Simon's Journal
Volume IV
Thirteen
Summer Days
A New Beginning
Written by Danny
Chapter -- 4
Monday
There in
"
Sleeping Beauty he wasn't, `cause that kiss didn't wake him. Or maybe I am not his dashingly Prince? Well, at any rate, he didn't wake up; he didn't even move. I rested my head back on his arm and with my right hand I stroked his hair, his neck, his shoulder, his blade, down his back bone to the band of his plastic pants and would have kept going, but I felt something odd. It was cold and hard like metal. It had scrapped my forearm near my wrist. My fingers found and fondled the foreign object, but were unable to figure out what it might be. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I rose up on one elbow to see what it could possibly be.
"A lock?" I mumbled, forgetting to whisper.
"Huh?"
So as not to risk waking him, I laid myself back allowing him to roll right over until he was almost on top of me. His face was resting on my left shoulder; his hot breath heating my neck, causing a tingle to run all the way down my spine and out the ends of my toes. The front of his diaper was slightly to the left of center over my diapered pelvis. Our two plastic pants squeaked a little as they rubbed together.
With both of my hands now free I wrapped them around him, traced the contours of his spine and I must have unintentionally tickled him `cause he giggled in his sleep and ground his hips into me. Once more I found the waistband of his plastic pants and the fingers of my right hand soon located the cold metal item only now it felt loose; as though it hung freely. I continued to explore using only my sense of touch, but to no advantage because right at that moment his mother walked into the room.
I pretended to be asleep as she leaned over
the side rail, rolled
I should pause here to explain again that
Much
to my surprise she lowered the side rail, lifted the covers from our feet to
expose our diapers and began to change us both. I wish I was able to stay awake
this time; at least I might have been able to see what that lock thing was on
With a soft kiss to my forehead she whispered, "Go back to sleep."
Wow, she hadn't been fooled by my act. I have said it before and I will say it again! Mom's have some awesome super powers!
Without opening my eyes again, I gave the bottle a few sucks and before I knew it I was back in the land of dreams.
As
I began to dream I found myself standing shoulder to shoulder with several of
my
And though I don't remember taking my eyes off the door in front of me, I do recall noticing that we were all completely without clothes save for gleaming white, overly thick, clothe diapers. We were not wearing plastic or rubber pants, which is just how we would have been on the ship back before Madam-M arrived. Granted we were never so well padded, but we for sure never had any sort of water proof pants to wear over our diapers.
I don't know which of us it was that stepped away from our ranks to try one of the doors. Oddly, when he stepped away from us we all suddenly became completely naked. Our diapers had somehow vanished, but in my dream no one seemed to notice except for me.
We all watched without breathing as his fingers encircled the knob and tried to turn it.
"It's locked." The boy said.
Suddenly from every door horrible sounds could be heard like a horde of ghastly beasts were working themselves into a frenzy. Panicked, we all broke ranks; everyone trying their own door, but only mine opened. Inside it was black, but most importantly, it was quiet and void of beasts.
"This way!" I shouted and ran into the darkness.
The moment we are all in the room the door slammed shut behind us and the entire ceiling became illuminated, but when we look up there was no ceiling. It's like the opposite of a bottomless pit, it was a topless pit. The walls were lined with empty bookshelves and without thinking we all started to climb with panicked haste. I don't know how, but somehow only Lowell and I had escaped and we are in my room, my old bedroom I might add, lying side by side on my bed. We were not concerned about the others or whether they got out or not. We were just happy to be lying there naked and happy in each others arms.
After that the dream ended another started, but I can only remember fragments of that dream; rubber super-balls, orange and green chickens that were running on a treadmill or something weird like that.
Not long after the sun came up Lowell and I were laying together in his bed laughing back and forth about what the other had to say. Reminiscing about this and that and having such a good time. Never ever thinking there was danger outside his bedroom door; we never would have dreamt that there was a wild bear scheming and watching for the best time to jump into the room and attack us.
All at once in jumped
While the bear was busy trying to eat
"Simon Help!"
"Help yourself!" I shouted back.
And that is just what he did.
"Ouch! No biting!" I heard Reverend Vandoan
growl right before
We ran down the stairs, jumping steps and dodging furniture trying to get away. Our only contemplation was to escape and we finally made it when we reached the basement where we realized that the big growling bear hadn't followed us down.
"It's ok!" I panted, "I think we lost him."
"You know something Simon,"
"Close? You must be joking! That was just a little bit of a caper." I said.
"A caper? Who talks like that?"
"I dunno," I shrugged, "guess I do."
Still laughing
"I need changed too." I commented as I looked down and saw that my diaper was hanging so low that I was surprised it was still staying on me.
"Yeah, I guess I do too."
"Think we should go ask Pappa Bear for some help?" I asked.
"Pappa Bear?"
"Well he is your Pappa and he is a big scary bear." I said.
"He ain't my Pappa, he's my daddy, but you
are right he is a big scary bear!"
Puffing out my chest I said, "That old bear don't scare me none."
"I'm scared of that big old bear! He sure
looked hungry."
"Yeah, I think I am hungry too." I said.
"Know something?"
"What's that?" I asked back.
"You look better today then you did yesterday." he observed.
"What? You saying I was ugly yesterday?" I asked amusingly.
"Noooo!"
"I ain't pink! Pink is for girls and sissies!" I said.
"Pepto-Bismol is pink and that's not just for
girls."
Exasperated I balked, "Pepto-Bismol? That stuff is nasty and besides it has nothing do with nothing!"
"Yeah huh! It is for when you are sickly and yesterday you looked sickly."
Shaking my head, "I did not!"
"Yeah huh! And now you are pink!" he giggled.
"I ain't pink!"
"OK then how about rosy?" he offered with a toothy grin.
I countered with, "How about red?"
"Yeah I guess so." I said having lost interest in the whole color subject.
"Oh ok then. You can be a savage, red, Indian
and I will be General Custard and I will hunt you down and kill you!"
"Um, the Indians are the ones that kills Custard you bone head!" I said.
"They did?" he asked.
"Yep!"
"Gee-whiz then I want to be the Indians and you can be um... What do you want to be?" he asked.
"We can both be Indians and we can go hunt that big old bear and use his hide to make shoes and pants!" I suggested.
Then I seen something on the side of his clear plastic pants and remembered it from earlier.
"What is that?" I asked and pointed to it.
Twisting and turning he tried to see what I was pointing at, "What's what?"
"That! What's that?!" I said again.
"That what?" he asked; not understanding what I was pointing at.
I moved closer, "Right there! What's that right there?"
"Oooh, that! That is just the lock."
"I know it is a lock! I mean why's it on your plastic pants?"
I went down on one knee to examine it closely. Sure enough it was a small brass colored padlock which required an equally small key to open it.
"Why do you have a lock there?" I asked again.
"Where?" he teased.
"
He giggled, "Same reason you got one."
"Huh?" I grunted and it was my turn to twist around like a dog chasing its tail.
I did three full revolutions while still on
my knee before I found it. Indeed I too had a lock attached to my plastic pants.
However mine wasn't on the side like
"Boy's time to come up to eat and then get
your morning bathes!"
"Are you still going to eat us?"
"No I'm making something that will actually taste good. Now come on." he sent back down.
I looked at
I reached out right as he started to race up the steps and caught him by the waistband of his plastic pants. With one firm tug he flew backward and landed on his padded, butt. I didn't even hesitate before racing up the stairs.
"Hey that's cheating!"
Before we reached the kitchen something
occurred to me from before. I stopped and turned to face
"Take it easy!" I chuckled, "I was only going to ask you something."
"Did you meet my probation officer?"
"Oh I didn't care for him at all." He said, "He's got no sense of humor!"
"Yeah tell me about it." I agreed.
"You two can play later, come eat please."
Still laughing
I had to laugh too as I said, "You're a goofball you know that?"
"Yeah well better a goofball than a goofcube."
I shook my head in confusion and challenged him with, "That didn't make no sense!" which only served to make him laugh all the more.
Breakfast consisted of Apple Jacks cereal with little apple slices and a large glass of orange juice.
"Daddy?"
"Whaty?" he sang back from inside the pantry cabinet.
In the same sing-songy sort of way
"She's in her office. She has things to get done this morning." The Reverend said.
"Oh."
"So what are you boys going to do today?" he asked us as he joined us at the table.
"I-du-na."
"If I can get my schedule freed up would you boys like to go to the skate park later?" he asked us.
"YEAH!" Lowell and I shouted.
I had unintentionally sprayed the table with milk when I had shouted.
With his hands he motioned for us to lower
our voices. He then looked at
"That would be so very cool!" I said.
"No it wouldn't!"
"What? Don't you want to go?" I asked.
"Oh!"
The Reverend and I laughed too.
"If you two are about finished how about a bath?" the Reverend asked us.
"Can we just run through the sprinkler
instead?"
Remembering how aggressive
"Nooo!" I said, answering for the Reverend.
"You two made a mess of the lawn yesterday. I think it is going to need a few days to recover." The Reverend said, but it was what he didn't say that kind of surprised me.
He didn't comment on the idea of the two of us running around naked in the back yard. Instead his concern was for the grass.
"Alright you two! Let's get you upstairs and hosed down!"
"What's the matter?" I asked.
But as quickly as the expression had come it dissolved away.
"Did you just poop?" I asked.
With pride he answered, "Yep!"
"Oh great, an extra present for me." His daddy chuckled.
The Reverend grabbed his son by the hair
again and used it as a leash.
"Wait Daddy!"
"Oh yeah!"
I was quite shocked when a small plastic cup
was handed to me containing my own medications. I looked up from the pills,
trying my best to figure out how they had arrived at
"No of course not." He said and then addressing me directly he said, "Your daddy was here yesterday evening while the two of you were down stairs. He brought over your things and we had a short visit. Now swallow those down so we can get some of the stink washed off you too.
I normally just take all the pills in one big
gulp, but when I seen
Boy was my belly full when I was done. Doing it that way took two full glasses of juice to get all the pills down. When I was down to just one pill I stopped `cause I didn't recognize it. It was a big, brownish-green, oval shaped pill.
I plucked it out of the plastic cup and fingered it.
"That's not one of my pills." I objected.
"That one is so your doodies don't smell bad."
"Ooooh!" I exclaimed, "Your mom told me about these." I said as I recalled her telling me at church yesterday. "Do they taste bad?"
"You don't chew it up!" The Reverend said sarcastically.
I popped it in and guzzled the remaining juice in my glass.
"My belly, button feels like it is going to explode." I commented.
Taking our glasses from us the Reverend asked his son politely, "Now can we go upstairs and get you two washed or is there something else you'd like to do first?"
However, before he could come up with
anything the Reverend did this cool trick with his hands which made it look and
sound like he had just slapped
"Get moving wisecracker!" he said as he gave
I followed the two of them dutifully all the
way up to the bathroom, but stopped short of going in `cause
"Moveth thy soggyeth butteth, Dorketh!" I joked as I brought my knee up into his backside to get him moving.
He giggled and jumped forward so that I could join them inside.
While standing in the bathroom, watching as
Reverend Vandoan was unlocking
With a playful poke at my belly, button he began by saying, "You're Daddy warned me last night about how you have been taking off your diapers in the middle of the night."
He paused briefly `cause he was struggling
with
"Naughty pants?" I asked as though the words were bitter against my tongue.
"I'll let
Once I had joined
"So what's up with the Naughty Pants?" I asked.
He shrugged as though he didn't want to tell me.
I extended my left foot and didn't actually kick him in the nuts, but I did come close enough that his whole body had reacted in anticipation of the pain that didn't come.
"Simon, don't!"
I tucked my chin and looked at him from under my furrowed brow, "Like you kept trying to do to me all afternoon?"
He stuck his tongue out and said, "Yeah, but it still hurts down there a little."
"Good `cause I meant for it too."
"Big fat meany head!" he mumbled almost to low for me to hear.
"So tell me the deal with the Naughty Pants!"
"I don't wanna!" he objected, however when I pressed him more he relented.
"If I get caught touching myself down there I got to wear the naughty pants for a whole day." He finally confessed.
It took me two or three minutes to process that before I was able to respond.
"OK, I guess I understand by why were you wearing them last night?" I asked.
While playing with a small plastic boat and not looking at me he answered, "I have been wearing them every night for almost a month."
"Huh?" I grunted.
"It's hard to explain really..." he paused and turned himself so that he wasn't facing me anymore. It took me another minute before the coin fell into the slot.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOH!" I exclaimed, "You mean you been? I mean...well, you really did? Uh, who with?"
His lips parted into a toothy grin and I knew I'd guessed right.
"And they caught you?" I asked.
He nodded.
"That is why Jasper isn't allowed over no more." He said.
"You mean Bull's brother? That Jasper?"
"JASPER?" I asked again `cause I was having trouble believing it.
"Yep."
"So your mom and dad caught you guys doing stuff? I mean sex stuff?" I asked.
"YOU GOT CAUGHT THREE TIMES?" I said too loud.
"Ssshh!" He hushed and pointed with his eyes at the half open door.
"You are not very smart are you?" He asked me.
"ME? Uh, I ain't the one that is dumb enough to get caught three times."
He also has this yellow submarine that he
says he got from saving up cereal box tops and sending away for it. That didn't
run on soap, but on Baking Soda. It would go up and down over and over again.
That is all it did, well until I figured out you had to put the Baking Soda in
two different places.
"Watch this!" I told
I was going to hold my breath for a really
long time, but I was sabotaged by
I came up out of the water fast and was coughing from having inhaled water.
While coughing I asked, "You dork! (Cough) Are you trying (Cough) to drown me?"
"Let go!" I laughed and coughed.
"What'll you give me if I do?" he asked.
"I'll tell you what I'll give you if you don't!" I warned with the shake of my fist.
He gave my poor little guy a hard tug.
"Ouch! Dang
"Oh so you rather I did it like this?" he said and then he began to stroke back and forth kind of slow like.
Using my ninja skills I managed to get my foot planted in his stomach and pushed off. It worked, he released me, but not because I had pushed him away, but because I had forced all the air out of him.
"Simon that hurt!"
"Oh boohoo?" I said amusingly.
That ended our horse playing and we spent the
reminder of our time playing war with the toy boats and submarine. Shortly
before his dad returned I asked
"If I asked you to do something for me would you do it?"
Hesitant to ask, I looked at the water shimmering around us, took in a soft breath and then let the words slide out.
"I want you to sing something like you did yesterday at church."
"No!" he said with a laughable scoff.
"Please?" I begged in the sweetest tone I could.
"I don't wanna!"
And so I let it drop. We went back to battling with our boats when out of no where he started to sing.
With a snort he asked, "Can I sing anything I want?"
I should have taken that snort as a clue.
"Sure!" I said with a shrug.
I was a little too stuffed
Had to lose a few pounds
Pants too tight, seams busting out
Just had a big burrito with beans and rice
With salsa on top, and some extra spice
Lots of extra spice...
Just then
Out there in the bathroom where the air gets heavy
Sat on a cold seat, thought I was ready...
Working up a cold sweat and reading the news
Workin' on a bowel move...
Out there in the bathroom where the air gets heavy
Sat on a cold seat, thought I was ready...
Working up a cold sweat and reading the news
Workin' on a bowel move...
Trying' to move some backed up, drive-thru food
Workin' on a bowel move
And it was takin' time.
I was up last night trying to make some thunder
How long would it take, I sat and wondered?
Started reading a magazine from 1962
And I'm waiting for a bowel move
`Cause I'm all bound up by cheese that's turned to glue...
waiting on a bowel move...
I'm out of paper too.
Bowel move...
Ain't it funny how it takes so much time
For a bowel move?
I wanna remember, I wanna remember, I wanna remember...
I should've brought my camera.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.....
His father was laughing along with me through
the whole song and I hadn't noticed until after
When
"Well it is now my favorite song of all time!" I gushed.
"I can do it better when there is music playing."
I shook my head, "No I don't think you could have done that better!"
That made
I was the first one out of the tub and stood
dripping while the Reverend first dried
"So who sang that?" I asked.
"I did! Weren't you listening just now?"
I let go a snort of laughter, "No you doofus, I mean who sang it originally."
I've heard it before, but you did it loads better than he ever did."
Fed, bathed, diapered and then back to the bathroom for a quick brushing of the pearlies and then Lowell was kind enough to allow me to have some alone time in the basement where I did some calisthenics, prayed a while and read from his bible which he had loaned to me. However, after about twenty minutes or so he became impatient and snuck down. I had been sitting on the floor with my back to the stairs and was so engrossed in praying that I hadn't heard him creeping up on me.
When he touched my right shoulder with a
single finger and shouted at the top of his voice, "GOTCHAAAA!" I screamed and blasted
from the floor like a rocket. I had gone one way, while
"Dang-it
He giggled, "That was the idea."
"You do realize this means war!" I said trying to sound like Daffy Duck.
I sat up and just as quickly as he came,
I was about to close the Bible when a passage leapt off the page... "To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste."
"UGH!" I grunted and then prayed allowed, "I
get the message Lord. I shouldn't try to get back at
I took a deep breath, let it out and then as
I was closing
Sufficiently rebuked by God I walked up the
stairs in search of
"Why are you in here?" I asked with a chuckle.
He was laughing nervously and waving a badminton racket at me.
"Keep away or I will give you such a whack!" he warned.
"I ain't a fighter anymore." I said, "I promise I won't lay a hand on you."
And I meant it; however
"Yeah right and you really expect me to believe a pirate?" he said while continuing to swing the racket to ward me off.
"Would you believe me if I told you that God told me not to get you back for scaring the crap out of me?" I said and again I cracked a smile.
"Well he did. Right before I came up here he told me that he was going to get you back for me."
"He did not!"
I put my right hand over my heart and said, "I swear I will not get you back for scaring me."
Again
"WATCH YOUR HEAD!" I shouted, but I was too late.
`CRACK!'
I rushed into the closet to make sure he hadn't been really hurt. He wasn't crying, but I could tell he was right on the verge of doing so.
Unable to hold in my laugher I chuckled as I asked, "Are you alright?"
He was holding both hands over his forehead and making this odd sort of sound. It sounded exactly the way an old pickup sounds when you turn the steering wheel too far.
"Say something so I know your brains didn't fall out."
He let go a low grotesque moan.
"Does that mean you are ok?" I asked with mounting concern.
While still clutching his head he tried to nod.
"That looked like it really hurt."
"Well it sure didn't tickle!" he finally spoke.
"Wanna get up?" I asked.
"No." he grunted without moving his head.
"OK, you just want to sit there a minute or two until your head stops hurting?"
"No."
Again I chuckled as I asked, "Want me to leave you alone so you can cry in private?"
"No!" he said forcefully.
Mildly frustrated I asked, "What do you want then?"
With no notion that he was going to do it,
"Stop." I said
"Shhhhh." He hushed and kissed me again.
I pulled partially away, "Please!"
Amazingly, after the shock wore off I felt myself give in to him and began to kiss him back.
It all happened remarkably fast. I hadn't had a chance to throw up all my defenses so is it any wonder that I so easily became lost to the passion of the kiss without struggling to get away? Powerless to break our lip lock it was easy for him control me. With only a suggestive push I rolled backward with him clinging to me and continuing to press his lips to mine. We didn't stop rolling until I was flat on my back and he was on top of my. As soon as we stopped moving he doubled his efforts to suck my tongue out of my mouth.
His fingers worked their way under my shirt to stroke my belly. The softness to his touch seemed to run like a lightning bolt to my brain. I was aware of the whites of his eyes, the way the color was eclipsed by his enormous pupils, the downy peach fuzz hair on his sun kissed cheeks and the sweat that collected on his brow and at his temples.
He pulled his head out of my shirt and using a single finger trace the scar on my face.
"You really are beautiful." He said.
"Guy's are beautiful."
"You are."
"No I'm not. I'm one step away from Frankenstein's Monster."
"Don't say that."
He kissed me every so lightly on the lips.
"You are not a monster. You are beautiful."
I grimaced at the use of that b-word again.
"Guys can be beautiful. How about if I use the word handsome?" he asked.
I gave him a soft smile.
His fingers danced across my scalp.
"You're hair is so short."
"Yeah, but it has grown back a little."
"Will you let it grow long like before?"
I tried to shrug, but the weight of his body on my own hampered that effort.
"At least let it grow out some." He suggested.
With that he allowed his body to slide to my right so that he was lying beside me, his head propped up on his left arm while his right hand went back to exploring my face, my lips, my chin and down over my Adams Apple.
He put his hand on my knee. I put both arms over my eyes and spread my legs wider on the carpeted closet floor pushing shoes or was it toys away with my feet. He stroked upwards over my trembling thigh towards the hem of my shorts. Even with the air-conditioning running it didn't seem to cool the heat we were producing between us. The only sound was the thump-thump-thump of my heart.
He appeared to me in a trance while watching his fingers as they explored my flesh. He watched as his finger tips disappear under the hem of my plastic pants. I felt them nudge, explore, search for an opening in the leg opening of my diaper and then I felt them slip under, inside. It tickled as his finger tips, soft, advanced millimeter by millimeter closer and closer to the intender target.
"Any moment now." I though to myself.
Every millimeter a victory for
A single finger tip caressed the warm, moist walnut skin of my jewel sack.
A fraction higher and he found the velvety skin of my small, skinny, sleeping soldier.
Finger pursued finger and then thumb to encircle nimbly. To explore the contents of my diaper. He rolled me between finger and thumb. My legs were inflexible. Toes coiled. Eyes clamped shut.
His mother was close, but so far away away. Her son was attempting to masturbate me there in his closet with looming witnesses in the form of empty clothing hanging like haunting specters over us. Her son's hand was sliding my penis between fingers and thumb. I was sweating now with the tension of giving myself to the loving touch of a younger boy.
My toes were scrunch, my jewel sack tight around my immature gems. I wondered what his mother was doing, what she was thinking while her son, apparently up in his room playing with a friend.
A shiver raced though me as his fingers withdrew. My arms fell away from my face as flurry of shirts, shorts and socks our clothing flew off of us, landing all around the closet.
"Wait!" I tried to mumble, but couldn't say anything else because he had slipped his tongue into my mouth.
When he finally came up for air any traces of inhibitions I might have had at any point in this exchange were long dead.
He smiled.
I smiled back.
He took that as permission to keep going.
His diaper sagged and I could tell he was wet. I knew I was too. When his diaper fell away it hit the floor with a squish. He didn't even try to hide his arousal and the sight of his small ridged penis caused me to worry that I might be unable to do the same.
"Don't move!" he ordered as he bounded out of the closet only to return a moment later.
While he had been gone I heard him close his bedroom door, then there had been a rummaging sound right before he reappeared carrying the box of diaper wipes.
He dropped the box beside me, pulled the closet doors closed and fell on me again, kissing me passionately for longer than ever before. I hadn't even felt him pull the tapes off my diaper. I only realized he had done it when the front of my diaper came away and felt a slight coolness down there.
Without saying a word
My lack of an erection didn't seem to deter
"I was the same way at first. No stiffy and not even wanting to do stuff, but the more medicine I took the better I got." He said so softly and affectionately.
He dove for my neck and kissed me there, then that little spot right below the Adams Apple causing my toes to curl again. He was working his way down, stopping to suck on each of my nipples before continuing to kiss further and further down. When he reached my belly button, I felt his tongue go in and explore the inner parts of it.
I had the fleeting thought, "I hope there wasn't any lint in there."
His tongue tickled while at the same time my entire body felt like it was going to explode at any moment.
And then
"Aaaahh!" I cried as he sucked not just my penis, but also my berries into his hot mouth.
I might have been soft before, but once inside his mouth my penis began to fill with blood much like it had the day before when his mother was changing my diaper.
I covered my eyes with both arms as
It all happened so fast, from the moment
When I thought I could take no more I felt a
tingling that started in my stomach, but soon moved to my berries which were
still inside
My hands had moved from covering my mouth to
gripping the back of
I would like to say that when that incredible orgasm happened that I ejaculated, but sadly that never happened. I've read enough stuff on the Internet and I was also told about it by Rico that first night together, so I knew what just happened was called a dry orgasm and frankly it was better than any ejaculation I'd ever had before taking so much of Madam-M's drug.
When I finally let go of
Thankfully
I imagine that, had we not heard someone coming upstairs, we probably would have stayed right there in the closet holding on to each others nude bodies for the rest of the day.
In a panic I started to scramble for our
clothes, but
When his bedroom door opened his mother saw us innocently sitting on the floor completely nude and apparently happily playing together.
"Why are you boys naked again? And where are your diapers?" She asked, but it was the way she asked; as though we were about two seconds away from feeling a belt on our backsides.
He turned toward his mom and whined, "Mooooommy, it is sooooo hooooot!"
His mommy adopted a dismayed expression.
"The air conditioner has been running all day and it is not that hot in here. If you wanted to be cooler you should have been playing in the basement!"
She sighed and then said, "You can't go around without diapers and you know it. Both of you know better."
"How about cloth diapers then?" she offered.
"Those are even hoooooootter!"
Finally realizing what he was doing I joined in the subterfuge.
"Got any thinner disposable diapers like GoodNites or something?" I asked.
She thought for a moment and then appeared to have an idea. I was also glad to see that the impending doom of leather on our butts had vanished from her now softening gaze.
"Alright you too, assume the position!" she commanded as she went to get the diaper supplies for us.
Trying to be funny I snapped a sharp salute,
but
This time we were not taped into the thick Bambino diapers, but we were still kept in disposables. These were yellow, thin and not much thicker than Goodnights; they were rubber ducky yellow with a light double blue line wetness indicator running down the front and the outer covering was kind of cloth-like. However, without any rebuking for having apparently stripped out of our diapers we were both put back into Lowell's Naughty Pants; the ones with the locks. I guess she figured this way she was sure that we wouldn't take our diapers off again.
Those diapers didn't hold a lot of pee either. The remainder of the day we had nine diaper changes between us. Two of which had occurred at the skate park. At each changing we were put back into the yellow diapers `cause it was just too dang hot for anything else on. Yesterday had been hot, today was worse.
Neither Lowell nor myself every brought up what had happened in the closet. I have no doubt it was as prevalent in his mind, as it was in mine, but we kept our thoughts to ourselves.
True to his word Reverend Vandoan took Lowell
and I to the skate park. I can remember a time when Lowell's parents wouldn't
let him near a skateboard let alone a skate park where people get hurt on a daily
bases. They have always been overly protective of him and I suppose in some
ways they still are, but not as much as they used too be. I guess that all
changed when he was kidnapped.
That being said,
"Daddy is going to sneak us there so that mommy don't get mad."
"OK." I said as I thought to myself, "Guess maybe his mommy isn't quite as ready as his daddy at letting him grow up and live a little.
The Reverend had me take his cell phone to the basement to make my call to let the Probation Department know where I was going and how long I'd be gone. For safe measure I also called mom and dad to let them know we were going to the skate park. They weren't home so I left a message for them for when they got home.
I was kind of bummed out that I didn't have
my own skateboard, but it was cool `cause
Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised when the Reverend stayed and watched us skate for the full two hours.
"Is your dad just going to stand there the whole time?"
"Yep!" he replied rather snappily.
The park was busier then I had expected, but then again, the more the merrier as they say.
"Dude that rocked!" some kid shouted when
"You've got moves little man!" this older
teen boy said to
I tried the same move and wiped out.
"Smooth move Exlax!" someone said.
"You alright?"
"Yep!" I said as I jumped up and tried again only to wipe out yet again only harder.
"How do you do that?" I asked with amazement.
"I been practicing!"
"I see that!"
We skated for about a half hour before his
father called us to refresh ourselves with ice cold bottles of water. Normally
we never buy bottled water from the snack bar at the park `cause they charge
$3.50 for a dang bottle. Instead, we always drink from the FREE water fountain.
Still, since
"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, "That's the stuff!"
"Having fun?" Reverend Vandoan asked me.
"Yeah man!"
"The best!"
The Reverend picked up
"How about a quick change?"
Lowell and I both nodded and followed behind his daddy to the bathroom. I kept looking over my shoulder as we made our way through the crowds to be sure no one was paying us any undue attention. We reached the bathroom and I was so relieved when he found it vacated. The Reverend pushed us in and then closed and locked the door in to prevent someone from walking in on us in the middle of being changed. Minutes later we were back on our boards and having more much fun.
We took another brake about an hour later for more water, but forwent the diaper change. We had been sweating so much that neither one of us felt we needed to be changed again. However right before we left we did go back into the bathroom for another change not really `cause we had peed, but because we had sweated so much that our diaper's were more than a little damp and frankly `cause mine was itchy. This time we weren't as lucky and had to wait in line to get in and even though I was feeling a bit paranoid that the other kids around us might be getting a clue, no one really seemed to be paying attention to us.
Afterward I was sitting on the long wooden bench taking off my knee pads when this teenager, he had to be at least seventeen, plopped himself down beside me and started pulling off a pair of rollerblades.
"You're Simon Leonard aren't you?" he asked.
His voice was high and didn't match his near adult body.
"Depends." I said without looking at him.
"You don't remember me do you?" he asked.
I stopped what I was doing to give him a proper examination.
He read in my eyes that I didn't have a clue who he was.
"Not surprising." He said.
"Man that was so fun!" he said partially out of breath.
The older boy extended his hand for me to shake.
"Name's Hank." He said right as the Reverend had walked over.
The Reverend apparently recognized Hank
`cause he started acting... well acting like
"Do you know who you are?" The Reverend asked him, "You're Hank `The Hammer' Shaffer!"
I looked to Lowell who was rolling his eyes.
"Daddy, you are embarrassing us!"
He ignored his son and forcefully grabbed Hank's hand to shake.
Hank seemed unfazed by the enthusiasm with which his arm was being pumped.
"Alright I give up!" I said loud enough to reinsert myself, "Who is Hank `The Hammer' Shaffer?"
As though Hank were not there
"I won't go that far." Hank said humbly.
"Are you kidding?" The Reverend squawked, "Last year you broke four of the five long standing Panther records! You're a machine!"
Now I got it. Hank must have been named the new Quarterback after the loss of John Ross Hawkins otherwise known as `The Brahma Bull' or just Bull for short.
And then the quarter, so to speak, fell into the slot.
"OOOH I get it! You were one of the players at my house that one day?" I said.
"Daddy, you can let go of his hand now!"
"Oh yeah! Sorry! I mean... WOW! I am your biggest fan!" Reverend Vandoan told Hank.
Unlike Bull, who was built like a...well like a bull, Hank was lean and on the short side. He also was missing Bull's trademark red hair. Hank had longish brown hair that was almost too long as his bangs were almost covering his eyes. He also looked to be sporting a peach fuzz mustache and a few curly hairs on his chin.
"Thanks!" Hank told
The Reverend couldn't seem to help himself, "Last year you almost took us all the way!"
"Uh, yeah well next year will be different." Hank said.
Thankfully
"So you were really at my house that day?" I asked once we were alone again.
"Yeah, I was the guy that was holding your backside in the air." He chuckled and I felt myself go red at the thought that he must have for sure known that I was padded at that time.
"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or anything. I mean I noticed you when you walked in and I've been working up the nerve to talk to you ever since." Hank said.
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"Well, you're like famous now!" his voice cracked when he said it.
I felt my face going red again, "No man. I am just me."
He turned toward me a bit. He had given up trying to get his second rollerblade off.
"No really! I don't know how you feel about it, but."
He looked around like he was expecting someone to be listening in to our conversation.
"I was wondering if maybe you could do for my little sister what you did for all those other kids."
I was lost and it showed.
"When my parents split up last winter my mom took my baby sister and we don't know where they went. I was just thinking that maybe you could..." his voice tried off there at the end.
Realizing what was going on and not having a clue how to handle it I looked desperately back to where Lowell and his daddy where standing with their backs to me. They were returning our equipment. Unfortunately they were not looking my way.
Nervous and stammering I tried to speak, "I... Uh, I... what happened before? That-that wasn't me. I mean it was me, but... that junk just happened. It wasn't like I did anything special."
"Sure you did! And I know you can help find my sister!"
I looked back again only this time instead of seeing the Reverend or Lowell I was looking up at...
"Coach Shaffer?" I asked with amazement.
The look on his face. The steam that were shooting from his ears. The flames that burned above his head like a demonic crown. His eyes... it was his eyes that scared me the most. They were filled with a rage I'd seen before in the eyes of another and didn't care to relive. His large hand, claw like, machine like, rose from his side slowly, menacingly. I closed my eyes and braced for anything.
I felt the air rushing to my left and opened my eyes to see Hank now standing, Coach Shaffer's hand tightly gripping the young man's shirt. Hank seemed to shrink from being a young man to a small boy.
Venom dripped from his lips as Coach Shaffer forced four words from his mouth, "GET TO THE CAR!"
His claw like hand opened, releasing Hanks shirt. With only one roller blade on, the other hanging by the laces from his right hand, Hank attempted to run for the exit. But, when he reached the glass doors he stopped momentarily and looked back at me. I wish he never had 'cause the look of horror, pain, fear, sadness and longing were more then I could stand to see in anyone. Had the Reverend not spoke right then I probably would have jumped up from the wooden bench, run up to Hank and told him I would do anything I could to find his sister.
"Henry Shaffer!" The Reverend bellowed and slapped the Coach on the back.
Then he saw his face.
"Is something wrong?"
Coach Shaffer shook his head and I swear I saw a puff of smoke as the flames above his head were extinguished.
Turning his attention to me Coach Shaffer said, "I'm sorry Hank was bothering you."
It was my turn to shake my head, "He wasn't bothering me. We were just talking."
"Son, I heard what he said and he had no right laying our family troubles on your already over burdened shoulders."
I looked back to the doors, but Hank was long gone.
Adopting his normal ministerial mannerisms the Reverend put a hand on Coach Shaffer's shoulder and said, "He's still having trouble with the separation?"
Coach Shaffer dropped his head a little. "He's got it in his head that..." he started to say, but stopped, "Would you be willing to talk to him? Maybe you could get through to him. Lord knows I'm not."
"Absolutely! Why don't you bring Hank by tomorrow and we can talk over lunch?"
It was really weird watching Coach Shaffer and Lowell's daddy hug right there in front of everyone at the skate park.
"Wait, Hank? He's your son?" I asked which made the Coach, the Reverend and Lowell all chuckle amusedly.
I gave him an elbow to the gut which made him groan in pain, "Yeah, I soooo deserved that one."
Coach Shaffer apologized to me again and shook my hand. He told me how good it was to see me, "up and out" and right before he left he said something that at first I didn't think too much about, but later it really got stuck in my head.
"You've got unfinished business to tend to at the junior high school."
As Coach Shaffer was heading out the door
"Yeah, but I think Hank's not." I said while watching Coach Shaffer leaving.
He made an odd grimace like he knew something he, but wasn't going to tell me.
"You about ready to go?" he asked.
I jumped to my feet and with that
"Bet that is the first time that's happened."
"No, actually that happens more then you'd think!" I said with disgust, "People seem to believe I have like magic or super powers."
The more I talked about Hank or the subject
in general, the madder I seemed to get. I probably would have worked myself up
into a full boil had
"Eeeuuw Lowell!" I shouted and started to turn in the seat to hit him or something, but I was stopped with, "Don't even think about it! And why don't you two have your seatbelts on yet?"
I clicked my belt and while I was distracted Reverend Vandoan grabbed my knee and gave it a squeeze.
"Well you're super in my book."
"What?" he hissed at his son.
"Daddy, you are going to make him have a
bigger head!"
"Oh no you didn't just say I have a big head!" I challenged.
I looked to Reverend Vandoan and asked, "Um, could you stop the car for a minute so I can take off my seatbelt and clobber him?"
He thrust an authoritarian finger into the air and proclaimed with majesty, "There will be no clobbering!"
"Ah come on." I pleaded, "I just want to clobber him a little bit. I promise there will only be a little blood."
"Ok, but you have to wait until we get home."
"Hey! That's not fair!"
"The King has spoken! You shall be clobbered profusely about the head." His Daddy said in that same royal manner.
The Reverend laughed and misquoted the Bible by saying, "And the good book also says, `He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him clobbereth him often'."
"It doesn't say it like that!"
Ignoring his son he continued only he had dropped the royal act and was now speaking the way he did each time he came to the Ranch to preach.
"It also says, `Withhold not clobbering from a child: for if thou clobber him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt clobber him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell'."
"DAAAADDDDDDDYYY!"
I, on the other hand, was holding my stomach and laughing uncontrollably.
We all laughed the rest of the way home.
Returning to their house I again used the
Reverends cell phone to make my return call before
When the day had worn-down and it was getting
close to dinner time Mrs. Vandoan had taken the two of us up to
We were making our way back downstairs when my parents surprised me with their arrival. At first I thought they were there to take me home right then, but unbeknownst to Lowell or myself, his parents had invited my parents over for an evening cookout.
"I'm so glad you were able to come!" Mrs. Vandoan said as she hugged my parents.
The Reverend shook my dads hand and said, "I've got to show you my new power tool set." And the two of them vanished to the garage.
Mom and Mrs. Vandoan went into the kitchen and were talking up a storm so the two of us decided to go to the basement and play more Ninja Master 12.
We had grilled Smokeys, which are kind of like sausage style hotdogs. Along with the Smokey's we had coleslaw, noodle-salad and a few various fresh veggies. We ate inside `cause it was still to hot out even after the sun had started to drop. For desert we had fresh baked blueberry pie topped with vanilla ice-cream. Mrs. Vandoan confessed that it had been a frozen pie which she thawed out and then tossed in the oven earlier in the day.
Though Lowell and I tried hard to get our parents to let me stay another night they were not swayed. Reluctantly I put my church pants on, but didn't bother with my shirt or shoes. Mom stuffed those into a big paper bag she was carrying out with us.
After I had made my call; and went through all the thank you's and hugging and kisses, being the goofball that I am, I tried to make a second round of hugs and kisses, but dad pushed me out the front door with a playful kick to the rear diaper region.
Playing his game I complained jovially, "Hey! That's not fair kicking a guy back there!"
However the games and playing came to a screeching halt as I stepped out the front door.
"Don't stand there blocking the way!" Dad said while giving me another shove.
But I was only able to go one, maybe two steps before I came to a stop again. It felt as though a thousand eyes were peering out of the darkness at me. Now I'll give you that I am still scared of the dark a little, but that's not what this was about. This was something totally and completely different.
I have seen many horrors and stood toe to toe with things that would make a grown man run away, but this feeling of fear gripped me at my core. I can only liken it to the feeling one gets when being scolded by ones parent and knowing that a spanking will happen very soon.
Frozen, save for my neck, I turned my head as my eyes search for my father.
But it was mom chiding me while trying to escape the Vandoan's front door, "Simon hurry up!"
I didn't even know I had backed up until dad shouted something about me stepping on his foot.
My eyes never found my fathers, but they did find the Reverends and without me uttering a single word he knew something was wrong.
He addressed my parents, "Sylvia, Simon hold up a minute."
Inserting himself between them he knelt beside me.
"What's the matter Simon?" he asked in a way only a man of God can ask.
I was unable to speak, unable to put words to what I was feeling. My eyes searched the growing shadows caused by the street lights and the glows from neighborhood windows.
Everyone now realized that something wasn't
right with me and had gone quiet except for
"Simon you're scaring me." He bleated.
And for a brief second I thought I saw.... my head and eyes whipped to my left as something in the shadows seemed to move.
Without a word both the Reverend and my father took off in the direction my eyes were now glued too. Standing in front of the house looking out across the front lawn, it was a cropping of bushes on the front left corner of their property that seemed somehow to be completely engulfed in an all pervading gloom. It was as if the few sources of lights were being forced around the bushes.
"Who's there?"
I'm not sure which of the men said that.
A pair of hands were tightly gripping my shoulders, pulling me backward, back into the house, except my feet remained glued to the concrete, my eyes locked on that large bush.
From across the street and one house down someone turned on their car headlights and momentarily distracted all of our eyes from the bush. When I looked back the shadows that had engulfed it seemed to have evaporated. Though whatever I had seen before seemed to be gone, the feeling that I was being watched was still just as strong.
"Mommy you're hurting my neck!"
Our dad's walked back toward the door and
made us all go back inside. I tried to explain what I had felt and what I had
seen, but it all seemed so distant and intangible.
"It was probably a stray dog or something." Dad offered.
Finally I shook my arms out like I was trying to shake the experience from me.
"Maybe I am just crazy." I whispered mainly for my own benefit.
"Oh you are most certainly not crazy." The Reverend said as he petted the back of my head.
"Then you saw it too?" I asked, almost pleading for him to say he had.
I wish I could say that I found some solace in his words, "I'm not sure what I saw, but I did see something."
After having adequately spooked everyone we said our goodbyes once again and this time when I stepped outside it didn't seem as dark out, but I kept that insight to myself.
That is when I spotted a small, bright yellow, hatchback car sitting in the driveway. Everything about the car was ugly from the color to the way the lines flowed from one bumper to the next.
With mouth agape I asked, "What is that?"
"It's a rental." I heard dad answer.
"You mean you gave somebody money for that thing?" I asked which made everyone chuckle.
"No the insurance company gave them money for that thing." Dad said comically.
It felt good to hear their amusement after the tense emotions I had caused only a few minutes ago.
In mom's van there was always loads of room for stuff and to move around, but not in that dang little yellow rental car. And the interior upholstery was black vinyl which was so hot it was like sitting on a cast iron skillet all the way home. I had to lean forward just to keep my naked back from getting cooked. Oh sure I could have put my shirt on, but where's the fun in that?
As we walked up to the car mom held tightly
to my left hand while
"Are you alright?" he whispered.
I answered with a crooked smile.
Dad opened the passenger side door and moved the seat forward so that I could get in the back. That car was so small I had to squeeze myself into it.
"You alright back there?" Mrs. Vandoan asked me as mom was sliding her seat back into place and climbed in herself.
I gave her an overly wide toothy smile, nodded my head and thanked her for letting me come over and spend the night.
"Thanks for letting me sleep over. It was bunches and bunches of fun!"
"You are welcome to come over anytime you want." She told me and blew me a kiss.
"Bye brat!"
"Bye dorkous!" I shouted back.
The drive home would have been uneventful, however once we were out of sight of Lowell's home, dad pulled his cell phone from his pocket and made two quick calls. I probably should have paid more attention to what he was saying, but I was so cramped in that backseat that it was all I could think about.
It wasn't until we pulled into the parking lot of my Therapists office that I even knew we were not going straight home.
"Why are we here?" I asked and I thought it was a perfectly proper question given that it was so late and that my doctor was surely not still in her office.
I was half right about that, she wasn't in her office, but she did pull into the parking lot not thirty seconds after we did.
"But don't we have to get home so I can make my call?" I asked while slightly miffed that I hadn't been warned ahead of time of having to see Dr. Lizy this evening. Actually, her real name is Doctor Elisabeth Hound and when I first met her she told me that everyone calls her Lizy. I jazzed it up a bit by blending it with the Doctor part and so I call her Dr. Lizy.
All dad had to say on the matter, as he opened the drivers' door and stepped out, was, "I've taken care of it."
Extracting myself from that little yellow roller-skate proved to be more of a challenge than getting into it had. I got stuck about half out and had to reach in past me `cause my back pocket had snagged on that little metal thingamajig that the door latches to.
"Next time can I just ride on the roof?" I joked as mom helped free me from that yellow tin can while dad had a quick word with Dr. Lizy.
Though I didn't ask, I figured that whole
business with thinking I saw something outside
I was surprised when mom and dad didn't come in with us. Actually as Dr. Lizy was leading me to the door of her office mom and dad were squeezing themselves back into the rental car. With a smile, a blown kiss from mom and a beep of the whimpy horn they drove away.
Reading my mind Dr. Lizy said to me as she unlocked the door, "Don't worry, we'll only be a few minutes."
That wasn't entirely accurate. We talked for what felt like over an hour, maybe as much as an hour and a half. However when we first stepped inside I was momentarily distracted `cause the normal, slightly overpowering, smell of flowers, which I'd grown accustom to, had been replaced by the scent of apples and something else.
"New air freshener?" I asked.
"They were out of Spring Breeze Plug-In's so I went with Apple Orchard. Do you like it?"
"It's ok I guess." I said though I had grown to like the flowers and missed them in an odd sort of way.
She started our session even before we were inside her office. She started by saying, "We haven't had a chance to visit all weekend and I thought it best that we meet for a few minutes this evening."
My mind quickly forgot about the aroma of apples as I realized that for the first time since I met her, she wasn't all gussied up. Every time I have seen Dr. Lizy, she has been painted up and wearing bright colors which all matched. However this evening she wasn't wearing the long bright nails, and had very little makeup on, if any. She was wearing a powder blue blouse and a flour length white skirt.
"You look different." I comments.
"Well, you've caught me on an off day." She said.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"My husband had to go on a business trip so I spent my day stretched out on the sofa and reading a good book."
"Sorry I messed up your relaxing day." I said.
When she didn't respond to that comment I plopped down in my usual chair and asked, "What book?"
"Excuse me?" She asked.
"What book were you reading?"
"Oh just something I've been meaning to get around to, but never have until today. But, enough about me, I want to hear how you've been."
That was the start of it. Through a series of questions she and I relived the highlights of the last few days in reverse. It started with that bush thing and I imagined that dad must have either told her about it on the phone or when she first arrived. I wasn't surprised when she knew about the events of Sunday morning or about my phone conversation with Brother Vincent from The Ranch on Saturday. Either she too was keeping tabs on me or she was being kept well informed; probably both.
Without saying too much, she craftily led me from subject to subject, asking me to describe what I was feeling at the time and how I felt about each event now.
Just when I thought she was going to bring up something from several weeks or months ago (she does that at nearly every meeting) we heard someone coming in.
Trying to be funny I said what she usually says to wrap up our sessions. "Well I think we've had a wonderful little chat today don't you?"
She grinned as if to say, "Hey that was my line!", but said nothing.
I grinned as I got up from the chair I'd been sitting in the while time. Only then did I realize just how wet I had become during our session and I was still in one of those darn disposable yellow diapers.
But the thoughts of my diaper dwindled as my bare feet once again came into contact with the soft carpet of Dr. Lizy's office. It was like walking on a bed of rose peddles. In a way it almost tickled. And then for the first time I realized that I had spent the entire session half naked. I looked down at myself, at my bare chest and abdomen, at the way my pants were sagging exposing several inches of my plastic pants and diaper. I wiggled my bare toes and ground them into the soft carpeting.
She read my face like an open book and smiled at me. "I was wondering how long it was going to take you."
Without lifting my head I rolled my eyes to the left, she was smiling bigger then I'd ever seen her smile. I gave her my, `Don't look at me; I didn't do it!' smile.
And that is when I understood why dad had
called her. You see, he too had realized that something very important had
taken place when I left
Without saying a word I lowered myself to the edge of the chair, folded my hands together in my lap and sat motionless and silent for a long time.
She didn't ask me anymore questions or probe me for information. She simply left me to work it out in my own time.
When I finally looked up at her all I could say was, "I didn't even think."
To which she smiled, got to her feet and suggested, "How about if we take up tomorrow, where we left off today?"
As I walked out of her office and into the waiting room mom and dad were both sitting there beaming with pride. I stood framed in the doorway and could feel Dr. Lizy right behind me. I simply smiled and said proudly, but with rather poor grammar, "I ain't got no shirt on!"
Dad, acting the clown, asked in response, "You ain't?"
OK so I am thirteen now and teenagers are not supposed to be all clingy and lovey-dovey with their parents, but I couldn't help myself. I ran up to mom and dad and threw my arms around them. It was such a silly thing, but I felt lighter than air and filled with more joy then I'd felt in way too long. The only way I could express it was to hug both of my parents. Heck, I even hugged Dr. Lizy before we left.
You might think after such a full day and given that it was getting fairly late, that we would head home next, but we didn't. After managing to insert myself into the backseat of the yellow rental I once more was surprised when dad pointed the car away from home.
"Uuuugh!" I moaned playfully, "Now where are you taking me?"
I could see dad's eyes in the mini rearview mirror and read them as jovial too.
We didn't go far; maybe two blocks before we took a left turn into the strip mall parking lot where there were such stores as Big Lots, a jewelry store, a hobby shop and Drug Mart. We stopped in front of Drug Mart and even with the late hour the parking lot was surprisingly full.
This time as I was climbing from the car my pocket again had become snagged on the door latcher-thingy, but I hadn't been taking my time and thusly ripped my pocket.
"Ah man!" I moaned and complained, "I really hate this car!"
Mom was none too happy either, but she didn't get mad. She simply pulled out my church shirt from the back hatch area, handed it to me while dad was searching for my shoes. The novelty of my breakthrough had passed and they weren't about to let me go into the store half dressed. And I didn't even think for one second about doing just that.
I was buttoning my shirt when dad announced, "Found them!"
"He needs socks!" Mom chided dad.
But I had the left shoe on and tied before they knew it so they let me go sockless. Let me tell you that dress shoes without socks are not comfortable at all. Your feet sweat and slide around inside the shoe; it's positively uncomfortable.
With both shoes on, shirt button, but not tucked in, so as to help hide the fact that I was now wearing ripped britches, we started for the door. We were about thirty feet from the front door when we walked passed an old lady who was coming out of the store. She reeked of mothballs and just that one half second of scent was enough to cause a momentary flashback. I probably would have got lost in my mind had I not violently sneezed and nearly fallen on my face.
Dad had caught me by the back of my shirt so I didn't bust my face on the pavement, of that I am quite grateful.
"Oh Simon not on your sleeve!" Mom wheezed as I ran my nose from my elbow to the cuff of my shirt sleeve.
She fished a wadded up tissue from her purse and tried to hand it to me.
"I don't need it now."
She made me take it anyway so I stuffed it in my shirt pocket.
I don't know about elsewhere, but here Drug Mart is like a smaller version of a department and grocery store as well as a large pharmacy. It's actually a cool store `cause they have this whole isle devoted to penny and nickel candies. Kids come from all parts of town to stock up on sweets. If you want candy, you go to the cashier and she'll give you a small paper bag. Then you take it, fill it with whatever candies you want and take it back to the cashier. They are supposed to weigh the candy, but most of them will just look down in the bag, if it is half full they will only charge you two dollars. However, if it is all the way full then they will charge you three and a half dollars. That is a bargain `cause if they weigh it, it is always more money.
But today wasn't candy day; at least that was my thinking. Don't ask me why, but I wasn't in a sweets sort of mood. That is until I ran into Mary not twenty seconds after walking through the doors.
"Mary look, it's Simon!" someone shouted loud enough for me to know that I'd been spotted.
I turned my head to the left and saw that over by the books, magazines and comic book racks was none other than Mary looking... well, less then wonderful. Her hair was pulled back and held by a pink plastic hair clips, but several strands had come loose and were hanging wild.
I looked up at mom and dad for permission to go over. Dad gave mom a peck on the cheek, said something to her and then we split up. Mom went off by herself while dad escorted me over to Mary.
Up close it was easier to see why Mary looked so disheveled. She and Stephanie were wearing matching sweats and both looked like they'd been out running for the better part of the day.
Before I could speak Mary leaned down and kissed my left cheek.
"Uh, I'll just be over there. Come get me when you're done." Dad said with a hard pat on my back.
"You're a mess!" Stephanie said to me.
Not missing a beat I came back with, "You're no prize either."
They both looked at each other and then Mary explained, "We just got out of dance class."
"You're taking dance classes?" I asked.
I was surprised by this because I already knew how busy she was with working, babysitting, cheerleading practice, and a host of other activities.
She smiled as she partially hummed, "Uhummm."
Stephanie came right out and asked, "Are you
coming to
Up to that very second I had almost, but not entirely,
forgot that
I don't remember saying anything in response, but I must have said something `cause Mary then exploded with excitement.
"That is so very awesome! We're going to have so much fun!"
"You're coming too?" I somehow managed to ask.
Stephanie was the one to answer for Mary, "Well
duh!
I found myself hoping that my emotions weren't showing on my face.
"You're so cute when you blush!" Mary said and kissed me again only this time right on the lips.
I'm not talking about a short peck either. She pressed her lips against mine for what had to be at least a three count.
When she stopped kissing me I glanced dad's way. He was pretending to be looking at some magazine, but I wasn't fooled.
"I hope I get to see you before then." Mary said after the kiss.
My brain, along with my heart, was in orbit somewhere around the second moon of Pluto so I've no idea where the next words came from.
"Wanna catch a movie?" I asked.
"Hey that's a good idea. They are having a
two-for-Tuesday at the
"What's Two for Tuesday?" I asked.
Mary answered, "Well you can either watch two movies for the price of one or two can see one movie with just one ticket."
"Uh, ok that sounds great." I said, addressing Mary.
"We can double!" Stephanie suggested.
"Double?" I thought. I didn't want to go on a double date with BJ and Stephanie; I wanted Mary all to myself!
Mary started doing that thing girls do. You know, when they act all girly with each other like no one else in the world matters.
"Oh yes you've just got to call BJ and make up so we can go." Mary said in a tone so high, every dog in a three mile radius was howling.
"Make up?" I thought again.
"No, we totally made up like ten minutes after we broke up." Stephanie said.
My brain was back from its space trip and my heart was down in my shoes. However this time when I had a thought it didn't stay in my head.
"Broke up?" I asked and my voice cracked causing me to blush.
Then like I was one of the girls Stephanie started babbling about something to do with fingers and crackers. Honestly that is all I was able to pull out of the nonsense she was spouting. Thank God that Stephanie's mom called for them as she was leaving the store or I think my brain was going to explode.
With one last kiss on the lips, this one was fast, Mary said, "I'll call you tomorrow and we'll plan our day then ok?"
"Plan our day?" I thought, but what I said was, "Yeah sure ok."
I didn't move so much as an inch away from the magazine rack as I watched them both bounce away and out of the store.
"Hey, Don Juan!" I heard dad saying.
I turned and shuffled my feet toward him as he was moving closer to me.
"Wow could your face get any redder?" he commented.
I was sort of lost somewhere just above the clouds for much of our shopping adventure. I didn't snap out of my daze and rejoin the inhabitants of earth until dad shoved a large frozen ham into my arms.
"Ah dad that's cold!" I bellowed and nearly dropped it.
I looked around, momentarily disoriented and wondering how we'd made it to the refrigerated food section.
"Put it in the cart genius!" he said.
"Gently! There are eggs in there!" mom told me.
"Can you grab a thing of all beef Bologny?" she asked.
I walked down to the lunch meats and scanned the selections.
"You know something mom?" I called out.
She didn't respond, but she did look over to where I was standing.
"I don't like
"Oh you do so like
"Not anymore." I said while shaking my head, "I see Turkey Ham, Turkey Bologny, Turkey Pastrami--someone needs to tell the turkey's to just be themselves." And then addressing the prepackaged lunch meats I added, "Everybody already loves you, you don't need to try to be like all the other sandwich meats. Just be delicious turkey."
I looked back to mom who was pushing the cart up to me and acted like she was going to run me over with it.
"HEY!" I complained and jumped out of the way.
"You are a turkey!" she said to which I smiled.
She reached past me and plucked a package of all beef Bologny off the hook directly in front of my face.
As I turned to continue walking down the isle I bumped into someone I'd seen in another isle. However when I'd seen this other person before, my brain had registered the individual as a woman. So when I turned and bumped into the lady I excused myself by saying, "Oh, sorry mam." However she turned out not to be a she at all.
"Oh I am sorry!" I apologized quickly and should have shut up, but oooooh nooooo! I had to keep talking. "Hey, up close you are a guy!"
Totally straight faced he glanced from mom and dad then back to me and said, "Far away too."
Dad stepped up, gave me a shove and apologized to the guy by saying, "Kids?!"
To which the guy responded with, "I understand. I've got two of my own and I'm a former child myself."
Dad chuckled politely, "I couldn't have said it better myself."
A few steps further down the isle dad said to me, "Son, I wonder if you can say something useful."
Without looking back I shrugged one shoulder and responded with, "Yeah, I've often wondered that myself.
Mom, who was now several strides behind us called out, "Simon, you like Gouda-Noodles right?"
"Sure, they just need a little salt... pepper... mustard, ketchup, sauce, and flavor added." I said.
"Simon!" Dad said with a measure of surprise.
"What?"
"That was rather cleaver!"
"Yeah well, I didn't mean to." I said while trying to keep a straight face, but failing in the end.
Dad pretended to be strangling me as he said, "Come on stupid, don't play dumb with me."
"Yeah, I'm not as good at it as you are."
When we were heading for the checkout isles dad said something that set off the alarms in my head.
I let go a huge yawn and in response dad said, "We better get you home so you can check in with your probation department and then get you tucked into bed. Tomorrow's not very far away."
I came to a skidding halt causing dad to run into me with the cart.
"What did you stop for?" he asked like I'd just done it to make him mad.
Out of my mouth came the ramblings of a mental case.
"Mary—movie—BJ—Stephanie—Tuesday—movie—double—tomorrow—MOVIE!"
I looked desperately up at dad as he wheeled the cart around me. He was chuckling as he placed a hand around the back of my neck.
"We'll see what we can do, but don't get your hopes up until after we talk to your Probation Officer."
Mom gave dad a raised eyebrow, "Are you going to tell me you understood that?"
Dad shrugged, "It's a guy thing, you being a GIRL wouldn't understand."
Mom gave him the evil eye and said, "Apparently so."
Done shopping, we made our way back to the car, squeezed ourselves and the groceries in and finally headed for home again or so I thought.
Not realizing that I was doing it, I began to
sing that song
"Must you sing that song?" Dad asked.
Apparently he didn't care for it.
"Well there isn't enough room back here to dance." I commented.
"Did you take a silly pill today or something?" Mom asked.
"Nah, I am all natural; inherited it from my Pop."
"Keep it up and Pop is going to pop you." Dad threatened.
"What did the baby firecracker say to the other baby firecracker?" I asked them.
"I give up." Mom said.
I giggled as I said, "My pops bigger then your pop!"
Mom moaned loudly, but dad just shook his head.
We turned at the intersection were the corner store that Mary now works at and mom quickly said, "We better get milk."
Without hesitating Dad quickly whipped the car into the parking lot. Mom chose to wait in the car while dad and I went inside. Stepping out of the car on the drivers' side I was hit in the face by the still scorching heat mixed with the stench of manure. I looked around and spotted a big truck with a sign that read, `J&J Landscaping'. In the bed of the truck was a huge mound of cow poop with two shovels sticking out of it.
"You know," I began, "I finally figured what it is I hate about summer."
Dad came back with, "The smell?"
"No, the heat."
"You and me both."
Inside the store it felt a lot better, but by no means was it comfortable. There were two large floor fans blowing, but all they really were doing was circulating the warm air. There were several customers already in the store with four or five in line waiting to pay. Dad told me to get the milk while he got in line. I went right to the milk, grabbed a gallon of 2% and started back to the front. One of the store clerks was mopping the floor so I had to go the long way which took me back by the front door. As I was passing the door two older boys, maybe fifteen or sixteen were rushing out followed by a boy about my age.
"Hey stop! You didn't pay for that." The lady behind the register shouted.
I never even thought, I only reacted by swinging the jug of milk and hitting the first boy dead in the face. He fell backward into the second boy sending both to the hard floor. The younger boy had tried to jump over them, but one of the other customers had seized him by the shirt.
"Are you alright?" Dad asked me.
I laughed.
"Yeah I'm fine, but he's going to need a new nose." I said while pointing to the boy who was bleeding and holding his nose.
Blood was dripping from his face, staining his shirt and mixing with the milk on the floor.
The cashier must have pushed an alarm button `cause in the time it took for mom to get out of the car and rush into the store two police cruisers came screeching into the parking lot.
Just my luck, the first cop to enter was none other than Mary's father, Officer Tucker.
He acknowledged my presence with a frown and a slight shake of his head.
"Are you ok?" Mom asked.
I shook my head and held up the milk jug, "That jerk killed our milk."
The whole ordeal started and ended in less then a minute. But, it took over half an hour before we were allowed to go home again. The police took statements from everyone. The paramedics came as well as an ambulance for the guy whose face I'd smashed with the milk. Officer Tucker seemed angry with me `cause each time he looked my way he would scowl. My only thought was that there was no way he was going to let me go anywhere with his daughter now.
Finally Officer Tucker made his way over to where mom, dad and I were standing waiting and talking with some of the other customers.
"Why is it every time I see you, you're in some kind of trouble?" he asked me.
"I ain't in trouble!" I scoffed.
"Well that boy's nose begs to differ."
The comedian that lives in my head decided that it was a good time to make his presents known by saying, "Yeah well I don't see anybody crying over the spilt milk!"
That one made dad chuckle, but he quickly stifled it.
Officer Tucker raised a single eyebrow and asked us for our version of what happened. Dad told him all he saw was an explosion of milk while I reported that I didn't even know I had stopped them from shoplifting until afterward.
While scribbling something down on a small note pad Officer Tucker mumbled, "Another case of being in the wrong place at the right time."
Once again my stupid mouth opened when it shouldn't and out came the dumbest thing. I had been trying to say something clever, you know, something like James Bond would say after thwarting a plot to take over the world. But, what came out was, "I was just doing your job."
Dad quickly wrapped an arm around the back of my head and placed his hand over my mouth. Officer Tucker looked as though he wanted to pull out his night stick and beat me senseless.
A few minutes later we were allowed to leave and that was a good thing `cause that darn yellow diaper I had been wearing had long since failed in its duty. Thankfully the plastic pants were holding in the flood; that is until I sat my butt down on the back seat of the rental.
"Uh, I think the dam just burst mom." I said as dad was closing his car door.
"We'll be home in a minute." She said sounding exhausted and completely unconcerned about the condition of the seat beneath my bottom.
"Well that was exciting!" Dad exclaimed.
We talked about it all the way home and even after we got inside. Mom and dad seemed more worked up about it then I did. It didn't seem like such a big deal to me, then again, all I did was bash some dude with a jug of milk.
Dad and mom were carrying in the bags of things from Drug Mart while I was making my call.
I had just hung up the phone when mom exclaimed loudly, "We didn't get the milk!"
Dad and I both nearly fell over laughing.
Now, I had thought nothing of the fact that
when I left
"We don't have the key!" I complained loudly.
Mom smiled, reached into her pocket and
produced a small brass colored key dangling from a blue leather keychain. Later
I learned that
For all of two seconds I was slightly miffed
at the idea that little
After a quick diaper changed and tucked into
the lower bunk with my e-journal I began to write. I had got up to the point
where my parents had arrived at