Joe was woken by voices in the morning. His hopes of rescue rose. But to be found like this! Dressed as a baby girl and now in a soiled and soggy nappy. Still, it was better than the alternative.
Two men appeared at the back of the lorry. He desperately tried to move his head around and blinked repeatedly, hoping they would see the minimal movement he could make strapped in his doll box.
The men started to close the doors over and Joe’s future as a baby doll in Africa seemed to be becoming reality. But then they stopped. “What is that smell?” They opened the doors again. Was Joe’s mortifying pooey nappy going to be his saviour?
“It smells like some animal got in last night and shat in there!” The men began to search the lorry. “MMMMMM!” His muffled attempt was enough to be heard. The men were startled to hear that coming from a doll box. “Well how did you get in there?” The men looked up and down at what appeared to be a live teenager dressed as a baby and sealed into the box. “I think we’d better take a look at the security cameras.”
Joe was tipped onto a trolly and wheeled to the factory office. One man reviewed the security tapes while the other tried to figure out what tool was needed to spring Joe from his plastic box. Eventually they were able to cut around enough of the box so they could snip his tie-wraps and finally free him.
In the meantime, they had seen on the cameras a figure emerge from the toilets and wander around the factory until they went to the end of the production line and triggered the whole process off.
One of them approached him with a bottle of a solution to counteract the glue. Joe didn’t think that they had yet realised that he was a boy. When the soother was freed, one of the men said “time to call the police I think.” “No please don’t”, Joe blurted and the men were taken aback. “A boy!” They looked up and down again at his frilly pink dress, matching knickers, tights, bonnet and other lacey accessories. Joe squirmed.
“You’d better tell us who you are and where you live.” Joe obliged. “We’d better get your mum to come and change your nappy hadn’t we?” They laughed. What was his mum going to say? She would go ballistic.
Joe asked if they could remove the mittens and hoped he could then remove the other mortifying clothes. “I don’t think so. You can stay like that until your mother gets here.”
Just before she arrived, the lady manager of the factory appeared and was appraised of the situation.
They had explained his predicament to his mother but when she arrived she was still taken aback at his appearance as a five-foot tall baby girl. “Let’s get you out of that, where are your clothes?” They pointed to the shreds of clothes on the factory floor. “Looks like you are going home in your pretty baby dress then.” Joe felt sick. “You’ll need to change his nappy though”, the manager said. “You can see there is a pile of clean nappies and plastic pants there. There is a baby changing room at the back which should have all you need. I sometimes bring my little one to work with me.”
Joe was marched off to the baby changing room, feeling the sticky poo shifting in his nappy. When he returned in his nice clean nappy the manager said “My name is Lawson. We should really report this to the police”. “Please let me deal with him”, his mother begged. “Well, how are you going to punish him?” His mother considered this, looked him up and down. “He does look cute, doesn’t he? How about a summer in his baby dress and nappy. That should keep him out of mischief.” Joe squirmed. Surely she was joking!
Mrs Lawson smirked and Joe could see she had an idea. “He can’t wear the one baby dress all summer, can he? Let us make you a couple more.” Joe was aghast. “No please mum!” His mother picked up the soother and pushed it back into his mouth. “I think you’d best keep quiet, if you don’t want to pay a visit to the police station.”
The manager went over to a shelf and took down a packet. “Here, you’ll probably need these.” It was a pack of six more big soothers of various colours. “Thanks”, his mother received them gratefully, “those will definitely come in useful!”