~ Forty-First Encounter ~
Damien and I found the others across the way, looking at the beaver again.
“You guy’s ready to go see a movie?” I asked them.
Mike jumped about two feet when I had spoken. All of us laughed.
“Did I scare you?” I teased and poked him.
“No!” he laughed too.
We left Gulliver’s Mountain and headed for the Danbury Cinema, but by then, it was getting a lot busier on the streets and it felt colder.
“My ears are cold.” Mike whined.
“My fingers are cold too.” Sean added.
“Put your hands in your pockets then, rocks for brains.” I said to Sean.
“I can’t put my ears in my pockets!” Sean said with a laugh.
“Well, then cover your ears with your hands.” Damien said.
“Then my hands will get cold.” Sean laughed more.
“Alright, let’s just walk as fast as we can to the movies.” Mark finally said.
The five of us were moving pretty fast and made it to the cinema within about fifteen minutes or more.
“What are we going to see?” Mike asked no one in particular.
“I want to see Underdog.” Mark said.
“Yeah Underdog!” Damien cheered.
Sean then piped in with, “That’s okay with me.”
“I’ve not seen it yet.” Mike said with a shrug, as he looked at me to cast the final vote.
“Is it any good?” I asked.
“Uh, none of us have seen it yet!” Mark said, giving me a playful shove, but since he had Damien on his back, he nearly lost his own balance.
That was enough incentive for Damien to bail, before he got dropped again.
“I want popcorn!” Damien announced loud enough for China to hear him.
“So, are you good with Underdog?” Mike asked again.
“Yeah, sure, why not.” I surrendered even though I really didn’t care to see the movie. As it turned out, I didn’t get to see most of it anyway.
After we paid for our tickets, and before heading over to the concession stand, I covertly asked the gang, “Anyone need to be changed?”
Even though it hadn’t been very long since we had left Gulliver’s Mountain were they all got changed into fresh diapers, I thought that I’d ask just in case one or more of them needed freshening up before sitting for over an hour and a half in the theater.
“Not me!” Damien said proudly.
“I’m good too.” Mike said while messing with Sean, by flicking the backs of his ears.
“Boy, you better leave me alone or…” Sean started to say. He wasn’t really mad because he was laughing when he said it.
“Or what?” Mike said as he began to slap-box with Sean.
“Alright you two!” I said snippily, “We are in public!”
“Sean, do you need to get changed?” I asked him.
“I don’t think so.” He answered without really paying much attention to me because he was still messing with Mike.
And then I looked around for Mark to ask him, but he had vanished. I assumed that he’d gone to the bathroom to change and I had assumed correctly, because right as we were paying for our popcorn and sodas, he returned.
Mark put a hand on my shoulder and whispered into my ear, “Watch the bathroom door. A kid with jet black hair will be coming out. It sounded like he was changing a diaper in the crapper next to mine.”
We still had about twenty minutes before our movie was due to start, so Mike, Sean and Damien all headed for the arcade games, while Mark and I waited for the kid to come out.
“How do you know what he looked like?” I asked Mark.
“I was combing my hair before I got changed and saw him come in.” Mark said, “He was acting paranoid and kept checking to see, if I had noticed him come in.”
Mark was grinning the way he says that I grin whenever I get the ‘Diaper-itch’, as he calls it.
“To be honest, I didn’t think twice about him until I went into the stall and started to change.” Mark said as he took a fist full of popcorn and crammed it into his mouth.
Mark tried to continue talking with his mouth full, but I elbowed him in the rib, “Chew, then swallow, then speak.”
Waiting for that kid to come out seemed to take forever. People kept going in and coming out, but still not the kid we were expecting.
“There!” Mark said hitting me so hard that I nearly dropped the tub of popcorn.
I quickly looked up from the popcorn to see a boy who must have been twelve or thirteen, cautiously walking out of the bathroom. He was looking this way and that, as though he was expecting someone to jump out of nowhere and capture him. He was wearing a green windbreaker that was way to light for the time of year, faded blue jeans, that were too short but blended well for checking out his red Converse High-Tops. His hair was indeed, jet black, and from the look of it, he had what is known as a mother’s hack job. When will mothers stop trying to play barber and let a guy get a real haircut.
“Looks like he might be at least, partly Asian.” Mark commented and we would later learn that he was part Japanese from his father’s side.
When he had wandered about ten feet from the bathroom, he began to walk toward the concession stand at a quickened pace, and that was his undoing. If he would have continued walking slowly and deliberately, there would have been less chance of someone noticing his unusual waddling gait. I’ve seen that walk enough times now to know the diaper walk when I see it.
“No doubt about it, he’s a wearer too.” I said to Mark.
“Boy, you must lead a charmed life!” Mark told me.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s like you guys are pulled toward me!” I said.
“You guys?” Mark asked in an accusing tone.
“You heard me diaper boy!” I said purposefully loud.
Marks eyes widened as panic struck him. He looked around us to be sure no one heard me, and then he balled up his fist and said, “I owe you one!”
“My friend, you will owe me for the rest of your life!” I said, meaning something totally different than what he had meant.
Mark and I continued watching the dark haired boy for a while. Of course we were not blatant about it, but at the same time, if the kid saw us, I’m sure he’d know we’d been spying on him. He bought an enormous drink; I didn’t even know they had cups that big. It even had a handle on it like a bucket. He also bought a box of Hot Tamales candies.
“If he eats all those red-hots, he’s going to need a drink that big to put out the flames.” Mark commented with a chuckle.
Mark and I acted like we were talking when the guy walked toward us, heading for his movie. When he passed us, we both heard the crinkling sound.
“Can you believe that?” I said to Mark.
“What I can’t believe is that stupid smile!” he said, pointing to my face.
“Dang it!” I said, “I might as well have a tail like a dog!”
Mark continued to make fun of me, “A tail might be less likely to give you away than that Bleep-eating grin of yours!”
“Bleep-eating?” I asked.
“You know what I mean!” Mark snipped at me while nodding knowingly.
“Yeah, just sounded weird.” I said, giving him a bump with my shoulder.
“Mike!” Sean called out when he spotted him. “Get the others; it’s time to go sit down.”
The five of us found the theater for Underdog and amazingly, there was only one other person in the whole theater.
Mark looked at me in disbelief, “Lucky bleeping, bleeper!” he said, continuing to censor his own language. I always get a kick out of the way Mark does that.
Damien and Sean wanted to sit down front, right in front of the screen, but Mike and Mark wanted to sit farther back. I wanted to sit directly behind the black haired, diaper wearing kid. Since I had the bucket of popcorn I went and sat behind him and the others reluctantly took seats on either side of me with Damien making sure he was sitting between Mark and myself. Mike ended up on my left side with Sean sitting next to him.
By the time the previews started, maybe ten or more other people came into the theater. They were scattered all over the theater, but for the most part, everyone gave everyone else quite a bit of distance between themselves. That’s what people do when there are so few people in the theater. Well, I should say, other people do that, because I had taken as close a seat to the diaper wearing boy as I could, without actually sitting beside him.
When the previews started, so did the groping hands in search of popcorn.
“Did you get extra butter?” Sean asked in a sniveling sort of whine.
“Yes, I got extra butter!” I sniveled back.
Damien took a big sip of his drink and promptly let loose a belch that could curl your nose hairs.
“Dang Damien!” Mark said, elbowing him in the chest.
“What do you say?” I asked him.
“Excuse me.” Damien said with glowing red cheeks.
But Damien’s gastro pyrotechnics had drawn the attention of those sitting closest to us, especially the boy sitting directly in front of me. He was laughing at Damien’s belch and said over his shoulder, “Better out the attic than the basement, I always say!”
“Joji?” Mike questioned loudly.
The boy turned around and looked right at us.
“HEY!” he said, making it sound as though he knew Mike.
Turning all the way around in his seat so that he was on his knees facing us, the boy asked in a quiet voice so as not to disturb the others that were watching the movie previews, “Michael, what the heck are you doing here? I thought you and your family were in Colorado skiing?”
“Mom got sick again, so we couldn’t go.” Mike said.
“You guys know each other?” Mark asked Mike.
“Oh yeah! Sorry, I should introduce you guys. This is my best friend Joji.”
And then he introduced us to the boy, “These here are the guys I was telling you about. This is Mark…”
Joji momentarily interrupted him, “Ah the one from your Dojo?”
“Yeah he’s the one,” Mike said quickly moving on, “That’s Sean and Damien and…”
Before Mike could tell him my name, Joji jumped in again with, “You must be Daddy Max! Michael has told me so much about you.”
I didn’t know what to say and looked to Mike for an explanation. Mike dunked his head slightly and in that small humble gesture, I knew that Mike had told Joji EVERYTHING.
I wanted to ask a thousand questions, both to Mike and to Joji, but the previews had ended and the feature presentation was beginning. So, without another word, Joji turned back around and everyone began watching the movie… that is, everyone except for me. I ended up sitting there watching Joji the whole time. A minute or two later, Mike stood up, climbed over the top of the seats and sat himself next to Joji where he remained for the entire movie.
I watched as Joji popped Hot Tamales as if they were no warmer then M&M’s, and as he took each sip from that enormous drink of his, which he did a lot and they weren’t really sips, but long, drawn out gulps, I knew that it wasn’t going to be long before he was either going to need to go to the bathroom, or if he really was wearing a diaper, he’d be wetting it—a lot!