Summary: A kid is adopted, and although he is treated well, he is unable to get over the abuse he endured in his past. The adopter later finds a way to help him relieve his trauma.

Notes: 1) This story doesn’t have diapers until Part 5.

2) This story has a connection with the stories “Kidnap!” and “Kidnap! 2”

# Adopted

## Part 1

Alex looked out through the window and watched the world--people, sidewalks, trees, birds, clouds--zoom past him in a continuous, eternal line. He had just been adopted, and Alex had so many mixed feelings that he didn't know how to react to his new situation. He felt glad that he was adopted; the lady that took him seemed nice, and her presence didn’t generate any uneasy feelings in him. But Alex also half-anticipated, half-dreaded on what would wait for him, and hoped that whatever would come wouldn't be like what he had endured before.

But, that was too painful to remember. Every time he thought about that, Alex would feel hot, watery tears prick his eyes, and he always needed to suck his thumb to comfort him. As his lower lip began to tremble, Alex tried to whack the feeling out, and managed to through the use of willpower. After awhile, the hot, shimmering feel in his eyes faded away and his lip straightened out. However, Alex still felt scared from wondering what would happen later today, and so he started to put his thumb in his mouth. But that was for babies, not big five year olds like him, and so Alex forced his hand to go back down onto his lap. He stared at that hand for a while, being so silent that he could hear the gentle whir of the wheels and the whistling of the wind rushing past the car. He shifted a little in his car seat (according to his new mommy, he had to be in a car seat because the law said that five year olds had to be in one), and then turned his head and stared outside at the blurring world again.

While Alex was watching out the window, his adopter, Melanie, was having her own thoughts. She reflected back to earlier today, when she finally got Alex. It took a few months to get him, but Melanie thought it was worth it. She had to fill out an application, do a home study with a social worker, get references, and give out documents like the medical report, criminal check, the child abuse clearance, and her birth certificate. All that good stuff…and more. Melanie hadn’t even been able to pick out a child until near the end of the process. She had happened to want a “special needs” child, and she was quite open to the choice of kids that were offered. Pretty much the only requirements that Melanie had was that she wanted a little boy, one who was around the ages of four through eleven.

After much searching, Melanie ended picking up Alex. Not only did he fit Melanie’s requirements, but he also fitted her personality somewhat. Alex hated crowds, he was fairly easy going, and he liked reading (actually, in Alex’s case, it was more like looking at the pictures in a book, since he couldn’t really read). However, the reason why he was in the special needs group was because he was emotionally traumatized. Alex had been a victim of child abuse about two years ago, until one day, his parents died as a result of D.U.I. Because of the physical and verbal abuse he endured, Alex had daily nightmares of his past, and he lacked good social skills. He was the type that would require a lot of love and attention.

Now, after all that work, Melanie had finally met Alex earlier today. The child that she saw had thick, straight, pure blond hair, and his eyes were such a vivid blue that it seemed like pieces of clear sky had been cut and fitted onto his eyes.

Although Melanie immediately deemed that he was cute, she saw something else in Alex as well. She saw a face that seemed incredibly depressed, one that said that it wasn’t aware of the word “fun.” It was so shocking to see such a sunken and depleted expression on this boy’s face that Melanie felt herself gasp softly. It was obvious that he had gone through something terrible, and that he was still suffering the consequences of it.

In an all too short time, Alex felt the car slow down, causing the world outside to become clear and solid again. He could see that the car was slowly driving parallel to a large, front yard covered in beautiful green grass. As Alex watched, the wind that swept through the grass made it seem to ripple and undulate like the ocean. The house looming up behind it seemed huge as well. It was two stories high, and took up a lot of space, both on the ground and in the sky. It was impressive and intimidating to Alex, as the only houses he ever saw hardly had any yard space, and were always packed in tightly with the other houses. He heard a mechanical groan, and turned his head a little to see the garage door going up. A few seconds later, the car curved into the driveway, and entered the dark square bore.

### Part 2

As soon as the car was incased in the garage's shadow, it stopped. Melanie turned the key to OFF, and stepped out. Alex unbuckled his seatbelt and got out as well. He nervously walked to her. "Let me show you around, Alex," she said. After closing the garage door, they stepped into a room, and walked into a long hallway. As he followed Melanie, Alex looked around at everything, awed by the sheer size of the house. After taking a tour of the house, Melanie turned on the TV for Alex, and she went back to the garage and brought up what little belongings Alex had and set it upstairs in his new room.

Alex wasn't really watching TV. He was still looking around at everything, and carefully observed each table, chair, picture, and lamp, anything that was within reach of his eyes. After surveying his surroundings, Alex drew his attention to what was on the TV. He wasn't exactly interested in it, but he watched it anyway. The show was still something that distracted him from the scariness of the new environment.

Soon, Melanie came in, and they had dinner early. Alex ate everything within reach, though he was very polite for a five year old. Melanie didn't mention it to him, but she was worried about Alex. Even though she was already told that it was just Alex's personality, she didn't like the way he was so solemn. He was also, in Melanie’s opinion, much too quiet for a child his age. In fact, she hadn’t heard Alex utter a word at all. If she hadn’t been told that he was just shy, she would’ve thought he was mute. He also looked a little too skinny for his size. At certain angles, it looked like Alex had an unhealthy pinched and pale look on his face. Finally, though she didn't want to admit it herself, Melanie found it a little disturbing when she made eye contact with Alex. Those sunken, dark eyes were unsettling to see in a five year old.

Melanie thought of this, and many other things, in the space of a few seconds. After Alex ate, she suggested he take a bath and then added, "and you can watch TV after that, if you want." Alex got up without a word and went into the bathroom. He took his own bath and brushed his own teeth and got out. Soon he sat on the couch while the Melanie turned on the TV. As he only shrugged when asked what he wanted to watch, she turned it on to Nickelodeon, which, at that time, had Spongebob. Alex watched this with genuine fascination, and at one point, Melanie could have sworn that he smiled. It was only for a split second, but that smile (if it ever happened) considerably changed his face, making Alex look so cute that Melanie wanted to race over and hug him.

After that it was bedtime for Alex, and without questioning her he went upstairs and burrowed himself into the blankets. Melanie then came up and decided to read him a bedtime story, something that Alex had never encountered before. Although he didn't smile or say a word, Melanie thought she sensed happiness and gratitude on his face when she tucked him in.

### Part 3

Alex found it hard to sleep, considering the fact that he was in a new environment. He also had that weird light, fluttery feeling in his chest, which the workers at the orphanage called A-Dre-Na-Lin. Alex didn't remember what exactly this A-Dre-Na-Lin was, but he did remember being told by the workers that it was something your body makes when you get scared. Today, Alex found out that they were right; he had been feeling this A-Dre-Na-Lin ever since he heard he was getting adopted. After an hour of so of thinking about this and the rest of today's events, Alex drifted off into sleep with his thumb in his mouth. In a short while, his mind entered the dream world.

"ALEX?!" the voice screamed, "COME HERE!"

Alex panicked. It was Daddy! He was coming with the belt, and what was worse was that Daddy was drunk again! As Daddy lunged toward him, the belt in his clenched hand penetrated the air with a vicious, hissing crack.

Another voice, Mommy, screamed, "ALEX?! ALEX COME HERE!"

Alex, distracted by Mommy’s voice, was almost hit by the belt. It came so close that he felt the light breeze it made whistle past his face. Dodging another blow, he ran away crying, sprinting through the house. He dove into a closet and hid himself among the chairs and boxes. A couple seconds later, he heard a set of footsteps pounding in a frantic rhythm on the floor.

He heard Daddy roar, "WHERE THE FUCK DID HE GO?! WHERE'S THE LITTLE SHIT?!"

"HE'S HIDING AGAIN. LOOK AROUND HERE, I'LL GO AND CHECK HIS ROOM,” replied Mommy.

Alex curled tightly and hung his head down while he shut his eyes. Tears streamed quietly down his face as he heard the ominous, soft clicking sound of Daddy’s footsteps. The footsteps grew soft, and then there was a rustling sound of something getting open, Alex sensed a hand searching through that open thing. Finding nothing, the footsteps went to another place.

Soon, the footsteps got closer, louder. It paused in front of the closet and a hand came and shoved it open. Greedy, questing fingers rummaged and groped. In a couple of seconds, the fingers found Alex.

He screamed as hands pulled him out into the range of the belt. The belt screeched through the air and whacked his rear end and his back. Alex screamed and cried with pain and fear. The belt came down again and whipped him, and it came down again, and again, and again and again and again and again and again and again and aga--

Alex jolted out of unconsciousness, panting, his hair and pajama top damp with sweat. He gasped while he jumped from the hand that rested on his shoulder.

"Alex," said Melanie, "it's me. Are you all right? You were screaming."

Alex looked directly into Melanie’s eyes. He tried to answer, but his lower lip quivered, and instead he collapsed into her, viciously sobbing. Melanie felt his hot, teary face press against her chest as she firmly held his back and stroked his hair.

"Shhhhh, it was just a dream." she whispered, "Everything's alright now."

Melanie turned on the lights and gave him some warm milk. As Alex sipped on it, she said, “Your mommy and daddy can't hurt you anymore, Alex."

Hearing this, Alex uttered the first words he had said all day. With some effort, he stammered out, “I-I know.” Then, through his tear-chocked throat, he said, "They got killed in a car crash when they were doing bad things."

"What kind of bad things?"

"They liked to drink a lot. The policeman said they were doing D.U.I, and also said they were child abeu-abeu..."

"Abusers?" finished Melanie.

Alex nodded while tears rolled down his face. He didn't know what abuse was, or D.U.I for that matter. But because of the policeman, he always knew that they were bad. He sipped some more on his milk.

"I went to the orphanage because the policeman said I didn't have anywhere else to go." I didn't like it there, but it was better than home 'cause they didn't hur-hur-hur..."

Alex broke down again and cried.

"Hurt you?" whispered Melanie.

Alex nodded. Unable to control it now, he put his thumb in his mouth and started sucking it. He saw Melanie staring at him, and he immediately wrenched it out. Ashamed, he started to cry again.

"Alex," she said softly, "if you want to suck your thumb, go ahead. I don't mind."

Alex looked up at her, nervously, "Really?"

She smiled back, "Yes, really."

Hearing this, Alex slipped his thumb back into his mouth. Melanie gently took the cup of milk from him and set it down on a table. As she hugged him tightly, she said, "You're going to be alright. We'll get through this together, ok?"

Alex didn’t respond. He just rested his head on Melanie’s shoulder and sucked his thumb vigorously while his eyes constantly dripped with tears. Eventually, he became calm again, and almost instantly went to sleep as soon as Melanie straightened the blankets out and tucked him back in.

### Part 4

Things continued in this way for the next few days. Alex would be fine during the day, but at night was a different story. His nightmares were frequent; coming up once, twice, sometimes even three times a night; and he could never go back to sleep unless Melanie comforted him.

Melanie tried to think of a way to help relieve Alex. She thought of something, but was very tentative about the idea. Trying to make a decision, she called up a good woman friend of hers for help.

"Susan?" she called, "This is Melanie. I want your opinion on something I'm considering for Alex."

"Well, what is it?" asked Susan.

Melanie told her her idea, adding in, "It worked for Josh, and sounds like it did for Brian and Chris, too. Do you think it could help Alex?"

"Well..." replied Susan, "Alex isn't like my boys, is he? I mean, this is supposed to help his trauma, right?"

"Yes." said Melanie.

Susan added, "It may work, though it's hard to tell, as he's a completely different case from my boys. From what you've told me, it sounds like he is very depressed. This idea might end up traumatizing him even more."

"I know, “sighed Melanie,” but I have a feeling it could help.”

Susan replied, "Well, just go with what you think is best. Like I said, this could just make things worse, but, who knows, you could be right. Maybe you should just give it a try."

"Ok, thanks Susan. Bye".

"Bye."

Melanie hung up the phone. She decided to test her idea. After her decision, she went to the living room where Alex was watching TV.

"Alex." Melanie said while placing her hands on his tiny shoulders, "I'm going to the store to pick up some things. I don't want to leave you alone here, but I have to this time. It's a surprise."

"How long are you going to be gone?" asked Alex, nervously.

"Twenty minutes sweetheart, tops. That's all."

"Ok." Alex said in a weak, barely audible voice.

"Ok." said Melanie, gently ruffling his pure yellow hair. "I won't be gone long."

Alex saw her disappear into the hallway, and heard the start of the engine. Soon the car exited the garage and darted out into the sunlight.

As Alex watched TV, he wondered what this surprise was. He was somewhat excited about it, but that anticipation was barely noticeable. Alex felt scared instead. He didn't like how his new mommy suddenly became serious when she mentioned the word "surprise." That was frightening to Alex, so he shrugged off the idea for now and continued watching TV.

Just like Melanie said, she came back in about twenty minutes. Alex got off the couch and ran to her. She was carrying a large brown paper bag that crackled between her fingers and bulged out of her arms. As if she read Alex's mind, she said, "Don't worry Alex. You'll find out what it is tonight." Alex nodded, staring intently at that brown crackling bag. His nervousness amplified. He didn't know why, but there was something about those mysterious contents that made him shudder. Another bad sign was that his normally cheerful, laid back mommy was solemn and grim. Whatever was in that ominous brown bag, Alex desperately hoped that it was good.

### Part 5

After enduring an incredibly slow day, Alex sat down on the couch in his pajamas, wondering what was in the brown bag. As he waited for Melanie to call him upstairs, he fidgeted a little, his body and hair still damp from the bath he had taken a few minutes ago. As a result of this, Alex’s pajamas clung onto his body like a second skin. They were a light, airy, baby blue color, the top having long sleeves, and the bottom consisting of long pants with an elastic waistband.

Alex loved these pajamas. He liked the color, and it also felt nice; the inside had a warm, fuzzy texture that pleasantly clung onto Alex’s skin under normal circumstances. However, these weren’t normal circumstances. As a result of his nervousness, they weren’t feeling so nice to Alex right now. Instead of its regular comforting snugness, the fuzzy interior was giving his skin a cold, unsettling prickle.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he was called upstairs. Alex walked slowly, his legs so saturated with fear that they felt unstable and loose, as if he was walking on stilts for the first time. Nervously, he entered his room.

Melanie was sitting at the foot of the bed, the brown bag next to her. She motioned for Alex to sit beside her. Alex obeyed.

"Alex," she said seriously, "The...stuff, I bought today is supposed to help you recover from the bad things you went through. Now, I know you won't like it,"--

Alex’s body grew stiff, and his blue eyes widened with tension.

--"but, you're a big kid, and you can handle it, right?"

Alex timidly nodded. The tension now was unbearable. What was in that bag?! Too slowly, both of Melanie’s hands reached inside the bag, and the bag crackled with rage as she got out two mysterious objects: one was a rectangular shape with smooth edges and a pastel color; the second was a white container. Finally, she brought out a huge package, an object that Alex had seen in the nursery at the orphanage. Although he couldn't read what it said, Alex knew what it was: diapers.

His eyelids recoiled even further from his vivid blue irises, and he let out a hitched gasp of pure shock and terror.

"I-I da-don't wear a"--

"Honey, I know you don't wear diapers, but, try it anyway. It will help you with your nightmares."

Alex's lip trembled. He hung his head down, covered his face with both hands, and cried.

"I’M NOT A BABY!” he choked out, ”I DON'T WEAR A DIAPER!"

"Alex, dear, I know you're not a baby." Melanie calmly said, "But please, try it. A big kid would do it, because they would never try to fight it off and cry about it, no matter how bad it was. You're a big kid, right Alex?"

Alex, without looking up, nodded weakly.

"Ok." she continued, "Why don't you just lie down, okay?"

Alex started to do so. But the idea of what was about to happen was too horrible. As a result, he started crying even harder. While he bawled, Melanie wrapped an arm around him and patiently waited for his crying to subside.

As Alex sobbed, many thoughts crammed themselves into his confused mind at once. Mommy said he was a big kid, so why was she making him wear diapers? How were diapers supposed to help his nightmares? Why did he have to wear them? He wasn’t a baby! He didn’t wear diapers anymore! He was toilet trained two years ago! He was a big kid, not a baby!

Thinking of all of these thoughts, Alex sobbed miserably while his two hands weakly supported his hanging, teary face. Eventually, his crying managed to somewhat break down. Then for a while, he frantically wiped his running eyes and nose while he sniffled out the last few sobs. Melanie softly asked him again to lie down on the bed. Dejectedly, Alex obeyed.

He shut his eyes and covered them with his hands as his pants were pulled off of him. Alex didn't want to be seen naked, and he didn't want to wear a diaper, but, he was a big kid, and so he forced himself to go through the ordeal.

In no time, Alex's underwear was pulled off, and a diaper was slid under him. Alex soon sensed a cold wipe cleaning his crotch and butt, and cool, sweet smelling powder was dusted onto him. Then the diaper was pulled up and both sides were tightly taped together around his waist.

Alex sat up, not daring to look down at his diaper. Instead, he got his pants back on and sat down. As tears splashed out of his eyes, he sucked his thumb for comfort. He loathed the feeling of the diaper. It was babyishly soft, and the padding that tightly cushioned Alex’s privates was thick enough to reassure him that it would provide a nice, noticeable bulge to inform everyone that he was a diaper-wearer. The waistband and leg cuffs grabbed Alex’s legs and waist, sealing away any worries about leaks. The plastic cover lightly whispered a crinkling sound every time he moved. Then, there was the taping zone, with its strip of colorful, cartoonish characters that gleefully danced along the front and constantly taunted Alex’s dignity. What was just as bad was the excess baby powder inside that rolled and shifted everywhere. As it tumbled about, the powder poofed out tiny clouds of babyish perfume that seduced Alex into embarrassment and self-pity in his new situation.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Melanie asked.

Alex only looked at her with a depleted, unhappy expression.

"Alex," she said, as she set him on her lap and cuddled him, "I know you don't like diapers, and you might not like me right now, but, I promise you, you'll get used to it, and everything will be better."

Alex absorbed this information, not responding for a while. At last, he slipped his thumb out of his mouth and raised his tear-stained face up to her.

"How long do I have to wear them?" he asked softly.

"Honey, you'll wear them as long as it takes for you to get better."

Alex's depression soared, but he mustered the strength to ask her another question. He nervously asked, "What if I have to go to the bathroom?"

"Just go in your diaper" replied Melanie.

Alex didn't like this idea, and he sobbed again. Melanie held him tightly as he cried, and gently stroked his blond hair. After many minutes, Alex recovered somewhat, and he slowly crawled into the blankets on his bed. He listened as Melanie read him a story, and fell asleep soon while sucking his thumb; he was exhausted from crying. After he was asleep, Melanie lightly kissed him on the forehead and turned off the lights.

### Part 6

Alex woke up just before the sun rose after a long night of tossing and turning. As he awoke, he rubbed off the crust that had accumulated onto his eyes, and straightened out his pajamas and blankets, which had become knotted and twisted during the night during his constant tossing. He recalled a weird dream he had. It wasn't a horrifying nightmare. Instead, it was an embarrassing dream. Alex remembered that in the dream, his new mommy had actually diapered him. He knew it couldn't have actually happened; the idea itself was way too bizarre. Sure, there did seem to be something thick wedged between his legs, but to Alex’s still-groggy state of mind, that didn’t mean anything.

After untwisting the blankets, Alex moved his hands down so he could pull up his pajama pants, which had somehow slid down during the night. As both of his thumbs hooked into the pant’s elastic waistband and pulled it up, he felt something that was...plastic-like; and he thought he faintly heard a crackling sound.

Alex let out a soft gasp and his eyes widened. He grabbed the blankets and jerked them away from him. His body now exposed, Alex quickly grabbed the waistband of his pants again and shoved it down to his thighs.

There was a diaper underneath. Its white crackling cover and colorful taping zone gleamed mockingly at Alex as he realized that his dream really was real. As he made this conclusion, he sensed a heavy, horrible weight of sadness in his chest, and felt his eyes sting. Alex wanted to cry and suck his thumb again. But instead, he decided to not give in and was motivated to prove to himself that he wasn't afraid of a stupid diaper. After all, he was a big kid, wasn't he?

Alex decided to distract his thoughts about the diaper by thinking about the various shows he sometimes watched. He thought of Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Pinky and the Brain, and, there was that new show he was introduced to recently: Spongebob. The Simpsons and Futurama looked interesting as well, though Alex would only get to watch them for a few seconds, if he was lucky (to Alex’s dismay, his mommy told him that those kinds of shows weren’t for little boys like him). As he dwelt further and further into his own thoughts, Alex's mind suddenly snapped back into the physical world like a rubber band.

The reason for this was simple: Alex needed to go to the bathroom. His obedience to the toilet was so etched into him that he actually started to get out of bed. But, he realized that he was wearing a diaper, and his mommy ordered him to go in it if he needed to use the restroom. Alex really didn’t want to, and he was tempted to take off the diaper and use the toilet. But, he didn’t want to find out what might happen to him if he did that. So, as much as the idea of wetting a diaper disgusted Alex, he eventually decided to grudgingly go along with it. Tears of his own dignity began to trickle out of him as he prepared for the ordeal. After some effort, Alex's bladder relaxed and let it out.

Alex felt hot liquid flowing out and spreading in every direction. He spread his legs a little further and straightened his sitting position as the diaper swelled up. After a long while, he was done. By then, the front of the diaper was warm and swelled up with Alex's urine, and the plastic substituted its normal crackling sound for one that was squishy and sluggish. Immediately after he was done, Alex got out of bed and raced out of his room to look for Melanie. A few seconds later, he found her in the hallway. Alex ran up to her.

"What is it, sweetie?" Melanie asked.

"Uh I-I um..."

Alex found it hard to speak. It was too embarrassing to tell her. What made it even worse was that Alex began to feel his diaper sag in his pants and he could actually smell his own urine. Melanie took a guess on what was wrong. She knelt down and gently put both of her hands on his shoulders.

"Do you need a change?" she asked softly.

Alex blushed deeply with shame, and his eyes trickled out a few tears as he meekly nodded yes. Melanie instantly scooped him up and carried him to his room.

Like last night, she made Alex lie down on the bed. He covered his face and cried as his old diaper was untaped and replaced with a new one. After changing him, Melanie left the room so Alex could dress. As soon as she closed the door, Alex got up and took out a baggy pair of shorts and a T-shirt out of the drawer.

He dressed as quickly as he could to minimize his viewing time at the diaper wrapped around his waist and loins. After he did that, Alex walked over to the wall opposite of his bed, which had a closet with a full-length mirror on it.

He checked his shorts to see if he could notice the diaper. Luckily for Alex, the diaper was barely noticeable under the baggy clothes. No one would even see it. After pulling up his shorts a little to cover up the top of the diaper, Alex walked out of the room and went downstairs.

### Part 7

Alex reached the dining room, and quickly sat down in his chair. He ate silently like normal, though, this time, he deliberately tried to not make eye contact with his mommy. He was too ashamed, and he felt resentment towards her as well as depression. While he avoided her gaze, he organized the thoughts that his frantic mind had created last night.

He truly thought he could trust his new mommy, and at first, Alex felt like he was loved. But, instead, she betrayed him by degrading him into this state because she was only pretending to like him. Was that it? She didn't love him? At this point, Alex wasn't sure, and so he concentrated on something--anything--that would distract him from his mommy and the diaper.

Soon, Alex finished eating, and, while still thinking about unrelated thoughts, he ran back upstairs and into his room. After closing and locking the door, Alex curled up onto his bed in a fetal position and cried. As he put his thumb in his mouth, he elaborated on his thoughts of his new mommy.

…she must hate him, because she punished him with diapers. What was just as bad was that his new mommy probably thought he was just a baby, because only babies wear diapers. But, it didn’t make sense. What did he do to make Mommy punish him? Alex didn’t know, but his frantic mind immediately assumed it was all of the crying he did after the nightmares, and how he always sucked his thumb. His new mommy probably thought that he was acting like a baby, and was now starting to treat him like one.

But even with that in mind, it still didn’t make sense. Mommy said it was going to help his nightmares, and as strange as her reasoning sounded, Alex’s feelings told him that that was what she really believed. However, logic kept interfering with it, persuading Alex that the whole nightmare thing was just a cover-up to hide the fact that his new mommy didn’t like him…

Alex continued sobbing for a while, his five-year-old mind continuously spinning in circles over these assumptions, not knowing what was going to happen.

Melanie stood right outside the door. As she heard Alex crying, her mind screamed at her that she had made a terrible mistake in her judgment. When she thought of this plan, Melanie thought diapers would be good because it would help Alex remind him of the times when he was a baby; when he was (possibly) given the love and attention that he had been deprived of.

But so far, it just seemed to make Alex even more miserable. When he was at the table, it seemed to Melanie that he intentionally tried to not look at her, and he was more withdrawn than usual. In addition, Alex's depression rate seemed to accelerate to the place where it had been when Melanie met him at the orphanage. Before he was diapered, Alex did seem happier. Melanie could sense it even though he never laughed or smiled. But now, he was just as sad and isolated as he was when he first came here.

Should she stop diapering Alex? Melanie's judgment eagerly favored this option, but instead, she decided to stick with it for a while. After all, Alex hadn’t even been diapered for a day; it was still possible that they could help him with his trauma.

After his sobs faded away, Alex continued to lie on the bed, still curled up in a fetal position. He sucked his thumb calmly now, despite the fact that his eyes had become bloodshot and deeply shadowed from the battle of tears and his blond hair hung miserably over his forehead and eyebrows. He stayed that way for a while, not thinking of anything in particular. Many minutes later, he slowly got off the bed and crawled to the stack of books his mommy had given him. After entertaining himself a little with his mirror reflection that sat at the opposite side of the room, Alex shifted his fingers through the books until he found the one he wanted.

It was a huge pop-up book on frogs, and despite his inability to read, Alex loved this one because of the huge pictures. As he intently looked at the paper poison-dart frogs that literally sprung up from the pages, Alex's sadness temporarily disappeared and all thoughts about the diaper ebbed away. He stared at the last of the pages, and slid the book aside and picked up another one. This one was about snakes, and it was another pop-up. Alex stared at the pop-ups with fascination until his mind jolted back into reality.

By now, Alex could feel his bowels churning, and he began to panic with his horrified reflection as he realized what he was going to have to do. He desperately didn't want to poop in a diaper. The very concept was even more repulsive than wetting one. Alex weaved his fingers through his hair in terror. Like last time, he didn’t want to go to the bathroom in a diaper, but he had no choice, his mommy told him to do it. Realizing that it was inevitable, Alex miserably squatted down, and pushed.

It was harder than he thought, but, after some effort, it became manageable. Alex soon felt the warm mess sitting in a soft, mushy lump in the back of his diaper. Urine broke out as well, and came flooding out and pooling between his legs in a hot gush. Immediately after he was finished, Alex fled the room to look for his mommy. He ran across the hall, feeling his own excrement spreading in every direction. His still reddish eyes began to ooze out fresh tears as he smelled his own filth.

Melanie heard Alex's tiny feet thumping down the stairs in a quick tempo. She started to get up from the chair she was in when she saw Alex. He was whimpering as a rain of tears flowed down his face. Melanie didn't say anything; instead she just carried Alex back upstairs and laid him down on the bed. Alex broke out into a sob as his shorts were pulled off and his shirt lifted up. Melanie untaped his filthy, still-warm diaper and pulled it back. Alex cried even louder. Melanie calmly grabbed his ankles and lifted his messy bottom up, wiping it clean and pulling the diaper away from him. After he was clean, a fresh diaper was slid under Alex and snugly taped up after his privates were generously dusted with powder.

Completely humiliated, Alex continued to cry. Melanie pulled the sobbing boy's shirt down, pulled his pants back up, and gently slung him over her shoulder while he let his sadness out. As she sifted her fingers through his limp, tired hair and rubbed his back, she wondered how long it would take for Alex to adjust. She didn't know the answer, but she definitely knew that Alex would shed a lot of tears before he got through.

### Part 8

A couple of weeks passed, and Alex managed to get adjusted to his new situation. He still didn't like the concept, but it wasn't too big of a deal. Now, Alex no longer cried every time he used the diaper or got changed; he now accepted it as a part of his life.

Spring was now transitioning into summer, and Alex was currently struggling with the heat of the weather. He kept wearing clothes all the time, making sure that they were baggy so they could prevent the diaper from bulging out. But the problem was that it was now too hot and muggy to wear clothes, and Alex was tempted to just go in his underwear, though, even if he wasn't in diapers, he found it embarrassing to do it.

Melanie had no objections to him romping about in just a diaper. In fact, it seemed to Alex that she was encouraging it. As it turned out, she was, because (although Alex didn't know it), Melanie personally thought the diapers amplified his cuteness. Alex resisted though, and continued to wear clothes. At last, he finally gave in when the temperature outside became 105 degrees F. By then, it felt incredibly hot, even with the air conditioner at full blast.

As Alex stood in his room, he sighed with unhappiness, and tore off his shirt, and then his shorts. He slowly opened the door, and walked downstairs wearing just a diaper. He headed toward the living room, where Melanie was flipping through the channels while her slim, fit body laid on the couch in a tank top and shorts. As she randomly clicked on the remote, she caught something in the corner of her eye, and turned around to see it.

"Oh, hi Alex." she said brightly. "Why don't you come sit here and watch something?"

Alex obeyed, and strolled over and sat next to her. Melanie quickly put a hand in front of her mouth to hide her smile. He's so adorable, Melanie thought, he looks just like a toddler. As this thought raced continuously in her head, she asked him if watching the new DVD she bought (The Incredibles) sounded all right. Alex whispered that it was ok, so she put the DVD in and sat back down with Alex.

As Melanie kept thinking about his appearance, she periodically glanced at him from time to time. At one point, she thought he was smiling. When she saw that, she stared at him for a little while, but, like last time, it was so quick that Melanie thought that it was her imagination.

While she engaged in her half-watching Alex and half-watching the movie, Alex completely devoted his attention to the movie. The Incredibles was fascinating, and he felt himself smile and almost laugh. It also helped that he was in just his diaper; because, although Alex hated the idea at first, right now he thought it was just fine. It was amazing how much better everything felt once he took off his clothes and allowed the air to cool his hot body. Alex loved every minute of it, and he couldn't remember the last time he had actually been this happy.

Just when the movie ended, Melanie took another glance at Alex. She was taken completely by surprise. He was smiling, and Melanie knew that it wasn't just her mind playing tricks; he really was smiling! After this realization, she reached her hands out for Alex.

As Alex turned to look at his mommy, he saw her bearing an elated, almost insane, grin. Before he knew it, her hands grabbed him and thrust him into her lap. Alex began to giggle wildly as she tickled his bare stomach and armpits. He looked up at her with a beaming smile.

That grin on Alex was the last straw for Melanie. It broke her resistance, and she dove in on him and hugged him tightly. She tickled Alex again and made him laugh. As she attacked him again with a tight, loving hug, Alex smiled again, his blue eyes now crackling and sparkling with energy, his gold hair fluffy with happiness. As he continued giggling in his her arms, Melanie smiled down at him.

As Melanie was looking down on Alex, her smile temporarily twisted into a gaping expression of shock. She finally noticed something that she was never able to see before: the scars on Alex's back. His father’s whipping had caused them, and some of the belt marks had never faded. Melanie wondered if the workers at the orphanage mentioned it; she certainly didn't remember being informed about them. But, whether or not they did, didn't matter, since Melanie found out about it in the end. Of course, she wouldn't mention it to Alex, he probably already knew about it, and it wouldn't do him any good to be reminded about his past. For now, Melanie eliminated this thought and her gaping horrific mouth morphed back into a sweet, loving one. A second later, she assaulted Alex with another hug. He smiled again and laughed when he got tickled under his armpits.

After awhile, the constant hugging and tickling stopped, and Alex calmly sat in Melanie’s lap, watching TV. However, it was boring, and so Alex ran back upstairs to his room. When he got in, he collapsed onto the bed and lay there on his stomach for a while. By now his diaper had become uncomfortable. It kept in the heat, causing Alex to sweat. He writhed on the bed, desperately looking for any remaining cold places. Eventually, he found a good spot, and relaxed onto it, his exhausted mind now on the borderline between consciousness and sleep.

He lied there for an undetermined amount of time, letting the air dance on his hot, bare back. At one point, he became so sleepy from the heat that he actually fell asleep.

A few minutes later, he jolted awake, panting. Alex had encountered another nightmare, and he was on the verge of tears from the experience. By reflex, he put his thumb in his mouth and managed to get himself under control. Still sucking his thumb, Alex dozed off to sleep again.

An hour or so later, Alex woke up. He felt kind of groggy, and his eyes were sore for some reason. He groaned as he stretched his back and legs, and then rolled over and lay on his back, resting his hands under his head. As Alex started to get up to get a drink, his aching bladder released its contents and flooded his diaper. Alex just stood there, feeling the hot liquid spread and warm the diaper's crotch and seat. He then jogged downstairs to get Melanie.

Melanie heard Alex's quick pacing, and knew the reason for his appearance almost before she saw him. Her assumptions were right. Alex's diaper was dark and yellowish with urine, and she could see the hopeful please-change-me-look in his eyes. She did so, and while Melanie untaped the diaper and pulled it back, she noticed that Alex's diaper was soaked with sweat as well as urine. She immediately began wiping him up, and Alex shivered a little as he felt the cold wipes on his skin, but welcomed the feeling at the same time. The powder also felt good, it had that cool, soothing feeling in it that helped combat the heat. In no time, a fresh diaper was pulled up and snugly taped around Alex’s loins.

After Alex got a drink, he sighed with satisfaction as he laid down on the couch.

"Alex?" Melanie said.

"Huh?" said Alex.

"Just to let you know, we're going to see a good friend of mine tomorrow. She's Aunt Susan."

"Is she nice?" asked Alex.

"Yes, she loves kids. She's got three of them. One is Josh, he's eleven, and there's also two six year olds called Brian and Chris."

"Oh," Alex whispered. He still didn't feel comfortable. He had always been shy, and he was afraid to meet new people. Alex especially felt uneasy when hearing about Aunt Susan's kids. One of his knacks was getting intimidated by kids older/taller than him. He just hoped everything would go well.

Now that Alex didn't want tomorrow to come, the rest of the slow day had accelerated its speed. He had dinner what seemed like a couple minutes later. Then, before he knew it, he was taking his bath, and then watching Spongebob. Suddenly, before he could blink, he was listening to Melanie reading him a story, while he lied down in just his diaper under the lone sheet on the bed (it was still hot; so Melanie had removed all of the blankets on Alex's bed except for the one sheet).

When she finished reading, she looked at Alex, who was still visibly nervous about tomorrow.

"Don't worry about it, honey," she said, "You'll be fine."

She gave Alex a brief, tight hug and tousled his hair. Melanie then turned off the lights and left the room.

### Part 9

Alex was really nervous now. As he sat in the car seat and looked out the window, he began sucking his thumb. He hadn't felt this scared since he had speculated over the contents in the brown bag, or when he was first adopted. For a moment, he turned his gaze over to his clothes.

Today, Alex was wearing a red T-shirt that had a large lime-green frog embedded onto it. This shirt was tucked into a pair of blue denim shortalls, which Alex personally didn't like wearing; he thought those kinds of clothes made him look like a little kid (which they did). He didn't even pick out the shortalls; his mommy did it for him (to Melanie's point of view, they, like diapers, made Alex cuter). What was worse was that they weren’t very baggy, and so the diaper bulged out. (Though, Alex was lucky that most people still wouldn’t notice the diaper, anyway). Alex soon whipped his gaze back out onto the window.

In an unbelievably short period of time, the car stopped in front of a driveway. Like Melanie's house, the house that Aunt Susan lived in was quite large in Alex's eyes (a large house was, by Alex's terms, taller than one story). Alex unbuckled and got out of his car seat.

As he walked with Melanie towards the front door with his hand clasped with hers, Alex’s nervousness soared to spectacular heights. What if Aunt Susan wasn't nice? What if her kids weren't? What if they found out he was a thumb sucker? What if they found out about his diapers? Alex shuddered at the last two thoughts. Now, he really wished he had asked Mommy about those. But now, it was too late, they were right in front of the door; and Mommy was stretching her forefinger out to the doorbell.

Alex cringed when he heard it ring. As the doorbell displayed its crisp, clear notes, he hid himself behind Melanie. While he did so, Alex discovered that he was still sucking his thumb. He wrenched it out and forced his hand to go to his side. Within a few seconds, Alex sensed the steady, clicking sounds of footsteps coming towards them.

There was the sharp click as the door unlocked, then a slight squeal, and finally, the door quivered open. Then he saw Aunt Susan. She smiled at his mommy. "Oh, hi Melanie. Come on in." Melanie smiled back, and she followed Aunt Susan into the house.

After Alex walked in, he heard the door slam shut, and he jumped a little. As Melanie’s hand withdrew from his grasp, Alex observed his surroundings. They looked normal, though they were creepy because the environment was unfamiliar.

As he continued to look everywhere, he heard his mommy say something, then he heard his name mentioned. A split second later, Alex felt two hands grab him by the armpits and lift him up. "He's so adorable!" Aunt Susan exclaimed. "You're soooo cute!" Alex just gazed at her with a confused expression, his mind still catching up with what just happened. His mind continued to attempt catching up as Alex was suddenly swung almost to the ground.

He was now dangling down and only supported by a single hand that was grabbing his ankles. Alex tensed up with fear. What if Aunt Susan saw his diaper through his short’s leg holes? He pondered this with silent panic as he hung upside down. But Susan never mentioned it, even though Alex was convinced that she saw his diaper (which she did). She merely continued to dangle Alex down for a few seconds and then up righted him again.

For an additional five seconds or so, Aunt Susan held Alex out in front of her by his armpits, smiling at him constantly. With a final hug of almost insane affection, Alex was set back down on his feet. He was glad of it too; his armpits ached after being held that way for so long. As Aunt Susan and Melanie talked, they both went into the kitchen. Alex followed, wondering what would happen next.

### Part 10

As soon as Alex went into the kitchen, he was shown to another room, which had a TV. "What does he like?" Susan asked.

"Spongebob." Melanie replied.

Susan flicked through the channels until she found the right one. As Alex sat on the couch to watch, Susan and Melanie went back into the kitchen to talk.

"So, how's the diaper thing going?" Susan asked.

"Well, it doesn't seem so bad right now," replied Melanie, "Of course, he hates it, but, he's gotten used to them."

Susan quickly asked, "But is it helping him?"

"It's hard to say," Melanie responded, "Though, it may have, because soon after I tried the diapers on him, his nightmares started to become less frequent. Now, he’s not having them every night like he used to. When he does have one, he usually just pulls himself together and goes back to sleep. But, it may also have been that he likes living with me better than at the orphanage."

"How can you tell?" Susan asked, "You said he's very depressed, and he doesn't smile or laugh.”

Melanie was quick to reply, "Actually, he's starting to smile once in a while--and believe me, he looks even cuter when he does--but, it's hard to describe how I just know. Yeah, he doesn't smile or laugh too often, but, you can just see it. He's more...relaxed about things. He also doesn’t look as thin and pale as he used to, and his eyes are brighter."

"His eyes are brighter?" Susan asked, puzzled.

"Like I said before," said Melanie, "it's hard to describe. Before, whenever I looked at him, his eyes were dark and sunken, but now, they have this sparkly, energetic feel in them. You'd know what I was talking about if you saw how he was when I first got him. Believe me, I truly felt sorry for him when I heard about what happened to him."

"I know, you mentioned it to me." Susan remarked, "Child abusing parents that died from drunk driving"--

"Also," Melanie said, "I discovered scars on Alex's back just yesterday. They were from the belt that his dad used on him."

"Scars?" Susan said, shocked, "Poor little guy."

"I know, “sighed Melanie,” but he’s getting better. He's still shy, but that’s expected. I think it’s one of the side effects of the abuse."

"I think it is," Susan agreed.

"But," said Melanie, "he's very well behaved. I've had him for about three weeks now, and I've had no behavioral problems at all from him. He does everything that he's told. He doesn't even talk back."

"Wow," said Susan, awed, “You’re lucky, because I heard that sometimes, an abused child will have an aggressive temperament. Yet, this isn't a normal five year old that we're talking about, are we?"

"Nope." replied Melanie. Both were silent for a couple seconds, and after Melanie went over to check on Alex, they started talking again.

"So," Susan began, "anything else about Alex?"

"Well...just to let you know, Alex likes to suck his thumb when he’s nervous. He also does it whenever he’s asleep."

"When did he start doing that?" Susan asked.

"Don't know, he's been doing it ever since I got him. I know it will ruin the growth of his teeth, but I'm letting him do it. If it comforts him, it's fine with me. He's already been through a lot, you know."

"Yeah, okay," agreed Susan. She changed the subject and asked, "So, you're going back to work in a couple of days?"

"Yeah," said Melanie, "I'm going back on Monday, before my boss thinks that I quit my job instead of just taking a vacation."

“That’s in three days,” said Susan.

“Yep.”

"Okay," said Susan, "is that it?"

"I think so," said Melanie.

Soon, Melanie and Susan started talking about other things. They were discussing old TV shows that they liked when Alex ran into the kitchen, his shoes clacking a quick beat on the tile floor. He had that desperate, pleading look on his face. He stopped in front of Melanie, cupped his hands around his mouth, and whispered in her ear. Melanie nodded, and excused herself to the bathroom, taking Alex with her.

After locking the door, she laid Alex down on the floor. Melanie carefully pulled off his shortalls, and lifted up Alex's shirt. Still leaving his shoes and socks on, she untaped Alex's wet and messy diaper and quickly changed him. After a few minutes, she was done, and Melanie pulled down Alex's shirt, and got his shortalls back on, carefully inserting the leg holes through Alex's still shoe-and-sock-clad feet and up through his legs until the pants fitted him comfortably. After putting the shortall's straps back onto Alex's shoulders, Melanie washed her hands, unlocked the door, and both went back to the kitchen.

While Alex went back into the TV room, Melanie walked into the kitchen. Susan walked in at the same time.

"He needed a diaper change, didn’t he?" she asked.

"Yup," replied Melanie. "It was a messy one."

"Yeah," said Susan, "I could tell, he had that look on his face."

"Yes, I know. I don't even have to check him, because whenever he needs to be changed, he always gets that same look. It's kinda cute."

"I know what you mean," responded Susan, "Brian and Chris get those looks sometimes, too."

Both went silent once again for a couple seconds. The silence died out, though, when Josh came in (he needed a drink).

After he did so, Susan said, "Oh, Josh, Alex is here. You should see him."

Melanie went and called for Alex. Alex, hearing his name, came in, walking in a fast pace. He stopped when he noticed Josh. Since Josh was both older and taller than him, Alex felt intimidated, and so he shied away from him and hid half of his body behind Melanie.

"Don't worry, Alex," said Aunt Susan, "Josh doesn't bite."

Alex didn't respond, and so he remained in his current spot. Melanie then turned around and picked up Alex by his armpits, lifting him up and lowering him onto her lap. Alex, unable to hide anymore, looked down on his hands in his lap instead, nervous about looking at Josh.

"Is he shy?" asked Josh.

"Yeah," said Melanie, "Alex is always like this around people, so don't take it personally."

"Oh," said Josh. He turned his gaze away from Alex and sat down into a chair. Next, he split his attention between Susan, and Melanie.

As he talked with them about things, the topic eventually turned towards movies. When Josh mentioned The Incredibles, "Melanie cut in, "Alex and I saw that movie yesterday, didn't we, Alex?" Alex nodded indifferently, not looking up. His desire to suck his thumb had become unbearable now, and he was only preventing it through his determination to not look babyish in front of Aunt Susan, and now, this new kid, Josh.

He squirmed uncomfortably, feeling the diaper inside his shortalls shift with him. Alex was now aware that the room had become silent, and as he moved, he noticed that it was so quiet that he heard his diaper crinkle. He jumped and looked up, trying to find out if anyone else heard it. It didn't seem like they did; they merely continued on with their conversation, and so Alex sighed with relief, believing that he was just being paranoid.

This continued on for a while, and Alex was on the brink of falling asleep from sheer boredom when Melanie said that they had better get going. After that, Melanie and Alex were on their way home.

### Part 11

Alex felt much better as he was riding back home. Aunt Susan was okay, and Josh seemed fine as well. However, Alex still felt a little uneasy with Brian and Chris, since he hadn't met them today. However, that apprehension was balanced out by the belief that no one knew about his diapers or his thumb sucking except his mommy. That was good, and Alex hoped that things would stay that way.

Soon, he was back in the house, and now, he had taken off his shoes and socks and was sitting on his bed, looking through the pictures in his books. Alex, after going through four books, got tired and he laid in his side in a fetal position. Normally, Alex only went into this position to cry, but, this time, he stared outside at the window.

While he watched the world go by, he sank into a semiconscious state. During this time, Alex began to feel attuned to the feeling of his clothes, sensing his red and lime-green shirt hang down on his arms and bunch up on his ribs. He felt his blue denim shortalls grabbing him, especially around his diaper, which hugged his skin in a tighter--but not uncomfortable--grip. As he smelled that baby scent of fresh powder on himself, and felt the tightness of the shortalls' straps clinging onto his shoulders, he began to drift away.

A few minutes later, Melanie walked in. As she came into the room, she saw Alex facing away from her, still balled up in the fetal position. She went up to him, and noticed that he was asleep.

"Alex. Alex?" she said softly, while gently grabbing one of his shoulders and nudging him.

Alex stirred a little and moaned through his enclosed lips, but remained asleep.

Melanie drew her mouth towards his ear and said, "Dinner's ready."

As she nudged him again and started to firmly pat his bottom, Alex stirred and groaned a little more and his eyes sluggishly opened. He turned his head up towards Melanie.

"Dinner's ready." she repeated softly, and left the room.

Alex slowly sat up. After rubbing his eyes a little, he went and followed Melanie downstairs.

### Part 12

As Alex ate silently like normal, Melanie asked him questions about the visit. Alex mumbled that it was okay, but didn't say anything about his uneasiness with the unknown Brian and Chris.

"That reminds me, Alex." Melanie said. "I'm going back to work in three days, and, well, I can't just leave you here all day; you're too young for that. So, Aunt Susan was nice enough to take care of you while I'm at work."

Alex's eyes widened and he looked at Melanie right in the eye. He was scared of being separated from Melanie (she was the only person he trusted). But, he was thinking more about the diapers.

Melanie, immediately sensing what the main problem was, said, "Don't worry, Alex. She already knows all about you. She'll change you if you need it."

This didn't help Alex at all. He didn't want to be changed by someone he only met once. In addition, there was something else that was bothering him.

"What if her kids find out?" Alex blurted out.

"Honey, remember Josh, the eleven year old?" Alex slowly nodded, "He's known about that for a while. In fact, he already knew you wore diapers when you met him today."

Alex felt his eyes spreading farther apart. "He knows?"

"Yes, he does. It's no big deal to him, because Brian and Chris both wear diapers, and they're six years old."

Alex felt his mind overload with shock now. "You're kidding?"

"No, I'm not kidding." Melanie replied solemnly.

Alex thought about this for a few seconds. When he had somewhat recovered from the shock, he blurted out randomly, "Does Josh wear diapers?"

Melanie smiled, almost laughed, "No, no, Alex, he doesn't. But, he started wearing them when he was six, and wore them until he was eight."

"Really?" "Yes, really."

"Why did he wear diapers when he was six?" Alex asked, in an extremely curious and excited manner.

"He was very bad. Josh used to beat up on other kids. But Aunt Susan punished him by treating him like a baby. After a while, he became good, and so he got out of diapers when he was eight. Brian and Chris were the same: they used to beat up on other kids. But now, they've gotten better, though, Brian and Chris are still wearing diapers."

"Why?" Alex asked.

"Aunt Susan said she wants to make sure they're truly good, and aren't just pretending." (That was Susan's excuse to Melanie, though Melanie knew that those boys were still in diapers just because Susan thought they were cuter that way.)

After that last reply, Alex fell silent again, his mind still attempting to recover from the shock.

"Am I bad?" he asked.

"No, of course not, Alex. You're actually the best-behaved boy I've ever seen. And I'm not kidding. But"--Melanie quickly added in, before Alex could ask it--"you're wearing diapers because I want you to get better from the bad things that happened to you. I think they're helping, too. You don’t have nightmares as much as you used to. And when you do, you act like a big kid, and you just pull yourself together and go back to sleep all by yourself."

Alex felt proud of this, but he still didn't feel comfortable with his future stay at Aunt Susan's. He felt even more nervous now that he heard about her kids' former personalities, so he asked, "What if her kids beat up on me?"

"They would never do that, Alex." Melanie reassured him, "All three of them are very nice; trust me. But if for some really weird reason they do, Aunt Susan would punish them. None of them would ever get away with picking on you."

"Oh" Alex said in his soft, tentative voice. He looked down on his lap, where his hands rested. He stared at them until he asked another question, "How long are you going to work?"

All day. I'll drop you off with Aunt Susan in the morning, and I'll pick you up in the afternoon."

Alex felt uncomfortable again. His mommy was going to be away for that long?

"How many days are you going to be gone?" Alex went on, dreading the answer.

"You'll be with Aunt Susan for five days each week, and then on Saturday and Sunday, you'll stay home with me. All right?”

"How many weeks?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. It's going to be a long time. All year, actually."

Alex didn't like this response. As his fear and depression rose, he gazed down at his lap again. He was scared of what was to come, and so he brought his thumb up into his mouth and started sucking it.

Melanie noticed his apprehension, and she reached across the table and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Alex. You'll be fine. I'm sure you'll get along with Aunt Susan. She already likes you, because you're well behaved."

Alex, still looking down at his lap, simply nodded, dreading the day he would be separated from Mommy.

### Part 13

Naturally, those two remaining days went by way too quickly. Before Alex knew it, the third day had come and he was in the car on the way to Aunt Susan's. Although he already knew what the destination was going to look like, he still felt scared in the fact that he was going to be away from his mommy all day. Like in other scary situations, Alex just sat silently while sucking his thumb. He stared at the blurred world outside to avoid looking at his clothes.

This time, he had a bright green T-shirt with a huge lizard stamped onto it; which was tucked into the same pair of shortalls that he wore three days ago. His dislike for shortalls was as great as it ever was, and he almost protested against Melanie when she wanted him to wear them again. But in the end, Alex decided to go along with it, because he was too afraid to express his disagreement.

In what seemed like a couple seconds, they pulled into the driveway of Aunt Susan's house. Alex unbuckled his seatbelt, pulling out his thumb at the same time. Before he got out of the car, he also took the books that he brought with him (he wanted to look at the pictures while staying with Aunt Susan). Both him and Melanie walked quickly to the door hand in hand.

While the doorbell rang, Alex, like the last time, hid himself behind Melanie. At the same time, his thumb sucking hand writhed at the side of his shortalls. As it rolled, the thin film of saliva that had accumulated onto Alex's thumb began to dry off from the constant friction with the blue denim. In no time at all, the clicking rhythm of footsteps became louder and louder. The door opened, and Alex and Melanie walked in.

Alex stood silently in the foyer, still holding Melanie’s hand. He was glad that he wasn’t able to suck his thumb right now, because that’s what he really wanted to do. (Alex was holding the books under his arm, and since his other hand was holding Melanie’s, he wasn’t able to switch the books to his other arm and suck his thumb).

Meanwhile Melanie handed Susan a diaper bag for Alex, and informed her with some last minute things about him.

"By the way," Melanie said, just before she left, "Alex doesn't take naps."

"Ok," said Susan, "Don't worry about him. I'm sure he'll be fine."

"I'm sure he will, too. Bye."

"Bye" said Susan.

Melanie then tried to leave. But she couldn’t. Alex’s hand was still clasped with hers, and he wasn’t letting go. His grip was so firm that Melanie had to wrench her hand away from him.

Finally free of Alex, Melanie left for work. Alex watched her as she walked through the doorway and close the door behind her. He was really scared now. Mommy wasn’t with him anymore; he was now all alone with someone he barely knew. As he thought about this, Alex felt his chest hitch from a suppressed whimper. He wanted to cry, but he forced himself not to. Instead he grit his teeth and mentally told himself to get a grip. He then turned around to Aunt Susan.

The first thing she did was show Alex around the house. He walked behind Aunt Susan, wincing as he heard the soft sound of his diaper crackle, which revealed itself at each step. After touring the first floor, they went upstairs. Alex felt particularly scared on the second floor. He sensed the presence of the mysterious Brian and Chris up there. Alex didn't know, however, how much of a surprise he was in for.

### Part 14

So far, everything was fine. Alex saw Aunt Susan's room, and then he visited Josh's room, and a few other miscellaneous places. Near the end of the hall, Aunt Susan led him into another room. She said that this room was where Brian and Chris slept, and that they were in this room right now. Alex tensed up with fear. Aunt Susan led him into it, and Alex stopped where he was while his blue eyes widened with surprise.

The whole place was built like a nursery. Alex turned his head sharply in as many directions as he could. There were two gigantic cribs, a huge toy box, and a changing table. He even noticed that the wallpaper was babyish, with its pastel blue tone and endless cartoonish motif. In addition, Alex sensed a strong smell of baby powder that encompassed the entire room. After looking through it, he laid his eyes on two figures sitting in the middle of the carpeted floor, both of which were staring back at Alex.

They locked eyes for a moment, staring at each other with curiosity. After a few seconds, Alex turned his head away out of shyness, and he went out of the room, while Aunt Susan followed. After a couple more rooms, they were done, and they walked back down to the first floor and sat on a couch in the TV room.

"Did your mommy tell you about Brian and Chris, Alex?" Aunt Susan gently asked.

"She said they wore diapers, but I didn't know they slept in a crib." Alex responded.

"Did she say why they're treated like that?"

Alex hesitated, afraid to mention it, but managed to blurt out, "She said they beat up on other kids."

"That's right." Aunt Susan said, "and they're still treated like babies because I want to make sure they're good."

"That's what Mommy said." Alex added in.

He fell silent for a while, debating over whether he should ask the question that was gnawing on him. He was very tentative about it, but his curiosity got the better of him, and so he asked, "Did Josh really wear diapers? My mommy said he did."

"Yes, he did. But he's good now, so Josh doesn't wear diapers anymore."

Alex nodded, his questions answered. He fell silent again and he shuffled through his books and opened one up. As he sat down looking at the pictures, Susan said in a kind voice, "If you need anything, Alex, just let me know, okay?"

"Ok," mumbled Alex.

"Ok, I'm going upstairs. Make yourself at home."

"Ok," Alex mumbled again, not looking up from his book.

Aunt Susan then went up to the second floor. Alex still didn't look up, his attention was too absorbed into the pictures to really notice. Not even his nervousness bothered him right now.

After looking at the pictures for a while, Alex felt the need to go to the bathroom. In fact, he really needed to go, because he had stomach cramps that angrily jabbed at his insides. There was also an aching, sore sensation in his bladder, though; Alex was too distracted by the cramps to really feel it. He desperately tried to hold it in (he didn't want to have a poopy diaper at Aunt Susan's; that would be too embarrassing), and so Alex took both of his hands and rubbed his stomach as the rest of his body moaned, twitched, and wriggled from the pain. The cramps faded away, and then came back in a minute or two, and faded away again. This continued on for several agonizing minutes until, finally, the cramps stopped all together. Alex let out a sigh of relief. He then proceeded to look through his books again until his bathroom needs came back.

The stomach cramps had returned, though this time they were a dull throb. What was worse was that Alex's sphincter muscles now had a hard time fighting back the waste that demanded to be let out. Once again, Alex squirmed in agony, his legs twisting themselves together while trying to retain control of his bowels. Little by little, Alex began to lose, and eventually, the mess came out and into the diaper.

It came out in a mushy, soft form, spreading everywhere, and Alex even felt it creep up near his crotch and squirm up his back. Simultaneously, urine spilled out and soaked everything; it even saturated the diaper's seat. Now, Alex's diaper had become incredibly thick and hot with waste. It sagged badly, too, though the shortalls prevented it from hanging down too much, and so the diaper was forced to constantly hug Alex's privates. Alex immediately got up and ran upstairs to look for Aunt Susan, all the while feeling the warm mess squish and slosh between his legs.

He ran through the hall, quickly checking each room for Aunt Susan. At last he found her, she was in Josh's room, and was talking to him. She stopped when she heard Alex's quick pacing. As she and Josh turned their heads to look for the source of the sound, they found Alex standing right outside the room, his face desperate and pleading. Aunt Susan excused herself from Josh and went over to Alex, already knowing why he was there.

Susan bent down and whispered to Alex if he needed a diaper change. Alex replied with a sheepish nod and a very deep blush of embarrassment.

### Part 15

They reached the nursery soon. As Alex walked in, he noticed that Brian and Chris were still in there. He tried his best to not look at them and focused on following Aunt Susan. Not to his surprise, she stopped at the changing table.

Alex was very hesitant to go there. He really didn't want to get changed right in front of other people, but he realized that he had no choice. As he tried to ignore the stares from Brian and Chris, he forced his shaking legs to walk to where Aunt Susan was. Blushing deeply the entire time, Alex finally managed to walk to Aunt Susan, who immediately scooped him up and laid him down on the changing table.

Alex jumped when his body touched it. The changing table had a thick mat on it sheathed in plastic, which crackled loudly when it came in contact with Alex’s body. He avoided looking at Aunt Susan, and his eyes explored more of the room. When his gaze started to focus on the floor, the corner of his eye spotted Brian and Chris, still staring at him with intense curiosity. Alex snapped his head away from their direction. As he did so, his eyes became coated with hot, stinging tears, and his lip began to tremble.

Luckily, Susan saw that Alex was about to cry from the embarrassment, so she mildly scolded Brian and Chris and warned them not to stare at Alex. They obeyed, and then both boys started up a conversation, though, they still made occasional discreet glances at Alex.

After that was done, Aunt Susan undid both of Alex's shortall straps. Then she slid his shorts down until it had been weaved through the shoes and socks and completely separated from Alex (like Melanie, Susan didn't remove a kid's shoes and socks during diaper changes.) She lifted up his shirt to his armpits, and then took out a belt and fastened it around Alex's stomach. As he saw the belt wrapped around him, Alex’s eyes became slightly larger, and his body tensed up. Susan noticed his nervousness over this, and said, "Don't worry Alex. The belt’s there to make sure you don't fall and hurt yourself." Alex heard this and his tense body relaxed somewhat, though his fiery blush did not cool down.

His sagging, loaded diaper finally exposed, Susan brought her hands down on the tapes and ripped them from the sides. Next, she peeled the front away from Alex and brought it down.

Alex's blush intensified, and he tried even harder to not look at Aunt Susan. Susan, though, didn't grimace at all. Even though Alex had made a particularly large mess, her three boys' diapers had had far more unpleasant surprises in the past. She simply grabbed both of Alex's ankles and lifted his messy bottom high into the air and wiped him down. In a short time, the old diaper was slid out from under him as well. She wiped him up for several minutes, and then slid a new diaper under him. Next, Susan squirted some pink baby lotion into her hand, and coated Alex's diaper area with it, and soon dusted a fair amount of powder after that. Finally, she grabbed the front of the diaper, wrapped it around Alex's waist and loins, and tightly taped it. She then unbuckled the belt, pulled Alex's shirt down, and returned his shortalls.

Done with changing Alex, she picked him up and held him close to her for a couple seconds. "Feel better?" Susan asked softly. Alex nodded, visibly relieved, his blue eyes sparkling with gratitude. Susan smiled and gently patted his bottom, and then set him back down on the ground. Still trying not to look at Brian and Chris (who remained engaged in their conversation), Alex walked quickly out of the room, carrying with him a better mood.

### Part 16

As Alex walked back downstairs, he sensed a strange, new feeling in his diaper. It was caused by the lotion that was applied to his skin, which was unusual, as Melanie had never used lotion on him. It made his skin have a thick, greasy feel, and caused his privates to slide and rub smoothly over the diaper's cushiony interior, which somehow made him more aware of the diaper's touch every time he moved. In addition, the baby powder clung onto Alex better now that the lotion was there. Despite this weird new sensation, Alex acted as if nothing happened, and went back to his books.

His posture was more relaxed now that he was clean again, and so he sat on the couch for a long time, engaged in the pictures. At the same time, Alex was reading the few words that he recognized. He knew "frog," "stop," "a," "of," or", "and," and could also point out most of the words for different colors; among a few other things. Alex was so absorbed into his activity that he never heard or saw Aunt Susan come down with Brian and Chris.

She was carrying both of them, one arm wrapped around each of them. As Alex continued looking through his books, Susan set Brian and Chris down on the floor. After taking out a huge playpen, she picked up Brian and Chris one at a time and plopped them into the playpen. Next, she turned on the TV and turned it to Spongebob.

Alex jumped from the sound, and turned his head in curiosity. In less than a second, he saw that it was Spongebob, and so he positioned his body so that it was facing the TV screen. However, as he did so, Alex's eyes widened slightly. Brian and Chris were in the room with him. Unlike last time, he didn't try to look away from them; in fact, right now, it was hard to not look at them.

Since they were both a year older, they were slightly bigger than Alex. One of them had light brown hair, while the other had very dark, almost black hair. What was most surprising though, was that both were in a playpen, and each was clad in just a diaper. Alex stared at their diapers in particular; they were enormous, and Alex could simply not help noticing the diapers' sheer thickness. The fact that the diapers’ and playpen mattress’s plastic covers made a thundering crackling sound didn't help, either.

Neither Brian or Chris seemed to take notice of Alex, though; they were watching Spongebob with him. At the same time, Brian and Chris's mouths were gagged with pacifiers, which Susan had put in to make sure they wouldn't attack Alex with questions (she respected Alex's shy personality.)

When Spongebob was done, Aunt Susan came to ask Alex if he was hungry. Alex mildly nodded, even though he was actually starving.

As he sat down at the table in the kitchen, he discreetly glanced at Brian and Chris some more. They were both sitting in highchairs, and were bearing huge bibs on their otherwise bare chests. As each of the two boys swung their legs back and forth like pendulums, Alex saw that Aunt Susan was coming to feed them.

While he started to eat, Alex continued to watch Brian and Chris. He noted how Aunt Susan fed both by the spoonful, and how each had their bibs removed and their faces wiped up after eating. Then, to Alex’s bewilderment, Aunt Susan slung one of them over her shoulder and started patting his back. At first, he couldn’t figure out what was happening. But within a few seconds, Alex answered his own bafflement by recalling a cartoon he once saw. He remembered that the cartoon showed a mother doing the same thing to a baby, and it was then that he realized that the kid was being burped. Seeing that it wasn’t anything unusual (at least for an infant), Alex’s interest began to wane to the point where he didn’t even bother to look as the second kid was being burped.

However, Alex’s interest soon came back when he saw Aunt Susan checking their diapers. From the looks of it, the kid with the light brown hair was the one that needed to be changed, because after the dark brown haired one was put back into the playpen, he was carried upstairs. Several minutes later, Aunt Susan came back downstairs and put the light brown haired one into the playpen as well. Seeing that there was nothing interesting left to watch, Alex went and finished eating.

Following that were the introductions. It was this time that Alex found out that Chris was the one that had the dark, almost black hair, and Brian had the light brown hair. After the introduction, Alex watched TV for a little while.

For the rest of the day, Alex continued to look at his books, and he got his diaper changed every so often. A while later, Alex heard the voice of Aunt Susan calling his name out, adding in that his mommy had come to pick him up.

### Part 17

The trip back home seemed fairly short, and soon, Alex had removed his shoes and socks and was up in his room. While Melanie was making dinner downstairs, he was amusing himself with his mirror reflection on the closet. Alex stared intently at his reflection as it molded his face into various grins and frowns. He entertained himself in this way for a long time, until he heard Melanie calling him from downstairs.

While both were eating, Melanie asked Alex about his day. Alex responded that it was okay, and Melanie saw from reading his face that he was speaking honestly. This reading gave her reassurance that Alex felt at least somewhat comfortable at Aunt Susan's. However, she still felt nervous, since the thought of asking Alex about his past was continuously racing in her head.

Meanwhile, Alex sensed that something serious was going on in his mommy’s mind, but he wasn't able to determine what it was. Like with the brown bag, he found it to be a bit unsettling, but he ignored it and continued eating.

After he was done with dinner, Alex raced to the bathroom to take his bath. He turned on the lights, locked the door, and stripped everything off, including his diaper, which he threw in the trash. Next, Alex filled up the tub with water and soaped his body and shampooed his hair. Alex rinsed himself off and unplugged the drain. He dried himself off, and wrapped the towel around himself. Then he brushed his teeth, picked up his old clothes, and got out after turning off the lights. As soon as he was done dumping the old clothes into the hamper, Alex went into his room, where Melanie was.

In a couple of seconds, Melanie had lain Alex down on the bed, and removed the towel, exposing a completely naked Alex. She quickly wiped and powdered him, and taped a fresh diaper on him. As soon as she was done, Alex went downstairs to watch Spongebob; still clad in just a diaper.

Melanie sat with Alex as he was seated on the couch. He leaned his small body against Melanie's larger, adult form. Although his diaper was fully exposed to her, Alex no longer felt embarrassed to have his diaper constantly shown in front of Melanie. He didn't really care. It was summer, and the nights were hot. Because of this, Alex decided to not wear his pajamas.

While Alex watched Spongebob, Melanie was still thinking about discussing his past with him. On one hand, she didn't want to, because discussing that subject was a guaranteed way to make Alex cry, which Melanie didn't like seeing. But on the other hand, she was curious to see if Alex really was hiding something; and if so, perhaps finally telling it would relieve him a little more. In the end, her curiosity won out, and Melanie resolved to discuss Alex's past with him as soon as Spongebob was over. She knew that Alex wouldn't like this, but Melanie was prepared for the worst.

When Spongebob was over and the TV was turned off, Alex automatically got up and intended to go upstairs to his room. Instead, Melanie grabbed him and tickled the five year old under the arms as he was led back to the couch.

Alex giggled wildly and smiled as he looked up at Melanie. His happiness increased when he was bundled up onto Melanie’s lap and lovingly hugged. Now his eyes became an energetic, baby blue color. Melanie lightly smiled back and said in a chillingly calm voice, "Alex, I need to talk to you about something."

"What?" asked a still smiling Alex.

"I want you to tell me everything that happened to you. Everything, when you were with your mommy and daddy and at the orphanage. I think there are some parts of your past that you haven't told anyone. I want to know what they are."

As Alex listened to this, his grin began to shrink. By the time Melanie finished speaking, his smile had completely disintegrated. Simultaneously, the sparkle in his eyes flickered out, causing the intense baby blue tone in Alex's irises to dull down to a murky, watery color. Back to his solemn, depressed stage, he looked up at Melanie.

He truly didn't want to talk about what happened to him. Those events had been so painful that he had been trying to forget it for the past two years. Mommy already knew what happened to him, he had told her during his first night here. Why did she have to know any more?

Alex thought about this, wondering whether or not he should come clean and tell her everything. Despite all his objections against it, he decided that he should. He loved Melanie, and besides, he was a big kid, so Alex cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and began his story, starting at when he was with his mommy and daddy.

Alex remembered that his mommy slapped and yelled at him all the time. She said to him on a daily basis that she wished he were never born and that he was "an accident." [Like the words D.U.I. and abuse, Alex didn’t know what “an accident” meant, but he could tell by his mommy’s tone of voice that it was a bad thing]. Daddy always used a huge belt on Alex, and sometimes used him as a punching bag.

Things got even worse when Mommy and Daddy were drunk, which seemed to happen every day. Alex ran away several times, but, being a three year old, he couldn't go very far, and so his parents always caught up to him and dragged him back to the house to whip and yell at him some more. As they abused him, they would mention that they didn't want him to run out and blab to the neighbors. If he told anyone, they would kill him. Alex, believing that they were telling the truth, kept quiet about it, but that didn't always stop his escape attempts.

Alex now started talking incomprehensibly, his words becoming garbled from the effort of letting it all out. He halted his story abruptly. His chest was heaving up and down, his voice was cracking, his eyes started to overflow with tears, and his nose was running. He put his thumb in his mouth and wiped his eyes and nose as Melanie hugged him tightly. Within a few minutes, Alex felt easier, and he continued on with his story.

The fateful day that Alex would remember for the rest of his life came on a fairly typical day. While Alex was being slapped, whipped, and yelled at as usual, he decided that he should attempt another run away. First, he waited for Mommy and Daddy to go to sleep [Alex didn't know that his parents were actually passing out from all the alcohol, so he assumed it to be sleep]. He checked them a while later, and saw that they had been asleep for a long time. After that, he put on some shoes and socks and carefully walked through the house on his tiptoes.

He considered using the front door, but it made too much of a squealing sound, which might wake up Mommy and Daddy. Instead, he sneaked out the back door, and swiftly jogged toward the gate. After many nerve-racking minutes and much effort, Alex managed to claw his way up and over the gate. As soon as he was back down on the ground, Alex suddenly felt something.

It was one of those instinctual feelings that he got whenever something bad was going to happen. Although his frantic state of mind pushed it aside for now, enough of it remained to tell him that Mommy and Daddy were waking up, and he should get away NOW. Alex didn’t hesitate, and so he started running with all his might.

The three year old pumped his legs madly, attempting to cover as much ground as he possibly could. He ran and ran, and forced himself to keep moving despite the fact that his heart ached and a stitch bit at his side. Though his arms were tired as well from the gate climbing, they pumped as hard as his legs. All the while, that fluttery feeling in his chest that he later knew as A-Dre-Na-Lin coursed though his body and saturated his muscles with energy. Alex had no idea where he was going to go. Right now, all he was thinking was to just get away from Mommy and Daddy.

After a couple of minutes of running, Alex heard the roaring sound of a car, and as he turned his head, he saw that it was Mommy and Daddy. Despite the fact that they looked half asleep in their throbbing, hangover state, both of them struck cold, black veins of fear into Alex. His terror accelerating, he pumped his legs even harder. However, his three-year-old legs were no match for a car, and it caught up to him within seconds.

Alex stopped in his story again as tears uncontrollably flowed down his face. Melanie hugged him again and whispered some soothing words. Alex, as soon as he felt better, knuckled away his tears and continued.

Suddenly, the car crashed into a pole that was behind Alex. He turned his head again and saw the car in a mangled, twisted wreck, with the airbags exposed out like bloated, sick balloons. He saw Mommy and Daddy, though they were slumped back like limp dolls. Alex stopped where he was in his tracks, shocked by the reality that his parents were dead. He couldn't take all of this, and so he backed up against a wall and cried.

The next thing Alex knew, a policeman was there, along with a police car, which had glaring lights that ominously rotated again and again. He told the policeman what happened as best as his tear-chocked throat would let him. As he answered the policeman's questions, Alex sat miserably on the ground, sensing the training pants that were under his simple attire of a T-shirt, shorts, and shoes and socks. Although Alex didn't realize it until later, he had been so scared when his parents chased him that he saturated his training pants with urine.

Alex paused now. He didn't remember this part too well, because he had been crying, and didn't really pay attention to anything else at the time. But, he recalled as best as his memory could let him, and so he went on.

The next thing he knew, he was at the orphanage, and was told this was his new home, as he didn't have anywhere else to go; no relatives, no friends, no one.

During that time Alex was extremely emotionally shocked and distressed by everything. As a result, virtually all he did for the first couple of days was cry and wet his training pants. Eventually, he calmed down somewhat, but was soon tormented by one of the kids at the orphanage.

Alex never knew what this kid's name was, but he knew that he was six years old. This kid, in Alex’s opinion, was just as bad as his parents were. He didn’t physically hit him like his daddy. Instead, he tortured Alex through verbal abuse like his mommy often did to him.

His taunting consisted purely on calling Alex a baby. The six year old gave proof of this by mentioning how Alex never talked; he sucked his thumb and cried a lot, and wore diapers at night for his bedwetting. In addition, the kid pointed out that Alex was also still in training pants at age three. Since Alex wasn’t even toilet trained during the day, the six year old asked him why he wasn’t wearing diapers all the time. After all, the six year old said, Alex already acted like a baby, so why were the orphanage workers even bothering to toilet train him? Shouldn’t they just keep him in the nursery and change his diapers with the other babies instead?

Despite this horrible treatment, Alex never told anyone about it. He was tempted to tell on him many times, but, was afraid that the kid was going to hit him if he tattled. Instead, Alex just endured the abuse. As a result, his shy nature was encouraged to become even more withdrawn, and a talent for being intimidated by older/taller kids sprung up from the taunting.

Luckily for Alex, this abuse lasted for maybe a week (though, to Alex, it was more like a month, since he didn't exactly know how to count time). The reason for this was because the kid had been adopted. Needless to say, Alex was extremely grateful for this. However, he would go to his grave never finding out why anyone would ever want to adopt such a kid; not even the other kids liked him.

Despite the fact that Alex never saw this kid again, he made a lasting impact on more than just Alex's shy nature. Since he had made fun of Alex for wearing training pants, Alex forced himself to get toilet trained as fast as he could to prove that he wasn't a little baby. Eventually, after much effort, he had also managed to eliminate his bedwetting.

However, Alex could never give up his thumb sucking. Often, he had tried to become attached to a blanket or a teddy bear. But no matter how hard Alex tried, the comfort that the thumb sucking gave him could not be replaced by anything else. Despite his best efforts, Alex cried too, since his daily nightmares of abuse constantly traumatized him.

As his words became jumbled, Alex stopped once again; his voice cracking and his chest hitching from suppressed sobs. A few tears trickled silently down his face while his nose ran. He brought his thumb up toward his quivering mouth, but remembered how he had been taunted for doing it. Ashamed, he moved his thumb away from him. But as he lowered it, his arm was unexpectedly caught by Melanie's hand, which gently, but firmly, moved his arm up towards him, causing his thumb to creep back into his mouth. Alex didn't resist, and he allowed his thumb back in.

While he sucked it and allowed mute tears to dribble out of his eyes, Melanie asked him if that was all. Alex nodded as he wiped his eyes and nose. At the same time, his tears became louder and more frequent. In a few seconds, he collapsed onto Melanie bawling, while both of his arms were tightly wrapped around her.

Melanie pulled Alex off of her midsection and slung him over her shoulder, one hand patting and rubbing his back, while the other hand firmly supported Alex's diapered seat. As Alex wailed and buried his hot, teary face into her shoulder, she soothingly spoke to him to help him calm down. For several minutes, Alex only sobbed, his horrid memories still sharply cut into his mind. After a long performance of sobs, he started to calm down, and his crying was reduced to whimpers.

Still slung over Melanie’s shoulders, Alex was carried upstairs to his room, and was tucked under the lone sheet on the bed. As Melanie read his usual bedtime story to him, his whimpers shrank to hitchings and snifflings. When she was done reading the story, Melanie cooed some more to Alex and played with his hair. She gently kissed him on the forehead and said good night to him.

### Part 18

The night was peaceful for several hours, until suddenly, Melanie woke up. She heard Alex moaning in his room. He was having a nightmare, and to Melanie, it sounded like an unusually bad one. Our talk probably triggered it, thought Melanie. Concerned, she rose from her bed and went to the room next door.

As soon as she stepped into his room, Melanie was right: Alex was having another nightmare. Still asleep, he was moaning while violently tossing and turning, twisting the sheet that covered him. Soon, Alex started to whimper in his sleep, and that's when Melanie turned on the lights and went over to Alex. While she walked over to him, Alex jolted awake, panting, his hair tangled and damp with sweat. He was then blinded by the light in his room, and when his eyes finally got adjusted to it, he turned to Melanie, who was sitting beside him on the bed.

"Are you okay, Alex?" she asked, while gently resting a hand on his shoulder.

Alex nodded, even though his eyes were brimming with tears and his thumb was in his mouth.

"Do you need anything?" Melanie continued.

Alex took his thumb out and said, "I need a drink."

"Do you want some water?"

Alex nodded.

"Okay. Just stay right here. I'll be back in a second."

Melanie then got up and went downstairs.

Alex huddled with fear as he waited for Mommy to come back with the water. Not only did his parents hit him in his dreams tonight, but also, the discussion he had had a few hours ago triggered his memory into creating a nightmare version of the kid that taunted him. That kid was almost worse in his dreams than his mommy and daddy. In spite of the hot temperature, Alex shuddered and wrapped the sheet around him more tightly.

Melanie came into the room a few seconds later, carrying a glass of water with ice cubes floating in it. Alex drank it slowly, feeling the cold liquid pass through his dry throat and down into his chest and stomach. After drinking about half of the glass's contents, he looked up at Melanie and asked, "Can you change me? I'm really hot."

"Sure, Alex." Melanie said.

Alex set the glass of water on a table and lied down on the bed. Melanie untaped his diaper and pulled it back. He didn't use it, but it was soaked with sweat. She wiped him up first, and left Alex completely naked for a little while so his privates could cool down a little. Then Melanie powdered him up and diapered him. When she was done, Alex looked up at her and softly said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied with a smile. As she picked him up and cuddled him, she asked, "Do you need anything else?”

Alex was about to say no, but he hesitated when he felt his eyes sting with tears again from the pain of the nightmare. He tightly wrapped his arms around Melanie and cried softly. Melanie, realizing that he needed to be comforted, held and cooed him.

In a short time, Alex had recovered, and she then asked him if he wanted to keep the glass of water next to him, in case he needed another drink. Alex said yes to this. After that was settled, Melanie laid Alex back down on the bed and affectionately ruffled his hair. She tucked him in, wished him a good night, and turned off the lights.

### Part 19

After Susan went and checked up on Alex, she went back upstairs to look after Brian and Chris and teach Josh today's lesson (Josh was home schooled). Just like the previous day, Alex spent several hours just looking through the pictures in his books and mumbled the few words that he could read. Of course, he was changed several times by Susan. Although Alex was still embarrassed to be changed by her, Susan could tell that Alex was starting to feel more comfortable around her.

In the afternoon, Melanie came, and Alex was happy to see her. Though, he found out that they wouldn't be immediately leaving because Melanie told him that she wanted to talk to Aunt Susan first. So while Alex went back into the TV room to look at his books again, Melanie waited for Susan to come into the kitchen. (When Josh came to answer the door, Susan had been busy upstairs changing Brian and Chris's diapers). In a few minutes, she came down, and both women sat around the kitchen table and discussed the talk that Melanie had had with Alex the previous night.

"So, I assume Alex didn't like telling about his past?" Susan asked.

"Nope." responded Melanie, "Not at all. Because of it, he had an unusually bad nightmare. It was so bad that I had to comfort him to get him to sleep again. Though, I did find out some more about his history. From the way he recalled it, it sounds like parts of it were being told for the very first time."

"What parts?" Susan asked curiously.

"Well, when he went to the orphanage, Alex said that he was teased by a six year old because he was shy, he sucked his thumb, and was a bedwetter and still in training pants"--

--"Wait, wait. Alex’s a bedwetter? I didn't know that."

"He was a bedwetter." Melanie corrected, "But he managed to stop it after a while."

"But the part where you said he was still in training pants? I thought he was only three when he went there. A three year old in training pants isn't unusual." Susan said.

"It isn't." Melanie agreed, "But according to Alex, that was one of the reasons why he was taunted."

"So he never told anyone about this kid?" Susan asked.

"Nope. Alex said he wanted to many times, but was afraid that the kid would hit him if he did. So, he kept quiet about it."

"No wonder he didn't like it there." Susan said, "Poor little guy. He's really been through a lot, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, he has." Melanie agreed, "I almost cried myself when he told me what happened. Especially when he was with his parents. Until last night, I didn't know that he was treated as poorly as he was. He said that it got so bad that he ran away several times, but he was always caught and was beaten for it. The stuff he told me was...awful. I already told you about how he was whipped, but did you know that his father also punched him, and his mother told him how he was an accident and wished he was never born?"

"My God. I'm surprised Alex is still in one piece after all of that. Do you think"--Susan paused, afraid to say it. She took a deep breath and said in a low, fearful voice, "Do you think his parents might have beaten him to death someday? If they didn't die in the car crash?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they would have." Melanie said gravely, "In fact, it sounds like his parents almost killed him the day they died. Alex said that on that day, he was running away again, and his parents caught up to him while driving drunk. Then they somehow ran into a pole on the sidewalk and got killed. I personally think that that pole saved Alex's life. If it wasn't there, the car might have just crashed into Alex instead."

"Why would anyone want to do that to Alex?" Susan pondered, "He's such a sweet little boy."

"I don't know, Susan." Melanie responded.

The conversation stopped, and Melanie thought it was time to go home. She called for Alex, who came racing towards her excitedly, bearing a smile. As Melanie bent down and picked him up, Alex attached himself to her in a tight hug and his grin split even wider. After setting him down on the ground, Alex looked calmly at Aunt Susan and gave a shy, weak smile that revealed his mild affection towards her. Susan smiled back. A few seconds later, Alex and Melanie were in the car and on the way home.

### Part 20

The days passed by, and before anyone knew it, it was Friday. Alex was excited because tomorrow was Saturday, where he would be home with his mommy all day. Even though he liked Aunt Susan, too (she, like Melanie, had gained Alex's trust because she was nice), Alex nonetheless looked forward to Saturday. As he sat sprawled on the couch looking at the pop-up pictures, with his unworn shoes and socks lying next to the couch, Alex continuously thought of this concept.

Soon, Alex sensed the need to go to the bathroom. Without hesitating, he just went in his diaper, and ran upstairs to get Aunt Susan. As soon as he got there, he said in an unwavering voice, "Aunt Susan, I need a change."

"Okay, sweetie." Aunt Susan simply said.

She led him over into the nursery and laid him down on the changing table. In a few seconds, Alex's pants were removed and his shirt was lifted up, fully exposing his wet and messy diaper. Alex calmly lay still as the diaper was untaped and pulled away from his body. He didn't even blush or turn his head away. (By now, Susan had changed enough of his diapers so that it wasn't a big deal anymore). After wiping, lotioning, and powdering Alex's privates, a fresh diaper was tightly wrapped around him.

A couple hours later, Alex was watching Spongebob along with Brian and Chris, both of which were still clad in just a diaper. A few minutes into the show, Alex's nose detected the putrid odor of a poopy diaper, and he was just about to call for Aunt Susan when she walked in. Like Alex, she smelled a dirty diaper, and asked, "Alex, do you nee"--when Alex shook his head no. Seeing this, she went over to Brian and Chris instead, both of which had "looks."

Susan checked them by grabbing the rear waistband of their diapers and pulling it back, looking down inside to see if anything was going on. Susan went to Brian first, and found out he was messy. She then went over to Chris. As it turned out, he contained an even larger load than Brian. Judging from her peek inside Chris's diaper, it looked to Susan like someone had stashed a giant chocolate cake and threw a couple of grenades in with it. She immediately scooped up both Brian and Chris and carried them over to the nursery.

When she got there, she plopped Brian down on the floor and laid Chris down on the changing table. After pulling the belt over his stomach, she ripped the tapes and peeled the front away. Behind that diaper was a truly terrifying sight: excrement covering every inch of Chris's privates, as well as the diaper's interior. While Chris was occupied on sucking a pacifier, Susan lifted his butt up and began wiping him. After many minutes of wiping, Chris was clean, and was quickly lotioned, powdered, and diapered. Brian was next, and after he was changed, both boys were plopped into their cribs for their naps.

Just as Susan was going downstairs, she saw Alex running up to her with the please-change-me-look on his face. Susan didn't say anything; she just picked up Alex and carried him over to the nursery. Unlike Brian and Chris, Susan changed Alex's diaper very quickly, because he was only wet. Alex then went back downstairs to the couch.

A few hours and a couple diaper changes later, Melanie had come over. Alex automatically put on his shoes and socks and was there to greet her with a smile. But like on Tuesday, Melanie told him that she was going to talk with Aunt Susan before they went home. Alex nodded, and went back to look at his books. While he was engaged with the pictures, Susan and Melanie were in the kitchen.

"So," said Melanie, "you're done with your first week of watching Alex. How is it?"

"Actually," Susan replied honestly, "Alex is great. You're right, he's very well behaved, and he's a joy to take care of. I don't even mind changing him."

"Good." Melanie replied.

Silence fell into the kitchen. For a while, neither one said anything. Melanie was about to get up and leave when Susan said, "You know, Melanie, I don't think Alex could get any closer with you."

"What do you mean?" asked Melanie.

"Haven't you noticed? Alex smiles whenever he sees you. It's happened every single day this week. I can tell he really likes you. I don't think he could love you any more than he does already."

"Why would he love me that much? I'm the one who put him in diapers. He hates diapers."

"I know." responded Susan, "But I think you're the first person that has actually given Alex affection. Even if you put him in diapers, he still likes you because he knows he's loved."

"Think so?" Melanie asked.

"Yeah." replied Susan.

Melanie thought about this for a couple seconds, and then called for Alex. Alex raced over to Melanie bearing a huge smile, his baby blue eyes sparkling intensely. He hugged her tightly as she picked him up. "See what I mean, Melanie?" asked Susan, smiling.

"Huh?" Alex asked. He looked at Melanie, puzzled, "What does Aunt Susan mean, Mommy?"

"Nothing, Alex." Melanie replied, smiling at him. "Let's go home, ok?"

"Ok." Alex responded, still bearing a smile.

### Part 21

As Alex sat in just a diaper on Melanie’s lap and watched Spongebob, Melanie looked down at Alex with pity. She was staring at those hideous scars that were ingrained into his back, recalling all the horrible things that Alex told her about. But despite all of his experiences, Melanie believed that Alex had adjusted fairly well with her, and she was surprised at how much he had changed in the four weeks she had had him.

A month ago, he was extremely quiet and solemn from emotional issues. Now, those problems were rapidly fading away, and Alex was quite a cheerful tyke, at least when he was around Melanie. He was also looking a lot healthier as a result of his newfound happiness. Although Alex was still on the skinny side, his body looked fuller, and didn’t have so many bones sticking out. In addition, Alex’s face had now abandoned its once pale, sickly hue for a healthier, richer color.

As she thought about this, Melanie began to wonder how much longer Alex would need diapers. He still had a ways to go, since he still had nightmares a few times each week, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. But Melanie wanted Alex to abandon the nightmares completely before he got out of diapers. In addition, Alex was still a thumb sucker, and it would be nice if he gave up that, too.

So, how long would this go on? Would it be a couple more weeks, a few months? After a few seconds of pondering this over, Melanie came to the conclusion that she didn’t know when Alex would be out of diapers. Dropping the concept out for now, she went and affectionately wrapped one of her arms around Alex’s bare chest, while her other arm lifted its hand up and used it to continuously weave through Alex’s baby soft, yellow hair.

While she played with his hair, Alex, unlike Melanie, wasn’t thinking about his past at all. He was only concerned with the two wonderful days where he was going to be with his mommy all day. He still thought of this wonderful idea when he raced up the stairs and buried himself under the sheet on the bed. Melanie came up after him, and sat down next to him to read him a story.

Alex intently listened. He loved the bedtime stories. In fact, he looked forward to them every night. It was strange, because he used to always dread the night, because it was the time for the nightmares to reign supreme. But because of the love and attention he now got, the night didn’t seem as bad.

During that time, everything felt perfect. His hair felt softer and no longer scratched at his scalp. His eyelids felt pleasantly heavy from sleepiness. The mattress under him and the pillow below his head cushioned his body with comfort. Even his diaper felt good, with its warm, tight padding lovingly wrapping his privates and loins and waist in babyish softness, while the pleasant scent of fresh baby powder drifted about the room. When all these elements combined with Melanie’s soft, soothing voice, Alex felt safe and loved, reinforcing his secure belief that all his miserable, hurtful days were over.

By the time Melanie was done reading, the weight on Alex’s eyelids had grown heavier, and he had almost fallen asleep. Despite this, Alex managed to sluggishly lift his eyelids. He sleepily looked up at Melanie as she lovingly straightened the sheet out and tucked it under Alex’s chin. She softly said good night to him and kissed him on the forehead. Alex smiled happily and Melanie smiled back as she weaved her fingers through his yellow hair one last time. Just as Alex drifted off into sleep with his thumb in his mouth, she went over and flicked off the lights.

### Part 22

When the sun pushed itself up over the horizon, Alex woke up. He hadn’t had any nightmares last night, and so he felt unusually well rested. His content grew as his memory reminded him that it was Saturday, which meant that Mommy was going to be with him all day and the next day. Alex sat happily in the bed while he thought of this. In a minute or so, he got up and went to the dresser to put some clothes on.

Alex put on a T-shirt and shorts, and then went downstairs, where he watched cartoons until Melanie woke up and made breakfast. After breakfast, Alex got his diaper changed, and he was up in his room both looking at his books and entertaining himself with his mirror reflection.

While he was sitting down, Alex sensed his bowels churning. Nonchalantly, he let his diaper handle everything, and he walked over to Melanie. She changed him again, and both had lunch afterwards.

Following lunch was Alex’s time to go out to the backyard, a little part of which he had claimed for himself. His “property” consisted of a large pile of dirt, which he used for making tunnels, with the help of some sticks he had gathered throughout the backyard. As his hands got dusted with soil, he reflected back to about a week ago; the first time he had started digging the tunnels.

Melanie had had no objections to him digging tunnels in the yard, but she had wanted him to take his clothes (or, at the very least, his pants) off whenever he went outside to play in the dirt. That way, Alex wouldn’t get his clothes dirty, and he would be cooler, too. (However, in all honesty, Melanie was just using those reasons as an excuse to have Alex romp around in just his diaper again).

Although Alex was usually completely obedient to Melanie, this time he didn’t listen to her; he didn’t want to go out with his diaper exposed to the whole world. Even if it was just in the backyard, Alex thought that someone still might see him. Besides, he didn’t need to be cooler; his entire tunnel digging area was situated right under a huge, shady tree. So, he pushed aside Melanie’s words and did what he wanted.

Melanie, of course, was disappointed, though she wasn’t upset with Alex at all; she understood his reasoning. Finally facing reality, she allowed Alex to play outside with his clothes on.

As Alex thought of this, he now fully realized how daring he had been. He felt kind of surprised that he had had the guts to actually disobey Mommy. What was even more surprising was that Mommy never punished him for it; in fact, she didn’t even seem angry with him.

Although he felt proud of himself for doing this, Alex wisely thought that it was something that he shouldn’t try again. Yes, he was tempted to tell Mommy that he should be out of diapers, or at least be allowed to stop wearing those stupid, babyish shortalls; but Alex decided that he shouldn’t push his luck and protest against her a second time.

Finishing that thought, Alex focused all of his attention on his tunnel digging. He worked nonstop for half an hour, until he felt something. His bladder was feeling tingly, and because of this, his diaper started feeling ticklish. Realizing that he needed to pee, Alex stopped digging, sat still, and relaxed his bladder.

As he wet his diaper, the sides and undersides of Alex’s thighs began to sense the diaper’s outer plastic heat up and soften from the hot urine. Meanwhile, Alex’s privates felt the interior-padding swell in size.

When he was finally done, Alex ran back into the house. After a diaper change and a drink, Alex went back outside to play some more.

Silently, Alex scratched at the dirt and carved out more tunnels. He worked at it persistently for a several hours; being so focused that he didn’t even come to Melanie when he wet his diaper again. When he finally got around to it, his diaper had become cold and soggy. Melanie commented on this while she was changing him.

“Wow, Alex,” she said, “it looks like you’ve been wet for a while.”

Alex blushed slightly when she mentioned this, but didn’t reply to her comment.

When Melanie was done changing him, Alex went outside once again for a couple of hours until Melanie called him in to take his bath. After he took one, he watched TV, and then went upstairs to his bedroom, listening to Melanie reading him a story. When Alex fell asleep, Melanie kissed him on the forehead and left the room.

### Part 23

Sunday was very much like Saturday, with Alex doing his routine of reading, watching TV, digging tunnels, and getting diaper changes.

The only thing that was different was that the social worker came to visit them. Alex wasn’t worried; Mommy had already told him about that, and he was well aware that he was just there to make sure everything was ok. He also knew that the social worker was coming to visit for the first six months or so. Alex didn’t have to really do anything; he just went about his normal activities, and besides, the social worker found everything to be all right, anyway, so there wasn’t any stress on his part.

Like the previous day, Alex had enjoyed himself immensely, and was ready to go back to Aunt Susan’s when Monday zoomed up to him.

Monday came, and before he knew it, it was Friday again. Then, after the weekend was over, the cycle started again. A few weeks went by, when, on a Wednesday, Alex encountered something unusual.

The day started out normally. Alex woke up, watched cartoons, ate breakfast, got his diaper changed, and was dropped off at Aunt Susan’s. Nothing unusual. Everything was nice and pleasant. As usual, Alex had removed his shoes and socks and was sitting on the couch looking at his pop-up books, when he began to feel uncomfortable.

His stomach was very sore, and Alex wriggled around in pain before he finally relieved himself in his diaper. The poop was watery, and there was so much of it that Alex even felt it smother his crotch and lower back; and it all came out so fast that at one point Alex was afraid that his diaper was going to leak. But luckily, it didn’t, thanks to the elastic waistband and leg cuffs. However, the diaper had reached full capacity, and was going to leak if Alex used it again.

Knowing this, Alex went up to Aunt Susan as fast as he could, and was quickly lying on the changing table. Although he was used to having Susan change his diapers, Alex still blushed immensely and avoided her gaze as she pulled the diaper back and exposed his filthy crotch and bottom. He knew that Aunt Susan wasn’t in the least bit upset with him, but still, Alex felt both ashamed and embarrassed for making such a huge and disgusting mess for her to clean up.

Many minutes later, Alex was finally in a clean diaper. But not long after that, Alex’s stomach was irritated again, forcing him to use his still-new diaper. He went back up to Aunt Susan to get changed again.

This happened again and again with no stop in sight. Susan made Alex drink a lot to replace the water his body had lost. She also gave Alex some diarrhea medicine, which managed to soothe his stomach. Unfortunately, Susan discovered too late that she had given Alex the medicine after he had gone through all of the diapers that Melanie had packed for him.

Susan mentioned this to Alex while she was changing him, and told him that he would have to use Chris and Brian’s diapers for the rest of the day. She also added in that when he was wearing their diapers, he wouldn’t be able to wear any pants, because the diaper was too big.

Alex’s body tensed up a little as his terror began to rise. Needless to say, he hated the idea of having his diaper exposed to everyone. Yet at the same time, Alex knew he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t just walk around without any underwear; so, he unhappily nodded in response to Aunt Susan.

She quickly wiped the rest of the watery excrement off of Alex’s butt and crotch, and applied lotion and powder. While Alex remained naked from the waist down, Susan grabbed one of the diapers under the changing table and brought it out. In a swift, steady move, she grabbed Alex’s ankles, lifted his butt up, and slid the diaper under him. Immediately after bringing his legs down, she pulled the diaper over Alex’s crotch, and held the front in place as she tightly taped the two sides together. As Aunt Susan pulled his shirt down and unbuckled the belt over his stomach, Alex lay on the changing table; surprised by the new diaper he was wearing.

It turned out to be so thick that it actually forced his legs to spread apart; and Alex wasn’t even able to make his knees touch together. It was also high rising, covering half of Alex’s stomach and stretching up to his lower back. Also, the taping zone characters were larger, the plastic cover was crinklier, and the elastic waistband and leg cuffs grabbed at Alex’s skin in a tighter grip.

A second later, Susan picked him up and carried him downstairs. She said it was easier to watch him on the first floor where everybody else was. Alex began to panic, and Susan went on to reassure Alex that no one would tease him; she would make sure of that.

Alex buried his face into Aunt Susan’s shoulder as he was carried down. After a long, slow walk, he was set onto the couch in the TV room. He looked frantically around. He saw Brian and Chris, but they weren’t paying any attention to him. That was good in Alex’s opinion, but what he was really worried about was when Josh would see him. Sure, Josh already knew Alex was in diapers, but Alex still thought it embarrassing to see a big kid like Josh view him in his diapered state. He dreaded the idea, and desperately hoped Josh wouldn’t see him like this.

Alex’s thoughts were interrupted when Aunt Susan said one last thing to him: since his diaper was so thick, it was there to absorb a lot. This meant that Alex wasn’t allowed to tell her when he needed a change; she would decide that. Alex, realizing that it could be a long time before he was changed, felt his depression accelerate even more.

### Part 24

Alex, clad in only a shirt and a diaper, simply sat on the couch. He tried to look at his books, but the new diaper was way too distracting. Not only did it crackle loudly, but also, the thickness was annoying. His inner thighs were aching from being spread apart like that for so long, and it felt strange to have his butt lifted up a couple of inches off the couch. Nevertheless, Alex finally managed to look at his pop-ups for a little while, until he needed to go to the bathroom.

This time, he had a strong urge to pee and release all the liquids Aunt Susan gave to him. Alex immediately went in the diaper. He started thinking about going to Aunt Susan for a change, but remembered that she had to decide when he needed it. Dejectedly, Alex remained seated on the couch.

A few minutes later, Aunt Susan came in and checked diapers. She first went to Alex, who was sure he was going to be changed. To his disappointment, Aunt Susan didn’t think he needed it, and moved on to Brian and Chris. Seeing that none of boys needed a diaper change, Aunt Susan went to the kitchen to get them drinks.

She came back carrying two bottles, which she gave to Brian and Chris, and a large cup full of juice for Alex.

Alex drank it down thirstily. He then asked for another cup, and another, until he couldn’t drink anymore. His plan was simple: he would wet his diaper more so he could get changed sooner. After a couple of patient hours, it worked. Alex thoroughly soaked the diaper; and like he expected, Aunt Susan came and changed him.

When she was done, she picked him up, carried him back downstairs, and set him back on the couch. Alex was feeling happy that he was finally in a clean diaper when his body grew rigid. Josh was now in the living room.

The eleven year old turned and looked to see who it was. He saw the five year old and said, “Hi Alex.”

Alex didn’t respond. Josh didn’t mind though; he knew Alex was shy, and he could see that he was embarrassed from having his diaper exposed.

Josh simply continued searching about the room; he knew the fly was in here, but he couldn’t see it. For a few seconds, Josh stood while his hand impatiently weaved through his blondish-brown hair. Suddenly he saw it zoom by and he swung at it with the flyswatter.

Josh missed, and instead he almost hit Alex, who jumped; suddenly reminded of the times he had been abused with the belt. “Sorry, Alex,” Josh apologetically said as he went and chased the fly.

Within a few seconds, he lost it again, and the fly was nowhere to be found. However, he was sure that it was still in the room; he could still hear the low buzzing its wings made, so Josh went over to one of the windows and pulled the blinds up to try to attract the fly to the light. The fly soon came, and as it settled on the glass, Josh inched up upon it, and Alex jumped as he heard a huge SMACK that was eerily reminiscent of the sound that Daddy’s belt made with his body.

Finally catching the fly, Josh got a napkin and peeled the tiny corpse off of the window. He then pulled the blinds back down and left the room.

After Alex had recovered from the thought about his past, his mind went back to the present. He sighed with relief from knowing that Josh understood about the diapers. He merely acted as if they weren’t there at all. As Alex thought about this, he now considered that spending the rest of the day in a fully exposed diaper wouldn’t be so bad after all.

### Part 25

Luckily for Alex, the day wasn’t too traumatizing. It was still embarrassing for him to have his diaper out in plain view, but no one ever acted as if it was out of the ordinary. Everyone was so nonchalant about it that Alex started to feel comfortable in his new outfit. However, his relief evaporated when his ears picked up the clear gong of the doorbell.

Of course, it was just Mommy, but for some reason even Alex couldn’t explain, he felt discomforted when he saw her eyes glance at him. Sure, at night, he hung around in just a diaper right in front of her; but nonetheless, Alex still felt uncomfortable to have Mommy see him dressed up like this.

While Alex hung his head down with embarrassment, he heard Aunt Susan quickly explain everything. Melanie nodded, and had Alex put on his shoes and socks. After he did so, she picked him up as her other hand slung a diaper bag and Alex’s shorts over her shoulder.

As Alex was carried outside, he buried his face into Melanie’s shoulder and tried to block his current situation out. At this point, his humiliation was incredible; his diaper was now fully exposed for everyone in the neighborhood to see. Alex expected someone out in the street to comment on his appearance, but thankfully, he never heard any.

When he was finally back in the car and on the way home, Alex looked out the window in a feeble attempt to forget his attire. He was now wearing just a diaper, a T-shirt, and shoes and socks; an outfit that made him feel babyish to an even further degree than the shortalls he disliked so much. His legs ached from the titanic wad of material wedged between them, the crackling plastic was unpleasantly loud, and the feeling of helplessness mercilessly gnawed at his dignity.

When Melanie led the car back into the garage and turned the key to OFF, Alex simply sat in the car seat and waited for her to take him out. He knew that the diapers wouldn’t let him walk; he already found that out at Aunt Susan’s. During the hours he had been waiting to wet his diaper enough to get changed, he had tried walking through the house. Instead, all the diaper would let him do was waddle, and Alex didn’t like this at all; the waddling made him feel even more babyish. As a result, he went back to the couch and sat on it for the rest of his stay with Aunt Susan.

Finally, Melanie came and got Alex out. After she carried him up to his room, she went back downstairs to make dinner.

Alex removed his shoes and socks and climbed up on the bed, still embarrassed that Mommy saw him dressed like this. He lied down on the bed, thinking of nothing in particular, until Melanie came and carried him downstairs.

As Alex ate, he squirmed around uncomfortably. He had wet his diaper several times by now, and he was desperate for a change. But it still wasn’t enough to convince Melanie that he needed one; there was no way she was letting such an absorbent diaper go to waste.

However, luck soon turned to Alex’s favor. While Alex was eating, he had a sudden urge to pee, a lot. He sat still and let out as much urine as he could. If he was lucky, he would wet the diaper enough to require a change.

Sure enough, by the time dinner was done, Alex had completely soaked it. Soon following that was the highly anticipated change, and Alex lay still as the enormous diaper was untaped and pulled away from his body. Melanie then quickly wiped him up, and left the room (it was Alex’s bath time, so she didn’t bother diapering him).

After he bathed and brushed his teeth, Alex returned to the room, and was put into one of his regular diapers. The difference in them was amazing; even though they were actually a little thicker than most diapers, they felt skimpy and paper-thin compared to the ones Alex had worn for most of the day. Happy with the fact that he could finally walk without waddling, Alex walked downstairs and sat on the couch to watch Spongebob.

### Part 26

Nothing unusual happened for the next couple of weeks until, on a Saturday night, Melanie told Alex that they were going to visit another friend of hers. She was Aunt Vicky. Like the time when he first met Aunt Susan, Alex was afraid of this, and he asked Melanie if Aunt Vicky was nice. Although Melanie told him that she was, Alex’s shy nature refused to trust her words.

The next morning, Alex was in the car on the way to visit Aunt Vicky. Wearing a T-shirt, shortalls, and shoes and socks, he nervously looked out the window with his thumb in his mouth. He tried to mentally tell himself that everything was all right; he didn’t need to be so scared anymore. After all, he felt scared when he met Aunt Susan, but she turned out to be nice, so why should Aunt Vicky be any different? However, for some reason, his mind still couldn’t agree with this, and Alex’s tension began to grow as he and Mommy came closer and closer to Aunt Vicky’s house.

In an unbelievably short time, Alex found himself hiding behind Melanie while her index finger made contact with the doorbell. A couple of seconds fleeted by, and the door flew open, revealing Aunt Vicky. Alex nervously gazed up at this new person.

Aunt Vicky was gigantic. Her skinny body seemed to tower over Mommy, even though she was probably only about a couple inches taller. Unlike Mommy, who’s slender body possessed long, straight brown hair, Aunt Vicky had yellow hair tinged with a slight tea color; sort of like Aunt Susan’s, except puffier and bouncier.

While Alex observed her jiggling hair, he began to feel nervous. He didn’t like the way it moved. In fact, he didn’t like the way Aunt Vicky looked at all. She had kind of a creepy feeling, as if something bad was going to happen around her soon. Alex was unable to explain why he had this bad feeling about her, he didn’t disregard it. Although Alex was only five, he knew that his feelings were usually right, even when his own logic told him that they were wrong.

As he thought about this, Alex shivered. He held onto Melanie’s hand in an even tighter grip. His tension amplified. He wasn’t just nervous; he was terrified of Aunt Vicky. Now, Alex could feel his bladder tingling and the diaper under his shortalls tickle him, as if his own fear would consume his bladder control and make him wet his diaper without realizing it. The thumb on his right hand—the thumb that he sucked on—felt cold and detached, as if it was some kind of alien appendage that didn’t belong with his fingers. Finally, there seemed to be a mist around Aunt Vicky; a cold, cruel mist that penetrated Alex’s vertebrae and chilled the spinal cord within it into solid ice.

Now, Alex knew that he wouldn’t like Aunt Vicky. He wanted to tell his mommy that they should go home, or at least get away from Aunt Vicky. Despite his desire to do so, Alex knew that Mommy wouldn’t be persuaded. As he watched that evil hair beckon to him again, Alex miserably went with Melanie as she walked into Aunt Vicky’s lair.

A few minutes later, while Alex was sitting on a chair looking at a book, Melanie and Vicky sat on a sofa on the other side of the room. As they talked about him, Alex listened intently to their conversation.

“He’s really cute,” he heard Aunt Vicky heartedly say, “How long have you had him?”

Alex then heard Mommy reply, “A little over two months now.”

“How’s he been?” Aunt Vicky asked.

“Alex is great. You wouldn’t believe how well behaved he is. Also, he’s quite cheerful now, compared to when I got him two months ago.”

“Why,” Aunt Vicky asked, “what happened?”

“Oh—I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this—um, Alex used to be abused by his parents, and because of that, he had a really bad problem with nightmares. It doesn’t happen as often as it used to. Now, he only gets them a few times a week.”

Alex cringed a little as he heard this. Yes, he was getting over his trauma, but it was still painful for him to hear about his past. He shook the pain off, and continued to eavesdrop.

“Huh,” Aunt Susan said in an indifferent tone, “So, did he have any regressions because of this abuse? Such as bedwetting, or thumb sucking?”

“Well,” Alex heard Mommy hesitantly say, “yes. Alex did-and still does-suck his thumb whenever he’s nervous.”

“He still does that?” Aunt Vicky said in a disapproving voice.

Alex once again cringed. The evil presence around Aunt Vicky seemed to grow when she said that. Alex could also now tell that Aunt Vicky didn’t like him, and that she didn’t have any plans to be nice to him. Tears were welling up in his eyes from this realization, but Alex fought them back and forced himself to listen some more.

“Well, I don’t blame him,” Mommy said in response to Aunt Vicky’s disapproval, “He’s really gone through a lot.”

“But it’s been two months since he’s been with you, right? I thought he would have been over that by now.”

“Sometimes,” Alex heard Mommy reply, “things take time.”

The conversation temporarily stopped. Alex nervously wondered what they would say next when he heard the booming voice of Aunt Vicky say, “So, how did you manage to reduce the nightmares? Was he just happy with you, or did you give him something to lessen them?”

“Well, I think that he was just happier” Mommy said in as nonchalant a voice as she could.

Hearing this, Aunt Vicky became convinced that Melanie wasn’t telling her everything. She then pressured her more on the subject, and continued to probe at her responses until Melanie was forced to tell her everything. Broken in, Melanie told Vicky about how she made Alex wear diapers, and the reason why he was still in them.

Unfortunately, Aunt Vicky didn’t take this well. She bombarded Melanie about this, and went on and on, making no effort to hide her disapproval of both her, and especially, Alex. Soon, Alex couldn’t tolerate her comments about him anymore. Extremely hurt by Vicky’s words, he began to cry.

When Melanie heard Alex’s sobs, she immediately knew why Alex was upset. Wanting to comfort him as soon as possible, Melanie broke the conversation with Aunt Vicky with some difficulty. Then she scooped up Alex, said a quick farewell to Aunt Vicky, and left.

### Part 27

Alex was still sobbing when he was in the car. Melanie’s guilt grew as she heard him cry. She should have known that Vicky wouldn’t have approved of Alex; she had always been that way.

When they had finally gotten home, Melanie carried Alex into his bedroom and tried to comfort him. By then, his crying had reduced, but he was still sniffling. While Melanie hugged him, she reassured him that he was never going to see Aunt Vicky again, and she apologized to him profusely for his poor treatment.

Although Alex was comforted in the fact that he wouldn’t see Aunt Vicky anymore, he remained gloomy for the rest of the day. The vicious words about his diapers and his thumb sucking constantly haunted him. Alex even had a hard time sleeping, because he wore his pajamas to cover up his diaper (he was ashamed to show them even to Melanie because of Aunt Vicky’s words); and at first, he tried to fall asleep without sucking his thumb; a plan which miserably failed. However, that wasn’t the last of the effects from Aunt Vicky. Alex also had a really bad nightmare, and Melanie had to come and comfort him.

Monday came, and Alex went off to stay at Susan’s as usual. When Melanie arrived in the afternoon, Susan led her into the kitchen for a talk.

“Is Alex okay?” Susan asked in a concerned voice, “He seemed a little depressed today.”

“He’s depressed,” responded Melanie, “because I took him to meet Vicky yesterday, and it didn’t turn out too well. Alex started crying because he could tell that Vicky didn’t like him. I’m never seeing her again.”

“I don’t blame you.” Susan agreed, “She was always narrow minded.”

“Yeah,” Melanie replied grimly, “but should have known that it wouldn’t have gone well.”

“Why? Because she was narrow min”—

“No, not that,” Melanie cut in, “I should have listened to Alex. I don’t know why, but he somehow knew it wasn’t going to go well.”

“What happened?” Susan asked.

“Alex got really agitated when he saw her,” Melanie responded,” He was holding my hand really, really tight, and he started fidgeting a lot; and he was pulling my arm, as if he wanted me to get away from Vicky. I’ve never seen him do that before. He didn’t get antsy like that when he first met you, even though he was just as nervous about seeing you. I mean, it’s like he was precognitive or something.”

“Maybe he’s put his instinct to use more than others, or maybe he’s just really good at telling what feelings a person has. You know, he’s just observant.”

“Yeah,” Melanie said, “that’s it. He’s good at sensing feelings. I should have just listened to him and gone back.”

As she said this, Melanie began to feel even guiltier about bringing Alex to Vicky’s. It was at this time that her mind slipped back to many of her past events; one of them explaining why she had always been so much closer to Susan than Vicky.

When Melanie was in college, she hadn’t been doing so well. Her family wasn’t exactly able to afford college. But luckily for her, she became good friends with Susan, who happened to come from a rich family, a very rich one. Because of Susan’s help, Melanie was able to pay off her student loans and get a place to live. In a few years, Melanie had gotten a fairly high paying job, and was able to pay back Susan, despite her insistence that she shouldn’t.

Around the same time she met Susan, Melanie had also met Vicky who, though not as rich as Susan, also came from a fairly well off family. However, she had always been a little snobbish, and had a tendency to smoke and drink a lot. But Melanie became friends with her because she and Vicky took many of the same classes together, and as a result, frequently helped each other out with their homework. Despite this, Melanie’s friendship with Vicky was always a little unstable; they were way too different. To Melanie, Susan had always been the better friend. Sure, she didn’t help out with homework as often as Vicky, but she was much nicer and easier going. And, when Melanie thought about it, Susan was the one who truly helped her out. Without her, Melanie had no idea how she would have been able to pay off all those debts.

However, those now fifteen years of friendship hadn’t always gone smoothly. Melanie remembered one incident in particular that happened about five years ago. That time, Susan had told Melanie that she planned to kidnap a bratty kid and diaper discipline him. She only told Melanie because she was her best friend, and the only one she truly trusted.

Melanie, of course, didn’t think it was a good idea to break the law. However, what held her back from calling the police was the knowledge that she had never seen Susan do something without good reason. And Melanie’s instinct told her that this was no exception, despite her judgment’s plea to not go along with it. Soon after that, Susan had told her she had done it, and Melanie hesitantly went over to see the kid.

It was Josh who had been kidnapped. He was tied down on his stomach to a crib, clad in only a diaper. The then six year old was furious. His eyes seemed to glow with anger, and enraged words mumbled their way out of his pacifier-strapped mouth. Now, part of Josh’s rage was probably due to his new situation, but even with that consideration, Melanie could see that Josh was a bratty kid. Despite her still uneasy feelings about this idea, she was beginning to get interested in how this diaper discipline would turn out.

A few months later, Melanie came to visit Susan again on a rainy winter day. Josh was sitting on the floor playing with some toys. He was wearing a short T-shirt, a diaper, and a pair of socks. To Melanie’s surprise, he looked up and politely said hello. Then, Melanie’s shock increased as she and Susan talked. Even though Josh wasn’t in any restraints, and had no pacifier strapped to his mouth, he remained silent and still the entire time. During the conversation, Melanie had to glance at Josh several times, not because of his attire, but because she couldn’t believe that this polite child was the same bratty kid she had encountered not so long ago.

Because of the enormous success the diapers had had with Josh, Melanie didn’t object too much when Susan had kidnapped Brian and Chris about a year ago, and—

“Melanie. Melanie?”

“Huh?” asked Melanie, blinking.

“You were spaced out for a while,” responded Susan, “Are you tired or something?”

“Yeah, I am. It’s from waking up to tend to Alex. I love him dearly, but sometimes, it gets annoying having to get up in the middle of the night just to change his diaper, or comfort him from a bad nightmare.”

“That’s understandable,” Susan simply replied.

The conversation now ended, and so Melanie called for Alex. Alex came in soon enough, still depressed from the experience with Vicky. He was dragging his feet a little, and he didn’t seem as energetic as he usually was. His eyes were no longer bright with childish innocence; instead they were dark and adult. Even Alex’s hair seemed gloomy. Usually, it was cleanly parted, with some fluffy stragglers bouncing on Alex’s forehead. But now, it was lying in a meaningless, jumbled heap. It’s usual fluffy, baby softness was greasy and scratchy, and its bright yellow tone seemed a little washed out.

Alex finally dragged his body over to where Melanie was, and then glumly followed her as she walked out the door.

### Part 28

Alex’s depression continued on for another day or so. However, he managed to recover, and he was back to his normal self by Friday.

It was now Friday night, and Alex was lying down on the couch watching Spongebob. He felt great. The cold breeze from the air conditioning cooled his body. His diaper was still brand new, and had some of its coldness left. Mommy was happy with him, and she was hugging him and playing with his hair.

But, Alex’s cheerful self didn’t last too long. While his diaper clad body was spread out, Melanie told him that her brother and sister—Uncle Dave and Aunt Sarah—were coming to visit them tomorrow on Saturday. She went further to inform him that he should be able to get along with Uncle Dave, because he really liked kids.

Alex didn’t like this. Remembering how badly Aunt Vicky treated him, he began to feel scared. Sure, this Uncle Dave was supposed to like kids, but would he like him if he found out he wore diapers? What about Aunt Sarah? Mommy never said she liked kids, so she might be mean to him like Aunt Vicky.

While these thoughts were racing through Alex’s head, he decided to ask Melanie a couple questions that were bothering him. He nervously blurted out, “Do they know I have to wear”---

“Yes, Alex,” Melanie calmly responded, “they already know you wear diapers. Both of them are fine with it.”

“What about my”—

“Thumb sucking?” Melanie cut in. Alex nodded. “They know about that, too. Neither of them has a problem with it. Everything’s ok with them.”

Alex nodded. He felt somewhat relieved. Uncle Dave and Aunt Sarah were fine with his thumb sucking and diapers. But still, his experience with Aunt Vicky held him back from complete relief.

Alex could clearly remember that Mommy said Aunt Vicky was nice, but she wasn’t. What if Uncle Dave and Aunt Sarah were like that, too? What if they were mean and drunk like Mommy and Daddy? Or what if they were like the six year old at the orphanage, who called him a baby and told him that he should be in the nursery getting his diaper changed with the other babies?

Thinking of all these possible outcomes made Alex even more scared. What made it worse was that time seemed to have sped up. Before he knew it, he was in bed, and Mommy had finished the bedtime story and was turning off the lights.

Now, Alex was alone in his room, lying down under the lone sheet on the bed in nothing but a diaper. As he hoped for the best outcome—that Uncle Dave and Aunt Sarah were nice—he curled up even tighter and sucked his thumb.

### Part 29

It was now around noon on Saturday, and Melanie was looking forward to seeing her siblings, whom she hadn’t seen in a while. While imagining this, Melanie’s anticipation caused her mind to digress back to when she and her siblings were kids.

Melanie was by far the oldest sibling in the family. She was eight years older than her sister Sarah, and ten years older than her brother Dave. Naturally, Melanie had been taught how to change diapers as soon as Sarah had been born. She distinctly remembered that she hated the chore, especially since she wasn’t rewarded in any way for doing such a disgusting task. Luckily, the grossness of doing it faded away by the time Dave was born. The only problem was that now there were two kids in diapers, which meant more work for Melanie.

Although she was used to changing diapers by now, Melanie was getting sick of having to change two kids, but her mother forced her to do it. She told Melanie it was good practice for when she had children of her own.

Melanie understood her mother’s point, but still, the work was tedious. What didn’t help was that Sarah had happened to be one of those kids that took a while to toilet train (a rare case in girls, according to Melanie’s mother), so Melanie was changing two kids for quite some time.

Luckily for Melanie, the torture finally stopped about a year later, when Dave finally became toilet trained at around age two. Melanie was in pure bliss after that, until later, as a teenager, she babysat to make extra money, meaning that she was required to change diapers again. However, after changing her two siblings for four years, Melanie was used to it, and didn’t find the task to be too bad.

Melanie sighed to herself, thinking about those days. Yes, she hated changing diapers, but Melanie also recalled how glad she was in the fact that she had done it. No, it wasn’t because the skill came in use now that Alex was around, it was because Melanie had discovered that she could use her experience as a weapon against her siblings. If Melanie was angry at them, all she had to do was rant on about how she changed their diapers as babies, and then go into vivid detail about it until her siblings gave in to make her shut up. She had gotten the idea from her mother, who used the same form of humiliation on Melanie many years ago.

Melanie’s mind now snapped back into the real world. Her memories now increased her excitement in seeing her siblings. She couldn’t wait to show them her adopted son Alex, who, unfortunately, wasn’t as excited about seeing them as Melanie was.

Actually, Alex wasn’t looking forward to seeing them; he was dreading it. According to Mommy, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sarah could come any minute. While waiting for the sound of the doorbell, Alex sucked his thumb vigorously as his small body curled up into a ball at the far end of the foyer. After several silent and threatening minutes, the doorbell gonged in an ominous tone.

Alex panicked. His shy personality wanted to be away from them, so Alex sprinted up the stairs to his room and dove onto his bed.

### Part 30

Melanie opened the door and immediately let her siblings in. They talked excitedly until Dave asked where Alex was. Melanie explained that he was hiding in his room, and that she would get him.

She walked upstairs and went to Alex’s room, only to find the door closed and locked. Luckily, she had a key, and soon got it opened.

When Melanie came into the room, she saw Alex curled up into a ball on the bed. He was clearly scared about the whole situation. Melanie walked right toward Alex, scooped him up, and carried him back down, assuring him along the way that everything was going to be fine.

As Melanie came back with Alex in her arms, Sarah let out an annoying awwwww, while Dave’s smile widened. Like Melanie said, Dave really loved kids, even though his reaction upon seeing Alex wasn’t as energetic as Sarah’s. Sarah was the one who wasn’t into kids. She had nothing against them; she just wasn’t interested. However, in Sarah’s opinion, Alex might be the exception.

“He’s really cute,” Sarah said in genuine awe.

Alex cringed in exasperation. Why did everyone say he was cute?

“I know, isn’t he?” Melanie proudly said.

“Here, can I hold him?” asked Dave.

Melanie handed Alex over to Dave, who gave him such a friendly smile that Alex started to form a smile in return. But it completely disintegrated within a couple seconds.

Alex still needed time to adjust to these new people. Uncle Dave intimidated him. He was not only really tall; he had such a muscular body that just one of his arms dwarfed Alex’s skinny, five year old body. In a few seconds, however, Alex’s thoughts were interrupted when Dave started tickling him in the stomach.

At first, all Alex did was squirm a little, but then a smile spread across his face and he let out a slight giggle. Sarah saw him smile and she let out another one of her annoying awwws. But Alex didn’t pay much attention. He continued to smile and let out an occasional giggle until Dave stopped tickling him. Dave then gave him a tight hug and set Alex down on the ground.

Alex looked up at him. Uncle Dave wasn’t so bad after all. He was huge, but he was friendly. Also, he didn’t have a misty, acrid alcohol odor around him like Daddy, which to Alex, was a really good sign.

Aunt Sarah was ok too, though she was really getting on Alex’s nerves with those awwws. Alex was also getting aggravated by how Aunt Sarah kept going on and on about how cute he was and how his eyes were beautiful.

But still, even though Aunt Sarah was irritating, she, like Uncle Dave, didn’t trigger any of those bad feelings in him. That’s what truly reassured Alex: his instinct told him that these people were okay.

The rest of the day went smoothly. Not even the diaper changes ruined it. Whenever Alex needed a change, he would just whisper in Melanie’s ear and she’d take him up to his room and change him. When he’d come back down, neither Aunt Sarah or Uncle Dave said anything about it.

Unfortunately, Uncle Dave (and Aunt Sarah) had to leave a few hours later. Alex was disappointed. During the time that he had spent with Dave, Alex discovered that he was extremely funny, as well as friendly. The two got along so well that Uncle Dave managed to make Alex laugh and smile several times without even trying to.

After they left, Alex asked Melanie when Uncle Dave would come again. Melanie simply responded that Thanksgiving might be the next time he’ll see him. Hearing this, Alex gave such a dejected look that Melanie hastily added on to her statement: she promised Alex that she would try to make Uncle Dave come back sooner. Alex smiled happily over this, and hoped that this would come true.

### Part 31

Melanie had kept that promise, and a few days later, she told Alex that she had called Uncle Dave to see if he could come sooner than Thanksgiving. To Alex’s delight, Melanie told him that he would try to come whenever he had the time: most likely in a couple of weeks. Sure, a couple of weeks sounded like a long time to Alex, but, it was at least something to look forward, as opposed to the other event that he was now dreading.

Almost a month had passed since he had met Dave and Sarah, and September was looming up ahead; pushing August aside until only a week and a half remained. At the beginning of September, right after Labor Day, Alex was told that he would be starting Kindergarten.

Of course, Alex hadn’t responded well to this. He hated the idea of school. The most repulsive part was that he would be surrounded by other kids for hours at a time; kids that might find out about his diapers, and pick on him like that six year old. It didn’t help that Mommy told him that his diapers would get changed by the school nurse; that was just another stranger that was going to see him naked; and Alex was sure that the other kids were going to notice that he would walking out of class a lot. How was he going to explain that?

Alex asked this question specifically, and Mommy only told him that he should hold it in as long as he could, and then use his diaper and go get changed at recess; that way people wouldn’t notice him being gone. It was a good idea to Alex’s point of view, he still saw obvious loopholes in it, but he didn’t ask any more questions concerning his diapers (mainly because he knew that the answers wouldn’t help much).

Melanie looked down at Alex, deep in thought. Even before he said it, she knew that Alex wouldn’t like the idea of going to Kindergarten. She had considered to have Susan home school him like Josh; she had the skill, and Melanie was sure that she would be more than happy to teach Alex. But there were two problems with this idea: 1) although Susan was only home schooling Josh now, Melanie knew that she was going to home school Brian and Chris eventually, too. Adding Alex to the three that Susan was going to be teaching might put a strain on her. Since they were all different ages, she was going to have to make three different lesson plans every day (Brian and Chris were the same age, so they counted as one lesson plan). However, this, in Melanie’s opinion, was a weak point. She knew Susan liked Alex; and was perfectly willing to add a little more stress to her own life to enhance his.

What really made Melanie choose public school over Susan’s home schooling was her second thought: Alex, though much less emotionally traumatized by now, still lacked good social skills. He only played by himself, and when he did feel social, he only wanted her or Susan to play with him. Even though there were a lot of kids around Alex’s age in their neighborhood, Melanie had never seen Alex even try to interact with them. Alex ignored even Brian and Chris. Melanie thought that Alex would like them by now because he was familiar with them, and they also wore diapers, so they would be more understanding towards each other. But like almost everyone else, Alex gave Brian and Chris the cold shoulder and continued to play alone.

Because of this, she decided that public school was better. Having being surrounded by other kids would teach Alex the social skills that he would need later in life, especially when he became old enough to get a job. Nowadays, pretty much every occupation Melanie could think of wanted their employees to have good communication skills; something that Alex definitely didn’t have. It would be good for Alex if he learned this skill as soon as possible.

While Melanie tended to remain focused on the big picture, Alex continued to pick at the little things; that kids would be there, that these kids would pick on him if (or more likely, when, in Alex’s frightened mind) they found out he wore diapers and went to the bathroom in the same method that a baby would. Or, Alex pondered nervously; maybe it wouldn’t be his classmates that would find out about his diapers. Maybe the really big kids, like the first graders, or, Alex fancied, the fifth graders, would find out. Maybe a group of them would chase him around the school and finally corner him, where one of them would grab his pants and shove it down, revealing his diaper, all the while torturing him physically and verbally without mercy….

Alex cringed while this mental image—and many other similar ones—passed through him. He didn’t think it was possible, but the idea of Kindergarten now sounded like one of the scariest things in the world; almost as scary as the day Mommy and Daddy died. It was even scarier than the day he was adopted, or the brown bag, or when he met Aunt Vicky. Every second that Alex thought about Kindergarten, the kids he would have to meet, how they would react if (or when, Alex mentally reminded himself) they saw his diapers, made Alex so delirious with tension that he thought he was going to go mad.

But, there was still reassurance. Kindergarten was going to come in about two and a half weeks. That was still quite a while. He wouldn’t have to worry about Kindergarten, Alex reassured himself. It was still too far away to think about it.

### Part 32

Since Kindergarten was coming close, Melanie tested Alex on his knowledge to see if he was ready. As it turned out, he was, academically, more than ready. According to the standards requirements, Alex was definitely ready to attend Kindergarten. He could work independently, read and verbally spell his own name, and was able to follow simple directions, among a few other requirements. The only one that Alex truly didn’t meet was the same reason that Melanie had him go to public school: the ability to interact (well) with peers. However, she knew that just because Alex was antisocial didn’t mean that he was inconsiderate. Melanie already knew that Alex was polite to other kids, and he was willing to share his own possessions with them.

The other requirement that Alex didn’t meet per se was being able to go to the bathroom by himself. Of course, Melanie knew that Alex knew how, though, obviously, because of the diapers, he wasn’t using this particular skill; and, by the looks of it, might not use it for several more months.

Still, luck favors the prepared, so despite the fact that Alex knew more than the minimum amount of requirements, Melanie worked with him for the remaining two and a half weeks in developing his reading and math skills. Some of these included teaching Alex what number came after 199 (since Alex didn’t know), and expanding his vocabulary. She also got Susan to work with Alex while he was with her.

To Melanie’s delight, Alex learned quickly, though that didn’t necessarily mean he liked it. To Alex’s point of view, all of this extra learning was idiotic and pointless. He knew that he already had more knowledge than most, if not all, of the Kindergartners that would be in his class; and he didn’t see why he had to learn more. Besides, Kindergarten still hadn’t started, so Alex really didn’t like the idea of wasting the rest of his precious summer days with learning how to read more and how to add and subtract. Alex also noticed that Mommy kept bombarding him with review questions on what he learned to make sure that he had absorbed the information. She did it almost anywhere and anytime, while Alex was watching TV, when he was looking at his reflection in his room, during meals, or while he was playing out in the yard.

Alex was frustrated. He wanted to yell at Mommy to make her and Aunt Susan stop, but like always, he didn’t have the guts to protest against her. So miserably, Alex endured this for several days. He eventually got so fed up with this that he found methods to stall for time. Alex started taking longer while bathing and brushing his teeth, and he continuously drank more so he could wet his diaper more often, and therefore, get more changes.

Melanie saw through the latter, and to Alex’s fury, she started to review questions even during diaper changes. This was especially infuriating to Alex. He would be lying down on the bed, being perfectly still while he was being wiped up, and just when Mommy got out the baby powder, she’d ask him stupid things like how to spell the word “river,” or what he would get when he added the number “two” with “three.”

However, Alex ended up winning. It happened about a week into the teaching; when Kindergarten was just around a week and a half away. He was sitting on the couch watching Spongebob as usual, his legs drawn up to his chest, with both of his arms wrapped around them. Instead of cuddling up next to Melanie like usual, he sat on a different couch, taking occasional resentful glances at the other couch, where Melanie was. He was barely containing his anger. He honestly couldn’t remember when he had been angrier with Mommy; not even the resent he had when she first diapered him could compare to this.

Yet it wasn’t just the anger that was itching at Alex. The stress of the dreaded Kindergarten and all the learning and reviewing had gotten to him, too. Alex’s nightmares started to go up a little, his thumb sucking was becoming even more chronic, and sometimes, when the stress was particularly high, Alex felt like he couldn’t control his bladder or bowels anymore like he used to. Instead it would just come out into his diaper unexpectedly.

As Alex thought of all of this, his mind started slipping into a flashback, one of his many memories of being with Mommy and Daddy. He had had flashbacks before; but unlike the nightmares, they were only occasional. Alex thought that he was through with those flashbacks, but he apparently wasn’t. Now, his stressed out mind caused him to conjure up another one.

### Part 33

It was a little vague, and it wasn’t centered on an event, more like an object. During this flashback, Alex was reminded of his favorite object when he was living with Mommy and Daddy. It was a pacifier, a red one possessing a yellow ring. As Alex recalled, whenever he wasn’t eating, drinking, talking, or brushing his teeth he was sucking on it day and night.

But one day, his beloved pacifier just disappeared. To this day, Alex still didn’t know exactly what happened to it. It disappeared right after Alex was taken out of diapers and becoming toilet trained. As Alex reflected over this, he began to feel sure that his pacifier was thrown away; it fit right in with what Mommy and Daddy had told him. He distinctly remembered being told that since he didn’t wear diapers anymore, he was a big boy, and big boys didn’t suck on pacifiers, either.

But of course, Alex didn’t take this well. Desperate to find something, he started sucking his thumb instead. It was a good substitute, and it was also convenient, because Alex didn’t have to worry about it getting lost; it was always there when he needed it.

The memory now faded, and was replaced by another. This time, it swirled back to when Alex was barely three years old, just around the time Mommy and Daddy started getting mean. As Alex reflected, he supposed this particular beating really was his fault, but did Mommy and Daddy have to be so mean? As his mind completely latched itself into his past experiences, Alex concluded that they didn’t have to be. After all, he decided, he was a little kid back then, when he didn’t know any better.

It was a vivid memory. Alex could remember most of it very clearly, almost as if it was happening right now. He even remembered what he wore during that event. He was clad in a white Sesame Street T-shirt, with the sleeves and elastic collar a dark blue. The only other thing that he was wearing was a pair of training pants (that’s what his parents called them. However, when Alex thought about it, the orphanage workers and the six year old called them Pull-Ups). He was sitting in a booster seat at the table, eating. Things were fine until Mommy told him to eat something; Alex couldn’t exactly remember what. Whatever it was, he remembered that he really didn’t like it. The three-year-old Alex knew that this thing was gross from past experience. He told his Mommy that he didn’t want to. Mommy told him again to eat it, this time in a stern voice. Alex, despite the fear that came up from the tone of her voice, said no to her again.

By now, Daddy started getting angry, and he told Alex in a harsh voice that he should listen to Mommy. Alex shifted a little in his booster seat, not responding, deciding whether or not he should eat that really gross thing. While he was still thinking about it, Daddy lost his patience with him and yelled at Alex, coming so close to him that Alex felt his own face become laced with saliva. Before Alex could answer, Daddy pushed back his chair, stood up, and quickly left the room.

Alex, knowing what was going to happen, panicked. He tried to leave the room but Mommy got up and grabbed him by the forearm and dragged him back. Alex started crying, his body trembling with fear while he accidentally wet himself. In a short time, he saw Daddy come back with the belt. This belt was not a typical belt; it had been modified for inflicting punishment. The buckle had been removed, and in the place of the buckle was a loop for Daddy’s right hand to go into.

In no time, Mommy shoved him to Daddy, who laid him across his lap and lifted up his Sesame Street T-shirt and pulled down his training pants. Alex trembled

again, waiting for the belt to come down.

Daddy only ended up spanking Alex five times, but each one inflicted an excruciating, burning sensation on his bottom. As Alex bawled, he felt Daddy pull his training pants back up and push his shirt down. After he was lifted up from Daddy’s lap, Alex started sucking his thumb.

Mommy’s hand lunged towards Alex and grabbed his arm, forcing him to pull his thumb out. As Alex cried even harder from the tightness of her grip, he heard Mommy yell, “ALEX!!! WHAT IS IT WITH YOU!!! YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW, WHY DO YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE A BABY!!! WHAT’S SO HARD ABOUT NOT SUCKING YOUR THUMB!!! AN”--

Alex saw her head jerk down, both of them now noticing his wet training pants.

--“YOU WET YOURSELF, DIDN’T YOU!!! WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER POTTY TRAINING YOU WHEN YOU KEEP WETTING YOUR PANTS LIKE A BABY!!! GRRR—I’M SO SICK OF THIS ALEX!!! IF YOU KEEP THIS UP, I’M GOING TO…”

…at first, things weren’t so bad after that. Alex started behaving the best he could and did whatever Mommy and Daddy said. It worked for a while, and so Alex got along with his parents. But then something happened that changed that. Alex couldn’t remember much, but he did recall how Daddy was yelling that he’d lost his job; and then went on into something about how the company laid off most of its employees, including him; and that he couldn’t find a new one. Mommy got upset from this, and both of them started taking their stress out on Alex, who, for the most part, was oblivious to what was happening, though he could sense the strain that was ever growing inside his parents.

Alex’s life soon plummeted fast after that. Both of his parents started to become impatient with him. They were less flexible with Alex now, and started to punish him frequently. It was primarily because of three things (the latter two being, ironically, a result of the stress that Alex had sensed in his parents). These three reasons were Alex’s thumb sucking, his bedwetting, and the fact that he began to have frequent accidents in his training pants; using them more like a diaper instead of regular underwear.

Somewhere in this jumbled mess of memories, Alex knew that Daddy had started drinking a lot, and so did Mommy, making the beatings even worse. Alex also remembered that around this time, his back started to get belt marks. Even after the agonizing sting from the belt faded, Alex discovered in the mirror one day that the marks they left were still there, and they wouldn’t come off no matter how hard he tried.

Alex teared up. Like his other memories, it was hard not to cry thinking about them. He made a sincere effort not to break down; he knew if he did, Mommy would come and try to comfort him, and Alex didn’t want her to be around, now that she was mean with all the reviewing and question-asking. This thought strengthened his will, and so all Alex did was let out a slight sob. But even though it stopped him from crying, it didn’t prevent another horrible memory from breaking into Alex’s mind.

This intruding memory reminded Alex of a day that occurred soon after he had noticed the scars. The event that composed this memory was a result of Alex’s training pants accidents. They had become common to the point where Alex was going in his training pants more than in the toilet. He vaguely remembered that one time, after Daddy had given him his usual spanking for wetting his training pants, Mommy moved in and forcefully diapered Alex, calling him a baby while she did so. A crying Alex was then shoved out onto the front yard to play while wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt. The three-year-old Alex didn’t play; he just cried into his hands while he sat on the lawn and bent over to rest his elbows on his thighs. He recalled seeing a couple of people pass by out of the corner of his eye, staring at him. Despite his bawling, the passersby just walked on, assuming that Alex was crying because of his diapered state, even though, in reality, that wasn’t the case.

Although that memory was a little hazy, Alex remembered enough of it to know that his crying was actually caused by his new life. At that time, his diaper wasn’t important; what was important was how Mommy and Daddy were treating him. They were brutal to Alex, constantly shouting and hitting him. He had wanted to tell the passersby what his parents were doing to him, so they could go to jail and he wouldn’t be hit anymore. Alex had even considered running away at that moment. But he didn’t do either; because he knew Mommy was watching him right now out of a window.

Alex had cried until his voice grew hoarse. His throat now sore and his face wet with tears and mucus, he quieted down and sat still, feeling sorry for himself. His small, three year old body felt the grass brushing up against his bare legs. The sun beamed down and warmed his scarred, belt beaten back. In the distance, birds were chirping pleasantly in rustling trees. Simultaneously, Alex sensed his shirt brush up against his diaper’s crinkling plastic cover. While he felt this, Alex noticed the diaper release its fresh, baby powder-like fragrance on him, the elastic waistband and leg gatherers seemed to caress him; and the interior padding cushioned his sore bottom, still tinged crimson from the spanking Daddy had given him earlier today for his accident.

Even though the diaper was taped up too tightly, it, like everything else, started to feel comfortable to Alex. For once, he felt safe, and the affectionate feelings coming from his diaper, the grass, the birds, and the sun calmed him down considerably. After a few minutes of mute crying, he brought his knees up to his chest and loosely wrapped his arms around his legs. He snuffed up the thin, clear mucus running out of his nose, wiped the tears and excess snot off his face, and relaxed, silently enjoying the warm sunlight on his body.

Sometime later, he heard Mommy open the door and walk up to him. Alex’s calm, placid state of mind jolted with fear. His eyes started to shimmer with tears again. She stopped in front of him, bent down, grabbed his forearm, and forced him to stand up. While Alex stood nervously on shaking legs, she swerved him around so that his back was facing her. Without warning, one of her hands grabbed the rear waistband of his diaper and pulled it back so hard that Alex thought the tapes would rip. He felt Mommy peer down the back of his diaper, looking to see if he pooped in it. Realizing that he didn’t, she swerved Alex around again so that he was facing her. She then put her hand on Alex’s diapered crotch, and tightly, almost painfully, squeezed it to feel for wetness. Finding out that he wasn’t wet, either, she clamped her hand around Alex’s forearm and pulled him back into the house.

When Alex was back inside, he heard Mommy say in an unusually calm voice that since he didn’t go potty in his diaper and kept it clean like a big boy, he could have his training pants back. However, a second later her voice lowered a bit and thinned out into a sinister tone, warning Alex that if he had an accident in his training pants again, he was going to be in a diaper for the rest of the day.

Since that time, Alex tried his best to not have an accident and trigger his parents’ wrath again. He got close several times, but always managed to make it. Though, that didn’t mean that Alex was through with diapers. He was still bedwetting as a result from the stress, so Mommy diapered him every night. But even with the bedwetting taken into account, things settled a little bit after that incident. Despite the fact that his son was in diapers at night, Daddy was happy that Alex wasn’t having any more accidents during the day. He was in a good mood for once, because, from what Alex could remember, Daddy mentioned to Mommy that he might be getting a job, because he had gotten something that, to Alex’s ears, sounded like “innervew.”

But like before, this relatively good life shut down. Mommy and Daddy soon became angry and drunk again because the “innerview” didn’t go well, and they started to take their stress out on Alex once more. By then, Alex wasn’t able to stand these conditions any longer, and so he started running away, only to get caught and dragged back for more verbal and physical torture. The whipping and shouting was as worse as ever, and Alex had to go through more blinding pain, and hurtful statements about how he was an accident and was never wanted, how he shouldn’t have ever been born, or—

Alex couldn’t take it anymore. Even thinking about that intrusive memory for fifteen seconds was horrible. He let out another sob, and started bawling into the arm of the couch.

### Part 34

Alex waited anxiously for Aunt Susan to come back. She was about to give him his test, which, if he passed it, would guarantee that he wouldn’t have to learn anything else for the rest of his summer vacation.

Finally, Aunt Susan came. “Sorry about the wait, Alex. It took longer to change Brian than I thought, and”—

Susan looked curiously as Alex was sitting at the kitchen table, squirming around frantically, with a desperate look on his face.

“Do you need a change, Alex, or are you just nervous about that test?”

“Nervous.”

“Ok, the first part is a spelling test. I ask you to spell a word and you do it as best as you can, ok?”

Alex nodded.

“Now, your mommy told me that you’re a good speller, so this part should be a cinch for you…”

Like Susan said, Alex aced the spelling test. The next part focused on vocabulary: Susan said the word, and Alex gave the definition. He didn’t do as well on it as the spelling, but he passed it. The final part of the test was on a piece of paper; this was the math portion. Alex saw the list of equations on the paper, all additions and subtractions. Before he started, he heard Aunt Susan tell him, “You don’t need to rush through this. Just take your time, ok?”

Alex breezed through it. The only hard part was writing the numbers down. He had seen Mommy write stuff down, but when he tried to do the same thing; he found it to be harder than it looked. Today wasn’t an exception. Alex spent a while rewriting the numbers so they didn’t look so huge and sloppy. When he was finally done, he fetched Susan, who checked over his work.

“Wow Alex. You got 100 percent on this part of the test. And you did pretty well on the other parts. You’ve passed!”

Alex was in a good mood for the rest of the day. When Melanie came, he rushed up to her and excitedly told her that he passed. Melanie congratulated him as they walked out the door. When they had reached the car, Melanie had told Alex that since he had done so well on that test, she decided to both let him stay up later and have two bedtime stories read to him tonight.

Later that night, after Spongebob was over, Alex sat in his room while wearing his usual nighttime diaper-only outfit. He was sitting on the floor with a pencil in his right hand—his thumb sucking hand—while staring down at his dot-to-dot book. Mommy had given it to him, and these dot-to-dots went up to number 100. Alex honestly didn’t think they were hard, but they were still a lot of fun to do because of the suspense that came with wondering what animal he was going to end up with. Plus, he could always color the dot-to-dot pictures when he was done drawing them.

After drawing an elephant, a snail, a tiger, and an octopus, Alex felt bored, so he tossed the dot-to-dot book aside and crawled to one of his coloring books. He got out his ninety-six-color crayon box and started coloring. When he got bored with that, Alex went and got out his pop-up books, staring at both the pictures and mumbling the words he knew out loud to himself. As the minutes flew by, Alex yawned several times while he blinked his heavy eyes frequently. He stretched his body and decided to relieve his aching bladder. When he yawned yet again, he saw Mommy walk into the room. “I saw that yawn, young man,” she said playfully, “You’re tired. Come on, up on the bed. It’s time for those two stories.”

Alex got on the bed without complaint. But before he crawled under the sheet, he said, “Mommy, you have to change me, first.”

Melanie heard this and changed Alex’s wet diaper. As soon as she was finished, Alex wriggled contently under the sheet. However, he was more tired than he thought, and he conked out halfway through the first story.

### Part 35

Since Alex wasn’t able to enjoy the two stories that he was promised the previous night, Melanie told him that she would read them to him tonight. Just like she said, she told Alex two bedtime stories.

The dwindling days struck out as quickly as lightning. They blew away so fast that before Alex realized it, he was only one day away from Kindergarten. The happy mood that he had maintained after the test congealed into a seething mass of fear and depression. All his apprehensions about Kindergarten jabbed at him again and again. There were the kids, the diapers, the school nurse, all that horrible, horrible stuff.

He knew that he was more than ready, that he was probably better prepared than most of his peers. But, even when he disregarded the diapers, Alex felt scared.

And speaking of diapers, Alex had been working hard in gaining more bladder and bowel control. Although he had retained most of it, some of it had been lost due to being in diapers for about three months. He practiced in holding it for as long as he could, and he let it flow into his diaper when he couldn’t take it anymore. Mommy liked this approach, and she encouraged him all the way.

But despite these preparations, Alex was still unsure about whether or not he would like Kindergarten. He was more inclined towards the “not liking side,” but a few of his beliefs had rooted themselves deep into the “liking” side. He had acquired these beliefs a while ago, but they were further reinforced when he came for registration a few days ago. He had walked into the classroom that he would be in. Like he always did in a new environment, Alex examined his surroundings.

When he entered the rectangular classroom, he saw a whiteboard dominating the adjacent right wall. Above the whiteboard was a huge long stretch of laminated paper showing the letters of the alphabet, while a thinner, longer stretch of paper stamped with numbers snaked around the room. The wall opposite of the door that he stood next to had four tables, each one with a giant crayon drifting above it. The giant paper crayons, from left to right, came in four different colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. The tables and their corresponding chairs, Alex noticed, looked like they were made especially for Kindergartners; they were built at just the right size for five and six year olds. Directly behind the tables was a set of large windows, which revealed the playground behind it. The door leading to the playground was located to the left of the red crayon table, directly opposite of the door used for entering the classroom. The reddish-brown carpet that covered the floor possessed tape arranged into a grid shape. This grid shape was situated right in front of the whiteboard. As Alex looked around the room some more, he saw that the rest of it was decorated with brightly colored posters, cutouts, and drawings.

After observing the room for about four seconds, Alex was led by Melanie to a table left of the whiteboard, where the teacher, Mrs. Steinbeck, sat. She was old, with multiple wrinkles carved onto her face, her squinting, blue eyes cowering behind a pair of thick glasses. Her brown hair was tightly coiled into a bun at the top of her head. As he observed Mrs. Steinbeck, the line in front of him disintegrated, until Alex was the next one to walk up.

Mrs. Steinbeck smiled at Alex. Alex didn’t return it. She felt okay to Alex, no bad instinctual feelings around her. Still, she was a new person, so Alex treated her with caution.

The first thing she asked Alex to do was to spell his first name. Alex immediately replied, “A-L-E-X.”

Mrs. Steinbeck smiled and said in a delighted and enthusiastic tone, “Very good, Alex.”

Alex attempted to not roll his eyes, his intelligence feeling insulted. So he knew how to spell his name. Big deal. But he said nothing as he watched Mrs. Steinbeck take out a crayon box and carefully write Alex’s name in blue ink. He saw her spell it, letter by letter. First, came his first name, A-L-E-X, and then his last name, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S. Finally done spelling his name, Mrs. Steinbeck showed Alex a bunch of animal stickers and asked him to pick one to stick onto his crayon box. Alex didn’t care for one. He had felt the need to pee, and he was trying really hard to not dance and squirm around. It had occurred to Alex that he could just use his diaper. However, he knew that in Kindergarten, if he just went, and recess wasn’t going to come for a while, he would have to sit in a wet and/or messy diaper for a long time, where, according to Mommy, he might get a rash. Thinking about this, Alex held the urine in and picked out a goldfish as his animal. Mrs. Steinbeck took the goldfish and neatly and cleanly stuck it in the upper right hand corner of his crayon box. After his crayon box was set onto a seat in the green crayon table, Alex hurried out of the classroom, unable to hold his urine in any longer.

As soon as he was outside and out of site from everyone, Alex let go. A look of relief washed across his face. Melanie knew what was occurring, but didn’t mention it. She simply led Alex to where the office was located, and gave him very specific directions to where the school nurse was. After saying the directions several times for clarification, Melanie and Alex drove back home, where Alex could get his diaper changed and have a chance to think over everything that he had just experienced.

### Part 36

Alex reflected on this event uneasily. That registration day wasn’t more than a week ago, yet it seemed like it had happened years ago. During that time, Kindergarten was still relatively far away. But now, Alex was very close to facing the thing he had been dreading for weeks. That last day had gone by way too fast. Alex had desperately wanted it to slow down, but instead, it sped up.

Now, he was watching Mommy go to the car. The whole time she was walking, Alex trotted beside her desperately saying, “Mommy, I don’t wanna go!” only to get the useless reply that he should stop worrying so much and that he was going to be fine.

He stopped following her when she got to the car, where she ruffled his hair and said goodbye to him just before she got in. Alex watched her drive away to work. When she was out of site he turned to Aunt Susan, who was going to help him out on the first day; making sure he knew exactly where the school nurse was. He followed her into her car, which was parked in the driveway. In an unpleasantly short time, Alex found himself walking up to the office, his back carrying a backpack containing extra diapers to give to the school nurse.

Susan led him over to the school nurse’s office, and told him to just go in there and mention his name. She asked Alex if he needed her to repeat the directions. He shook his head no. Next, Susan told him that she would be waiting outside for him to show him where his classroom was. Alex nodded to show that he was listening, and nervously, he grabbed the doorknob with his hand and twisted it clockwise. After hearing the latch retreat into the depths of the door with a soft, crisp click, he slowly pulled the door open and walked inside.

The school nurse was waiting, and as soon as Alex found the courage to tell her his name, she led him into a room that was dominated by a large changing table with a waste container next to it. On the far side of the small room was a cabinet with a set of compartments, each one labeled with numbers. For a few seconds, Alex intently looked at each number, counting them until the school nurse asked him to take out his diapers. Alex, with shaking hands, dropped his backpack, kneeled down, and unzipped it. He handed the diapers to the school nurse, who inserted it into the number twelve compartment. After closing the door to the compartment, she reassured Alex to just drop by whenever he needed to. Alex nodded, though he thought that what the nurse was saying was pretty obvious. He then turned around, walked out of the room, and stepped back into the outside world.

Aunt Susan asked him how it went. Alex, still kind of disorientated by the event, weakly said it went okay. Just before they set off to the classroom, Alex handed his backpack to Susan, since he only brought it to carry his diapers in. As she received the backpack, Susan pointed out his classroom. Alex already knew where it was; he had already been there after all. Still, it was nice to have clarification.

Alex’s classroom was joined by another room, which would also be full of kindergartners, according to Mommy. As Alex started walking toward it with Aunt Susan, he began to realize that while the first and second grade classrooms were clumped together, and the third, fourth, and fifth grade ones were set into their own group, the kindergarten building was out on its own. Unlike the other ones, it wasn’t paired up with classrooms containing different grade levels.

However, that didn’t mean that the kindergarten building was out in the middle of nowhere. On the contrary, it was actually next to the first and second grade classrooms. In fact, as Alex’s memory recalled, on the other side of the chain-linked fence that bordered the kindergarten playground, there was a larger playground that the first and second graders spent their recesses in. And, according to Mommy, who had asked Mrs. Steinbeck about this, the playground that the third, fourth, and fifth graders occupied was even larger than the first and second grade one. However Alex couldn’t see it from where he was, because Mommy said that Mrs. Steinbeck told her that it was on the other side of the school.

Before Alex knew it, he was standing right outside the classroom. A few kids were already waiting outside. In a time as short as the walk to the classroom, Aunt Susan said goodbye to him, reminding him that she was going to pick him up at 12:00. Hearing this, Alex panicked and was about to follow Aunt Susan back to the car, but he resisted and stood still. He watched her go away, and when she was gone, Alex turned around to try to distract himself from the ever-growing feeling of fear that was writhing inside him. At this time, Alex decided to use the time-telling skills that Melanie had taught to him over the summer. He checked the wristwatch that was given to him only two weeks ago. As Alex raised his left arm to look at the clock’s face, he saw that it was 8:21, only nine minutes until Kindergarten started.

Alex shifted uncomfortably. He took a glance at the other kids. Like him, most of them stood frozen with fear, waiting for Mrs. Steinbeck to open the door and let them in. Others were crying. Alex personally wanted to join them. He had been inclined to suck his thumb and cry all morning, but he constantly forced himself not to. Still attempting not to do this, Alex grit his teeth and stood his ground.

However, this didn’t help at all. Instead, Alex started thinking about his diapers. He could feel it under his shorts. The padding, the plastic, the elastic, was all grabbing at him constantly. As Alex shifted a little, he smelled the excess baby powder on his skin poof out a few clouds of infantile perfume. Then he heard the plastic cover utter a subtle crackle of glee, and felt the wad of padding wedged between his shaking, adrenaline saturated legs compress and adjust itself to adapt to his new position.

Even though, in reality, none of his peers had a clue that a fellow kindergartner in diapers was standing amongst them, Alex was starting to worry that a few of them might be aware of it. In his panicked, paranoid state, anything seemed possible. He kept looking around to make sure that no one was sneaking up behind him and trying to pull his pants down. He kept doing this paranoid search, stopping every now and then to check his watch, until finally, he saw the door creep open, with Mrs. Steinbeck smiling down at them all.

### Part 37

Alex reflected on this event uneasily. That registration day wasn’t more than a week ago, yet it seemed like it had happened years ago. During that time, Kindergarten was still relatively far away. But now, Alex was very close to facing the thing he had been dreading for weeks. That last day had gone by way too fast. Alex had desperately wanted it to slow down, but instead, it sped up.

Now, he was watching Mommy go to the car. The whole time she was walking, Alex trotted beside her desperately saying, “Mommy, I don’t wanna go!” only to get the useless reply that he should stop worrying so much and that he was going to be fine.

He stopped following her when she got to the car, where she ruffled his hair and said goodbye to him just before she got in. Alex watched her drive away to work. When she was out of site he turned to Aunt Susan, who was going to help him out on the first day; making sure he knew exactly where the school nurse was. He followed her into her car, which was parked in the driveway. In an unpleasantly short time, Alex found himself walking up to the office, his back carrying a backpack containing extra diapers to give to the school nurse.

Susan led him over to the school nurse’s office, and told him to just go in there and mention his name. She asked Alex if he needed her to repeat the directions. He shook his head no. Next, Susan told him that she would be waiting outside for him to show him where his classroom was. Alex nodded to show that he was listening, and nervously, he grabbed the doorknob with his hand and twisted it clockwise. After hearing the latch retreat into the depths of the door with a soft, crisp click, he slowly pulled the door open and walked inside.

The school nurse was waiting, and as soon as Alex found the courage to tell her his name, she led him into a room that was dominated by a large changing table with a waste container next to it. On the far side of the small room was a cabinet with a set of compartments, each one labeled with numbers. For a few seconds, Alex intently looked at each number, counting them until the school nurse asked him to take out his diapers. Alex, with shaking hands, dropped his backpack, kneeled down, and unzipped it. He handed the diapers to the school nurse, who inserted it into the number twelve compartment. After closing the door to the compartment, she reassured Alex to just drop by whenever he needed to. Alex nodded, though he thought that what the nurse was saying was pretty obvious. He then turned around, walked out of the room, and stepped back into the outside world.

Aunt Susan asked him how it went. Alex, still kind of disorientated by the event, weakly said it went okay. Just before they set off to the classroom, Alex handed his backpack to Susan, since he only brought it to carry his diapers in. As she received the backpack, Susan pointed out his classroom. Alex already knew where it was; he had already been there after all. Still, it was nice to have clarification.

Alex’s classroom was joined by another room, which would also be full of kindergartners, according to Mommy. As Alex started walking toward it with Aunt Susan, he began to realize that while the first and second grade classrooms were clumped together, and the third, fourth, and fifth grade ones were set into their own group, the kindergarten building was out on its own. Unlike the other ones, it wasn’t paired up with classrooms containing different grade levels.

However, that didn’t mean that the kindergarten building was out in the middle of nowhere. On the contrary, it was actually next to the first and second grade classrooms. In fact, as Alex’s memory recalled, on the other side of the chain-linked fence that bordered the kindergarten playground, there was a larger playground that the first and second graders spent their recesses in. And, according to Mommy, who had asked Mrs. Steinbeck about this, the playground that the third, fourth, and fifth graders occupied was even larger than the first and second grade one. However Alex couldn’t see it from where he was, because Mommy said that Mrs. Steinbeck told her that it was on the other side of the school.

Before Alex knew it, he was standing right outside the classroom. A few kids were already waiting outside. In a time as short as the walk to the classroom, Aunt Susan said goodbye to him, reminding him that she was going to pick him up at 12:00. Hearing this, Alex panicked and was about to follow Aunt Susan back to the car, but he resisted and stood still. He watched her go away, and when she was gone, Alex turned around to try to distract himself from the ever-growing feeling of fear that was writhing inside him. At this time, Alex decided to use the time-telling skills that Melanie had taught to him over the summer. He checked the wristwatch that was given to him only two weeks ago. As Alex raised his left arm to look at the clock’s face, he saw that it was 8:21, only nine minutes until Kindergarten started.

Alex shifted uncomfortably. He took a glance at the other kids. Like him, most of them stood frozen with fear, waiting for Mrs. Steinbeck to open the door and let them in. Others were crying. Alex personally wanted to join them. He had been inclined to suck his thumb and cry all morning, but he constantly forced himself not to. Still attempting not to do this, Alex grit his teeth and stood his ground.

However, this didn’t help at all. Instead, Alex started thinking about his diapers. He could feel it under his shorts. The padding, the plastic, the elastic, was all grabbing at him constantly. As Alex shifted a little, he smelled the excess baby powder on his skin poof out a few clouds of infantile perfume. Then he heard the plastic cover utter a subtle crackle of glee, and felt the wad of padding wedged between his shaking, adrenaline saturated legs compress and adjust itself to adapt to his new position.

Even though, in reality, none of his peers had a clue that a fellow kindergartner in diapers was standing amongst them, Alex was starting to worry that a few of them might be aware of it. In his panicked, paranoid state, anything seemed possible. He kept looking around to make sure that no one was sneaking up behind him and trying to pull his pants down. He kept doing this paranoid search, stopping every now and then to check his watch, until finally, he saw the door creep open, with Mrs. Steinbeck smiling down at them all.

### Part 38

Alex stared intently at his watch, observing the second hand tick peacefully. It was 11:56, only four minutes until the first day of Kindergarten was done. He squirmed impatiently and adjusted his seat at the green crayon table as he waited for the bell to ring. He looked at his watch again: 11:57. Alex sighed again and sat back. He looked at his watch again: still 11:57. He sighed yet again.

At the same time, his bladder began to ache. Since Kindergarten was almost over, Alex started wetting himself without hesitance. As he did so, Alex relaxed further into his chair, both to make the urine flow out more easily, and because he was becoming drowsier and drowsier from the day’s events. As his diaper became warm from the fresh urine, Alex shifted in his seat once again and looked at his watch only to let out another sigh when he realized that it was still 11:57.

Finally, the minute hand on his watch dragged itself up to meet with the hour hand at number twelve. Seeing this, Alex perked up a little, and sat up straight; now excitedly waited for the sound of the bell. After a few agonizing seconds of waiting, he heard the bell ring, signaling the end of class. As Alex gleefully rushed out of the classroom, he heard Mrs. Steinbeck say goodbye to them, and told them to have a nice day.

He rushed through the crowd of parents, desperately searching for Aunt Susan. Alex looked and looked without success, until he heard his name being called. When he turned around, he saw Aunt Susan waving at him. Immediately, Alex rushed towards her. As he halted next to her, she asked him how his day was. Alex didn’t answer. Like his first encounter with the school nurse, he was kind of overwhelmed by everything. Susan could see this, and so she didn’t repeat her question. Instead, she led Alex back into the car and drove him back to her house. As soon as his wet diaper was changed, Alex dragged himself over to the couch and collapsed onto it. He lied down and watched TV until Melanie picked him up.

When he was back home, Alex was still silent, until Melanie couldn’t hold her curiosity back any longer and decided to ask him what he did at school. Alex gave a very brief summary: they learned about how the class worked (i.e. what the rules were), and they drew a picture of their parents. Alex then inserted his hand into his pocket and pulled out a wad of paper, which he handed to Melanie. Melanie unfolded it, and saw a crayon drawing of herself.

Obviously, since Alex was only five, it wasn’t da Vinci quality. Not everything was in proportion, and the coloring was uneven in some places. But still, Melanie personally thought that it was pretty good for a kindergartner. It was accurate, anyway. She saw her brown hair, and her dark eyes. He even drew her as being tall and skinny. After examining it for approximately two seconds, Melanie smiled and told Alex that it was a really nice picture, and she asked him if she could keep it. Alex nodded yes with in air of indifference.

Next, Melanie asked him how it went with the school nurse. Alex simply replied that it was okay, though, to him, it actually didn’t go okay. She wasn’t mean or anything. In fact, the school nurse went out of her way to try to be comforting to Alex, since he was obviously scared out of his mind. He thought it didn’t go well just because he hated getting changed by a complete stranger that even Mommy didn’t know. In addition, it was always unappealing to have to hold in his bathroom needs, and then let it out when the bell rang, and then go sneak out during recess to get a diaper change. What Alex really wanted to do was spend all of his recess time having fun out in the playground, even if it was infested with other kids. Sure, Alex knew that Mrs. Steinbeck allowed him to go out for a change whenever he needed it. But, it really would be suspicious to just walk out in the middle of class; and Alex couldn’t use the excuse that he needed to go to the bathroom, because the classroom already had a bathroom installed.

Other than that, Kindergarten was okay, Alex supposed. It wasn’t exactly fun; he’d rather stay with Mommy or Aunt Susan any day; yet it wasn’t exactly bad, either. Nobody had picked on him or even commented on him not being around at the beginning of recess. Also, Alex had got the impression that none of the kids in his class were bullies, because none of them had sparked any uneasy feelings in him.

Despite his conclusion that Kindergarten wasn’t THAT bad, Alex had concluded at the same time that he didn’t really want to go back to school tomorrow. It also wasn’t helped by the fact that on Sunday, he was going to have to go with Mommy for something that she called a “finalization hearing” so his adoption could be “real.” The only thing that was keeping Alex from whining to Melanie about this was that he had been told that Uncle Dave was coming over on Saturday. Because of this knowledge, Alex decided to tolerate the dreaded Kindergarten with the scary school nurse, and the evil sounding “finalization hearing.”

### Part 39

The days dragged on in a speed much too slowly for Alex’s preference. But, they managed to pass on, and Saturday finally crawled up. When the highly awaited day finally came, Alex became so excited that he couldn’t keep still; and he took periodic glances out the window. When he was watching cartoons in the morning, he would look out the window. Even after he used his diaper, Alex would sneak a glance outside just before he went to Melanie, who soon found out that his constant squirming didn’t stop even during diaper changes. Although she told Alex several times that Uncle Dave wasn’t coming until about noon, Alex’s wriggling didn’t cease at all.

Like Kindergarten, the hours took minute steps across the expanse of time, and took even smaller ones the more Alex anticipated Uncle Dave’s arrival. By the time 11:30 came along, Alex was so absorbed with looking out the window that he didn’t even come to Melanie when he had wet and messed himself. He simply ignored it and sat in a dirty diaper until Melanie came to check up on him. When she found out he needed to be changed, Melanie had to practically drag him away from the window in order to do so.

Then, at 11:34, Alex heard the doorbell ring. He started to get up, but was pushed back down by Melanie, who was trying to diaper him. Alex squirmed with impatience as she put it on him. When Melanie was finally done, he hastily pulled his pants back up and raced downstairs. He sprinted to the door, and jumped up to grab and turn the deadbolt. He missed. Alex crouched down, and sprung up again, and missed it a second time. Frustrated, he frantically called for Melanie to come and open the door. Melanie hurried down. She turned the deadbolt with ease, turned the knob, and opened the door.

Behind the door, stood a UPS guy. Next to him was a box full of books that Melanie had ordered. He handed her a clipboard holding a paper, which she read over and signed. After giving the clipboard back to the UPS guy, he wished her and Alex a good day, and left.

While Melanie grabbed the box and carried it in, Alex slumped on the couch, severely disappointed. Melanie, however, felt amused. The look on his face when he saw that the doorbell ringer wasn’t Dave was just hilarious. Sure, it was mean, but it was so funny that Melanie had to grind her teeth together so she wouldn’t laugh in front of Alex. Still having this image in mind, she carried the box upstairs to her room, and started giggling uncontrollably.

Alex lay curled up on the couch, depressed, until at 12:11, he saw a car pull up into the driveway. He ran over to the window to look, and a second later, he witnessed Uncle Dave’s tall, muscular body emerge from the car. His excitement rekindled, he shouted to Melanie that Uncle Dave was here, and he pressured her to hurry. Melanie quickly came downstairs, and turned the deadbolt and knob once again. She opened the door, and a second later, Alex was rushing out to meet Uncle Dave.

The next thing Dave knew, he saw a small figure beaming up at him with intense happiness. “Hi Alex!” Dave exclaimed as he picked him up. Almost immediately, Dave grabbed both of Alex’s ankles with one hand and hung him upside down, causing his shirt to fall down to his armpits and reveal his stomach and (unbeknownst to Alex) the top of his diaper. As Dave walked into the house, his free hand started tickling Alex’s bare stomach. Alex, his face obscured by his shirt, began laughing hysterically. Then Dave, still holding him upside down, started swinging him back and forth, eventually swinging him so high that a giggling Alex though that he was going to bonk his head on the cathedral ceiling.

But long before that could occur, Dave stopped and up righted Alex, who smiled up at Dave. Although Dave was intimidating with his tall, muscular body and his spiked brown hair; he was really just a pushover.

As Dave tickled Alex again and made him smile with delight, he carried him over to the couch with him and sat down. Still holding Alex in his arms, Dave asked him how Kindergarten was going for him. Alex said it was okay, and then went into a long talk about what they were coloring in class, and what he did at the playground during recess. Uncle Dave nodded as he listened to this, and when Alex had finished, Dave told him what he did when he was in Kindergarten. He pointed out that the playground he used to play in still had seesaws and merry-go-rounds, and all the playground equipment was made entirely out of wood and metal. Alex then commented that his mommy had taken him to a park with a metal playground, but he had never seen one with seesaws or merry-go-rounds before. Melanie then came in and explained to Alex that they probably did have them at the park he was talking about, since the playground was old; but they just took them out. Alex nodded, and went on to say that!

the playground at his school definitely wasn’t made of metal, because they weren’t silver, they were mostly red, yellow, and blue.

“Yeah,” Uncle Dave said, “those are made of plastic. Most playgrounds have plastic equipment nowadays, don’t they, Melanie?”

“Think so,” replied Melanie.

Alex was about change the subject, but was interrupted by his need to urinate. While he started to wet his diaper, he said in a casual voice, “um, Mommy?” and slid off of Dave’s lap. He whispered in her ear to tell her he needed a diaper change. Melanie nodded, and both then walked upstairs.

Like before, Alex was squirming while he was getting changed, excited to get back to Uncle Dave. While he was wriggling around in anticipation, Melanie was having her own thoughts. It was a twinge of mild resentment. She had noticed that while Alex had hardly bothered to tell her anything about Kindergarten, he immediately started going into great detail about it with Dave. Yes, Dave was nice, and it was good that Alex was getting along well with him, but really, it was her who had done more for him. Melanie recalled the times when he would have chronic nightmares and cry every night, when he was horribly pale and skinny from unhappiness. That wasn’t so long ago; it was quite recent, actually. Alex had recovered pretty nicely, and it was Melanie who had done most of the work. She had given him as much affection and attention as she possibly could. When Alex woke up from a nightmare and started crying, Melanie would wake up and comfort him, deliberately sacrificing her own sl!

eeping time so Alex could sleep better. If he needed a diaper change in the middle of the night, well, Melanie would wake up to take care of that, too, and even in her half-awake state, she would carefully check his skin to make sure there wasn’t a rash before she diapered him. When Melanie was exhausted from work and Alex crawled up to her and expected her to play with him, she did, even when all she really wanted to do was lie down on the couch and sleep. Yeah, she had sacrificed for Alex, and it was times like this when Melanie suspected that Alex was taking his luck for granted. Sure, he wasn’t when he first lived here, when he was just about grateful for everything, but now, that was starting to slacken just a teensy bit…

Melanie blinked her eyes a little as she came out of her thoughts. She shook off her resentment and finished diapering Alex at the same time. As she watched her son pull his pants back up and rush out of his room, Melanie put away the diaper changing supplies, went into the bathroom and washed her hands, and walked back downstairs.

Uncle Dave left at about 7:30, and like last time, Alex was sad to see him go. Luckily, Dave had grown attached to Alex, and he promised to come back as often as he could. As soon as he pulled out of the driveway and drove back home, Melanie told Alex that it was his bath time. Alex immediately went into the bathroom and took one, and he was later sitting on his bed in just a diaper, telling Melanie the jokes that Uncle Dave had told him. They were all potty humor jokes, and Alex kept giggling as he told them to Melanie, who patiently waited for his giggling to subside so she could read him his bedtime story. In time, Alex calmed down and listened as Melanie read to him. Just before she turned off the lights, Melanie reminded Alex of the evil “finalization hearing.” Alex cringed at the thought of this boring—and yet scary—sounding event, but it was lessened by the thought of the wonderful events that had taken place earlier today.

### Part 40

As it turned out, the finalization hearing wasn’t that scary, though to Alex, it was definitely as boring as it sounded. He remembered Mommy telling him that it was to make his adoption “real,” meaning that he would truly be her son. Alex already thought he was. To his point of view, this finalization hearing was pointless. He already considered his new Mommy to be his real Mommy. Alex had even agreed to change his last name, “Fletcher,” to his new Mommy’s last name, “Williams.” However, Alex didn’t say any of this during the hearing. He just went through with it and, within an hour, his adoption was considered official.

Alex reminisced over this as he played on the swings. That was back in September, two months ago, which seemed a long time ago. It was when the weather was still hot, and the classrooms were air conditioned to the point where Alex was hugging himself for warmth while his teeth chattered. Now, it was the opposite: the November weather was cold, windy, and cloudy, but in the classroom, the heater was set at what Alex believed was “volcano heat.” But, despite the fact that the rooms were overheated, he noticed that Mommy still made him dress warmly. Instead of wearing the shortalls like he often did during the summer, Mommy was making him wear overalls, which Alex didn’t want to wear. It wasn’t because it was babyish (in fact, Alex had gotten so used to wearing shortalls and overalls that he didn’t care who saw him wearing them), it was because it made him too hot, and that they constricted his legs from moving freely. He had tried to convince Mommy to let him wear the shortalls instead, but she wouldn’t be persuaded.

And today was no exception. Alex was wearing a gray sweatshirt that was tucked into a pair of overalls. He honestly didn’t care about the appearance. It was just too hot. Even out in the cold air, it felt hot, so Alex had rolled his sleeves up to his shoulders, or tried to. The problem with that was that no matter what Alex did, the sleeves always started slipping down Alex’s arm, thereby causing him to roll them up again at what seemed like every few seconds.

However, one good thing had arisen. Because of his constant practicing with holding his bladder and bowels, Alex had managed to train himself so that he wouldn’t need to go to the bathroom during the school day. Yes, he would always need a visit to the school nurse during recess at least two to three times a week, but Alex knew that he was making progress. What was even better was that no one had found out that he wore diapers. In fact, no one had even picked on him. Alex found that if he were nice to them, they would be nice to him; there were no bullies in his class.

Although Alex was still antisocial, he found a few peers that he could tolerate. One was Nadine, who had blond hair, and was always cheerful and friendly to him. There was also Rachael, a girl with red hair that happily let Alex borrow her gold and silver crayons; and who always asked Alex his permission before borrowing something from him, and always returning it in its original condition. In addition, was a boy named Reid, with reddish brown hair, and an Asian kid named Taylor; both of which were friendly and (in Alex’s opinion) intelligent. Sure, Reid obviously wanted to be Alex’s friend, even when Alex didn’t want him to (he was, after all, antisocial), but he was still nice.

But even when this was the case, Alex still found problems with a few of the students. For instance, there was Katie, a blond girl that Alex personally couldn’t stand because of her somewhat haughty attitude. She didn’t directly bother Alex; she was just infuriating because he could sense that she had a severe overdose of self-esteem. Then there was Terry, a boy with black hair whose disregard to personal hygiene reminded Alex of Pigpen in the Peanuts episodes.

There were also a couple of students that were just plain amusing to Alex. For example, a black haired girl named Veronica always tried to sound smarter than she actually was by saying big words. However, she was just comical to Alex because he constantly heard her misusing those big words.

What was even funnier was Levi, a boy with dark brownish hair that called the teacher “Mommy” more often than “Mrs. Steinbeck.” He was also the one that wet his pants a lot. However, to Alex’s surprise, no one had made fun of Levi; they all just shrugged off his amusing actions. Like everyone else, Alex didn’t tease Levi. Instead, he got his amusement by thinking of various situations that Levi should be in. Alex’s personal favorite opinion of Levi was that he should be in diapers. Although the idea was kind of funny, Alex’s opinion was serious as well: if Levi wasn’t even able to hold his own pee long enough to take the fifteen steps to go to the class bathroom, then he really did need diapers. That was kind of sad, Alex thought. He, after all, wore diapers, yet during weekdays, he could already hold it all day most of the time, unlike Levi, who, in Alex’s opinion, probably couldn’t hold it for more than five seconds.

However, Alex’s mind wasn’t conjuring up comical images of Levi in diapers today because it was distracted by something else. Thanksgiving was coming up; and according to Mommy, a lot of people he hadn’t met before—including his grandparents—would show up as well. Naturally, Alex felt nervous. This was due to both because he was afraid that one of his relatives might not like him like Aunt Vicky, and the possibility that one of them might be just as—or worse, more—annoying than Aunt Sarah. But he knew that Uncle Dave was going to be there, so that was a huge plus, and it made him feel more at ease.

Many hours later, Alex was lying down in his bed waiting for Melanie to come up and read him a bedtime story. He was buried up to his neck in several layers of blankets. Underneath the blankets he wore his baby blue pajamas. It was winter, and because it had gotten colder, it was actually more comfortable to lie in bed. Snuggling up under the blankets in the bitter cold gave off a cozy feeling in Alex.

In about two seconds, Melanie came in with a book. She read him several short stories, and when she was done, Melanie reminded Alex that Thanksgiving was tomorrow on Thursday; meaning that there was no school for four days, and that Uncle Dave was coming up.

“Is he gonna stay?” asked Alex, hopefully.

“I don’t know,” Melanie said slyly, “We’ll see.”

Alex, hearing the tone of her voice, became convinced that Uncle Dave really was staying, though he wasn’t completely sure, yet.

However, Alex was sure enough of the former that his once half-conscious state became fully awake, and he lay there thinking about this long after Melanie had tucked him in and turned off the lights.

### Part 41

Although Alex had stayed up for about two hours the previous night thinking about Uncle Dave and Thanksgiving, he woke up a little earlier than usual. As Alex untwisted his pajamas and pulled up his pants a little, he started wetting his diaper. Wanting to get changed, he got out of bed and ran over to the next door where Mommy’s bedroom was.

Alex charged into the room, and didn’t see Mommy. Seeing this, Alex suspected that she was awake; which wasn’t surprising. Mommy did mention to him, after all, that she was making the turkey, which, according to her, took a while to make. Remembering this, Alex decided to go downstairs.

When his feet settled onto the warm, fuzzy carpet at the bottom of the stairs, Alex headed over to the kitchen. As he walked closer, Alex saw the light in the kitchen on. Both curious and somewhat cautious, he walked in slowly, his wet, still-warm diaper bunching up with fear between his moving legs. As soon as his feet touched the hard, smooth cold kitchen tile floor, Alex saw Mommy, who immediately greeted him. Before he could inform her that he needed a change, Melanie pointed to two people Alex had never seen before sitting on barstools on the counter. They both had light grayish hair, and seemed to be at least as old as Mrs. Steinbeck.

“They’re your grandparents, Alex; my mom and dad.” Melanie explained.

While she told him this, Alex saw both of them get off the barstools and walk up to him.

His grandma bent down and hugged him, while Alex got his hand shaken by Grandpa. Both of them showered Alex with attention, and apologized to him that they weren’t able to see him earlier; they lived too far away. Melanie then cut in, telling Alex that Grandma and Grandpa drove hundreds of miles just to see him. Alex looked at them; surprised that someone had actually wanted to meet him that badly.

For several minutes, his grandparents talked to Alex, and asked him questions as if they were interviewing him. Alex responded to most of them by either nodding his head meaning yes, or shaking his head, meaning no; though he occasionally answered in words if the question required an answer more elaborate than a simple nod or shake. Alex, though appearing subdued, was actually in a good mood, despite the fact that he was sitting in a wet diaper.

His grandparents seemed nice enough; and they gave Alex the impression that they actually enjoyed being with him. At the same time, however, Alex wanted to get away from them. He was desperate to get his diaper changed; it was now sagging and had turned cold and soggy. Alex shifted uncomfortably in his sodden diaper, wanting to tell Mommy about it. Yet, he didn’t cut the conversation with Grandma and Grandpa, because Alex didn’t want to sound rude. Instead, he continued making light conversation with them until Melanie told him to dress out of his pajamas. As he slid off the barstool, Alex, seeing his chance, hurried over to Melanie and whispered in her ear.

“So, what do you think of Grandma and Grandpa?” Melanie asked Alex as she pulled his pajama bottom off.

“They’re okay.” Alex replied.

Melanie began to untape his cold, swollen diaper, and as she pulled the front back, she said, “Think you would like seeing them again?”

While he was being wiped up, Alex responded with a simple “Yeah.”

Neither one said anything else until Alex was in a dry diaper. As he pulled himself up into a sitting position on his bed, Melanie told him to go back downstairs as soon as he was dressed. After saying that, she opened the door and went back down to talk to her parents some more.

For several unbroken minutes, they talked about current events, like how their other relatives were doing, or how well Alex was adjusting. They stopped when Alex, dressed in a red and lime-green frog T-shirt and a pair of shortalls, came in. Once again, Alex became the center of attention, and his grandparents started conversing with him excitedly. Alex politely listened, and actually let out some comments every now and then. As the minutes went by, Alex began to enjoy their company more, and was talking and listening to them with genuine interest until the doorbell rang.

Alex ignored it, and continued talking with his grandparents. Melanie didn’t object; it was good that he was actually interacting with others. As she walked to the door and unlocked and opened it, she yelled to Alex that Uncle Dave was here. Alex perked up, and immediately got off the barstool and ran to the foyer.

When Alex’s grandparents saw Alex a few seconds later, he was curled up in Dave’s arms, smiling and giggling excitedly. Dave, wanting to talk to his parents, ruffled Alex’s hair and set him back on his feet. He pulled up a barstool and chatted with them, while Alex crawled up another barstool and waited for Dave to once again turn his attention to him.

Alex waited for countless minutes, but eventually saw the wait as pointless. Bored, he got off the barstool and intended to go up to his room. Melanie, however, knew what Alex was thinking, and before he could even reach the stairs, she sneaked up on Alex and scooped him up. Since she knew that Alex was bored, Melanie played with him while his grandparents and Dave were talking. During this time, Melanie, knowing that Dave would be too distracted today to give Alex much attention, decided to reveal what Dave had told her.

As it turned out, Alex was right: Uncle Dave really was staying over. He would be with them until Sunday; and was going to spend most of tomorrow with Alex while Aunt Susan and Mommy went out and had fun (a type of fun that, Alex was reassured, wouldn’t be interesting to him). Alex, though, didn’t need this reassurance. The thought of Uncle Dave staying during the weekend sounded exciting in itself. However, there was one thing…

Melanie, again knowing what Alex was thinking, said that yes, Uncle Dave would change him whenever he needed it. Alex, not too fond of the idea, asked Melanie if Uncle Dave knew how to handle it. Melanie replied that he did, and explained why he knew. According to Melanie, Uncle Dave had several friends who had kids, most of whom he had babysat at one time or another. As it turned out, many of these kids were babies and toddlers at the time when Uncle Dave babysat them. Obviously, because of this, he had gained experience with changing diapers (though, his experience was not as extensive as Melanie’s or Susan’s).

Alex, reassured with this knowledge, sat on the couch while Melanie reminded him who was coming. The first she mentioned was (to Alex’s disappointment) Aunt Sarah, who was bringing a friend of hers named Molly, who, Alex hoped, wasn’t annoying like Aunt Sarah. There would also be his cousins: an eleven year old called Ethan, a ten year old named Eddie, four year old twins called Jayna and Jasmine, a three year old called Dean, and finally, a two year old named, coincidentally, Alex. Also, were Melanie’s cousins, Bruce and Michelle (the parents of Ethan and Eddie), and Dan and Lori (the parents of Jayna, Jasmine, Dean, and Alex).

After several minutes of being held in Melanie’s arms and having her play with his hair, Alex finally managed to get Dave’s attention. Dave had just started tossing Alex into the air when the doorbell rang again. Melanie opened the door, and in came Bruce and Michelle, with their kids Ethan and Eddie. To Alex’s displeasure, both boys went straight to Uncle Dave, who set Alex back down and started talking to them. Alex, intensely jealous, walked into the kitchen to be with Mommy, only to find her conversing with Michelle and Grandma. His irritation still rising, he went to the TV room where Grandpa was, who, unfortunately, was chatting with Bruce. Having no one to talk to, Alex ran back upstairs to his room.

### Part 42

He shut himself up in there for at least twenty minutes, doing his usual activities, like coloring, doing dot-to-dots, reading, or playing with his own reflection. Alex’s exasperation began to fade, and he started enjoying himself, until he needed to poop. Alex resisted, and held it for as long as he could. He eventually lost, causing the mess to spill out into his diaper.

Under normal circumstances, Alex would immediately run to Mommy to get his diaper changed. However, in this case, it wouldn’t be so easy to get her. Alex was sure that she was still chatting with Michelle and Grandma, and if she wasn’t, she was probably talking to someone else. This made things much more complicated. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he was just wet, because he could just walk up to Mommy and whisper in her ear, and no one would be the wiser. But with a poopy diaper, Alex knew that that was easier said than done. The problem was that everyone would be able to smell what was in his diaper; and unfortunately, the two year old wasn’t here, so Alex couldn’t simply label him as the source of the odor. Considering this, Alex decided to ignore it. He continued playing for a while, feeling the warm mess ooze and smear everywhere in his diaper as he sat and played. But within minutes, Alex couldn’t stand it any longer and ran out of his room.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Alex’s desperation met up with his own fear once again. He stopped as he heard the din of multiple voices talking and chuckling on the floor beneath him. Nervous, Alex hesitated. On one hand, he strongly wanted a diaper change. The smell of his own excrement irritated him, as well as the fact that it was smeared all over his bottom. Because of the latter, the mess acted as some kind of glue; somehow causing Alex’s diaper to latch onto his skin like some kind of large leech. However, on another hand, Alex, despite his condition, really didn’t want to go down and face all those people. Such a thing would be hard to do even when not wearing a dirty diaper.

For a couple more minutes, Alex simply stood there, semi-frozen, debating whether or not to go downstairs and get Mommy. A few times, his feet started descending down, only to suddenly get cold and walk back up to the second floor. Luckily, Melanie eventually turned her attention away from the guests and realized that Alex was nowhere to be found. Immediately knowing that he was on the second floor, Melanie started walking towards the stairs.

She thought she saw something dash out of sight when she reached the foot of the stairs. But then Alex, seeing that it was just Melanie, immediately rushed towards her and informed her of his condition. Smelling his dirty diaper and sensing urgency in his voice, Melanie rushed Alex back to his room. As soon as his shortalls were removed, she began to change Alex’s messy diaper at once.

As Melanie started pulling the straps back up on Alex’s shortalls, she told him that she wanted him to come downstairs with her and meet everybody. Alex, though reluctant, agreed. He got off the bed and followed Melanie back down to the first floor, his nervousness increasing as he descended down each step on the staircase. Alex, unaware of what he was doing, started sucking his thumb. Just before he entered the kitchen, Alex became aware of it, and pulled it out, using his shortalls to wipe off the saliva on his thumb. Hesitating a little, Alex stopped momentarily. He pursed his lips over his teeth and shuddered, becoming even more nervous as he heard the low hum of voices within. Melanie, noticing his halt, motioned for him to continue walking, and Alex, knowing that he didn’t have a choice, obeyed.

### Part 43

In there, he immediately saw, along with Grandma and Michelle, Lori, and, to Alex’s terror, Aunt Sarah. Just as Lori started saying a friendly hello to Alex, Aunt Sarah came up and cornered him, calling for her friend Molly to come over. To Alex’s dismay, Molly turned out to be just like Aunt Sarah. She commented on how blue his eyes were and how he was so cute, all the while talking to him as if he was (in Alex’s opinion) a little kid. Aggravated by the two of them, Alex ran off to the TV room, where the rest of his relatives were.

Although it didn’t die down completely, the din in the room noticeably lowered when Alex came in. He stopped and froze with fear as virtually every pair of eyes in the room turned their attention towards him. Although this attention lasted for a mere five seconds at the most, to Alex, it seemed like a minute, and he stood frozen even after most of the eyes turned their attention back to the TV. However, the voice of Uncle Dave shattered his frozen state, and as Alex’s mind crashed back down to Earth, he heard Uncle Dave call for him again. Alex turned and looked for him. He saw Uncle Dave wrapping either arm around Jayna and Jasmine, with Dean and Alex on his lap. Although going to where those kids were was one of the last things Alex wanted to do, he obeyed Uncle Dave anyway and walked to him.

“How’s it going, Alex?” he asked cheerfully.

Alex didn’t respond, though the two year old did.

“Super duper!” he exclaimed.

“Not you, silly,” Uncle Dave said, “that big kid over there. His name is also Alex.”

“Ohhh,” The two year old said enthusiastically.

Alex still didn’t respond. He lay curled up on the floor, feeling depressed. It was one thing being around a bunch of strangers and getting tormented with words of his cuteness and eyes, but it was another to witness one of his favorite people giving more attention to other kids than him. Thinking of this, Alex sighed unhappily and curled up even more, wishing that he were upstairs again.

Dave saw this. He knew that this would happen, and, even though he was going to stay with Alex during the weekend to balance things out, he still felt a little guilty playing with a bunch of kids right in front of him.

Although he hadn’t told anyone, Dave personally thought Alex was one of the best, if the not the best, kids he had ever met. He wasn’t sure why. It might have been because he felt pity for Alex’s past experiences, or perhaps it was for his good behavior, or his academic intelligence, or maybe it was just because he had a nice smile and a cute face (an opinion that Dave shared with Aunt Sarah, though, unlike her, he had the common sense to not say it to Alex’s face). Or, more likely, it was a mixture of all of the above, and then some—

Someone had a poopy diaper. Dave was sure of it. At once, he said softly, “Dean, do you a change?”

Dean said no, and pointed to Alex (the two year old) as the source. Dave unwrapped his arm off of one of the girls and used his free fingers to carefully weave through Alex’s pants and into the waistband of his diaper. Slowly, Dave pulled the diaper back and looked down and saw the mess inside. Just for good measure, he did the same to Dean, who turned out to be lying. Like his younger brother, Dean had a poopy diaper as well. In a swift motion, Dave stood up and carried both Alex and Dean out of the room to change them.

Alex (the five year old) watched Dave walk out. He thought about what he had just heard: wondering why Dean had lied that he needed a change. This made no sense to Alex; why would Dean want to stay in a poopy diaper? From Alex’s experience, it didn’t exactly feel good; in fact it felt disgusting. What could Dean possibly get from having to sit in his own mess? Alex, unable to find an answer to this, moved on to another thing he found strange about Dean: he was three years old, so why was he still wearing diapers all the time? When he was three, Alex knew that he at least wasn’t wearing diapers during the day. Sure, he still wore training pants, but really, why weren’t Dean’s mommy and daddy trying to potty train him? Alex was sure that, unlike him, Dean wasn’t in diapers to help reduce nightmares; it was probably because he liked being in them. Although the latter idea sounded strange to Alex (since he had never found anything appealing in diapers), he deduced that it was probably the most likely answer.

Settling that, Alex’s mind went back to the gloomy state it once was, becoming even gloomier when Uncle Dave came back with two freshly diapered boys and started to resume playing with them and the two girls.

The rest of Thanksgiving was, mostly, a depressing day for Alex. Sure, the food that later came was great, and there was lots of it, but still, Alex thought that Thanksgiving could have been way better. It probably would’ve been twice as good if Aunt Sarah and Molly weren’t there, who, to Alex’s amazement, defied nature and got even worse. They started following Alex wherever he went and attempted to talk to him. Alex put up with it at first, and he even managed to escape from them at one point by hiding behind Melanie. Unluckily for him, though, the Demonic Duo soon found him, and by then, Alex couldn’t tolerate them anymore, so he started crying.

Not surprisingly, both Aunt Sarah and Molly were oblivious to the fact that they were the cause of his sobbing. Melanie (along with everyone else) knew the truth, however, and stood up for Alex, telling them politely, yet firmly, that Alex didn’t want to be bothered. Fortunately, the Demonic Duo got the message, and slunk away.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the relatives left for home one by one. The last to leave were Melanie’s parents, who gave Alex a tight hug and promised to visit him on Saturday (they had decided to spend Friday visiting places, so that Alex could spend all day with Dave). After his grandparents left the house to go to their hotel room, Alex took a bath.

Part 44

Soon, Alex, now freshly diapered and pajama clad, was cradled in Dave’s arms, enjoying the privilege of staying up late (Melanie allowed this because it was a holiday). He listened sleepily as Melanie and Dave reminisced their childhood days. When the weight on his eyelids became too much to bear, Alex slipped into sleep.

Both Melanie and Dave stopped as they heard Alex softly snoring. They looked at the five year old as he gurgled babyishly in his sleep and sucked the thumb that was completely incased in his mouth. As Melanie viewed this, she stood up and ran to another room, telling Dave to not move. When she came back, Dave saw that she was holding a camera.

“I can’t resist,” Melanie said almost sheepishly.

Soon, Melanie took a picture, look at it, and, satisfied with it, put the camera away.

Still cradling the sleeping Alex, Dave asked, “Melanie, is there anything that I need to know about Alex for tomorrow?”

“No, just change him when he needs it and he’ll be fine,” replied Melanie, “Alex is pretty low maintenance right now.”

“How’s he doing with the nightmares?”

“Oh, he hardly has them anymore. In fact, I don’t even think he’s had one this week. But, as you can see,” she continued, “he still has a problem with thumb sucking. He does it every single night, and he can’t seem to break out of it; unless he’s sucking his thumb, he can’t go to sleep.”

“Yeah, well,” said Dave, “I’m sure he’ll break out of it, eventually.”

“Me, too.”

After that reply, the two switched to the subject of their parents, and how much they liked Alex.

“They must have really liked him, “ Melanie said, “I swear that Mom made that blueberry-cranberry sauce just for him. Alex loves blueberries, you know. I told Mom that a while ago,” she explained to Dave.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Did you notice that just before they left, they said that they would visit HIM on Saturday? Mom and Dad didn’t seem to care about us. It sounded like they’re only going to come back because of Alex.”

“I know,” Melanie replied in a mock infuriated voice.

Both continued the conversation for a while, until Melanie checked her watch. “Wow, I didn’t realize it was that late,” she said in genuine surprise. It was a quarter after eleven.

“Well, in that case,” Dave said, “I’m going to bed.”

“Here, give Alex to me. You can get ready and I’ll put to bed.”

Dave stood up and carefully handed a still-sleeping Alex over. Melanie hoisted Alex up over her shoulder, and while Dave turned off the lights in the TV room, and went into the guest room, Melanie gently carried Alex to his room. After firmly patting his diapered bottom, she laid him on the bed, pulled the blankets over him, and softly kissed him on the forehead.