Though her week was a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows, Megan followed much the same routine. Every day began with a wet diaper for her to change out of. On mornings where she didn’t have to work, she found herself leaving the diaper on a little longer before showering. Work at the pharmacy was business as usual. There was a pretty steady stream of customers and a seemingly endless list of random tasks. She had learned to block out most of Vern’s tirades and found herself becoming much friendlier towards Josh, Natalie, Raul and the rest of her coworkers. They had even been out to dinner as a group once or twice.
When Megan wasn’t working, she balanced time with her friends with more introspective activities such as reading and writing in a journal. Her siblings occasionally enlisted her to help with a tough homework assignment and more times than not, she obliged. She had not seen Ted. There had been a few phone conversations, some productive, others clearly not. While she would not own up to avoiding him, Megan provided herself with plenty of excuses as to why they shouldn’t get together. It would be too stressful for her. He seemed happy with his new girlfriend and she didn’t want to but it. Neither of them had the time. The list went on and on.
With the exception of diapering herself at night, Megan seemed to lead the life of the archetypical college student home for the summer. However, true to Helen’s words, there were instances where she regressed. For instance, Vern had her pricing merchandise in the stock room one day and Megan found herself playing with dolls and flipping through children’s’ books. Or, when she went to bite her nails (another of her vices), her thumb found its way into her mouth and she didn’t even realize she had been sucking on it. They were small cues mostly, and while Megan found herself balancing them with plenty of “adult” activities, there was no denying they were there.