Mary looked surprised and said, “Oh, I forgot! I bought Tommy a present! It’s out in the car, I’ll go get it!”
She returned carrying a large cardboard carton in front of her. “Here you go Marge, just what you need for the shopping trip! It’s a combination car seat and baby stroller. I bought one just like it for Bobby a few months ago. Now Tommy can nap in the stroller while we shop!”
She opened the box and removed a box that she had stuffed inside with the stroller. Marge recognized it immediately; it was the gift box that she had packed Tommy’s old baby clothes in when she gave them to Mary.
Mary smiled and said gently as she handed the box to Marge, “I think you’ll want these back. Bobby never got a chance to wear them so they’re in exactly the same condition you gave them to me. I never got the chance to take them out of the box. I know they’ll fit Tommy perfectly. It’s only proper that he wear the clothes that his mother made for him.”
Marge took the gift with tears forming in her eyes and hugged her former daughter-in-law affectionately while murmuring, “Thank you, thank you! You don’t know how much they mean to me!”
Marge finally regained control of her emotions and left the room momentarily to put the box of baby clothes in the nursery, leaving Mary in charge of the babies in her absence.
“Are you ready to go on a shopping trip?”, Mary said to Thomas, smiling down at him maliciously. “If you don’t mind, I want to buy Tommy some presents to start him on his new life. He gave me a set of nighties and undies when we were first married to start me in married life, I’d like to do the same for him.”, she said, converting her grin into a disingenuous smile and turning to Marge. “I’d like to buy Tommy some baby linens to show him there are no hard feelings. He’ll need a whole new wardrobe now that he’s a baby. I saw some diaper covers and a sleeper that would look darling on him. There’s a baby shop near Highlander’s Mall that sells them.”
Marge returned a few minutes later and packed Tommy’s diaper bag for him, stuffing it with disposable diapers, baby wipes in a plastic travel pack and a bottle of prepared infant formula she had purchased at the grocery store. Then she gathered up her purse and Tommy’s diaper bag and put them over her shoulder, before she picked Tommy up and set him astride her hip. “It’s a warm morning, Tommy. You’ll be okay with just a diaper on,” she said solicitously. Then she turned to Mary and said, “Are you ready Mary? Can we take your Suburban? There’d be more room.”
They put Tommy’s new baby seat in the back of the Suburban next to Bobby’s seat and loaded them into the car. As they drove to the baby shop, Tommy mentally cursed Mary for her petty revenge. She was buying him baby clothes just to have the opportunity to make him wear something humiliating. Mary turned in her seat and looked at Bobby, then at him. He felt completely exposed to her. He squirmed uncomfortably, knowing that she knew exactly how defenseless and impotent he felt. The movement of his legs made the plastic of the disposable diaper rustle and reminded him that, except for his diaper, he was naked.
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he realized the hopelessness of his position. He realized in everyone’s eyes, he was only a babe well in his diaper days. He had to be washed, fed and changed like any baby. He could barely walk. He couldn’t talk. When he needed something, he could only whimper and cry. He was imprisoned in the soft, warm, protected jail of infancy. He had lost control of everything; his home, his life, even his body. He was absolutely helpless and utterly in his mother’s power. He’d spend the next ten years as her baby.