It was too much! I had been fed and nursed like a baby and then I had pooped in my diapers like an infant. I moved my legs experimentally and felt the cold soggy diaper squish wetly between legs. Tears began to flow from the corners of my eyes and I started to cry. A few minutes later the head nurse came in to see why I was sobbing. It only took one sniff of the fetid atmosphere for her to ascertain my problem. She turned and yelled out the door, “He’s okay, he’s only got a dirty diaper! You finish what you were doing and I’ll take care of him!”
The next thing I knew she had dropped the side of the crib and was removing my dirty diaper. The fact that it was my nemesis who had discovered me with a soiled diaper didn’t help me regain my composure. I sobbed disconsolately as she lifted my legs and wiped the filth from my behind. Then she put a clean diaper beneath me and pulled it up between my legs, taping it tightly in place around my waist. I screamed from the depths of my torment, bewailing the horrible fate which had made me so helpless.
The head nurse looked down at the screaming infant which had been a full grown man only two days before and came to a rapid decision about her charge. She dipped into her pocket with her hand and withdrew the object she kept for soothing a babies’ jangled nerves. Her hand passed over my mouth like a stage magicians and with a twisting sleight of hand, the object popped into my mouth.
She had silenced my bawls instantly. The object muffled my cries completely, allowing only soft whimpers of anguish to escape. I closed my lips around the thing in my mouth and explored its surface with my tongue. When I realized what she had put in my mouth to quiet me; a pacifier!
I began sobbing again, quietly this time. My chest heaved with emotion as waves of despair rolled over me. The nurse picked me up out of the crib and held me close to her chest while patting my back and saying, “There, there little one. It’ll be alright. Your dydee is clean now and you can go back to sleep. When you wake up again, there’ll be a nice bottle of formula waiting for you.”
I moaned inwardly and lay my head against her in defeat. I shouldn’t have tried to been a smart-ass and ignore my doctor’s orders. The head nurse had probably had years of experience dealing with recalcitrant children and had no intention of letting me buffalo her into having my way. All my childish behavior had gotten me was to be treated as I deserved. I was lucky she hadn’t put me over her knee and given me a sound spanking. She kept petting me and making motherly cooing noises at me until I calmed down and was ready to go to sleep again. I felt completely enervated and demoralized as she lay me back down on the mattress and tucked me back under the fleecy blanket. I knew with certainty that when I woke, it would be with a wet diaper. She had found the truth of my being under the urbane exterior I had so carefully cultivated over the years. I was only a helpless infant who had to be cuddled and coddled to keep me from throwing tantrums to get my way.