Rainbow Diapers

So do I.

Hey everyone! Another chapter… sorry if I’ve been a bit of a bummer lately. This year has been extraordinarily tough… more than I ever could have imagined and I think it’s starting to get to me in a major way with all this because I usually lean on my writing for fun… but self-doubt is just about the opposite of that. But what can you do sometimes, right? Regardless, another chapter should be out late Saturday or sometime on Sunday. Then, next week should be another two. I will be adding at least another chapter as well to the total so it’s up to 19 now, but more might be after. If that’s the case, I’ll let you all know. Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story! Chapter 13: The Slippery Passage of Water Being an ARV sucks. I want to be strong, and I want to say it’s all dandelion crowns and coloring and snacks and no bills and all that jazz. I really do. I think on some level, most out there would say that being young and letting go of some of your worries would be a picnic. If you’re lucky, you would only be gaining years back. There’s reportedly some scientist in New York that was about to turn 80 and is now 20 again. All knowledge intact… and years more now to enrich the world. And before I’m accused, yes, I’m not naïve… I know life is hard at any age, but what’s a few obstacles versus tax season or insurance, right? Wrong. They say when the tough get’s going, the tough get going… but I would bet my deserts for a week that they haven’t come face to face with ARV. Once you’ve blown through puberty, each day feels like a new challenge… and not the type to build character. It’s the type to break you… humble you into a little puddle on the floor while you pray your regression stops before you lose more of your height… your teeth… your memories. And worse, some regress so quickly that within a week, they can go from a cocky 14-year-old straight down to someone who just left kindergarten… and that’s not even an extreme scenario. Like with Eustace. Over 15 years in a single night. And even for the rest of us normies, you go to bed each day with your memories of life and adulthood and calculus or how to balance a checkbook or how to shave, and the next… you wake up no longer an adult in any even modified modern definition or just no longer needing to shave. You hope that everything will be fine as you close your eyes… but it’s just not always the case. Especially in red cabin… “No, no, no!” I heard someone drone on in a panic about a week after I got there one morning, rousing the sleep from my eyes. I had been so tired lately, I almost thought it was all just a dream. “This can’t be!” the same voice shouted again. “No!” “Dang it!” someone from our side the room yelled a moment later when the other distressed AR cabinmate had panicked further. “Will you just shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep here!” “Quiet, meanie head!” the voice was higher pitched than before… strange but somehow familiar. Now that sleep had gone and wasn’t coming back, I sighed and rolled over in my top bunk to see what was happening. There, only a few bunks away, was Sammy bending down and soothing another AR I didn’t quite recognize. For some, like Tommy or Eric, they had been here for weeks. Their regressions were slowing and they might bounce within a few more weeks’ time. Others were shooting down fast, and they might be here one day and gone to yellow or bounced the next. The kid freaking out in bed was one of the latter types… fast… just came in Tuesday and had already lost a few years at least. Sighing and feeling in my bones that I couldn’t get back to sleep now, I climbed out of my top bunk. I used to just be able to pretty much hop out of my top bunk in one go, especially knowing any ache from doing so would be fine in a day or two at most. Now, fearing a worse fall from so high compared to my own height, I could only climb down on the built-in rungs along the back. First time I did it was in blue cabin… I accidentally whacked Brian in the head with my big toe. As an apology, he got my brownie that night. But righting myself out with my new bunkmate Tommy barely stirring behind me now, I looked over and saw that Sammy was guiding the now kid AR away from his bed. Sammy was a leader of sorts to the younger ones… Eric said it was because he could connect with them on a personal level… except maybe not in this instance. Seeing the AR and the bed… it was clear. The AR had wet the bed. Unfortunately, it was common enough in red cabin. Being woken like I had, a few saw and really only the newbies freaked out this morning. It just happened to some of the campers even before they dipped below four years old when it really started to ramp up… so it was almost routine the further on down the ages you went. The line between red and yellow was blurry but bedwetting was definitely a sign Mrs. Carlisle looked for though… like the first gate she checked off in a series to confirm your entry there. As such, most cabin members knew that more than five strikes in a row on the potty chart in the bathroom for any kid was usually an automatic drop to yellow though. Some exceptions existed. But around here… not many. “Another one, huh?” Victor asked, swinging his legs over his own bunk next to mine and Tommys while yawning and then stretching to the ceiling. I sighed and nodded. “Yep. New kid. With the ways he’s reacting, probably his first…” “Shame…” Victor noted with such a high degree of indifference to make one sick around here. Something like bedwetting, an act that should have been mortifying to any adult… was just business as usual in red cabin. It came along with other signs of deep regression like forgetfulness and slowly losing your coordination with certain tasks, but to most, it was probably the worst. Or maybe second worse thing in red cabin. See, for me, while embarrassment and loss of abilities was bad, the worst was when it came to our treatment by some of our leaders. Mrs. Carlisle was all sweetness and cherry pie when she could be and only stern when she had to be. Break something or curse or hit someone else? You just better pray she was in a good mood. But she was fine. She had to keep order around here somehow. The volunteers though… Even though there was a pretty steady rotation from Havenswood, rotating to always have at least one in the cabin to help out at all times during the day and before bedtime, two came more than anyone else. The first was Esther… sweet and caring but kept away from us unless we needed help. Josephine though was overbearing and protective and while that worked wonders for those on the shallow end of the mental regression… people like Tommy, Victor, Eric, and I were more than a little annoyed. This morning, Esther was first in, distastefully followed by Josephine. “Good morning you guys!” Esther greeted us warmly. “Have a good sleep?” She was always asking us those questions. “Not bad,” I replied first. “Had a bit of an incident this morning though…” “Oh?” Her face clouded with concern… having volunteered here since almost the beginning, she knew what that meant. “Not one of you, right? Or…?” “Definitely not!” Victor shouted a little too loudly, taking her question as a direct insult that he would ever wet the bed. Esther blushed. “Sorry… sorry!” She winced. “I just… I have to watch out for those things, you know? It’s a health and safety thing. I really don’t want to lose this role here.” While Victor grumbled off to the side while he went to go wash his face, Eric was waking up as well now and shook his head. “It’s okay. We’re totally fine here. Just… not the best reminder of what’s happening to us is all…” She nodded resolutely. “Understood.” She took a breath and checked her watch… a sure sign of her authority in camp. Put plainly… time was always monitored and controlled by the ‘adults.’ “Now… it looks like you all have about ten minutes before we leave for breakfast. Don’t dawdle or you’ll be late and miss pancakes!” She smiled and practically pranced off to go help the others get ready. Victor returned, still grumbling under his breath. Eric and I just shook our heads while we both bumped into Tommy to finally wake him up. He was not a morning person and his scowl towards us both was chilling… but routine by now and we both shrugged it off and hopped into our camp uniforms. Getting up late though, Tommy scrambled in his usual fashion… too late however to not be noticed by Josephine. “Oh! Taking a little time, huh?” She zoomed right over to him, her wandering hands outstretched. “Let me get that for you! Mrs. Carlisle will be here any minute and buttons can be so tricky for a little guy like you!” Tommy pulled away. “I can do it myself.” His words were cutting and bordering on quiet frustration. If Josephine picked up on it though… she didn’t show it… “Oh, and of course you do! You’re such a smarty pants, aren’t you?” Before Tommy could retort, seeing she was needed elsewhere, Josephine skipped off to help others with their buttons… right before Mrs. Carlisle ordered us into line to walk in double file toward the dining hall. And the day continued exactly like that. For every kind action Esther made toward us, Josphine followed it up by one that had us cracking our knuckles and swearing eternal hatred towards her right after. At computer lab, Esther helped fetch fresh batteries for a dying mouse while Josephine instructed former businessmen and engineers and writers on how to use Microsoft Word. At nature class, Esther helped carry heavy glass jars for us when we were collecting samples… Josephine tried to take our hand on a walk around the woods to keep us from tripping over small rocks and branches. And at range, Esther complimented each of us, even if we didn’t fare so well… Josephine tried to convince Mr. King that Eric was too small for the regular bow and arrow. Fortunately, Mr. King didn’t bend to her request. “Maybe talk to her about it?” Emma suggested; a continuing guiding presence I was finding in my life. “She normally works in our nursery here in town over the weekend. Probably just too used to young ARs is all.” “Eric already tried last night,” I noted, eating an apple slice while seated on one of the picnic tables and trying to figure this problem out. “Oh… I see then…” She paused cutting the apple slices briefly. “And I take it that it didn’t go well?” I shook my head. “Nothing bad. Just… it was like he was ignored like he was three years old or something. And this is Eric! Eric the teacher’s pet! Eric the know-it-all in a kind of good way so we don’t have to remember all the inane rules of red cabin. And yeah… even Eric the… butt kisser.” “Miles!” Emma lightly scolded me. “You know how I feel about that kind of language…” I sighed. “Sorry, Emma.” Havenswood was just one of those places where swearing wasn’t the norm. You weren’t damned for eternity… they just didn’t like it used around them. And for Emma, she always noted that cursing was an ignorant person’s last refuge of expressing anger. “I just… it’s so annoying. I know I look small… but my mind is still going strong and all that…” She smiled and handed me another apple slice. “And I’m sorry for that, Miles. Her rotation is soon up though. Going back to full-time nursery work in a week or so.” “So, you’re saying to… wait it out?” I asked, hoping that wasn’t her only solution. She grimaced. “Yeah… not much else you can do I’m afraid if she’s really just ignoring you all…” And I knew she was right. The camp was paid for in part by the state with the recent ARV bills that had been passed but was also heavily discounted with its attachment to Havenswood. Like the work we did in the afternoons, beyond building character or whatever, it was part of our payment back to the town for a reduced rate here and continued use of the lease between the camp and them. While there was always a rumored third part of the deal, the second part that everyone knew about was putting up with the volunteers for the younger cabins. But already on edge from regressing and losing things in my life, Josephine continually tried my patience. “Let’s see… hmmm…” I looked up at the board games before me later that night. Seeing the names though, it was apparent that Tommy, Eric, Victor, and I had played most of them already. With the cabin doors locked at night and with a wide variety of bedtime needs, while someone like Sammy went to bed early, the four of us had ample time to kill… which meant that we were becoming bored with most of them by now. And tonight, coming back from the bonfire and ghost story, which was admittedly a little spookier than I would have liked, we had only about fifteen minutes before Mrs. Carlisle, Esther, and Josephine would leave for the night. So, looking at my options and seeing Monopoly high up, I knew I needed help fast. Turning, I raised my hand and tried to get Esther’s or Mrs. Carlisle’s attention. To my great disappointment, Josephine saw me instead. “Oh? Does someone need a little help, hmm?” I tried not to show my distaste at her or from my rotten luck that she had come instead of the two that I really wanted. “Yeah…” I turned and pointed at the game about six feet off the ground. Learning from my first night here, you had to ask for them to help… not climb tables and chairs to get them yourself. “Ooh! Good choice!” she said smiling. “Are you the cute doggy or the iron?” “The shoe,” I responded back quickly, again, trying not to groan that she was drawing this out. ‘Come on, Josephine. The least you can do is just hand me the game already.’ “Oh… you’re one of those people.” She smirked like a scheme was already forming in the back of her mind. Fortunately, though, she reached up and snatched the game without any issue, her pleated black hair briefly falling off her shoulders and down her back. Unfortunately, she held it high above my head… right out of my reach. I stared at the lofty board game above me and then back down towards Josephine. “Josephine… come on. I just need the game before you all leave tonight.” “Yes…” She paused briefly. “But what’s the magic word, sweetie?” I gritted my teeth. “Please…” I kind of mumbled out. She cocked her head to the side like a bird who was confused at what it had just heard. “I didn’t quite get that, sugar. Can you try again for me?” I pushed down all my feelings and tried not to get too emotional. While hormones clearly weren’t fully surging through me anymore, I was now starting to go the opposite way where my emotions were small… but triggered by seemingly anything. Already, I had fought back looking weak and shedding a tear when I stubbed my toe on a rock coming back from the bonfire tonight in the dark. “Please.” This time I knew she heard me without a doubt… but she still shook her head. “No… I don’t think that was it either…” She lifted the game even higher above my reach. “Care to try again for me, swee…?” But two stomps over and a near whoosh above my hair… enough to rustle it a bit, and Esther was glaring at her fellow volunteer with the board game now firmly tucked within her grip. Like me though, I could tell that those emotions were quickly shoved deep down. “Josephine. Another AR needs you. Says only you.” Josephine lit up like a Christmas tree. “They did?” She didn’t need any other prompt and, without questioning her friend’s sudden deliberate swipe of the board game she was trying to taunt me with, ran off to go help another one of the cabin members. I stared blankly for a moment at Esther, something tickling the back of my mind. “Uh… thanks. But… was there really someone who needed her?” Esther smiled and shook her head. “Not really… but I wasn’t lying either.” She then momentarily looked back out at the room and then back to me. “Someone here always needs help before bed. She’ll look around for a sec and she’ll find her person. It’s a guarantee now. And then her mind will simply fill in the rest for her.” “Her savior complex, hmm?” I asked, not even really needing my question confirmed about her. “Something like that…” She smiled as she then handed me the game and cleared one of the tables off before looking at her watch. “Well… here you all go. Just…” Esther then paused as if she was finding just the right words. “Remember… tomorrow, breakfast is at 8 AM and its laundry day. Try to get some sleep… you’ll thank me later.” I smiled back at her. That was what I was looking for here. My pride hurt me around here some days, but mostly, I asked for help when I needed it. I was shrinking and youthening and while that could come with perks… it meant I needed help. Just not every day and with every situation. So, for me, Esther was perfect. She gave assistance to help my vertically challenged self or carried the load my muscles couldn’t on their own anymore. She saw a need… she filled it. She didn’t go looking for one and then offered help without a need like Josephine. And now, she was enforcing the rules of the cabin towards me without making it an order like I was really nine or whatever age Mrs. Galen recently declared me as. Bedtimes weren’t forced here… but sleep was important. She knew we knew that without sleep, we would face the consequences in the morning and throughout the whole of the next day. “Thanks for the reminder.” She had her part to play, and I had mine to reciprocate my gratitude back. “And thanks for the game.” She nodded. “No worries, Miles. Good luck and I hope you get Free Parking often.” She leaned in and whispered. “But tell me how it went tomorrow night. I want to know who won… hope it’s you.” We both smiled at each other, and she went off to help others just like she had done for me. She was the ideal volunteer… but she wasn’t here all the time. The next day was aquatics. And while Mr. Mast was trying to get half the cabin in water to check for swimming abilities, Ms. Fisher had organized our group into taking out the smaller boats out on the water with her direct supervision. Lighter and only two people could fit and not much else… but they worked for our purposes as younger but still mentally fit campers. But life jackets were more critical than ever now. Without fuss, I started to do mine up… and was quickly stopped. “Here… let me get that for you, sweetie. Needs to be nice and tight or you could just float away.” Josephine smiled over me… but it wasn’t the look of a friend. It was like a babysitter or a teacher over their charge. Not equals on any level. It was clear that if I forgot I was ever an adult… she would do little to ever remind me. I pulled away. “Hey. I got that.” “No, let me help,” she snapped back, pulling my small form in front of her and buckling my jacket closed. “I will not let you go drowning out there because you want to look cool in front of your friends. Now… just stop being a baby and let me help you.” It shut me up quick… but I wasn’t the type to forgive so easily. And so, all through our rowing lesson and leisurely quest out to the small and boring sandy shoals of the other side of the lake before Razor Ridge Island, I was thinking about her. I was thinking about my loss of status. I was thinking about the monsters and the fact that my friend Brian seemed to slip away more with each passing day. A good guy… but not an adult anymore. His definition of a good day now seemed to be coloring pictures of birds and running to play tag in the woods. But I was just fed up and tired with it all… and my patience finally gave way at lunch. “I want to leave this place…” I confessed suddenly after Josephine had ruffled Eric’s hair as she passed by. “I can’t stand Josephine and I know it’s just going to get worse.” A deafening silence eclipsed the table. “You’re not wrong there…” Victor finally sounded off grimly, “but escape just isn’t possible. Or… maybe it is, but it’s suicide or just a bad move now. Maybe not a month ago when you were just in purple about to go to blue. You could have managed it… maybe. But not now.” “You really doubt I, or anyone else here, could leave?” I asked, trying to play his game for a moment to ee if he knew something I didn’t. “No cameras that’ll go off. No alarms. No fences. What else is there?” “It’s not about the obstacles… at least not exactly,” Eric noted. “It’s… you, Miles.” He gestured up and down my regressed body. “A log overturned on the path before was a literal hop and a jump. Now… it’s a climb.” “I don’t care…” an almost whisper of a voice jumped out. We all turned and saw it was Leo who was listening intently right alongside Brian. “I… I need to leave this place.” “Oh great. Two more for the slaughterhouse. You know… because of the monsters out there?” Tommy pointed out. “Or did you all forget about the Ghoulmoth… or the Wruethroat… or the Gruebody still lurking in the shadows.” “Please…” Victor was less than convinced. “I’ll tag along with you all. I think we’re dead before we even start… but not from some stupid made-up monster. Might as well take the risk though. Maybe see my sister again before I forget her…” To my surprise though, for a man of facts and figures, Eric appeared to be more convinced about the things that went bump in the night around here. “I don’t know, Victor. There’s some strange stuff out here. Maybe not a monster in the literal definition, but… weird and violent. Trees just don’t scratch themselves or forests echo with howls and groans…” Brian, who had been listening but also twirling his fruit salad around, suddenly went white. “I don’t want to go, Leo!” He clung to his newest bunkmate. “The monster will eat us and smash our bones and use us for Halloween decorations or make us into a stew!” “Stop it, Brian! That’s a lie!” These days, however, he seemed less sure about that fact… especially after I caught him wringing his hands though the whole ghost story at last night’s bonfire. “And besides… you tag along with your old friend here,” he said, gesturing to me. Brian lit up when he saw me and was reminded that I was going as well. “Oh! Hey Miles! You want to be buddies again?” I sighed. As predicted, Brian had popped out of his near trance of not remembering me a few days ago. His mind still wasn’t what it was, and maybe that made all this harder, but I still felt he was my friend on some level, and I couldn’t tell him no. “Yes, Brian. We’ll be buddies.” I didn’t want to say ‘again.’ Somehow, with all this, it just felt wrong. “And the monsters?” Tommy questioned us all. “You all going to wish them away or something?” I shook my head. “No and well… I want to go by water this time. The woods are too weird and freaky,” I shared freely. “The water is better and faster and no woods with all the creepy crud in them. Plus, it means we’re not passing by the admin cabin. I swear that’s how they were alerted last time.” Most of the members around me seemed more convinced now. Fear still lingered though. “But the Gruebody…” Brian said fearfully, his bottom lip getting what almost amounted to a workout from the number of times he had bitten it by now from his jangled nerves. “He’s on the water… he’ll want to eat us.” I sighed. “That’s just by the shore, Brian” I pointed out, remembering back to Fred’s story when he first joined ACTS. “So, not our biggest concern. But… we still need to figure a way out of the cabin. And if they ever do a surprise bed check, we could be screwed before we make it past the mountains at the start of the river.” There was silence for a moment. “I might not believe in all this… but I’ll run interference to buy you all some more time if anyone does a bed check or later in the morning,” Tommy noted after a moment. “Eric might be able to help you all getting out of the cabin, but now… big question, when are you thinking of running this little prison break of yours might I ask though?” I sighed, knowing this could all fail in a moment… but that we were all running out of options and patience… and fast. “Tonight.” No one spoke after that. Later, to say that I was worried about our little plan tonight would have been an understatement. There was so little planning, and while the water presented a potentially safer option than the woods, rowing at night was dubious and supplies were needed but in short supply and the next city was at least a day away. Any number of things could go wrong, and to make matters worse, both Leo and Brian were tagging along now as well. Good friends maybe… but not the people I had tried to escape with before either. Simply put, with everyone regressing, escape was now more complicated than ever. “There,” Eric said in triumph with a smile after the front door key code lock lit up green for his successful input of the code. “Pays to be teacher’s pet some days. I’m the emergency coordinator, you know? If there’s ever a fire or an emergency at night before Mrs. Carlisle can get here, I can unlock the doors myself.” I nodded and smiled. “Thanks man.” Bringing up the rear, Tommy then checked our packs and added an energy bar for each of us. “Next town is only a day away… but you never know. You might have to go off road or hike the backcountry if they send out search parties in the morning.” “But you all are small,” Eric pointed out as the obvious yet biggest factor we might not have considered. “You all hear choppers and you’re on the water, veer off to the shore, ditch the boats and hide in the underbrush and wait for them to pass. You all might not get spotted and then just head north. There’s a main road a few miles up that way… and then just go west if you need supplies… east if you want to hit the city.” Victor smiled and gave both his two old friends from red cabin a big hug. “I wish you guys were going but…” “But nothing,” Tommy cut him off before he could get more emotional. “We’re staying for our own reasons, but good luck and…” He peered out the window. “Yeah… guard just pushed past. You all need to go now. You have five minutes to make it to the docks and take off. Stick to the shadows and don’t make any noises…” We all nodded, and within a minute, we were out and scampering down to the docks. Packing light with just some meager supplies, flashlights, and rain jackets all stuffed into our camp backpacks, we soon unhitched the boats and grabbed the oars from where they were typically stored at night. Due to the remoteness of everything, nothing was locked that wasn’t dangerous. There was a trust out here… one we were now breaking. It took all four of us to tip one boat and then the next in the water, but we eventually got them in and pushed them off from the docks. Paddling away, the crescent moon peaking just behind the mountain tops around us provided some light, but quickly, I realized that it was much harder to navigate the lake at night than during the day. ‘Hope that’s not too much of an issue…’ “I can’t believe we left Sammy behind…” Leo said after a few minutes of rowing. “I know, buddy…” I sighed. “I don’t like it either.” Sammy was our guide during our first escape attempt. He helped us in so many ways back then and was a solid friend to both of us… but the boat race and the last night we went camping together changed all that. And now, isolated and regressing even beyond most of us now, he had been acting funny. Nothing too big… but the guy temporarily forgot how to zip up his pants one day. Josephine swooped in and helped… but it was the proof we needed to justify that he would just be a liability on this venture. Brian could at least keep quiet and paddle steadily back up in front of our boat once more. A few minutes later, with the darkness slowly encroaching our rear view, I turned around one last time to see the dimly lit Camp Commune and the small lights still shining through the windows of Havenswood. Admittedly, it was a beautiful and even peaceful view under the still night sky full of stars… but it also represented the cage I was trying to leave once again. So, I turned back around and paddled harder. “How much further?” Victor asked me, remembering how well Brian and I did in our boat race before and having paid more attention to Ms. Fisher when she was teaching us these waters. “A little more,” I noted, looking at a small map that I had drawn myself from the one back at the docks that had been used to plot the boat race before. “Wary Island is to the south. Razor Ridge Island is to the north. We want to go in between the two to avoid the narrow straights by the main shoreline, but also… try maybe to push a little more towards Razor Ridge. Considering the lack of visibility, they’ll be easier currents to navigate through.” In the inky black, I saw Victor and Leo both nod, and bracing myself, I checked I had my wallet for after and paddled on. “More south, more south!” I soon called out to Brian when we were veering into more of the treacherous currents to the south of Razor Ridge. Despite being better than Wary Island, only the east side was clear… the rest could smash boats like ours in minutes if we weren’t careful. “Aye, aye!” Brian called out. “To the south we go!” Once more, I didn’t call out my friend to stop stuff like that. For me, it always seemed to distract him well enough from the dark… a growing fear of his. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. A low and distant huffing growl came from Razor Ridge. Too strange to be a deer or a moose or a bear. Too big to be a coyote or wolf. “What the heck was that?” Victor asked, his own paddling stopping suddenly as fear gripped him all over. “You all see anything?” I strained my eyes along the somewhat near rocky shoreline but shook my head. “No! Nothing. Anyone else?” “Nothing here…” Leo responded weakly, like all his energy had been sucked out after his encounter with Dwayne. Leo was still Leo on some level… but lately, he was a shell of his former self. Another hungry and rumbling growl… closer. More drops of something in the water now. “What was that?” Brian asked, panickily jerking around and stopping his paddling… unfortunately stopping us dead in the water around weaker but constant currents. “Keep paddling, Brian,” I reminded him. We were already drifting with our diminishing strength, not making the crossing as easy as it used to be when we were in purple or even back in blue cabins. Tonight though, I could already see the boat drifting towards the south more than it should have. ‘Shit! I have to stop this!’ Remembering my lessons from Ms. Fisher, I tried to dip my oar in and stop us faster and make a hard turn. But I wasn’t fast enough. “Brian! Brian! Oars back in!” I shouted. “We’re drifting!” And looking over, smaller and weaker than Brian and I combined, Leo and Victor were drifting just as much as we were despite their efforts to paddle faster. “No! Push through! Stroke! Stroke! Faster!” But my words might as well have been bird sounds of panic and jumbled intentions. Our boat drifted south and right to Wary Island. The stronger tides and currents immediately took our small boats. The larger boats could handle those forces better to keep straight or maneuver around them, but our smaller boats were much harder to maneuver on this type of water due to their lack of size. Knowing that, I wanted the bigger ones, but after a single shove didn’t do squat with the larger ones… we had to take what we could get. But now, with Brian flailing and utterly lost and my single oar not doing enough to compensate, our boat spun and was immediately caught in one of the deeper and faster currents. In less than thirty seconds, like some demon aquatic pinball, we were bounced in front of the island… and jettisoned back towards shore. “No, no, no!” I screamed, smacking the water with my oat with a large plop and splashing water over the side of the boat. In less than three minutes, thirty minutes of progress had almost been erased. “We have to try again! We gotta go faster and hit it in the middle. Maybe the front person scoots forward and checks the currents in front of them or…?” Another trembling groan… and this time, followed by a breath. In and out… almost a pant of hunger. Hearing it again, it was deeper, like the panting maw of something big. It was followed by the strong gentle scraping of something against the rocks… and something trailing in the water. It started behind us… and slowly moved forward… and ahead of us. Then nothing. “What was that?” I asked the group, Leo’s and Victor’s boat having been shot back to shore as well almost right behind us. When neither of them responded and were just trying to get their bearing though, I turned toward Brian. “Brian… can you see anything?” Brian didn’t move.   “Brian… are you okay?” I tried to recall if he had gotten hurt or what was happening with why he wasn’t responding to me. “Brian… answer me, dude. We need to get out of here and I need to know what’s making that noise.” Brian only lifted a single finger and pointed off to the front of our boat, his breaths now coming through as shallow and erratic. I could even see his finger tremble. But my eyes followed its path… to the nearby shore… to a mass off in the distance… growling… panting… moving in the water all black and green and slimy. And it’s face… and the red eyes. ‘The Gruebody…’ “Shit!” I panicked and rowed away, trying desperately to get out of there. “You two!” I directed at Leo and Victor. “Row away! Row away!” That seemed to snap both of them from their only little world on their boat and Brian out of his trance on ours. “Gruebody!” Brian screamed. “Monster! Monster!” And maybe being higher-pitched or wilder or just louder… his voice carried. The monster off in the distance turned to us directly and hunched over… and roared. It was the sort of bellowing and gut-wrenching howl that put a cold shiver running up your back. It was the bone rattling deep and unsettling call of a foghorn in a higher pitch… hitting my mind and feeling like my brain was being rocked like a tiny ship in a hurricane. All four of the group panicking now after hearing the beast, we rowed as hard and as straight as we ever could. Our boat turned and battled the rapid around Wary Island. I could just see Razor Ridge come into view… speeding closer and closer. The moon was brighter than before fully clearing the mountains… but it wasn’t enough to shine everywhere. Rocks were everywhere and couldn’t be seen until the last second. Brian tried to call out… but it was too much for my regressed friend. And as we were about to turn towards the lake exit, our boat got stuck on top of one of them. “No! No!” I was panicking and I heard the growling getting closer. We had drifted too close to the south end of Razor Ridge Island and as I poked around with my oar, I saw that we were surrounded on all sides by all sizes of rocks… including the one pinning our port bow side firmly in place. Realizing our desperate situation, I turned back toward Brian. “Come on, Brian! Push off! Push off!” He was jittering now… his hands barely able to grip onto his oar. I thought he was going to lose it, but instead, he just batted it around and loosely hit the surface of one small rock nearby. And seeing that, and that it was doing less than nothing… I groaned. At least we were doing better than Leo and Victor. From afar, I saw their weakened bodies were once again thrust into the currents. Screams and shouts and orders like they were enough to battle the strong water around them. But sure enough, they were soon even further away from us and the exit to the water beyond the lake. Another minute later and they were back closer to the shore and far away. Fearful and getting freaked out and annoyed all at the same time… I got up and went to the bow of our boat where Brian was. His efforts had been less than useful and his stabbings with his own oar had either skimmed off the tops of the nearby rocks… or just purely didn’t have the force required to shift us away. I saw where needed to be hit though to push us off… and I hit it with all my might. The first… second… third… and even fourth. My diminishing strength wasn’t enough for one hit… but we were moving slowly. Encouraged, I felt to make it even more successful, I poked multiple places to avoid getting stuck on another rock as we backed out. And it seemed to be successful. Rock… rock… slippery rock… mostly submerged rock… And then one gave… like poking a jellyfish before striking something more solid. A cry went out… deep and pained yet buried… and closer. Much closer. Brian dropped his oar and it would have been lost if I didn’t catch it and pull it back in. I wanted to yell at him, but instead, I saw that his arms were fully bent upwards with his hands unmoving from his ears. “Make it stop! Make it stop!” He screamed and yelled like he was in pain. I almost wanted to slap him… just to get him to stop panicking and help us leave this spot and from the angry cries or whatever the heck it was. Distance was best. But then something moved in the water. Big and dark and green and shimmering from the surface’s lapping waves and there was something else as well. It was like a floating moss back of floating seaweed. It was smart and organized though… deliberate like a pattern. The sticks and the stump were odd but better camouflage and… “Oh no…” Before I could warn Brian, a monster emerged out of the water. Dripping and slimy, the monster towered over the boat. It roared right at us. Its claws were like long knives, painful and sharp. It’s slippery greenish-black exterior glinted off the moonlight but striking… were the eyes. Red like rubies or the flames of hell. I wasn’t sure which but the place for a mouth opened, elongating the face more than it had been with the large tree stump it carried on its back. Brian freaked out. He ran as close to me as possible on the boat and whimpered like a little kid as our boat rocked under the new shifting weight. And before I knew it, through his tears and shaking body… wet his shorts right there. More than the monster in front of us, I was almost more worried about my old friend. He was slipping fast and while his sense of adventure and his fear tolerance left a lot to be desired. ‘Peeing your pants in fear though… and no acknowledgement. Not good…’ But as the Gruebody opened its mouth further and I smelled the rotting bits of flesh and other putrescence of the grimy lake, my mind snapped back to the more pressing concerns right in front of us now. No bushes to cover or sleepiness to make me think I was just imagining this. Just a giant terrifying presence to make me weak in the knees. And soon, from all that, there was one word and instinct which crossed my mind above all others in the heat of the moment that I couldn’t deny and that I very much wanted to keep remembering no matter what happened next: survival.

I remember being very careful not to wrinkle or "dog ear" the pages of the big Sears catalog that showed the incontinent supplies.  

@Chicagowet1 How did Dr. E make you incontinent? What is a silicone procedure? Are you talking about a stent?

Maddison was already heading toward the kitchen when the pizza arrived; she was placed in the high chair and a bib was put on her. She turned red with embarrassment at first, but that quickly passed when she saw the pepperoni pizza—she didn't even mind drinking Sprite from a baby bottle, and she said: "Yummy, Mommy."