Shane was a little angel for the next few days. He was determined not to give his mother any excuse to punish him by keeping him in nappies and baby dresses any longer. He took all his feedings and bottles with good grace. He ignored all taunts and happily skipped along when out in public, curtseying to all passers by. It was horrific for him really but he gritted his teeth (or would have if it wasn’t for the dummy wedged in his mouth all the time).
On Saturday morning his mother went to answer the door. It was Helen and Emily. As she returned to the kitchen she heard a whimper from the high-chair. “What’s wrong dear?” Shane pointed to the floor. “Oh did you drop your dolly? Emily, will you give Shane his dolly before he starts to cry.” Emily picked up the doll and handed it to him. He pretended to be consoled.
His mother turned towards Helen. “I asked you over because I’ve made a decision.” Shane froze. “I’ve decided that Shane has been such a really good baby girl over the last couple of weeks.” At last, he thought, he had finally earned release from this torment. “He’s been such a good baby girl that I’ve decided to keep him this way.”
“Brilliant!” Helen squealed. Emily jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Shane was dumbstruck. “I couldn’t possibly let him go back to being a naughty boy so he’ll be staying in nappies and baby dresses since he seems so much happier as a baby girl.”
Shane spat out the soother. “No! I’m not happy at all! I was just trying to be good so that you would let me go.” “Oh dear”, his mother said. “Still a bit of the naughty boy left in you. This is precisely why we’ll have to keep you as a baby girl.”
“But it’s not fair”, he protested. “If I’m good as a baby girl, you want to keep me this way and if I’m bold, you want to keep me this way as a punishment. I can’t wi….mmmm.” His mother pushed his soother back in. “Life’s a bitch, isn’t it.” They all laughed.
He spat the soother out again. “You can’t do this!” Helen stepped forward calmly and reinserted his soother. “Now tell me this.” Shane glared at her. She took his hands and held them up. “Do you agree that you are helpless as long as your hands are in these mittens?” Shane nodded. “You can’t feed yourself?” She waited. He nodded again.
“You can’t take your nappies off or your sweet baby dresses. You can’t get out of your high-chair or play-pen or cot if we don’t want you to.” He nodded again slowly. “If we tell you to, you have to show off your panties and curtsey and skip and kiss your dollies.” His nod was barely perceptible this time. He sniffled.
“Do you accept that you are totally helpless and have to do everything we tell you?” Tears were coming to his eyes. She wasn’t going to proceed until he nodded again, so he did. “Do you accept, then, that if we decide that you are to remain in nappies and baby dresses, there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it?” Tears were rolling down his cheeks now. Helen turned to his mother. “Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.”
His mother stepped forward, swung the tray back and unstrapped him from the high-chair. “Now the first thing we need to do is to get rid of your boy’s clothes.” “Mmmm?” “Well you won’t require them any more. They might as well go to a deserving cause.”
Shane fell to his knees, pressed his hands together and looked up at her pleadingly. “Mmmmm.” “Don’t be silly. Get up. It’s decided. Nothing is going to change my mind”, she said firmly.
She pulled him to his feet and brought him up to his room. Helen carried a couple of black bin bags. His mother opened his wardrobe. On the left side hung his other baby dresses, on the right his trousers. She removed the hangars from which his trousers hung and draped them over his arm. Helen held out the bag with a wicked smile. “Go on. Put them in the bag.”
He was crying again and couldn’t bring himself to throw out his trousers. He rubbed a damp eye with his free mitten. Helen rustled the bag impatiently. Eventually he dropped the trousers into the bag and started sobbing uncontrollably. Helen shook the bag so that they dropped to the bottom.
His mother handed him a pile of shirts. He dropped them into the bag, then his sweaters. There was nothing left hanging in the wardrobe now but his baby dresses.
They brought him to the chest of drawers. Emily held out another bag. He gathered his boxer shorts, rolled up socks and tee-shirts and dropped them into the bag. Emily tittered. His mother could now spread out the remaining contents of the drawers – his frilly panties, pairs of tights, bonnets and such. He sobbed again as Helen and Emily took the bags from the room and left him with nothing but his baby clothes.
When they returned, his mother had put him in the cot. He knelt and leant on the side bars as he watched her go through the other things in the room. “Would Emily like to take his computer?” “Oh yes please!” Emily replied excitedly. “Mmmmm!” Shane said from the cot.
“But dear, you won’t be able to use the computer anymore or a lot of these other games”, his mother told him. “The least you can do is let Emily have them.” Shane glared at his niece.
“Don’t worry”, Helen reassured him, “we still have lots of Emily’s old toys from when she was a baby. They will be more suitable for you now.” Tears streamed down Shane’s face as they gathered up his favourite games and removed his football posters.
He whined through his dummy because he actually had a wet nappy now but they thought he was just continuing to complain about losing his boy’s stuff and they ignored him. Eventually, he had to deliberately do a noisy poo and it was only then they realised that he needed changing.
Later they brought him over to Helen’s house. She took out a couple of chests full of old toys, many still in their boxes. “Now, only toys for 3 years old or less”, she told the others. Shane watched as they rummaged. Emily took out a box of Lego. “No dear, that is too grown up for Shane. Here is a box of bigger simpler blocks. Yes, this says two years plus.” Shane returned to his house with arms full of baby toys.
That night he lay in his cot staring at the two baby dresses in the otherwise empty wardrobe. His worst fears had come true. This was his future now - nappies and sissy clothes. He had nothing else to wear even if he managed to get the mittens off sometime.