Even after we gave Mike his share of the money the three of us had made that second afternoon, Mark and I still had over ninety-dollars between the two of us. Mark tried to insist that I keep all of it to use for the Super Hero Diaper Kit supplies, but I forced him to take his share anyway. By force, I mean that, I tackled him to the floor and tickled his arm pits until he peed and agreed to take the money.
Unfortunately, the next day, school reopened again; otherwise, Mark and I probably would have continued our little enterprise even though the snow was getting harder to shovel with each passing day.
After suffering through that first day back to school, Mark met up with me after his Judo lesson and the two of us made our way up to the corner drug store to purchase the supplies we’d need for the kit. We found some of the best stuff for putting inside an emergency diapering kit.
Tiny travel packages of baby wipes that had three wipes per sealed package. They were only two dollars and ninety-nine cents for a box of ten packages. We bought all that they had of those.
Diapers were probably the most difficult because there are so many different sizes. The problem was, how do we fit one of every size diaper into the zippered binder cover? After looking at all the different packages of diapers, Mark and I finally gave up on those for the time being. Instead, we focused on the other items we would need such as powder, rash cream, Vaseline, Zip-Lock storage bags for soiled diapers and a changing pad. I hadn’t thought about including a changing pad, but Mark said we diffidently had to have one of those. We found one that was clear with blue stars, pink flowers and yellow bowties all around the edges. The good thing was that it was thin, yet strong vinyl and when folded, it hardly took up much space at all.
“Boy Mark! This is going to be perfect!” I told him as I dropped the pad into our shopping cart.
“Maybe we should get two,” Mark said, “So that you’ll have a spare, in case you need it later.”
Once we were sure we had everything we might need, we had to return to the problem of which diapers to get. The two of us stood in the diaper isle, looking at the endless choices of diapers and feeling completely overwhelmed.
“Maybe we should just get one package of the biggest size?” Mark suggested.
“Well, then I might end up in the same situation I did at the movies that one time. Your diaper was absolutely huge on that kid.” I said.
“Oh yeah, I remember that! What was his name again?” Mark asked.
I bent down to read the smaller writing on the back of a package of Pampers Size-6 and without really thinking about it, I answered Mark’s question.
“Eben Maximillian Orric Jr.” I said.
“Wow, Max! Do you remember everyone you ever had an encounter with?” Mark asked, and the tone of his voice made me wonder if he was attempting to tease me a little.
When it was clear that I wasn’t going to answer him, he said with a whine, “Even if it was too big, at least one of my diapers worked.”
That was when a lady that worked at the Drug Store, walked up to us and asked if she could help us. I, of course, turned twelve shades of red, but Mark didn’t. He spoke right up, and I thought I was going to have a stroke.
“We’re trying to invent an emergency diaper kit for parents to use, but we don’t have enough room to put in every size of diaper.” He said as simply as if asking where the athlete’s foot-powder was at.
The store lady looked at the two of us, and for the first time, I started to question this whole diaper infatuation I have. If she hadn’t spoken-up when she did, I think I might have run out of the store and never return again.
Sounding just a bit skeptical, she asked, “Is this something you’re doing for school?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s for Home Economics class.” I quickly lied. “Everyone has to come up with something to help new parents, and this is what we got stuck with.”
“I swear! The things teachers are coming up with these days. You know, I’ve had three others in here this week with outlandish school projects. Oh well then, let’s see what we can come up with.” She said, and I found myself wondering what sort of project those other kids had to do for school and if it had anything to do with diapers.
“I’m assuming you want to stick with something that’s disposable?” she asked, directing her question at Mark, because I was too busy looking at the floor.
“Well yeah, I guess so.” Mark answered while looking to me for confirmation.
I think I might have nodded, or shrugged or something.
“Because, a cloth diaper would pretty much be one size fits all.” She said, but then countered her own comment with, “However, plastic pants wouldn’t be.”
The lady fingered that little divot below her nose while thinking out loud, “And besides, cloth would probably be too bulky for what you are trying to do.”
“If only they made a ‘one size fits all’ disposable diaper.” Mark said, not realizing that his thought had been said out loud.
The lady suddenly brightened up, snapped her fingers and said, “Wait right here. I think we might have something in the back room. I’ll only be a minute.”
She was gone a lot longer than a minute, more like ten minutes!
“Why’d you have to go and tell her all that for?” I said, backhanding Mark on the arm.
Mark flinched and grabbed his arm as though I’d just punched him as hard as I could.
“What’s the matter with you? I barely touched you.” I said, still upset with him.
He shook out his arm and continued to rub the spot I’d hit. “Must be sore from Judo class.” He said, and at the time, I accepted it, but a time was coming when I’d think back on this moment and realize that there was more to it than just sore muscles from working out.
The lady finally returned with her arms loaded.
“We just got these in, they’re new sample packs.” She said, handing us both one of the yellow boxes.
“They’re the new adjustable briefs from Attends. And well, they are not really one-size-fits all,” she said while bobbing her head from side to side, “but they do come in two youth sizes, which is what I brought out for you. Small to medium, that’s what you have there. Then there are these…” she handed us both a blue box which read, LG/XLG.
“These are the sample packages, they are individually wrapped and you could put one of each size into your diaper kit thing.” She said, and I couldn’t help noticing that she seemed a little too eager about all this.
Forgetting that I was supposed to be feeling embarrassed, I exclaimed, “Wow, thanks! These will be perfect!”
Mark asked a really good question, “How much do they cost?”
“Oh, well these are just samples that we’re supposed to give out to anyone that buys diapers. I don’t think we’re supposed to start that promotion until next month.” She said, dropping all that she had in her arms into our tiny drug story shopping cart.
“They are really free?” I asked.
“Yep!” she said with a toothy smile, and then she got serious, “But don’t let my boss know I let you have them.”
“Wow! Thanks so very much!” Mark exclaimed. I’m sure he hadn’t meant for it to come out sounding so fruity, but it did.
“Yeah, thanks!” I said too, then something struck me. My story was that Mark and I were making just one of these kits for school. But the lady had given us enough to make at least a dozen kits. I felt that I needed to say something more.
“Um, but I don’t think we need that many samples for our school project.” I said trying to not look at Mark, who I knew was looking at me in disbelief.
She smiled again and said, “Oh well, whatever you don’t use, just give to someone that can use them. We’ve got hundreds more back there still.”
And with that, Mark and I started to head for the checkout register. We were about half way up the candy isle when Mark stopped me.
“Since we have so many free diapers, why don’t we make more than one kit?” he said in a soft whisper.
“But I don’t have another binder.” I commented.
He poked me in the forehead, “Hello. With all the money we saved on diapers, we can buy another binder!”
“Can you believe our luck?” Mark asked as we headed over to the school supplies isle.
“I don’t know about you, but I thought I was going to die when that lady walked up to us.” I laughed and wiped the sweat from my upper lip.
“Yeah, you looked like your head was going to explode or something!” Mark said as he nudged me with his elbow.
We made our second trip through the store, making sure we had at least two of everything. Most of the stuff we had a lot more than just two. I wasn’t going to need to go supply shopping again for a while, that was for sure.
Thankfully, no one saw us as we arrived home and carried our supplies to my room. However, to be safe, once we were in my room, I closed the door and shoved my desk chair under the knob to keep anyone from coming in and seeing all that stuff.
The rest of our afternoon was spent getting all that stuff situated inside the zippered binder cover. It bulged a little but it closed and anyone that saw it would think it was just another note book. And once we put it into the computer compartment in the new backpack that Mark had brought over, no one would ever know I had it.
I switched out all my school books from my old book bag into the new backpack and once I’d returned the chair to my desk, I hung the backpack on it.
We stashed all the extra supplies under my dresser. I discovered a very long time ago, that if I pull out my dresser, there is a small area under the bottom drawer that is open from the back. From the front you can’t see that small area, so it is a perfect place to hide things I don’t want mom and dad to see. Such as girly magazines and now my secret stash of emergency diaper kit supplies.