Howard turned his complete attention to the TV and tried to lose himself in the cartoon. Autohypnosis was the only solution to the terrible itching that threatened to unbalance his mind. He ordered himself silently to relax and enjoy the show. Soon the itching diminished in importance and he forgot that it was there. His eyes riveted on the TV picture in rapt attention while his hand unconsciously stole silently up to his face. When Anita returned she smiled at the dulcet image that her husband presented. He was sitting on the comforter in front of the TV with his legs akimbo. The dark spot on the comforter beneath his bottom told her that he had continued to wet after she had left. Howard was oblivious to her presence. He seemed enthralled by the cartoon in front of him, unaware that his thumb was in his mouth and that he was sucking it for all he was worth. Anita decided that she would have to start taking his nightly temperatures with a rectal thermometer. He was much too young to be trusted with an oral thermometer. If he became angry for some reason while she was taking his temperature with an oral thermometer, he might bite through the glass and end up with a mouthful of mercury. He had become too emotionally unstable to be treated like an adult. She thought it was better to play it safe and take his temperature in a manner that befitted his behavior. He wouldn’t like it, but she was past caring whether he approved of his treatment or not. Anita had no intention of letting a pants-wetting toddler tell her how to run her household. She walked up behind him silently and said in a syrupy tone, “Sweetie, it’s time for me to change your panties! Come on, Sweetiepie! Your cartoons can wait. Let’s get you out of those soaked panties before you get a rash, okay?”
Howard turned his head around at the sound of her voice and stared up at the woman who now ruled his life without taking his thumb from his mouth. He nodded and dropped his eyes to get up and suddenly noticed that he had been sucking his thumb. Howard withdrew his thumb guiltily and tried to hide his hand behind his back. Anita merely smiled at his childish attempts to hide his actions. She had been right to lay down the law to him earlier. His behavior was regressing along with his body. In a few days, his attention span would probably begin to wane until he had the concentration powers of a small boy. She had already made arrangements for him to be cared for while she was working. Anita knew he would probably throw a tantrum when she told him about it, but he no longer had a say in the matter. He had become her little boy rather than her husband and she would make all the decisions in his life. Poor little Howie was much too small and childish to be allowed to make decisions for himself. He had to be cared for like the toddler he had become. He had to be protected from himself.
Anita reached out her hand to help him up and held onto it as she walked him down the hall. She noticed with some amusement that he was walking bowlegged. The acrid ammonia smell that wafted up from him told her that his pee had soured in his pants. She knew he must have gotten a rash while he was watching TV. She chided herself for not changing his wet panties sooner, but she had been busy in the spare bedroom getting it ready for his occupancy. Anita took him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up before she changed him. She stood him in the tub still wearing his soggy training pants. She knelt at the side of the tub and grabbed the waistband of his pants in both hands, then pushed them down his legs to fall at his feet. She made him step out of them, then laid them on the side of the tub while she took a washcloth and wet it under the tub’s faucet. When she spread his legs to wipe his pubic area, she saw that his skin was red and angry looking. He had gotten a mild case of diaper rash in the few hours that he had been in the wet training pants. She washed him gently and applied a thin layer of vaseline to the affected area. Then took him out of the tub and patted his groin and bottom dry with a towel. After his bath, Anita took him by the hand and led him into the spare bedroom to dress him in clean training pants. She told him as they walked through the door, “I have no intention of waking up in a wet bed, Sweetheart. From now on, you’re sleeping in here.”