    Next Door

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