Chapter 3
Nanny gave one of her sweet smiles and took Doug by the hand. “Take off your trousers, sit down on here” she said, leading him to Charlotte’s play mat. “I am Charlotte’s nanny not yours, so you are just extra work. If you want to behave like a baby then you will be treated like one, so you can sit in your wet pants and learn what it feels like to be a baby again. I know this is going to very difficult for you but you will thank us all in the long term, when you can keep yourself under control and not dribble and soil your underwear. However, I am not going to tolerate any outbursts, so you will have to be punished for your rudeness. Now, you will have to stew in your mess until you next need to go to the toilet when we can repeat the exercise all over again.”
“But that could be a long time” whined Doug “I might get a rash”.
“I don’t think so” said Nanny “but to speed up events why don’t you have a drink of juice. Here take this drink that Charlotte didn’t want because it wasn’t in her baby bottle.” Doug looked at the large sippy cup warily but decided not to make a fuss. The ‘Nuby’ cup fizzed and hissed as he greedily suc-ked on the soft silicon spout (half way between a teat and a plastic drinking spout) and the air fought its way back into the vacuum created by his drinking. The twins looked at him open mouthed as Doug looked even more babyish sitting in his wet training pants on a colourful plastic play mat suc-king on a baby beaker which he held by the two large handles. Nanny could not suppress a grin and had to look away before a small chuckle could escape her. She took her mind off things by snuggling her nose into Charlotte’s tummy and blowing a raspberry.
Doug had annoyed her from the very first day that she had arrived. He moaned and moaned about losing his bedroom that had an en suite bathroom. He went on incessantly about how small and dingy his new room was. The walls were pink, his posters would not fit, he had nowhere to put his computer and on and on he went. Eventually Nanny managed to settle in to her new room and arranged Charlotte’s cot and clothing so that the two of them could coexist comfortably in Doug’s old room.
It was true that Doug was in the second division compared to Kate’s family; it was only natural that a mother should favour her own children over that of her partner. The twins naturally doted over their new sister and tended to leave Doug alone. So it was that Doug became more and more isolated as Charlotte took over the family focus. Nanny with the baby, Nanny having planning meetings with his stepmother, and the twins drifting between them all.
Nappies, plastic pants, bibs and baby wear were all over the house. The family bathroom was full of girly stuff, he barely had any room for his toothbrush. Slowly but surely he was feeling ostracised and isolated from what used to be his family home. How he missed his mother and how he resented her new lover now husband who wanted nothing to do with him any more.
So it was decided that he would begin a programme of mischief. He knocked over the carefully folded stack of nappies in the nursery (his old room he reminded himself) and ruffled them up. He took the jar of dummies and hid them under Nanny’s bed, he smeared nappy cream over Nanny’s mirror and shook baby powder all over her jewellery case. Silly, aggravating, pointless acts that thoroughly irritated Nanny.
Around about this time, he started to take less care with his hygiene and even he had to admit that his underwear was starting to take some damage. However, and more worrying, was that all this tension in his life was starting to impact on his sleep. One night he woke up just as he was about to wet his bed. It was enough to leave a patch on his pyjama trousers. He decided that to be on the safe side he would wear underpants under his jammies ‘just in case’ and that is why the staining in these garments was intensified.
Doug had been watching a programme created for young children and was watching with Charlotte because there was nothing else to do. He had been told not to move and was following instructions until his bladder started to send urgent messages. What should he do? Go and find Nanny, make a run for the toilet, shout for help? He decided to call out.
Nanny appeared much to his relief, her hands full with a basket of freshly laundered nappies that she was taking outside to hang on the line. “I’m just going to hang out Charlotte’s nappies, then I will come straight back and attend to you” she said, secretly pleased to see the boy in huge discomfort. Doug looked distraught at this news as he was very close to reaching the end of his bladder’s tether. However, there was worse to come and his previously quiet rear end was now starting to protest very loudly. A break of wind trumpeted an intense desire to release. He rose to his knees in an attempt to prevent a disaster. He looked through the French windows as Nanny completed hanging the tenth nappy, the basket was still half full and there were still the plastic pants to hang after the terries.
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Topic: The Trouble with Dribbles (Read 945 times)
