I had never been happier. The first three weeks after our move to a new house had been the best of my life. Prior to this, all the kids I had ever known teased me and made fun of me because of my need for diapers. More often than not I came home from school feeling ashamed or angry. It seemed that everybody my age thought that I was the perfect target for persecution. It was no wonder that I spent so much time alone, fantasizing about having friends and doing fun stuff with them. Three months ago when my parents announced that we needed to move I could hardly believe it. At last, I thought, a chance to start over without everyone knowing my shameful secret.

My name is Daniel Eversby. My parents are Randy and Elaine Eversby. I have one sister, Kayla, who is three years older than me. She’ll be in tenth grade next year. I think that we have a pretty good family. I guess that my sister and I do do our share of fighting (mostly about whose turn it is for chores around the house) but I have to say that she has never teased me about my diapers.

My parents are both graphic designers and they work from a home office. They had spent years carefully growing the business and it was time to relocate.

“Kids,” my mom explained, “for several weeks, dad and I have been talking about what to do. We have come up with a basic plan that we want you to know about so that you can give us your comments. At first, we thought that we could simply go out and rent some office space. You guys are old enough that we don’t have to worry about you so much after school. But, we quickly found out that the cost is way too high. Also, the more we thought about it the more we realized that we are running the business in the wrong location. When we started out, we worked exclusively here in town. Now we have clients who are fifty miles away or more.”

My dad laid out a map in front of us. Red dots indicated the locations of mom and dad’s clients.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “look at all these over here in Quatrain.”

“Exactly,” dad agreed, “we have almost as many clients there as we do here, in Manning.”

It was obvious that it would make more sense to live halfway between the two locations.

“We started looking around for potential locations when we stumbled across a great opportunity. here, just outside of Sievert,” dad said pointing to the map.

“But that’s in the middle of nowhere!” Kayla objected.

“Not really, honey. It’s true that Sievert is smaller than Manning but it has twelve thousand people,” mom explained.

“But, mom. What about all my friends? I’ll never see them again.”

That was a line I wasn’t likely to say but I sympathized with her. It would be tough for her to move.

“Honey, you’re an attractive girl and you’re very good with people. You’ll make new friends quickly,” dad said encouragingly. “Let’s at least go look at the area and the property we have in mind and then you can decide.”

My parents’ suggestion that we move to the country didn’t surprise me at all. They’re very ‘back-to-nature’ kinds of people. Our family vacations always involve going to national parks and backpacking. Even at home, they prefer to keep things simple. They use lots of ‘natural’ cleaners and won’t allow paper plates or other single-use items like plastic cups and forks.

This also means that I wear cloth diapers and reusable protective underwear. During the day I usually wear multi-layer cotton underpants that have a protective shield inside. (Only the shield is disposable; the rest is washable.) I can usually go about one to two hours without problems. For times when it’s unlikely that I’ll be near a bathroom, I wear flannel diapers that have three layers of terry cloth lining. I wear semi-transparent white plastic pants with them. My nighttime diapers are six layers thick and are also worn with plastic pants.

Before we could leave I had to be put into my daytime diapers. I’m old enough to do this myself but I still prefer getting help. Kayla volunteered. She wanted to talk about the move without our parents being around.

“Do you really want to move?” Kayla asked.

“Well,” I hedged, “it would make life easier for mom and dad. They wouldn’t have to do so much driving for the business.”

“But I’ve got friends and I don’t want to leave them.”

She saw the hurt in my eyes at her reference to her friends and the implication that I didn’t have any (which was basically true).

“I mean,” she backtracked, “it’ll be hard for everybody.”

We didn’t talk for the rest of the time. She finished powdering me and pinning on my diaper. I pulled my plastic pants up and she checked that my diaper wasn’t sticking out anywhere.

The trip to Sievert took about forty-five minutes. It was pretty small but the downtown seemed active. I noticed that were a fair number of kids my age. If only… I thought. Kayla seemed intent on criticizing everything. She thought that the downtown was weird and that the people seemed to dress funny. I had to agree on the second point. Lots of the boys and men were dressed in overalls.

“Honey, this is an agricultural area. People are going to dress accordingly,” mom explained (with a note of irritation in her voice).

We then drove outside of town about a mile or so. We turned into a long gravel driveway that led to an old-fashioned two-story farmhouse. A man came out of the house and waited for us as my dad parked the car.

“Mr. & Mrs. Eversby, welcome back. I see you brought the family this time.”

“Yes, Mr. Turner. I hope we’re not intruding.”

“Not at all. My wife is inside doing some cooking for tonight’s church social, that’s all.”

We were introduced to Mr. Turner and then to Mrs. Turner. They seemed very friendly. We were given a tour of the house. It had been extensively renovated at some point. I was surprised by how modern everything seemed. My mom made a comment about how spacious the kitchen was, to which my dad reminded her that he was the one who did most of the cooking. The upstairs contained four bedrooms.

“This is where we did most of the renovation. There used to be seven small rooms up here. Now, as you can see, each room is very spacious and has its own bathroom,” Mrs. Turner pointed out.

“Which room would I get?” I asked excitedly.

“How about this one?” mom suggested.

It was about twice as big as my room at home. It overlooked the backyard and some fields beyond. I fell in love with it on the spot.

“When can we move?” I asked.

“Whoa!” dad laughed. “We haven’t even made an offer yet. If we do move it won’t be for several weeks, maybe even months.”

Kayla seemed to be getting into the mood, too. She and mom were in the room next door talking about how they could arrange her furniture and what kind of drapes would look nice. Still, I left depressed, thinking that the move might never take place and that I would be stuck in my screwed up life forever.

*****

My pessimism turned out to be wrong. Forty-five days later, on June 12, we were in the process of moving into our new house. I was ecstatic to be away from my tormentors; now, if I could only start over with new friends…

We followed the moving van and got to our new house at about 9:00am. (The loading of the van had taken place the previous day). We were barely out of the car when another car drove up behind us.

“Hello,” a cheerful woman called, “welcome to the neighborhood. I’m Lydia Montego and this is my son Wayne, Jr. and my daughter Cynthia. We’re from the next house up the road. Can you use some help?”

“Could we ever! Thank you,” my mom answered. “But I’m afraid that there’s a mountain of things to do. I hope you won’t be sorry for having offered,” she added with a laugh.

“Hard work is good,” she answered with a laugh in reply. “Come on, kids, let’s get to it.”

They immediately pitched in and began taking stuff into the house. Kayla and I were happy that Wayne and Elaine appeared to be our respective ages. If only… I thought to myself for the millionth time.

The movers worked under dad’s direction while the rest of us helped mom. The Montegos were good workers. Wayne and I exchanged very few words but I nonetheless felt comfortable working alongside him. Kayla and Cynthia began talking up a storm and our moms had to goad them back to work several times. By 12:30, the van was emptied and the movers were gone.

“Let’s stop here for lunch,” mom suggested. “Is there a good place nearby where we could take you and your children to thank you for all your help?” mom asked Mrs. Montego.

“There sure is,” she answered enthusiastically. “It’s right next door… I’ve already got everything ready.”

“But we can’t have you doing that!” mom exclaimed.

“Why not?” Ms. Montego answered. “You’re in the country now. Out here people help each other all the time. I’m sure you’d do the same for me.”

Lunch was great. We had homemade soup, salad and sandwiches. For dessert, Mrs. Montego served the best chocolate cake I ever tasted. During lunch Wayne and I finally started talking to each other. He was my age and would be going into seventh grade next year. He promised to show me around the area and to help me get acquainted with things. I was in heaven… except for one little secret.

Just to be on the safe side, I had asked to be diapered that morning. At this point in the day, my diaper was thoroughly soaked and I wondered how to ask my mom to change me without making it obvious. Fortunately, she was way ahead of me. As soon as we got back to our house, she asked the Montegos and Kayla to organize the dining room hutch. She asked me to go with her upstairs so that I could tell dad how I wanted my room arranged. We had already talked about that so I knew that she was just making an excuse for me to leave without being noticed.

“You and Wayne seem to be getting along well,” she commented as she cleaned my diaper area.

“Yeah,” I answered smiling. “I hope it lasts.”

“I think it will, honey. He seems very mature. I think that he could keep a secret if he had to.”

“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” I asked in a near panic.

“Of course not. I just meant that he seems very trustworthy.”

When he got back downstairs Mr. Montego had arrived with some of his workers. He was talking to my dad.

“We thought that maybe we could help, too. You know, putting beds together, moving furniture around, getting rid of empty boxes.”

I never saw so much activity in my life. By six o’clock, the house was ninety percent put together. Even my parents’ new office had been set up. About the only things left to do were to hang pictures and put our clothes away in closets and dressers.

“We can’t thank you enough,” my mom said one more time. “I can’t believe what you’ve done for us today. Even the beds are made!”

“Now you stop that,” Mrs. Montego chided her. “It was our pleasure. Besides, my kids would have driven me crazy if they hadn’t been able to come over here and meet your kids,” she added with a hearty laugh. “You have no idea how happy they are to have kids their own age living nearby.”

And she had no idea how happy I was to have met Wayne. If only…

****

The next morning mom made me arrange my closet and dresser. By ten o’clock, I was ready to do some investigating of the area. Kayla changed me into a fresh diaper and I set off by myself. I had barely reached the end of the driveway when Wayne showed up.

“Hi,” he called out from somewhere. “Do you always sleep so late?”

“Whaa..?” I asked in surprise. “Where are you?”

“Over here, under the trees,” he answered.

I walked over and sat down across from him.

“I didn’t just get up,” I answered defensively. “My mom made me put my clothes away and straighten out my closet.”

“Oh. Well, anyway, what do you want to do?”

I didn’t know, so he led me on a tour of the area. Our two houses were closest neighbors to each other, about a quarter mile apart. After that he told me that the next house belonged to the Campbells who were older and had no kids left at home, and then one more a mile after that where there were three kids, but all little. Going in his direction, there was a house a half-mile away that also belonged to an older couple and then nothing until you got back into Sievert.

“Gee, what do you do for fun?” I asked.

“Sometimes I walk to the park in Sievert to see if anybody’s there. But, I don’t do that often.”

“Too far, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s kind of far, but that’s not it.”

“Then, what?” I persisted.

“There are some really snobby kids in Sievert,” he answered.

I still didn’t get it. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him.

“My family runs one of the last small farms left in the area. Lots of the kids whose parents have jobs in town look down on us. They don’t really do anything mean, it’s just that… I don’t know. They do little things like moo like cows when I walk by—stuff like that.”

“That is so stupid,” I said.

“Yeah, whatever,” he answered glumly. Then, switching topics completely, he asked, “Have you walked through your property yet?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I answered.

“The whole thing,” he insisted.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant. I know that my parents said that the house came with a lot of land but I hadn’t paid attention to what that meant.

“”No, not the whole thing,” I said mimicking his emphasis.

“Do you want to?” he asked.

“Sure, why not?”

I was amazed at what he showed me. It seems that the whole property consisted of 240 acres, most of which was fields and open meadows- although about 80 acres were woodland.

“My dad rents about 100 acres from Mr. Turner, I mean, from you guys. Mr. Turner used to rent land to the Campbell’s, too, but since they don’t farm anymore I guess it’s just sitting there. The woods are real fun to go through. If you look hard you can find all kinds of neat stuff, even Indian arrowheads.”

We spent lots of time together after that. In the early mornings, he usually had chores to do (and my mom made me do my summer reading for at least one hour each day) but we usually found something to do each afternoon. I even started wearing bib overalls like he did. {At first I thought that their looser fit made my plastic pants noisier but I guess I was wrong because he never heard them.) We did lots of hiking and he started to teach me how to fish. These were times of almost uninterrupted relaxation for me. For the first time in my life I felt free to go around without fear of being accosted because of my diapers. Of course it couldn’t last.

As I said before, the first three weeks were heaven. Wayne and I had gotten to know each and to genuinely like each other. While I hadn’t met any of his other friends yet, he kept assuring me that I would like them (and by implication that they would like me). The Fourth of July was a gathering day for the town and he said that I would get to meet lots of people at the parade and at the annual barbecue that followed. As the days went by I grew more and more confident.

And then it happened.

On the Saturday before the Fourth, Wayne and I got permission to walk to Sievert and go to the movies. We started out from Wayne’s house right after lunch. If we got there early enough we would also stop at the arcade and play some video games. We had just started out when I saw two figures approaching from the other direction.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“Can’t tell yet,” Wayne answered. A moment later, he added, “Oh, brother. It’s Mark Kielly and someone I’ve never seen before. You’re lucky that Mark was an eighth grader last year. He’ll be in high school next fall and you won’t have to deal with him for at least two years.”

“Is he a bully?” I asked fearfully.

“Kind of. But he’s not too bright so he usually gets caught.”

We kept walking when I suddenly recognized the other person. It was Ryan Anslert from my old school. He was a grade ahead of me. I didn’t know what to do. It was too late to turn around, and, besides, how could I explain it to Wayne?

“If it isn’t farmer boy,” Mark called out.

Before Wayne could answer, Ryan spotted me.

“Hey!” he yelled, “it’s Danny Pampers.”

I wanted to die. Wayne was going to find out about me.

“What did you call him?” Mark asked.

“He’s Danny Pampers. He used to go to my old school. He’s the biggest dork in the world. He can’t keep his pants dry so he wears Pampers.”

“I do not wear Pampers!” I screamed, hysteria rising within me.

“Whatever, but everybody knows that you’re some kind of retard. Do you know anyone else who needs to wear diapers?” he asked cruelly.

Wayne was standing motionless, looking from me to Ryan. I guess he wanted me to deny what Ryan had just said but I couldn’t. I panicked and ran home.

Once I got to my room, I slammed the door and leaned against it, screaming in frustration. Then, I collapsed onto the floor and began to sob uncontrollably. Mom and dad heard the commotion and came running upstairs. They had trouble getting in to my room because I was lying right in front of the door. Dad picked me up and sat me on the bed. I clung tightly to him, burying my head in his chest. Mom stroked my hair.

“What’s wrong?” they asked.

I couldn’t talk for almost ten minutes, and then, only in fits and starts.

“Wayne knows… Ryan Anslert told him.”

“Ryan Anslert?” my dad asked. “Who is Ryan Anslert?”

“From my old school… He told Wayne that kids called me Danny Pampers,” I wailed.

Eventually, my parents were able to piece the story together.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” mom said encouragingly. “Ryan Anslert doesn’t live here. Everything will be fine.”

“But Wayne lives here,” I said peevishly.

Why couldn’t my parents see what was happening? Wayne knew. He would tell others. Even if he didn’t, Mark Kielly would. I became even more despondent when I realized that Ryan had probably told all kinds of outrageous stories (even lies!) about me and I hadn’t there to defend myself. I derived some comfort from thinking that even if I had been there no one would have believed me. My parents tried to comfort me but I wasn’t in any mood to be consoled.

“Let’s at least get you out of these wet clothes,” my mom said.

I hadn’t noticed but I was very wet. I was wearing my special underpants with the shields in them. Since we were supposed to go into town I figured that I would be close enough to bathrooms to take care of my needs. I had put extra pads in the pockets of my overalls (big pockets were an advantage) just in case. However, all this upset took its toll. This was not really a surprise. Whenever I became upset I wet heavily. I also noticed that I had left a big wet spot on the bed and on my dad’s pants. I felt a wave of shame and my lower lip began to quiver.

“Honey, it’s OK,” my mom cooed soothingly. “It’s not your fault. Don’t cry.”

I tried to hold back but a few tears escaped my eyes anyway. Dad took care of stripping the bed and mom helped me get undressed. She changed me into a daytime diaper on the floor while dad remade the bed.

“Feel better?” they asked.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said without much conviction.

“Do you want to stay up here or come down and help us finish a project?” dad asked.

I decided to stay upstairs. I was suddenly very tired and wanted to sleep. The next thing I remember, mom was waking me up. I was still dressed in only my diaper and plastic pants. I was wet.

“Danny, dinner’s almost ready. I think you should get up.”

I was somewhat groggy and unbelievably (to me anyway), I felt hungry.

“OK. Can you change me first?”

Mom was unusually gentle. I got dressed and went downstairs. Dinner was a pretty routine affair. Kayla must have been told what happened because she was pretty subdued, too. I watched some TV but I really wasn’t interested (and everything was reruns) so I went up to bed. I stayed awake most of the night replaying the day in my mind. I broke down and cried several times.

*****

The next morning I felt cranky but tried not to show it since everyone else was being so nice. Mom dressed me in a daytime diaper even though she knew I wasn’t likely to be going anywhere. I couldn’t blame her. I still felt pretty upset and would probably wet heavily for the next couple of days.

Around 10:30 there was a knock at the back door. Mom and dad were in their studio so I got up to answer it. I caught my breath when I saw that it was Wayne. He must want me to give back the CDs he let me borrow, I thought.

“Hi,” he said brightly.

“Hi,” I answered hesitantly.

“Well, can I come in?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.”

I was beginning to wonder. He seemed to be acting normally.

“Can we go somewhere private? I have to show you something,” he said mysteriously.

I was really turned around, now. What did he want? I led him up to my room. I had forgotten that mom had brought up some things for me to put away. Among my ‘normal’ clothes there were piles of diapers and plastic pants on the bed. I realized with a start that he was the first person outside the family to ever actually see my diapers and plastic pants. I guess it doesn’t matter any more.

Wayne paid no attention to the clothes on the bed and plopped down cross-legged on the floor. I stood over him for a second before I followed suit.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t start it,” I said with a catch my throat.

“I know. I mean I’m sorry about what that kid, Ryan, did to you. That was so unfair and immature. I’m sorry, too, that you’re sick.”

“I’m not exactly sick,” I clarified. “It’s just that I have this bladder problem that will probably never go away.”

“Anyway, those guys really made me mad, especially when Mark started saying that he was going to have lots of fun at the Fourth of July celebration telling everyone about you. After I went home, the more I thought about it the madder I got. Then, I got an idea. I was pretty sure that I knew where they had gone so I took my dad’s digital camera and went looking for them. Sure enough, they were at the pond that I showed you— where the guys go skinny dipping.”

I thought I knew where he was heading but I didn’t see what relevance it had to anything else.

“What good will pictures of them skinny dipping do? You told me that lots of guys do that.”

“Give me a chance,” he said, “I’m getting to my point. What I did was to sneak down to where they had left their clothes and I grabbed everything, except for their shoes and socks. My plan was to take some pictures of them walking naked together through the woods looking for their clothes. I figured that I would tell Mark that if he blabbed about your diapers I would arrange for those pictures to start showing up in embarrassing places. I hid myself in some bushes and waited. Finally, they got out. Ryan was the first to spot that their clothes were gone. Just like I figured, they panicked. They put on their shoes and socks and started looking for the rest of their stuff.”

I snickered.

“Yeah,” Wayne agreed, “it was pretty funny and I got about six or seven good pictures. Then, the most incredible thing happened. Mark started accusing Ryan of having taken their clothes. Of course, Ryan denied it… Geez, Mark is so stupid! How could Ryan have taken them when they were together the whole time? Anyway, Mark started threatening Ryan and saying that he had better tell him where their clothes were. Ryan called him a jerk and Mark snapped. He jumped on Ryan and knocked him down. I got some great pictures of them wrestling and rolling on the ground.”

I snickered again. Now I understood his enthusiasm. Telling people that I wore diapers wouldn’t be nearly as bad as having people see pictures of Mark wresting naked in the woods with another guy.

“They didn’t catch you taking their pictures?” I asked.

“Not until I stood up and showed myself.”

“Why did you do that?” I exclaimed.

“All of a sudden, I thought that it would be good to a have a picture of them looking straight at the camera. So I stood up and called down to them real sarcastic-like, ‘Boys, how about a big smile for the camera?’”

At this point, Wayne undid the bib of his overalls and pulled up his shirt. He took out an envelope and handed it to me. The top picture was the one he had just talked about. Ryan and Mark had surprised looks on their faces. Mark was on top of Ryan, holding his arms down. There wasn’t the slightest doubt that they were wearing only their shoes and socks. The others also left no doubt that they were in the woods lying on top of each other, naked. It struck me that it wasn’t even obvious that they were wrestling. They could have been doing something even more naughty.

“Weren’t you afraid they might catch you?” I asked.

“Naw,” he said dismissively. “I was halfway up the hill. By the time they started chasing me, I was already out of the woods and heading for the road. But they sure were cursing up a storm!”

“What did you do with their clothes?”

Wayne snickered again.

“Obviously, I didn’t want Mark and Ryan to find them right away. So, after I snatched them I put them right in the middle of the trail that leads back to the road. They must have found them when they ran after me.”

“Now what?” I asked enthusiastically.

“Do you want to go to the movies today?”

“I meant what are you going to do next about Ryan and Mark.”

“I know,” Wayne answered. “Mark is going to be at the movies today.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I called him up and asked him to meet me there. Do you want to come?”

I was totally blown away that he was doing this for me. How could I refuse?

“Sure, if I can,” I answered. “Let me find out.”

My parents were thrilled that Wayne had come to see me and was asking me to go to the movies with him. I don’t think they would have been happy to know what we were going to do once we got there. But what exactly were we going to do?

I needed to be changed into a fresh diaper before we could leave. I toyed with the idea of letting Wayne stay and watch but I didn’t think my mom would allow it.

The day was overcast and it looked like rain might start falling any minute. Dad drove Wayne and me to the movies. Wayne headed for a small park right next to the theater.

“Mark knows that I’m bringing the pictures with me. The deal is simple: he keeps quiet about your diapers and we keep quiet about these pictures,” he explained. “Mark will probably start out being a real jerk but once he sees these pictures… well, even he’s smart enough to know that we have lots of power over him.”

I was more than a little scared as we waited. A few minutes later, Ryan arrived with Mark.

“I’m going to kick your ass!” Mark hissed. “Both of you!” he added for emphasis.

“I don’t think so,” Wayne countered, waving the envelope at him.

Mark snatched it and two of the pictures went flying through the air.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Wayne calmly advised.

Ryan bent down to pick them up. He focused on the first one and let out a little squeal. He turned white. His hands were shaking violently as he straightened out.

“What do you want?” he asked in a quavering voice.

Mark had pulled the remaining pictures out of the envelope and was quickly going through them. He didn’t look very cocky anymore.

“I already told Mark,” Wayne answered. “You guys don’t tell anyone about Danny’s diaper needs and we won’t show anyone the pictures. That’s all.”

“Deal,” Ryan agreed.

“Not so fast,” Mark interrupted. “Under one condition only.”

“What’s that?” Wayne asked warily.

“You give us back the clothes you stole yesterday.”

“I didn’t steal your clothes,” Wayne said. “I left them right in the middle of the path, near where it comes out of the woods.” Then, pausing for a second, he added, “You mean you didn’t find them when you chased me?”

“We were afraid to get too close to the clearing—in case someone else was coming,” Ryan explained. “We looked everywhere around where you were hiding. We couldn’t find them.”

“Then how did you…?” I began to ask.

“Just shut up,” Mark answered heatedly. “You ever say anything about any of this and I’ll make you pay like you can’t imagine.”

He and Ryan retreated down the street. Wayne and I bought our tickets for the show. I was still curious.

“How did they get home? Did they have to walk down the road?” I asked in a concerned voice.

“Save your sympathy,” Wayne chuckled. “There’s a path that leads from the other side of the pond practically to Mark’s backyard. It’s twice as long as taking the road but it’s more private.” He chuckled again.

I was still concerned about one thing.

“Mark knows that those pictures were just copies, right?”

“Yeah, he knows. He’s not that stupid. But, just in case, when I called him yesterday I told him that I would let him see copies of some of the pictures.”

“You mean you have more?” I asked.

“No, but Mark doesn’t know that,” he answered smugly.

To quote my dad, I felt like I had dodged a bullet—maybe even a whole army’s worth of bullets. I was so happy I wanted to scream. Wayne and I were going to be friends!