Next Door

	I watched from my bedroom window as the car pulled up 
at the house next door. It was really more a bus than car as 
it had eight seats. No one had lived in the house for a few 
months so it was a nice to see someone there at last. Mum 
had told me that the house had been taken over by a new 
family with four children, one of the boys was my age so she 
hoped I would make friends with him as I don't have many 
friends around here.
	The father opened the rear doors and the family spilled 
out onto the drive. There was mum and dad of course, a girl 
about 12 or 13 years old and 3 boys, one about 8, one about 
6 and the other about 4 years old. Dad herded them all into 
their new house and I went back to watching TV until the 
furniture van arrived. The driver reversed it into the 
driveway but because of the flowerbeds he could not get 
close to the front door. 
	They started to unload the van and I watched as each 
item was carried into the house. It all started to get a bit 
boring while the big pieces of furniture were unloaded so I 
started to go through each item making a list in my mind of 
what had come out and what must be left.
	My list became shorter as the van emptied but so far I 
had only seen one bed and mattress leave the van, then there 
was another single bed, this one had a mattress that was 
covered in vinyl making it hard for the removal man to 
carry. Next came a folded down package that looked like a 
large cot and a smaller mattress, again covered in vinyl. I 
made a note that this must be for the youngest boy although 
he looked a bit big for a cot to me. As I watched another 
folded package and small mattress was carried from the van 
and finally another. A few boxes and packing crates were 
followed but no other furniture was left. I went through it 
in my mind but I was sure I had not seen any other beds so I 
guessed they must be getting new ones or something. As the 
van pulled away the whole thing dropped from my mind and I 
went into the back garden to see if anyone was around.
	Whilst the removal man was unloading their mother had 
sent the boys into the garden to keep them out of the way. 
They were now playing in the tree house that the previous 
people had built so I walked over to the hedge to talk to 
them. The oldest boy lowered himself down from a branch and 
came over to chat through a hole in the hedge. I had spent 
some of the summer playing in the garden so this hole was 
big enough for me to climb through. He told me his name was 
Michael and introduced his brothers, Alan and James. We 
chatted about where they came from, there ages and mostly 
about how great the tree house was. 
	After a few minutes Alan slipped down from the tree 
house as well and sat with us. By now I had slipped through 
the hole in the hedge and was on the lawn in their garden 
with them. James tried to drop from the tree house the same 
way his brothers had but since he was much shorter he could 
not reach. Michael stood up to catch him and help him down. 
As he hung from his arms his tee shirt rose up and I could 
clearly see something sticking out of the top of his shorts, 
it was almost clear vinyl and white. Without thinking I 
blurted out "is he wearing a nappy?"
	As I said it I looked over at Alan, he was sitting 
opposite me, I looked down at his shorts and between his 
legs, through the leg opening of his shorts I could see his 
nappy as well. He followed my gaze and quickly closed his 
legs blocking my view but I could see the bulk of it in his 
shorts now. As Michael reached up to lower James I looked 
over to him. I was sure that his bottom looked bigger as 
well. He lowered him to the ground then came back over to 
sit with me as James and Alan ran into the house.
	We both sat in silence for a few minutes before he 
eventually spoke. I could see he was upset as he said, "you 
won't tell anyone will you?" I said straight away that I 
wouldn't because somehow I knew that Michael and I were 
going to get on really well. I asked him why he was in a 
nappy and he explained that he had to wear them at bedtime 
because he wet the bed. I pointed out that it was the middle 
of the afternoon and he said that his mum put all of them in 
a nappy for the car journey because they had left their old 
house early in the morning and they might sleep in the car. 
Because she was so busy in the house she had not been able 
to change them yet. 
	For some reason I was really excited about discovering 
his secret and I really wanted to know more so I asked lots 
of questions. Michael didn't seem to mind answering them and 
it became quite obvious that he really quite liked wearing a 
nappy and he liked me knowing about it. As we chatted I knew 
there was something I really wanted, I wanted to see his 
nappy. Eventually I asked him and he agreed. 
	We checked no one was watching and he slowly lowered 
the elastic waist of his shorts to reveal the top of his 
plastic pants. I could see the pins on each side that held 
the cloth in place through the almost clear vinyl but he 
lowered the pants a little to show me them properly. They 
had little white plastic safety covers over the pins, which 
Michael said was to stop them coming undone and sticking 
him.
	 He pulled his pants back up and checked his nappy was 
tucked into them all round and was about to pull his shorts 
up but I stopped him. I asked if he would show me all of his 
nappy not just the top. He hesitated for a few moments then 
laid on his back and pulled his shorts down to his ankles. 
Then I could see why he hesitated, around his crutch and 
between his legs the nappy was not white but yellow where he 
had peed.
	I was really excited at seeing his wet nappy and he 
knew it.