Cleaning the dog poop off Damien’s pants turned out to be easier than I would have expected it to be. I removed them from the bag and was nearly knocked over from the stench. Okay, maybe sealing them up into a plastic bag wasn’t the best idea, but that’s how we learn, right? I used toilet paper and paper towels to get most of the poop off and then there was nothing to be done but to get dirty. I turned on the hot water, shoved the pants into the sink and used a lot of the liquid hand soap to wash the pants by hand. With a few minutes of rinsing the soap away, the pants looked clean and after giving them the nose test, I was sure that they were clean.
Now came the really difficult part, getting the pants dry. Of course I did the obvious and tried to wring as much water out of them as I could, but twisting them and squeezing them can only do so much. So then I turned to the electric hands drier. Boy, that sure took a long time and by the time I had gotten the pants partially dry, I’d already been in the bathroom a good twenty minutes or more. Oddly enough, during that time, no one else had come in until I was nearly done. The guy that came in, looked rough and dirty, and I figured he must be a construction worker or something like that.
I decided that Damien’s pants were as dry as they were going to get with my help and picked up my things to leave.
“Hey!” the guy called after me.
I stopped and turned around. The guy was standing there looking ominous. “You make that mess in there?” he said, pointing to the inside of the toilet bowl.
“Sorry?” I said, trying to act like I didn’t know what he was talking about. But I did know. I’d been so preoccupied with getting the pants clean that I had forgotten to flush the toilet after throwing all that toilet paper and paper towels into it.
The guy shot me a mean, disgusted look and growled. Yeah, he really growled. Not wanting to stick around any longer, I slung the backpack onto my back and got the heck out of Dodge!
It took some convincing, but soon, I was able to get Sean, Mike and Damien to come in from playing.
“Here, put your pants back on.” I told Damien.
He didn’t even offer the slightest objection. Actually, I think he was surprised that I was allowing him to have them back.
“Max washed them in the bathroom for you.” Mark told him.
“They are cold!” Damien said as I pulled them onto him and tried to button them.
“Well, I couldn’t get them completely dry.” I said.
Thankfully, we got out of McDonald’s before the guy came back out of the bathroom.
“Where to now daddy?” Mike teased me as he took hold of my right hand and smiled like a goofball.
“That way!” I said.
Sean took hold of my other hand while Mark got Damien onto his back.
“Boy, you must have gained ten pounds while we were in there.” Mark groaned to Damien as he bore his weight.
“Put him down then, his legs aren’t broken.” I told Mark.
“Yeah, my legs aren’t broken!” Damien parroted.
So, that is just what Mark did.
“Hey!” Damien complained when Mark just let him fall off.
“What?” Mark chuckled.
Damien pulled back his arm like he was going to hit Mark, but he thought better of it and lowered his fist without anyone telling him to do so. Letting go of Sean’s hand, I reached out, pulled Damien close and hugged him to my hip.
Damien pulled away, “Don’t Max!” He then reached out and took Mark’s hand instead.
Gulliver’s Mountain was so cool; it doesn’t matter how many times I get to go there, I always find something new. This time, we mainly checked out all the cool camping gear and got to pet a live beaver. Gulliver’s Mountain brings in live animals at different times of the year. In November, they have live turkeys and they’ve brought in other animals such as deer, buffalo, moose and bears. There have been other animals; those are just the few that I’ve seen personally.
About the time we were getting ready to leave to head over to the Danbury Cinema, Damien tugged on the back of my coat. He didn’t have to tell me what he wanted, I could tell just by looking at him.
“Anyone else need changed?” I asked quietly.
Surprisingly, everyone raised a hand, Mark included. The humor of the situation, as I followed behind my four diapered friends while watching their waddling bottoms, was almost laugh-out-loud funny.
I had never been in the bathrooms of the Gulliver’s Mountain store before, so I was surprised to find that they didn’t have a men’s and women’s bathroom. Instead, they had one large family bathroom, and it wasn’t empty. Gulliver’s is one of the largest stores in the area, so it would seem logical that they would have an equally large bathroom, and they sure did!
Mark had been leading the way, followed by Damien, then Sean, then Mike and finally I was manning the rear of our diaper brigade. I liken myself to the clowns who would follow behind the elephants and scoop up their poop during a circus parade.
When Mark suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, each one of us in turn collided behind into one another like a train wreck. Mark had realized, as he opened and stepped through the door, that it was occupied by men and women and other boys and girls.
“Mark! Get moving!” Damien groaned and shoved Mark into the bathroom.
Everyone has heard of someone going Ghost White, right? Well, that is how Mark looked. I stepped around the others to get a better look at him. All the blood had flowed right out of his pretty little head and into his shoes. I looked into his vacant eyes and saw the same Mark I’d seen that very first day, back in the school gym locker room.
The bathroom in Gulliver’s Mountain was laid out with a total of sixteen stalls, eight on either side of the room with one of the other walls taken up by a bank of four diaper changing stations. The opposite wall from the fold down changing stations was lined with one of those long trough like sinks with waterfall style faucets that jetted out from the wall above the sink.
Thinking fast, I shoved Mark into the first unoccupied stall, hoping that once out of everyone’s direct line of sight, he would snap out of his fear induced coma and change his own diaper. Thankfully, Mike took the same cue and jumped into the stall next to Mark. I took off my backpack and standing in front of the open stall door I asked him, “You going to need help?”
Mike grinned and said, “I can do it myself this time!”
From under the stall wall, Mark had reached over with a GoodNite. Good, that meant Mark was okay after all.
“Thanks buddy!” he whispered right at the wall divider.
I then turned my attention to Sean, who was still standing next to the door and looking around the large room in wonder. Take away the fact that it was a bathroom, the sight was magnificent to behold. The brains behind Gulliver’s Mountain had really put a lot of money into making the bathroom more than just functional, but visually pleasing as well.
“Smells like a pine forest huh?” Sean commented.
“Uh, I hadn’t noticed.” I said, taking in a deep breath through my nose. “You’re right.” I commented.
Damien, again tugged on my coat. I turned to him, “Yeah I know you need…” but stopped short when I saw that he looked like he was about to cry.
“What?” I asked him, and then realized why he looked so upset.
“Oh don’t worry about it buddy,” I said squatting down to his level, “That’s why I brought all this stuff.”
I held out my backpack and gave it a shake.
I then took his hand in mine and lead him back to the changing tables with Sean sticking right by my side. After I helped Damien up onto one of the changing stations, I asked Sean if he wanted my help. He blushed a bit, shook a fist at me and said, “Just give me one and I will do it myself!”
Right then, the door to the bathroom flew open and it was because of the loud sound the door had made that I turned to look, as did just about everyone else in the bathroom.
A dark skinned woman walked in pushing a smallish boy who was walking with his head hung so low, he could have tripped over it.
I turned back around, reached into my backpack and found one of the diapers for Sean to use. As I handed it to him, I looked up and that same dark skinned lady was standing right behind Sean.
“Max?” she said.
“Mrs. Orric?” I coughed in utter disbelief.
I looked down at the boy that was standing beside her. His chin was still tucked down against his chest, but I hazard to guess that it was none other than Eben.
“What are you doing here?” I stupidly asked.
She looked down at the boy solemnly. “We were doing some shopping and had another accident.” She said.
And then Eben looked up, his face tear streaked and shame filled, but when he saw me, his eyes lit up as though powered by the light from heaven above.
“MAX!” Eben nearly shouted.
“Hey there Eben!” I said with as big a grin as I could possibly have, “Wow, you’ve really grown!”
It wasn’t true, actually he didn’t look much bigger than the last time I saw him, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to say to little kids when you’ve not seen them in ages?
I also noticed that Eben’s mom didn’t seem to be prepared, yet again, for this situation. Taking a chance that I was right, I smiled at her and said, “Hey, I have something here that I put together that might just be what you need.”
I unzipped the secret compartment of my backpack and pulled out one of the Super Hero Emergency Diaper Changing Kits. As I handed it to her, I said, “There should be everything you need in there.”
Mrs. Orric looked at it with puzzled wonder, then opened the station beside Damien and me and lifted Eben onto it.
“Max, I got a new dog!” Eben announced and I found it amusing that all sadness had seemed to have evaporated from him, leaving only happiness at seeing me again.
“A new dog? What kind?” Damien asked.
“Oh sorry, this here is Damien.” I told Eben and his mother, “Damien, this is Mrs. Orric, she is married to the Mayor and this is her son, Eben.”
Damien was still lying down, but he waved politely and asked. “What’s a mayor?”
“Someone who runs the city.” I said, hoping it was enough of an explanation and didn’t offend Mrs. Orric.
“Oh,” he said, and then addressed Eben with a question, “What kind of dog did you get?”
“We got a Collie.” Eben proclaimed with excitement and pride, “Her name is Lady and she is bigger than me.” He explained, while his mother opened the Diaper kit and examined the contents.
His mother pushed Eben back onto the table while Damien and Eben continued talking.
“I used to have a dog, but he ran away.” Damien confessed.
Eben took a deep, excited breath as he began, “Lady can’t run away because we got a way high fence and she can run all around.”
Mrs. Orric began to unsnap the crotch of Eben’s pants. I couldn’t believe that a boy Eben’s age was wearing pants like a small child would wear. When she had his pants fully opened and pulled up over his tummy, she unfastened his diaper and opened it up. She wasn’t kidding; he’d had another serious blowout, however this time, his diaper had contained the mess.
I wanted to ask Mrs. Orric why she would go out into public with a child in diapers and not bringing along a diaper bag, but I didn’t think it would be polite to ask something like that.
From behind me, I heard a stall door open and when I looked back, it was Mike. He was coming out of his stall. He looked both ways to make sure no one was looking. He then ran toward the trash can and threw away his diaper before running out of the bathroom without washing his hands.
“Max, this is the second time you’ve come to our rescue.” Mrs. Orric said as she wiped at Eben’s poop covered backside.
I had Damien cleaned up and diapered before she finished with Eben, so I took my time getting him dressed. All the while, Damien and Eben, though they couldn’t actually see each other, continued talking about dogs.
I heard another stall door open and glanced over my left shoulder, but it wasn’t one of my friends, it was just some zit faced older teenage girl with a seriously outdated hairdo.
Mrs. Orric finished and handed the diapering kit back to me.
“Uh, hang on a sec.” I said, laying it on the changing table between Damien’s legs. I opened my backpack again, took out two diapers and a few more of the prepackaged wipes and replenished the kit before handing it back to her.
“I figure that one of these is a lot easier to carry around than a big clumsy diaper bag.” I said.
“Oh Max, you are so incredibly sweet.” She said, and then leaned forward and gave me a peck on the cheek.
Unbeknownst to me, Sean and Mark had already finished and had made their way out of the bathroom. Mrs. Orric, Eben, Damien and I went to the other end of the bath where Mrs. Orric and I washed our hands, tossed out the used diapers and then exited the bathroom together.
Mrs. Orric thanked me again and Eben kept saying that he wanted Damien and me to come over and see his dog.
