School on Wednesday went by quickly. At lunch a few of the girls asked where she had been the day before. Julia had anticipated this and was ready. “Oh, my Mother actually took me out to lunch off campus yesterday.” It wasn’t a total lie of course, but Julia was still concerned that somebody might ask her other questions. Fiona obviously knew it was a lie too. Julia shot a glance over to Fiona, who very slightly nodded her head in approval.

After school she came home and her Mother checked her diaper (it was wet) and changed her into a new one. The two of them went back downstairs and into the kitchen. Shirley was unloading the dishwasher and Julia cracked her school books open to hammer out some of the homework she had. The motivation to get much of anything done however really wasn’t there though and Julia spent a lot more time looking out the window than looking at the words on the pages of her books. Her Mother must have noticed.

“Honey I’m going to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Why don’t you come along and pick out what you want to eat?”

“Sure!” Anything was better than homework.

“Ok, let’s go then.”

Shirley already had her car keys and her purse and headed straight for the door with Julia right behind. When she got to the door she paused at the sight of the diaper bag, which was on the entryway table.

“Hey,” Shirley said as she set her purse and keys on the table next to the diaper bag and turned to Julia, “let’s take a quick look at your diaper before we go.”

Julia had just been changed maybe an hour ago, but still happily cooperated with her Mother’s request. Maybe her Mother had forgotten that she had just changed her. She was wearing jeans and just unbuttoned them and pulled them down.

“OK, you’re fine, so let’s go.” Shirley quickly pronounced. Julia pulled up her jeans again and then spotted the diaper bag by the front door. “Do you want me to carry the diaper bag Mother?”

“No, don’t bother. I mean, we’re just going to the grocery store and then coming home. That’s why I just checked your diaper. Plus there aren’t any diapers in it anyhow. I left it by the front door to remind myself to refill it. ”

With that, Mother opened the door and the two of them jumped in the car. The drive to the store only lasted 15 minutes and the two of them chatted a bit as Shirley drove. Julia learned that the Scotts, who lived a couple of streets over had just gotten a new puppy.

“I saw them walking it the other day, it’s the cutest thing.” Shirley went on.

At the same time that Julia’s Mother told her about the new puppy, her body told her that at some point in the near future her clean diaper was going to turn into a stinky one. Julia felt a bit cheated about the timing of things. ‘Thanks for waiting until after we left for the grocery store!’ she told herself. Julia did not like the idea of walking around in a loaded diaper in the grocery store and she decided to just wait until they got home.

A few minutes later they arrived at the store. The parking lot was pretty full and Shirley had to spend a few minutes driving around looking for a parking spot. Julia wasn’t worried or anything, but she did decide that she was going to really try and make this trip happen as fast as possible so she could get home.

The two of them walked to the shopping cart parking lot as Julia like to call it and Julia grabbed a cart. She always got to ‘drive’ the cart. Apparently it was something that she had insisted on ever since she was old enough to reach the cart’s handle. Over the years it had become a real tradition. Julia drove the rackety cart forward across the parking lot towards the store entrance. The motion censor picked them up and the doors swept open with a swish.

Once inside, Shirley fished out the shopping list from her purse and opened it up. Julia’s eyes went a big when she saw how long it was. This was not going to be a fast trip.

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. I thought you said that you only had to pick up a few things Mother?”

“Oh, well, yes I guess it is a bit longer than I remembered. But we are having the Helmer’s over for dinner this week, so I need to get stuff for that. And well, it’s been a while since I went shopping, which is why I thought you might want to come along.”