They brought Brian downstairs. He flopped down in the sofa and crossed his arms in front of his chest in disgust. His mother came over with a large baby bottle full of milk. She had to be joking, he thought. “Now, Sarah’s baby dolly was very lifelike and you could feed her from a bottle, so you’re going to have to let Sarah feed you just the same way.”
Brian sighed heavily. Sarah took the bottle eagerly from her mother, climbed up beside him on the sofa and reached for the soother to remove it from Brian’s mouth. Not wanting to have to drink from the bottle, he clamped his mouth on the soother. “It’s OK”, Sarah said, “baby can have his dummy back once he’s had his bottle”.
His mother laughed. Brian allowed Sarah to remove his soother and accepted the bottle. It took a few moments, and required a little encouragement from Sarah, before he actually started suc-king but eventually he was working his way through the bottle with a very glum look on his face.
Sarah’s friends arrived in time to see Brian finish his bottle. They all wanted to have a go at feeding him. He was so relieved when he finally slurped the last of the milk.
Then his mother came in with a plastic bowl and spoon. Brian cringed yet again when he realised that the girls were going to get to spoon-feed him. Sarah took the bowl excitedly. “Just a moment!” her mother interjected and tied a bib around his neck. “I know how upset he’ll be if he gets his pretty pink dress dirty.” The girls all laughed as if this was the funniest thing ever.
While he was being spoon-fed, his mother went out the front door. She returned after a few minutes carrying a play-pen which she set up in the middle of the room. When Brian’s feed was over she told him to get in the play-pen. “Please, Mum!” he begged. “Now, now. Babies don’t talk”, she scolded him and pushed the soother back into his mouth. “One more word from you and you’ll stay as a baby for a second day.”
Brian gave her a seriously wounded look and he plodded over to the play-pen. He sat down in the pen and she clicked the side shut. “By the way”, his mother continued, “Sarah’s baby doll had one other feature that you’ll have to imitate”. He looked up at her from the pen wondering what she meant. “She actually wet her nappy.”
Brian sat there stunned. The girls jumped up and down with glee. Surely his mother was joking, teasing him. “Brian’s going to wet his nappy!” Sarah chanted.
It wasn’t long before the full bottle of milk started taking effect. Brian sat in the play-pen shifting uneasily in his nappy praying that his mother was not serious. The girls made him play with lots of different baby toys that were recovered from the attic. They sorted through the toys rejecting anything that said “three years or over” as “too complicated for our baby.”
The pressure grew on Brian’s bladder. He reckoned he could hold out no longer. His mother passed through the room and he started grunting through his dummy to get her attention.
“What’s wrong with our pretty baby?” she asked. Brian winced. He pointed his mittened hand at his nappy. “Oh, have we a wet nappy dear?” his mother asked. The girls all surrounded the play-pen in anticipation. Brian shook his head and gave what he thought must be his most endearingly pleading look that said “OK, a joke is a joke, now please let me out of this nappy.” “Well, just let the girls know when you are wet and we’ll get you changed quickly”, she said casually and walked out of the room.
But Brian decided that there was no way he was going to be forced to wet a nappy. Enough was enough! He was going to take this baby stuff off and hang the consequences.
He tugged at the pink mittens on his hands. They wouldn’t come off easily. He examined them more closely and saw that they were buckled firmly at the wrist. They made his fingers useless and he realised that he could only be freed by someone else and the chances of any of the girls obliging were zilch.
He realised that he was stuck. He was going to have to wet himself. He held out as long as he could. The girls surrounded the play-pen and kept him occupied with the toys. He was playing with a toy that made animal sounds. Even with his mittens on he could press the picture of a cow and it would go “Moo”.
The girls noticed him pause for a moment. He was clearly distracted. “Baby’s wetting his nappy!” Sarah shouted with glee. “Mum, mum, come quick. Baby is wetting his nappy!”
Brian cringed as the warm pee spread around his nappy. He hung his head in abject embarrassment and the girls jumped with glee. His mother came in wiping her hands on a towel and was in no doubt from Brian’s demeanour that he had indeed wet his nappy in front of the girls.
Eventually Brian looked up. “Are we all done?” his mother asked to titters from the girls. Brian thought about it – he wasn’t really. He wondered if the nappy could take it all. His mother concluded from his lack of response that he had more to do. “I’ll come back in five minutes”, she said, “he should be all done by then.”
Brian peed again and it continued for a full minute. When he was done he tried to move a little. He froze as he felt excess urine swish about inside the plastic pants. The cloth nappy had not been able to take it all.
When his mother returned she opened the side of the play-pen and told him to stand. He very carefully rolled onto his knees, certain that the plastic pants couldn’t hold it all in. Then he gingerly got to his feet.
“Let’s see now”, his mother said and unceremoniously pulled down his frilly panties. Brian instinctively pressed his knees together in reaction to this sudden exposure and pushed his skirts down. But it was all in vain. His mother and the girls could see his nappy clearly. “My goodness, that was a big one”, his mother said.
Brian himself could not see below his enormous skirts and could only watch the delighted faces of the girls as they examined his soggy nappy. Eventually his mother pulled up his frilly panties again and he was actually relieved to have them restored.