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!