As they neared the playground, they were greeted by Joey’s mother. At first Bri-Bri had been terrified of being recognized and soaked his diaper in dread of discovery. The diaper doubler saved Bri-Bri further embarrassment initially as it absorbed his first spurts of pee without leaving a stain. Once begun, however, the process of evacuating his bladder continued until it was empty. It seemed like the entire contents of his morning bottle were being voided into the padding of his diaper. A warm feeling spread from his crotch to his bottom as his pee was pulled by capillary action up to the rear of his diaper. The diaper became soft and pressed against his inner thighs as the filling combined with his urine and expanded into an aqueous gel. Bri-Bri realized that the soggy condition of his bulging diaper must be obvious to anyone who looked at him. Joey’s mother looked at Bri-Bri and commented jokingly at how young Anita’s son had become and pointing out how wise Anita had been to put him back in diapers. She observed that little Howie would need a diaper change soon as his diaper looked like it was about to burst with baby pee.
Bri-Bri panicked at the woman’s jibes and began to make incoherent noises of absolute terror. Anita reacted to his fearful gibbering by bending over and putting a pacifier in his mouth to quiet him while she talked. Anita explained that Howie, the preschooler who had been with her when they had met in the park, was her nephew rather than her son. Howie was her sister’s child and had only been visiting her while his mother was in the hospital and had since gone to live with his Grandmother. She went on to tell Joey’s mother that her sister’s baby had been staying with his Grandmother during her sister’s illness, but their mother had found the duties of caring for an infant too taxing and had asked Anita to take her sister’s baby under her wing instead of the more easily cared-for preschooler. Bri-Bri needn’t have worried. Joey’s mother swallowed Anita’s story hook, line and sinker. She commented once on the family resemblance between the two youngsters after hearing the story and let the matter drop.
Anita bent over on the strength of her acquaintance’s comment and discovered that she was right. Howie’s dydee was sopping wet. She took the diaper bag out of the wire rack in the bottom and set it on the grass to the side of the asphalt path. She opened the side of the bag and took out the plastic covered changing pad which was supplied when she bought the bag. Anita took some care and selected a grassy spot that was close but didn’t have hidden rocks or entrance to fire ant colonies. Once she had made her preparations, she positioned the pad on her pre-selected spot, then she hauled Bri-Bri out of the stroller and gently laid him down on the pad. Bri-Bri was mildly embarrassed to be treated like an infant in front of a stranger, but the orthodontic pacifier in his mouth muffled his small whimpers of distress.
Once Anita started ripping the tape tabs off the front of the diaper, his reaction was entirely different. Joey’s mother looked on in maternal amusement as Anita nonchalantly pulled his diaper down and began to wipe his pubes with a towelette she took from the small blue plastic travel container of baby wipes. Howard rocked from side-to-side and kicked his feet in an attempt to get Anita to stop, but Anita’s diapering techniques had been acquired at an early age while caring for her profusion of baby brothers. She had no difficulties cleaning him up and quickly ensconcing him in another overnight diaper despite his wild thrashing. Howard was mortified. His face turned beet-red as he struggled to voice his complaints around the pacifier gag. Although Joey’s mother had no concept of who he really was, the idea of being stripped nude in public, having his pubes and bottom wiped clean, and then rediapered as if he was an inanimate children’s doll was humiliating. Bri-Bri had accepted Anita as his caretaker and had gotten used to the attendants at the Daycare Center ministering to his bodily needs, but the concept of being cared for outside of either milieu had not sunk into his forebrain. A moment later, Anita had him back in the stroller and was walking down the path to the playground accompanied by her friend. Bri-Bri was actually glad when Anita took his bottle out of the diaper bag, unzipped it from its portable “cozy” cooler and stuck the nipple in his mouth. At least when he had the bottle raised, it hid his face.
As they neared the boundaries of the playground, Joey came running up from out of the trees. “Where were you, Mommy?”, he said with a note of apprehension in his voice, “I was on the slide and turned around and you weren’t there! I thought you got lost!”
Joey’s mother smiled at him and said in her most smoothing tones, “You shouldn’t have gotten worried, Darling. I just saw a friend and came over to talk to her. Surely you remember her, she was taking care of her nephew, Howie, the last time we saw her.”
“Oh, him!”, Joey said in disgust, “He’s the one who got sick on the merry-go-round and pooped in his pants! I hope he isn’t here today. I want to play on the merry-go-round some more. Who’s this, his baby brother?”
“Exactly!”, said Joey’s mother brightly.
“Well? What’s his name?”, said Joey with a splendid ignorance of adult manners or verbal elocutions.
Joey’s mother looked surprised, with all that had been said, she had never learned the baby’s name. She turned to Anita and waited in askance. Anita smiled and said, “His name is Bri-Bri, or at least that’s what we call him. His given name is Brian. Don’t you think he looks sweet?”
Joey face took on an appearance of adolescent distaste with things maternal and said grudgingly, “I suppose. I don’t know anything about that. Where’s Howie?”
Anita explained before Joey’s mother had the chance, saying, “Howie’s staying with his grandmother, Joey. I don’t think he’ll be able to come here to play with you again.”
“Oh,” said Joey with unconcern and ran off to play on the monkey bars.
Anita sat down on the park bench beside her acquaintance with the stroller parked in front of her. Bri-Bri finished his bottle in peace and fell asleep in the stroller as the two women discussed the difficulties of raising a child and keeping a job. The talk drifted to discussions about diaper rashes and babysitters; i.e., how prevent and treat the former and how to locate a suitable candidate for the latter. Joey’s mother had ready answers for both problems and was pleased to give Anita the benefit of her knowledge. After a half hour or so, Anita said her goodbyes and took Bri-Bri back to the parking lot to go home. She thought had been a pleasant outing in the park. Bri-Bri barely remembered it when he woke that evening. The ambiance of the woods had been so unreal that he believed the entire experience was a dream.