They drove up to the security checkpoint at Napidale at around 9.30 p.m. The manager was there along with the security guard who checked everyone who came in and out. The place was more-or-less a huge, secure housing complex. It was still newly built and looked great, even in the dark. The boys were excited.

"Annette?" the manager, Robert, asked.

"Yeah, hi," Annette said as she got out and shook hands.

"Are these your boys in the back?" Robert came closer to see Josh and Jared, and they stared right back, noticing right away the bulge in his pants which announced that he, too, was wearing a diaper! The boys grinned at him.

Annette indicated her oldest son. "That's Joshua, 'call me Josh', and that's Jared," she said, indicating her youngest son.

"Hey, boys, please to meet you," Robert said.

"Hi," they chorused back.

Just then, Warren drove up in the van.

"This is your..."

"Friend," Annette supplied. "And the father of my boys. He won't be staying here with us."

Warren got out and came over. It was obvious that he wasn't wearing a diaper. "Hi. Warren."

"Robert."

Robert motioned the security guard over. "This is Paul. He'll need to check you."

Annette had been told that Napidale was *only* for people who wore diapers; no exceptions. They didn't want reporters or weirdos getting in. And Robert had told her on the phone that everyone was checked as they came in. They were checked the first time, and then randomly for a while. If they were found without diapers their money was refunded and they were asked to leave.

Paul pulled on surgical gloves and came over. His diaper bulged out of his light blue uniform pants quite obviously. Annette just lifted her skirt enough on the side to allow him to see the diaper. Paul prodded it. "Okay."

Annette turned to her children. "Boys, get out and come here so Paul can check you."

Josh and Jared scrambled out, glad to be out of the cramped car. They both had baggy shorts on. Jared pulled his right down instantly. "I'm wet," he told Paul. "Wanna feel?"

Paul just smiled. "No." He turned to Josh.

"I'm wet, too," Josh said, not sounding happy, but he didn't sound unhappy either. Paul pulled down the pants just enough to see the diaper.

"So you are. All done," he announced to Robert.

Robert produced the sale agreement (pre-read and checked by Warren weeks back) for Annette's signature, and the sign-in sheet for Warren. Each signed in the appropriate place and then Robert said, "Right, let's get you settled!" He handed the keys to Annette. "It's number 7, Pine Row. That's the third street along. Take your time unpacking tonight, and tomorrow I'll be by at 9 a.m. to fill you in on what you still need to know."

"Great. Thank you," said Annette.

Warren shook the man's hand and got back into the moving van as Annette piled the boys back into her car. They turned in at the third street and found number 7 quite easily.

Warren got out of the van and helped Annette unpack the smaller things, including their sleeping bags. He'd be back the next day with Dan to unpack the van and get all the furniture into the house.

By the time it was 11 p.m. they were all tired and in need of a change and some sleep. Warren kissed Annette goodbye and hugged his boys. "See ya tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, Daddy," Jared answered.

The boys could now look around the house properly. There was a huge lounge area, kitchen and dining room, as promised, a large bathroom (without a toilet, as promised), a huge master bedroom ("I'll be able to set up a desk in here and do my work here instead of always cluttering up the dining room," Annette enthused), a Changing Room (complete with low changing table and shelves for diapers and supplies) and two smaller bedrooms ("You can each have your own room," Annette said). The boys and their mother loved it.

"You need a change?" Annette asked, looking for the huge box in which they had packed the diapers.

"Yeah," Josh said.

"I'm wet *and* I did a number 2," Jared answered.

"Okay, lemme just get some diapers out." Annette quickly packed the remaining diapers onto one of the shelves and put the powder and other supplies on another. "Right," she said, unfolding a diaper onto the changing table, "who wants to be first?"

"Me!" Josh exclaimed, lying down. His mother just smiled as she untaped the diaper, put it in the built-in stainless steel diaper receptacle, and cleaned him up. "Here's your clean diaper." Annette quickly taped it on. "There you go."

Then it was Jared's turn as Josh went out to explore the house a bit more.

The mother and sons decided to sleep in the living room. They spread out their sleeping bags and were soon in dreamland. The next morning Josh woke up feeling a bit uncomfortable. He squirmed, realising that his diaper was wet. But when he'd fallen asleep it had been dry... He'd wet in the night! Josh felt ambivalent about it, but he figured it didn't matter either way as he'd never be using a toilet while he lived here.

Annette felt the squirming next to her and stirred. "Josh?"

"Ah huh."

"What is it, honey?"

"Nothing, I just peed during the night."

"Oh. Want me to change you?"

"No, it wasn't a lot. I'll need to go soon, you can change me after that."

"All right, honey. What time is it?"

Josh looked at his watch, which he hadn't taken off the night before. "It's just after eight."

Annette sat bolt upright. "Heck, better get changed then!"

She opened a box that was labeled, in six year-old handwriting, 'Mommy Cloths.' Jared hadn't gotten the hang of spelling 'clothes' yet obviously.

Josh lay there for a bit longer, enjoying being able to laze around on a Monday. His bladder felt a bit full... Before he could even really think about it, he was peeing his diaper. The warm pee was absorbed by the diaper and left only a warm sensation as Josh sat up, taking care not to jostle his brother, who was still sleeping, looking cute.

"Mommy?" Josh called as he went into the Changing Room, "could you change me?"

His mother had just finished taping on her own diaper, and realised that she had never had to worry about the children coming in unannounced before: they had always had strict instructions to stay out of the Changing Room in the old house. "All right, honey."

Josh hopped onto the changing table and his mother pulled away the soaked diaper.

"Joshua, I think we need a rule here."

"What, Mommy?"

"You must always knock before entering if I'm in here."

"But we all wear diapers," Josh said confusedly.

"I know. But I'm a girl and I like my privacy, understand?" She was being gentle as she cleaned and powdered him, and taped on a fresh diaper.

Josh nodded. 'Privacy' was a word he understood. It was the same word that Mommy had used when telling him and his brother to stay out of her bedroom on the nights that Warren stayed over.

"Good. Now go and wake your brother. You two can look at the back yard."

"Cool!"

Jared was awake as Josh came into the living room. "That was fun, kinda like camping," the younger brother said.

"I s'pose," Josh agreed. "Mom said we can go out back and see what's there."

They went out back. The yard wasn't particularly big, but it wasn't tiny either. There was enough space for a sand pile like they'd had at their old house, and there was a washing line as well, plus enough grass to play some ball games if they wanted to.

"Boys!" came their mother's shout from the house. "Come in and put on some clean clothes. Robert is coming over soon! Jar, I need to change you."

The boys went inside, and Annette changed Jared. "I peed while I was sleeping," Jared announced.

"You're getting good at that," his mother answered.

"Yeah," her son smiled. "I hardly even have to think about it when I'm awake, neither."

"Either," Annette corrected.

"Either," Jared parroted.

Just as Annette was washing her hands, the doorbell rang. It was Robert.

"Hullo," he said.

"Come on in," Annette replied. "I'd say have a seat if we had any furniture."

"Oh, don't worry," Robert responded. "I thought I'd take you three to breakfast at the community center. They serve breakfast there while school is out. Makes it easier for families to spend time together that way."

Annette shrugged, looking at her sons. "Sounds fine."

Robert pointed out various places on the way. The laundry, he said, had a washer and drier for each family, and a two-stall toilet at the back, for guests. There were also two superstores in the community, franchised by people from Napidale. "And there's the school," he pointed out as they drove past. "Looking forward to it?" he asked the boys.

"NO!" they both said forcefully, making the adults laugh.

Robert addressed Annette. "We now have three teachers living here. One will be taking first to fourth grade, the other will do fifth to eighth, and the last will do the rest. We don't have that many children here yet, but we're confident that as we grow as a community, we'll get more people to teach."

"I could help out," Annette said, surprising both Robert and her sons.

"You could?"

"Yes. I'm an architect, but I'd be happy to come out a couple of times a week. I minored in English."

"That's wonderful!" Robert enthused. "Well, we're here."

The family followed him into the community center. It was their first good look at the other people with whom they'd be living. There were four families sitting at tables, and some men and women on their own. Robert steered the family over to the side, where food was being dished up.

The boys were thrilled at the selection: cereal, toast, bacon, two kinds of eggs, and sausages. They piled their plates, Annette being more selective, and Robert grabbing a little of everything.

They sat down at a table next to another family. It was patently obvious that the two boys and a girl and their parents were all wearing diapers. "The first breakfast is free," Robert said. "After that, $7 per person."

"That's reasonable," Annette said. She just might make use of the community centre while school was out.

Josh and Jared ate happily, knowing they were being stared at. But it wasn't the fact that they were wearing diapers that made people stare at them, it was the fact that they were new. They, in turn, stared back at people, noting potential friends and playmates among the children scattered around.

Robert was explaining the rules of the community in more detail to Annette. Everything was as she had explained it to the boys. People who resided in the community did not need to sign in and out, not if they had the community's sticker on their car. The sticker was a small, blue teddy bear which was placed on the windshield. For the first few weeks of residence, Paul and the other three security guards would do spot checks to make sure people actually did wear diapers. "It's not enough to wear them inside Napidale," Robert explained. "This place is for people who need or want to wear them all the time. We had to turn down some great people because their families refused to wear diapers."

"It's the issue of fitting in, I suppose," Annette said.

"Not really. It's the fact that people without diapers generally look on those of us who wear them as odd, even people who have family members who wear them out of necessity."

"That makes sense," Annette said, watching as her boys went to collect juice from the table.

"How are they handling it?" Robert indicated Josh and Jared.

"Very well. They love it. That surprised me," Annette confessed.

"You'd be even more surprised to know how many people take to diapers, how many love wearing them for the simple pleasure of it."

"Are you one of them?" Annette asked.

"Absolutely. Here, I can be myself."

"I'll drink to that," Annette said, holding up the glass of juice which Josh handed to her.

"Mommy, can we go in the games room and play?"

"Where's that?" Annette asked, her head swiveling around.

"It's over there." Robert pointed. "There are lots of great games for the kids, and there's only that one door. No chance of your losing sight of them."

"Okay, honey," Annette said to Josh, who scampered off with his brother. There were six other children in the games room, all of them quite obviously wearing diapers. Two little girls were playing with some Barbie dolls over in one corner, another boy was playing with a Gameboy, one was building things with Lego blocks, and a boy and girl were playing table tennis on a child-sized table. They all looked at Josh and Jared expectantly when they walked in.

The brothers took in the rest of the room. There were books in a shelf along one side, some board games stacked on a table, a child-sized pool table, plenty of toy cars, GI Joe figures, and what seemed like a dozen Barbie and Ken dolls. Jared went over to the boy who was playing with the Lego blocks. "Hi."

"Hi," the boy responded.

"My name's Jared. What's yours?"

"Adam."

"Can I play too?"

"Sure."

Josh watched as his brother made a new friend. He went over to the pool table and racked the balls, figuring that he could practice a little by himself.

As he bent over, the two Barbie doll-playing girls giggled. Josh started, feeling self-conscious, and turned to see if they were giggling at him. His diaper was, after all, pretty obvious. But the girls were intent on their game. They had taken strips of cloth (provided for impromptu dress-up sessions) and improvised diapers for Barbie and Ken. "Barbie, I wet my diaper," the one girl said, brandishing the Ken doll.

"I guess I'll have to change you then," the other girl said, brandishing Barbie.

Josh forgot his pool game as he watched the little girls playing diapers with Barbie and Ken. It seemed odd, and yet comforting. He went over to them. "Hi. I'm Josh."

The girls giggling at having a boy talk to them. "I'm Annie," the older-looking one said, the one playing with Ken. "This is my sister, Melissa."

"Hi," Melissa said, waving Barbie at him.

"Why are you playing diapers with the dolls?" Josh asked.

Both girls shrugged. "It's just fun," Annie said. She then proceeded to talk for Ken. "Barbie, I really need this diaper changed now!"

Melissa managed to sound like a blonde bimbo. "Oh, all right! You men can't wait for a minute!"

Josh went back to his game, keeping one ear open to listen to the girls' game. When eventually Melissa wandered off back outside, Josh went over to Annie. "How long have you lived here?"

"A month," said Annie.

"Do you like it?"

All he got was a shrug.

"Do you like wearing diapers?"

Another shrug.

"Do you have to wear diapers?"

That got a response. "No! My father made us come. But it's not really so bad. It's fun, mostly." She leaned closer to ask Josh her own question. "Do you have to wear diapers?"

Josh just shook his head. "But I like it."

Annie smiled. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm in third grade."

"I'm in fourth grade," Annie announced proudly. "I can even spell 'Mississippi'."

Josh was about to answer with his own tale of what he could spell, but he suddenly felt an urge to pee... and this time, there was no thinking about it, he just peed into his diaper without any preamble. The warmth made him realise where he was and what he was doing.

"Did you just pee your diaper?" Annie asked conspiratorially.

"Yeah," Josh said, blushing a little.

"You got that look on your face, y'know, like you were having a good time," Annie said.

Josh's blush deepened. He didn't expect people to realise that he liked peeing his diaper.

"Don't worry," Annie said quietly, "I won't tell."

Josh felt really relieved and was about to ask Annie where she lived (okay, she was a girl, but she was *nice*) when his mother came in. "Josh, Jar, time to go. Your father will be here soon with Dan so we can get our house sorted out."

Josh just said, "Bye," but Jared practically had to be dragged away from the Lego castle he was building with his new friend, Adam. Warren and Dan arrived right on time and began to unpack their furniture. Josh and Jared mostly stayed out of the way on their mother's instructions while the men were moving the large furniture. But, finally, all the furniture was in the house and everything looked more livable.

Annette and Warren were arranging Annette's bedroom, so Dan offered to help the boys get their bedrooms in order.

Josh wanted his bed along the wall by the window, and his dresser against the opposite wall next to the door. Jared wanted his bed away from the window with his dresser next to it. Dan complied, then helped them make each bed.

"So, you boys think you'll like living here?" Dan asked.

"Yeah," said Josh. "We met some nice people at the community center."

"Are you sure you'll like wearing diapers?" Dan sounded concerned.

"Yeah!" Jared said, not hiding his enthusiasm. "It's great! I love wearing diapers!"

Dan turned to Josh. "And you, Josh?"

Josh blushed, but answered truthfully. "Yeah, I like it."

"I'm peeing now," Jared announced as he filled his diaper with warm, wet urine.

"Oh," Dan said, looking uncomfortable.

Josh finished putting the Star Trek pillow cases on his brother's bed. "All done!"

"It looks good, boys," Dan said, glad for the distraction.

"Thanks, Uncle Dan," Josh said, one brother at least remembering his manners.

"No problem. Glad to do it. Just remember, you can come over anytime and hang out."

"You just want our Playstation," Josh teased. Sometimes when Dan and his wife babysat them, they would take their Playstation over. Dan was addicted to Mortal Kombat-type games.

Dan ruffled their hair and went out of the room.

Josh turned to Jared. "Did you really pee?"

"Yeah." Jared looked proud of himself.

Josh went over and sat on the bed (on top of Captain Kirk's head). Lowering his voice he said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Uh huh." Jared came over and sat next to him.

"Did you ask that boy at the center about diapers?"

"Yeah. He's nice. His name's Adam."

"What did he say?"

Jared lowered his voice even more than his brother's. "His parents both like wearing diapers. They promised to buy him a computer if he came here and wore them, too."

"Does he like it?"

"Yeah. We were taking turns peeing."

"What?"

"Like a competition. We wanted to see who would run out of pee first."

It sounded rather childish to Joshua, but he didn't say so. "Who won?"

"I did." Jared was proud of that accomplishment.

Josh gave his brother a noogie. "Good for you." He sat back and peed, for the third time that day. He was peeing a lot more than he used to, he knew. But he also knew why: it was because he no longer needed to hold it in, so every time he felt even a slight urge, he just peed. The diaper, which had been a bit clammy after the soaking it had received at the Community Center, warmed up as Josh filled it with warm, wet pee. Josh also felt the need to do a number 2, and he just did it, sitting there like he was. He knew he was getting good at this. He didn't even need to lean forward anymore. He knew he'd need to be changed soon. When the boys came out of the room, the three adults were sitting in the lounge having coffee and a snack.

"Got everything sorted out?" Annette asked as the boys came in.

"Yes, Mommy," Jared answered.

"Good."

"I need to be changed," Josh said.

"Me too!" Jared sounded rather eager.

"I'll do it in a few minutes, hon," Annette said. "You boys go out back and play for a while."

Annette had said that because Dan had said he had to go, but he'd been talking to the parents about how it seemed to him to be child abuse, or at least psychologically incorrect to 'condition' the boys into liking diapers, which was how he saw it.

Annette and Warren walked out with Dan. "I didn't force them. I asked them. I said that if they didn't want to, that would be the end of it. It was entirely their choice," Annette defended.

"Maybe they like it now because it's a novelty," Dan responded. "What if they get tired of it, but they have no bowel and bladder control anymore? Did you ever think of that?"

Neither Annette nor Warren had thought of it, but Annette didn't think it mattered, since if they lived here they've have to wear diapers all the time anyway.

But Warren answered Dan's question. "We've spoken to them about controlling what they do in their diapers. We don't want them to become incontinent."

This seemed to satisfy Dan, and he drove off after promising to babysit for Annette in the future, should she need it. He would still get together with Warren for golf games, too. As soon as Dan's car had left the driveway, Annette turned to Warren. "You lied to him for me. Why?"

Warren kissed her. "Because I know the boys love you, and want to be with you. The diaper thing is part of that. I don't think the 'novelty' will wear off."

Annette spoke seductively. "Wanna fool around?"

Warren grinned. "Okay. But change the boys first."

They went back into the house, where Annette changed the boys. She noted as she did so that she only had about ten diapers left. She'd have to go to the hospital and get more - but cloth diapers this time. "Boys, Warren and I are going in my room now, for some *privacy*, okay? Why don't you rig up the Playstation and have a few games?"

"Are you gonna *shag*?" asked Jared, having learnt a new word from watching the new Austin Powers movie.

Warren burst out laughing, although Annette hadn't seen the movie and looked puzzled. "Yeah," Warren said. To Annette he said, "I'll fill you in later."

The parents went into Annette's room and closed the door. Warren lay on the bed. "Do I make you horny, baby?" he asked, grinning.

"What?" Annette laughed.

Warren proceeded to explain to her about the movie, which he had taken the kids to see one Saturday afternoon when it had rained and golf had been canceled. Josh and Jared set up the playstation, both enjoying the feel of new, soft diapers.

"I want to pee mine right away," Jared said, "but nothing's coming out yet."

"Wait for a while, then we can pee them at the same time," suggested Josh.

They got stuck into playing various games on the playstation and forgot their bargain. By the time their parents came out of the bedroom, both boys had tired of the games and were watching a Star Wars tape.

Their father kissed them both on top of the head before leaving, and it was only when their mother went to see him out that Josh remembered. "Did you pee?"

Jared concentrated. "Yeah. I didn't notice."

"I also peed," Josh said, feeling the wet diaper around him. "But that must have been earlier. Wanna do it now?"

"Okay."

The two boys sat there and peed their diapers for the second time, making them even wetter.

Annette came back in, surprised when they asked to be changed. "Again? So soon?"

"We drank sodas while we were playing, Mommy," Jared explained.

"All right. But first thing tomorrow I go to the hospital and get us more diapers. And cloth diapers this time, remember?"

The boys, having only started wearing diapers, didn't know what cloth diapers would be like, but they agreed. They'd seen some smaller kids wearing cloth diapers and plastic pants at the Community Center. The next morning they had breakfast at the Community Center again, and Robert came over again to see how they were doing. "Did you get moved in okay?"

"Yes, thank you," Annette replied.

"Good," Robert said, not sitting down with them this time. "You boys okay?"

Since both boys had mouths full of food when he asked the question, they just nodded.

They were drinking their juice when Josh noticed Annie and her sister come in with their parents.

Annie came over. "Hi!"

"Hi," Josh said, swallowing his juice quickly in order to answer.

"Mommy, this is the boy I told you about," Annie said.

Josh and his family stared as a tall, beautiful woman, obviously wearing a diaper, greeted them. Behind her came a rather good-looking man who greeted them as well. "Have a seat," Annette said, since the tables were long and sat eight people. The designers of the center had planned ahead.

"I'm Mary, this is my husband Ian, and our daughters, Anne and Melissa," the girls' mother introduced.

"Annette," said Annette. "Joshua and Jared. We just moved in," she said to Mary as Ian and Annie went off to get food for the family.

"We moved in three weeks ago," said Mary.

"What's it like?"

"Great," replied Mary. "There are two malls, each with a large diaper store - of course - and we have takeout places and parks, basically everything one could want."

"We'll explore a bit today," Annette said. "We're still getting everything in our house into its proper place."

"So, Annette, what do you do?" asked Ian as he placed a tray in front of his wife, sitting down next to her.

"I'm an architect," Annette said.

"I'm an engineering consultant," Ian told her. "Mary's a schoolteacher."

"You're going to be our teacher?" Jared asked Mary, sounding quite happy.

"One of them. We're still not completely sure yet if we can get extra people from outside. If not, I'll handle three grades. Luckily there aren't that many kids yet, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Mom, I need a change," Josh said when there was a lull in conversation. He was getting bored. Their family had finished, and now his mother was discussing boring grown-up stuff with Annie's folks.

"Maybe you should think about teaching your boys to change themselves," Mary said. "Not to step on your parental toes, of course, it just might make things easier for you. My girls can change themselves easily now."

"You have a point," Annette said, getting up. "We're going home now, I'll change them there. I'm sure we'll see you soon."

"We're here every day during the vacation," Ian assured her.

"See you around then," Annette said. "Bye." The boys said goodbye as well. Annette proceeded to change Josh as soon as they were back home. He just lay there and seemed content to let her clean him up and put a fresh diaper on.

"Would you rather change yourself?" Annette asked as she taped the diaper up.

Josh blushed. "No, Mommy."

"No?"

"I like it when you change me."

"Me too," said Jared from the doorway.

Annette turned to her younger son. "Jar, do you need a change?"

"No, I'm still dry," Jared said.

"Okay. Up you get." Annette patted his bottom as Josh got off the changing table. There were only three diapers left, and Annette knew she had to go to the hospital and get more. "We'd better make a quick trip to the hospital before we do anything else," Annette mentioned before Josh could exit the room. "We need lots of diapers."

"Aw, Mom, do I have to go with?" Josh had been on these trips with his mother before, and he hated them. The hospital was large, and white, and cold, and people always stared at his mother, and by extension, him, when she went to the supply section and asked for the diapers.

Annette felt sorry for her boys. This would be the first time they'd be outside in non-diaper-wearing public in their own diapers. The diapers - even her own - were not all that noticeable, but she remembered from personal experience what it was like to be wearing a diaper and positive that everyone could tell you had it on. "No, you don't, honey. Robert said the Community Center is safe, so I'll drop the two of you there and you can hang out until I get back."

"Cool!" The boys rushed for the games room as soon as they were dropped off. There was no one there whom they knew, but there were three boys of varying ages playing a card game at one of the tables. "Hey," Josh said as he and Jared approached.

The oldest boy looked up - Josh guessed he must have been about 13. "Hey," the boy said.

"Can we play?" asked Jared.

"You guys know how to play this?"

"What is it?"

"Poker," said the boy. "We're just playing for fun."

Warren had taught them, so the brothers nodded.

"Okay."

"What are your names?" Jared asked.

"I'm Gareth, and these are my brothers Ben and Nicky."

"I'm Josh, and this is Jared," Josh said. They joined the boys at the table and were dealt in.

"How long have you guys been here?" asked Ben, who was about Josh's age.

"This is our third day. We arrived the day before yesterday," Josh replied.

"We've been here for a month," Nicky said.

"Is it cool here?" Jared asked. Nicky was about his age, maybe a bit younger.

"Yeah, it's cool," Gareth said. "So, why are you guys here? Does one of you need diapers, or are your parents kinky?"

"What?" Both brothers asked the question, confused.

"You know," the older boy said, "some people just like wearing diapers for fun."

"Um..." Jared said. "No, it's... our Mommy..."

"The hospital screwed up when Jared was born," Josh said.

"So you two don't need diapers?"

"No," Josh said. "What about you?"

"Our parents are kinky," Gareth said.

"They wear diapers for fun?"

"Yeah. And so do we. Got a problem with that?" The older boy glowered at them, looking dangerous.

"No, we don't have a problem," Josh said. "We like wearing diapers too."

"Do all of you like it?" Jared asked, seeing that Nicky looked uncomfortable.

Nicky turned red and looked unhappy.

"It's not that he likes it or doesn't like it," Ben said. "He has to wear them."

"That's okay," Josh said quickly. "It doesn't matter."

"But you could take yours off!" Nicky said, upset. "You could take yours off and people wouldn't laugh at you!"

"No one's laughing, Nick," Gareth said.

"They used to tease him at our school, before we came here," Ben told them. By now the card game was long forgotten. "He's still waiting for someone to tease him now."

"We won't tease you. We all wear them," Jared assured the boy.

"I'm peeing my diaper now," Josh added.

Nicky looked mollified. "Really?"

"Yeah. Wanna feel?"

Nicky stuck out a finger, but didn't actually touch Josh's pants or diaper. "Nah. I believe you."

"I'm peeing too," Gareth said, feeling sorry for his brother.

"I just peed, sorry," Jared said.

"Me too," Ben replied.

"See?" Josh said. "Everything's okay."

Nicky seemed to feel better about it. "Okay."

The boys went back to their game. Annette arrived over an hour later, looking rather tired. "Boys!" she yelled into the games room where Josh was busily winning.

"Mom?" Josh asked.

"Time to go."

The boys said goodbye, saying that they would see the three brothers in school soon.

"Did you get the diapers, Mommy?" Jared asked.

"Yes, honey." And it had been a bit of a nightmare. The hospital administrator had wanted to know why the sudden change, and was not mollified by Annette's explanation that she now had a dryer and it would save on diapers. The man had finally agreed, but had refused to provide the plastic pants that would be needed. "Our contract with you only says diapers," he'd said smugly. It hadn't bothered Annette that much.

Annette turned the car onto a street the boys didn't know. "Where are we going?" they asked together.

"The hospital wouldn't give me any plastic pants, so we're going to the mall to buy some."

"Cool! We can choose our own!" Jared said happily. The store was extremely large and airy, and mother and sons felt right at home. A pleasant-looking woman wearing a silk shirt on top and nothing but a diaper on the bottom came to help them. The boys had occasionally seen their mother in just a diaper, but never anyone else. They couldn't help it; they stared. The woman just smiled. "First time in here, huh?"

"Yes," Annette said, introducing herself and her children.

"Well, no problem. I like to advertise our products. I'm Cassandra, by the way, Cass for short. So, tell me what you need."

"Just some plastic pants," Annette said. "I have loads of diapers."

"Right." Cass took them to an aisle that stocked nothing but plastic pants. There were plastic pants of every kind. There were ones with elastic in the legs, there were ones with snaps on the side, there were even ones that were sewn into ordinary shorts. There were ones with ruffles. There were transparent ones. There were coloured ones, patterned ones, ones with pictures on them. "What do you need?" Cass asked.

"I'm not sure," Annette said. "We're used to disposables."

"I'd recommend the ones that snap on. We have the most sizes, and they fit well."

"Can I try one?"

"Sure." They went into the back while the boys looked around, choosing the ones they liked best.

Annette had to agree with Cassandra that the snap-ons did fit very well. "I'll take eight pairs of these plain ones," she said as they came out of the back room.

"Mommy, can I have the one with Bart Simpson on it?" Jared whined.

"It's not a snap-on," Cass said, "but it'll be fine at his age."

"Okay, honey. Josh, what do you want?"

Josh chose a few pairs that had racing cars, airplanes and motorbikes on them. Annette added some plain snap-on pairs to the ones her sons chose, plus two pairs each of the sewn-in type.

The cost was quite high, but at least it was a one-time outlay, and it wasn't like she couldn't afford it. "Thank you so much," Annette said to Cass as they left.

"No problem. Hope to see you again!" "Can we put ours on, Mommy?" Jared asked as soon as they got home. "Can we?"

"Do you need to be changed, honey?" Annette asked.

"Yes," both boys answered.

"All right."

Their mother got out the new pre-washed cloth diapers and folded them as she had when they had been babies. Her way of folding had always guaranteed maximum absorption. "Who's first?"

"Me!" Jared already had his disposable diaper off - having ripped the tapes in his hurry - and in the diaper bin, and was up on the table.

Annette pinned the diaper on, then stood back. "I don't think this is thick enough. It will hold one wetting, but not more. You need another one." She pinned on a second diaper, then snapped on a pair of plastic pants.

"Can I have my Bart pants, Mommy? Please?"

Annette was dubious. She'd bought the snap-ons thinking they'd have to wear two diapers, but there'd only been one size of Bart pants which Jared had so desperately wanted. "Let's see if it fits, Jar, okay?"

"Uh huh." Annette unsnapped the one pair, then pulled the other up. They fitted - just. "There you go, hon."

Jared dashed into the bathroom to look in the mirror. "It looks cool!" he opined.

"How does it feel?" Annette asked.

"It feels okay."

"Right, next," said their mother as Josh got onto the table, not having removed his disposable yet.

His mother cleaned him up quickly, then pinned on two new diapers, snapping on the plastic pants. "Josh?"

"It's fine, Mom."

"Okay. You two go out and give me some privacy now." Josh joined Jared in the back yard. "How does it feel?"

"It's all tight. It feels like a towel."

"Yeah."

"Do you need to pee yet?"

"No, I peed earlier."

"Me too. Darn."

"Let's drink some juice, then we'll pee faster."

"Cool!" The boys went into the house and got themselves a glass of juice each. End chapter 2.