded him, Lowell took off running back up the steps with the two girls starting to follow after him but Mr. Vandoan spoke again, “Girls, give us a few minutes and then I will drive you both home.”

 

“Okay! Just give us a shout!” Stephanie said as if nothing serious was going on.

 

Mary smiled at me, “By Simon! Hope to see you on Monday!”

 

“Thank you for your help tonight girls!” dad said to them just before they too vanished to the upper floor.

 

“What can we do to help?” Mr. Vandoan said to my dad.

 

“Honestly at this point I’m not sure but I do appreciate the offer and if you two don’t mind,” he was speaking to both of Lowell’s parents, “we might find our needs to be many after a day or two.”

 

“Call us!” Mrs. Vandoan said, “We will do anything we can.”

 

“That’s good to know.” Dad said and then bending over he picked up my things and said to me, “Let’s go!”

 

“Simon, you are welcome anytime!” Mrs. Vandoan said as I walked out behind dad.

 

“Thank you!” I said.

 

I tried interrogating dad on the way home to find out what was going on but he wouldn’t tell me anything and after my fifth or sixth question, he snapped at me. “Simon! Sit back in that seat and keep your mouth shut!”

 

A couple minutes of total silence passed and then we turned onto our street. We were at the top of the hill and I could see below, sitting in front of our house was a police car, a silver car and other that I recognized when we pulled into the drive way as Jamie’s mom’s car.

 

I was not even all the way out of the car before mom came rushing up to me and nearly killed me by hugging me so hard. Had it not been for my body armor I surely would have been hurt.

 

“Mom you are hurting me!” I whimpered.

 

She released me, “Oh baby I am sorry! Are you alright?” she petted my chest as if to sooth away any discomfort.

 

I looked up and officer, Mecums, my Amazonian friend was standing behind mom looking ten times bigger and looking like she wanted to eat a building or wrestle a grizzly bear. She kept looking around at the neighbors’ houses, the cars and then to me. Whenever her eyes would land on me, she would smile but when she wasn’t looking right at me, she had the meanest looking snarl.

 

She looked at dad and said, “Come on, let’s get your family inside.”

 

“I’ll be right in, I’m going to put his things in the other car.” Dad said.

 

Mom and officer Mecums ushered me into the house as I stepped into the front door I saw Jamie's mom, Marsha standing in the middle of the living room looking very scared. I wasn’t three steps into the house when I started in on them, “What’s going on!” I screamed, “Why won’t anyone tell me what is happening? Why did dad want to know about Mike? Is Mike okay?”

 

Tears began to flow and officer Mecums knelt down in front of me. After a second or two of just looking at me she finally told me that Mike was missing and they think his older brother, Tate is the one that took him because Tate too was missing.

 

Dad walked in followed by another police officer I didn’t know. Officer Mecums sat down on the couch and had me sit down on her lap which was kind of hard given that she was such a large lady and because she had so much police equipment on her gun belt.

 

Everyone kept asking me about Mike, when I saw him, were we went, what we did, over and over and over again and I kept telling them everything that we did except about the barn and about my run in with Runt. I still don’t know why I didn’t tell them. Maybe because the last time I broke down and spilled my guts I ended up getting a lot of people into a lot of trouble. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and just burst out crying. Mom swooped me into her arms and held me against her chest as I sobbed.

 

Marsha finally spoke up, “It’s late, why don’t we get going.”

 

Officer Mecums stood up, “Yes, I think that’s probably for the best.” Then turning to dad she added, “I will make sure a cruiser comes by the house every half hour and I’ll be in contact with you in the morning.”

 

Mom started to walk me out of the house, which wasn’t such a big deal given that I’d never even taken my coat off the entire time however I was very wet and minutes after being outside my diaper started to quickly chill.

 

“Where are we going?” I asked between sobs.

 

“You are going to stay with Marsha for a couple days.” Mom said as if so completely engulfed in negative emotions that they canceled themselves out leaving her almost robotic sounding.

 

“Why can’t I stay with you?” I asked.

 

Jamie’s mother, Marsha stepped up her pace to get ahead of us so that she could open her car door and without answering my question mom sat me in the back seat beside the things I had packed for my overnight stay with Lowell.

 

“Mom I want to stay with you!” I began to cry.

 

Before closing the door, she leaned down, buckled my seatbelt and kissed my forehead. “You be good and don’t give Marsha any trouble!”

 

“Are you and dad staying too?” I tried to ask as I cried and as mom was closing the car door, something behind her caught my attention.

 

I noticed that there was a light shining though my bedroom window, or rather where my bedroom window should have been. As Marsha pulled away, I only got a quick look to see that both window sashes had been totally smashed.

 

Now maybe it was because Marsha doesn’t see me as the little boy that mom always seemed to see when she looks at me because when I asked my first question, “What happened to my window?” she proceeded to tell me everything that had happened.

 

She first told me, “I probably should be telling you this but maybe it is best that you know and since no one is willing to do it, I guess I have too.”

 

Yea her logic was pretty screwed up but then I was about to object. I wanted to know what the heck was going on!

 

After justifying to herself that what she was about to do was the right thing, she started telling me everything. I wish I could remember every word she said but honestly, it’s all kind of fuzzy in my head now and I can only remember the general ideas of everything she said.

 

She explained to me that someone had broke into my house this evening. Then she confirmed for me that Mike and his brother are really missing and that the police believe Tater took Mike but no one seems to know where. She seemed to support the same thinking of the police in that they believe that it was Tater that broke into my house either before or after he kidnapped his younger brother and had come to take me too but when he saw I wasn’t home he went crazy and ransacked everything I owned!

 

Only god knows why she then went into details about what must have happened like she was doing the play by play announcing of the demolishing of my room. I don’t know why I remembered this part so clearly and everything else seems so foggy. Actually, it’s the part I wish I didn’t remember at all. Even though I never saw that damage to my room I could still, very vividly imagine it inside my mind.

 

“He must have broke in through your window right after your parents left for there dinner date this evening. The police think he was inside the house for about an hour but during that time he shit on the floor and pissed on the walls and your bed. He smashed your computer and threw the little TV to the floor. He smeared all of your clothes in his shit and kicked holes your closet and bedroom doors. All of your books were ripped apart and thrown everywhere. He pulled out the dresser drawers, spilled their contents on the floor and slashed the mattresses from both beds. He must have used your desk chair to smash your desk to pieces. Now I didn’t actually see it but I heard one of the police officers saying they found an empty vodka bottle embedded in the ceiling over your bed but I did see the hole where it had been. And I lost count of the number of empty beer cans that were everywhere!”

 

By the end of her first sentence, I was sobbing and by the time she finished, I had stopped crying for the most part and started to feel somewhat numb, almost dead inside.

 

A thought occurred to me, “W-where w-was m-m-mom and d-dad?” I asked.

 

“Well, since you were staying with a friend they decided to have an evening just to themselves.” She explained.

 

Th-then th-they w-w-were n-n-not home?” I needed confirmation of that.

 

“No one was, thankfully!” She said as we left the housing area and emerged onto the main road.

 

I didn’t talk for several minutes. I sat quietly sniffling in the backseat thinking and rethinking about everything. After a while I just sort of blurted out, “M-maybe the b-bad g-guys g-g-got Mike and Tater!”

 

“What bad guys?” she asked as she adjusted her rearview mirror so she could see me better.

 

Th-the ones th-th-that w-were t-taking all those kids!” I said.

 

“Oh Simon? Didn’t you know that they caught that bad man and he is dead now? He won’t be taking or hurting any more children!” she said trying to make eye contact with me via her rear-view mirror.

 

Trying not to implicate myself in the fact that I was concealing many secrets I said, “M-m-maybe th-there were more! M-m-maybe f-f-five or six b-bad guys!”

 

She did her best to assure me that there were no more ‘bad guys’ and I am sure she must have been thinking that I had been watching way too much television.

 

Mostly out of frustration for not knowing how to tell her that I knew there were more bad guys and I knew were they are, or at least were hiding as of this afternoon, I decided that I didn’t want talk the rest of the way to her building downtown. Despite my self-imposed vow of silence, every couple of minutes she would say something else but I didn’t comment; she seemed to be talking more to herself then to me anyway.

 

When we pulled up in front of the building that she and Jamie lived in there was a police cruiser sitting out front. She drove around it, waved to the cop sitting behind the wheel and then pulled into the parking garage. We went up to the eighteenth floor of the garage before she parked the car.

 

“We’re here!” she announced.

 

She offered to help me carry my thing into her place but I refused, “I can do it myself!” I declared.

 

I did not even make it two steps into the apartment when Jamie came running up to us. I fully expected him to begin bombarding his mother and I with questions but instead all he said was, “Are you guys okay?”

 

I spotted a very hansom and yet skinny man emerging from the kitchen as Jamie was pulling my backpack away from me and saying, “Let me put your stuff in my room.”

 

I think I would have rather had him acting excited or mean then acting so polite and friendly. It was somewhat unnerving to be honest.

 

Marsha and I were removing our coats as the handsome man, who was drying his hands with a lime green hand towel, said with a bit of a lisp, “Hello!”

 

“Simon!” Marsha reached out for my coat; “This is Ian from down the hall.”

 

I handed my coat to Jamie’s mom and extended my hand to Ian, “Hi!”

 

“Oh he’s a little gentleman!” Ian said and I instantly figured out that Ian was not just gay, he was one of those really gay guys like on TV.

 

“Thank you so very much for watching Jamie on such short notice!” Marsha said giving Ian a pat on his left cheek and a quick peck on his right. “You are so wonderful!”

 

Ian began fanning his face with his hand, “Can you tell Patrick that?” and laughed through his nose kind of like a hissing snake.

 

“Are either of you hungry?” he asked as Marsha was hanging out coats up, “I was just putting away the leftovers of Jamie and my dinner.”

 

“I’m not hungry!” I said to Ian and than asked, “Um, can you let go of my hand now?” since Ian still was holding on to my hand that I offered to him to shake and not to keep.

 

“Oh I am sorry!” He said exactly like a flaming fruit and though I did not mean to do so, I laughed but he didn’t take insult at it. Instead, he smiles and said, “See now there you go! Laughter is the best medicine!” and out of the corner of my eye I caught Marsha giving him the cut-it-out sign by dragging her hand across her throat.

 

Ian, smiling bigger then life leaned forward and taking my face in his hands, he brought his face close to mine. “You know what you need?”

 

As much as I could with him holding my face, I shook my head from side to side. “You need a death by chocolate sundae!”

 

“Oh Ian not at this hour! You will have him up all night long!” Marsha said throwing her hands in the air and walking past him.

 

Not letting go of my face, Ian said to me, “Tomorrow then!”

 

“Okay!” I said mostly hoping he would let me go, as I was feeling very uncomfortable with his close proximity.

 

He finally realest me and the second I was free, I ran to Jamie’s room. I found him just coming back out again, “Oh there you are!” he said sounding a little uncomfortable.

 

Stepping to one side he allowed me to pass and enter into his room. I guess I am not all that sure what was going through my head just then. I think I just wanted to be alone, to disappear inside myself, or maybe to wake up. Yea that’s it, to wake up and find out that the past couple hours were all just a dream.

 

I sat down on the end of Jamie’s bed and without saying anything else to me he closed his door, came over and sat down next to me. Neither of us spoke or did anything but sit there quietly staring at the floor. I supposed I ended up falling asleep sitting there because the next think I knew, I was waking up with Jamie’s arm draped over my neck.

 

His room was nearly very dark. The glow of his alarm clock was the only light in the room to see by. When I finally managed to free myself from under his arm, I slid myself out from under the covers and noticed right away that I had on a different diaper. I was still wet but I was not as wet as I had been when I arrived and it left me with a small mystery. Who changed me, Jamie or his mom?

 

Due to the darkness in his room, it took me a while to find my things and to locate my electronic journal. I turned it on and used the light from the screen as a flashlight so that I could get back into the bed where I spent the next couple hours writing about everything that happened. I had to stop several times because recounting some of the events of my day made me begin crying. I didn’t want to wake Jamie with my weeping so I forced myself to stifle any sounds and just let my tears flow silently from my eyes.

 

Eventually, I felt as though I had adequately captured the events within my memory and had the safely stored within my e-journal. Thus, I turned of my e-journal, sat it on the floor next to the bed and then slid myself back under the covers.

 

I laid looking up at the ceiling and wondering why Tater would take his brother and why he would destroy my room. After a while, I started to feel the tears beginning to build up again but instead of allowing them to come I slide closer to Jamie and snuggled against him for security. It wasn’t too much longer before I driving off to sleep again.

 

 

Next Installment:

Chapter 7 – Saturday, March 06, 2004 – New Friends, New Experiances

 

 

** For the latest news on how each installment is coming along as well as answers to questions asked by other readers and so much more, visit me at www.talkhard.5u.com.  As always, your thoughts matter to me very, very much, so please send any comments, questions, suggestions, or criticism to me at: [email protected] and I promise that I will reply personally to everyone that takes the time to write to me!  **