Caroline squirmed slightly and reached out for her big sister. Apparently, the changing mats only worked on people who didn’t think of themselves as babies yet. Lysa reached out with her hand towards her little sister, and Caroline clasped on Lysa’s pointer finger with a sure grip. Lysa took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose.
“Ready…set…go!”, the nursery worker shouted as she and her double in the robes raced to see who could change their ward’s diaper the fastest. Both angel women were giggling slightly and were definitely having more fun than the girls. Dante thought that this must be humiliating. It had to be another form of brain washing, to show how they were no different than the actual babies.
The nursery worker won the contest by a good three solid three seconds. “Good game,” the nursery worker said, as the wet nurse re-swaddled the newborn and picked her up, leaving the soiled diaper on the changing mat, and ripping Lysa’s finger from her grasp.
“Yeah yeah,” the nursery worker said good naturedly, “I know, loser throws away the wet ones.” The nursery worker picked up the soiled diapers and threw them into a lidded trashcan, never to be seen again. She bent over and lifted Caroline off the mat. “Don’t worry, Lysa,” she said, “we’ll get ’em next time, right little girl?” She placed Lysa back in the stroller and buckled her in before going back to roll up the changing mat.
“But before you know it,” the angel added, “we won’t be able to play that game, cuz you’ll be a big girl, and out of diapers and using the potty and everything. You’re gonna be such a great big sister when you get older! Maybe you can even help us change Caroline, then. Won’t that be fun? Won’t it?”
Lysa turned her head towards Dante, “Don’t you believe it.” she said. “They say that every time I come to visit.” Dante didn’t need to be told not to believe it. He already didn’t.
“Yeah, I didn’t figure they were big on Pull-Ups here. Just another form of psychological warfare, right? Give you hope you’re gonna get to grow up in here, and then dash your hopes when you’re still in diapers fifty years later.”
“Right,” Lysa confirmed, “What’s a Pull-Up?” Dante had already forgotten how long Lysa had been in Limbo.
“Disposable training pants, halfway between diapers and big boy pants.” Dante informed her. (Crap watch the word choice.) “They’re like diapers, but not as thick. They’re easy to pull on and off like underwear, but can be thrown away if the kid doesn’t make it to the potty in time. They usually have designs for bigger kids, like racecars for boys, or princesses for girls. Sometimes they have little hearts or stars that disappear when the kid is wet so that they learn the difference between wet and dry and don’t sit in a wet diaper all day.”
“Yeah,” Lysa harrumphed, “never seen anything close to that around these parts.”