From:
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 05:28:19 UTC
Subject: ~Story: "A Story for Tony" Part 1 of 4
A Story for Tony
by Jennifer Loraine
Part One of Four
Tony's mind was drifting. Utter boredom had overcome him and rather than
fall asleep, he was daydreaming about being rich while sucking on his
pencil's eraser. The idea of sitting in a limousine, with a cigar in his
mouth, and being transported from place to place in soft luxury appealed to
him. He pictured himself having people who would rush to attend his every
need without delay. His fantasy was extremely detailed in the daily affairs
of the life he would lead; he'd have a valet to dress him, a maid to clean
up after him, a chauffeur to drive him around, and a cook to make his meals
and stand at his side while he ate. Maybe he'd hire one of those asian
bathgirls he'd read about in the girlie magazines he had hidden in his
bedroom closet. He imagined himself sitting in a bath while the girl
lovingly scrubbed every inch of his body. "It must be nice to be rich and
have your whims appeased on demand," he sighed.
He was sitting in class listening to the eighth grade English teacher drone
on about the symbolism in Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" when the
lecture was interrupted by a knock on the door. A teenaged office aid
whispered in the teacher's ear and Tony was told to accompany the aid to
see the Principal. He remembered the trepidation he felt while walking down
the familiar halls to the office. Why had the Principal taken him out of
class and sent for him? He had never been in trouble before. What had he
done? He had never even been in a Principal's office.
The aid had ushered him into the waiting area of the office and told him
to take a seat. The secretary asked his name and had frowned hesitantly
when he told her who he was. What was going on here? She told him that the
Principal was on the phone and would be with him in a few minutes. He sat
quietly on the hard, institutional chair as he considered the possible r
easons for the secretary's expression. Something was wrong, he was sure of
that. The office people chatted happily as they worked, occasionally giving
him long sidewise glances and turning their heads quickly when he caught
them looking at him.
Finally the door opened and there stood the Principal motioning for him to
come inside. The office became deathly silent as Tony stood up and walked
into the Principal's office. His knees shook as he sat down in the chair
offered to him. He smiled nervously at the Principal and he began to feel
nauseous. His stomach felt as if it was falling away from him. Tony's mouth
was dry and his hands trembled in his lap. He thought he was going to throw
up. He stared fixedly at the Principal as the imposing man began to speak,
"Tony, your parents were in an automobile accident this morning. I'm sorry
to have to be the one to have to tell you this, but your parents are dead.
Their car was hit by another car at an intersection about eight-thirty this
morning. I want you to know that they didn't suffer or feel any pain; they
were killed instantly. Your next door neighbor is coming to take you home
with her. I was just on the phone with her and she said she'd be here in a
few minutes. You'll be staying with her for the next few days. Your
neighbor tells me that you haven't any relatives nearby, is that true?"
Tony nodded numbly in assent. He was in shock. Of all the reasons that
had
occurred to him for being called in to the Principal's office, this was the
last he would have ever considered.
The Principal continued, "You are excused from school for the time
being.
Your neighbor tells me that you have an aunt in another state. Is that
true?"
Tony said 'yes' in a hollow voice.
"Is she well off financially? Do you think she'll be able to take you
in?"
Tony looked aghast at the idea of living with his aunt. He was at a loss
at what to say. The Principal saw his consternation and said, "That's all
right, son. I'm sure everything will work itself out for you. You can leave
your books in my office. I'll see that everything is taken care of here at
school. What is your locker number?"
"C-129," the stricken boy answered slowly.
The Principal made a note of the number on a pad on his desk as his
telephone began to ring. He picked up the phone in the other hand and said
into the mouthpiece, "Principal Hawkins.......Yes, we're just finishing up,
thank you."
The Principal walked over to Tony and said, "Tony, your neighbor, Mrs.
Feldman, is here to take you home. You can leave your books on the chair."
Tony got up leaving his books and papers sitting on the chair in his
place. When he left the office he saw that Mrs. Feldman was sitting in the
reception area with her baby boy, Jay-Jay, sitting on her lap. As Tony
approached her, he noticed that her eyes were red and puffy as if she had
been crying. Tony wondered what was wrong with him; his parents were dead
and he hadn't shed a tear for them. Didn't he love them? Why couldn't he
cry? How could he be so unfeeling?
Mrs. Feldman got up when she saw Tony and rushed over to him. "Tony,"
she
said, "I'm so sorry about your Mother and Father. How are you feeling? Are
you okay?"
"I'm okay I guess," he said, "it's just that....."
Mrs. Feldman cut him off by saying, "I know, Tony. I know....Have you
had
lunch yet?"
Tony shook his head 'no'.
Mrs. Feldman said briskly, "Come on. Let's get you home and get you
something to eat."
She held out her hand for him to hold as if he was a little boy needing
guidance. Tony accepted it reluctantly; he didn't want to be rude to Mrs.
Feldman, but it was embarrassing to be treated like a toddler in front of
all his classmates. They went to her car and Tony stared out of the side
window as they drove away from his school. He wondered what was going to
happen to him now. His whole life had changed in the blink of an eye. Would
they make him go live with his aunt? If they did, he wouldn't have any
friends where she lived. What would happen in school? There was a month
left to this school year, would they make him repeat the entire year
because he missed part of the month? Tony watched the houses of the
neighborhood stream by his window as he sat morosely in the front seat. He
had never felt so alone and defenseless in his life. He felt as if he had
become a passenger in his body. All he could do is sit and distantly watch
the adults make decisions. He had no idea which direction his life would
take or even where he'd be in the future.
When they got to Mrs. Feldman's house, Tony helped her carry her son's
diaper bag inside. He had been Mrs. Feldman's 'unofficial' baby-sitter for
almost a year and didn't feel uncomfortable helping her with the baby. The
dearth of teenagers his age on the street had led to Mrs. Feldman asking
him to watch her baby for a few minutes on a Saturday soon after the baby
was born and his reliability had led to Mrs. Feldman asking him to watch
her son again. Her growing confidence in his trustworthiness had caused her
to ask him to baby-sit several times more. She had been engaging him to
baby-sit her son on a more frequent basis as the baby had gotten older.
Tony didn't particularly like changing 'dirty' diapers, but he accepted his
fate with a reasonably cheerful attitude. He didn't seem to have any
problems taking care of the baby and Mrs. Feldman's son loved Tony. Mrs.
Feldman unbuckled her son from the infant carrier on the rear seat, picked
up his diaper bag from the floor behind the passenger seat and handed it to
Tony, then went to the front door of her house with Tony trailing behind.
They went inside and Mrs. Feldman placed her son into his playpen while she
went to prepare lunch. "Would you watch Jay-Jay for me while I get lunch
for us, Tony?", she asked with a smile.
Tony agreed and sat on the sofa ruminating over what would happen to him
now that his parents were gone. The house would be awfully lonely with just
him staying there. Maybe he should go live with his aunt. But then he'd
have to leave all of his friends. He wasn't even sure were she lived or how
to get in touch with her. Maybe the phone number was in his father's desk
in the den. What about his things? How was he going to move them to his
aunt's? He didn't have a car or a license. He didn't have any money to hire
movers. He wondered if they'd let him use the money from his parent's
savings account. Jay-Jay started crying and Tony bent over the playpen with
a sigh. He put a pair of fingers down the front of Jay-Jay diaper the way
Mrs. Feldman had taught him and checked to see if was wet. "Yep, he's wet,"
he told himself as he reached for the baby's diaper bag. Jay-Jay quieted
immediately when Tony removed the diaper and swabbed him off with a baby
wipe. Tony had just finished rediapering Jay-Jay when Mrs. Feldman walked
into the room. "I thought I heard Jay-Jay crying. Thanks for taking care of
that for me Tony. Lunch is ready. It's on the table in the kitchen."
She bent over the playpen, picked up Jay-Jay and carried him into the
kitchen. Tony followed and saw that lunch had been set out on the table. A
large steaming bowl of soup flanked by four diagonally-cut sandwich halves
sat across from Mrs. Feldman's accustomed place at the table in the
breakfast nook. Mrs. Feldman put Jay-Jay in the high chair next to her and
sat down at the table while Tony unfolded his napkin. "You're in luck
today, Tony. I just finished making a large pot of chicken soup last night
for lunches this week. If you need any more milk there's plenty in the
refrigerator. We have apple pie for dessert."
Tony looked at the plate of food in front of him in askance. He didn't
want to insult Mrs. Feldman's cooking, but he knew he couldn't finish all
the food on the plate in front of him. He though that if he had a taste of
soup and one of the sandwiches she would be satisfied. The apple pie was
out of the question though. He started in on the soup and was surprised at
how good it tasted. All of a sudden he was famished. He gobbled the cheese
sandwiches in passing as the level of soup dropped rapidly to the bottom of
the bowl. He heard Mrs. Feldman moving her chair and when he looked up, he
saw her passing a plate of hot apple pie a la mode to him. He accepted the
dessert and within minutes, the pie was a pleasant memory. Tony wiped his
lips on his napkin and thanked Mrs. Feldman politely for lunch as she
finished her bowl of soup. When she finished, she dabbed her lips with her
napkin delicately and said, "Tony, we need to talk. I know it's too soon
for you to have thought about what's going to happen to you, but I don't
want you to worry. Everything will be taken care of. Your mother was my
best friend and left instructions for me in case of an emergency. You are
going to live with us. I've already called my husband and he contacted your
aunt an hour ago. He called me back just before I left to pick you up from
school. We thought it would be best if we talked to her before I took you
home from school. She said she'd would like to take you, but that she's
been transferred to another duty station in the Far East. I bet you didn't
know your aunt was in the Air Force! She told Jacob that there aren't any
facilities for dependents where she is going and asked if you could live
with us. Jacob agreed with her that it would be best if you stayed with us.
Would that be okay with you?"
Tony nodded in assent and sighed internally, at least he wouldn't have
to
repeat a year of school. He told Mrs. Feldman, "Mr. Hawkins, the school
principal, thinks I'm going to be moving to another state. Could you tell
him I'm not going to be leaving school?"
Mrs. Feldman smiled and said, "I'll take care of it after lunch. After I
call, we'll get you moved into the room at the end of the hall."
"Moved in?!", Tony said with an expression of surprised dismay. "Why
can't
I just stay in my old room back at my house?"
Mrs. Feldman put her hand on his arm and said gently, "Tony, the house
will have to be sold. Don't worry, there's plenty of room for your things
here. You won't have to get rid of anything, I promise."
"Sold? What do you mean the house will have to be sold? That's my
house!",
he cried.
Mrs. Feldman gripped his arm in her hand and said, "Tony, running a
house
takes time and money. With your parents gone, someone will have to pay for
the upkeep of the house. There are also property taxes that have to be
paid. Mr. Feldman and I can't afford to take care of two houses. The house
will have to be sold, don't you see?"
Tony said he understood with an air of depression and the rest of the
meal
was finished in silence. Mrs. Feldman called the Principal and told him
that Tony would be staying with them instead of moving in with his aunt.
The Principal told her that he was pleased that Tony would be staying at
his school and that he would tell the attendance secretary not to expect
Tony back in school for the next two weeks. He wanted Tony to have some
time to adjust to his parent's death before he had to worry about
schoolwork again. After lunch Mrs. Feldman, Tony and Jay-Jay went to his
house and gathered up a box of Tony's things along with his pillow, bedding
and a change of clothes. She told him they would come back tomorrow and get
the rest of his possessions, but she wanted him to be comfortable in his
new bedroom that night. They took it back to her house where they ensconced
Tony in the spare bedroom. Mrs. Feldman helped Tony put up his posters on
the wall and make the bed. When they were finished she told him it was time
for a nap. Tony quailed at the thought of taking a nap in the middle of the
day saying, "A nap? I don't need to take a nap! Afternoon naps are for
babies! I haven't taken an afternoon nap since I was a little kid."
Mrs. Feldman smiled and told him firmly, "Tony, I don't think you've
realized what a terrible emotional shock you've just experienced. I know
you're not used to taking an afternoon nap, but I think you need some rest.
I'd like you to change into your pjs, then lie down and rest. You don't
have to sleep if you don't want to, but I'd like you to at least lie down.
As soon as I put Jay-Jay in his crib, I'm going to take a nap too. Here,
let me close the curtains for you."
Tony agreed reluctantly and Mrs. Feldman went to put Jay-Jay down for
his
nap while Tony changed into his pjs. Tony got into bed, pulled the covers
up around his shoulders and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes,
thinking, "Is this what Mom and Dad would have wanted? How do I know that
Mr. Feldman actually called my aunt? What if there's been some sort of
mistake? What if Mom and Dad aren't really dead? What will they say when
they get home? Dad will be mad at me when he finds out I'm not in school.
I'm not going to take the blame myself. I'll tell him that's it's not my
fault, I just did what I was told. Dad will understand that it isn't my
fault." Tony closed his eyes and tried to visualize how his Dad would
react. For some reason, he couldn't picture his Dad's face. He tried to
relax thinking he was trying too hard and a few minutes later he was sound
asleep.
End Part One of Four
Copyright (c) 1995 by Jennifer Loraine
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From: an369971@anon.penet.fi
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 05:28:37 UTC
Subject: ~Story: "A Story for Tony" Part 2 of 4
A Story for Tony
by Jennifer Loraine
Part Two of Four
She returned after getting Jay-Jay tucked in and discovered Tony snoring
softly. She smiled, bending over the bed to tuck the covers gently around
Tony. "Poor Tony," she thought, "I'll have to remember to be extra nice to
him. He's really a good boy. I never dreamed I'd be a mother of a teenager
so soon, but I owe it to his mother to try. He's too young to be without a
mother." Yawning, she left the room to go take her own nap, closing the
door quietly behind her.
The next two weeks were a barely remembered blur for Tony. The funeral
was
held and Tony saw his parents lying in open caskets in the chapel. He was
shocked to see how pale they appeared. The mortician had rouged their
cheeks to give them some color, but the attempt had only made them appear
more lifeless. There was no question that his parents were dead in Tony's
mind as he saw them. Tears welled up in his eyes as the minister read the
service, but the tears refused to flow. They just filled the corners of his
eyes and obscured his vision. He stood woodenly as he saw the minister
close the lid of his father's coffin and hide the face of his father
forever before doing the same to his mother's coffin. Mrs. Feldman put her
arm around Tony's shoulders comfortingly and hugged him to her side while
Mr. Feldman held Jay-Jay. They left the church and drove to the graveyard
as the morning sky darkened with rain clouds. Tony stood at the graveside
with the Feldman family as the minister read the final rites over the
coffins of his parents. Tony agonized over his inability to cry for the his
mother and father. The pain seemed to be more than he could contain, but he
just stood there, stone faced, as the minister read the ritual of parting
and it began to rain. It seemed to Tony that the heavens themselves were
weeping for his loss. Everyone opened umbrellas as the rain changed from a
gentle blessing into an angry storm. The deacon held an umbrella over the
minister's head as the minister quickly finished the service. Mr. Feldman
opened his umbrella and attempted to shelter Mrs. Feldman and Tony, but
there wasn't enough room. Tony waved the umbrella away, relieving Mr.
Feldman of the responsibility of protecting him from the shower. Rain
coursed down Tony's face in a poor imitation of tears as the minister
completed the service, ".....Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life." The
minister closed his book of services with an air of finality and the small
group of mourners ran for their cars.
Tony walked to the Feldman's car heedless of the rain dripping off his
head and running down his back. He barely noticed the thunder booming
around him as he got into the car and Mr. Feldman drove home.
When they got home, Mrs. Feldman made a hot lunch of soup and sandwiches
for them. Ruth fed the baby while Mr. Feldman and Tony ate, intending to
eat her lunch after she fed the baby. Mr. Feldman went to work after lunch,
leaving Tony and Jay-Jay to Mrs. Feldman's care. Ruth put Jay-Jay in his
playpen and sat down to her meal as Tony sat silently and watched the rain
rolling down the outside the window pane. Tony felt lost and alone. He knew
Mrs. Feldman had promised to take care of him, but it wasn't the same as
having a real mother. He wanted someone to hold him and tell him everything
was going to be all right, that it was all a bad dream. He felt like
curling up in a ball and shutting his eyes in defiance to the way the world
had changed. He wanted to scream his anger at the top of his lungs. He knew
it wasn't his parent's fault, but he felt like they had abandoned him. It
wasn't fair. Why did they have to die now? He wasn't ready. Tony wanted to
cry in rage and frustration.
Ruth watched Tony's expression covertly as she ate. It was obvious that his
parent's death had affected him deeply. His anger and sorrow were written
clearly on his face. Tony worried her. She had not seen him cry since his
parent's death. Perhaps he had wept during the night, but she should have
seen the marks of the tears on the pillow. She wanted to reach out to him
and hold him, but his aloofness made her hesitate. He wasn't a little boy
she could cuddle and comfort, but a teenage boy. All she could do is be
there when he needed her.
As the weeks passed, Tony adjusted to living in the new household. He got
up, did his chores, and went to school without a word of complaint. But it
was apparent to everyone he wasn't happy. Mr. Feldman settled the affairs
of his friends' estate and cleaned out Tony's old house. They moved the
furniture from Tony's old bedroom into his new bedroom in their house and
sorted mementos to give Tony when he became older. After a hurried phone
conference with Tony's aunt, the china and silver service, along with the
bulk of the dead woman's jewelry were boxed in shipping cartons and sent to
his aunt. An estate sale was held and the furnishings were auctioned. His
parent's clothes were given to charity and the detritus of suburban life
was put out for the garbage collectors. As executor of the estate, Mr.
Feldman hired a small contractor to make repairs and repaint the house,
then had a cleaning crew come in when the contractor was finished.
Tony watched the proceedings with dismay as his house was gradually emptied
of personality. He went over and looked in the curtainless windows after
the cleaning crew had finished and saw that the house had been stripped of
everything that made it his. It was only a vacant building that had been
his home in another existence. Tony felt like the house was like his life,
just another empty shell where he had once lived.
Mr. Feldman had the house listed with a Realtor and signs were put on the
lawn announcing to the world that the house was no longer a home, only a
piece of property to be sold. Tony's mood fell deeper into depression as he
saw the last vestige of his old life slip away from him.
The world went on with its business despite Tony's pain; school let out for
the summer, large corporations continued to merge, causing stock prices to
go up, making the Federal Reserve nervous. They raised the Prime Interest
Rate steeply, which caused the mortgage rate to skyrocket. Buyers for
Tony's old house vanished. It sat vacantly, waiting for the cost of money
to be affordable again. Mr. Feldman's company was acquired in a complex
stock transaction that caused him to be temporarily transferred to the home
office of the parent company in Chicago for retraining. Mr. and Mrs.
Feldman discussed his transfer and decided that Ruth would stay in their
house with Jay-Jay and Tony while Mr. Feldman was in Chicago. Selling their
house was out of the question with the housing market in the downturn it
was in. He would be gone six months, with a possible two month extension.
The good news was that he would be promoted upon his return to division
sales manager of his old company with perks and a raise to match his new
position. He spent a week getting ready for the trip, giving Ruth a
full-power-of-attorney so that she could deal with any emergencies that
came up. On the day of his departure, he told Tony he was the man of the
house now and he had every confidence that Tony would take care of his wife
and son. He shook Tony's hand and kissed Jay-Jay before he embraced Ruth
and told her goodbye. He gave Ruth a final kiss and he walked to the
waiting taxi with the last of his bags. Everyone waved goodbye at Mr.
Feldman as the taxi drove away.
Tony awoke in the morning with the covers wrapped around him like a mummy.
He rolled over to get out of bed and found himself lying in a cold spot in
the bed. He put his hand down to feel the spot and discovered that it was
wet. He had wet the bed! He jumped out of bed and pulled the covers back to
see how big the spot was; it was huge! He looked down the front of his
pajama's and saw that the crotch was soaked all the way to his thighs. The
comforter had small wet spots in places too! How was he ever going to
explain to Mrs. Feldman? He shucked his dripping pajamas and underwear and
gathered up the damp bedclothes in a bundle and put it by the bedroom door.
Then he changed into a pair of dry briefs and put on a pair of pants and
shirt before taking the bundle down to the utility room to put in the wash.
Mrs. Feldman was outside working in the garden as he passed through the
kitchen with the dirty linen in his arms. "He's such a good boy," she
thought as she saw him walk by the kitchen window with the bundle in his
arms, "I've never had to tell him to clean up his room or put his laundry
by the washer. When I was his age, my mother had to ask me for a week to
bring her my laundry."
She bent over her plants and continued to hoe as Jay-Jay played happily in
his playpen in the shade. A half hour later she was surprised by a blast
of hot air on the backs of her legs. She turned around to see where the air
was coming from and was surprised to see that it was coming from the
clothes dryer exhaust in the wall of the house. "What is Tony up to?", she
told herself as she snatched Jay-Jay from his playpen and hurried into the
house to check on the dryer. She expected Tony to take his dirty clothes
into the utility room for her to wash, but she hadn't told him he could run
her washer and dryer. The thought of the damage an unbalanced load could do
to her washer horrified her. She had done it herself when she was young and
her mother had never let her forget it. After putting a load in the washer,
Ruth had sat in the family room and watched TV on a Saturday morning. Water
had flooded the wash room unseen and unheard, nearly destroying the
washroom. Her mother's washer had 'walked' itself away from the wall and
had broken the hose fitting on the water pipe inlet. Ruth remembered the
howls of anger her father made when he found out that the sheetrock would
have to be replaced in the wall and ceiling behind the washer. He had been
livid! He had wanted to take it out of her allowance and was only deterred
by the pleadings of her mother that it was an accident. Ruth ran into the
utility room and demanded breathlessly, "Tony, what's going on here? I
didn't tell you you could run my washer! What are you doing?"
She pushed him brusquely out of the way to see what he had been loading in
her washer and said, "Tony! You can't wash the comforter like this! Look at
this! The load is unbalanced! Do you know what will happen if you try to
run the washer like this? You'll break my new washer! I don't want you
washing clothes in my washer until you've learned how to load it. Here,
I'll show you."
Ruth sat Jay-Jay on the floor beside her feet and pulled the comforter from
the washer. She was tucking it in around the agitator when she noticed a
large wet spot on the fabric. "What...?", she said, bending over to smell
the spot. She sniffed the damp fabric and frowned in recognition. "Tony,"
she said in puzzlement, "did you have an 'accident' in the bed?"
Tony stood shamefaced in front of her and shuffled his feet in
embarrassment. "Yes, m..mam," he stuttered in a low voice.
Ruth opened the dryer door and peered at the clean, warm pajamas and
underwear lying inside. "I see," she said. "Well, if this happens again, I
want you to tell me. Is that clear? I don't want you to use the washer or
dryer without my permission. Do you understand?"
Tony nodded his agreement and Ruth finished loading the washer. She turned
to the dryer and removed the pjs and briefs then handed them to Tony
saying, "Here dear, why don't you take these up to your room and put them
in your dresser. I'll be up there to look at your mattress as soon as I
finish this and get Jay-Jay in his crib. It's time for his nap now."
Ruth met Tony in his bedroom with a bowl of cold water, a sponge and a box
of baking soda. When she saw the extent of the stain, she sighed and shook
her head. She had expected a small puddle, nothing like this! Tony had
managed to soak a quarter of the mattress. She doused the stain with water
and sponged it clean. Then she repeated the process. Tony stood by with an
embarrassed look on his face as she went over the fabric, mopping the stain
until it was a faded yellow in color. She handed the bowl to Tony and said,
"Here Tony, dump this in the toilet and fill it again with cold water from
the bathroom sink."
Tony took the bowl as she sprinkled baking soda on the mattress. Ruth
continued shaking the box over the mattress until the surface of the stain
was covered with a thin layer of white powder. Tony returned with the bowl
of water and she began to scrub the baking soda into the fabric of the
mattress with a wet sponge. When she finished, she took the bowl into the
bathroom and rinsed it out, leaving it in the sink to put away later. She
returned to Tony's bedroom and wiped her forehead, saying, "We're going to
have to put this in the sun to dry. Otherwise you'll be sleeping on a wet
mattress tonight. The sunshine will help bleach the stain out too. Tony,
help me get the mattress off the bed and carry it outside. I don't think I
can manage this mattress down the stairs alone."
They carried the mattress out to the backyard and laid it in a sunny spot
on the grass. Ruth followed Tony into the house when the job was done and
said, "Thanks for your help, Tony. I'd like to have a talk with you in the
kitchen for a minute."
Tony followed her into the kitchen and sat on one of the chairs in the
breakfast nook as Ruth got a glass of iced tea from the refrigerator.
"Would you like something to drink, Tony? Some iced tea? A soda, maybe?",
she said as she put her glass down on the table.
Tony shook his head 'no', the last thing he wanted right now was something
to remind him of what he had done.
She sat down across the table from him and said, "Tony, Honey, are you
feeling okay? Did you feel bad last night before you went to sleep?"
Tony shook his head 'no' uncomfortably.
She smiled and said, "Tony, I'm not mad at you for what happened. I know
it's not your fault. But you can see how much trouble it is to clean the
mattress after an accident. The longer the pee stays on the mattress, the
more it will stain. I think we caught it in time this morning, but if it
happens in the future, I want you to tell me immediately. Do you
understand?"
Tony nodded his understanding and she smiled back in return.
The next morning was a repeat of the morning before. Tony woke to find
himself lying in a puddle of pee. He hurriedly stripped the bed and
dressed, then went down to find Mrs. Feldman. She came up to the room and
surveyed the damage before cleaning the mattress again. When they had
finished, Ruth went to the kitchen phone and called the family doctor to
make an appointment for Tony. She explained that her adopted
fourteen-year-old son had suddenly started wetting the bed for no apparent
reason. The receptionist told her that a patient had canceled their
appointment a few minutes ago and they could fit Tony in immediately if she
could bring him in within the next hour. Ruth agreed and the appointment
was made. Ruth told Tony to get ready to go to the doctor while she packed
a diaper bag for Jay-Jay.
The doctor saw Tony privately. About an hour after Tony had gone into the
examining room, the receptionist told Ruth the doctor would like to speak
to her. Ruth passed Tony in the hall as he went back to the waiting room.
She told him she only expected to be a few minutes and to wait there for
her. The doctor told Ruth that he couldn't find anything wrong with Tony
organically, but that the boy seemed depressed to him. Ruth explained what
had happened to his parents and the events of the past two mornings. The
doctor nodded sagely and told her that it was not uncommon in situation
like this for young people to wet the bed. He asked her if Tony had any
other changes in his behavior and she responded in the negative. The doctor
assured her that his bedwetting, although mildly abnormal, was nothing to
be concerned about for the moment. He suggested gently that she get a
waterproof mattress protector for the bed and try to restrict Tony's fluid
intake before bedtime. He also suggested she put an absorbent bedpad on the
middle of the bed at waist height every night to help keep the bedclothes
dry. If the bedwetting continued, he suggested that she might want to
consider having Tony wear incontinent briefs to bed. He gave her the name
and number of a child psychiatrist and told her that some counseling might
help Tony deal with his grief. The doctor told her to call him if there
were any changes in Tony's condition.
End Part Two of Four
Copyright (c) 1995 by Jennifer Loraine
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Subject: ~Story: "A Story for Tony" Part 3 of 4
From: an369971@anon.penet.fi
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 05:29:44 UTC
Message-ID: <053345Z09041996@anon.penet.fi>
A Story for Tony
by Jennifer Loraine
Part Three of Four
Ruth stopped at the pharmaceutical supply on the way home and left Tony in
the car to take care of Jay-Jay while she went inside to buy a plastic
mattress protector and some bedpads. After they got home, Ruth called the
child psychiatrist to make an appointment. She explained that she had been
referred to the psychiatrist by her doctor. Ruth was surprised when the
receptionist told her the doctor could see Tony that afternoon. She told
the receptionist that she had never had such luck in getting early
appointments with doctors. The receptionist replied that many of the
doctor's patients were on vacation with their parents and the doctor's
schedule was relatively free for the next two weeks. Ruth made a light
lunch for them and took Tony to the psychiatrist later that afternoon.
After filling out the forms, the doctor called them into his office for a
preliminary chat before talking to Tony alone. Ruth explained what had
happened to Tony's intense embarrassment and what her family physician had
said. The doctor asked Ruth to leave the room while he talked to Tony in
private. As before, Ruth waited about an hour before the psychiatrist
called her in for a consultation. He told her that Tony was extremely
depressed over his parents' death and that he usually prescribed treatment
with antidepressants in cases like this. He warned her that the drug would
probably make Tony very drowsy at night and the bedwetting would probably
continue until he became used to the drug. He agreed with what her family
physician had told her about using a mattress protector and advised her to
have him wear incontinent briefs to bed. He also recommended that he see
Tony once a week for the next three months to help him over his parents'
deaths and adjust to his new life. Ruth agreed and told him she would make
an appointment with his receptionist. The psychiatrist wrote a
prescription for the antidepressants and told her that there was a pharmacy
on the first floor. Ruth thanked him and left, stopping in front of the
pharmacy on their way out. Tony looked confused when she asked him what his
waist size was before giving him Jay-Jay to hold. She smiled and told him
it was all right and rooted around in her purse for a few minutes before
finding a small metal tape measure she carried in her purse for shopping.
She flipped it around his waist and measured him before leaving the two of
them in front of the pharmacy. She returned a few minutes later with a
large plastic bag in her hand and offered to take Jay-Jay from Tony. He
refused, saying that Jay-Jay wasn't very heavy and it wasn't far to the
car.
When they got home, Tony helped Ruth carry the mattress back up the stairs
into his bedroom and put on the bed. Tony wasn't surprised when Ruth
removed a package from the bag she had gotten earlier in the day and took
out a waterproof mattress protector. The doctor had told him he was going
to tell Mrs. Feldman to put a cover over the mattress to keep him from
damaging the mattress. While he was ashamed at what was happening to him,
he was glad that he wouldn't have to drag the mattress up and down the
staircase anymore. That mattress was heavy! He was also glad that Mrs.
Feldman wouldn't have to clean the mattress anymore; she had looked
irritated this morning when he told her what had happened. At least this
way all she'd have to clean would be the sheets and blanket, he thought.
The rest of the day went normally and Tony was surprised at dinner when
she offered him a second glass of milk. The family doctor had told him that
he should try not to drink too much late at night. Tony shrugged and
decided that he must have misunderstood. The doctor probably meant he was
not to drink anything immediately before going to bed. Tony accepted the
offered glass of milk and thought nothing more of it. Ruth put Jay-Jay to
bed soon afterward and they sat and watched TV until bedtime. When Tony was
getting ready for bed, there was a knock on his door and Tony went to
answer it. Tony was surprised to see Mrs. Feldman standing there with a
glass of water in hand waiting for him. He looked the water glass as she
offered it to him and said, "But the doctor told me that I'm not supposed
to have anything to drink before I go to sleep!"
Ruth smiled and said, "You forgot to take your medicine. Here, you'll need
this to wash it down. Your psychiatrist told me not to worry about
restricting fluids. Don't worry, everything's taken care of."
She nudged a plastic bag sitting on the floor outside the door with her
foot. He took the glass from her hand as she held out her other hand with a
capsule. He swallowed the capsule and washed it down with a large gulp. He
thanked her and moved to close the door, but was stopped by her hand on the
door. "Tony," she said, "I've come to help you get ready for bed."
"But I am ready for bed. See? I've got my pajamas on and everything!", he
exclaimed.
She took the glass from his hand and picked up the bag from the floor and
said, "We're going to try something else for awhile. Your psychiatrist gave
me instructions for what to do about your bedwetting."
Ruth walked over to the bed and pulled down the covers, saying, "Here, give
me a hand with this."
She took a disposable bedpad out of the bag and laid it across the bed,
tucking it in under the mattress. Ruth told him, "Now get the other side
and tuck it in for me on the other side, Honey. That's right. Here's let's
put another one on for tonight. We'll see how wet it is in the morning. If
you only need one, tomorrow night we'll just use one, but for tonight we'll
try two."
She draped the second pad over the first overlapping it so that the half of
the bed was covered by the absorbent pads. They tucked the ends in and she
told him, "Now drop your pants and lay down on the bed."
"Wh..what?!", he stammered.
"I said, drop your pajama bottoms and lay down on the bed. Take them off!
Your briefs too!", she told him firmly.
"But what have I done? I thought you weren't mad at me! I didn't do
anything to get spanked for! I didn't mean to wet the bed. The doctor told
me it wasn't my fault. Please don't spank me!", he said desperately.
Ruth smiled warmly and said, "I'm not going to spank you, Honey. I just
need to put some protective briefs on you before you go to sleep and I need
you to lie down so I can put them on you."
"Protective briefs? What are they?", he queried.
"They're waterproof briefs that you can wear while you're sleeping to keep
you from getting the sheets wet. You don't want to sleep in wet sheets, do
you?", she told him comfortingly.
"No, I guess not," he said dubiously.
He let his pajama bottoms fall to the floor and looked embarrassed when he
slid his underwear down to his feet. Ruth put a businesslike expression on
her face to save him from further embarrassment and said, "Good, now lay
down on your back on the bed. That's right. Now roll on your left side
while I get the brief ready."
Tony heard the sound of plastic crinkling behind him as she unfolded the
disposable brief on the bed behind him. He asked her from where he lay,
"But why can't I just sit on the edge of the bed and put them on like other
underwear?"
"These are a different kind. Now roll back on your back, Honey. There you
go. Here, I want to put some body powder on you to prevent chafing before I
fasten them.", she told him.
Tony felt the cool sensation of the powder hitting his crotch and then she
said, "Now spread your legs, Honey."
He did as he was told and felt the brief being drawn up between his legs
and fastened on one side and then the other. The smell of baby powder
wafted up from his crotch and reached his nose as she finished. Then he
realized what she had done. She had diapered him! He rose from the bed in a
panic and tried to get up saying, "No! You can't do this to me. I'm not a
baby. Please don't make me wear diapers!"
Ruth held him easily on the bed with one hand as she sat down beside him.
She put her arm around his shoulders and said, "Honey, the doctor told me
that the medication will make you sleep very heavily. You won't wake up if
you need to go to the bathroom. He told me to put you in protective briefs
while you sleep. You'll wet the sheets if I don't."
"These aren't 'protective' briefs, they're diapers!", he told her
mournfully.
Ruth had to admit to herself that in truth, he was right. They were
diapers. But she didn't want his feelings to be hurt any more than they had
to be. She told him half-truthfully, "Honey, when little babies wear them,
they're diapers. But adults have to wear them too at times, then they're
called 'protective' briefs."
He looked at her trying to find the deception in her words and said, "You
lied to me! You told me you were putting body powder on me when you were
really putting baby powder on me!"
She smiled at his anguished face and said truthfully, "Honey, baby powder
IS body powder. Here, look! See? It says so right on the back of the
bottle! I use it myself after a bath to keep dry."
He looked at her with tears in his eyes and said accusingly, "You told me
you put it on me to prevent chafing. What you really meant was it was
supposed to prevent diaper rash!"
Ruth sighed and said, "You're right, Honey. I fibbed. I didn't want to hurt
your feelings."
"But I don't want to wear diapers!", he wailed.
She hugged him to her and said soothingly, "You'll get used to them, I
promise, Honey."
"But I don't want to get used to them. What will my friends say?", he
pleaded.
She smiled and said, "How will they know if you don't tell them? I'm
certainly not going to tell anyone."
"You're ashamed of me. If I had a teenaged boy who had to wear diapers
living in my house, I wouldn't want to tell anybody either," he said
reproachfully.
She hugged him again and stroked his hair, saying, "I'm not ashamed of you
Tony. You just have a temporary problem that will go away with time. Try
not to get upset about it. Neither doctor seemed to be very worried about
it, so I think you shouldn't worry either. Now let me get you tucked into
bed. It's time to go to sleep."
"Tucked into bed?", he quailed, "I haven't needed to be tucked in since I
was a little kid!"
Ruth smiled warmly as she gently forced him to lie back on the bed saying,
"I know you don't need me to tuck you in, but I want to make sure the pads
don't slip. You understand that, don't you?"
Tony nodded sleepily as the medication took effect and she pulled the
covers over him and began tucking them around him. He was almost asleep
when she finished with the covers and bent over him to kiss him on the
forehead, saying, "Goodnight, Tony. Sleep tight."
"Goodnight mama," he murmured in his sleep.
Ruth turned out the light and closed the door behind her as she left the
room. "Did he really say what I thought he said?", she thought to herself.
The next morning Ruth went in to wake him before he awoke on his own. She
wanted to see how wet the pads had gotten during the night. Besides she
didn't want him to take off the diaper himself. If it was as drippy as she
expected it would be, it would get everywhere if he wasn't careful. She sat
down on the bed beside him and said, softly, "Tony? Tony, it's time to get
up! Come on, Honey, wake up!"
Tony opened his eyes to see her sitting beside him looking down on him with
loving eyes. He hadn't been woken that way since he was a little kid. He
wanted to tell her that he was too big to be mothered like that, but the
words wouldn't come out. He moved his legs slightly to make more room for
her and felt the soggy diaper squish between his legs. Tony blushed in
embarrassment as he realized that he had done it again. They were right! He
should wear diapers to bed!
Ruth nodded understandingly and took the covers out of his hand, pulling
them down below his knees. She felt the pad beneath him and said
approvingly, "Well, the brief seems to have done the trick. Only the pad
underneath your bottom is wet. We'll only use one pad tonight."
Tony started to sit up, but was restrained by her hand on his chest. "Let
me get you out of that wet brief before you get out of bed, Honey."
He lay back passively as she unfastened the tabs on the diaper and pulled
the wet padding down between his legs. She had been right, she told
herself. He had really soaked the diaper. If he had gotten up on his own he
would have dripped everywhere. She told him, "You can sit up now, Honey.
Put your feet on the floor and stand straight up. Be careful, I don't want
you dragging the wet brief off the bed onto the floor. There's a tub of hot
water waiting for you in the bathroom. Why don't you take a bath and then
I'll get you some breakfast?"
Tony got out of the bed and trotted into the bathroom without stopping to
get dressed. It seemed silly to act modest around someone who had just
taken his pee-soaked brief off. 'Brief', now there was a face saving lie if
he ever heard one. It was a diaper and he had wet it just like a toddler.
At least she didn't insist on using a baby wipe on him and had let him go a
take a bath with some dignity.
He bathed quickly and went back to his room to dress before going down to
breakfast. When he arrived, he found her at the stove cooking bacon and
eggs for him. The smell of maple-cured bacon filled the kitchen and made
his mouth water in anticipation. "The margarine and jam are in the
refrigerator Tony, help yourself. Your toast will be done in a minute. Why
don't you get yourself a glass of milk while you wait?"
He took the margarine and jam out of the refrigerator and poured himself a
glass of milk. Ruth brought him his breakfast and set it down on the table
in front of him with some silverware and a napkin. She poured herself a cup
of coffee and sat down on the other side of the table from him. She smiled
at he and said, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?", she observed as he
wolfed down his breakfast.
"Bad? No, it's great! I love maple-cured bacon!", he said around a mouthful
of food.
"Don't talk with you mouth full, dear. I meant the brief. I was asking you
about sleeping in the briefs last night," she said in a motherly fashion.
"Oh, it wasn't so bad when I got used to it," he said airily.
Ruth smiled at his response, he had fallen asleep before she had finished
tucking him in the bed. She doubted he was even aware he was even wearing
it while he slept. "That's good. I'm glad you didn't have any problems,"
she said. "Tony," she asked sweetly, "I need to go do some shopping and I
was wondering if you could watch Jay-Jay for me while I go up to the
grocery store. It should only take about forty-five minutes."
Tony agreed readily and she left for the store. Tony played with Jay-Jay
for a few minutes, then turned on the TV to Nickelodeon and sat down to
watch with Jay-Jay in his lap. Rugrats was on and they watched an episode
titled "Regarding Stuie". Tony settled Jay-Jay's pacifier in his mouth
while he indulged himself in his secret pastime; sucking his thumb. He had
always enjoyed sucking his thumb and had been very upset when he was five
and his mother made him stop. He had never told her that he hadn't really
stopped, only learned to hide it from everyone. He only sucked his thumb
when he was sure he wouldn't get caught. Oh, sure his mother had seen him a
couple of times with his thumb in his mouth, but he was always able to
explain it away as some injury he had done to himself or something he had
spilled on his fingers. He'd take the thumb out of his mouth and hold it in
his hand and say that he had mashed it in the door or something. Last year,
when he was in the kitchen making toast, she caught him with his thumb in
his mouth and he had taken it out and put the rest of his fingers in his
mouth one-by-one, licking them as he withdrew them from his mouth. He lied
with perfect aplomb, telling her that he had spilled jam on his hand. He
was sure that she believed him. It was always easier to believe a lie that
was rational than an uncomfortable truth. She simply did not want to
believe her thirteen-year-old son still sucked his thumb. Tony looked at
Jay-Jay contentedly sucking on his pacifier and wondered if it was as
satisfying for Jay-Jay as sucking his thumb was for him. The cartoon
started and soon the two of them were engrossed in the story. As the
cartoon unfolded, Stu, Tommy's father, went up on the roof to install an
electronic weather 'goose' and fell. Stu hit his head and regressed back
into babyhood. He spends the day toddling around the house in diapers like
his infant son Tommy. Tony wondered what it would be like to regress into a
baby again. He knew what wearing a wet diaper felt like now. Tony reflected
that it was kind of fun, once he got over the humiliation of being
diapered. He wondered how it formula tasted and what sucking a baby bottle
felt like. Of course, now that he lived in a house with a baby there'd be
plenty of opportunity to find out. The episode ended and a new episode was
beginning when he felt something warm and wet in his crotch. "Oh no!", he
thought in horror, "Now I'm wetting my pants during the day!"
He moved Jay-Jay aside and was relieved to discover that Jay-Jay's diaper
had been leaking. Tony sighed and carried Jay-Jay up to the nursery to
change his diaper. Jay-Jay was delighted by the attentions of his teenaged
babysitter. He chuckled and grinned as Tony placed him on the changing
table, removed the wet diaper, wiped him off and rediapered him. Tony put
Jay-Jay's pacifier back in his mouth and picked him up again when something
on the changing table caught his eye. It was a plastic jar full of
pacifiers! He stopped and looked at the jar for a minute before gathering
his courage to take one from the jar. Surely one would not be missed out of
so many. He'd try it tonight when everyone was asleep. Tony tucked the
pacifier in his pocket and took Jay-Jay back down to the family room.
When Ruth returned, she found them watching cartoons on TV. She asked Tony
to help her and he put Jay-Jay in his playpen and hastened to give her a
hand. When they finished, Ruth turned to Tony to thank him for his help and
saw the wet spot on the front of his trousers. "Oh dear, Tony!" she said in
mock surprise, "Are you having 'accidents' during the day, too?"
Tony looked down at his pants and realized that he had forgotten to change
them after he had changed Jay-Jay. He stammered and said, "Bbb...but.. but
it wasn't me! It was Jay-Jay! He was sitting on my lap and his diaper
leaked! I just changed him! Really!"
Ruth chuckled and said, "I believe you. I was just teasing. It's happened
to me, too. Why don't you go up and get changed so I can get those pants in
the wash before the stain sets?"
Tony hurried up the stair and changed clothes quickly. As he was leaving
his room with the wet pants in his hand, he suddenly remembered the
pacifier in the front pocket. He ducked back into the room and took out the
pacifier and hid it in the large seam in the bottom of the curtain at the
head of the bed. "Perfect!", he thought as he smoothed the curtain back in
place, "Mrs. Feldman would never think to look for anything there."
That night Tony was diapered before bed and tucked into his bed again. He
didn't argue with Ruth this time, it was obvious that he would have to
continue wearing diapers to bed until he got over his bedwetting. He laid
back and enjoyed the sensations of being pampered and cared for like a
baby. Ruth kissed him on the forehead like she did the night before and he
pretended to fall asleep. When she closed the door he opened his eyes and
reached under the pillow behind the bed. After fumbling around with the
curtain a few minutes, he managed to retrieve the pacifier and get it up to
his face. He took the pacifier in his trembling hand and put the nipple
into his mouth and began to suck. The nipple did not reach as far back into
his mouth as his thumb did, but the sensation was fabulous! He closed his
eyes and imagined he was a baby again and his mother was there watching
him, playing with him, feeding him and changing his diapers. This was the
happiest moment since his parents' death. The medication started making him
sleepy and he fell asleep and woke several times with the pacifier still in
his mouth. He decided that he'd rather play it safe and slipped the
pacifier back into its hiding place before he fell so deeply asleep that he
didn't wake up until morning. He didn't want to have to explain to Mrs.
Feldman why he was sleeping with a pacifier in his mouth. It was bad enough
he had to wear diapers to bed!
When Ruth came in the next morning she found him soundly asleep with his
thumb in his mouth. She did a quick double take as she realized what she
was seeing. She resolved to say nothing to Tony about the matter, but she
did decide to talk to the child psychiatrist about it. She woke him like
she had the day before and removed his wet diaper before sending him off to
the bathroom for his morning bath. The rest of the week passed
uneventfully; Tony got used to being diapered before bed and decided he
like the security of knowing he wouldn't wake up in wet bedclothes. Ruth
was somewhat disturbed to find brown stains on the back of his diaper on
two occasions, but she put it down to his failure to wipe himself properly
after going to the bathroom. Ruth called the psychiatrist later in the week
and told him about Tony's thumbsucking. The doctor seemed unconcerned, he
told her he would talk to Tony about it in the future, but a minor
regressive behavior like that was common and absolutely harmless. He seemed
to be more concerned with Tony's mood and how he had adapted to wearing
diapers at night. She told him Tony seemed to be happier since he had been
put on medication and had stopped moping around the house. She told him
that Tony hadn't wanted to go out and see his friends yet. The doctor
advised her to be patient, that those things took time.
After another week Tony's body started to adjust to the antidepressant and
he found it easier to stay awake in bed without falling asleep. He would
cover his head with the covers in case Mrs. Feldman came in to check on
him, but she never did. He would get out the pacifier every night and suck
on it for an hour before putting it away and going to sleep. His fantasy of
being a baby again became so real when he was sucking the pacifier. One
night, after sucking the pacifier for about an hour, he grew thirsty and
decided to go down to the kitchen to get something to drink. He hid the
pacifier in his pillow case and padded quietly down the stairs clad in his
robe-covered diapers. When he saw the bottles of cold formula waiting in
the refrigerator, he couldn't resist. He took a bottle and putting it in
the pocket of his robe, crept back up the stairs to his room. He got into
bed quickly and took the pacifier out of the pillow case before throwing
the covers over his head. The first suck of the bottle was a shock; the
sweet flavor of the thin formula was unexpected and he was surprised at how
difficult it was to get anything from the bottle. After a while he got the
hang of it and he sucked on the bottle contentedly, drowsing from time to
time.
End Part Three of Four
Copyright (c) 1995 by Jennifer Loraine
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From: an369971@anon.penet.fi
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 05:29:11 UTC
Subject: ~Story: "A Story for Tony" Part 4 of 4
A Story for Tony
by Jennifer Loraine
Part Four of Four
The next thing he knew Mrs. Feldman was shaking him awake. She pulled down
his covers and froze at the sight of him lying in bed with a nearly empty
baby bottle. Formula dripped from the nipple slowly and puddled by his side
on the bedpad. She reached down and said, "And just what young man, were
you doing with this in your bed?"
Panic paralyzed Tony's vocal cords, he tried to croak out an explanation,
but only strange, strangled vowel sounds escaped his lips. Ruth put the
bottle on the dresser and said, "After you take your bath and get dressed
young man, the two of us are going to have a long talk!"
Tony turned beet-red in embarrassment and nodded his agreement. Ruth
unfastened his diaper to find the second shock of her day. He had pooped in
his diaper! Her eyes went wide and she said, "Just stay right there, Tony.
Don't move a muscle! Do you understand me? Stay right were you are! I'll be
back in a minute!"
She left the room with a determined expression on her face and returned a
few minutes later with a large box of baby wipes in her hand. Tony lay in
bed trembling in terror. The smell of the dirty diaper had reached him and
he knew what he had done. There was no hiding from the maternal judgment in
her eyes. He had disgraced himself. Tears welled up in his eyes and rolled
down his cheeks as she told him to draw back his legs to his chest and hold
them there while she cleaned his dirty bottom. The moment she touched him,
his bladder cut loose and he began peeing uncontrollably in fright. Ruth
snatched up the front of his diaper and threw it over his crotch, catching
most of the spill in the already sodden diaper. He whimpered as she
scrubbed him clean again and then told him to roll over on his stomach. She
told him to wait while she got something and he heard her go over to his
dresser and take something out of one of the drawers. He closed his eyes
for the beating he knew was going to come. She was going to beat him with
his own belt! Tony stiffened as he felt the covers ripped off the bed and
the plastic edge of the soaked bedpad pulled out from underneath his
stomach. He felt another pad placed on the bed and waited for her to order
him to move on top on the pad. Of course she'd make him lie on a bedpad
while she spanked him. He had just proven he couldn't control himself
anymore, hadn't he just peed right in front of her? He shivered in fright
as he felt her put something cold and slimy in the crack between his
buttocks. She told him to roll back on his bottom and he complied without
ever opening his eyes. Tears streamed down his face as he whimpered, "Mama,
mama, please don't hurt me mama. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. Please
don't beat me."
Ruth powdered him quickly and rediapered him before sitting down on the bed
at his side. She pulled the boy up from the bed by his shoulders and gat
hered him to her bosom. His body was wracked by paroxysms of stark terror.
He wept copiously and kept repeating over and over, "Please don't hurt me
mama. I'll be good. Don't leave me mama!"
Ruth was astonished at the change in him. The happy teenager of the night
before had become a terrified two-year-old before her eyes. She rocked him
back and forth shushing him and making meaningless mothering noises to try
and subdue his fears. After a while he quieted and she saw the pacifier
lying in the bed beside him. She reached over him with her free hand and
picked up the pacifier to show him, saying, "Did you take this from
Jay-Jay's room, Tony? It was naughty of you to steal from your brother."
Tony started trembling violently in her arms again and she said hastily,
"It's okay, Honey. I'm sure he doesn't mind, he has plenty of pacifiers.
I'll get him another to replace it."
He touched the pacifier hesitantly and then began shaking again. Ruth put
it in his hand and said, "It's yours, Honey. Don't worry. Mama's not mad at
you. Here, let mama put the nipple in your mouth for you. Doesn't that feel
better?"
He looked up at her with the saddest, most forlorn eyes she had ever seen.
She slipped the nipple between his lips and he began to suck on the nipple
the moment she put it in his mouth. He put his arms around her neck and
wept into her shoulder and wept like a lost child who has finally found
it's mother. Ruth patted his back and comforted him and soon his crying
stopped. She asked him in the simple, gentle words one uses with a small
child who has just experienced a terrible trauma, "Okay now, Honey? Come
on, Honey. Let's go downstairs and mama will get you something to eat."
Tony looked at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes and said around the
pacifier, "Bath?"
Ruth shook her head and said, "Mama will give you a bath later, Honey.
Right now mama thinks her boy should get something to eat. How would you
like some bacon and eggs for breakfast?"
Tony's eyes lit up and he opened his mouth letting the pacifier fall onto
his lap, saying with a hoarse shout, "Bacon!"
She put the pacifier in her pocket and held his hand as she guided him down
the stairs into the breakfast nook. Ruth sat him down at the table and
pinned a kitchen towel around his neck to use as a bib. She put the
pacifier into his mouth to keep him occupied while she cooked him
breakfast. When she was done, she set the food down in front of him and
spoon-fed him eggs while breaking off small pieces of bacon and handing
them to him. He chortled in glee over each piece of bacon she fed him. When
he was finished, she wiped his face with the towel and led him into the
family room to sit on the floor in front of the TV. She turned on
Nickelodeon and let him watch the Rugrats while she placed an emergency
call to the psychiatrist.
His psychiatrist told her he'd be right over and arrived about an hour
later carrying the traditional doctor's black bag. Tony recognized him and
waved at him as he walked in the room. Ruth took Jay-Jay out of his playpen
and held him on her hip as she watched the doctor give Tony a quick medical
examination. The doctor called her over and said, "There's no overt sign of
physical trauma and he doesn't appear to have the personality
disintegration that would be consistent with schizophrenia. My guess is
that he's undergoing a temporary fugue state brought on by stress. There's
a strong possibility that he'll be better by tomorrow when the effects of
the stress have worn off. What I'd like to do now is sedate him and let
nature take it's course. If you don't mind, I'd like to question him while
he's under sedation and try to get at the root of the problem. The factors
that have caused this state should be near the surface of his personality
at this time and should be relatively easy to access. If we don't take this
opportunity now, they might be sublimated deep within in personality when
he emerges from the fugue. It might take years of psychoanalysis to reach
them again. Do I have your permission?"
Ruth nodded her permission and the doctor injected a sedative into Tony's
arm. The doctor helped Tony to the couch and waited patiently for the
medication to take effect. He asked Ruth to leave the room while he
questioned Tony. Ruth took Jay-Jay and retired into the kitchen. An hour
later the doctor came into the kitchen came into the kitchen and said,
"He's resting quietly now. Tony's had a rough time of it. From what I got
out of him, his mother was an alcoholic when he was young and would beat
him savagely for the slightest transgression. His father was a
disciplinarian and agreed with his wife's treatment of the boy. How they
ever managed to keep from getting arrested for child abuse is beyond me.
His subconscious personality stopped maturing between the ages of two and
three, although his conscious personality continued to mature normally. He
blames himself for the deaths of his parents subconsciously. I suspect it's
because he has a very deeply rooted fear/hate relationship with his mother
and wished that she would die whenever she beat him. Sadly, it's a very
normal reaction to that sort of stress. When they died in fact, his
subconscious blamed him for the wish fulfillment and regressed him to a
time before his mother's alcoholism destroyed their relationship. In
effect his subconscious is trying to resurrect both his mother and his
mother's love at the same time. His infant id has decided that they left
him because he wasn't worth loving anymore. He had matured too much to love
and so he's been abandoned. The poor boy is only looking for his mother to
love him. Under normal circumstances, I'd advise a patient's family to have
someone in his condition hospitalized, but in this case I don't think it
would be helpful. As a matter of fact, I think it would detrimental to his
condition. If we take him out of an environment where he feels loved and
put him in an impersonal institutional environment, the fugue state may
become permanent. He seems to identify you as a mother figure. Apparently
you've acted like the idealized mother he's never had. If you can put up
with his infantile behavior for a few days, I think he'll come out of it
okay. He's basically a good kid with a sound personality who's undergone a
tremendous amount of stress. The only thing I've seen that's even slightly
abnormal about his conscious personality is that he likes to suck his thumb
in secret. I don't think you'll ever break him on that habit, nor would I
want to try. There are far worse things in life than being a thumbsucker in
the privacy of your own home. If, after he comes out of the fugue state, he
regresses in private from time to time in acceptable ways, I would be extra
loving until he returns to normal. In short, I would baby him. He's had
enough discipline to last a lifetime, for that matter, several lifetimes!
Give me a call tomorrow and tell me how he's doing."
Ruth saw the doctor to the door and shut it behind him. "That poor boy,"
she thought, "I never dreamed that Mary was an alcoholic. No wonder I never
saw her drink. I thought it was a religious belief. It's going to be tough
to take care of a two-year-old toddler in a fourteen-year-old body, but I
accepted responsibility for him and I've got to try. If the doctor's right,
it should only last a day or two and he'll be back to normal. It's not any
worse than nursing him through a bad illness." Ruth went back and found
Tony asleep on the couch. She put Jay-Jay into his playpen and woke Tony up
enough to get him up the stairs and into his bed. She took his coverlet and
put it away, replacing it with a fleecy flannel blanket and tucking it
around him. When she kissed him goodnight, his eyelids fluttered open and
he looked at her and said, "Night-night mama!"
She smiled down at him and said, "Time to go night-night, baby. Mama loves
you." Ruth put the pacifier in his mouth and turned out the light as she
left the room.
Tony woke later that night feeling decidedly strange. He could see it was
still dark, but he was horribly thirsty. His diaper was wet and he needed
to be changed. He called out softly for Mrs. Feldman over and over until
he heard her coming down the hall. He called her name again and he heard
the door open and her say softly, "Tony..., Tony, Honey? Was that you
calling me? Do you need me? Mama's right here baby."
He tried to call her again, but his mouth was so dry he could hardly speak.
All he managed to say was "Thirsty!"
Ruth heard him and replied, "Okay Honey. Mama will get you something to
drink. I'll be right back."
He heard her footsteps on the stairs as she when down to the kitchen and
returned a few minutes later. She left the bedroom light off, guiding
herself to his bed with only the hall light for illumination. She sat on
the edge of the bed and slipped the nipple of the bottle between his lips,
holding it in place until he could hold it himself. Tony practically gagged
on the nipple! When he had asked her for something to drink, he expected
her to bring him a glass of water. Not a baby bottle of formula! Had she
found out about the bottle of Jay-Jay's formula he had taken? He blushed
hotly in the semidarkness as his reflexes betrayed him and his mouth began
to suck automatically.
When Ruth saw that he had taken the bottle, she pulled down the covers and
put two fingers under the front of his diaper to see if he was wet. His
diaper was soaked as she had expected. She pulled the covers off the bed
and went to turn on the bedroom light. She had no intention of cleaning a
dirty bottom in the dark. She set the changing supplies on the bed beside
him and proceeded to pull the tapes of the sides of his diaper. Tony peeked
around the bottle at her as she carefully pulled down the front of his
diaper to check on the condition of his behind. He was a little messy, but
it could be cleaned up with two swipes of the baby wipe. She told him, "Now
lift your legs, Honey, so mama can clean your hiney. That's a good baby!
Bend your knees darling. More! That's it."
"What was she talking about?", he thought in confusion. "Had he pooped in
his diaper? Why was she treating him like this? Was this some kind of
punishment? She didn't act like she was mad at him. She was acting like he
was her baby!"
He knew he should object, but he found her presence oddly comforting. He
discovered that he enjoyed being treated this way by her. She wiped his
bottom clean, coated his bottom with Vaseline and put a clean diaper
underneath his bottom before she would let him put his legs down again.
Then she efficiently rediapered him, put the diapering supplies back on the
dresser and put the covers back on the bed again to tuck him in. She found
the pacifier in the bed at his side and took it out of the room with her,
returning a few minutes later with a long cord tied to the ring. She bent
over his pillow as he was finishing the bottle and fastened the end of the
cord to the pillowcase with a diaper pin. Ruth took the bottle from his
hand and put it on his dresser, then came back and helped him sit up in
bed. She took a cloth diaper from her back pocket and threw it over her
left shoulder and held him close to her as she patted him on the back. Tony
couldn't believe it. She was actually burping him! He started to tell her
he didn't need her help to burp, when all of a sudden he let loose a long
belch. He was so astonished at her behavior and his belch that he was
speechless. She laid him back down in bed and tucked the blanket around his
arms and shoulders. Then she kissed him on his forehead and said,
"Goodnight baby," as she put the pacifier in his mouth. Ruth put the dirty
diaper in the diaper pail and took the bottle from his dresser before
turning out the light and closing the door.
Tony lay in the dark for an hour sucking on the pacifier before he went to
sleep again. What had just happened? Somehow during the night their
relationship had changed. It was obvious she didn't feel like he was her
adopted teenaged son anymore. Suddenly he was her baby boy. He had messed
in his diaper and she hadn't even been surprised. She just changed him like
she expected it to be dirty. And the way she had talked to him, she was
acting like she didn't think he could talk like an adult! She was treating
him the same way she treated Jay-Jay! What was going on here? The formula
sat pleasantly in his stomach and made him sleepy. The covers made him feel
warm and snuggily while the diaper made him feel secure and comfortable.
Secure, that was the word for it. She made him feel secure and loved. She
didn't care if he sucked his thumb, she wasn't even upset if he messed in
his diaper. She had actually put a baby bottle in his mouth for him to
drink while she changed him! She hadn't even yelled when she found
Jay-Jay's pacifier in his bed. She had just gotten a cord to pin it to his
pillowcase so he wouldn't lose it and to top it off, she put the nipple in
his mouth before she left! He couldn't remember feeling this way ever in
his life. For the first time, he felt truly happy. Whatever was going on,
he didn't want to change it. He was sure he'd find out tomorrow. Tony
smiled serenely around the pacifier as he slipped off into sleep.
The next morning Ruth awakened Tony as usual, but instead of rediapering
him she led him by the hand into the bathroom to take a bath. She helped
him sit in the tub and proceeded to rub his back with a soapy washcloth.
Tony luxuriated in her attentions; all embarrassment he might have felt two
days before had evaporated. He felt completely at ease in her presence and
said nothing as she went over his body from head-to-toe with the washcloth.
He thought it strange that she had decided to bathe him, but was not going
to argue with his good fortune. He was slightly embarrassed by her use off
baby talk to him; she cooed and prattled over him like he was a
one-year-old. He didn't know how to respond to this kind of treatment,
moreover, her speech didn't seem to require an answer. It was just motherly
chatter meant to put him at ease. When she was finished, she helped him out
of the tub and dried him with a towel.
Ruth led him back to the bedroom and rubbed him down with baby lotion
before rediapering him. The rediapering surprised Tony. He understood why
she had changed him last night when he was wet; he knew he'd be wet again
by morning. But he was only a bedwetter, not incontinent, he didn't need to
be diapered during the day! Did she know something he didn't? She helped
him up from the bed and she said as she took him by the hand, "Come on
baby, mama will help you down the stairs where she'll feed you eggs and
bacon for breakfast. Won't that be nummy?"
Tony blushed and told her, "Thank you Mrs. Feldman, I'd like some bacon and
eggs, but I think I can feed myself if you don't mind."
She turned to him with an expression of delighted surprise on her face and
gushed, "Tony! You're back to yourself again!" She hugged him
enthusiastically, then took him by the hand to lead him down the stairs.
"Uhhh...Uhhh, Mrs. Feldman?", Tony interrupted hesitantly.
"Yes, dear?", she answered absently as they walked down the hall.
"I...I think I can walk down the stairs without any help. It's not that I
don't appreciate the thought, but I think I can manage it myself," Tony
said diffidently.
"Ohh," Ruth said dropping his hand as they approached the stairs.
"Uhhh, Mrs. Feldman?", Tony began as he stepped off the stairs onto the
first floor.
"Yes dear?", answered Ruth.
"Why did you diaper me again? I only wet the bed, you know. It's not like I
can't control myself during the day," he stated positively.
"You peed and pooped in them three times during the day yesterday. I think
it might be a good idea if you wore them this morning just to be on the
safe side," she answered carefully.
"Yesterday!... I didn't wear diapers yesterday!", he exclaimed.
"You mean you don't remember, Honey? You called me mama and spent the
morning playing on the rug in from of the TV in diapers," she said sweetly.
"Mama?", he said distantly. "I called you mama?"
"Yes, dear, don't you remember? Your psychiatrist was here and had a long
talk with you on the couch, don't you remember?", she asked, looking him in
the eye.
"No.....I don't remember anything like that happening," he said in
bewilderment. ".....I really called you mama?"
"Yes, Honey. You cried in my arms and called me mama. Then I took you
downstairs and fed you breakfast and gave you a bottle of formula to drink
afterwards. I called your psychiatrist and he told me you were suffering
from a fugue. You acted like you were a little baby all day yesterday. He
said you might be better by today, but I didn't really believe him. You
mean you really don't remember anything from yesterday?", she asked
seriously.
"All I can remember from yesterday is that it was like any other day. I got
up, ate breakfast and babysat Jay-Jay while you went to the store. I spent
the day in the house, without going outside. We ate dinner and then you put
Jay-Jay to bed and we watched TV until it was time to go to bed." he said
distractedly.
Ruth tilted her head and queried, "What do you remember us watching last
night, Tony?"
"The same thing we watch every Wednesday night, we watched "Buddies" and
then "Primetime," he said with self-assurance.
"Today is Friday, Tony," she said quietly. "If you don't believe me, turn
on the TV to CNN or the preview channel on cable. They have captions with
the date and day of the week. Don't you remember anything? Anything at all,
it could be important."
"Well...," he began reluctantly, "I do remember one thing I haven't told
you about. I g..guess it doesn't matter now...."
"What is it, Honey?", she said, trying to be encouraging.
He hung his head in shame and said, "I came down the stairs because I was
thirsty and wanted to get something to drink from the refrigerator. When I
saw the bottles of Jay-Jay's formula, I couldn't resist. I took one. I'm
sorry. I didn't think it would be missed. I guess you must have found it."
Ruth nodded in agreement and said, "I found it lying in the bed beside you
yesterday morning. A little formula had leaked on the bedpad, but it looked
like you had drunk almost all of it. I found one of Jay-Jay's pacifiers in
your bed too. Did you take the pacifier earlier that day?"
"No...I took it weeks ago. You're...You're not mad at me are you?", he said
gazing up at her with a pleading look in his eyes.
She hugged him affectionately and said, "No, Honey I'm not mad at you. I
told you yesterday you could have it. If you want a pacifier so badly you'd
steal it from Jay-Jay, I guess you should have one of your own. You don't
have to hide your thumbsucking anymore either. I love you just the same,
whether you suck your thumb or not."
"Y..you love me?", he asked in surprise.
"Yes, dear, I love you. You're kind, gentle, considerate, helpful and very
obedient. Any mother would be proud to have a son like you," she said in a
loving tone.
"But I stole from Jay-Jay! I wet the bed and have to wear diapers to sleep!
You can't love me!", he exclaimed incredulously.
"I love you diapers and all, Tony. Don't you see that those things aren't
important if you love somebody? If you need to play at being a baby to
convince yourself that someone loves you, it's okay with me. I don't mind.
I'll give you bottles of formula and change your diapers until you don't
need them anymore. You're my son now and I'm your mother. All I want from
you is one thing," she said with a growing smile.
"What's th...that?", Tony asked.
"Call me mama," she grinned.
Tony's face broke out in the sunniest smile she had ever seen on a child as
he said, "Yes, mama!" His smile turned into a small frown as the thought of
what his psychiatrist would say. "But.. but what will my doctor say when he
finds out you let me suck my thumb and wear diapers?"
Ruth patted him on the rump and said, "Silly baby! I just told you he was
over here yesterday and saw you sitting on the floor in your diapers and
sucking your thumb! Now go over to the breakfast table so I can fix your
breakfast for you. You'd like eggs and bacon for breakfast, I suppose?"
Tony grinned again and said, "Yes, mama!"
Tony's mother made him bacon and eggs for breakfast as promised, letting
him feed himself. Although she did insist on pinning a kitchen towel around
his neck to use as a bib. Tony was a little disappointed that she didn't
give him a bottle of formula to drink with his meal, but when he finished,
she gave him a baby bottle filled with chocolate milk to drink while he was
watching TV. She spread an old blanket on the floor for him and Jay-Jay to
sit on and did her chores while the two of them sat in their diapers
watching cartoons.
Around midmorning Jay-Jay pooped in his diaper and Tony changed him for his
mother. A few minutes later, Tony was surprised to discover that he was a
little wet too and went to his mother to report for his own diaper change
after putting Jay-Jay in his playpen. Ruth was busy in the kitchen and told
him to wait a few minutes, she'd change him as soon as she was finished
with the pots and pans. He was walking back to the family room to watch TV
until she was ready to change him when something strange happened to him.
Suddenly his bowels cut loose and he pooped in his diaper with no warning!
His bladder followed suit and seconds later he was wearing a diaper that
was both dirty and dripping. He sank to his knees and crawled the last few
feet to the blanket and began to cry. He had only wanted to play at being
a baby, now he realized that mama was right! He'd HAVE to wear diapers now!
Ruth rushed in the room to see why he was crying. She found him on his
hands and knees on the blanket with tears running down his cheeks. Ruth
knelt beside him and said, "What's wrong, baby? Can mama help?"
"I...I pooped in my diaper!", he said in humiliation.
"I see you did," she said, smelling a dirty diaper and looking at the way
his sodden diaper was drooping between his legs.
"Now I'll have to wear them all the time!", he said anguished at the
thought of being treated like a baby all the time. He wanted to play at
being a baby, not be cared for like one because his behavior required it.
"Well," his mother said sympathetically, "you'll have to wear them until
you're potty trained again. That's for sure. Come on, Honey. Roll over on
your back and mama will change your diaper."
He sniveled as she cleaned him up and put him in a fresh diaper. She
reached in her pocket and took out his pacifier and said, "Cheer up, Honey!
Here! Suck on this, it's not so bad! You'll feel better in a little while,
I promise."
"You're....You're not mad at me for pooping in my diaper?", he blubbered.
"Of course not, Honey. Mama told you she loves you, dirty dydees and all,"
she said with a smile. She tickled playfully him on his tummy and before
long he was giggling and squealing happily. She helped him to a sitting
position and said, "It's time for your nap, Tony. We're going to go clothes
shopping for you this afternoon and I don't want you to get overly tired."
"But it's too early to sleep mama! I can't go to sleep this early!", he
whined.
"Come on, Tony. You don't want to get paddled, do you?", she asked
jokingly.
A hurt look came over his face and he said seriously, "You aren't going to
spank me with a hairbrush, are you mama?"
"I was thinking more of a swat across your diaper-padded fanny with my hand
if you don't get moving," she told him with a grin.
"Ohhh....," he said with a brightening look. "I guess naughty babies do get
swatted on their behinds, don't they mama?"
"That's right, Tony. Now come on and mama will get you tucked in bed."
She led him by the hand docilely up the staircase and tucked him in his
bed. She sat on the side of the bed and said, "I called your psychiatrist
this morning to tell him the good news. He told me to tell you not to worry
about the diapers for now, he's sure you won't need to wear them during the
day in a couple of months. He told me he was pleased to hear you had
recovered so quickly and would like to see you tomorrow. We've got to get
you some clothes to go over your diapers, Tony. I saw some sweats in your
closet you can wear shopping this afternoon, but you'll have to have more
than one change of clothes to wear. I was thinking of buying you a couple
of pairs of overalls and some more sweats. I can put some snaps in the
seams of the crotch and legs to make it easier to change you. I think I saw
some footed sleepers at Wal-Mart that you could wear around the house. Some
new curtains for this room and some decorations for the walls would be nice
too. Maybe I can find a nice nursery motif like teddy bears," she mused
aloud.
"I can't sleep, it's too early," Tony said crankily. "Please let me come
down and watch TV," he begged.
Ruth smiled and cooed down at him, "Mama will take care of that, baby. Just
lay right there and mama will be back in a minute."
She returned with a brown furry object under her arm and said, "Here baby,
take this and put your arm around it."
Tony took the object from her a discovered that it was a fluffy brown teddy
bear with sad eyes. He noticed she had pinned one of Jay-Jay's cloth
diapers around its waist and covered it with plastic pants. He tucked it in
the hollow of one shoulder and curled his arm around it as she explained,
"Teddy didn't used to have to wear dydees until recently. Now he's sad
because he doesn't think anybody will love him because he wears diapers.
Will you be his friend, Tony? I think you understand how he feels."
Tony nodded at this with wide eyes and giggled as he felt the plastic
crinkle against the bare skin of his side. Ruth handed him a baby bottle
full of formula and said, "Mama brought you a bottle of warm formula to
drink, Honey. She wants you to take your medicine and drink your formula
until it's all gone. Will you make a happy bottle for mama?"
Tony nodded gravely as she handed him his antidepressant capsule. He
swallowed the capsule and began to suck on the nipple as she continued,
"Mama will read a story to you, Honey. It's all about a little bear named
Poo who was exceedingly fond of honey. I think you and your new friend will
like it."
Tony closed his eyes and cuddled his bear feeling sooooo comfortable. The
soft flannel blanket snuggled against his skin luxuriously, while the
diapers gave him the feeling his bottom was being gently caressed. He
suckled the warm formula from the bottle avidly. His rapidly filling
stomach made him sleepy and his eyelids began to droop. Ruth stroked his
hair as she read the story, lulling him into a peaceful sleep. His
breathing slowed and became deeper as he drifted off into a dreamland
filled with soft, furry creatures who were never cross or even said an
unkind word. He knew they were his friends when he saw that they all sucked
their thumbs and wore diapers just like him. They laughed and tumbled
together on the soft, moss-covered earth of his dreamland, happy to be
alive and play in the warm sunshine. One of the bears wet his diapers and
began to giggle uproariously. All the others joined in and laughed as they
good-naturedly changed his soggy diaper. They were such jolly playmates!
Then they went to look for a baby bottle tree so they could all sit down
and have some formula for lunch. When they finished their bottles, they all
lay down for a nap together in a heap. Tony snuggled against his new
friends and dozed with a smile of contentment on his face as he lay amid
his furry companions. When they awoke, they changed each other's diapers
with howls of delight as they saw the messes each of them had made. Then it
was off to an afternoon of play as the comrades crawled and somersaulted
together on the soft green grass. Tony's face shone with happiness as the
dark cloud that been hiding his smiles evaporated under the loving sun.
Ruth put a bookmark where she had stopped the story and kissed Tony lightly
on the forehead. She wasn't in any hurry to finish the story, she knew that
she'd be reading Tony and Teddy stories for a long time before he was ready
for her to stop.
Finis
Copyright (c) 1995 by Jennifer Loraine
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