Shifting Sands - Chapter 63 - 04/27

[Kaleros]

Sweet, two chapters for the price of one. Also wondering what will happen during Zack's school day.

[Little Sherri]

Yeah, my chapter lengths are kind of all over the place right now. It is at least partially determined by how much time I have to write in a given period. 

[Pierry Louys]

Really liked this chapters ! And how Zack and Kelly is coping with the new routine 

[Alutheria]

Two more chapters at once, nice! 

Its a great story, the worldbuilding with Dr. Amanda and her program especially, and the new posts never fail to disappoint. You're writing is great and it makes me want to put more effort into trying to write my own stuff. 

Echoing Kaleros, I'm also very curious to see how Zach's school day turns out. I half expected Kelly to put him in a day nappy, but perhaps its too early in the program for that.

[Pierry Louys]

I am curious to understand what Kelly really wants because sometimes I sense she want to baby  Zack (like she really excited to bottle feeding him ) and others she want to respect his wishes ! And Zack I think it’s not totally uncomfortable being in diapers ! Look forward to more chapters

[007specialk]

I agree with everyone this is a great story really enjoying it Thank you....

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 11 - Time Zones

 Zack’s day at school had been largely uneventful. He wasn’t his usual social, gregarious self. He found himself less interested in other people’s attention, preferring to fade into the background a bit more. It had been an extremely weird 24 hours. At least he had baseball tonight – that was something to look forward to. Maybe the game would go into extra innings and he wouldn’t have to go home until it was late.

When he walked out the doors at the 2:40 bell, he did a quick scan of the curb across the street, but there was no evidence of Kelly’s little go-cart, just the usual train of idling SUV’s. He boarded his bus, taking a seat at the back. His friends were talking about video games, and girls, and which teacher was the meanest, but Zack offered little feedback to the conversations that were going on around him.

When he got home, he lingered outside of the house for a few minutes, flicking through various chats on his phone, but not typing anything. Maddy came walking up the driveway and brushed past him through the front door, and after a moment, he followed.

Inside the house there was a package from a courier open on the dining room table, and Kelly called Maddy over to it, extracting what looked to Zack like either pink underwear, or a bathing suit bottom, with white lace trim. Kelly whispered to Maddy, who giggled, and then she handed over the item, and Maddy took it up to her room. Then Kelly motioned for Zack to come over. Reluctantly, he shuffled toward her.

“I’m going to get you to head upstairs, and we’ll get you changed, Zack – I’d like you to try some things on.”

“I don’t need any help changing for baseball.”

“I need you wearing a diaper – I want to check the fit of a couple of things I bought.”

“It’s like 3:00 in the afternoon!” Zack protested.

“Are we going to fight about this every time it comes up?”

“In the middle of the day?!? Yes!”

“I can see that these transitions are hard on you, Zack, and we’ll see what we can do to reduce them moving forward. But for now, I want you to try some things on, and to do that right, I need you to be in diapers. Here.”

Kelly picked a folded white object off the table where it had been sitting, obscured by the box of clothes, and handed it to him. It was another diaper, but this one seemed a bit smaller than the one he’d worn to bed the night before. He turned it over in his hand, and on the front of it was an illustration of a yellow excavator. Small yellow print just below the elastic at what he guessed was the back read ‘Mighty Diggers Size 10’.  It had the same gathers inside of it as the Little Lambs he had worn to bed.

“These ones are bit less bulky, for daytime. Let’s give them a try.”

Kelly worded it like it was a team exercise, but Zack knew that he was the only one giving anything a try. He shook his head, the hand holding the diaper dropped to his side, and he shuffled morosely up the stairs. Would the train of indignities ever end? Bedwetting had never been a problem in the middle of the afternoon – so why did he need a daytime-sized diaper?

Zack walked into his bedroom, pulled the door shut, and dropped his lower clothing in a heap on the floor. He didn’t see why he’d need to take off his shirt. He walked over and spread the diaper out on the bed, then sat down on top of it, laid back, and pulled the front of it up to his belly. This one sat a little lower than the other, he noted, and felt a bit more compact. A few moments later, he heard a gentle knock on his bedroom door.

“Come in.” he responded.

The door opened, and Kelly breezed in.

“Let’s just see how these fit you, Zack. They’re a bit smaller than the Little Lambs you’ll be wearing in the evenings.”

Kelly walked over and sat on the edge of Zack’s bed, even with his knees. She put one hand on the elasticized edge of the top of the diaper, and Zack lifted his hand away.

“Hourglass position, buddy.”

Zack put his heels together and pulled them in toward his bottom, so that the balls of his feet met, and put both of his hands behind his head. He fixed his eyes on the ceiling and let out a breath of resignation, inflating his cheeks.

Kelly studied the front of the diaper, which was white, except for an illustration of a yellow and black excavator. She’d flipped through the bag when she brought it in from the garage; some of them had images of dump trucks or bulldozers, all in the same colour. Instead of the faint water droplets wetness indicators on the Little Lambs, these had yellow dash marks, almost like the lane markings on a roadway, running from below the image, halfway up the rear of the diaper. They almost looked like they were part of the image, she thought.

Keeping a finger on the front, with her other hand, she reached down and opened the lower tab on the left rear wing of the diaper, drawing it up and over the front, while smoothing the front panel down. She placed the tab so that it angled slightly downward, as Ms. Chan had suggested. Then she replicated the motion for the right side, trying to land the tape in roughly the same location. Next, she snugged the upper left and right tabs so that they were horizontal, and right at the top of the clear plastic “landing zone”, just below the stretchy ruffled upper edge of the diaper, which bisected his navel.

“Stand up for me and let’s see how they fit.” Kelly said.

Zack closed his legs and pulled his knees in, then pivoted, swinging them past Kelly, who was still seated on the bed. He dropped them to the floor and stood up. The plastic and stuffing bunched between his legs, and he definitely felt the bulk of them, but, they did seem a bit less intrusive than the Little Lambs. He took a few steps away from the bed, turned, and walked back toward Kelly. The diaper made the same crunch-crunch-crunch noises, but didn’t ride as far up his back. It still felt bulky and stiff and hot. Once he was standing in front of Kelly, she tugged at the front waistband, seeming happy with the fit. She placed a hand on each hip, and gently turned him around, then ran a finger down each of the leg gathers at the back, flaring them out at the upper inside edges of his thighs.

“I think these fit you pretty well, young man. How do they feel?”

Zack weighed out responding with a smart aleck comment, but his heart just wasn’t in it, standing there in nothing but an oversized baby diaper. He spoke over his shoulder without turning around. “It feels like wearing a diaper. It feels stupid. Maybe it’s a bit smaller than the Lambs ones.”

“Well, that’s a ringing endorsement, isn’t it?” Kelly quipped, then stood up and took Zack’s left hand in her right hand as she passed him. He stood his ground for a brief moment as she pulled on his arm, then shook his head and took halting steps, as she began leading him through his bedroom door and down hall and the stairs, into the kitchen. The crunching of his diaper seemed to echo in the quiet, sunlit staircase.

Walking through the house in the middle of the day in just a diaper left him feeling weird and exposed. He had a moment of hesitation when they walked past the front door, as he watched an elongated diagonal of sunlight project across the floor in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs. It was late afternoon, and anyone could have been walking past the house. However, they would have had to have been looking pretty closely from the sidewalk to have caught him in the moment it took to glide past the window. The sliding door in the kitchen was uncovered, but the trees at the back of the yard provided an ample screen between them, and the houses behind.

I hope they do.

Maddy looked up from the couch as Kelly led Zack into the kitchen, and furrowed her eyebrows.

Why’s he wearin’ a diaper in the middle of the afternoon?

Kelly positioned Zack in front of the table, reached into the box, and extracted the first garment she wanted him to try on. It was charcoal grey, speckled with black, had long sleeves but short legs, and had a purple and royal blue stripe running up the sleeves, which was replicated by a stripe running from the armpits, down to the leg cuffs. To Zack, it looked like one of Maddy’s rompers, but in a shinier, snugger fabric, almost like a wetsuit, but lighter. When Kelly held it up in front of him and then turned it around, he saw that it zipped up the back from the waist to the shoulders.

Weird.

“What’s that?” He asked.

“It’s what they call a sunsuit. The fabric is SPF 50, and it covers right up to the back of your neck. You can wear it as swimwear, or just as a play suit. Here.” Kelly lowered the sunsuit until the legs were almost touching the floor, and pulled the shoulders apart so that the opening at the back gaped.

“Put one leg in, then the other.”

Zack thought about protesting, but he didn’t know where Maddy was, or when his dad might come home, and putting something – anything – on was better than staying dressed as he was.

Being seen naked would be better than being seen like this.

Zack stepped one leg, and then the other, into the suit. Kelly tugged it upwards until it was most of the way toward its intended placement, then held first one sleeve, and then the other, until Zack slid his arms into them.

“Turn around, please.”

Zack rotated, and Kelly tugged and guided the garment up into place. She noted that a small plastic bag was attached to the zipper by a thin tie, and she tore it off. Inside was a plastic cylinder about an inch long and half an inch in diameter, almost looking like a little black battery, and with about the same weight. One end of it was affixed to a key ring. 

The mag-lock clicker.

She pulled up the small metal zipper, which ran smoothly on the fine-toothed tracks. At the nape of the neck of the suit, which was positioned slightly high, almost like a half turtleneck, there was a flat black button, the same diameter as the clicker, on a small protrusion on the left flap. On the righthand flap, it met a snap of a slightly smaller diameter, with a pin in the center, encircled by an apron of little metallic teeth. When she ran the zipper to the end of its run, and pushed the left button onto the right pin, there was an audible click, and the zipper was enclosed by the overlapping flap.

Kelly tried to feed her fingers up under the flap to grasp the zipper, and realized that it was practically impossible to get a hold of it while standing facing the contraption, let alone trying to do it on the back of her own neck. She tugged at the snap, and it held fast. The material in the neck of the suit had very little stretch to it, unlike the rest of outfit, which was in a stretchy, light synthetic fabric that, she imagined, would be comfortable and would breathe on a hot day. It was fairly form-fitting as well, so she could see what some of the online moms had meant about it working as underclothing.

“Walk around a bit and let me know what you think.”

Zack walked across the kitchen and back. The outfit was comfortable enough, although it conformed fairly snugly to the outline of his diaper, and the legs were shorter than he was used to.

“The fabric is breathable and dries quickly, as well. I thought it might be good for when we go up to my sister’s cottage. I’ve bought you a couple of them in white as well.”

The mention of the cottage trip gave Zack momentary pause. He had forgotten that it was on the horizon. He liked going up to that cottage, and didn’t mind hanging out with Kelly’s nieces, but he had not enjoyed the last hour or so of most evenings, before they went to bed, which were often spent by the fire or down on the dock, looking at the stars. He didn’t like having to be in a pull-up. Now, it looked like he was going to be in an actual diaper. He knew there was a box of them in the laundry room, and that it held probably 30 or more, and the cottage trip was only a few days away. He’d have to try and negotiate for some kind of reprieve.

Zack had that thought in the back of his mind when Kelly asked him to come over to her, and turn around again.

Best to cooperate. For now.

Dutifully, he turned around. Kelly extracted the black cylindrical clicker from its bag, and pressed it against the black button. There was another audible click, and then she could lift the flap off the zipper. She ran it down to the base of his spine, a few inches below the upper edge of his white plastic diaper. She pushed it past his shoulders, and then Zack extracted his arms from the sleeves without being asked. Kelly grabbed a handful of material on each side, and dragged the sunsuit down to has ankles, so that Zack could step out of it.

Kelly pulled the next garment out of the box. To Zack, it looked fairly similar to the first one, except that it had short sleeves, and no stripes. But it was made out of the same synthetic fiber, this time in white, and it also had a zipper running up the back. The bottom was cut much higher, though, almost like underwear, or a girls’ bathing suit. Zack furled his eyebrows and looked at Kelly, frowning.

Detecting his distaste for her next offering, Kelly held it up in front of him.

“This is a sort of snap-suit, Zack, like a nappy t-shirt… uh, like a diaper shirt. It’s underwear, basically. You pull it on over a nappy, and it holds everything in place, makes it less visible, and if you’re bending over or sitting down, it keeps things covered up at your lower back. It goes on the same way as the sunsuit.”

She turned it around, unzipped the back, and held it open for him. He stood considering it for a moment, without stepping forward, so she gave it a little shake and said “Come on, Zack.”

He cautiously inserted one leg through the open zipper of the bodice, and threaded it down through a leg opening. Kelly held the snap-suit open as he inserted his other leg gingerly, then tugged it up until the front was in place, then she placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him around, feeding the upper part of the suit from one had to the other. He put his arms through the short sleeves, and then she stretched it up over his shoulders and zipped the back closed, before engaging the snap. The snap-suit came with another mag-lock clicker. Kelly put it next to the fist one on the countertop.

The fit, she thought, was excellent – their taking of his measurements when they were at Dr. Paige’s office had been a great idea.

Only the back of the leg gathers on his diaper protruded from under the suit. With pants or shorts overtop, he could do handstands and no white plastic would be exposed. Zack did a short walk back and forth, and Kelly thought that even the plasticky crinkle was muted. She placed the clicker from the sunsuit onto the button, and noticed that it worked there as well, which was convenient. She could leave a clicker on her key ring, and give one to his dad. She briefly thought about putting one in his diaper drawer, but dismissed the idea as quickly as she’d summoned it; Zack didn’t need one. He’d have been hard-pressed to use it, even if she wanted him to, which she didn’t.

She peeled the snap-suit off of him and then said “We’re almost done.” From inside the box, she extracted a small clear plastic bag, which she ripped open. Another clicker fell out. Inside the bag was what, to Zack, looked like a light blue high cut bikini bottom. Kelly turned the garment around in her hands, orienting herself. The material was heavier than that of the first two items, and it had a bit more of a vinyl feel to it.

Waterproof.

She liked the light blue gingham print on it. At the back were two light blue draw strings protruding from a small blue plastic contraption about the size of a matchbox. It had a blue circle molded into the center of it, the diameter of the clickers. There was white lace trim around the waist and the leg openings, fairly small, and one white lace ruffle stitched across the rear of it. Inside another bag in the box was its matching pink gingham counterpart, one size smaller, and without the drawstrings or the lock.

They should make the blue version without the lace. No way to remove it, though, without risking damage to the cover. Be confident!

She painted a smile on her face, and met Zack’s eyes, which were wide.

“These are called a silence panties, Zack. You wear them when you want to be extra sure that you can’t have a leak, or when you want to make certain that your diapers are as quiet as possible. Let’s try them on.”

Again with the ‘let’s’!

She turned it so that the front was facing her, stretched it open, and held it low, for him to step into. Zack didn’t move.

“Come on, buddy, we’re almost done. Let’s try these on you.”

“Those….are… for girls.” Zack stammered a bit as he spoke.

“No, Zack, these are for boys. THESE are for girls.” Kelly let the silence panties drop to the floor in front of her, and then she reached into the box and pulled the bag with the pink version out, shook it in the air, and dropped it back into the box. “I bought these for your sister. The blue ones are for you. Anyway, you’ll always be wearing them under something, Zack, other than at home. And I’ll ask about if we can get them without the, uh, frilly trim. Pull them on, Zack, chop chop.”

“Why are they called ‘panties’ if they’re not for girls?” Zack asked, dubious.

“Babies’ clothes are essentially genderless, Zack. Baby boys are often dressed in gowns, for example, the same as baby girls. Little shorts for babies are often called ‘panties’. It doesn’t mean that they’re only for baby girls.”

Zack felt his cheeks redden. He wanted to bolt from the room, but he knew that they were going to need to leave for baseball shortly, and, he sensed the need to preserve some political capital with Kelly, however distasteful that might be. He might have to negotiate with her. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, placing one leg, and then the other, through the waist and leg openings on the panties. But he couldn’t bring himself to bend over and pull them up.

Kelly leaned forward, grabbed the waist of the panties on both sides, and drew them up and over Zack’s diaper. The panties were generously cut, and complete enveloped his disposable. Kelly again guided him to rotate on the spot. The cut at the bottom completely concealed his diaper at the back. She ran a finger lightly over the lace ruffle at the edge, careful not to poke him on the bum. He looked adorable, in her mind, but she knew that such words were not to be spoken, or else it would be a fight getting him into them every time. 

She pulled the draw strings through the retaining mechanism at the back until the waistband was snug, then tried pulling it loose with her hands on either side of the little plastic box. They strings would not budge. Then she placed a clicker on the matching circle, and when she pulled, the strings retracted smoothly through the device. Deciding not to prolong the moment, which the tension in his shoulders and his crossed arms suggested he was not enjoying, she loosened the strings as far as they would go, withdrew the clicker, and slid the garment down to his ankles. Zack stepped out of them without being asked to.

Kelly feigned reaching into the box again for another garment, but in fact withdrew the snap-suit again, and held it open for him, with the back facing toward his front. He stepped forward and placed his legs into it, one at a time, glad that the blue gingham silence thingies had been consigned back to their box. Kelly drew the sleeves up over his arms, pulled the two sides closed over his shoulders, and raised the zipper to its terminus before engaging the snap. She ran a finger under the gathers at the back of his thighs, to make sure his diaper was properly seated, then said “Run upstairs and get your uniform on – we’ve got to get going.”

Zack stood stock-still. “You’re going to take this thing off, right?”

Project confidence, girl.

“Well if you want to go without the nappy-shirt on, I guess that’s fine, but I thought you’d want to make sure nothing peeks out of your pants, if you’re sliding into first.”

Zack turned around, arms crossed, a pleading tone in his voice. “Kelly, please… I don’t want to wear a diaper...”

“Don’t be silly, Zack – once diapers go on, they don’t come off until they need changed. That’s a much smaller diaper than the ones you wear to bed. It’s designed to be worn under daytime clothes. And your diaper shirt is going to keep it covered up tight. Now run along and get your outfit on, unless you want to call your coach and tell him you’re not coming. And also, WHY you’re not coming. I can call him right now, if you like?”

Kelly let the question hang in the air. Zack’s right hand shot up behind his neck and felt around for the zipper, but all he could find was the fabric bump that covered it, and he could not get the snap that held it down to unfasten.

“What’s with this thing… is it stuck?”

“It’s got a lock on it, Zack. Dr. Paige warned me that sometimes boys your age can have… little disagreements with their parents, when it comes to wearing their diapers as they should. Your dad and I can open it anytime we need to, that’s all you need to know.”

“YOU are NOT my parent.” Zack spit the words out, now reaching behind his head with both hands.

“I can see that you’re not in a mood to talk this out, Zack. That’s fine. I’ll send the coach a text. Let’s see….”

Kelly picked up her phone and started typing out a message, while dictating it to Zack.

“How about this? ‘Dear Coach Carlson, Zack won’t be able to make it to the game tonight, or probably any more games this season, because we’re having a disagreement over his diapers, which his doctor has prescribed. You’ll have to find another third baseman, because this is likely to be an issue for a while, and if he won’t wear his diapers, we’ve told him he can’t play ball. Sorry for the inconvenience, I know we are letting the team down, but Zack’s health comes first.’ How does that sound? Should I include that picture I sent to your dad, too?”

Zack’s anger shriveled up within him, replaced by fear overlaid on mortification. Kelly thought that she could see him visibly shrink. His shoulders seemed to draw inwards, and his crossed arms now looked like an attempt at hugging himself. His head dropped, and his cheeks turned crimson red. Without a word, he turned and slowly walked toward the stairs, his diaper softly crinkling under the onesie.

“Are you putting your uniform on, then?”

“Yes.” He whispered huskily.

“Good boy.”

[Pierry Louys]

Man that’s a harsh chapter ! Kelly is being a a very mean parent to blackmail him like that ! Poor Zack  I think he gonna suffer so much ! And anyone deserves this !

hope you don’t go in the way I think when Zack only suffers indignities and shame

[Babydry]

11 hours ago, Babypants said:

It's well-crafted fiction, Pierry ... or is it?  There have been a lot of stories on this site pursuing the central theme here, and I find it remarkable that the children are so consistently accepting of their fate.  But I'm 78, so 50 years your senior, and it makes me wonder whether children no longer fight back the way I did  both at home and on the mean streets and playgrounds of east Los Angeles in the 1950's.  In short, does a reader's age and personal experience, as well as a generation's norms of expected and permissible behavior, determine how we respond to a story like this?  At 14, I put an abrupt end to my father's belittlement of my diapered state by throwing him through the living room window-- and he was 6 inches taller and outweighed me by at least 60 pounds.  White-hot rage can be very empowering!  Before I was 12, I put 2 bullies in the hospital-- the same hospital where I had been a patient after being shot in the fourth grade and knifed in the sixth.  Violence was always the answer in my neighborhood, because it worked.  At his age, in my neighborhood Zack would have been checking to see if the grown-ups locked the bedroom door at night.  He would already know which knife to use, and where to strike.

So, I ask again: in your experience, is he a fictional character, or drawn true to life?  Publishing houses pay close attention to the demographics of their readership.  A story that resonates with one demographic can leave the next unmoved.  Fetish literature has an obvious pivot point, but because the readers tend to be drawn from different generations and varied socio-economic backgrounds, the demographic is complex.  It would be interesting to have an author's round table here take up the question of who they imagine their readers to be.    

I hope you are kidding with this?  It’s fiction!! (as in, not real). Great story “parents puts child in diapers, child kills parents; end of story.” Is that what you want? 
This story is one of the better ones on this site. I’m enjoying it.
Help me understand how readers read the story and then comment “I can’t believe they (the child) is putting up with this” Of course they are! If they didn’t we would not have a story! 
I love that Zack is going to play baseball in a diaper.
But,  maybe I would have loved if Zack beat up his stepmom because she made him wear a diaper. Are you F.cking kidding me with this?????

[ItsYourBoi]

Some suspension of disbelief is always needed for these kinds of stories, but i've always found it very interesting how different people differ on this subject. I've noticed that some elements i can easily ignore, although i know they are completely unrealistic, whereas other elements, that are just as unrealistic as the first, will take me completely out of the story. In short, there might be stories that are more or less realistic than others when it comes to these kinds of stories, but i think people really underestimate how much suspension of disbelief-taste is relevant as a factor.

[Les Lea]

I love this story... please continue... we (I) need to know if Zack has a response to Kelly or whether she maintains the upper hand.

That's my criticism... I need to know more so...

Thanks Little Sherri

[Little Sherri]

On 3/9/2023 at 3:09 PM, Babypants said:

Hopefully, you can now see my overarching point.  Fiction does not float in a vacuum.  Even if you cannot see it, there is always a clock running in the story.  It's embedded in the author's assumptions, like the disposable diapers that give this story its terminus post quem (never mind the internet, which pushes the story into this century).  Author and editor alike work hard to insure that the assumptions do not become contradictory.  If this is a contemporary story, could a parent do this to a child today without social services paying a visit?  Could a psychiatrist behave this way without risk of Board decertification?  Take the internet out of this story, situate it around 1990, and the glitches disappear.  Little Sherri is a talented writer, and I am confident that he will successfully address the time/space/culture conundrum in stories still to come.  

This is interesting. Your childhood was obviously quite different from mine, in time and culture. 

I'm writing this loosely based on my own inner feelings, thoughts and emotions from a time when I had a very tumultuous relationship with wearing diapers - I sometimes enjoyed it, but sometimes hated it, and I had a lot of social anxiety about wearing them, plus I was trying to grow up and push back against my parents, as all kids do, while at the same time... I secretly yearned to wear baby pants.

I've tried to transpose that emotional landscape and inner monologue onto situations I was mostly never in, at an age that I experienced as a nascent DL, but one at which I wasn't actually "legitimately" wearing diapers anymore - Zack's story kind of picks up where mine ended. Although as an aside, I did go to school in my homemade cloth diapers a couple of times in middle school, and, I used to sneak over to a park across the street late at night in just a diaper and a t-shirt as a kid, which I now realize was very risky behaviour, but kids aren't known for their good decisions. However, I "kind of" know what it feels like to be at great risk of exposure, and, what it feels like to actually be exposed, although that happened to me at younger ages than Zack - situations like my diaper being seen above my pants in a playground, or once, not realizing that a cousin of mine had arrive at my house after I went to bed, I went downstairs in the morning in a diaper to watch TV, and then she materialized out of the ether, seemingly, and I ran and locked myself in a bathroom. 

But as a kid, in my inner and my geographic and cultural worlds, which for me was mostly the 1980's in a fairly safe city in Canada, I didn't win many arguments with my parents or their adult supporting cast. While I have relatively little experience with "abuse", I did have an alcoholic stepfather later in my childhood who was definitely emotionally abusive and occasionally physically abusive, and at that time, I felt that I had very little recourse - the teachers and the doctors and the cops were all firmly on team "parent". My doctor knew that I wore diapers to bed and, being himself a product of the 1950's, that made sense to him. I did eventually push back against my stepfather, once chasing him out of the house after he punched me in the face, but I was 16 when that happened - at fictional Zack's age, I wouldn't have thought of it in my wildest imaginings. And, I never thought to tell a teacher or involve the police. I was a pretty meek kid, unlike you or your cohort, until my stepfather hardened me a bit, in my early teens. 

In Zack's case, there is also the question of whether or not he's being "abused"... that term is viewed in the eye of the beholder, to a certain extent. And what the hell is up with Kelly, anyway? What in her past is compelling her to take this approach with Zack?

Regarding the legitimacy of his psychologist's approach, today, there are lots of fringe and non-mainstream health practices and lots of practitioners out there, traditional medicine, all sorts of strict diet regimens, religious restrictions to treatments, non-traditional "cures"... lots of kids grow up subjected to unconventional approaches to education, religion, food, psychology and health, and the courts have tended to say that parents have a fair bit of latitude, until you get into situations where, say, a child is possibly going to die if they don't get a blood transfusion, things like that. But if you want to craft your own orthotic footwear for your kids, or make them drink kale smoothies when they get colds, instead of cough syrup, or ban them from listening to music, or send them to "rehab" for smoking pot or boot camps because of their behaviour, you largely have the right to - the heavy hand of the state tends to come into play only in the most extreme circumstances. I think it's possible that a doctor, naturopath, or therapist could prescribe some fairly unconventional methodologies, and stay off the regulatory radar, particularly if most of their clients are happy. I don't think that plot device requires an excess of suspension of disbelief. In the grand scheme of things, diapers are a relatively harmless, non-invasive, and side-effect free treatment approach. At least physically speaking. 

In any case, you did a good job of articulating some of the issues writers wrestle with, line by line! That's why this is taking me so long to write. And thank you, and everyone, for your kind words. 

[Pierry Louys]

That’s was a good explanation!! Now I really ansious to see what gonna happen next ! Hope Zack can be more happy with his situation and maybe Kelly can be more like a mommy to him !! 

[keith60]

i hope there is more to this story soon 

[martijn]

a little bump to this story, i hope there wil be more of this story.

[A_Pale_Spirit]

I literally made an account (partially) so I could comment and say how much I love this story so far!
(I also want to comment on few other author's stories I've lurked on, but your story pushed me to make the account.)

It's great! Definitely the kind of diaper story I love. I'm really looking forward to more.

As far as the believability some other commenters mentioned, I feel like your story and the development is very believable. A bedwetter getting switched from pull-ups to diapers in this fashion is definitely believable, especially when the pull-ups are leaking consistently. The only thing that took a pretty large suspension of disbelief is the end of the newest chapter with Zack accepting going to baseball wearing a diaper.

Overall, your story is the story I'm most looking forward to for new chapters.

Edited March 26, 2023 by A_Pale_Spirit
Correct a typo

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 12 - Game Day

 Kelly pulled her silver Mini into the parking lot of their local baseball field, which had four diamonds and a central playground, for younger siblings to entertain themselves within view of the parents on the spectator benches. She stepped out of the car, went around and opened the passenger door. Normally, that would not have been necessary – at the baseball diamond, Zack would have been out of the car almost before it stopped moving, and she’d probably have had to warn him not to let the door hit the car beside them. Today, he just sat morosely in his seat, staring at the floor. Maddy unbuckled her seatbelt, and sat forward on the seat, waiting for him to get out of her way. Kelly slid the passenger seat forward, placed a hand on the door, and leaned in across Zack, somewhat awkwardly pressing the release button on his seatbelt, which retracted across his chest and lap.

“Come on, buddy – team’s waiting. Or do I need to send that text?”

Zack put a hand forward onto the back end of the center console, and another on the edge of his seat, and Kelly stepped back to let him duck and propel himself out of the low car. Maddy scampered along behind him, wearing the purple leggings and white sweatshirt she’d had on at school.

“I can barely see your diaper, Zack”, Maddy offered.

“Hold up, Zack!” Kelly yelled over her shoulder as she closed the car door and clicked the lock button on her remote. The little black magnetic cylinder dangled next to her car keys, a new addition to her key ring. Zack stopped at the edge of the driveway, and Maddy stopped next to him. Kelly walked up between the two, took each of their hands, looked left and right, and then waited for a black SUV to pass. The female driver nodded to her from behind large sunglasses, and she nodded back. Once it had passed them, Kelly stepped forward, and the children followed in lockstep. They threaded their way through the parking lot like that, until they reached the verge of the grass. Maddy broke free and headed for the playground. Zack held onto her hand and stood as though looking over a precipice.

She gave his hand a squeeze and then let go of it.

“Go on, little man. Give ‘em hell out there.”

Zack swallowed hard, and set off across the grass towards his teammates, most of whom were already assembled around home base, waiting for their coach, who was pulling bats out of a bag. Kelly watched him walk across the grass. Because she knew it was under there, she thought that she could maybe see the ghost of the outline of his diaper, just lightly, as the white material of his uniform pants flexed. The grey of his onesie showed through slightly, but what was visible suggested nothing more interesting then dark-coloured briefs. Whereas the stark white of his diaper might have been more notable. She made a mental note to order him some nappy shirts in white.

Kelly went over to the benches that aligned with Zack’s field and got situated. One of the dads was pulling beverages out of a cooler, and offered her a choice of pop, or canned beer. The beer was not strictly legal in the park, however it was rarely, if ever an issue. There was a silent understanding that if parents were going to spend this much time sitting in the sun, there was going to be beer on occasion. However, before she could respond, another mom pulled a can of white wine out of her purse and held it aloft, rotating it. Kelly nodded. Canned wine was not normally her speed, but today, she decided to partake.

The team they were playing against was well matched to them, and the game progressed with quick runs scored on both sides, then a long stretch of missed opportunities, some due to errors, some due to effective offensive play. Finally, both teams managed to load up the bases and then get some hits into empty stretches of the field, and put some runners across home base. In the last inning, Zack’s team was up one run when their third hitter struck out. It had been their turn to take the “visitors” position, so they had to face the other team at bat one more time. One hitter got walked, then two struck out, before the fourth player drilled a grounder between second and third. Zack and the shortstop, who had moved toward second, both ran for it, and the shortstop tried to scoop it up off the dirt, but the ball used his glove as a ramp, and shot almost straight up. Zack snatched it out of the air and threw it overhand to second, ignoring the runner streaking for third. The second baseman caught it before the runner got there, and the umpire called him out, ending the game.

Zack’s team streamed towards him, and a few of them reached to pick him up around the legs, but he tried to ward them off. One of his larger teammates squatted and grabbed him round his thighs from behind, hoisting him briefly into the air.

Oh God, his cheek is almost pressed into my diaper!

Zack tried to wiggle out of it and the guy dropped him back to the ground, before the coach called everyone over to their bench, and the moment passed. Kelly had been dividing her attention between watching Zack play, and keeping an eye on Maddy, who was playing either tag, or hide-and-seek with some other baseball siblings; whatever they were up to seemed to require a lot of screaming and running. She saw Zack join his team, and saw the coach handing out glasses of juice from a cooler, so she went over and signaled Maddy that it was time to leave. Maddy ignored her for as long as she could, then trotted over. When they headed back toward the diamond, Zack was walking over with a group of other players, trailing slightly behind them. When one of them stopped to tie his shoe, Zack stopped too, and Kelly suspected that he was trying to make sure that nobody was walking behind him.

When Zack reached the spot where they were standing, Kelly put her arm around his shoulders, gave him a squeeze, said “Good game”, and then, in a lower voice, “How’s your diaper?”

Zack pulled away and looked back and forth, as if to see if anyone else was in earshot. Only Maddy was, and she didn’t seem to be listening.

“It’s fine. Why are you asking me that?”

“Well, I saw you were trailing behind your teammates, so I thought maybe you’d had a leak.”

“It didn’t leak.”

“Well obviously you were able to play just fine, because I think you’re the MVP today. Is it still comfy?”

Zack thought about her question for a moment. He’d used his diaper only once, in the third inning, between at-bats, when he otherwise would have had a moment to run to a porta potty. The front of it had swelled slightly, and some of the stuffing felt like it was clumping between his legs because of the running. He could feel a slight dampness behind him.

“It’s fine. Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure, little man. Let’s talk about that fantastic throw you made.”

Kelly took Maddy and Zack by the hand and lead them across the parking lot. Kids were running in all directions, because a couple of the games had ended at the same time.

But not my kids! My kids are walking sensibly beside me.

When they reached the Mini, Kelly unlocked it and opened the passenger door so that Maddy could crawl over to her booster seat, and Zack took his spot on the passenger side. Maddy buckled her seatbelt and then gave it a tug to show Kelly it was snug. Zack bucked his and then lifted his hands to show her, before settling them into his lap. Kelly went around to the driver’s door, got in, and started the car.

“I think because this has been a long day, and you’ve both been extra good, we’ll pick up a pizza on the way home.”

Maddy yelled “Yaaaayyyyyy”, while Zack shrugged. He could feel rumblings of hunger in his stomach, but more salient to him in that moment was a growing need to pee again. He looked at the clock on the dashboard, a fancy one with hands on a dial. It was 7:25. Stopping for pizza, they weren’t going to be home until after 8:00. He briefly considered asking Kelly if we could get out and pee at the restaurant, but couldn’t figure out how that would possibly work. He’d have to take his shirt off and get her to unlock the… what did she call it? Snap-suit? Nappy shirt? And then he’d have to walk into the restaurant with it unzipped at the back, shimmy half out of it, and pull down the front of his diaper. He knew the whole idea was a nonstarter.

He sat silently in the car, considering his predicament, when a thought occurred to him, unbidden.

Just use the stupid diaper.

As soon as he mulled over the option, his bladder appeared to want to cast a vote, because an ache spread across his lower abdomen. Zack didn’t so much try to pee, as stop trying not to pee, but the result was the same. A slow trickle started, which built to a surge, and then gradually tapered off again. He felt the front and middle of his diaper growing again in response to the deluge, and he could feel some warmth at the bottom of his bum as well, but there were no distressing trickles or overwhelming feelings of sitting in a puddle, like he’d experienced when waking up in a soaked pull-up. It felt like there was less space between his legs, but the diaper didn’t feel wet, exactly, just warm. He looked out the window and tried not to think about it.

Kelly pulled up in front of the pizza place, and called to tell them she was there for curbside pickup, which Zack was grateful for – he did not want to walk into a restaurant full of people in a puffy diaper. The pizza was passed in through the driver’s side window, and placed on the passenger seat. Kelly tapped her card on the machine, there was a beep, a “Thank you, ma’am” from the employee, and they were away.

A few minutes later, they pulled into their driveway. Zack unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed the passenger seat forward, opened the door and stepped out of the car. He ran for the front door, punching his code into the keyless entry and opening it quickly, as he heard car doors slam behind him. His plan had been to… what, exactly? Take his diaper off? But what would he replace it with? And anyway, he still had the locking underclothes on. He stopped and stood at the base of the staircase, listening to the footsteps coming up the front walkway. Kelly walked past him with the pizza, and put it on the kitchen table, before coming back towards him, dangling her keys. She stepped up behind him as Maddy bounded for the kitchen.

“Hang on one sec, young lady. You are not tucking into a pizza in that white sweatshirt or those school pants. Head up to your room and get a pull-up on, and an OLD shirt, then come down.”

“Okey-doke, Kelly!” Maddy replied cheerfully and then ascended the stairs two at a time.

From behind him, Zack felt Kelly press her clicker against the back of his neck, heard a faint click, and felt his collar loosen. Then she pulled up the back of his jersey, grasped the diaper shirt’s zipper, and ran it down to the base of his spine.

“Take your uniform off and put it in the wash, and hang your nappy shirt over a chair. You can put your school shirt back on if you want to, that’s going into the laundry anyway.”

Zack walked up the stairs, lifting his baseball jersey over his head as he went. Once he was in his room, he tossed it into the laundry, then slid off his pants, and pulled down the snap-suit. Once he had it off, his hands went straight to the latching mechanism. He engaged the button onto the pin, and it locked itself readily. Then he tried to pull them apart, and he could not. After pulling at it for a minute, he slung it over his desk chair, and pulled the t-shirt he had worn to school from the heap on the floor where it had landed before he’d done the stupid fashion show for Kelly. He picked up the shorts he had worn, but he wasn’t too enthusiastic about the idea of demonstrating just how well they fit over a diaper. That might give Kelly ideas. And anyway, she’d already told Maddy to come down in a pull-up; he guessed she thought they were still three and were going to paint themselves with pizza sauce.

Not that she knew us when we were three…

Reluctantly, he let the shorts drop to the floor, and he headed out of his room. Maddy was just ahead of him. Her pull-up was soundless as she pranced down the stairs, but his diaper continued to offer up low crunching noises. When he walked into the kitchen behind Maddy, she turned around, as though noticing that his plastic underpants had announced him into the room. She fixed her gaze on the excavator emblazoned on the front.

“Is that like a ‘Bob the Builder’ diaper?”

“No, Maddy. Is that a princess diaper you’ve got on?”

Maddy looked down at the front of her pull-up. “It’s a princess PULL-UP.” She heavily emphasized the last two words.

“Yeah, a pull-up DIAPER.”

In response, Maddy snapped the waistband at the side of her pullup with her thumb and said “Yeah, well, I can take mine off anytime I want to. You have to go get changed like a BABY, because you’re wearin’ BABY diapers.”

Kelly stepped into the fray. “You BOTH wear diapers, the only difference is what kind suits each of you best. And that can change. QUICKLY. Do you hear me, Maddy?”

Maddy’s mouth snapped shut. Zack stifled his response to Maddy’s provocation.

“Maddy, apologize to your brother for calling him a baby.”

“Zack, I’m sorry I pointed out that you wear baby diapers.”

Zack glared at Maddy.

“Okay, Maddy. I think someone’s sleeping with a pacifier tonight.”

“Kel….!” Maddy began.

“Head up and get it!” Kelly snapped. Maddy’s gaze dropped to the floor, and she shuffled up the stairs, returning few minutes later with a pink pacifier in her hand. Zack had seated himself at the table and began eating pizza.

“Good baby.” Kelly cooed. She took it from Maddy’s hand and put it beside her plate on the table. “Eat some pizza. I’ll put some juice in a sippy cup for you.”

Maddy frowned.

“Or do you want it in a bottle?”

“A sippy cup is fine, thank you.”

Kelly walked over to the kitchen and rummaged through the back of a cabinet, where they’d deposited some of the lesser-used plastic items from earlier in their childhoods, when they’d moved in. She had initially campaigned to get rid of the stuff, but now she could see that some of it might have a use. She extracted a purple sippy cup with a handle on each side. She also spied a white bib with pink and purple flowers on it, folded in the back corner with some wash cloths. Lifting it from the pile, she walked over to Maddy, draped it over her head from behind, and fastened it.

“Kelly!” Maddy exclaimed around a mouthful of pizza.

“Do you want to keep pushing me?” Kelly asked.

“No.” Maddy said dejectedly.

She ate her pizza in silence. Zack was deriving some enjoyment from the fact that Maddy was being made to pay for her earlier comments about his wardrobe, but on the other hand, he didn’t like the overall direction Kelly was heading in, with respect to her instruments of justice. He had the feeling that he could easily find himself in her shoes at some point, and that when he did, he wouldn’t like it. His eyes drifted down to the front of his diaper.

Maybe I already am in her shoes.

Zack scarfed back a couple of slices of pizza, drank milk from a glass (clinking it against Maddy’s purple sippy cup in a mocking toast), wiped his face with a paper towel, and asked Kelly if he could be excused.

“Sure, Zack. Just don’t make too much noise up there. SOMEBODY is going to bed a bit early tonight. I’ll come over in a bit and take your diaper off for your shower.”

Zack pushed back from the table, turned, and jogged up the stairs. Kelly could hear his footsteps recede as she walked over to Maddy and wiped her face with her bib. She picked up the pacifier from beside her plate, and held it in front of Maddy’s face. Maddy leaned forward, opened her mouth, and accepted it from Kelly’s hand.

“I expect to see that in your mouth until I take it out, Maddy.”

“Wuh aboubp bwusing my teess?” Maddy said around the pacifier.

“I’ll be brushing your teeth tonight.”

“Oh.”

 

Chapter 13 - Winding Down

 

Zack laid on his stomach, on his bed, and flipped through his phone. From down the hall, he could hear Maddy protesting unintelligibly as Kelly brushed her teeth. A few minutes later, his bedroom door opened, and Kelly led Maddy in by the hand, in a t-shirt and pull-up, with a pacifier in her mouth.

“Go on, Maddy.” Kelly urged.

“I’m tho-we that I thaid you was a baby, Thack.”

“It’s fine, Maddy. I’m over it.”

“I wuv you, Thack.”

“I love you too, Maddy.”

Kelly turned and lead Maddy over to her room. He heard her door close softly, and then Kelly came back through his door a moment later.

“Are you ready to pop the hatch, Zack?”

Zack looked up from his phone.

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you get showered and ready for bed before your dad comes home, and then we can maybe watch something for a few minutes?”

“Fine.” Zack said resignedly. He rolled over onto his back and put his hands behind his head. Kelly walked over and sat down on the bed, level with his knees, in what was becoming her signature position in his room. She reached over him and pulled the upper left and right tabs off of the front of his diaper, then switched to the lower tabs. No one needed to keep a finger on the front of his diaper, because now it stayed where it was resting, weighted down by its moisture content. Kelly gave it a pinch from the side, careful to avoid encroaching on the center.

“You used your diaper like a good boy, Zack – I’m proud of you, and I know that your dad is going to be proud. Go take your shower, and let me know you’re ready for my help again.”

Zack doubted that his dad was going to be ‘proud’ that he’d spent most of the evening wetting his pants.

Kelly’s gone bananas.

He waited for her to leave the room, then stepped up off the diaper he’d been in for the last few hours, and examined it. The front was fairly wet right in the business area, and there was a bit of wetness evident down the middle and toward the lower rear, but most of the diaper would probably have been dry to the touch. These things could definitely hold more than that, in his estimation. He rolled the front of the diaper in towards the back, and then overlapped it with the rear wings and taped it on both sides. He walked it over to his Diaper Genie, stepped on the peddle, and placed it into hopper. It fit. He let his foot off the peddle and heard a thud as it dropped into the hermetically-sealed bag area below.

Pulling his robe off of the closet door and draping it over his shoulders, he walked down the hall toward the bathroom. Maddy’s door was propped open with a couple of her books, and she was lying on her back on her bed, her pacifier pulsing as she suckled. Zack guessed that Kelly had said she was going to be checking in on her occasionally. He shook his head.

Once he’d locked the bathroom door, Zack dropped his robe, put some music on from his phone, peed in the toilet, and took a long shower. The he brushed his teeth exactingly, cleaned his ears, and, before leaving the room, tried for the second time to empty his bladder. He slipped into his robe and walked down the hall to find that Kelly had been in his room and had laid out the Little Lambs that she’d test-fitting on Maddy the night before. His phone dinged, and he looked down to see a text from her: “Let me know when you’re ready to be diapered.”

That word CAN’T start showing up on my phone.

He thought about texting Kelly back, but decided against it, for the moment. She might still be fired up from vanquishing Maddy; he didn’t want to whet her appetite for further victories.

Sitting on the diaper, a puff of baby powder scent enveloped him, and he realized that she’d sprinkled powder into the diaper. Probably a carryover effect from what Maddy had gone through. There was a bottle of baby powder under her side of the cabinet in the bathroom, from years prior. Zack guessed that Maddy was also sitting in baby-scented dust. He pulled out his phone and typed simply “Yup”.

Zack contemplated the ceiling in Kelly’s ‘hourglass’ position. He’d thought about resuming the music he’d been listening to in the bathroom, but it was hard to feel cool or be moved by the beat while waiting for his… stepmom?... to tape up his diaper. In a couple of minutes, Kelly came in and sat on the edge of the bed. She snugged up his tabs one by one, then had him stand up to make sure she was happy with the fit. She went over and pulled a t-shirt from his pajama drawer, holding it aloft for him to slide his arms into. She slid it down over his head and then gave then bottom a firm tug, as though to convince him that it was covering his diaper. Then she took him by the hand and lead him down the stairs and over to the couch, where he sat, looking at the TV, while she flicked through options from various streaming services. He could feel his diaper bunched up between his legs, and noted again that the Little Lambs were quite a bit bulkier than the Mighty Diggers. Both were enormous compared with his pull-ups, however.

Kelly seemed content that he’d cooperated with her timeline for the evening, so he decided to hazard a small request of her.

“Kelly…?”

“Yes, little man, what can I do for you?”

“One thing… if you have to text me… about… these…” Zack pulled up the front of his shirt slightly. “Can you maybe not use the word ‘Diaper’ in them? Sometimes my friends look at things on my phone.”

“No problem, Zack – I’ll think of something else to call them. Do your friends even know the word ‘nappy’?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Okay, then, I’ll only call them nappies by text, if I need to refer to them. How’s that?”

“Sounds good, Kelly. Thank you.”

“Speaking of texts, your dad just messaged me. He’s going to be coming home late tonight, so I guess it’s just going to be you and me. How’s your diaper fitting? Comfy?”

Zack blushed and pulled his legs up under himself. “It’s fine.”

“Good. You’re going to be in it for the next twelve hours, so I wanted to be sure.”

Kelly picked up the remote and put on a show that Zack didn’t really watch. He waited for it to be 9:00 and then asked if he could head up to bed.

“Sure, Zack,” she said. “I’ll come up and tuck you in. It’ll give me an opportunity to check on your sister.”

Zack got up, crossed the living room, and then headed over to the stairs, feeling the still-unfamiliar bulk and plasticky cover of his diaper shuffling around him. Kelly trailed him up the stairs and, to Zack’s dismay, followed him into the bathroom. She smiled as she watched him brush his teeth, patiently looking at her phone. Zack had been hoping to have a chance to try peeing one more time, but clearly, that wasn’t in the cards. With a sigh, he rinsed his mouth and walked out of the bathroom.

Kelly followed, but then paused, and Zack turned in time to see her tinkering with something unfamiliar on the upper corner of the bathroom door.

“I bought a latch at the hardware store while you guys were at School. Neither of you need to be getting into the bathroom after you’ve gone to bed.”

Zack furrowed his brow. “So you need to lock it….?”

“It just makes my job a bit easier, Zack. If you need something in there, you can always ask me, even in the middle of the night. I don’t mind.”

“What if I need to, you know, use the toilet?”

“You’re cute, Zack. Have you already forgotten that you’re wearing a diaper?”

Kelly gave him a wink.

Zack shook his head and walked into his room.

 

[Pierry Louys]

These two last chapter was very good because Zach was spared and defended by his step mom !! Maybe in the future both can have some bonding moment ?

[A_Pale_Spirit]

Excellent two chapters! Unlike the above commenter I kind of hoped Kelly would've been less defensive of Zack about his sister's comments lol but the way you did it is more realistic.

I think the two chapters were great. Also unlike the comment above, I'm not into bonding moments at all, except as a way to happily end a story, but of course that's the author's prerogative.

Very well written!

[Pierry Louys]

I agree to disagree

[A_Pale_Spirit]

17 minutes ago, Pierry Louys said:

I agree to disagree

That's ok, everybody has different preferences for stories. Either way, the author will make their choice.

[007specialk]

I ENJOY READING THIS STORY THANK YOU FOR KEEPING IT GOING....!!!

[Cute_Kitten]

It was nice to see Kelly defending Zack. It shows she cares about his well being- at least to some degree- and isn't a tyrannical stepmonster who just wants to dominate and humiliate him. Some bonding moments would also show that she cares for him/ cares about him and is doing what she thinks is in his best interest, even if he doesn't agree.

[keith60]

there is no story here 

[Little Sherri]

Chapter 14 - Morning Report

 

Zack’s phone woke him up with some pop hits, and he groggily got up out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. Maddy passed him in the hall, on her way downstairs, and she made no comment about his wardrobe, probably at least in part because she would have had to say it from behind a pacifier, which would likely have taken most of the satisfaction out of it. 

Normally, his morning routine was to splash some water on his face, tear off his pull-up, and then use the toilet. However that routine had gone out the window for God knows how long, so he looked dejectedly at the latch at the top of the bathroom door, turned, and crinkled his way down the stairs, again feeling a bit exposed as he crossed in front of the transom beside the front door. There were only birds on the front lawn, however. It was still early for people to be streaming by on their way to the bus stop.

Maddy sat at the table with a bib on, drinking apple juice from another sippy cup, this one light green. A piece of toast had been cut up into squares on a matching plastic plate in front of her. Her pacifier sat in the center of the table. Kelly had also prepared toast for Zack, however it was just cut in half, and he had juice in a proper glass. When he was finished, which took about three minutes, Kelly invited him to come over to where she was seated at her chef’s desk. When he walked over, she reached over and gently squeezed the front of his diaper toward the top.

“It looks like this had its work cut out for it.” She chimed.

Zack thought about telling her that he’d also done his morning pee in it while eating breakfast, but decided he didn’t want to talk about that in front of Maddy. He grunted.

“Head on up and get dressed for school. Bring your shorts down with you when you’re done, and I’ll get you a pair of boxers from the laundry room when we take this off.” She gave him a light tap on the side of his diaper with her fingertips. “Maddy, you can go get into another pull-up under your outfit. That’s what you’re wearing today.”

Maddy put down her sippy cup and started sobbing. Kelly walked over and popped the pacifier into her mouth, then said “I think somebody is going to need a nap when they get home from school!” She pulled her up off the chair by one hand and marched her up the stairs. Zack followed at a distance, feeling sympathetic toward Maddy, but uninterested in getting involved. Kelly paused in the hall to unlatch the bathroom door.

It’s best for both Maddy and I if we just let this blow over.

Maddy was still mewling from in her room while Zack took his pajama shirt off and pulled a on a t-shirt from his drawer of school-worthy clothes. He selected another pair of athletic shorts, and went to brush his teeth, before heading downstairs. Now, he paused midway down and eyed the area outside the front door, before dashing past. It was getting closer to when people he knew might be walking by.

Kelly followed a couple of minutes later, leading a tear-streaked Maddy, pacifier still perched between her lips. She was wearing pink leggings and a green t-shirt.

That’s what the further commotion was about. She didn’t want to wear leggings over a pull-up.

There was no denying that her rear end had a slight rectangular outline to it. He decided to see if he could help his sister out a bit.

“Maddy, maybe you should bring a sweatshirt – it’s a bit fresh out there.”

Maddy’s eyes brightened, and she turned to Kelly.

“Fine, go get a sweatshirt.”

Maddy dashed upstairs and came back down wearing what Zack imagined was her longest sweater, which hung most of the way down to her thighs. The camouflage was imperfect, but the effect was much better than before, when her diaper’s entire outline had been discernable, down to the vertical seams on the waistband.

If she stays sitting most of the time, she might get away with it.

Kelly motioned Zack over towards her, breaking his thoughts. She reached down and zipped off the upper tab on his right hip, then re-fastened it lightly, right at the edge of the front. Then she did the same for the lower tab on that side.

“Go into the laundry room and drop your diaper. You can put these on.” With that, Kelly handed over what was now, to him, water in the desert: a dark blue pair of boxer shorts. He almost skipped to the laundry room, closed the door, pulled the tabs off the loose side of his diaper, and let it slid down weightily to the tiles. He pulled up the underwear and his shorts, turned to run out of the room, but then contemplated the heavy, slightly yellowed Little Lamb sitting in front of the dryer. Reluctantly, he bent over and picked it up, holding it out in front of him a bit, and then he walked back to the staircase where Kelly and Maddy were standing.

“Good boy, Zack, picking up your wet diaper – I knew you would. Hand it to me – I want to see how much it weighs.”

Zack extended his hand, his diaper dangling like a plastic bag, and Kelly took it from him by the waistband, pinching it with her fingers on two sides. She raised and lowered it a couple of times, lips pursed in concentration.

“Yup, these are definitely doing their job.” She folded it up like a football and placed it on the bottom step, then reached forward and plucked the pacifier from Maddy’s mouth. Right then, two sets of hands started knocking on the door, startling both Maddy and Zack. Kelly reached between them and opened the door, revealing two of Zack’s friends from school, Talon and Sean.

“You comin’ to the bus Zack?” Talon asked.

Zack stepped through the threshold and pushed each of them by the shoulder, saying “Yup, let’s go!”and tried to sweep them down the path, but then Kelly said “Zack! Wait for your baby sister!”

Zack stopped and turned to look back, as did Tanner and Sean. Maddy was stepping into her shoes, and behind her, as clear as day to Zack, was his folded diaper, sitting on the first step of the stairway. However, it did not seem to register to either of his friends, who turned and started walking slowly, to allow Zack and Maddy a chance to catch up. Zack looked at his feet and shook his head. Eventually, Maddy came walking down towards him, one hand tugging her sweatshirt down behind her, and Zack turned and trotted after his friends.

 

Chapter 15 - Turning Point

 

Zack filed out of his school bus on the corner of his street. Tanner had asked him on the bus ride in if he could come to a movie tonight, and had also asked Sean. Zack had been noncommittal, thinking that the chances of Kelly going along with it were slim, and his dad would be at work until way after he needed an answer. However, when he got within wifi range of Kelly’s house, his phone lit up with texts.

Kelly: Tanner’s mom asked if you could attend a movie with him tonight.

Kelly: I’ve spoken with her I’ve agreed, you can go, if you get home, get your homework done, and do everything required to be ready before you go.

Zack had stopped to look at his phone, so he had to jog a few steps to catch up with Tanner.

“Tanner, it looks like I can go tonight!”

Tanner looked back over his shoulder. “Alright!” He spun to fist-bump Zack.

Zack continued his double-time trot, heading for the walkway up to the house. He waved over his shoulder and punched his pin into the keyless deadbolt. The door motored open, and he opened it cautiously, making sure that there wasn’t still a diaper bundled up on the stairs. There wasn’t. He slipped inside and closed the door.

Maddy was sitting at the kitchen table wearing the shirt she’d worn to school, over a pull-up. Zack didn’t know if it was the same one she’d had on all day or not. She had a pacifier in her mouth and she was working intently on something, probably homework. Her outfit and the continued presence of the pacifier surprised Zack a bit, as the vibe he got from the texts was that Kelly was in a good mood.

Kelly came walking into the kitchen from the laundry room on the opposite side.

“How’s Zack?” She asked. “Still dry?”

Zack’s cheeks reddened. He nodded.

“Good boy. Let’s head straight upstairs.”

Zack furrowed his brow for a moment, not sure what Kelly was saying, but she motioned with her arm for him to follow, so he trotted up behind her. She went into his room a couple of steps in front of him and crossed immediately over to his dresser. She opened his top right drawer, and extracted a Little Lambs diaper, which she began unfolding as she walked toward the bed.

“What’s that for?” Zack asked, his tone betraying some incredulity.

“Tanner’s mom is coming to get you in less than an hour, Zack, and you’re having dinner at the theatre. I want you ready for bed when you get home, and, you need to be in protection at the movie. You’ll have a drink with dinner, and probably a big cup of pop with your popcorn. Your dad and I think it’s best if you wear a diaper.”

Zack was speechless. He stammered out a series of “Buts”, then paused to collect himself.

“I won’t have anything to drink at the movie, Kelly, promise.”

“Don’t be silly, Zack – have anything you want to drink. I already made arrangements that I’m paying for the concessions and Tanner’s mom is paying for the tickets.”

Zack stood stalk-still, hands clenched at his sides, looking down at the floor.

“So let’s get you all set so you’re ready to go to the movie.”

“Then I don’t want to go.” Zack said in a low growl.

“Oh, well that would be very rude – they’ve already bought the tickets and they’re expecting you. I prefer we not treat friends that way. But if you insist, then you can simply tell Tanner and his mom that you are choosing not to accompany them, because you don’t wish to leave the house in the diaper that your doctor prescribed. And you can tell them that, on the front porch, in your diaper.”

Hot tears started trailing down Zack’s crimson cheeks, and his gaze remained fixed on the floor.

“It’s not fair….” His voice hitched. “You’re…. You’re being so mean.”

“I’m not being mean, Zack, I’m being practical. If a doctor said that you needed to take antibiotics, it would be my job to make sure that you took them as you should. A doctor, Zack, has said that you should be wearing diapers, and it is my job to make sure that you wear them as you should.”

“She said I have to wear them to BED!” Zack’s voice broke and pitched up at the end of his statement.

“No, Zack, you didn’t talk to Dr. Paige for very long. You were in the playroom with the other children. I talked to her for almost an hour, and we’ve exchanged several emails since then. I have a much better understanding of what she thinks you need, than you do. Dr. Paige believes, and her extensive experience has taught her, that little wetters like you benefit the most from an holistic approach. You might not know that word. It means treating the whole patient, Zack, not just their symptoms. It means that everything is interconnected, even things that don’t seem to be. Dr. Paige and I can see around corners that you can’t see around, Zack, and one of the things she strongly predicted was that, early on in the course of your therapy, you would likely wet more often, before we got a handle on all of your issues. And that wetting when you’re not prepared for it could cause you to spiral into emotions that lead to further wetting. Making sure that you’re in a position where you’re always prepared is a KEY part of our strategy at this early stage. I’m not going to let you down, Zack, and I’m not going to let you let yourself down. Do you hear me?”

Zack remained as he was, but his eyes rose from the floor to meet hers.

“Good, I can see that you heard me. Now, do you want me to take your shorts off, or do you want to go lie on your diaper like we’ve been doing, and I’ll give you some privacy for a minute?”

Zack reached up and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. Without waiting for a response, Kelly spread the diaper out on his bed, and then walked out of the room.

“One minute, Zack.” She said over her shoulder.

Zack’s hands were shaking, and his breathing was unsteady, but he reached down and slid his pants and boxer shorts to the floor. He pulled his shirt up over his head as he walked toward his bed, letting it fall in a heap. He clambered up onto his bed and seated himself in the middle of the big diaper, hearing the crinkle of the plastic and feeling the softness of the liner. He lied back and pulled the front up over himself, pulling his feet in toward his core, and placing one hand behind his head.

A moment later, Kelly came walking in, carrying one of the garments from the box she’d ordered, and a bottle of baby powder. She sat on the bed and placed her hand on the front of his diaper, then did an exaggerated turn with her head, to demonstrate that she was looking away. Then she pulled the front of his diaper back, overturned the bottle of baby powder above him, and gave it a big squeeze. Zack felt the powder landing on his thighs and groin, and saw a cloud of white dust rise up from his midsection. With her other hand, Kelly brought the front panel of the diaper back up. Fresh tears formed in the corners of Zack’s eyes.

Kelly took the corner of her index finger and wiped first one eye, then the other.

“There, there. It’s not so bad, Zackie. You’re going to a movie with your friend. You’re going to have fun, and you’re going to be warm and dry and safe. Don’t be sad. Here, one second, I have something for you.”

Kelly took the top left tab of his diaper and stretched it across the front, so that the front panel wouldn’t fall, then she got up off the bed and practically jogged out of the room. Zack heard the faucet in their bathroom run for a moment, and then Kelly came walking back in, with one hand behind her back.

“Close your eyes, Zackie…”

Zackie? Who the hell ever called me Zackie?

Zack blinked to clear away some tears, which Kelly took for him closing his eyes, and in a quick motion, she pressed the teat of a purple pacifier between his lips, where it encountered his front teeth.

“Open up, Zackie… come on, give it a try. I bet this makes you feel a million percent better, little man.”

Kelly placed the thumb and index finger of her other hand on his cheeks, and pushed them into his clenched molars. Zack, emotionally exhausted, let his teeth come apart. The pacifier slipped into his mouth, where his tongue found the silicone nipple and pressed it up against his palate almost automatically.

“Good boy, Zackie. Good little man.” Kelly cooed. “There you go, have a suckle.”

She took her finger off the back of the pacifier, and went back to fastening his diaper. Zack’s gaze was drawn to the looped plastic handle that stood up from the back of the pacifier, but it was too close to look at, almost like trying to focus on the end or your nose. He closed his eyes and took slow, deep pulls on the silicone teat, while breathing through his nose.

“See, Zack? Doesn’t that feel better? It’s almost like meditation, breathing that way. Dr. Paige said that even older kids can find a baby soother very calming.”

Zack squeezed his eyes tighter and tried to block out Kelly’s voice. He could feel his diaper being snugged, could feel himself pulling on the pacifier almost involuntarily. He put took his hands from behind his head and put them over his eyes. Kelly finished fastening his diaper and then sat next to him, with her hand on his belly, tracing circles in baby powder dust, saying nothing.