The next morning, Saturday, started out in the usual way. By noon, we had finished our chores and Elaine was getting ready to go out to a matinee with friends. Willie, Winnie, and I were absolutely bored. We could neither go anywhere nor could we invite friends to the house because of our grounding.

“Alright, boys. That’s enough moping. Go outside and get some fresh air,” my dad ordered.

Our backyard was not very large so there wasn’t a whole lot we could do. (The front yard was off limits because our friends might invite themselves over, which wasn’t allowed when we were grounded.) We brought our gloves and a baseball with us and started playing catch. This turned into a game of keep-away and an inevitable wrestling match between my brothers and me.

“Boys, I want you inside now,” our mom announced, standing on the back steps.

I wondered if we had gotten too loud or if one of us had done something wrong. I looked at Willie and Winnie with questioning eyes and they both shrugged innocently. As soon as we got into the kitchen, mom started fussing with us. You know—straightening our hair and picking bits of grass off of our shirts.

“I guess you look presentable,” she finally said.

“Presentable? To who?” I asked worriedly. “We’re not wearing pants!”

“You’ll see in a minute. Don’t get upset; everything will be alright.”

I couldn’t believe that mom was being so insensitive, especially after Willie’s terrible experience just the day before.

“But, mom…”

“No, buts. Our guests are waiting.”

Mom nudged Winnie and me ahead of her and Willie, whose hand she was holding. We walked through the dining room into the living room. Dad, Terrell, and his parents were waiting for us. Everyone looked stony faced and the atmosphere seemed tense. My brothers and I were astonished that Terrell was dressed exactly like us.

“Go ahead, Terrell,” his dad said, pushing him in front of us.

Terrell looked awful—his eyes were red and swollen, his face was pale, and his legs seemed wobbly. He also had trouble finding his voice. Only a funny-sounding squeak came out the first time he tried to speak. He tried again.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” he said to the floor.

“Look at Willis when you speak to him,” his dad interrupted gruffly.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” he repeated to Willie. “It was wrong to make fun of you. Mostly, I’m sorry that we’re not friends anymore. Will you fo…,” Terrell stumbled over his words and began to cry softly. He tried again. “Will you forgive me for what I did?”

Willie had started to cry, too. (I have to admit that I also got misty-eyed.) Then, Willie did one of the most magnanimous things I had ever witnessed. He offered his hand for Terrell to shake.

“I forgive you,” he said in a steady voice. “And, I hope that we can be friends again.”

I think this took the adults completely by surprise. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then mom spoke.

“Wade. Winnie. Please go up to your rooms for a little while. We’re going to let Terrell and Willie finish patching things up in private.”

She invited Terrell’s parents to join her and dad out on the patio. Winnie followed me into my room.

“I need to be changed,” he said.

Technically, we should have asked one of our parents to do it but we rationalized that they probably didn’t want to be disturbed. I got things ready while Winnie retrieved a diaper and plastic pants from his room.

“Do you think that Willie and Terrell are going to be friends again?” he asked as I removed his wet diaper.

“It looks like it,” I answered. “I’m kind of glad. He and Terrell have been friends since before kindergarten when Terrell used to live next door.”

After Winnie was changed, I decided that I could use a fresh diaper myself.

“Can I do it?” Winnie begged. “Please let me do it. You never let me do it.”

I agreed. Winnie did a good job (except that I had to help him get the pins tight enough). He felt very proud of himself. A little while later, we heard a car start in our driveway.

“I guess Terrell and his parents are leaving,” I said.

“Yeah,” Winnie agreed. “Let’s go find out what happened.”

We went looking for Willie. He and Terrell were still in the living room.

“Hi,” I said to Terrell.

“Hi,” he answered, somewhat embarrassed.

“Terrell’s parents are letting him stay for dinner,” Willie explained.

“Great,” I answered.

There was silence, as no one seemed to know what to say next.

“Do you want to play a game?” Winnie asked.

“Like what?” Willie responded.

“I don’t know. How about Clue?”

We agreed and went into the den while Winnie ran up to get the game. I noticed that Terrell was walking funny—kind of slow. I assumed that was having trouble getting used to his thick diapers. I wanted to ask him a whole bunch of questions but I thought that that would be impolite. Winnie came back with the game and we spread it out on the floor.

“Ow!” Terrell exclaimed as he sat.

“Terrell’s dad gave him a huge spanking last night,” Willie explained.

“Yeah, I’m not going to be able to sit down for about a year, I think. In one way I’m kind of glad that my diapers are so thick,” he quipped.

We all laughed at that, including Terrell. We had time to play three games before dinner. Terrell shifted positions frequently to relieve his sore behind until he gave up and laid on his stomach. He eventually told us everything about his punishment. He confirmed that he wasn’t allowed to go to school the following week. On the positive side, he had just found out that he would come to our house so that Willie and he could do homework together. He didn’t know how long his diaper punishment would last but he did know that he was grounded for three weeks, which seemed like a light punishment since we were grounded for a month for doing something that I thought was much less serious. As far as the diapers went, his mom had marched him over to Mrs. Morrison’s directly after picking him up from school. He was relieved of his pants and underpants and diapered right then and there. He was made to carry home a basic supply of day and nighttime diapers, soakers, and plastic pants. His mom also placed an order for an additional dozen and-a-half of each.

“Gee, that sounds like a lot,” Winnie observed.

“It does,” Terrell agreed in a quavering voice.

*****

Monday represented a watershed for Willie. First of all, his chief tormentors were not in school and, second, the fact that a lot of kids had seen him in his diaper and plastic pants actually increased their sympathy for him. The last thing (which I thought might help) was my giving him permission to talk about my own lifelong bedwetting and pants wetting problems. This wasn’t a big deal that I should get a lot of credit for. Winnie had already blown my cover and I figured that lots of kids must have already known through their younger brothers and sisters. Whatever the cause, Willie came home from school in an exceptionally good mood—so good that I hesitated to bring it up.

“Aren’t you going to ask how school was today?” he asked in a slightly injured voice as I was changing his diaper.

I laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it. What happened?”

“Well, at first,” he started seriously, “everybody was looking at me but nobody was talking. Then, Melissa Davies came over and started asking me if I was OK and stuff like that. Then, other kids came over and pretty soon we were talking about all kinds of stuff. That’s when I decided to tell them that I was probably going to be wearing diapers for a long time. Everybody was polite and everything but I could tell that they wanted to know why. I said that needing diapers ran in the family,” he said sheepishly looking at me, “and that my big brother wore them his whole life and now I was wearing them, too.”

He looked at me intently, gauging my reaction to his last statement.

“It’s OK,” I smiled as I pulled up his plastic pants, “a lot of kids probably knew already.”

With this, I turned to Winnie who was also waiting to get changed. He suddenly seemed very interested with something on the floor.

“Come on, blabbermouth,” I teased, “get on the bed.”

“I am not a blabbermouth,” he started to say before catching himself. “Well, maybe once,” he admitted.

Terrell joined us a few minutes later. He, too, was interested in what had happened to Willie at school. I guess he felt guilty about everything. He seemed genuinely relieved that the other kids had accepted Willie’s condition, diapers and all. Maybe he was also hoping to get a reading on how the other kids felt about him.

“The other kids know about your diapers,” Willie said to Terrell.

“You told them?”

“Um, no,” Willie said haltingly. “They already knew.”

“They did? How?”

“Tommy Janis saw you shopping with your mom Saturday morning.”

Terrell let out a groan and covered his face with his hands.

“Oh, man. I can’t believe it,” he repeated several times.

Since Winnie and I didn’t know what he was talking about, we had to wait for him to explain.

“Remember I said that my mom took me to Mrs. Morrison’s right from school and that I was put into diapers right away?”

“Yeah,” we answered.

“Well, I haven’t been allowed to wear pants since then.”

It took a few seconds for his meaning to sink in.

“You mean that your mom took you shopping in public without your pants on?” Willie asked in disbelief.

Terrell slowly nodded his head.

“We went to Woolworth’s to buy me colored t-shirts,” he said pointing to the yellow one he was wearing. “And, today, my mom took me to her beauty parlor appointment. All morning long these ladies shook their fingers at me and told me that I deserved what I was getting,” he added with a catch in his throat.

“Gee, I’m sorry about that,” Willie sympathized. “Do you know when you get to wear pants again?”

“Not until I get back to school. I don’t think we’re going anywhere tomorrow but she always goes grocery shopping on Wednesday. But that won’t be the worst. Thursday’s sure to be awful… it’s my grandfather’s birthday and my parents have invited the whole family over for a special dinner. My cousins are going to murder me.”

I was beginning to change my mind about Terrell’s punishment. I started to think that maybe it was too severe.

*****

Tuesday was also a good day for Willie, even though he had been sure it wouldn’t be. Mom got a call from Mr. Hallin Monday night asking her and Willie to come in early the next morning. He said that Willie’s classmates who had tormented him along with Terrell wanted to apologize before coming back to school. Mom agreed but Willie didn’t want to do it.

“I don’t care if they apologize or not. Besides, they probably won’t mean it.”

“Willie, stop being silly,” Mom warned. “The polite thing is to let them apologize to you, and that’s that.”

When Willie came home from school it was obvious that mom had been right. He said that the guys had been really nice to him and that he didn’t think that they would give him any more trouble. Terrell showed up and he repeated his story.

“But,” he added, “I think that there’s still a problem.”

“Why do you think you still have a problem?” Terrell asked.

“Not a problem for me,” Willie clarified, “…a problem for you. Those guys are really mad that you got them into trouble. They want to get back at you.”

“Oh…,” Terrell said in a worried voice.

“But I won’t let it happen. I already told them that you and me have made up. If they keep talking about it, I’ll tell them that they’ll have to fight both of us.”

“You’d do that? I mean, after everything I did…”

“Let’s not talk about that any more,” Willie cut in. “Let’s finish our homework so we can have time to play before your mom picks you up.

Terrell’s experience with his mom at the grocery store Wednesday morning was as bad as he thought it would be. She showed no mercy and made him walk next to her the whole time.

“The worst part was that my mom seemed to know everybody. She must have told twenty people why I was wearing diapers and plastic pants. It took so long that, after she paid for the groceries, she asked the cashier if he would watch her cart while she took me to the ladies room to change my diapers.”

“Do you think it would help if I asked your mom to go easy on you?” Willie inquired.

Terrell brightened for a moment and then became somber again.

“Thanks, but I don’t think so. It would make things worse if she thought that I’d been complaining.”

Thursday afternoon, Terrell showed up at our house on his bicycle. He lived about a mile away and the drive was mostly through residential neighborhoods, but still…

“My mom is too busy preparing for my grandfather’s birthday party. She says I have to be home by five o’clock, so we’d better start doing homework right away.”

After he had left, I commented to Willie that Terrell didn’t seem upset about having to ride his bike wearing just his diapers and plastic pants.

“Maybe it doesn’t seem as bad as going to the supermarket and having to stand there while your mom explains why you’re wearing diapers. At least on a bicycle you can move pretty fast and hope that not too many people see you.”

“I guess so,” I agreed hesitantly, “but you’ve got to stop for the traffic when you cross Carver Boulevard,” I pointed out.

“I forgot about that,” Willie said with a shiver.

When Terrell again showed up again riding his bicycle on Friday, he looked almost as bad as he had when he came over to apologize to Willie. Something new must have happened.

“Willie and Winnie aren’t here yet,” I explained. “I don’t know why they’re late.”

No sooner had I said this than they came running up the driveway.

“The bus broke down and they had to send another one,” Willie explained breathlessly. “I’m really sorry about what happened at school today.”

Tears immediately came to Terrell’s eyes. I wondered why he had been in school when his suspension was supposed to last all week.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know exactly, except that Terrell’s mom and he walked right through the middle of the playground during recess this afternoon,” Willie answered.

Terrell was wiping his eyes and trying to hide his crying from us. I thought that it would be better if we left Willie and him alone.

“Come on, Winnie,” I said. “I bet you need a diaper change.”

Winnie looked like he wanted to contradict me, so I grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him upstairs.

“I wanted to hear what happened,” he pouted.

“I know, so did I,” I explained, “but Terrell is really upset. It’ll be less embarrassing for him to talk to Willie alone.”

We changed each other and I was about to go downstairs to start washing the day’s diapers when Terrell and Willie showed up.

“Can you change us?” Willie asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I agreed.

This would be the first time that Terrell got his diaper changed at our house. When I was done, he and Winnie went downstairs while I changed Willie.

“Well,” I asked, “why did his mom bring him to school?”

“I still don’t know,” Willie answered in a very concerned voice. “He didn’t stop crying until he asked to come upstairs to get his diaper changed.”

We went back downstairs. Terrell was ready to unburden himself.

“My mom got a call from Mr. Hallin saying that some papers needed to be signed before I could go back to school. He told her that she could come in early Monday morning to take care of it. She and my grandmother already had plans to meet for breakfast so she asked if she could sign them today. Mr. Hallin said that it didn’t matter when she signed them, just as long as they got signed before I went back. We got in the car and drove over.”

He paused to catch his breath.

“We got there just around 1:00. I figured that everyone was in class and that it wouldn’t take too much time. But, we had to wait because Mr. Hallin wasn’t in his office. We waited forever; I was really embarrassed just sitting there. He finally arrived at 1:30 just as the little kids’ recess started. We went to his office and he gave my mom the papers. She signed them. I thought we would leave right away but my mom started telling Mr. Hallin everything about my punishment. She kept going on an on and then I heard the bell for the end of the little kids’ recess. I knew that our recess would start in fifteen minutes. I was getting more and more nervous and then… and then I couldn’t hold it any more and I really soaked my diaper.”

He paused again to collect himself.

“We got up to leave and my mom saw how wet I was. She asked Mr. Hallin if she could take me to the nurse’s office. Mrs. Kellen let my mom use one of the beds in the infirmary. My mom was just pulling on my plastic pants when our recess bell rang. I begged her not to leave right away…”

He started to cry and I offered to get us something to drink. When I came back Terrell had calmed down. He accepted a soda and continued.

“She said that I would get as big a break as I had given you, Willie. She put my wet diaper and the other stuff into the diaper bag and handed it to me. I tried to slow her down event though I knew it wouldn’t do any good—there were at least ten minutes of recess left. Just before we went out the door she stopped and lectured me again. She said that this was for my own good—that I needed to learn exactly what it had felt like when I left you in the hallway in your diapers. She grabbed my hand and… well, you know the rest.”

He sipped his soda and looked down at the floor.

“I guess my mom was right. Walking through the playground with everybody looking at me in my diapers was a lot worse than I thought it would be… I’m really sorry I did that to you, Willie.”

“You already said that last Saturday,” Willie said off-handedly. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be OK. You’ll see.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so,” Willie asserted with firmness.

The way he said it made me wonder how he could be so sure.

*****

That same day Mom and dad gave the three of us a pleasant surprise. We would be allowed to have guests over after school on Fridays and on weekends for the remaining two weeks of our grounding (six weeks for Winnie).

“This means one friend each,” mom explained, “and only when we’re home. Understood?”

“Yes!” we agreed excitedly.

“And one other thing,” she added. “This was never part of our rules (meaning hers and dad’s) but since you made it part of your routine we’ll keep it. What I mean is, when you’re in the house you won’t wear pants. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of when you need to be changed.”

“But I want to invite Peter over,” I whined.

“Well, go ahead,” she said. “You have our permission.”

“Yeah,” Willie said teasingly, “I’m going to ask Terrell. Why can’t you invite Peter? He’s your best friend.”

“Yeah,” Winnie added, “don’t be such a stick in the mud. I’m inviting Wayne. Why are you being such a baby about it?”

I didn’t want to discuss it. I went up to my room in a really bad mood. My stupid brothers! Once again, this was their fault. I heard Winnie and Willie on the phone inviting their friends. This just made me angrier. I would have to stay holed up in my room all afternoon tomorrow. Eventually, I got bored and went downstairs to watch TV but I was still itching for a fight. I wasn’t at all expecting what I got.

“”We’re sorry if we got you mad,” Winnie said.

“Uh, that’s OK,” I answered suspiciously.

“No, really,” Willie added. “We didn’t mean it. We just think that you should invite Peter over. He’s your friend isn’t he?”

The sounded sincere so I didn’t snap back at them.

“I just can’t. It’s bad enough that Peter and the other guys see my diapers when I change for PE. I just can’t do it.”

The next afternoon when my brothers had their friends over I stayed in my room and sulked. I suppose I was feeling sorry for myself, but I couldn’t help it.

*****

The following Monday when talking to Peter I let it slip that my parents had granted us limited visiting rights for the remainder of our grounding.

“When can you start having guests?” he asked.

“Actually, it started last Saturday,” I answered.

“And you didn’t invite me?” he asked in a semi-serious tone.

“Well, you see,” I answered turning red, “we’re not allowed to wear pants over our diapers and I...”

I couldn’t think of how to finish my thought.

“And you think that I’ll be mean to you?” he said in a hurt one.

“No,” I lied. “I thought it would be too boring.”

“Well,” he continued, “I don’t think it would. When is the next time you can invite someone over?”

“After school on Friday,” I answered.

“Good. Then I can come over, right?”

I was cornered… I couldn’t think of a way to stop him. I was pretty sure that he was telling the truth when he said that he wouldn’t laugh at me in my diapers and plastic pants. But would that be true if he witnessed me getting changed?

*****

Terrell was given a hard time when he returned to school. Just as Willie had predicted, the trouble came from Terrell’s so-called friends.

“What happened?” I asked. “Did they physically attack him, too?”

“No.” Willie answered. “They know that they’ll be in big trouble if they do that again. They’re just being real jerks and they’re being real tricky about it.”

“How?” Winnie asked.

‘Well, they say all kinds of things to make him mad—but only when teachers weren’t around to hear it.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“You know… talking to him like he really was a baby or asking him if he needed his diapers changed.”

“That’s not so bad,” I said. “They’ll get sick of that in a couple of days.”

“I know,” Willie answered in a worried tone. “It’s just that… I don’t know… I don’t think that he can keep his temper down for that long.”

“Oh,” Winnie and I answered in unison.

I had to agree with Willie. Terrell was famous for his short fuse. Willie had told us a lot of stories about Terrell and how he had gotten into fights over really small things. Getting involved in a fight right after coming back from a one-week suspension seemed like a surefire way to be thrown out of school for good.

“Can’t you talk to him?” Winnie wondered.

“It’s impossible to talk to him when he’s mad like he is now,” Willie answered. (I struck how similar he and Terrell were in this regard.) After a short pause, he added, “I’ve got to think of a way to stop those guys.”

I wished him luck even though I couldn’t think of anything that might help.