She finished loading the washer in a jiffy and took me by the hand into the living room. Pauline picked me up and sat me down on the couch before sitting down herself. She turned to me and said, “Honey, I know you didn’t mean to wet the bed, but I want you to understand that I can’t have you ruining the mattress by peeing on it. We’re going to have to take some steps to protect it and the bed linens too. Do you understand? I stopped by Wal-mart on the way home and bought you some new clothes to wear until I can change you back. I was afraid that you’d be angry with what I found for you to wear, but now I understand that I did the right thing. You understand that it’s very difficult to find clothes for someone your size, about all they had was toddler’s clothes.”
She pulled a shopping bag close to her feet and continued, “These are the only clothes that I could find that came even close to what you normally wear.”
She pulled a set of bulky toddler’s overalls from the bag and held them up to me to check the fit. “I think these are about the right size. If the cuffs are too long I can take them up, but it shouldn’t matter that much. I don’t think you’ll be wearing them for too long anyway. I found a shirt too, let me check the size. She took a pullover knit shirt from the bag and said, “Put these on, Honey. I can take them back if they don’t fit. I can’t take them up like I can the overalls.”
I put out my arms and she helped me put on the shirt. She looked at it a few minutes and said, “Okay, you can take them off now. I just wanted to see if they’d fit.”
I struggled with the shirt for a few moments and found myself being undressed by my wife like a small child. She reached in the bag again and took out a plastic wrapped package of underclothes. Pauline tore off the wrapper and shook one out for me to see. It was a white t-shirt in a toddler size and style. She gathered the shirt up in her hands and worked my head through the neck before pulling down the bottom of the shirt and smoothing it against my body. “There you go, a perfect fit,” she said, putting her hand back into the bag and taking out another package.
She said, “Why don’t you wear these tonight, Honey? I’ve got some briefs to match so you won’t have to run around the house half-naked. Here, let me help you put them on.”
I looked at her hands and saw them holding a pair of briefs down low for me to step into them. I steadied myself on her arm as I put one foot then the other into the brief and she pulled them up my legs and over my bottom. She looked at me and smiled while saying, “They’re exactly the right size! I was so afraid they’d be too small for you. I guess I keep thinking of you as bigger than you really are.”
I grimaced at the implied thought and thought to myself, “They do feel like they fit well, even if they are toddler’s underwear.”
I looked down to see how they fit in front and I was horrified to see they didn’t have a fly! What I had originally mistaken for a fly was only a layer of padding in front. “Padding! These are training pants!”, I groaned.
No wonder she had helped me on with them. If I had known what they were, I’d have never put them on. I put my hands to the top of the pants to push them off and I found my arms imprisoned in her hands. She shook her head ‘no’ and said, “Honey, you have to wear something! This is all I could find. I know it’s embarrassing to have to wear training pants, but no one will see them except me. Besides, remember what happened in the bed this morning? These will keep the bed dry if you have another ‘accident’. You won’t have to wear them for very long, I promise. These are only temporary until I find something else for you to wear. Come on, be a good boy and wear them for me, please?”