Shifting Sands - Chapter 62

[007specialk]

Poor Zach he thought he had it bad now full baby treatment! I bet this Lady will have a had it that as well. Another great chapter Thank you..

[A_Pale_Spirit]

Love the chapter, as usual your descriptive writing is excellent.

I have a feeling Zack is going to regret his decision, I can't get enough of this story 

[Cute_Kitten]

That was an exciting turn. Zack certainly is digging his hole deeper. I can only imagine what Kelly will do once she gets hold of him. Baby reins and harness in the little runaways future? 

[CDfm]

LOVED IT!!!!!  Absolutely loved the fact that Zack reached the point where he said Enough!  Then he actually did something about it.  I said before that I doubt he will get very far by running but I still believe that he had to do so. Hopefully he can get a call in to his dad. and his dad can intervene enough to at least ensure he isn’t constantly being embarrassed beyond belief. Even if the diapers are a necessity you can live a normal life and wear diapers 24/7.  I am a productive member of society and have worn diapers full time for a long long time now.  
Right now I am going to have a hard time waiting for the next chapter to find out what happens. 

[Andyman3]

I'm so happy he did something, he needed to get out. He is young so not always the smartest but lots of willpower, absolutely wonderful. I hope something good happens, not like he'll be free of Kelly for a little while. 😄

Wow feels so good when he has the will to fight. 

[sklawlor]

good on Zack for doing something, though I don't imagine it will result in much of a change but I can be hopeful anyway. The fact that I have such an emotional reaction to Kelly, and I've probably said this before, but it's just a testament to how well you have your characters developed and interacting with each other.

[D503]

It's only been two weeks but can't wait for an update. I wonder if we'll ever hear about "SuperMom1984's" boys whom Kelly spoke to, or the girls Zack met last time. Perhaps even Oli one day!

[Little Sherri]

My apologies on not being very prolific on this or Going Green lately - things have gotten quite busy at work (year-end approaches). I hope to sit down and add to both, between now, and over the holidays. Thank you for your patience. 

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 53 – A Kindness 

“Downtown, main campus, downtown, main campus, University Health…” the driver intoned loudly into a PA system. Then, the bus leaned hard to the right as he swung a tight left turn, into an entranceway that did not look like it was meant to fit a bus. The driver crammed the large vehicle down the center of a tight crescent, with cars parked along both sides, despite signs that prohibited parking. The bus kneeled at both ends with an elongated whooshing sound, and some frantic high-pitched beeps, and then the doors opened and ramps extended to the asphalt.

The lady with the stroller nodded to the lady with the walker, so she stood up and began slowly trundling towards the exit ramp at the back of the bus. People without wheels under them seemed to mostly be using the front door to exit. A crowd at a sign marked ‘Hospital Shuttle” at the curb expressed unified irritation and began walking towards the bus that had stopped 40 feet back from the sign, because a dilapidated pickup truck full of scrap metal sat in the way, with its flashers on.

Zack nodded to the lady with the stroller, and she got up and started walking. Zack quickly mounted his scooter and tried to trail closely behind her. When they crossed got onto the sidewalk, a security guard held a door open for them, and gave the lady, and Zack, a polite nod, as they entered the building. Air conditioning and a strong antiseptic smell assailed them on their way in.

Inside, the ceilings were lower than on the suburban campus, and the lighting was more functional and less architectural. Zack deduced that this was an older building.

Much older.

The security guard was giving a frumpy old man some trouble at the door, and Zack was glad for the cover that the lady with the stroller provided. She had stopped in front of him and was studying a map on a central pillar in the lobby. Zack studied her, and something he noticed caused him to have an epiphany.

Diaper bag. Under the stroller.

Zack rolled up beside her, gathered up his courage, and asked what, to him, sounded like the strangest request anyone had ever made in history.

“Excuse me, Miss…?”

She turned and looked at him with a slight smile.

“Yes?”

“I, uh, I can’t help but notice that… uh, I was wondering…. Uh, that is, I was hoping that maybe, uh….”

Zack stopped and took a breath.

“You wouldn’t have a spare diaper with you, by chance?”

The lady’s eyes widened, and she said “Oh” out loud, then “Sorry, er… I wasn’t expecting that. What, exactly, do you need?”

Zack blushed, and turned his eyes down to the floor. He reached down towards the thigh of his right leg, and pulled open the furthest snap on his romper, before closing it again.

“I’m supposed to meet my dad here but I didn’t bring… my diaper bag. And I think I need one.”

He kept his eyes welded to the floor and felt his cheeks heating up.

The lady paused to take in the full picture in front of her. The boy was clearly wearing a diaper under a romper, he had a mobility device, seemed to be recovering from some kind of injury, and was negotiating his way between big hospitals by himself. He was well-spoken but looked young – she guessed he was nine or ten. She felt a surge of maternal protectiveness.

“Oh, well, uh, of course… but, I, uh, I doubt they’d fit you… are you sure you don’t need anything else?”

“Even if I could just borrow one and tuck it into my, you know, current, uh, underwear, it would buy me a bit of time to find my dad…”

The lady could see that Zack was struggling to keep his composure, and that he was deeply embarrassed.

“Yes, no problem at all, you don’t have to borrow it, you can have it.” She reached under the stroller and pulled out a blue elongated diaper bag, dipping into a pocket on the side and pulling out a diaper with what looked like a lion cub on the front that said ‘Size 7’ and ‘Huggies Little Movers” on the cover. She extended her arm with a smile, and Zack took the diaper and quickly stashed it in the basket on his scooter.

“Mommy, you givin’ the boy one of my dipah’s?” the girl in the stroller asked.

“Yes, sweetie, I’m giving him one of your diapers.”

The girl laughed, but it was a good-natured giggle, and she seemed pleased.

Zack looked up and met the lady’s eyes. “Thank you very, very much, ma’am.”

She smiled again. “You look after yourself and get better soon, okay? And don’t forget your diaper bag next time!”

Then, she reached into her pants pocket, and pulled out a crumpled $5 bill.

“Here, take this, in case you need a drink or a bite to eat before your father gets here. And, please, stay in the lobby where security and the receptionists can see you, until your dad comes, okay?”

Nodding slowly, Zack took the $5, and then he realized that his romper didn’t have pockets, so he put it in the bottom of his scooter basket, and put his borrowed diaper down on top of it.

He looked around the lobby, considering his options. In the middle of the large room was a reception desk, while on the fair side, there was a window that said SECURITY overtop of it. A young woman wearing a uniform sat behind it, adjusting what looked like a radio or oversized cellular phone.

Zack eyed the reception desk and the security window equally suspiciously. On the one hand, there was a phone on the counter at the reception desk, which was something he could use, but on the other hand, at some point, the word might go out that a kid was missing from the children’s hospital, a kid on a scooter, and when that happened, they might notify the reception desks or security teams at the other affiliated hospitals. Or both. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that a runaway kid without any money only had a couple of options for transportation, and the hospital shuttle was one of them. Otherwise, he’d be scooting down one of the neighbourhood sidewalks within a short distance of the hospital.

Unless… I hitched a ride with someone.

Zack put that idea in his back pocket, and decided to walk over to the reception desk. Seems like the safer option. An older lady had just finished chatting to the youngish, tall man seated behind the desk, who considered Zack through large square glasses. His nametag said Reese – Volunteer. That was good. A volunteer might not be as rigid as an employee or a security guard.

Zack trundled up to the desk and flashed his patient bracelet quickly, without pausing long enough for the guy to read it.

With those glasses, I’d probably have to stick my arm across the desk and give him a few minutes…

“Hi, I was wondering if I could use your phone to call my father.”

“Is he patient or an employee at the hospital?”

“Er… no. I’m a patient. He’s… supposed to be coming to meet me, and I wanted to tell him where I’ll be. If that’s okay. I forget my cell phone in my room.”

Which was the truth, sorta.

The young man seemed to think on his request for a moment, but then a well-dressed business type with grey hair and a briefcase walked up behind Zack, and Reese decided that he wanted to avoid ending up with a lineup at his desk.

“We don’t normally allow outside calls on these phones, but I’ll help you out. What’s his number?”

Zack’s eyes seemingly scanned the ceiling for a moment, as though it might be up there. “I… don’t know,” he said, followed by a forced chuckle. “Nobody knows phone numbers anymore, eh?”

Reese gave him a curt smile.

Zack pushed on quickly. “Could you search it up for me?”

Reese’s smile turned into a slight frown, and his eyes narrowed.

“I don’t really do that kind of thing….”

Zack’s eyes fixated on a row of bricks faux bricks behind Reese’s desk that listed the names of prominent donors.

“Listen, please, I’ll tell my dad how much you helped me. He’s a donor. He’ll really appreciate it.”

“Fine. I’ll see if I can find his number – what’s his name?”

“Chris Fischer. He works for SunWire Fiber Optics – S – u – n – capitol W – i – r – e.”

Reese tapped on his keyboard for a minute, while the business guy standing behind Zack checked his watch and transferred his briefcase to his other hand.

“Here… okay… they don’t list a mobile number for him, but there’s an office number. I’ll, uh, write it down and slide the phone over to you, so I can help the gentleman standing behind you.”

Reese took a sticky note off of a pad and scribbled on it, then stuck it to the receiver of his desk phone, and slid the phone over to his right far enough that Zack would not be standing in front of him, orienting it towards the front of the desk.

“Dial a 9 first to get an outside line…. Can I help you, sir?”

Zack turned his handlebars and parallel parked in front of the phone, before picking up the receiver. He leaned over and looked at the keypad, realizing that he did not really have much experience using phones that had wires coming out of them.

He gave the 9 key a stab, and then held the receiver to his head. He heard a click and then a dial tone, so he assumed that he could proceed with dialing the number Reese had given him.

On his first attempt, he dialed the whole number, including the extension, and the phone didn’t like that, and started beeping at him and saying that the number was not in service. Zack toggled the button under the receiver and hit 9 again, getting another dial tone. Then, he dialed just the seven-digit phone number, and listened. The phone rang, and Zack imagined that maybe it was sitting on a desk somewhere in his dad’s office, and that his dad might even be close by. The thought comforted Zack. Then, a recorded voice came on and invited him to press 1 if he knew the extension he wished to reach. Zack pressed 1.

The voice then asked him to enter the extension number. Zack methodically punched in the four digits that Reese had written down for him. The phone at the other end rang again, and Zack felt a thrill as he pictured it sitting on his dad’s desk, within easy reach, beckoning him.

Instead, a recording answered the phone.

“Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail of Martha Mendelson, executive assistant to Chris Fischer. Please leave me a message, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

Crap – dad’s assistant.

Next came a short beep, and Zack realized that it was probably recording him.

“Uh, hi, us this is, uh, Zack Fischer, Chris’ son. I need to speak with my dad as soon as possible. If you could please get him to call me at…. Uh…..” Zack’s eyes scanned the phone in front of him, and he saw a sticker at the bottom of it that had a number and an extension written on it. He hoped it applied to this phone.

Zack read the number and then the extension out.

“I’m at, uh, another, like, hospital location, and I don’t have my cell, so please ask him to call this number and ask for me. Thank you.”

Zack hung up the phone and then stood where he was, waiting for Reese to finish looking up something for the businessman.

“The patient you’re inquiring about is on the 9^th floor, Internal Medicine, room 932 B. Take the blue elevators over there on your left.”

The gentlemen thanked Reese, and walked away. Zack rolled himself back over in front of the desk, before anyone else could walk up.

“Hi, uh, thank you for letting me use your phone. If it’s okay, my dad is probably going to call back any minute. If he calls and asks for me, can I use the phone again?”

Reese tilted his head slightly and squinted. “You asked him to call you back… here? That’s not really what this phone is for.”

Zack smiled. “Sorry, I… I didn’t know what else to do. Listen, my dad will be REALLY appreciative, if you could just give me the phone for one more minute when he calls.”

Reese shrugged. “Fine. If he calls while I’m still here. My break is coming up. Go sit somewhere close by, and I’ll wave at you, I guess, if your dad calls this phone. But if you’re not around, I am NOT going looking for you.”

“Thanks, man, that’s… that’s great. Uh, do you know where there’s a washroom?”

Reese rolled his eyes, imagining what was going to happen. The kid would go to the washroom and then the phone would ring, and then he’d end up being stuck in the middle of whatever situation they had going on between them, rather than answering visitor’s questions and scrolling through internet cat photos on his phone.

“It’s around the corner. But don’t take too long – I can’t leave your dad on hold if he calls back. I might need this phone.”

Zack nodded emphatically, and turned his scooter in the direction he was directed toward. He found the men’s washroom around a corner, and when he pushed through the door with some effort, he found it to be quite small, nothing at all like the cathedrals they had in the new hospital. There was one stall, which was too confined to try to roll his scooter into, and two urinals, and a sink, under yellowish lighting. The sink looked like it was from a museum, a big, heavy slab of white porcelain.

Zack looked at the bathroom door, but it only had a pull handle, with no mechanism for locking it.

Crap.

He reached down and palpitated the front of his diaper through his romper. Pushing on it felt like his romper was stretched over a heaping bowl of wet oatmeal. He had to change it soon or he was going to be spending the evening in a soaked romper.

Zack listened hard, but could not discern the sound of anyone approaching the bathroom, so he reached down and started pulling the snaps between his legs apart. Which went fine, until he reached the slightly larger snap in the middle. He gave it a tug, but it would not budge.

NOOOOOO!!!!! Shit shit shit shit.

Zack realized that when he was closing his romper after Kelly’s humiliating diaper check, in his haste, he’d closed the lockable snap. He summoned all the swear words he knew and whispered them out loud.

[Pierry Louys]

Oh my ! Curious to see what gonna happen next ! Because I can see Zack dad being furious with Kelly since she lost his son ! And furious with Zack since he run away ! I hope Zack can explain to him how bad Kelly is treating him and maybe his dad can make some actions !!

[CDfm]

I was so happy to see a new chapter.  I have been missing the story. I can definitely understand how busy you can get towards the end of the year.  Everyone is rushing around trying to get things done and still make time for family and friends.  Something as insignificant as a story shouldn’t even be a consideration for you. Fortunately things do settle down after the first of the year. I am hopeful that will be the case for you as well. 
I was very impressed with how Zack handled himself in this situation.  He has remained calm and is thinking things through.  Doing so, I am hopeful he can get through this with his dignity intact. Now as far as his diaper situation goes, I think he should rip the used diaper off around the locking snap and stuff the new one in the best he can around the snap.  At least get the important parts covered up. Doing that he should be fine even in public and until he can get some real clothing on. 

[A_Pale_Spirit]

Love the chapter as always!
Zack is probably going to end up in huge trouble, can't wait to read what happens

I'm looking forward to more, and I'm sure everybody appreciates your frequent updates (I definitely do), but it's perfectly understandable if you're busy, life is more important than frequent updates.

[D503]

Oh no, poor Zack. He could try and slip the diaper out through the snap if he can get at the tapes. Could be awkward. And yeah, Kelly gon be pissed.

Thanks for the update!

[dmavn]

yea, since i am willing to bet his father will call kelly to pick him up…

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 54 – Not to Plan

 Chris Fischer sat in the back of an airport limousine with his assistant Martha, heading towards a downtown hotel in San Francisco. Not their hotel, mind you, but rather, one with a centrally-located restaurant. He’d taken his charcoal suit jacket off for the ride, and had omitted wearing a tie, because they had met with the party they were joining several times, and some formalities could be dispensed with. Martha wore a long dark blue skirt and a matching jacket, over a white blouse.

Martha was on her phone, her laptop balanced on her knees, taking notes and making calendar entries, between punching at buttons on the phone’s screen. Then, she stopped typing, and a quizzical look crossed her face. She pulled the phone away and hit a button.

“Chris, listen to this,” she said. She put the phone on speaker mode and restarted the message.

Zack’s voice, along with some background noise, filled the quite confines of the luxury SUV they were riding in.

“Uh, hi, us this is, uh, Zack Fischer, Chris’ son. I need to speak with my dad as soon as possible. If you could please get him to call me at…. Uh… 2-0-6-4-4-7-9-9-4-7 extension 1418. I’m at, uh, another, like, hospital location, and I don’t have my cell, so please ask him to call this number and ask for me. Thank you.”

Martha keyed the numbers Zack recited into a blank email on her laptop.

Worry crossed Chris’ face. “That’s strange… what the hell number is that?”

 

___________

 

Kelly scanned rows of cosmetics in the store in the lobby at the hospital. Some of them were quite attractive. She enjoyed reading the descriptions on the boxes, which seemed to be written in pseudo-medical poetry. Then, she shook her head.

A hospital is a dumb place to shop. It’s like an airport. If I want this stuff, I should buy it at a pharmacy somewhere off the property.

However, she’d arrived in the city from the trailer without any of her belongings, and she’d forgotten to ask Kim to bring her facial creams when she’d asked for her toiletries. They were in a separate tote inside her suitcase.

I’ll just buy the overnight cream. Chris won’t mind.

She chose a small tub of an advanced elixir that claimed to be both powerful, and harmless, and tapped the payment machine with Chris’ Amex card without looking at how much it cost. The machine binged happily, and she was on her way with her purchase wrapped in a velvet bag.

Kelly click-click-clicked over to the elevators and hit the button for Zack’s floor.

He must be done in the lounge and eating dinner by now. Either he’s had his diaper changed, or he’s leaked in his new romper, in which case he can spend the evening in just a diaper.

The elevator opened and Kelly stepped inside, turning to hit the ‘door close’ button before a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair could get to the threshold. The elevator rumbled softly and the numbers on the overhead display started counting up. On the fourth floor, the stainless panels slid apart, and Kelly strode out.

She made an immediate turn for the lounge, to see if he was still there. It took her a minute to figure out which of the doors on the floor it was, because most of them were closed now. When she found it, she pushed the door open, and walked inside. A group of kids sat on two couches, watching a cartoon that had English subtitles and was voiced in an Asian language. A quick scan told Kelly that none of them were Zack.

“Have any of you seen Zack?” Kelly enunciated in a loud voice.

Five heads turned towards her, and all of them shook.

“He was the kid with the scooter who was in here earlier,” she explained. She wasn’t sure if any of these kids had been here with him or not.

“Was that the diaper kid?” one boy asked over his shoulder, without looking away from the screen.

“Yes, he wears diapers,” Kelly confirmed.

He shrugged and pointed to something on the floor. “He left a while back.”

Kelly squinted, trying to make out what the kid was pointing at. Then, she recognized the outline of a partially-unfolded disposable diaper, lying on the floor in front of the television.

She turned and marched out the door without saying anything else.

The rapid clicking echoing across the floor caused Nurse Brenda to look up from her charting. A head of blond hair and steam came up the hallway. Brenda put on her polite-but-firm face and, before Kelly could speak, asked, “Have you seen Zack? It’s time for his meds, and his dinner is in his room.”

“Have I seen Zack? Have you seen Zack, is the question. He’s not in his room, then?”

“Not the last time I looked. I thought he was with you.”

“Well then I guess you should look again, Nurse Brenda, because he was not with me, and he’s not in the lounge.”

Brenda tried to avoid visibly rolling her eyes as she pushed her chair back and stood up. She navigated around the nursing station counters and past Kelly, who seemed to be planning to supervise her checking of Zack’s room. A quick glance through the door revealed no Zack. His curtains were pulled back, the bathroom he shared with Tommy was open, with the lights off, and no scooter was evident.

“Tommy, have you seen Zack?” Brenda asked.

“Nope, not for a while.”

“Thanks.”

Kelly pushed her way past Brenda and walked up to Tommy’s bed.

“Did he tell you where he was going?”

“Nope.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yup.”

Kelly let out a dissatisfied sigh, spun, and walked most of the way out the door, before turning her head back, unsure what she was looking for. But then she saw Zack’s phone, resting on his bedside table. She nodded to herself. He wouldn’t have gone far without that.

“If he shows up in here, you are to tell him to go to the nursing station immediately.”

Tommy nodded once. It looked uncommitted to Kelly, but she didn’t have time right now to deal with Tommy. She walked back towards Brenda, who was just outside the entrance to Zack’s room.

“What’s the protocol here?” she demanded.

“I’m sure he’s somewhere on the floor or in the building. I’ll request that an announcement be made on the intercom, asking him to come to the nursing station. We’ll probably hear from him within a few minutes.”

Brenda went back around the nursing station desk and picked up a phone. In less than a minute, the PA system on the floor paused its litany of requests for doctors to dial extensions.

“Zack Fischer, patient Zack Fischer, please report to the nursing station on 4B, or make yourself known to any nursing station, or reception. Patient Zack Fischer from 4B, please report to the nursing station on 4B, or make yourself known to any nursing station or reception desk. Thank you.”

Brenda looked up at Kelly. “I’m sure he’ll be here any minute. It takes him a bit of time to get around.”

Kelly stood with her arms crossed, looking up and down the hall, while Brenda looked disinterested and tried to get back to her charts.

[CDfm]

Wonderful to see a new chapter.  Loved it! 
I think that Kelly needs to return to the lounge and retrieve the diaper laying there.  I believe she is going to need it when she poops herself after fully realizing that Zack is no longer in the hospital. 
I was so happy to hear that Zack at least managed to get through to his dad.  I know they haven’t had direct contact yet but I would like to think he is still around and able to take his dad’s call. 
Really looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds now. 

[A_Pale_Spirit]

Even though not too much happened this chapter, it was still very well-written!

I'm sure Kelly has all kind of ideas for how to deal with Zack when she finds him.
Looking forward to the next part!

[Andyman3]

Wooo new chapter. I really want some hopeful stuff to happen. If Zach's dad can help him he can live his life again. It will still take some time before he is out of diapers because of what happened. 😊

[TheJ]

On 12/12/2023 at 8:18 PM, Little Sherri said:

The elevator opened and Kelly stepped inside, turning to hit the ‘door close’ button before a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair could get to the threshold.

It was already established that Kelly is less than nice person, but this has to be a new low.

[Little Sherri]

The feedback while I've been writing this is interesting, and appreciated. I never set out to write a novel, but that seems to be what I'm doing now, 54 chapters and close to 300 pages in... If I had the bandwidth to do it, I'd almost consider making it a "Choose Your Own Adventure" format, because some people want to see Kelly smote by the Gods, while others fearfully anticipate what she's got in store for Zack once she gets a hold of him again. But, I have to take this where the characters demand I take it - I don't want to beach it on a premature conclusion, whether that's "Kelly gets arrested, Chris divorces her, and Zack manages to stay dry overnight, the end...", or "Kelly buys Zack a crib with a lid on it and he lives in there 24/7 until he graduates from high school..." 

Thanks everyone for your patience!

[Andyman3]

6 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

The feedback while I've been writing this is interesting, and appreciated. I never set out to write a novel, but that seems to be what I'm doing now, 54 chapters and close to 300 pages in... If I had the bandwidth to do it, I'd almost consider making it a "Choose Your Own Adventure" format, because some people want to see Kelly smote by the Gods, while others fearfully anticipate what she's got in store for Zack once she gets a hold of him again. But, I have to take this where the characters demand I take it - I don't want to beach it on a premature conclusion, whether that's "Kelly gets arrested, Chris divorces her, and Zack manages to stay dry overnight, the end...", or "Kelly buys Zack a crib with a lid on it and he lives in there 24/7 until he graduates from high school..." 

Thanks everyone for your patience!

Hahaha yes. Your story is well written and has enjoyable parts so it has become a full thing that people enjoy. I've seen plenty like this lol. 

Yes you have a "story" so zoom to the end with the extremes would be lame. I want everything to be fully utilized. One of my favorite scenes is the baseball game, Zach was in diapers butt he fully played the game. Wasn't an extreme. 

Can't wait to see what you do next. 😄

[Alutheria]

Why do I get the sinking feeling that Chris is going to end up siding with Kelly over Zack once they come face to face?

Another excellent chapter, as always.

[Andyman3]

1 hour ago, Alutheria said:

Why do I get the sinking feeling that Chris is going to end up siding with Kelly over Zack once they come face to face?

Another excellent chapter, as always.

Hope not, that would be boring. Things need to get back to stable, so much could happen. 

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 55 – A Helping Hand

Zack backed himself out of the tight confines of the washroom with difficulty, and scooted back over to the reception desk. A younger couple were in front of him, discussing the whereabouts of somebody who had arrived in an ambulance with Reese, the volunteer manning the desk. When they walked away, Zack approached.

“Hi, uh, one more thing… you wouldn’t happen to have, like, a pair of scissors or something sharp, would you?”

Reese eyed the kid on the scooter.

“This is not a hardware store, kid. What do you need?”

Zack could feel his cheeks reddening again. Why do I have to keep telling people about his stuff?!?

He sighed. “I, uh… my, like, zipper on my, uh, shorts, is, like, stuck, and I have to go to the washroom.”

Reese looked at Zack’s outfit more closely. He didn’t appear to be wearing shorts, but rather, some kind of one-piece. And there was no zipper visible on it.

“Does it even have a zipper? I don’t see one.”

Zack sighed again, this time more deeply. His attempt to obfuscate his predicament seemed destined for failure. Once again, he reached down the leg he had propped on the scooter, and he rotated the cuff of his romper so that the snaps were visible.

“One of the, uh, snaps on this thing is stuck.”

Reese looked at the snaps running up the middle of the romper, and also noted the Huggies diaper sitting in the basket of Zack’s scooter. He furrowed his brow briefly, but then lifted his eyebrows in a kind of facial shrug. You see all kinds of weird shit when you volunteer at the front desk of a downtown hospital.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just wait for your dad to call you back?”

Zack shook his head. “I can’t. I’m gonna have an accident pretty soon,” he whispered urgently.

Reese lifted his hand and pointed up the hallway towards a sign that said ‘Emergency Room’ in red letters.

“The only thing I can think of would be the ER registration desk. I know they have scissors and things up there.”

Zack swallowed audibly, and inwardly cursed his predicament. Why did I lock this stupid romper?

He turned and walked up the hall under the sign Reese had pointed to, noting as he did that he had to walk past a security desk. An officer who looked like a cop, but without a gun, as far as Zack could see, was putting radios in a charger on a counter behind a pane of sliding glass. Zack observed him out of the corner of his eye but tried not to look like he was looking.

Up the hallway a bit, he rolled past an entranceway that was closed off by a pair of sliding doors, which opened in response to Zack’s motion, revealing a small atrium with another set of sliding glass doors at the end of it, and, a row of wheelchairs anchored into some kind of vending device. Up ahead on his right, Zack saw a sign indicating that he’d reached the ER registration desk.

There was a lady in scrubs behind the desk, tapping on a computer. Zack rolled up to the plexiglass divider in front of the lady and spoke through a circular opening that was perforated, seemingly for that purpose.

“Hi, uh, the guy at the front desk said that you could lend me a pair of scissors.”

The heavyset lady with grey hair and large glasses continued to type while she spoke. “I can’t give out a pair of scissors. What do you need them for?”

Zack sighed for the umpteenth time. He decided to try a more direct approach than he’d taken with Reese, in hopes that it wouldn’t engender any suspicion. He took a breath, mentally gathering his courage.

This was a nurse. Nurses have seen everything. She’s not going to care.

“One of the snaps on this romper thingy is stuck, and I need to open it in order to change my, uh, well, my diaper. I’m a patient at the children’s hospital but I’m here today, and I’m waiting for my dad right now.”

The lady stopped typing and looked up at Zack. She saw the redness in his cheeks and felt that he was trying to be earnest, and she had a pang of sympathy for him. She was busy, but she decided not to send him elsewhere, to have to retell his story to another stranger.

She stood and pointed down the hall to her right, Zack’s left. “There is a door down there with a blue sign over it. I’m going to press a button and that door is going to open for you when you walk up to it. Come through the door and then turn right into the first entrance you see. Walk back towards me.”

Zack nodded, and turned to try to follow her instructions. He rolled himself up the hallway a little further, to an area where it widened into a waiting room, with rows of chairs occupied by a broad representation of urban humanity: the disheveled elderly, disheveled young men, the well-dressed, other young men and women who were looking at their phones, or less commonly, at books. Sleeping babies and bored toddlers and some kids around Zack’s age, sitting next to parents. A couple of them eyed Zack as he wheeled past, as though wondering if he was supposed to be in line behind them.

Zack approached the large glass door with the blue sign over it that read “Public Entrance”, and it whooshed open in two parts, granting him access to the inner sanctum. He hung an immediate right and could see the lady who’d let him in, through the transparent glass walls of other people’s offices. He could see various people who were in the process of being admitted, having their temperatures taken, or hooked up to blood pressure machines that made whirring noises.

When he got to the entrance of the lady’s booth, she rolled her chair back, stood up, and pulled a string which allowed a horizontal blind to drop behind the glass that separated her from the hallway.

“Stand against this side of the booth, and nobody around us will be able to see anything below your waist.”

Zack parked himself with his back close to the wall, as she’d indicated, as much as his scooter allowed. The lady wheeled herself towards Zack on her chair, then leaned down and, with a quick but careful motion, she pulled all the snaps open on his left leg, and then his right. Zack looked up at the ceiling as her hands found the locked center snap, which was slightly larger than the others.

“This one seems to be stuck… is this outfit lockable?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t supposed to click that one when I got dressed, but I did.”

“Do you want me to try to get it to release?”

Zack nodded.

The lady leaned over and grabbed the material around the center snap, as Zack assumed a cowboy stance to give her room to work. She gave a couple of strong tugs to the material, then looked up at Zack. She could feel the heaviness of his diaper with the back of her hands as she worked to release the snap.

“I might have to damage it to get it open. Is that okay? Or should we talk to your dad first? I don’t want someone coming looking for me because I broke something.”

“No, no, it’s fine, this thingy is just… it’s just for when I was stuck in my bed, so I didn’t have to pull anything up over my cast. I’m never going to wear it again once I’m done here. My parents are not going to care if that one snap gets broken,” Zack said in what he hoped was his most convincing tone.

She eyed him up and down. “Well, it’s going to be laundry pretty soon anyway, if we don’t get you out of that diaper. I’m Veronica, by the way.”

With that, she reached into a caddy that stood just behind her desk, and withdrew a curved pair of blunt scissors. Zack recognized them as being very similar to the ones that had been used to remove his onesie the night he’d arrived at the children’s hospital.

“I’m… I’m Tommy,” Zack said, as he rocked back and forth on his feet in response to Veronica’s tugging of the romper.

She fed the blade of the scissors in between the outside and inside edges of the snap, and tried to pry them apart, but they would not budge. She realized that while the outside was smooth plastic, the working part of the clasp had to be metal, and it seemed unlikely to give up its hold.

“Well, Tommy, you’re going to have a hole in the middle of your outfit, but it shouldn’t be very visible as long as you’re standing.”

Veronica opened the ends of the sharp scissors and very quickly and precisely cut the locked snap out of the center of the outer layer of the romper, leaving it attached to its receptacle on the inner layer. Then, she rolled up the front of Zack’s romper until it was just above his navel, looked up at him, and said, “Hold this.”

Zack placed a hand on the fold of light blue material, blushing as his diaper succumbed to gravity and sagged beneath him. Veronica pulled the tabs off his diaper without saying anything, allowing it to slide to the floor next to his scooter with an audible plop. Zack blushed harder as he felt the fresh air cool strike him; he hadn’t expected her to do anything beyond helping him remove the locked snap.

Veronica reached into the scooter basket and picked up the diaper that he’d borrowed in the lobby, holding it up in front of Zack.

“Is this supposed to be the replacement, then?”

Zack nodded, feeling the increasingly familiar burn in his cheeks spreading to his chin and neck.

Veronica lifted and unfolded the diaper, and then draped it behind him from left to right, before pinning it against his lower back with one hand, while reaching between his thighs with the other, to pull the front of the diaper forward and up against his tummy. She eyed the stretchy wings on either side of the back panel.

“I’m going to have to stretch those tabs out to get this diaper on you; someone your age really shouldn’t be wearing toddler diapers like this, but I don’t have anything anywhere near your size down here. I’d have to wrap you from your chest to your shoulder blades in an adult diaper.”

With skilled hands trained by years of working with bandages and dressings and slings and of all descriptions, she seized first one side, and then the other, and stretched the elasticized wings as far as she felt she could, without risking tearing them from the body of the diaper. After a few pulls on each side, she landed first one, and then the other hook-and-loop tab onto the front panel, right at the outside edges, but with enough overlap to hold. She hoped.

Zack took a couple of breaths and felt the snugness of the new diaper as it wrapped around his waist, and underneath him. It was definitely a couple of sizes smaller than the Baby Stages that was on the floor, yellowed and bulging. Veronica reached behind Zack and pulled the leg gathers out one at a time, letting them snap back and find their natural placement. Then she tugged the front of the diaper outward and let it snap back.

“Well, that’s pretty snug. I don’t think it’ll leak on you, until you’ve used up some of it, but I don’t think it’s going to last very long, either. It’s meant for babies.”

She reached down beneath him and gathered up his old diaper, bundling it into a ball and tossing it into a covered trash can in the corner. She sat back, considering Zack, who was still holding up the front of the damaged romper.

“Do you want me to get you a bigger diaper, just in case? How long is it going to be until your dad gets here?”

Zack looked at Veronica, whose eyes looked practical but kind, behind her large glasses. Unconsciously, he shook his head, almost in wonder at where he found himself.

“Uh… maybe it’s not, like, a terrible idea. I don’t know how long my dad’s gonna be, or if he’ll have any of, you know, my, uh, diaper stuff with him when he gets here.”

Veronica stood up and walked out the door, leaving Zack standing with his back to the wall. He looked around himself, judging the sightlines. The upper half of the cubicle he was in was a glass box, while the lower half was solid. She’d lowered the blinds out to the public area, but on either side of him, there were nurses sitting behind desks, talking to patients or typing on computers. He felt very exposed, standing under bright fluorescent lights, in a Huggies diaper at least a couple of sizes too small for him. He smoothed down the front and back of his romper so that they formed a sort of smock, and hoped the nurse would be back soon.

She returned a few minutes later with a folded plastic diaper in her hand that looked enormous, and when she opened it, he realized that he’d only been seeing two thirds of its length – it had been folded in three. Zack pulled his romper up again, until it was almost under his armpits. Deftly, the nurse unfolded and slung the sheet of padded white plastic around behind him, and then pulled it up over his new toddler diaper, before feeding some material forward, until the front and the back were at about the same level. It did not come all the way over his chest, as she’d predicted, but it did reach his sternum.

Veronica clucked to herself as she opened and seated the tapes on the big plastic diaper, two on each side. They almost met in the middle, on the slim child. “Think of this as being a backup, like wearing plastic panties. Does your mommy ever put you in plastic panties?”

Zack nodded. Except she’s not my mom.

“They’re always a good idea. How come you don’t have any on today?”

Zack’s eyes widened a bit, but then he came up with an answer.

“She wanted my skin to breathe a bit. Diaper rash…”

Veronica nodded. “Well, we’ve done your skin a bit of a favour today, getting you out of that soaked diaper. Let’s get your romper buttoned up.”

Zack let his romper succumb to gravity. The nurse reached down and started refastening the snaps. She had to tug a bit on the back panel in order to get it to cover the puffy outer diaper. When she was done, Zack took a couple of test strides on his scooter. He sounded like his pockets were full of crumpled up plastic bags, and he could feel that the romper material was taut around the back of his thighs. He looked at the glass surrounding him, which held a vague reflection of his appearance, and he could easily make out the outline of the big white diaper under his romper.

At least there’s no childish print on it.

Zack blew air out between pursed lips, thanked Veronica for her help, and then started rolling his way back towards the automated doors, feeling the bulk of his outer diaper, and the snugness of the inner one, with each crinkly motion.

[Andyman3]

Awwww that's wonderful and heartwarming. 😊