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 1 -- Friday, March 05, 2004 -- In the Presence of Mine Enemies?

 

When I woke up again this morning, I knew I had not been asleep for very long at all. From my clock, I could see that it was only a few minutes to five and yet I felt rested and finished sleeping. Wanting to get a jump on the day, I got right out of bed only to find that my cloth diaper was sagging down between my legs a lot more then normal. Instead of trying to wake mom or dad again, I decided to go ahead and get out of it myself, take a shower on my own and then hope that maybe one or both would be up by then. I knew that taking a shower on my own was risky and would potentially get me into trouble, I mean if I managed to hurt myself, but I wanted to prove that I could do it. So, I stripped down to nothing but my armor and my slippers and had to hold my breath when I took off my diaper because it was especially pungent this morning for some unknown reason. After tossing my wet and smelly diaper into the pail by my door, I pulled on my robe, tossed my pajamas into my hamper and headed out to the hallway bath.

Before turning on the shower I decided to sit on the toilet, just to reduce the chances of having a third day in a row in which I messed myself. After waiting for several minutes I felt the pressure building and before long my bowels opened and I pooped a big long log. I know that sounds gross, but I was somewhat proud of it, because I had done it in the toilet this time and not in my diaper. I can just envision the mess it would have made inside a diaper, not to mention the stench and humiliation I could have been forced to deal with yet again!

Despite trying, I couldn't reach around myself to wipe my own bottom, but I didn't much care as I was able to deal with it in the shower when I was finished. I did however make a mental note. Come Monday, and every day that followed until I was healed enough to be able to wipe myself, I was going to have to plan on getting up a little earlier, so that I could sit on the toilet before school to avoid having to poop at school and then have to go around with a poopy crack. Worse yet, having to go to the nurse and ask to be changed out of a poopy diaper!

"Yikes!" I actually said aloud.

I managed to wash nearly all of my body without taking off my armor until the very last. I came up with a clever way of washing my backside. Instead of using a washcloth like I normally do, I used a hand towel, which I soaped up, strung between my legs and pulling it back and forth. With one hand holding in front and one behind me I got my bottom, crack and boyhood parts cleaned until no more poop signs were on the towel. I felt rather cleaver at thinking that little trick up, if I do say so myself!

When I did take off my armor to wash my upper body, I was very, ultra-super careful not to move too much. When I had my upper body clean, I proceeded to wash and rinse my armor before turning off the water.

Still being as careful as I possibly could be, I stepped from the shower onto the bathmat so that I could dry myself and my armor, which I put right back on before trying to dry the rest of my body. Well except for my hair, I had to dry it first, because it kept dripping onto the rest of me.

It was very difficult to get my armor back on by myself and after several failed attempts I surrendered to the idea that I needed assistance. As a result, I wrapped the towel around myself and left the bathroom to go wake my parents; except, I found that mom was already up and was pulling on her robe.

With concern in the way she spoke, she asked softly so as not to wake dad just yet, "Were you just in the shower?"

"Yes, but I need help getting my armor back on." I answered holding it out to her.

"Oh okay, just a minute." She said.

I slowly made my way back to my room where I waited beside Jamie's bed. She came in, helped me get strapped in, and then told me, "Next time, I want you to wait. I know you want to do things yourself, but I don't want you to get hurt and end up back at the hospital or stuck in bed again."

"Okay!" I agreed as she kissed my forehead and started to go to my dresser to get my diapering things.

"Today's Friday!" I said.

"I know that!" she said back.

"I'm supposed to sleep over at Lowell's tonight!" I reminded her.

"Oh yes! I had forgotten. Do you think you are ready for that?" she asked.

I knew what she was asking of me and though I answered "Yeah," it did not come out sounding very convincing.

"I want you to be careful and no rough-housing over there! If you feel uncomfortable or uneasy while you are there, you can call and we will come get you!" she said bringing the diapering supplies to my bed.

Once again, I assumed the position without having to be told to do so and she slide one of my disposable diapers under my naked bottom.

"Have you looked outside yet today?" she asked.

"No, but I did during the night." I said, "It was snowing again."

"It looks like we got another six or eight inches overnight." She said.

"Cool! Then they will close school again!" I celebrated.

Sounding confused mom said, "You didn't have to go to school anyway."

"Not for me, for my friends!" I explained.

She smiled as she applied the diaper cream, "I'm sure they will be just as happy when they see the snow and hear about the closings on the radio."

"Can I go outside after breakfast?" I asked.

"As long as you are careful and stay close to home!" she said.

"Can I go to the park?" I asked.

"I don't think so!" she said.

"But I went yesterday and it was a lot worser out yesterday!" I said.

"It's worse, not worser." She corrected me.

"It was a lot worse out yesterday!" I said properly this time and adding a strong, "PLEASE!" which I drew out nice and long for effect.

When she didn't answer right away I tried to sway her by saying, "BJ will go with me!"

"Just so long as you don't go alone and be very careful! I want you checking occasionally!" she said smearing my bottom with the diaper cream.

In no time, she had me diapered and mostly dressed except for my boots. In my stocking feet, I went to the kitchen with mom and found dad standing at the sink looking groggy and only wearing his boxer shorts and slippers.

"Morning dad!" I said and as he turned to look at me I saw that he didn't look so good.

"You sick?" I asked.

"No! Someone woke me up in the middle of the night and I couldn't get back to sleep!" he groaned.

"Why did you get up?" Mom asked him and then looked at me.

"Because your son needed changed!" dad said.

Mom got quiet and only answered with, "Oh!" as she started to make the coffee.

"Sorry dad!" I said sitting down at the table.

"It's okay!" he said coming over to me, taking hold of my head and pulling it all the way back so that he could kiss me.

"I'd do anything for you!" he said, which seemed somewhat sappy for dad.

And the kiss? I mean, dad never kisses me on the lips anymore. I chalked it all down to his lack of sleep, but never the less, it was still kind of unexpected.

Mom made us a big breakfast, I think mostly because yesterday morning we didn't get to eat so well. I mean, I didn't mind having Pop Tarts, but I think mom minded more then she let on.

After finishing my eggs, toast, sausage links, hash browns and downing a big glass of orange juice, mom helped me into my coat, hat, gloves and boots while Dad helped me into my snowshoes. As I was going out the backdoor, I found the other pair of snowshoes BJ had borrowed leaning against the back railing.

"Guess BJ was here sometime last night!" I commented thoughtfully.

"I'd say you are right." dad said and then asked, "Where you going?"

"To go get BJ out of bed! We got unfinished business from yesterday!" I said while trying to make it sound important!

"Wait a minute!" mom shouted from inside the house. A second later she was pushing dad out of the way and handed me an envelope.

"Give this to BJ's mom and tell her I said thank you!" The way she said it made it seem like the envelope contained something very important.

"Okay!" I said and slipped it into my coat pocket before picking up the other pair of snowshoes. I had dad tie them to my back while he complained about the cold. I mean he was only wearing boxer shorts so I guess he was entitled to complain. When he said he was done I lit-out and was marching off across the freshly fallen snow as I headed for BJ's house.

I had reached the halfway point when I heard the sound of someone yelling from way off in the distance. When I turned to try to locate it, I could see someone way down Chester-Brown Street waving his or her arms and shouting. From that distance, I could not tell if the person was waving at me or for someone else. Heck I wasn't even sure if it was a kid or an adult but I was guessing it was a kid.

I waved back and they waved again, letting me know it was me that they wanted. Whoever it was--since they didn't have snowshoes, they were not able to move through the snow as easily as I was with my snowshoes on. I started walking toward them and when we were less then a block apart from each other, I realized it was Mike.

"HI MIKE!" I shouted and we soon reached each other.

Breathing hard Mike said; "Hey Simon!"

"What you doing out here so early?" I asked.

"Called," gasp, "your house" gasp, "to see if you," gasp, "might want company," gasp, "today." Mike leaned over and put his hands on his knees to try to catch his breath.

"Dang Mike, you sound like an old fat man!" I teased.

Mike stood up and waved me off, "Hey, I was running," gasp, "up hill in the snow!"

"I was on my way to go get BJ out of bed. Want to come?" I asked.

"You guys doing something today?" he asked still gasping.

"Nothing too important." I answered, "Probably walk to the park again. We were there yesterday."

"You were out yesterday?" he asked.

"I have been out the last couple days!" I said before adding, "I'm doing lots better!"

"Looks like it!" he said.

"I'd show you the plastic rib protector my doctor made for me, but I got on too many layers and it's too freaking cold out here." I said.

"Yeah, my nose won't stop running." Mike said wiping it on the sleeve of his coat.

"So, you want to come with me?" I asked again.

"Yeah sure!" he said.

I gave Mike the second pair of snowshoes and showed him how to strap them on and how to walk in them. He fell three times before getting the knack of them. I had to walk a lot slower the rest of the way to BJ's because whenever Mike walked fast in the snowshoes he would go down again.

As we made our way we talked mostly about how much trouble his brother was in, and how much Mike hated him. I never was able to get up my nerve to ask him what really happened between him and Tater, to make him hate his older brother so much, but I still have my suspicions about that.

The conversation soon turned to the man on the news that everyone was saying was the kidnapper. I did not tell Mike about my run-in with the man or seeing Runt afterward either.

"My mom said that all the parents in town are happy that he is dead!" Mike said.

"Yeah, I figure that's why so many kids were out playing in the snow yesterday!" I said as we passed two girls just coming out of their house. One of which did a belly flop right into the snow. Mike and I both laughed, as did the girls.

Not too long after that Mike took another spill, this time face first into the snow and I had to stop myself from laughing before I was able to help him get back on his snowshoes. Snow had gone down the front of his coat and into his shirt. He was wiggling and complaining about how cold it was as he pulled off his gloves, unsnapped his coat and tried to get it all out before it melted and got him all wet.

"I'm sorry Mike, but that was just too funny!" I laughed.

"Yeah! Well that's `cause it wasn't you that was in the snow." He said.

I went on to tell him about BJ and I falling into the snowdrift yesterday and about how I ended up with my feet sticking out of the snow while the rest of me was buried. He thought that was pretty funny too.

When we finally got to BJ's house, we found out that BJ couldn't come out. Seems he'd managed to catch a cold yesterday. His nose was all red and runny and he looked like he had a fever. He said that he'd been out until almost dark yesterday on his snowmobile.

Standing at the door, I asked BJ, "You mind if we go to the park?" I asked in such a way as to let BJ know I wanted to take Mike to the secret barn the two of us had found yesterday.

"I just wish I could go with you!" BJ said before asking. "Everything go okay after I left you yesterday?"

I knew he was asking about me going home with a poopy diaper yesterday. "Yeah it was okay."

I felt a little bad for Mike just then, I'm sure he figured out that we were talking in code and I didn't think that it was right to make him feel excluded. I said goodbye to BJ and told him that I would call him later.

As Mike and I made our way to the park, I made a mental note to myself that I was going to email BJ and tell him that I didn't mind him knowing about my diapers and to thank him for not making fun of me. I had thought about it last night as I was writing in my journal and he was really cool about it, cooler then I was for that matter.

After a while Mike said, "Want to play a game while we walk?"

"What kind of game?" I asked.

"It's something my dad always plays with us." He said.

"Is your dad coming home?" I asked.

"Don't know yet. I hope so `cause I miss him a lot!" Mike said.

"Yeah, I can't even imagine what that must be like!" I said, "Okay so tell me about the game."

"Okay, one person says a quote from a book, movie or anything really and the other person has to come up with a similar quote or make one up that's really good or better then the first one." Mike said.

"I don't get it!" I said stopping and turning to look at him.

"Okay, say I were to say, `Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?' and then you would have to come up with a quote or make one up that complemented mine or was better like maybe, "No, but I got jiggy with a lady while listening to Moon River."

I laughed, though I didn't really get all the double meanings. "Why did that first quote sound familiar?" I asked.

"Oh, that was from the first Batman movie." Mike answered.

"Oh yeah! The Joker said that before he could kill someone!" I said.

"Want to try one?" Mike asked.

"Sure!" I said starting to walk again.

"Okay, give me a quote and I'll try to come up with one." Mike said.

"Hmm, oh I got one!" I said.

"Okay, but don't tell me where it's from. I get extra points if I can guess that too!" Mike said.

"Oh okay." I said and then gave him my quote, "Snakes? I hate snakes!"

"Oh that's a good one! Um, it's from Indiana Jones, right?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, the first one I think. When he was in the little plane at the beginning of the movie." I answered.

"Oh yeah, that was funny!" Mike said and added; "Now I have to counter your quote." He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Oooo, I got it! I bet you'll never guess where it comes from either! `Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, thunder and lighting and baby said goo-goo, goo-goo."

I started laughing, "That's a better one then mine?" I said.

"Well sometimes we'd argue about who's was better, but what do you except? My dad invented the game one time when we were broken down on the side of some old country road and had to wait for over three hours for a tow-truck." Mike said.

"Okay, I'll accept that quote, but I got no idea what it's from." I said.

"It's from the movie, Labyrinth." Mike said, "It was one of the songs they sang in the movie."

"Oh yeah, I seen that movie, but I don't remember that part." I said.

"Okay, my turn to start." Mike said, "I'll give you one I used before with my dad." And in a deep voice Mike bellowed out, "Never rub another mans rhubarb!"

"That was the Joker again!" I laughed, "I know my super hero movies!"

"Yeah but can you come up with a better one?" Mike asked.

I gave it a good long hard think but couldn't come up with anything so Mike said, "Okay then I get to go again."

"Alright!" I said as we reached Mr. Nader's father's house again, where the tree had fallen during the snowstorm two nights ago. I showed Mike the hole that used to be where the tree was. Mr. Nader had totally cut up the tree but even under the new snow from last night, we could still tell where the logs were laying. The car that had been smashed when the tree fell was gone though and in it's place a lot of the wood from the cut up tree was stacked and hiding beneath a blanket of snow. We went on into the park, it was as white and barren as it had been yesterday when BJ and I had gone into it. No footprints or tracks of any kind could be seen anywhere and the running path and parking lots had not been cleared either. It was simply beautiful!

"You ready? Here's my quote." Mike said, "NO! You must not read from the book!"

"Oh, oh, oh! I know this one! It's, oh man, I know it! It is right on the tip of my tongue! Oh yeah, `The Mummy!'" I said and got so excited that I nearly fell sideways into the snow.

"Careful!" Mike said laughing.

"Yeah really!" I said, "So I'm right?" I asked.

"Yep!" Mike said.

"Good `cause I already got one for that!" I said proudly.

"Okay, hit me with it!" Mike said.

I stopped and turned to him. I made as if I was hooking my thumbs under the lapel of a suit coat and said, "Look to the books my boy! Look to the books!"

"Oh man, that is a good one!" Mike said, "You are better at this game than my brother."

"Do you know what it's from?" I asked.

"Yeah, I seen the movie but I can't think of the name of it." Mike said scratching at his coat hood.

"Want a hint?" I asked.

"Nah, you can't give hints." Mike said.

"Oh, okay then." I said.

After a few seconds of thinking Mike said, "I give up!"

"It was the librarian from the movie, `The Page Master'." I said.

"Oh yeah! That was a good movie! I saw that one at the library!" Mike said.

"You go to the library to watch movies too?" I asked.

"Yeah sometimes!" Mike said.

"I've only been a couple times! That's were I seen the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Cartoons." I said.

"I didn't know they made cartoons of those books!" Mike said though it sounded more like a question.

"Oh yeah! Long time ago." I said.

"Too cool! I will have to see if I can check them out to watch!" Mike said.

"We own them on Video tape now!" I said, "You are welcome to borrow them. I don't think mom and dad will mind at all."

"Awesome!" Mike shouted. "Hey? Where we going anyway?"

"See them trees?" I said pointing toward them.

"Yeah." He answered.

"We're going in there!" I said.

"Okay!" Mike said.

We continued walking on and when we finally reached the clearing where the barn stood mike exclaimed, "Whoa! Awesome barn!"

"Yeah, it's BJ and my secret place! We only just found it yesterday but you can't tell anyone about it, alright?" I looked at him and waited for his promise to keep it a secret.

"Yeah, sure, no problem!" Mike finally said when he realized what it was that I was waiting for.

Mike and I didn't have to dig the smaller door out this time like BJ and I had to do yesterday. We just gave it a push and the door swung open allowing us to walk into the tack room.

"Wow!" Mike said.

"Ah this is nothing! Wait until you see the rest of our place!" I said, "We even got a big old rope to swing on!"

I looked over at the workbench where BJ and I had left our pile of treasured goodies and they were all gone. Every last item was missing. For a few seconds I started to get nervous thinking someone else had been in the barn after BJ and I left yesterday but then I got to thinking that BJ must have come back up here after he walked me home. He must have hid all our stuff so that no one would take it. Least that was my hope!

I showed Mike all around the barn, while still being watchful for the stash of treasure as well as for any signs that someone else had been around. In the back of my mind I reasoned that someone could have conceivably seen the tracks in the snow left by BJ and I yesterday and then followed those tracks right to our secret barn, found our bounty we'd collected and taken everything for themselves. Now that I think about it, I'm sure that didn't happen and it had to be BJ who came back and hid everything; I'll ask him when I see him again.

The first place I took Mike was up into the haylofts and then Mike decided he wanted to try to climb up to the top of the rope. He actually made it all the way up and back down with relative ease.

"Can't wait until my ribs are healed enough that I can do that!" I said watching him come back down the rope.

"So now what?" Mike asked as his snow boots hit the wooden floor with a thud.

"Don't know, oh wait! There was a door over by the tack room that BJ and I never got through. It was nailed shut though." I said.

"Okay!" Mike said following me to the door.

Knowing the hammer, along with the rest of the stuff BJ and I had found, was no where to be found, Mike and I had no way to open the door. Besides, that old hammer had been broken when we found it and couldn't have removed any of the nails.

"If we only had a hammer or something!" Mike said.

"Yeah, oh well! Maybe next time!" I agreed.

Mike looked at his watch and said, "I think I need to go check-in."

"Oh yeah, I better do the same." I said.

Therefore, the two of us left the barn and made our way back through the park, following the same tracks we had made coming in earlier. As we emerged from the trees and began crossing the park, Mike started singing some song I didn't know and to my shock, he actually sounded really good and it gave us a tune to march too as we made our way across the snow covered sports park.

 

"Grandma's in the cellar. Lordy can't you smell her

cooking Flapjacks on the darned old dirty stove?

And in her eye there is some matter,

that keeps falling in the batter,

and she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose."

 

And right at the part where he sang, `And she whistles as the...' he sniffled really loudly.

"Oh man Mike! That's just sick!" I said stopping to throw a handful of snow at him.

"What? It's a good song!" he chuckled, "Want to hear the rest of it?"

"Yeah sure!" I said.

"Okay, but I have to start again." He said.

I made as if I was groaning but really, I thought it was a funny song.

 

"Grandma's in the cellar. Lordy can't you smell her

cooking Flapjacks on the darned old dirty stove?

And in her eye there is some matter,

that keeps falling in the batter,

and she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose.

Out her nose, Out her nose

And in her eye there is some matter,

that keeps falling in the batter,

And she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose!"

"Oh man! Where'd you learn that song?" I asked.

"At camp! But there is still more to it!" he said.

 

"More?" I said and ignoring me, Mike took right back to singing again.

 

"Grandma's in the cellar. Lordy can't you smell her

cooking crabs down on the darned old dirty stove?

On her arms there are some scabs,

that keep falling the crabs,

and she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose.

Out her nose, Out her nose

On her arms there are some scabs,

that keep falling the crabs,

And she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose!"

 

Not turning around this time I said, "Okay that one was worse yet!"

 

"It isn't the worst of it!" Mike giggled.

"Dang how long is this song?" I asked.

He continued, laughing as he sang...

"Grandma's in the cellar. Lordy can't you smell her

cooking rice down on the darned old dirty stove?

In her hair there is some lice,

that keep jumping in the rice,

and she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose.

Out her nose, Out her nose

in her hair there is some lice,

that keep jumping in the rice,

And she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose!"

 

"Okay you are going to make me puke! You can stop anytime now!" I said.

"No wait, there is one more verse to the song!" Mike said.

"Please don't!" I said but I was giggling when I said it so he sang it anyway.

 

"Grandma's in the cellar. Lordy can't you smell her

cooking grits down on the darned old dirty stove?

on her belly she's got zits,

that keep popping in the grits,

And she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose.

Out her nose, Out her nose

on her belly she's got zits,

that keep popping in the grits,

And she whistles as the (sniff) drips out her nose!"

 

He sang the last line so badly that a nearby dog started barking at us as we neared the point where we had a decision to make. "Want to come with me and call home?" Mike asked.

"First off!" I said scooping up a glove full of snow and packing it tightly as I turned to Mike. "That was probably the sickest thing I think I have ever heard in my life."

I couldn't help but smile and giggle as I talked.

"Secondly!" I said just before shoving the snowball down the front of Mike's coat. Unfortunately more of the snow missed then actually went in.

Mike looked like he was going to pounce on me but I quickly put up my hands in defense.

"Careful! Remember, broken ribs here!" I said.

Mike backed down, but not until after he said, while shaking his fist, "Just remember I owe you one!"

I laughed and was finally going to answer his question. However, unbeknown to him, I knew I had already wet at least twice, maybe more, since leaving my house and since all I was wearing was a disposable diaper I was probably in need of a change.

"Nah, I think I'm going to go home and check in personally. Why don't I call you and we can see what we'll do from there?" I suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." Mike said, "You need these?" he asked pointing down at the snowshoes I'd lent him.

"Nah, you can use them. I'll get them from you later!" I said.

"Good! Because I want to be able to use them as examples. I'm going to try to make my own pair." He said. I knew how creative and clever Mike was and had no doubts that he could fashion his own pair of snowshoes together in record time.

"Talk to you in just a few!" I said.

"Yeah! Catch ya later!" Mike said before we punched our gloved fists together and parted.

In retrospect, had I known that it would be the last anyone would see or hear of Mike, I think I would have asked him to come home with me and call from my house. Or something like that.

I got home a few minutes later; although not before running into Mr. Nader who corrected me when I said, "Hi Mr. Nader!" and again asked me to call him Ruddy. I told him that mom and dad wanted to have him and his wife over for dinner sometime and that seemed to make him happy. I'd also had a chance to ask him about the smashed car which belonged to his father.

"I had it towed away. No way of saving that one, but it was a clunker anyway!" He'd said.

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"What's what mean?" he asked back while leaning against his snow shovel.

"Clunker?" I said.

He pulled off his hat and scratched his sweaty hair while giving me a peculiar look. "It means it wasn't a very reliable car. It was always breaking down and I spent more time working on it then anyone spent driving it."

We talked for a few more minutes before I continued my wonderland journey home. I arrived via our backdoor. Mom was still home, which surprised the heck out of me and dad had gone to work.

"Hi mom! I'm home!" I said.

"So soon?" she called from the back of the house.

"Yeah, just checking in mostly!" I shouted.

She appeared a moment later, "Simon? You look about froze!"

Moms always say stuff like that!

"I'm fine! I just wanted to check in. I found Mike out there and he and I been hanging out. BJ's sick though." I said.

"He is? Oh that poor dear?" she smoozed, "Did you remember to give his mother the envelope?"

"Ahh!" I said while smacking myself in the forehead with my still gloved hand and for the first time in days my eye gave a twinge of pain.

"Simon!" mom moaned.

"Sorry mom! I just forgot!" I said trying to sound sorrowful.

"Give it here!" she said holding out her hand.

"I really am!" I said handing it to her.

"It's alright, I'll take it too her another time!" and she stuck it to the front of the refrigerator with one of the magnets.

"I need to call Mike and see what we are going to do now." I said.

"Are you sure you want to go back outside?" she asked. "You look cold as an icicle.

"Yeah, it's not cold! And I'm having fun!" I said, "Better then being cooped up in the house all day!"

"Aright, but don't you dare track snow into the house. Stay there and I'll bring the phone to you." She said.

She handed me the receiver and I started to dial Mike's home number, but then it hit me, "Wait a sec!"

"What?" mom asked.

"Mikes not going to be at home and I don't know the number of where he's staying now!" I said.

"Guess you need to wait until he calls here." Mom said coming back over and taking the receiver from me again.

"You're not going around his brother are you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Mom, I'm not stupid!" I said and she gave me a warning look.

"Sorry!" I said quickly.

"Well you need to get out of those if you are going to stay in for a while!" she said.

"Uh, no, I think I'll go play out back for a while." I said, but I had other ideas that I was keeping secret.

Mom finally relented. "But if you decided to go anywhere else, you come tell me first."

"Okay." I answered before I slid the backdoor closed again.

I went off the porch and straight to the garage where I located a hammer and pry-bar. I hid them both inside my coat and went to tell mom that I was going back to the park.

"By yourself? No I don't think so!" she said.

"No, not by myself! I'll find Mike first!" I said.

She had to think about it a little, but she eventually caved, "If you can't find him then you come right back home. And no going near his brother!"

"I know, and I won't! Bye!" I was gone before she could say anything else.

I walked toward the park as fast as I could. When I reached the point where Mike and I had split up, I couldn't see any sign of him and since I didn't know in which house he was staying, I had no idea how to find him. I did have the thought of following his snow boot tracks but after two houses, he must have started walking in the street because I couldn't see any sign of his tracks anymore.

I know I should have gone back home like I was told, but something inside of me really wanted to get through that little arched door in the barn to see what was behind it. I was imagining all sorts of gems and jewels just waiting to be discovered. So, after wrestling with my conscious for all of about two seconds, I started hiking for the park and the barn. It was kind of fun to do it all by myself this time and instead of following the tracks Mike and I had made before, I walked along the fence where the snow was still untouched and unblemished. It took an extra ten minutes or so to reach the barn and I ended up coming up on it from the opposite side, but it wasn't such a big deal and it added to my adventure. I walked back around the barn to the smaller walk door and went in to take off my snowshoes.

I took out the hammer and pry-bar from my coat and went right to the little arched door to get to work pulling out the nails that secured it shut. There were a total of seven old square nails in it. It was obvious the door had been nailed shut for a very, very long time. As I worked to get each nail out, I couldn't help but imagine what might be imprisoned or locked away behind the door. All sorts of things were being conjured in my mind, dragons, skeletons, gold, a beautiful princess and the fanciful images just kept coming and coming.

When, after much effort, the final nail came out, I had to use the pry-bar to get the door to swing open. It just didn't want to budge at first, but after using all the strength I could muster without hurting myself, I got the door to open with an eerie creaking of the old rusted hinges.

Beyond the door, it was completely dark. I mean so dark that I could hardly see more then a few feet in. What made matters worse was that what little I could see seemed to be covered in layers upon layers of ancient spider webs.

"Dang, why didn't I think to bring a flashlight?" I said aloud.

"Yeah, you should have!" I said starting to talk to myself mostly because the ominous darkness was creeping me out big time.

"Okay, if I go all the way back home just to get a flashlight then mom's going to find out that I didn't find Mike and yet I still came to the park anyway." I looked around me as if a light switch would magically appear just because I wanted it too.

"However," I pointed a finger into my chest and spoke as though I were talking to someone who was standing in front of me, "without a flashlight, there is no way I'm going in there!"

I was glad then and still glad now that no one was with me to hear me talking to myself.

I stopped talking for a few seconds and was trying to come up with an idea when I heard something coming from way down inside the darkness. It sounded like laughter and then talking, but it sounded so far away and seemed to be echoing a lot.

I still have no idea where I got the courage to pass through the little arched doorway. I pulled my hat down tight over my ears and zipped my coat all the way up to my neck before I started to grope around in the darkness, while letting my gloved hands slide across the wooden walls until the wood stopped and what felt like stone, started. I had been taking little tiny steps, almost dragging my feet across the floor so as not to trip and fall.

Little by little, my eyes adjusted to the lack of light and with the small amount of light coming from behind me in the barn, I could faintly see as the floor ahead of me seemed to abruptly stop about two feet farther. I got right to the edge of the floor where the ceiling overhead, which I could reach up and touch, seemed to slop downward and the floor completely vanished into a black abyss.

I stood there both scared and excited and didn't realize that I was peeing until I was nearly finished. Two thoughts appeared in my head nearly simultaneously. One was the fact that I'd forgot that part of my reasons for going home was because I needed a diaper change and the other thought, which actually came out of my mouth as a faint whisper, "Scared the piss right out of you huh Simon?"

Looking into the darkened void, I was reminded of Lowell's story and what had happened in his last chapter. My imagination was churning out all kinds of scary monsters and demented creatures that could be prowling in the darkness.

I waited another minute, maybe two listening for the laughter and voices again, but I couldn't hear anything anymore. Eventually, I decided that I'd imagined hearing anything at all and decided that I'd come back another time, with the right equipment and NOT ALONE to explore further. I had only just turned to go when I again heard something, but this time I understood what was said.

Loud and angry came a voice up out of the darkness, "Old Tom was a son-of-a-bitch and we're better off without him!"

"Says you! But what we going to do for a cook?" Someone else said and their voice though sounding masculine was much higher, almost the way I might imagine a mouse would sound--I mean if a mouse could talk.

A very deep, very growling voice, like that of a big dog or bear said, "I'll take care of the food! I done it most of the time anyway as he was always too stoned to stand up, much less cook!"

There was a sudden bang and a flash of light that burnt my eyes, but only for a second. Before I knew what was happening I was back in the tack room and was strapping on my snowshoes. I noticed, but didn't much care that I was completely covered in spider webs from head to toe. I didn't waste any time at all getting home. I jogged across the snow-covered park following the tracks Mike and I had made earlier. Even after leaving the park, I didn't slow down or bother to look back until I reached my street. I was huffing and panting like a dog in the middle of a hot summer day. Despite the fact that my face felt cold, the rest of me was sweating profusely.

I stopped and leaned against the side of the snow that lined the street. I was panting, trying to catch my breath while I attempted to get some of the webs off me when a voice said, "I thought I told you not to be outside alone?"

I spun around to see Runt kneeling directly over the place where I had just been leaning.

"Oh crap Runt! You scared the shit out of me!" I said with an unintentional curse slipping out.

"I do tend to do that to you!" He said smiling a very knowing smile and I knew, that he knew, that I had messed myself the other day when he'd seen me by that tree.

"W-Where'd you c-come from anyway?" I asked looking around.

"That's not important! What is important is that you need to stop being stupid Simon!" Runt stood up and pulled the collar of his coat up so that it covered the back of his head. I also didn't miss the fact that he'd called me Simon and not Spaz this time.

Trying to sound tough, I said, "You know the police are still looking for you!"

In an instant, he jumped down off the snow bank into the middle of the street. He grabbed me forcefully and threw me against the snow so hard that it hurt, it hurt a lot. My legs didn't work and I fell right to the wet, salty slush covered pavement.

"I can't protect you if you are being an ASS!" Runt growled.

I wanted to talk back, I wanted to yell, but I was hurting way too much.

"This is your last warning! Don't be out alone again!" Runt said and just before turning to leave he added, "And stay out of the barn! You and all your friends!" and in a flash he was gone, running back toward the park, his coat trailing behind him like a cape.

I somehow managed to get myself to my feet again. The back of my pants and most of my right leg were wet from falling on the wet road. With my arms rapped around my chest I made it home where I leaned against the side of the house.

"Can't let mom know I'm hurt!" I cried while wiping my tears and my nose on my coat sleeve.

I stayed there beside the house trying to get myself calmed down enough to make it to my room without mom suspecting anything. To be sure that I didn't look like I'd been crying, I used snow to wash my face. I figured the cold snow would also help if my eyes were all puffy from crying. I also used the snow to get as much of the old webs off as I could.

The longer I stood there, the more I started to hate Runt and the angrier I seemed to get at him. By the time I was ready to go into the house I had worked myself up to a full boil and was ready to lash out.

I got into the house and mom was not in sight. I hoped she was in the dining room working one of her puzzles again but sure enough, "That you honey?" she called from dining room.

"No, it's me!" I said reluctantly.

"Oh, Are you home to stay this time?" she asked.

"Yeah, I couldn't find Mike. I looked all over too!" I said pulling off my gloves and hat and hoping she'd buy my excuse.

"Give me a second and I'll help you out of those things." Mom said.

"That's okay! I can do it." I said pulling one of the kitchen table's chairs over so that I could sit on it while I took off my snowshoes and also being careful not to get snow or water anywhere but right by the door on the mat.

I had my first snowshoe off and was working on the other when she came in. "Simon, you're making a mess all over the place!"

"Nuhuh! It's only on the mat!" I said.

Taking a step toward me she said, "Let me help you!"

"I can do it!" I protested rather stronger then I'd meant too, but it was enough to stop her.

I didn't see what she did, but I did hear her breathing hard and make that, "Tich" sound with her tongue before she left the kitchen all together. I was so glad she left.

After I had my boots and coat off, I took everything to the laundry room and hung up my coat on the hook, along with my gloves and hat. I sat my boots and the snowshoes on the floor to dry and scuttled off to my room.

I closed my door and locked it this time before stripping down to just my armor and my very wet diaper, which was so wet, that when I sat down at my computer it squished. Not wanting to go get mom to change me I just pulled off my diaper by myself and slipped into a dry GoodNite.

After reseating myself at my desk, I checked my email and had one from Lowell saying that he was so excited about tonight and about me coming over. I wrote him back a quick note to ask when I was supposed to come over and what I should bring. I honestly had no idea since I had never slept over at anyone's house, I mean a friends, before. Well there was the time at Mike and Tater's but to me that doesn't count as a real sleepover `cause I didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

I had two emails from Bull, three from Jasper, five from BJ, one from Tater and a whopping seventeen pieces of junk mail. I wasn't much in the mood for emails but I was still feeling pretty vengeful toward Runt for hurting me so much, though I wasn't hurting so much now.

I opened a new email and addressed it to both Bull and Tater. It was short, sweet and to the point. On the subject line I put, "You probably should know" and then all I said in the email body was, "I think Runt's hiding out in an old barn in the woods behind the running track at the sports park. I don't think he's alone either!" and I left it unsigned. I figured they would know it came from me by my email address.

I then closed out of my email and opened a browser window to Google on the subject `sleepover supply list'. Most of what I got was about sleepover parties, themes for sleepover parties, something about the Olsen twins and one thing about a `MUZZEM SLEEPOVER'. Since it was misspelled so badly, I had to click on it to see what it was about. As it turned out, it was just a PDF advertisement for some museum in Canada that does this sleepover thing for local schools. It looked sort of neat, but I'd never do it. Not with all them whacked out statues and mummies and stuff all over the place! That would be just asking for nightmares!

Since my first search was basically fruitless, I tried several more, each less productive then the first. I gave up on that idea and decided to journal about what had happened so far today. However, I couldn't find my e-journal. I left it laying on my nightstand the last time I used it. I looked in my desk, my closet, under my bed, even in my bed but came up with nothing.

I started to panic, but ended up finding it in the top drawer of my dresser. I figured that mom probably put it in there when she made my bed this morning.

After I wrote about everything that had happened up to the point where I was looking for my journal, I shut down my e-journal and unplugged it again. I decided that I'd go call Lowell and see how soon I could come over. I went to the dining room first to get permission to use the phone but mom wasn't there. She wasn't in the laundry room, kitchen, dad's office, the living room or her bedroom. I checked both baths and couldn't find her anywhere.

"MOM!" I finally called out while standing in the middle of the living room.

"I'm on the front porch!" I heard her call back.

I went back to my room and got my robe on before going back to the living room where sure enough the door was ajar. I opened it to find her talking to some lady I didn't know. Mom had on her coat so I guessed she was standing out there talking so that I was less likely to hear them and since I had already interrupted them I quickly asked, "Sorry, um, mom can I call Lowell?"

"Yes, but keep it short. I'm waiting for your father to call." she said.

I closed the door again, making sure to leave it open enough that it didn't latch and then ran to the phone. I was glad when Lowell answered on the first ring.

 

 

PART 2 -- Friday, March 05, 2004 -- The Sweet-Talking Son of a Preacherman

 

"Wow that was fast!" Lowell said instead of saying hello when he answered the phone.

Confused I asked, "What was fast?"

"Oh sorry Simon! I thought you were my daddy calling." He said and then laughed.

"I was wondering!" I said and then asked, "Hey! How soon can I come over?"

"Hang on!" He said and I was glad that he pulled the phone away from his mouth before bellowing out, "MOM CAN SIMON COME OVER NOW?" Which was followed by a faint, but still audible, "Why sure he can Pumpkin!"

I started to giggle at him as I sang back to him, "I heard!"

"Good!" he said, not realizing I meant the part about his mom calling him pumpkin. Lowell then asked, "So are you coming right now?"

"Soon as I can get mom to bring me over Pumpkin!" I teased, "But I need to know what to bring. I just emailed you and asked that." I said.

There was a short pause before he spoke, "Don't think for a minute that I'm going to let that one get passed me!" Lowell sounded rather gruff, but we both knew it was all in fun.

Returning to his excited tone he said, "Just bring your pajamas and an extra change of clothes for tomorrow. That should be good enough!"

"And my diaper things?" I said, whispering now.

"Oh well yeah! You really should put together a diaper bag for when you are away from home!" Lowell said, trying to sound smart and pulling it off nicely.

"Will my book bag be okay for now?" I asked.

"Yeah sure, just put in several diapers and any other diapering stuff you need. Actually, you probably won't need any of it because we got all that stuff here already and if you want you can wear some of my diapers!" Lowell said.

"Yeah! That sounds good!" I said. "Okay, I'll go get ready and then I'll see if I can get mom to bring me over."

"If not, maybe we can come get you!" Lowell offered.

"Yeah okay, but I got something I want to tell you about when I get there, but it's super top-secret. It's like real secret-agent type stuff that you can't tell anybody about!"

"Whoa, okay! What is it?" he asked.

"Can't tell you on the phone, they might be bugged! I'll tell you when I get there!" I said in a very hushed spy sort of way.

"Okay, I'll call you back in just a little while. Bye Pumpkin!" I said.

"You will pay for that!" Lowell said, followed by, "Bu-bye!" and right before he hung up the phone, I could hear him chanting, "YES, YES, YES, YES!"

I had everything packed, including my e-journal all within about ten minutes. I didn't know if I should bring a sleeping bag or not, but I got it out of the top of my closet anyway. I had to use my desk chair to reach it, but I was able to get it down by myself. I sat all my stuff on my bed and then went in search of mom again.

She was walking back in through the front door when I came into the living room.

"Can I go to Lowell's now?" I asked.

"No, you have to go to the doctor in a little bit!" she said.

"The doctor?" I whined. "Why do I have to go again?"

"To see if you are allowed to go to school on Monday and stop your whining!" she said in a threatening tone.

"OH YEAH!" I shouted. "I totally forgot about that!"

While fussing with her hair she gave me a peculiar look before saying, "Why don't you get yourself tidied up while I get things ready to go?"

"Mom!" I whined, "You don't need to get all nice-looking!"

She gave me a sort of half frown and then said, "Go get your things ready."

"I already did! They are on my bed!" I said and she proceeded to give me a run-down of all the things I would need and everything I should not do including acting like a wild boy.

"Moooooom!" I whined again, "I knoooow!"

I grabbed my stuff off my bed and dropped it all at the backdoor.

"I need to call Lowell and let him know you are bringing me over after the doctor." I said, more asking if that was what she had in mind as she was putting on her coat.

You know, as I think about it; I don't really count sleeping with Tater as a real sleepover, because that was more a case of being trapped at their house by an ice storm. So, seeing how this was my very first real planned sleepover ever at a friends house, my excitement and fear levels were both spiking, though my excitement was well above my level of fear just now and it made dialing the phone quite difficult. It took three attempts before I was able to dial the number properly and reach Lowell.

"Hello?" Came a ladies voice.

"Hello, is Lowell there?" I asked.

"Is this Simon?" the lady asked.

"Yes mam." I answered.

"This is Lowell's mommy." The lady said.

"Oh hello Mrs. Vandoan. I am sorry; I didn't recognize your voice on the phone." I said.

"That's perfectly alright deary. Lowell's right here bouncing like a little rubber ball." She said and I could hear Lowell saying, "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"Here he is." She said playfully.

"Hi Simon!" Lowell nearly yelled into the phone.

"Hi Lowell!" I shouted back, "We're leaving right now!"

"YAHOOOO!" Lowell exclaimed loudly into my ear causing me to have pull the receiver away. I'd been looking at mom at that very second and by the look she gave me, I could tell she heard him too. I just smiled.

"Don't get so excited! We have to stop at the doctor first to see if I am allowed to go back to school on Monday." I said into the phone.

"Oh." Lowell said sort of quietly.

"It shouldn't be very long." I added.

"Okay but tell them to hurry!" Lowell demanded.

Laughing I said, "I will try!" and then remembering I asked, "Hey, I didn't think to ask before, do I need to bring my sleeping bag?"

"No you don't need one of those!" Lowell said and the way he said it made it sound like he was up to something, but wasn't going to give it away just yet.

After hanging up with Lowell I threw my stuff into the back seat of Aunt Catharine's car, along with myself and we were off. Only a few minutes later we were at my doctors' office. It was like someone had sent every sick person in the state to MY DOCTOR'S OFFICE!

After mom signed me in we took a seat next to this old man who was coughing and wheezing and sounding like he might die at any second. I tried my best to sit still and not seem impatient, but it was hard and very boring. It seemed like it was taking them forever just to get around to calling my name. When they finally did, mom and I were escorted to one of the exam rooms where we again had to wait another thirty-five minutes. I remember the time because mom too was getting impatient and kept looking at her watch and commenting on the time.

Finally a nurse came in, it was the same nurse that had changed my diaper the last time I was there and got fitted for my armor.

When she saw me she smiled and said, "Hi Simon!"

"Hello." I answered back politely.

Addressing mom she said, "Hello and how is Simon doing?"

"He's been nearly back to his old self in the past few days." Mom commented.

The nurse then proceeded to ask us several questions, then took my temperature, blood pressure and wrote down all the numbers before saying, "The doctor should be in shortly."

She looked right at me, "He'll need you to be undressed." And then left again.

Mom helped me strip down to just my armor and diaper and that's when the two of us both realized I was soaking wet!

"Simon? Why didn't you tell me you needed changed before we left the house?" she said, sounding upset.

"I don't think I was wet at home." I answered honestly.

Right then the doctor came walking in smiling with the stick of a sucker hanging out of his mouth. He said hello to mom first and then to me and that's when he saw my wet diaper. He didn't say anything about it and his eyes didn't linger, but it was evident that he'd seen it.

From the breast pocket of his long white doctor coat he pulled out two more suckers.

"Would either of you like a lollipop?" he asked.

Mom held up one hand and shook her head to indicate that she didn't, but never let it be said that I turned down free candy! I took the green one and it turned out to be sour apple, which made my face contort as I puckered at the taste.

"Good huh?" he said as he was feeling under my chin and neck.

"Yeah, really good and sour!" I said popping the sucker out long enough to speak.

"And it's completely sugar free!" he added, "What's say we take this off and see how them ribs are healing?" he asked and as he pulled at each Velcro strap he asked me a bunch of questions about my armor. How I liked it; if I hurt any with it; what I didn't like about it and on and on.

Before I knew it he was strapping me back in and said to mom, "I think Simon's healing very well and I don't see why he shouldn't go back to school on Monday as long as he is careful and doesn't rough-house in the halls." That last part he directed at me.

He was scribbling some things down and said, "I'm going to give you a note that will excuse you from gym class for the rest of the month."

And then turning back to mom he said, "I'd like to see him again at the end of the month and if he starts having pain again or manages to re-injure his ribs then bring him in sooner."

He turned back to me and wagged his nearly gone sucker at me, "But you are not going to re-injure your ribs because?"

Catching on to his cue for me to answer I pulled my sucker from my mouth and said, "Because I'm not to rough-house!"

At that very second there was a knock at the door to the examination room and in walked Doctor Zuligram. The very same doctor that fitted me for my body armor.

"I heard you were back and I wanted to see how you were doing." he said to me.

The two doctors spoke in some strange doctor language that I was only able to grasp a few words from and Doctor Zuligram wanted to take off my armor again and see my ribs for himself. So I had to go through it all again with a lot of the same questions to.

Finally Doctor Zuligram said, "Yep, healing up nicely! Too bad too, I think your mother might have liked to have traded you in for a newer model. Maybe a nice pink one perhaps?"

I don't think mom could resist saying, "Well, he might be dinged and dented here and there. And he might have a scratch or two, but I think I'll keep him... for a while at least! But it's nice to know I have the option to trade him in! I mean it might be nice to have a little girl!"

"Mom!" I complained in a teasing sort of way.

Both doctors laughed and Doctor Zuligram said, "You take good care of those ribs and let me know if they `causes you any discomfort whatsoever."

"Okay I will." I said and Doctor Zuligram left.

My doctor then said to mom, "I'll send in one of the nurses to change him before I send you both home."

Mom thanked him and soon as the door closed I asked, "Mom can't you change me?"

"I'll let the nurse do it this time!" she said and the door opened again before I could mount any sort of effective protest.

I didn't know this nurse; I'd not seen her before and when she spoke she sounded like she had laryngitis.

"Do you have a sore throat?" I asked.

"Oh no, I sound like this all the time." She said with a smile, "I had a tumor on my vocal cords removed when I was just a little girl and it has taken several surgeries and years of voice therapy just to get my voice this strong.

With nothing coming to mind to say, I simply said, "Wow!"

She was looking at my armor and said, "There is another boy about your age that is wearing one of those too. As a matter of fact he was just in here again yesterday."

"Really?" I said a little too loud.

"Yep, I think he fell out of a tree or something like that." She said as she went to one of the white cabinets that hung on the wall and retrieved a blue diaper.

She looked at mom and holding the diaper out to mom asked, "Do you want to?"

"Oh that's okay!" mom said holding up a single hand and shaking her head, "I'm going to go outside and make a quick phone call."

After mom had left the two of us alone and without being told to do so, I laid myself down on the exam table and assumed the diaper changing position. The nurse worked amazingly fast. She had my plastic pants off me, my diaper removed, cleaned me up with a warm cloth, applied rash cream and had a fresh diaper on me all within a couple minutes.

When I sat back up, I realized that the diaper was different then any kind I was used too. It was still a disposable diaper but instead of the tapes fastening to the sided like I was used to, the sides were longer and with only one tape on either side fastened across the front. It also had padding all the way around, kind of the way a clothe diaper does but not as thick.

Before hopping off the exam table the nurse helped me put on my shirt and made a comment that made me blush so red I thought my head was going to explode.

"I think you are the biggest boy I've ever had to diaper."

"Why did she have to say that?" I shouted within the confines of my own head. Her words seemed to paralyze me. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't think let alone move.

Unaffected and without remarking to my obvious embarrassment she finished dressing me and was tying my shoes when mom returned.

"He's all set!" the nurse said to my mom.

I didn't run, but I walked about as fast as my little feet would carry me out of sight of that nurse. I wanted to put as much distance between her and me as I could. I also wanted to get to Lowell's house right away too!

Since she had never been to Lowell's before, only dad had once, I had to give mom directions. Now that I think about it, it was only my second time driving to Lowell's house and only my first time ever going into his house.

When we finally arrived I didn't have to go up and knock on the door, Lowell was already at the side of the car before mom even had it completely stopped.

"Come on Simon!" Lowell was almost pulling me out of the car, which hurt a little more then I think it should have and I blamed that on Runt. You know something that is funny, and I don't mean Ha-Ha funny but weird funny. At the doctors office I hadn't been hurting, not even a tiny bit. Go figure!

"Hang on! Let me get my stuff!" I insisted.

I handed most of it to Lowell since he asked to carry it. I leaned over the back of the front seat, kissed mom and said, "Love ya mom! See you tomorrow!"

"Bye, have a good time!" mom said as Lowell and I raced up the front walk and jumped into the front door.

We had passed Lowell's mom on the walk and I'd quickly said hello and thanked her for letting me stay. She was going out to talk to mom, I assumed and I had guessed right.

Inside the house, I was more then a little shocked at how nice it was. On the outside, the house didn't seem so big, or all that spectacular, but on the inside it felt almost cavernous in size. Every item, though not individually remarkable, seemed to be just a small part that made up the grander picture that was there home. Each and ever item seemed to be staged to show off the best of everything, the house was immaculately clean and even the wooden floor of the foyer was so highly polished that I could see my own reflection looking up at me.

When we had walked in the front door into the front foyer the first thing I saw was a large painting hanging directly across from the front door; it was of a man and woman that looked to be ancient.

"That's grandfather and grandmother Hoopadin." Without asking, I figured out that they must be the parents of Lowell's mother, given their last name and the fact that they both looked just like Lowell's mother, only much older.

"They are both dead now!" he said and then grabbing my coat he said, "Come on!" and drug me through the front room.

"Let's put your stuff in my room and then I will give you a tour." Lowell said still pulling me along.

I wanted to stop and look at everything, but with Lowell's urging, we raced through the front room, up a flight of stairs, down a hallway that overlooked the stairs and into what I knew instantly as Lowell's room.

I stood a fraction of an inch inside the doorway to Lowell's bed room with my mouth hanging open and totally in shock. It wasn't until I heard something squeak that I was snapped out of my daze.

"This here is Mr. Snuffles, he's my duck!" Lowell gave a funny little yellow and pink stuffed duck a squeeze and it squeaked again. "And this here is my bear, his name is Sniffles. My daddy gave him to me when I was super sick once! You can sleep with him tonight if you want to. And this here is my bed, it's big enough for both of us so you will sleep with me tonight."

"B-but it's a crib?" I said, which wasn't exactly correct. Actually, it was a regular sized twin bed with crib like rails that completely encircled its four sides.

"I got to have the sides because I used to fall out of bed all the time." Lowell said and then stepped right up to me, pulled up the bangs of his hair and said, "That's how I got this scar." Which I had to strain to see as it was maybe a quarter inch long and was hardly noticeable.

"I fell out of bed when I was three and hit my head on a fire truck!" he said rushing over to two doors and sliding them open so that they disappeared into the wall. "This here is my closet, most of my toy's are in here because mommy and daddy don't like my room messy!"

Since I didn't budge, Lowell came over, grabbed my coat again and pulled me into his room. He took the few items of mine that I'd been carrying and dropped them next to his bed before pulling me to his closet. Now Lowell's closet was only a closet in the sense that it had clothes in it, but Lowell's closet was a little bigger then half of my bedroom. I think that without Jamie's bed, I could have moved all my stuff into it and still had room to play on the floor.

He showed me his clothes, all of which seemed very juvenile in appearance, but I didn't say anything about it just then. He then ushered me back out of his closet and pulled on one of the closet doors and the other slid closed all by itself, which I thought was really clever.

"This is my dresser!" he said pulling me over to it. He opened each drawer, showing me all his diapers, supplies, baby pants, and baby style clothes, all in his size.

I looked around his room before finally speaking, "Where's your computer?"

"In the family room downstairs! I don't have one in my room anymore! Mommy and daddy didn't want me getting online all the time by myself so they moved it down there." Lowell said.

"Take off your coat and I will show you the rest of the house!" he said and somewhere from downstairs, I heard the sound of what I thought was a large dog.

"That's Basal, we are babysitting him `cause his owner was in a car crash last week. He's a Saint Bernard but he's really super nice."

"Sounds like he's big!" I said unfastening my coat and sliding it off.

"Yeah he's big, but he'd never hurt anyone!" Lowell said taking my coat from me and tossing it onto the pile of my things.

Taking my hand, he rushed me out of his room and into the hallway. I'd not noticed when coming in that there were four paintings hanging on the wall overlooking the staircase; they were all four pictures of little children, two boys and two girls.

"This is my mom when she was seven." Lowell said pointing to the painting closest to his room. The little girl in the picture looked to be the perfect example of what a little girl should look like with cute little dimples and a head full of golden curls.

"And this is my daddy when he was eight." Lowell said and then pointed closer to the picture, "If you look right here, you can see where it had to be fixed when it fell off the wall." He stopped, looked around us and over the railing before cupping his hands around his mouth and whispering, "Really, I was the one to accidentally knock it down, but nobody knows that." He dawned an evil grin and nodded his head. I didn't know what to say so I simply smiled back at him.

He pointed to the third portrait, it was of another little girl that looked very much like the first, only younger. "That is grandmother Hoopadin when she was a little girl."

I spoke up, "Oh the same one from the painting by the front door?"

Hitting a high note Lowell said, "Yeah!" and smiled again, "But she's dead now!" and in the same breath he added, "And that's Grandfather, Hoopadin." He's dead too but when he was still alive he didn't remember nobody and he always called me Billy."

"Why did he call you Billy?" I asked.

Lowell shrugged, "Nobody knows!"

"Weird!" I said and taking my hand, he pulled me past the pictures to the top of the stairs. He pointed to a closed door, "Don't ever go in there unless you want to hear mom scream and yell."

"Okay!" was all I had time to say before he pulled me past the top landing and into a bathroom that was not big, it was humungous!" It had a walk-in shower with four showerheads that all shot water right into the middle of the shower. There was a bathtub big enough for both Lowell and I and a couple more friends! Overtop the sink there was a huge mirror with little ivy leafs etched into the surface of the glass all the way around it.

"Wait a second!" I said turning myself around twice. "Where's the toilet?" I asked.

"Oh, it's in here!" he said going past the shower to a door I had not noticed. He opened it and inside there were two toilets.

"Why you got two toilets?" I asked.

"We don't. We have one toilet and one bidet." Lowell said with a giggle.

"What's a bid... what'd you call it?" I asked.

"Bidet." He said again.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked again.

"It's for washing after you poop!" he said as if everyone should have known that.

"Wow!" was all I could think to say.

Closing the door to the toilet Lowell turned and looking serious asked, "Did you need to use it?"

I smiled, "Nah, I'm good!" and patted the front of my pants.

Lowell smiled too and said, "Yeah me too! But I always am!"

He continued to show me the rest of the house, each room seemed to impress me more then the previous. During the tour, I finally had to ask if Lowell's family was rich and Lowell said that they weren't, only that his parents just have a lot of nice things and take care of everything. It wasn't until we finally reached what Lowell called the family room, which was their entire basement, finished off as one huge great room that's when it really hit me that I'd totally missed out on the fact that Lowell's family wasn't just another bumpkin family like my own!

Within the basement was a television that was so big it looked like a small movie screen. One whole end of the room was done up like a theater, but instead of the little seats at the movies, they had put in big comfortable sofa's that reclined on each end. Lowell had to demonstrate how each end reclined and even had me try one of them.

At the other end of the family room were tons and tons of books, which in a way reminded me of the house of the crazy old man, Mr. Peterson that I'd hid out in a couple days ago.

"Want to watch a movie?" Lowell asked.

"Maybe later!" I said.

"Want to go outside?" he asked.

"Nah, let's go back up to your room." I said.

"Okay!" He agreed and the two of us literally ran up the stairs, out of the basement, through the first floor and up the stairs to his room. It wasn't until we reached the top landing that I realized that I'd never seen where his parents slept.

"Hey, what about your mom and dad's room?" I asked.

"Their room is downstairs, but I'm not allowed in there." He said as we passed the four children's paintings and into his room again.

"Man Lowell, I just can't get over how babyish you room is!" I said.

"Yeah isn't it great!" he said with an abundance of pride.

Lowell started to pull off his shirt, "Hey, what are you getting undressed for?" I asked.

"Because I usually just go around in only a diaper at home!" he said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah and you can too! I already told mommy and daddy that you wear `em just like me and they won't say nothing at all!" he said pulling off his pants.

I was apprehensive at first, but after a few seconds thought, I too started to strip however not all the way. I had the notion that it might make Lowell's mom and dad feel funny when they saw my armor so I kept on my shirt, though Lowell assured me they already knew about it.

"That's okay, I'll just keep my shirt on anyway!" I said to him.

So, with Lowell wearing noting but a diaper and me wearing only a shirt and diaper the two of us made our way back down to the basement. I was so glad that we did not run into his mom or dad yet.

"Hey, where's you dad?" I asked.

"At work still." Lowell said.

"What's he do?" I asked.

"Stuff." Lowell answered.

"What kind of stuff?" I continued to probe.

"Just stuff." He answered softly as if maybe he were embarrassed about it.

Curiosity might have killed the cat, but I am no cat! So, I had to ask again, "But what kind of stuff?"

Lowell sighed before saying, "Let's not talk about that! Let's watch a movie instead!"

Seeing that he was so uncomfortable with the subject that he wasn't going to tell me what it was his father did for a living and despite my own mounting curiosity, I gave in and let the subject drop, "Okay what do you want to watch?"

"You are my guest so you can choose!" he said pulling open a cabinet door beside the big screen revealing another room behind the TV. It was a sort of media library as well as a way to get to the back of all the electronic items. The wall directly behind the television screen was entirely filled with video's and DVD's of nearly every movie imaginable.

"There are too many to pick from." I said.

"You like action movies?" he asked.

"Yeah, love them!" I answered.

"How about mysteries?" he asked again.

"Sometimes, depends on if it is a good one!" I said.

He was looking over the DVD's when he asked, "Oh you like westerns?"

"Yeah sometimes!" I answered.

"Ever see El Diablo?" he asked.

"What's it about?" I asked back.

"Some girl is kidnapped in the old west by a Mexican and her teacher teams up with an old gunfighter and a story writer to go rescue the girl." He told me and it sounded good but I thought it might be more fun if we watched something neither of us had ever seen.

"Got anything new, I mean that you haven't watched yet?" I asked.

"Yeah a bunch!" he said plopping his butt down on the carpeted floor so that he could reach the bottom shelf.

"Here's one that I haven't seen that looks like it might be a western." He said holding up a DVD case to show me the picture of a man in a white cowboy hat and some lady holding onto a boy that looked to have a bandana or something wrapped around his head.

I took it from him and read the title aloud, "Everything That Rises" and then said, "This one looks good! Can we watch this?"

"Yeah sure!" Lowell said standing up and as he did so, he let go a small stinker. "Woops! Sorry about that!"

"Don't bother me none!" I said giggling.

We left the little media room; Lowell loaded the DVD and then asked, "You want something to drink while we watch?"

About then Lowell's mom came down the stairs, "I'm sorry, got busy on the phone!" she said when she saw us. I was suddenly very much aware of the fact that I had on no pants and my diaper was right out there in the open. "Sweetheart, would you believe they sent me the wrong papers again? This is the third time!" she said to Lowell.

She was going on and on as I stood there petrified and feeling like I was going to explode with embarrassment at any second. I could have kissed Lowell when he interrupted her, "Mom! We're going to watch a movie!"

"What? Oh yes, that sounds like a good idea! I'm going to go... and... I'll be upstairs." She got rather glassy eyed and seemed to disappear as she talked. About halfway up the stairs, I could hear her talking to herself in some odd low voice that didn't seem to be her own.

"Sorry, she gets like that when she's working." Lowell said.

"Oh, your mom works?" I asked.

"Yep! Hey, you want a Creamed Root beer?" Lowell asked.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Ever read the Harry Potter books?" he asked.

"Yeah of course!" I answered.

"Know what Butter-Beer is?" Lowell asked getting out two large baby bottles from a cabinet near the stairs.

"Yeah, but I thought it was just something that the writer made up." I replied.

"Kind of, but really I think she got it from Creamed Root beer." Lowell said opening another cabinet that turned out to be a small refrigerator. He took out a small bottle that looked like the old time milk jugs that used to be left on peoples doorsteps in the morning. I found out later that it was called `Heavy Cream'. He filled about a quarter of the bottles with the cream and then topped them off with root beer.

"It's good cold or hot, but it's harder to make hot and I'm not allowed to use the microwave down here unless mommy or daddy are down here because one time I put popcorn in it and forgot about it and nearly caught the house on fire." Lowell laughed, "Actually it was kind of funny, except it took weeks to get that smell out of here."

He put the cream and what was left of the can of root beer back into the little refrigerator before taking out some little yellow container. "When I make it hot I like to use real melted butter but in cold drinks this stuff is better because it's already liquidy. I actually discovered this all by myself one time and it tastes the same to me."

It turned out to be a squirt bottle and he put three squirts into each bottle. As he was putting the stuff away I asked, "What is that stuff?"

"Oh!" he held it up for me to read, "It's `I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray'." he said.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a long glass rod-looking thing, gave each bottle a quick stir and then said, "Come here a sec." So I did.

"Taste!" He said and let me lick off the thing he was stirring our bottles with.

"Yum! That is good!" I said.

"Told ya so!" he said screwing the nipples onto the two bottles.

"Just put that in the sink." He instructed.

"What sink?" I asked looking around.

"Oh duh! Sorry, I forgot you didn't know!" he said setting down the bottles and opening yet another cabinet door. Behind it was a sink, with glasses hanging from a shelf above it.

"Well that's cool!" I said putting the stirrer into the sink.

"Here you go!" he said handing me one of the bottles and leading the way back to the television. I sat down first in the middle of the front sofa and Lowell sat down to my left, so close that our entire sides were touching.

"Comfy?" he asked reaching over for a remote.

"Sure!" I said.

He clicked on the movie and before long the two of us were lost in the drama. A little ways into the movie there was this scene in which the main character, a crippled boy is riding a horses with his grandpa and messes his pants. Lowell and I howled and whooped it up `cause neither of us knew that was going to happen.

Soon after that scene, we paused the movie long enough for Lowell to make us both another bottle of Creamed Root beer to drink during the second half of the movie. When he returned I slouched down and Lowell laid long ways with his left ear against my diaper while we both continued to watch the movie. I got to play with Lowell's hair with one hand and held my bottle with my other.

The movie ended, but instead of turning off the credits, we stayed in the same spot, me still petting Lowell's hair and rubbing his chest and he happily sucking his thumb.

"So what does your mom do?" I asked.

"Sthe hath hu ow buthiss." He said without removing his thumb from his mouth.

I giggled and asked, "Huh?"

Grudgingly he pulled his thumb from his mouth long enough to say, "She has her own business."

"What does she do?" I asked again.

He didn't answer in what I thought was a timely fashion so I began tickling his ear with my finger. He tried to shoo my hand away without removing his thumb again but I didn't relent. Finally, he popped his thumb out, sat up and said, "Something to do with reading stuff and writing lots of people all the time." He said with a big pouty lip.

Teasing him I said, "You look so adorable when you pout!" He only swatted at the air and stuck his lip out farther.

"You don't want me to get a hold of that lip!" I warned him, which got him to quickly suck it into his mouth.

When the music and credits were done, he got up, ejected the DVD and returned it and its case to the media room. When he emerged again I was carrying our two empty bottles to the cabinet with the sink in it.

"Nah, bring those upstairs and we'll put them in the dishwasher and get fresh ones up there!" he said.

I stopped, turned around and had a perfect picture of him standing there in a very wet diaper and nothing else. "I think somebody needs changed." I teased.

"I ain't the only one!" he said pointing at my diaper and smiling.

I looked down and sure enough, I was so soaked that I could see that my diaper had leaked and had it not been for my plastic pants I would have left a wet spot on their couch.

Feigning that I was upset I grumbled, "Dang now how did that happen?"

"I think someone had too much Creamed Root beer!" Lowell teased.

"I think we both did!" I said with a smile and added, "Guess we better go upstairs and get changed, huh?"

"Yeah!" he said and I made him walk up the steps ahead of me so that I could watch his wet diapered butt as we climbed the stairs.

We stopped off in the kitchen, which was as immaculate as the rest of the house, rinsed out our bottles and put them in the dishwasher. I expected him to go to one of the cabinets and get out clean bottles but instead he went to the refrigerator and pulled out too already made bottles of chocolate milk.

"You like chocolate milk?" he asked.

"Yeah sure!" I said eagerly taking the bottle from him and following him up to his room again.

On my third trip past the four children's paintings, I decided that I didn't care for them. All eight eyes seemed to follow me from the moment I stepped onto the upper landing until I vanished into Lowell's room.

"Hey!" I said stopping and looking at Lowell's door. There was a sign hanging on the outside of it that read, "Nursery" with little balloons all around it.

"What?" Lowell said.

"I didn't notice that before!" I said pointing to the sign.

"Yeah, that's something my babysitter gave me for my birthday." Lowell said while crossing to his dresser and pressing a little yellow button on what I thought was a toy radio, but turned out to be a baby intercom.

A moment later Lowell's mother's voice came booming out, "Yes darling."

"We need changed." Lowell said pressing down the yellow button again.

"I'll be right up sweetheart. Mommy just needs to finish this one letter!" she said.

"Y-your m-m-mom's g-going to ch-change us?" I stuttered as the idea of having Lowell's mother seeing me naked took hold of me.

"Yep!" Lowell said smiling before popping his bottle into his mouth.

"Can't we just do each other?" I begged, "Like before?"

"Nope!" He said smiling behind his bottle!

"Y-you're g-going to b-be the de-death of me!" I said and just when he looked away I gave Lowell a squirt with my bottle.

"Hey!" He said in protest.

I didn't have to sweat bullets for too long before I heard his mother coming up the stairs. When she came in it was like she was a totally different person then when I'd seen her down in the basement earlier.

"Okay, works all done for today!" she announced. Lowell bit down on the nipple of his bottle so that he could clap his hands together pretending they were big marching band cymbals.

"So I have two little babies to look after this afternoon?" she teased as I blushed and Lowell beamed happily.

She proceeded to get out the necessary supplies to take care of the two of us.

Lowell, taking his bottle from his mouth, spoke up, "Simon wants to wear one of mine and I want to wear one of his!"

"Oh, okay then. Where's Simon's things?" she asked and Lowell pointed to the pile under my coat, which consisted of my gym bag and my backpack both filled to their maximum capacity, mostly because I didn't know what to pack so I over packed!

Since I was pretty much frozen with shock and fear I wasn't much help and as a result Lowell retrieved one of my disposable diapers from my gym bag, while his mom got out one of Lowell's Pampers from the dresser.

"Who wants to go first?" she asked and before I could even think about replying Lowell shouted, "SIMON FIRST!"

I remember looking at him like he'd just volunteered me to go to the firing squad first. He only smiled his wide hypnotic smile as his mother spread out a white plastic mat, with little yellow duckies all over it, onto the floor and then reached up and took hold of my wrist. I did not budge so she pulled harder and my body yielded though my brain was still locked up and refused to function.

"Oh my! Someone really did need changed; just look at this diaper!" She playfully said as she helped me to lie down on the floor.

When she went for the waistband of my plastic pants, without even thinking about it, my backside came right up off the mat. Something funny that I noticed while lying there was that I could hear my heart beating in my ears. It sounded kind of the way heartbeats sounded on that old Star Trek show, the one with Spock and Doctor Leonard `Bones' McCoy.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Lowell who was leaning against the railing of his cribbified bed looking completely elated at watching his mother remove my soaking wet diaper. Okay, now if having some strange lady change me while Lowell stood there watching wasn't bad enough, when she pulled back my diaper my boyhood member was set free.

He sprang proudly to attention within seconds as if to say, "Hey look at me, look at me, look at me! Look how big I am!"

All I could do was cover my face with my hands and wish with all my might to suddenly become invisible. My heart was beating so feverishly in my ears that I could not hear anything outside of my head until finally the words, "MY TURN!" managed to reach my brain.

I was so embarrassed that I rolled off the mat, crawled across the floor and crouched down near the foot of the bed as I awaited the calming of my heart. I could see Lowell from the belly down just past the corner of his bed. When I saw his mother remove his diaper and saw that he too was rock hard I suddenly didn't feel so embarrassed, or maybe I figured if he didn't care about getting hard and having his mom see it, then why should I?

Still, I couldn't have been more relieved when she picked up the wet diapers, after putting away the diapering supplies and left us alone in his room again.

"So, how'd you like it?" he asked with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

"Gawd that was embarrassing!" I said.

"Well from what I saw you looked like you were enjoying it!" he said, which only caused me to blush again.

"Don't even try deigning it!" he teased and poked me in the forehead with his index finger.

Instead of attempting to say anything, I chose to act and without any warning at all I pounced on him and had him on his back with me sitting on his stomach and tickling him under his arms.

"Stop! Stop! I'm sorry, please stop!" he cried out with laughter as he kicked wildly trying to buck me off him but try as he might, he could not dislodge me. I didn't relent in my attack either despite his pleadings. I continued to tickle him until tears were flowing out of the corners of his eyes and his bladder had released into his diaper again.

"Say, `Simon is the greatest' and I'll stop." I said to him.

He shook his head violently from side to side and was laughing so hard that I don't think he could have talked if he wanted to.

"Say it and I'll stop!" I said again letting up on the tickling enough to allow him the ability to speak.

"You're a booger head!" he said and tried to back me off again.

I slid back further so that I was sitting on top of his diaper and began to tickle his belly. That put him over the edge as he wailed and threw his arms about, madly clutching at my shirt to try to get me to stop.

"All you have to do is say, `Simon is the greatest!' and I will stop tickling you." I repeated, "Come on! Just say it!"

When Lowell couldn't take anymore of the maddening torture he finally squealed, "Simon is the greatest! Now get off me!"

I stopped tickling him, but I didn't get off him, least not just yet. Instead, I swung my legs backwards and lowered myself down so that I was laying right on top of him and we were face to face.

"You are going to squish me!" he moaned as he gasped for air and attempted to recover from the tickling. He tried to roll me off him, but I put my hands on the floor and braced myself so that he had to give up and just lay there under me.

"What?" he said with his belly and chest still heaving beneath me.

Without saying anything, I placed my lips against his and kissed him.

"Don't think that makes up for tickling me!" he said while grinning.

I kissed him again, this time longer.

"What if my mom comes back?" he asked.

I looked over at the door and for the first time realized that the door was still open, but then something occurred to me.

"If she didn't come in when you were screaming from being tickled, what makes you think she will come in now?" I asked.

"Good point!" he said with a smile and tried to roll me off again. I took hold of both of his wrists and held them to the floor over his head before kissing him again. But this time I didn't stop kissing him and after a few seconds I felt him stop resisting and completely relax. I was able to release his arms, which he then wrapped around me and we laid there kissing and holding each other for the longest time.

When the two of us were quite worked up, and by worked up I mean, that we both were hard as we could be inside our diapers, we started rubbing the fronts of our diapers together and making humping motions. I could feel his hands exploring my body, even through my armor and eventually, he slipped both of his hands into the back of my diaper and was squeezing my bottom. I managed to get my right hand into his diaper and around his penis to which he started really bucking and nearly threw me off this time. It was all I could do just to hang on and ride him. After another minute or two, his body went totally limp under me. I rolled off of him and onto my back, pulling my hand out of his diaper again. When I looked at my hand, it was covered in baby powder and something else. It took me a second or two to realize what it was.

"Whoa, look at this!" I said to him, but he didn't look. He only laid there, his eyes closed and his chest heaving up and down as he took in huge breaths to try and recover.

Leaning in close to his ear I whispered, "You just came on my hand!" and I held it over his face for him to see. I think he was too exhausted to speak, but his elated grin and his glow of ecstasy said everything.

I snatched a baby wipe from my backpack and cleaned my hand before sitting Indian style next to Lowell who was still lying flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling with the goofiest expression.

I rested my now clean hand on his stomach and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

He rolled his head to the side so that he could look at me. He had an infectious grin and his skin seemed to be glowing as if he had a light bulb up his butt.

"What?" I asked, unable to keep myself from giggling.

"Want to go play video games?" he asked without moving.

"Okay!" I said, not moving either.

"Or we could just stay here and look at each other the rest of the day?" I teased and petted his stomach.

Lowell rolled himself up onto one elbow so that he was facing me, I leaned forward and we kissed with a quick soft peck before he jumped to his feet and ran from his room shouting, "Last one down is a booger head!"

He was halfway down the hallway before I was even up and moving, but I quickly gained on him and by the time we reached the stairs to the basement I was nearly caught up.

"No running in the house!" his mother yelled from somewhere out of sight. We both slowed and walked rather fast down to the basement.

"I beat you!" Lowell said.

"Only because you cheated and your mom yelled at us." I said.

Making his way over to the big television again he said, "You know what they say!"

"No, what do they say?" I asked in a very derogatory tone.

Lowell made the shape of an `L' with his finger and thumb and said, "That you are a lllllloooooooosssssseeeeeerrrrrrrr!"

We both started laughing. I didn't get mad or anything, I just decided to get even. Mustering up all of my acting abilities, I turned away from him, though he wasn't looking at me at that moment, and with my head hanging low I started walking slowly back up the stairs. I had made it about five steps when he realized I was leaving.

"Hey?" he called after me and when I didn't answer he called again, "Simon? Where you going?" and by the sound of his voice I knew he was making his way over to the stairs again.

I was nearing the top when he called out again, "Simon stop! Where are you going?"

When I still didn't answer I heard him rushing up behind me and when he was right behind me I turned and screamed, "I'M GOING TO GET YOU!"

I scared him so bad that he squealed and nearly fell back down the stairs. I chased him down the steps around the sofas, over one of them, back over to the stairs again and then back around the sofas once more before he stopped at one end of one of the sofas with me directly across from him at the other end.

"You scared the crap out of me!" he said panting hard.

I was breathing hard myself and was holding my armor clad chest with one arm; with an evil sneer I said, "That was the idea."

"No I mean before you yelled. I thought you were really mad at me!" he said trying to give me his sad eyes.

"Right! That was the intent!" I sneered again.

"You are just awful!" he said sticking his tongue out at me.

"Just wait `til I get my hands on you again! I'll make you pee your diaper again!" I said with as threatening a voice as I could make.

Holding up both of his hands he begged, "Okay, I am so, so, so, so very sorry! You are not a loser! You are the best; the best of the best, the bestest ever!"

He tried to smile and make me believe it,but I wanted so desperately to get my hands on his smooth body again.

Then I had an idea--I stuck my hand out and said, "Truce?"

He came around his end of the sofa and took my hand, "Truce!"

But once I had hold of his hand I pulled him off balance and he fell face first onto the sofa. I then sat down on his diapered butt and when he tried to kick his legs back to kick me I got hold of both of them and wouldn't let them go.

"Please don't tickle me again Simon!" Lowell was crying and laughing at the same time.

I only placed one finger on the bottom of his left foot and he started bucking and squealing like a stuffed pig.

"I've not even done anything... yet!" I said.

"Please!" he said and this time he sounded like he was really crying amidst his laughter.

"Are you really crying?" I asked.

"Yes, now please don't tickle me!" he pleaded.

"Alright!" I said without letting go of his feet or moving off him.

"Then get off me!" he commanded.

"Nope! I kind of like it here!" I said bouncing slightly.

"Oh Simon you are going to break me in half!" he moaned.

"Then I suggest you stay still!" I said calmly.

"AARRRGGG!" he cried out in frustration, "At least let go of my feet?" and instead of sounding like an order, it sounded more like a hopeful beseeching.

"Nah, I kind of like them, they are soft and don't smell!" I said rubbing my cheek against the bottom of his right foot.

"That tickles too!" he squirmed a little.

"I suppose then kissing your toes would tickle too?" I asked, unable to keep from giggling.

"Please let me up!" he whined.

"I'll make you a deal." I said.

"Anything!" he said.

"Oh you shouldn't have said that!" I joked.

"Ssssiiiimmmmooooonnnnn!" he whined better then I could.

"That's my name! Don't wear it out!" I teased.

He got quiet for a few seconds and then asked, "What do I have to do?"

"First, if I let you up, then you have to promise to do whatever I say and you can't say no or whine or complain at all!" I offered.

"That's not fair! You are bigger then me!" he continued to whine.

"Yep, and I am faster and stronger, even with my messed up ribs!" I said.

I gave him a single poke in the side and he let out an "EEEP!"

"So do you promise?" I asked.

"Yes! Anything, just get off me!" he squealed.

"Not so fast, I have a second condition." I said.

He didn't say anything so I stated my second condition, "You have to tell me what your dad does."

"Geeze! He's a preacher okay!" he said now sounding very angry.

"A preacher?" I asked in disbelief, "You mean like a priest in a church?"

"No, priest's are Catholic. My dad is a Baptist Evangelist preacher." Lowell said sounding as if he were crying again.

"Well..." I started to say something but stopped to think about what I wanted to say before I continued, "Why didn't you want to tell me that? There's nothing wrong with that!" I declared.

"Can you get off me now?" he asked while trying to wiggle free.

"Not yet!" I answered by pushing him back down onto the sofa cushion. "I think it's cool that your dad is a preacher, but I still don't understand why you didn't want to tell me that."

Lowell's body went limp beneath me as he began to speak, "Because every time someone finds out they stop being my friend. They think my dad is going to brainwash them or turn them into some kind of bible crazed person."

"That's stupid!" I said.

When he didn't say anything I said, "They should be more scared that you will turn them into diaper wearing babies."

I think it took Lowell a few seconds to realize I'd just made a joke and when he finally figured it out he laughed, not hard but it was still a laugh.

"So we still friends?" he asked.

"Nope!" I stated very matter-of-fact like. "We can not be friends anymore because I am your master and you are my slave and you have to do whatever I say!"

Grabbing his pinky toe and giving it a squeeze I said, "Alright, I'm going to let you up but remember, you promised and if you break your promise then it will be a thousand times worse for you!"

I got up slowly. It took Lowell a few more seconds to set up as I'd done a good job of squishing him. His eyes were a little red and a little puffy from crying but at least he was smiling again. Maybe because I was smiling at him too.

"So what I got to do?" he asked in rather broken grammar.

"Well, for starters!" I started to say.

"No! Only one thing!" he interrupted.

"Hey, you are not allowed to complain!" I said raising my hands as if I were a wild animal about to attack again.

Looking beaten and miffed he said, "What then?"

"As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me... for starters you have to read to me the next chapter of your story." I said.

He interrupted me again, "I already have it recorded and you can listen to it!"

"I don't want to just listen, I want to hear and watch you reading it!" I said.

"Alright, what else?" he asked.

"You have to kiss me!" I said and he got a mischievous smile.

"Heck, I can do that right now!" he said standing up.

"On the butt!" I added.

"On the butt?" his voice cracked.

"Yes and then I'll think up some other stuff." I said and I'd hardly stopped talking when Lowell's mouth opened.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"Fair? And this coming from a cheater?" I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll read but I'm not kissing nothing on you!" he said crossing his arms and sitting back down again.

"Yes you will!" I said.

"No I won't!" he said.

"Yes you will! I said again.

"NO I WON'T AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" he yelled and I could tell even though he sounded mad he was just playing his little game again.

All I had to do was take half a step toward him and he started crying out, "Alright--alright--alright! I'll do it! Just no tickling!"

"I think you should do the kiss first!" I said and I turned around and stuck my diapered butt out at him.

I watched as he crawled across the floor and kissed my diaper. "Ah, I didn't say diaper!"

"Simon!" he groaned.

"Ah, ah, ah! No complaining, remember?" I said.

Looking agitated; he took hold of the leg opening of my diaper on the left side and lifted up on it to reveal my snow-white butt cheek.

"It's got powder and cream all over it!" he groaned.

"That still sounds like complaining to me!" I said and I was loving every second of it.

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 wiped off with his hand and made a face like 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 his lips off.

"So does the end of your nose!" I said and 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 didn't want to read his teenbaby story down in the basement. So, I gave in and the two of us tromped back up the stairs to his room.

"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.

 

 

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

 

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 drawn 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.

"Yeah, 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 he 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 handed me the baby blue T-shirt 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 room for my armor and for some growing 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 yeah! BL for Baby Lowell and now I am BS!" I said excitedly.

"Yeah 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 only to emerged a few seconds later 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 a second time.

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 whoever 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 are you 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 tried 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.

"Yeah! How'd you know that?" he asked with mild surprise.

"Yeah, 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 yeah?" 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 had 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?" I asked.

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

"Yeah, well dang he had even more freckles when he was younger!" I pointed out.

"Nah, 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 happened 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.

"Yeah 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 someone 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 yeah!" he said taking it 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 who 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, while 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 to me.

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 another thought occurred to me. "Am I allowed to use the toilet?" I asked.

"Yeah, you can if you want to." He said and looking up from the pages added, "But you don't have to! 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 yeah 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 that 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 cowardliness won out over my need to confide in someone and I said, "Yeah, go ahead 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 have 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. 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 wirery body several times over. The combination of fear, hope and just plain exhaustion caused my brain to pump adrenaline through my veins like poring whisky into the gas tank of a diesel engine. 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 the 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 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 sprinted 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 apppeared 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; his words were barely audible, "I saw a caribou one time that a pack of wolves had..." his voice trailed off.

He shook his head, "We would have been to 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. Without saying anything, I made my way back up the ladder, retrieved a lantern and descended 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 cut away 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. 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 it had 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 though 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 to 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? And as though it were one complete thought she continued, "Lowell, your daddy will be home in a few minutes too."

"We are coming!" Lowell said without moving.

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

"Nah, 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 later!" he said from inside the closet.

When he reemerged I was looking down at my diaper.

"Hey you wet!" he said stating the obvious.

"Yeah!" 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 our song changed as we continued to march in and around Lowell's mother and the kitchen island and our 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. "Soldiers Lowell and Simon reporting as ordered mommy!" Lowell said still saluting.

"At ease soldiers!" she 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 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 behind her. It was Mary, my Mary, from school!

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

My eyes met Mary's and she was smiling that smile of hers which 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 was a girl that looked nearly as wonderful as my Mary. And there I was 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 in the stupidest of ways. I didn't see him actually do 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 over 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, "Yeah he's fine his just in LOOOVE!" and he said it loud this time, loud enough that everyone heard him.

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

Mary stepped around Stephanie and I saw the 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 he 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 in contrast just stood there; so, Stephanie reached down, took my hand, and started to lead us 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 landing, 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 authoritively.

"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!

"Geeze 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.

Through those wonderful smiling lips came four words that scared me near to death.

"Your turns coming next!" she said.

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 one of the diapers I had brought with me.

"Yeah!" 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.

Despite my embarrassment, 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 sit 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, "You're wet!"

"I think you're next!" Stephanie suggested 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?" Mary 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 at 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 she had 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 bawling he answered, "You said not to do it!"

I was 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 hummed 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 done to Lowell.

"Somebody's got a very dirty mouth!" Mary said from behind her hand which 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. Despite my embarrassment 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 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 a 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 I 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 hear 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 worse!" 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 previously. 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 to 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 frame. 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!" he 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 she 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.

"Yeah you sure were red!" Lowell said smugly.

That was the wrong thing for him to say, "Yeah, 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 me 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, 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've 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 seeing me in 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 bawling they both stopped in their tracks.

"What's going on in 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 of 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 two 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 too. 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 Lowell 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.

Stephanie took a step forward, about to intervene but I had just enough time to give Lowell several hard noogies right on the top of his head.

"OOOOOUUUUUCH!" 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 boy's 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 my teeth 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. They 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 black 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. 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 yeah 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 stay 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 beconning 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 as 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. Instead he said, "How on earth can you be hungry?" and 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 oxygen, I finally allowed myself to draw in a much-needed breath. 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.

"Yeah 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, but yours 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.

"Nah, 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 closet and stepped in again.

"Yeah 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 yeah! I forgot you said you wanted to tell me some secret spy stuff!" Lowell said from inside his closet.

"Yeah! 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?" I hissed, 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 was 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 over to the stairs.

I picked up the receiver and said, "Hello?"

My dad's voice came through 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?" he asked.

Not sure why he would call me here to ask such a question I answered, "Yeah, 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.

"Yeah, 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 the bottom of the steps.

Lowell didn't have a chance to answer me as Stephanie had opened the door and 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.

"Yeah!" 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-up my coat as I was still fumbling with the dang zipper.

"No Simon's not in trouble." Dad answered.

"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 shake of her head.

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 when 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. 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 another one that I recognized, when we pulled into the driveway, 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 patted my chest as if to brush 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, where 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 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. 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 again.

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 shouldn't 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 to."

Yeah, her logic was pretty screwed up, but then I wasn't 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 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 give the impression to support that she was of the same thinking as 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. However, 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 their 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 in 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. 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 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 to 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 things into her place but I refused.

"I can do it myself!" I declared stubbornly.

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 me with questions. 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, "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, "Hello sir!"

"Oh he's a little gentleman!" Ian said with a bit of a lisp 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 humming snake.

"Are either of you hungry?" he asked as Marsha was hanging our 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 had offered to him to shake but 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 smiled 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.

He continued, "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 released me and the second I was free, I ran to Jamie's room where 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. Yeah 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 suppose I ended up falling asleep sitting there because the next thing 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 them safely stored in my e-journal. Thus, I turned off 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 darkened 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 slid closer to Jamie and snuggled against him for security. It wasn't too much longer before I drifted off to sleep again.