Chapter Seven
Baby Howie
Howard awoke in the attendant’s arms as he was carried to the counter in the front of the daycare. Anita was waiting for him and took the groggy child in her arms to carry him to the Suburban. She wrapped his shoulders and bottom in his blankie and put her arm beneath his bottom to support him as she walked. Howard blinked his eyes in the bright sun as Anita strolled through the parking lot and winded her way through the parked cars to theirs. The blankie felt indescribably soft and comforting against the bare skin of his thighs and calves, making him feel secure and protected against stranger’s stares. She stopped in front of the Suburban, unlocked her door, then opened it and triggered the locks on the other doors. Then she opened the rear door and sat Howard on the seatntShe buckled him in his seat and shut the door, getting in the driver’s seat and starting the van.
Howard wondered sleepily as they drove away why Anita hadn’t taken the time to redress him in his accustomed training pants. As the wisps of sleep cleared themselves from his mind, he realized that he had wet them all and that there was nothing left to wear home. He lay back against the cushion of the seat and closed his eyes again. There was nothing of interest for him to see out of the window anyway, he had grown too short to see anything out of the window but the tops of buildings and trees as the Suburban whizzed by. If he hadn’t been wearing the seat belt, he might have moved next to the door and been able to peer over the window frame to see the cars below. Other than sixteen or eighteen wheeler trucks, the view of the road traffic was hidden from him by his position on the back seat. After a short time, the van slowed and came to a halt as Anita parked the van. She got out and took him from the rear seat, then carried him through the busy parking lot. Howard opened his eyes and saw that she was heading for the grocery store in front of them. He was instantly awake. “Oh God! Oh please God, don’t let her take me in there! Everyone will see me in diapers!”, he prayed silently.
Anita sat him in the baby seat of a shopping cart and wheeled him inside the grocery store. To Howard’s dismay, she went directly to the baby goods aisle and put a large package of diapers in the basket. Then she wheeled the cart further down the aisle and began filling the basket with baby food. Howard groaned inwardly when he turned and saw the jars she had selected for him. Instead of getting the barely edible jars of chunky toddler-style food, she had elected to purchase food that was suitable for a toothless infant. Everything was of the “First Foods” variety, and had been pureed to a fine paste to make it easy for a pre-weaned infant to swallow. She moved around the aisle and began putting other baby items in the cart: diaper pins, feeding bibs in disposable, terry and plastic styles, baby wipes, shampoo, a large jar of nursery vaseline, Johnson’s baby soap, baby powder, feeding spoons and bowls, wash cloths, waterproof lap pads, a teething ring, a rattle, a group of large plastic toy keys, a bottle and nipple brush, an enclosed wire rack for washing nipples and pacifiers in the dishwasher, and a small box of wet wipes in a plastic purse-sized travel case.
When he saw her place several baby bottles in the cart along with packages of orthodontic nipples for an older baby, Howard slumped forward in his seat in despair. She had been serious when she told him that she planned to treat him like an infant at home. He tried to bury his head against her in embarrassment as she wheeled him through the aisles to the checkout stand but the one foot distance was too great to span with his reduced body. He was forced to endure the tolerant smiles and disapproving frowns of the women shoppers they passed as they saw the diapers and bottles that were intended for the older toddler in Anita’s cart. Many of them had older boys who were still in diapers but allowing a toddler Howie’s age to drink from a bottle was highly disapproved of by most women. It was bad enough that little boys nowadays took such a long time to be potty trained, but treating them like real infants was beyond the pale. The line was mercifully short and the checker too harried to make any comments on his too infantile treatment as Anita paid for her purchases and they were bagged. The sole discordant note was when the checker handed the last bag to Anita and she smiled and waved bye-bye to the diapered child in the cart. Anita took Howard’s hand as if he was developmentally retarded and waved it for him, saying “Wave bye-bye, Howie! Bye-bye! That’s a good baby!”
