Being in the middle of nature, it gets so dark that once they turned out the cabin lights, you can’t see your hand right in front of your face. There was a small green light in the bathroom, but the door was always closed since there was always an endless stream of people going in to relieve themselves. I figure I was out for about two hours or more when I woke up to my bed shaking.
To say I was scared from the shaking of my bed would be an understatement. I was so scared, I could not move. I had images of being initiated since I was one of three new kids in our cabin. But after a moment, the bed stopped moving and after another moment, the bathroom door swung open. I briefly saw that the kid going into the bathroom was the same kind from the bunk above me. I calmed down after that and didn’t think anything else about him until he came back out of the bathroom and started to climb back up to the top bunk. That is when I heard that unmistakable crinkle sound.
I bolted up in my bed and reached out into the darkness and caught him by the leg. I must have scared him nearly to death because I heard a small audible gasp as his whole body went completely ridged.
I think I was just as scared as he was at that moment and my mind was racing to find a way out as I heard my own voice whisper into the darkness, “You didn’t flush.”
I was still holding on to his leg and he was still not moving at all. It seemed a long dead pause before he whispered down, “I was getting a drink of water.”
Now he knew it was a lie, and I knew it was a lie, and I could have said that the water never turned on, but for some reason I let go of his leg and whispered, “Oh . . . ok then . . . sorry.”
Though I couldn’t see him, I could tell by the way the bed suddenly shuttered that he swung himself up into the bed. I lay there, my heart beating so hard I thought it was going to explode through my chest and I noticed he was either breathing really hard or he was trying to muffle the sound of himself crying; I wasn’t sure which.
The second night played out the same exact way except everyone was so worn out from the lack of sleep the night before and from the three hour nature hike they took us on after lunch that most everyone collapsed into their beds and were sound asleep within minutes. I couldn’t go to sleep. Although I was so very tired, I had spent the entire day thinking about my bunkmate, whom I found out at breakfast was named Buz.
Buz did his best all day to avoid eye contact with me. He was obviously scared I was going to tell everyone his secret but I had no intention of going around blabbing. As a matter of fact, I wanted to talk to him and let him know that I was willing to help him hide it from everyone, but I couldn’t get close to him all day. Even if I could have, there were too many other kids around that I couldn’t have brought it up.
So, I lay there in my bed wide-awake and sure enough, I felt the bed start to shutter just a bit. I could tell he was being even more careful not to wake me this time. I let him get all the way down and I pretended to be sleeping when he opened the bathroom door. I had my eyes closed, just enough that in the dim green glow from the bathroom, I would look to be out cold, yet I could still faintly see him. He looked over at me to be sure I was sleeping and then stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. I wanted to get up and go into the bathroom too, but I didn’t want him to think I was cornering him, so I waited for him to come back out.
This time, he did flush the toilet, which really wasn’t smart because if I had been asleep, I would have woken up because it was that loud. I still faked like I was asleep when he came out and after the door closed again, I listened closely this time and I could hear him getting closer to the bed. I knew right where he was in relation to me as he started to climb up. I sat up, reached out and grabbed him, this time getting a hold of his waste right at the waistband of his pajama bottoms. I felt and heard the crinkle from my hands touching him and this time, I pulled him back down. Surprisingly, he didn’t go all stiff and with the slightest hesitation, he came back down. I pulled him all the way onto my bed and I felt him sit down beside my knees. I could both feel and hear him breathing hard. He was scared and I was sure that if I could see his face, he would look like he had just seen the angel of death. Since I couldn’t see, I had to reach out with my other hand. I found his pajama shirt, took a hold of it and pulled him closer so that we were face-to-face and only inches apart.
“I know.” I whispered so soft that no one but he could hear me.
He didn’t say a word, didn’t move, and didn’t do anything but breath very hard. I could feel his breath on my face. It felt cold and smelled of the meatloaf surprise we had for supper. Buz was literally scared to death and I had to calm him down.
“I know, but I swear your secret is safe with me. I will never tell a single person. Heck I will even help cover for you if you need me too.” I paused for a second then whispered, “Ok?”
Buz was shaking in my hands and it took him several seconds to squeak out a barely audible, “Ok”.
I knew Buz needed more so I figured I would give it to him.
“I used to wet too. The only reason I was allowed to come to camp this year was because I had been dry for three whole months.” I wasn’t sure what I was saying or even if Buz would believe me, but I wanted him to trust me.
After I said that, I felt him relax and he stopped shaking.
He whispered so quietly that I could hardly hear him but I got the idea of it, “Really? You really did?”
“Yeah! So you know now that your secret is safe with me!” I reassured him again.
“Ok, I better get in my bed.” He said and with one hard shake of the bunk he was up on his bed.
After a couple of minutes of complete silence, I felt the bed shutter a bit again and I heard Buz’s voice close enough that I knew he had his head hanging over the side.
“Max? You still awake?”
“Yes,” I said toward the direction his voice came from.
“Thanks Max,” he whispered again.
“Don’t mention it,” I whispered back again.
The bed shuttered again and I felt him settle in. We both fell asleep a few minutes later.
After that night, Max and I were inseparable. No matter what we were doing or were we were going, we went together. Eventually I found out that he wasn’t wearing diapers as I thought of them but was actually wearing GoodNites, which at the time, I had never heard of but he showed me them one night when we both snuck into the bathroom together.
I now know more about them cause I looked at the package on a store shelf after I got back home, but at the time, I remember thinking to myself how un-diaper like they really looked. I even told him they looked like real underwear. Of course, Buz never let me see them on him. He always had his pajamas on over them and I never dared ask to see either. The only reason he let me look at one that one night was because I had told him that I never wore diapers and that I always had to sleep in a wet bed. Yeah I know it was more lies but it helped Buz to feel more comfortable about the whole ordeal.
The whole three weeks of summer camp were great, aside from getting stung by a yellow jacket and having to endure screaming pain in my foot for a few days, but Buz stayed with me and sat on the benches with me while we watched everyone else playing kickball or soccer or whatever.
I think Buz was my very best friend ever and it hurt like mad when I had to say goodbye to him at the end of the three weeks. Unfortunately, Buz’s family lived over two hours away from us, so I never got to see him again after that summer. We sent each other letters for a few weeks after camp but then his letters stopped and I found out two weeks before school was due to start again that Buz was killed in a car accident with his aunt when they were hit by a truck driver that was drunk. Dad said they both died instantly and didn’t suffer. I still think about Buz all the time and I really miss him.