The rest of the school day went by pretty normally. When Michael got home, he was anxious to return to his room and slip into a fresh pull-up before his mother would notice anything strange. He approached the door and knocked carefully, prepared to make a mad dash before his mother could suspect anything. It would be very awkward to run past his mother, but he figured it was better than the alternative of her figuring out he was no longer wearing his pull-up. This would be so much easier if she just let me have a key, He thought glumly as he waited.
A few seconds later the door began to open. Melissa stood in the entrance with her arms extended, prepared to give her precious little boy a hug. âHello sweetie! How was --â
âHi mom, gotta run real quick!â Michael cut her off, running full speed towards the stairs and ignoring her open armed gesture. However, he was quickly caught off guard when he noticed something new blocking his path. At the bottom of the stairs sat a brand new child safety gate, which went up about half the length of Michaelâs body. He hesitated for a second before shrugging it off and attempting to climb over it, but it stalled him for just enough time that Melissa easily caught up to him and placed her arms around his chest, lifting him up and bringing him back down to her level.
âWhat the devil are you doing, Michael? Youâre going to hurt yourself!â She tactfully scolded him. Melissa could not stay angry with him long, however, and soon she was ruffling his hair with a playful smile. âSee, baby? This is exactly why I had this new safety gate installed. You canât just run up and down the stairs like that all willy-nilly, or one of these days youâre going to fall and break something. Besides, donât you know itâs rude not to properly greet your mommy?â
Her grip on Michael was borderline suffocating. Because he was much shorter than her, he could only stand there and wince while her large breasts rubbed and pressed up against his face. Melissa, however, seemed oblivious to this, and continued holding on to him like she hadnât seen him in months.
âSorry Mommy . . . I was just in a bit of a hurry, thatâs all.â Michael tried to explain.
âAw, well I donât see why you canât take a few moments to let your mommy see her little sugarplum after his long day of school. You know how much I miss you every day.â
Melissa bent down and gave Michael a long wet kiss on the forehead. When she pulled away, Michael started blushing. This distracted him for long enough that he hardly even noticed when Melissa went to stick one of her fingers down the front of his pants.
âWhatâs this?!â Melissa gasped suddenly. She quickly undid Michaelâs pants and dropped them to the floor, revealing the pair of underwear he had received from the nurseâs office. âHoney, what happened to your pull-ups? You know youâre not supposed to take them off without mommyâs permission. Did something happen today that youâre not telling me?â
The color immediately drained from Michaelâs face. As much as he wanted to avoid this exact situation, his worst fears were now playing out before his eyes. He tilted his head downward and shuffled from foot to foot in shame.
âYouâre right mommyâ, He mewed. âMy teacher wouldnât give me a hall pass when I needed to go to the bathroom. I tried to hold it, I really did . . . but . . . but . . . â
âOh no, darling! You wet yourself didnât you?â, Melissa interjected. Michael looked away and nodded his head shamefully.
âIâm so sorry honey, that had to be so embarrassing for you. Still, you do realize this just proves that you need to be wearing your protection, right? What would happen if you wet yourself again right now? Itâd just be a huge mess for mommy to clean up, and we certainly canât have that,â Melissa sighed. âI guess I canât be too mad at you. Itâs hard for a little one like you to control themselves after all, and as your Mommy, I definitely should have seen this coming. From now on, I guess Iâll have to send you to school with more pull-ups just in case.â This âsolutionâ to todayâs problems just made Michael even more upset.
âMommy, no! You canât do that!â he spat out defensively. âItâs already bad enough that you make me wear them, but you canât send me to school with extra pull-ups. What if one of my bullies opens up my backpack and sees them? My life would be over! People already treat me like some kind of little kid. If anyone saw those, Iâd be the laughing stock of the entire school! Please, just let me have my normal underwear back. This will never happen again, I promise!â
âOh stop whining!â Melissa responded dismissively. âItâs really not that big of a deal. Lots of children your age have issues with making it to the bathroom. If it really bothers you that much, Iâll just give a couple to the school nurse and you can go change there if you ever have another accident. In the meantime, I really donât think that you should be walking around without your protection, especially given what happened today.â
Michael clenched his fists and looked down at the floor in anger. He wanted to argue with her, but he had no idea what he could say to change her mind. In her eyes, his accident at school had proved her right about his pull-ups all along; never mind the fact that if he wasnât so embarrassed to use the bathroom he wouldnât have wet himself in the first place.
âNowâ, Melissa continued, âare you going to be a good little boy and let mommy put your training pants back on, or is Mommy going to have to punish you for being difficult? Either way, youâre going to end up wearing them, so I advise you to choose wisely.â
âFine . . . whatever. Iâll wear them I guess.â
âYes, you will,â Melissa replied sternly as she walked over to the child safety gate and began to unfasten it. âAnd youâre going to do so with a better attitude as well. I know today must have been difficult, but thatâs no excuse to be upset with your Mommy. You need to learn that Mommy knows best and that things will go much smoother if you just trust me. Now come along honey, letâs get that cute little bottom of yours into a fresh pull-up.â
Melissa grabbed hold of Michaelâs hand and began dragging him up the stairs, where he followed meekly and defeatedly behind her, until they eventually reached his bedroom. Almost immediately after being dragged inside, Michael found himself standing in front of Melissa and being ordered to remove his pants and underwear. Michael reluctantly followed her commands. Now naked except for his shirt, he was taken through the familiar (and not to mention humiliating) ritual of stepping into a new brightly colored pull-up, which Melissa cheerfully held out for him, and then having her slide it up his legs while humming a catchy little tune to herself.
For some reason, pretty much as soon as Michael felt the pull-up slide into place, Melissaâs mood seemed to improve ten-fold. Her neutral, businesslike expression slowly gave way to a warm, comforting grin. She wrapped Michael in for a big, motherly hug, and with her free hand she tenderly patted the seat of his pull up.
âThere baby, now you can stay nice and dry if you have another accidentâ, she cooed in an infantilizing voice, which made Michael feel even more uncomfortable. He was then briefly relieved when he saw Melissa pick up the pair of sweatpants off the ground, expecting her to put them back on him, but quickly became confused when she instead folded them up and threw them in his hamper.
âGiven your protests a moment ago, I donât think you should wear any pants for the rest of the day, at least until I can trust that you wonât try to take off your pull-up,â Melissa explained, which just about made Michael want to die of embarrassment. He would spend the rest of the night in a self-conscious state of vulnerability. Melissa would not admit this to him directly, but she thought it was absolutely adorable to watch him scamper around in just a shirt and a pull-up, meekly looking down at himself whenever he thought nobody was looking, only to grow red-faced and somehow even more coy when he finally noticed Melissa gazing at him with a swooning expression from afar. Even though he had been wearing a pull-up for weeks now, the mere act of having to look at it constantly made him feel even more babyish than usual. Sure, it was not the first time Melissa had forbidden pants, but it was the first time that she made him truly feel he had earned this emasculating status. It was especially embarrassing during that nightâs cuddle time, when Melissa just couldnât stop herself from filling up one of his sippy-cups with milk and demanding she be the one to hold it, looking down at him like he truly was the helpless toddler she was surely turning him into as they cuddled on the couch. Of course, her excuse to Michael was that she simply needed to make sure he was getting his share of calcium. However, Michael was not stupid. He could see the writing on the walls. When he was finally sent to bed that night at 7pm sharp, it was with a great deal of uncertainty about what lay ahead in his future.
Melissa, by contrast, was more certain about the future than ever. She didnât know why, but the more childishly she treated Michael, the more ârightâ her relationship with her son felt. The thought of Michael growing up and leaving always scared her, but now she was beginning to feel like that prospect was moving further and further away. Her child would always be dependent on her, she was sure of it now, and as much as she knew it went against all conventional wisdom on parenting, the fact that she would never let him grow up brought her a genuine sense of comfort and joy. The direction Dr. Thurman was leading him in was having incredible results, and if she knew only one thing at this time, it was that she needed more.
Then suddenly, as she sat alone at the dining room table pondering Michaelâs transformation, Melissaâs phone began to ring. The shrill noise of her ringtone quickly brought her crashing back to the real world. She was still halfway in a trance when she finally managed to find her phone and answer it.
âHi Ms. Harperâ, came a cheery female voice on the other side of the line. âThis is Lauren. You know, from across the street?â
âOh hello, Lauren!â Melissa happily greeted her. âOf course I know who you are, dear, Michael talks about you all the time. Heâs in bed right now, so he canât come to the phone, but if youâd like I can take a message for him.â
âThank you, but Iâm actually not calling for Michaelâ Lauren responded.
âBelieve it or not, I was hoping I could talk to you about something that happened at school today. Michael told me some . . . interesting things . . . I guess you could say, and I just had some questions because Iâm a bit worried for him.â
Melissaâs eyes lit up. âIs everything alright? What exactly happened that made you so worried?â
Lauren proceeded to give Melissa a long-winded explanation of the day's events, from the moment she discovered Michael had wet his pants, to her shock at hearing him ask to sit on her lap, right down to their eventual trip to the nurseâs office. As Melissa listened, she patiently nodded along, but was secretly filled with delight at just how wonderfully things seemed to be working.
âThanks for telling me all of this, dear,â she told Lauren after listening to her whole story. âIâm sure after the strangeness of todayâs events, you probably have a few questions about Michaelâs sudden change in behaviour.â
âWell yeah, actually,â Lauren admitted. âWhatâs the deal with this new therapy you have him on? Iâm not judging, mind you, itâs sort of the opposite really. It seems to work wonders. He went from sobbing uncontrollably to being totally docile in my arms after, like, only five minutes. Whatever youâre doing, I agree with it wholeheartedly. Even if it is a bit weird.â
Melissa chuckled. âI guess it is a bit weird, isnât it? I certainly thought that at first, but after a few weeks of Michaelâs therapy, Iâve been entirely convinced by its results. If thereâs any questions you have about it, Iâd be more than happy to answer them.â
Lauren did indeed have questions for Melissa. Many of them, in fact. The conversation went on into the deep of the night, with Melissa explaining every aspect of Michaelâs therapy in full detail. Every bit of information Melissa revealed to Lauren, Lauren wholeheartedly approved. The more the two women talked, the more they began to understand each other as if they had known each other all their lives. Without even knowing it, Michael had just gained a powerful new entity in the conspiracy to re-shape his entire being, and it was all happening right underneath his nose as he lay in bed, sound asleep and none the wiser.