Theodore would take out his pacifier every night and suck on it for a while before putting it back under the pillow and going to sleep.
His desire of returning to babyhood again became real when he was sucking on his pacifier.
One night after Theodore had been suckling on his pacifier he became a little thirsty.
He decided that he needed a drink so off he went downstairs to the kitchen.
Before doing so he hid the pacifier in his pillowcase.
When he saw the bottles of cold formula waiting in the refrigerator, he couldn’t resist.
He took a bottle and putting it in the pocket of his robe, crept back up the stairs to his room.
He got into bed quickly and took the pacifier out of the pillowcase before throwing the covers over his head.
The first suck of the bottle came as a little bit of a shock to Theodore.
The Sweet flavor of the thin formula was somewhat unexpected.
Theodore was surprised at just how difficult it was to get any of the juice from the bottle.
After a while, Theodore got the hang of it.
He sucked the juice from the bottle contently, occasionally drowsing from time to time.
The next thing Theodore knew Mrs Fields was shaking him awake.
Mrs Fields pulled down the covers from Theodore’s bed and froze at the sight of the empty bottle.
The formula from the bottles has dripped from the nipple and had puddled the bedpad.
Mrs Fields reached down and said,
“And just what young man, were you doing with this in your bed?”
Panic paralyzed Theodore’s vocal cords, he tried to croak out an explanation, but only strange, strangled vowel sounds escaped his lips.
Rose put the bottle on the dresser and said,
“After you take your bath and get dressed young man, the two of us are going to have a long talk!”
Theodore’s face quickly turned red with embarrassment.
All he could do is nod his head.
Rose then went on to unfasted Theodore’s diaper only to find the second shock of the morning.
Theodore had soiled his diaper.
Her eyes went wide and she said,
“Just stay right there, Theodore, and don’t you move!
Do you understand me?
Stay right where you are!
I’ll be back in a minute!”
Rose left the room with a determined expression on her face and returned a few minutes later with a large box of baby wipes in her hand.
Theodore lay in bed trembling in terror.
The smell of the dirty diaper had reached him and he knew what he had done.
There was no hiding from the maternal judgment in her eyes.
He had disgraced himself.
Tears welled up in Theodore’s eyes and rolled down his cheeks
Rose told him to draw back his legs to his chest and hold them there while she cleaned his dirty bottom.
The moment Rose touched Theodore, his bladder cut loose.
In a state of complete panic and fright, Theodore started to urinate uncontrollably.
Rose snatched up the front of his diaper and threw it over where Theodore was urinating, catching most of the spill in the already sodden diaper.
Theodore whimpered as Rose scrubbed him clean again.
“Roll over onto your stomach!” Rose ordered.
Theodore did as Rose ordered now fearing the worst.
“Wait there, I will be back in a moment” Rose continued.
Theodore heard Rose go over to his dresser and take something out of one of the drawers.
He closed his eyes fearing the good spanking he knew was going to come.
Rose was going to spank Theodorewith her house slipper!
Theodore stiffened as he felt the covers ripped off the bed and the plastic edge of the soaked bed pad pulled out from underneath his stomach.
He felt another pad placed on the bed and waited for her to order him to move on top of the pad.
Of course, she’d make him lie on a bed pad while she spanked him.
Theodore had just proven he couldn’t control himself anymore, hadn’t he just peed right in front of her?
Rose came back from her own bedroom.
She told him to roll back on his bottom and he complied without ever opening his eyes.
Tears streamed down his face as he whimpered, “Mama, mama, please don’t hurt me, mama. I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to do it. Please don’t beat me.”
Rose powdered him quickly and rediapered him before sitting down on the bed at his side.
His body was wracked by paroxysms of stark terror.
He wept copiously and kept repeating over and over,
“Please don’t hurt me, mummy.
I’ll be good.
Don’t leave me, mummy!”
Rose was astonished at the change in him.
The happy teenager of the night before had become terrified before her eyes.
She rocked him back and forth shushing him and making meaningless mothering noises to try and subdue his fears.
After a while, Theodore quieted and she saw the pacifier lying on the bed beside him.
She reached over him with her free hand and picked up the pacifier to show him, saying,
“Did you take this from Baby John Johns’s room, Theodore?
It was naughty of you to steal from your brother.”
Theodore started trembling violently in her arms again and she said hastily, “
It’s okay. I am sure he doesn’t mind, he has plenty of pacifiers.
I’ll get him another to replace it.”
He touched the pacifier hesitantly and then began shaking again.
Rose put it in his hand and said,
“It’s yours. Don’t worry.
mummy’s not mad at you.
Here, let mummy put the pacifier in your mouth for you.
Doesn’t that feel better?”
He looked up at her with the saddest, most forlorn eyes she had ever seen.
She slipped the nipple between his lips and he began to suck on the nipple the moment she put it in his mouth.
He put his arms around her neck and wept into her shoulder and wept like a lost child who has finally found its mother.
Rose patted his back and comforted him and soon his crying stopped.
She asked him in the simple, gentle words one uses with a small child who has just experienced a terrible trauma,
“Okay now?
Come on, let us go down the stairs and mummy will make you something to eat.
Theodore looked at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes and said around the pacifier, “Bath?”
Rose shook her head and said,
“Mammy will give you a bath later.
Right now mummy thinks you should get something to eat.
How would you like some bacon and eggs for breakfast?”
Theodore’s eyes lit up and he opened his mouth letting the pacifier fall onto his lap, saying with a hoarse shout, “Bacon!”
She put the pacifier in her pocket and held his hand as she guided him down the stairs into the breakfast nook.
Rose sat him down at the table and pinned a kitchen towel around his neck to use as a bib.
She put the pacifier into his mouth to keep him occupied while she cooked him breakfast.
When she was done, she set the food down in front of him and spoon-fed him eggs while breaking off small pieces of bacon and handing them to him.
Theodore chortled in glee over each piece of bacon she fed him.
When he was finished, she wiped his face with the towel and led him into the family room to sit on the floor in front of the television.
She turned on the television and let him watch the smurfs while she placed an emergency call to the psychiatrist.
elastic crinkle against the bare skin of his side. Ruth handed him a baby bottle full of formula and said, “Mama brought you a bottle of warm formula to drink, Honey. She wants you to take your medicine and drink your formula until it’s all gone. Will you make a happy bottle for mama?”
Tony nodded gravely as she handed him his antidepressant capsule. He swallowed the capsule and began to suck on the nipple as she continued,
“Mama will read a story to you, Honey. It’s all about a little bear named Pooh who was exceedingly fond of honey. I think you and your new friend will like it.”
Tony closed his eyes and cuddled his bear feeling sooooo comfortable. The soft flannel blanket snuggled against his skin luxuriously, while the diapers gave him the feeling his bottom was being gently caressed. He suckled the warm formula from the bottle avidly. His rapidly filling stomach made him sleepy and his eyelids began to droop. Ruth stroked his hair as she read the story, lulling him into a peaceful sleep. His breathing slowed and became deeper as he drifted off into a dreamland filled with soft, furry creatures who were never cross or even said an unkind word. He knew they were his friends when he saw that they all sucked their thumbs and wore diapers just like him. They laughed and tumbled together on the soft, moss-covered earth of his dreamland, happy to be alive and play in the warm sunshine. One of the bears wet his diapers and began to giggle uproariously. All the others joined in and laughed as they good-naturedly changed his soggy diaper. They were such jolly playmates! Then they went to look for a baby bottle tree so they could all sit down and have some formula for lunch. When they finished their bottles, they all lay down for a nap together in a heap. Tony snuggled against his new friends and dozed with a smile of contentment on his face as he lay amid his furry companions. When they awoke, they changed each other’s diapers with howls of delight as they saw the messes each of them had made. Then it was off to an afternoon of play as the comrades crawled and somersaulted together on the soft green grass. Tony’s face shone with happiness as the dark cloud that been hiding his smiles evaporated under the loving sun.
Ruth put a bookmark where she had stopped the story and kissed Tony lightly on the forehead. She wasn’t in any hurry to finish the story, she knew that she’d be reading Tony and Teddy stories for a long time before he was ready for her to stop.