Anita’s face became fierce as she continued, “UnlessÖI change my mind about having to take care of an infantile husband. If you give me any more grief you may find yourself out on the street wearing nothing but the training pants on your sweet little bottom! You know, there are other avenues for your care other than staying with me. Maybe I should put you in a nursing home and let them take care of you. They won’t put up with any nonsense from you. They’ll put you in a steel crib and let you spend your days staring out of the bars at the bare walls of a dingy hospital room. I’ll bet they wouldn’t trouble themselves to let you wear training pants. They’ll just put you in diapers and have done with you! Would you like me to do that, Howard? It won’t take me any time at all to have you put away for the rest of your life. Is that what you want? All it will take is a few phone calls and you can be out of here forever! You’re so good at making snap decisions, Howard! What do you want to do? Do you want to stay here with me and do everything I say or do you want to go to a nursing home? Tell me right now, Howard, or I’ll make the decision for you!”

Howard was beaten and he knew it. She could carry out her threat and there was nothing he could do about it. The only course left open to him was a graceful surrender to her will. “Here,” he answered, “I want to stay here with you.”

Anita favored him with a cream-laden catlike smile of triumph and said, “There won’t be any more arguments from you about what I chose for you to wear. Will there, Howard?”

“No, Dear”, Howard said sullenly.

“You’ll eat what I set before you without argument, won’t you, Howard?”, she said, pressing her advantage.

“Yes, Dear,” he replied.

“Do you know what I’ll do to you if you behave like this again?”, Anita asked dangerously.

Howard opened his mouth in shock at the new threat. He had never imagined that she would take her petty revenge for his outburst so far. What did she have in mind for him?

“Well?”, she said, tapping her foot impatiently, “Cat got your tongue? If you won’t hazard a guess then I’ll have to tell you. If you ever, ever behave that way with me again, LITTLE man, I’m going to put you over my knee and spank your bare bottom! It’s bad enough that I have a husband who looks like a toddler. I won’t tolerate a husband who acts like one too! If you behave like a child, then you’ll be treated like one! Do I make myself clear?”

Howard was speechless with shock. She really meant it! He couldn’t think of how to react. It was all some sort of bad dream, a nightmare from which he couldn’t wake. What had happened to the passive, docile Anita he had married? The wishy-washy woman he had married was gone. In her place was a terrifying creature who demanded his obedience. He didn’t know what to say.

“Well?”, she demanded. When he didn’t answer she rose from the couch to stand up in front of him. Howard looked up and gurgled in fear at the woman who towered over him. He couldn’t talk. He felt as if he was a child again and his mother was standing over him after he had done something naughty. He was petrified. Howard did the same thing he had done under similar circumstances when he was five years old. He peed his pants. The warm urine bounced back from the cotton cloth and ran down the skin of his pubes. Anita grabbed his shoulder and reached back her hand above her to swat him on his behind. Howard wanted to gibber in fear as he saw her hand descend to land with a resounding thump on his heavily padded bottom. It was too much to bear, Howard’s knees collapsed beneath him and he folded to the floor like a wet dishrag. Then he began to cry.

“Silence!”, Anita roared, “If you don’t quiet down this instant, I’m going to give you something to really cry about!”