When Rose got in the car, it reeked of dirty diapers. Evidently David had pooped in his pants while he slept. She decided to stop at the grocery store and get him cleaned up before she presented him to his mother. It wouldn’t do to have her see him with dirty undies. His mother might decide that Rose was unfit to take care of him. Rose wanted to show her that she’d make the perfect wife and “mother” for David. Fifteen minutes later, she parked his car in a dark area of the parking lot and ran in while David slumbered peacefully on. Rose made a few hurried purchases with her babysitting money, raising the eyebrows of the checker slightly when she looked at the assortment of goods in the basket. A baby that old ought not to be fed such young foods! Unless, of course, the baby was a very young giant!

Rose went to the car and quickly removed David’s shoes, socks and pants. She put his socks in his shoes in a grocery bag and put them behind the driver’s seat, then stuffed his wet pants in one of the plastic garbage bags she had purchased. His underwear was a mess! She rolled him on his side and lay a plastic garbage bag on the back seat beneath his bottom, then she rolled him on his back again and pulled down his soggy briefs. His bottom was filthy. She cleaned him up with baby wipes and opened the bag of extra-large Goodnights. David’s extremely slim build made them a perfect fit. Strangely, throughout all the movement and undressing, David continued sleeping. She diapered him quickly and dropped the soggy briefs with its lining of dirty diapers into a plastic bag, tying the top of the bag in a knot. When she was finished, she put the bags she had bought on the floorboard of the car behind the driver’s seat and admired her work in the semi-darkness. His white polo shirt coordinated nicely with the white diapers he was wearing and made him look like an overgrown infant. The image of him as a baby wasn’t dispelled by the way he was sleeping either. The moment she finished changing him, he curled up in a fetal position and put his thumb in his mouth to suck while he slept.

Rose locked the rear door on David’s car and drove over to his house. When she arrived, she left David in the car while she went to knock on the door and talk to his mother. She told his mother that David had had an “accident” with his clothes and that she needed a blanket to cover him while she got him in from the car. David’s mother thought it was a strange request, but complied willingly. She closed the door and returned a few minutes later with an old wool blanket she had stored in the linen closet for years in case of emergency. Rose took the blanket out to the car while David’s mother watched from the safety of the house. Rose sat the sleepy boy up on the back seat of the car and covered his shoulders with the blanket, then held the garbage and grocery bags in one hand while she helped him walk to the porch. When they arrived, Rose quickly maneuvered him through the door and closed it behind them. His mother knew something was wrong by the fact that he was barefoot when he had left the house earlier that evening fully clothed. Rose set the grocery bags on the floor without a word, then took the blanket from David’s shoulders to reveal how he was dressed to his mother. He looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion and plaintively asked, “Mama?”

David’s mother dropped her mouth open when she saw his bare legs and the white disposable diaper that covered his crotch. From the telltale yellow stain on the front of his diaper, she saw that he had peed again. The thin plastic of the garbage bag Rose held up for his mother to see clearly showed that his pants were soaked. When Rose held out the other bag with the dirty diapers and soggy briefs, his mother could see the brown stains through the translucent white plastic. She sighed in motherly forbearance and took the blanket from Rose. Then she doubled it over in her arms and spread it out on the floor and for a pad, When she as done, she motioned for David to sit on the blanket. David sat down quickly and spread out his legs in front of him, wondering were he was and what had happened to him. The crinkling sound of the diaper caught his attention making him gaze down at his disposable diaper and pluck idly at the plastic cover while the two women looked down at the former man. The blank look of perplexity on David’s face told his mother it would be fruitless to try to question him, so she turned to Rose and asked dryly, “Drugs?”

Rose shook her head “no” in reply. “What happened?” asked David’s mother succinctly.

Rose looked down at David’s wet diaper as she helped him to sit down and said in a pained voice, “I was babysitting for a woman and David came over to visit while I was taking care of the baby. I had put the baby down for a nap and came back to sit with David. While he was laying on the couch with his head in my lap, he started looking farchadat and wet himself. I got a couple of the baby’s diapers and put them in his pants to try and soak up the pee. You can see them there in the bag with his briefs. Something had in him changed while I was in taking care of the baby. He was fine earlier. I didn’t notice until he started peeing in his pants he was so farblondget. After I put the diapers in his pants, I took him out to the car to wait until the woman whose child I was babysitting got home and he fell asleep in the back seat of the car. When she came home and I went to the car, I discovered that he had pooped in his pants like a baby. I couldn’t let him sit in dirty clothes like that, Mrs. Rosenberg. Can’t you see? I stopped at the grocery store and used my money to buy him some diapers. I parked in a dark spot in the parking lot and was able to clean him up and get him diapered without anyone seeing him.