Then they went to K-Mart. Ben was astonished at the amount of money she was spending on Jamie. When he had suggested that she was spending too much money and she didn’t need most of what she was buying, Laura and Mary had given him a condescending, pitying look. As a bachelor, he had never realized how expensive it was to take care of a baby. First it was the furniture; a playpen, a crib and mattress, a baby gate, a dresser with changing pad, a nursery lamp for the dresser, a rocking chair, a high chair, a bouncer-walker, a baby seat for the car, a portable playpen/crib, and a stroller. Then there were the clothes; playsuits, crawlers, one-piece suits, tee-shirts, cloth diapers, diaper covers, plastic panties, socks, shoes, and sleepers. She had almost filled a cart with clothes alone. Then linens and accessories; a dozen sheets, a comforter, a crib blanket, a padded crib bumper, an electronic nursery monitor, bath towels, a dozen terry and plastic bibs, a half-dozen lap pads, two dozen washcloths, bottles, two dozen nipples, feeding spoons and plates, a feeding mat for the floor, pacifiers, baby food storage racks, a nipple rack for the automatic dishwasher, nipple and bottle brushes, electrical outlet covers and cabinet locks, organizers for washing baby socks, a baby seat and sponge pad for the tub, a dirty diaper pail, a diaper bag, a cloth high chair for traveling, a protective plastic seat cover to go under the baby seat in the car, insulated bottle warmers, curtains and wallpaper borders and appliqus for the nursery, a night light, story and picture books, tapes of nursery rhymes, and toys.
Mary had managed to fill three shopping carts with baby goods without even putting the furniture in the carts. They filled Mary’s trunk and backseat with the groceries and sundries from K-Mart. His Suburban was packed all the way to the front seat when the stockboys had finished loading the furniture at K-Mart. Ben was impressed with Mary’s earnestness in trying to be a good mother. Ben wasn’t sure what kind of mother Mary would make Jamie, but it was obvious she intended to try her best. “Mary is such a good woman,” he thought to himself, “It’s a shame that this has happened to her. She deserves better. She’s too young to spend the rest of her life with only a baby for company. She needs to find another man. Who knows, she might be interested in me. If Jamie h adn’t found her and married her before I met her, things might have been different. I might have married her.”
Ben hauled the furniture into the hallway next to the spare bedroom and began to move the furniture that had been in the bedroom into the garage. Mary and Laura came in and helped to assemble the furniture and put things away. Within two hours they had finished. There were three 40 gallon plastic garbage bags of wrapping and cardboard cartons at the curb to attest to their efforts. Mary went inside to get Jamie and carried him in her arm to se them off.
“Wave bye-bye to Uncle Ben, Jamie,” she said, taking his arm a waving it up and down.
Jamie grinned and waved clumsily. Ben blushed in embarrassment at Jamie and tried to cover his feelings by patting Jamie’s head like an affectionate uncle.
Ben said his goodbyes and was rewarded with a big kiss on the mouth by Mary. Laura hugged Mary, kissed Jamie on the forehead and wished them luck, then got into the Suburban with Ben.
Mary came in the house and put Jamie in his playpen, then went into the bedroom to change. It had been an exhausting day. She decided that no one was going to visit her that night and simply removed all of her clothes without redressing. She would spend the evening in the buff.
Mary returned to the living room and sat down on the sofa. She looked at Jamie standing in his playpen watching her with his hand in his diaper. She looked closer to see what he was doing and was surprised when she realized that Jamie was masturbating. Mary didn’t scold him, as long as he didn’t do it in public, she didn’t care.
“Let Jamie have his fun, she thought, he’s only a little baby now. He can play with his wee-wee to his heart’s content.”
Mary thought about their love making session this morning, Jamie had really been an exceptional lover as a teenager. Just thinking about it made her feel peculiar.