I froze as we got to the end of the hallway. I could hear my cousins just around the corner. They were talking about me. Then I felt daddy’s hand on my lower back. With a strong shove he pushed me forward out of the hallway and into the room.
My cousins didn’t say anything for the first few seconds. This was too easy. Predators don’t expect their prey to just come and lay down in front of them. The situation was just so bizarre, that even with the intent to bully me, they weren’t sure how to do it. The first comment, coming from my oldest cousin, was the most biting.
“Aww. Those are the same diapers my baby sister wears.”
I thought I had run out of tears earlier. I was wrong.
I sat in the corner and began to cry. My unresponsiveness put an end to the game, at least for the moment. They got bored, as kids tend to do rather quickly, and ran outside to play. Even after they left, I remained in corner. Eyes closed, arms hugged around my legs, which were squeezed together in an unsuccessful attempt to obscure the diaper.
Stupid. I’m so stupid. I should have just worn the pull-ups. Mommy wouldn’t have been happy with my accident, but she wouldn’t have punished me like that. And a daddy wouldn’t have put me back in diapers. It’s all my fault.
As I was crying in the corner, the aunt and uncle that I hadn’t met before took a seat to either side of me.
“Well,” my aunt said. “What has you feeling so down?”
I spread my legs far enough apart to make the diaper fully visible. My aunt frowned but didn’t make any comment. Instead, she removed her jacket and set it across my lap so the diaper was fully concealed.
“Who are you?” I asked. I didn’t know a lot about my extended family, especially ones who visit so rarely.
“I’m your dad’s sister,” she said.
“But, why haven’t I seen you before?”
“We… let’s just say your father and I have… some difference.”
Differences? That didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
“This might cheer you up,” my uncle said.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a Gameboy.
I remembered what my parents always said about videogames. Evil. A gateway drug to violence. No different than devil worship. But now I didn’t know what to think. Here was an adult handing me a videogame like it was something that was completely normal to do. And from adults who weren’t making fun of me for wearing a diaper.
He showed me how to use the directional pad to move the little character from left to right on the screen and how to use the other buttons to jump or run faster. I wasn’t very good at it. In fact, I lost several lives right away before I began to get enough of a sense of the timing to where I could progress further along the level. My mind was so absorbed in the game that I didn’t notice the urges coming from my bladder until it was too late and my diaper had gone from dry to wet.