The Error, by LittleMatt

Chapter 15
Chapter 15

Chapter Description: By LittleMatt

Chapter 15

It was late after-noon on Sunday. Tom sprawled out lazily on the floor with his coloring book in front of him and his teddy bear by his side. The ignored television had drifted from a cheerful cartoon that had held his attention to some baffling show about elementary school kids solving neighborhood mysteries with quantum physics.

He wished he’d accepted his mother’s offer of a visit to the toy store. There wasn’t much for a preschooler to do. He looked up at her sitting on the couch engrossed in a magazine.

“Mom, can I get something from the toy store?” he asked.

She looked back at him sympathetically “Starting to get a little bored without any toys honey?”

“Yeah, I guess we should have gone before. I was just sort of embarrassed.”

“I understand” she said setting down her magazine and opening out her arms “You want to come over here and just talk?”

Tom walked over to her and allowed himself to be taken up in her lap. “Can’t we go now?”

She shook her head “Sorry sweety, I don’t think we have time. But if you’re good for the sitter I’ll let you pick out two things OK?” She said cheerfully.

Tom groaned “Do I really need a babysitter?”

“We already talked about why you need one” she said patting his bottom.

“But she’s a teenager. She’s only like three grades higher than I’m supposed to be” Tom pleaded.

“That doesn’t matter” she said in a pleasant but firm tone “Besides everybody says she’s the best in the neighborhood. And she always brings toys, so maybe you two will have something to do.”

“But...”

She grabbed him gently by the chin and looked him in the eye “Just promise me you’ll be good so I don’t have to worry.”

Tom sighed “OK.”

She smiled and gave him a big kiss on the cheek “That’s my good boy.”

“I guess it might not be too bad” Tom mused for a moment before being distracted by the opening notes of the Cartoonimals theme. He quickly turned his attention to the television.

“Is this the show Mrs. Hansley says you like so much?”

Tom nodded excitedly “Yeah, it’s really good.”

Karen put her arms around her son and let him settle further into her lap. “Would you like to watch it with me?”

Tom couldn’t help the smile creeping across his face. “Sure.” He settled his head on her shoulder.

“That’s Gavin Giraffe” he said pointing out the character “He’s my favorite.”

“I thought he might be” She said smiling. The doorbell rang. “That must be Kirsten.” She sat Tom down on his feet and went to the door.

Tom hesitated for a moment. How could he possibly greet this girl who should at least be something close to a peer. He stepped cautiously into the entryway and peered around his mother to the girl with energetic eyes who stood in their doorway.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. You’re a real life saver” His mother said.

“No problem Mrs. Welton” Kirsten said with buoyant confidence. She caught sight of the boy peeking warily from behind his mother “And this must be Tommy.”

Karen stepped aside and urged Tom over “Tommy, this is Kirsten, your new babysitter.”

“Hi” Tom offered tentatively.

Kirsten knelt far enough to be face to face “Hi Tommy. I’m sure we’re going to get along great.”

“He’s already promised to be a good boy” Karen said getting her purse “Didn’t you?”

Tom nodded slowly “Yeah.”

Karen turned to Kirsten “Diapers and all the things are in the basket next to the couch” she said pointing in the direction of the living room “And there’s some more in his room. And don’t forget to get him in his nighttime diapers when you put him to bed, he tends to get really wet at night. And my phone number...”

Kirsten whipped her phone out of her purse “Already got it. Along with your work’s one, and of the neighbors across the street.”

Karen smiled and shook her head “It’s good to have someone so responsible to rely on. Dinner is in the fridge, I guess I won’t need to tell you how to get it ready.”

“I have it all taken care of, Mrs. Welton. No need to worry about a thing.”

“Thank you Kirsten” She gave Tom a hug and a kiss on his forehead “Bye-bye sweety. I’ll get home after your bedtime so I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Bye mom” Tom said politely still blushing from her instructions. He watched her as she waved and stepped out the door, closing it behind her.

Kirsten clapped her hands together “So should we get started playing a game or getting out some toys. I have some right here” She said indicating the colorful canvass bag slung over her shoulder”

“I think I just want to watch TV right now” Tom said turning toward the living room.

“Alright” she said following him “But you can’t be shy all night.” She sat herself on the couch as her new charge stretched out in front of the TV “Oh, Cartoonimals! Cool!” She enthused. “Go ahead and watch your show, I’m just going to call a friend. Maybe you’ll want to play when it’s over?”

“Sure” Tom said flatly.

“Hey Amanda this is Kirsten” She said to the person at other end of the line “Yeah, I’m just babysitting tonight.”

Tom tried to ignore the intrusion.

“No” Kirsten said correcting her friend on something “New client tonight,. A little boy so I’m on diaper duty tonight.”

Tom tried harder to shut the the conversation out.

“I finished all my homework last night, so no problem there.” She continued “There’s supposed to be a test in Mr. Peterson’s class tomorrow but it’s just on Calabi-Yau manifolds so I’m not too worried.”

The conversation drifted into gossip about people and events that may as well have taken place on the dark side of a distant planet as far as Tom was concerned. His world was one of cartoons and storytimes and all these things that he’d once expected to be part of now seemed distant and remote.

Soon after Tom’s show came to an end Kirsten hung up the call, slapped her hand to her knees and said “Are you ready to play something yet?”

“Sure” Tom relented. He could see this was going to be a boring evening otherwise.

Kirsten smiled “Good, I could see you were really interested in your show. You must really like the Cartoonimals.”

“Yeah I guess” Tom said “Sometimes I think...” He paused wondering if the thought he’d been turning over in his mind were too crazy to say aloud.

“Think what?” Kirsten asked.

“Sometimes I think it might be hypnotizing me or something.” Tom said in hopes of some outside confirmation “Like maybe that’s why I need diapers and stuff.”

Kirsten tried to stifle a laugh as she sat down on the floor next to him “You’re just a little boy Tommy. I watch the Cartoonimals all the time when I’m babysitting and I’m not hypnotized.”

Tom looked at the teenager sitting beside him so poised, collected, and mature. He could only conclude that she was right. Maybe there really was a difference between them.

She reached over and gave his hair a playful tussle “Don’t worry kiddo, I’m sure your mommy will get you all nice and potty trained once you’re ready.”

With that Tom became aware of a cold dampness between his legs. He looked down to avoid her eyes.

But she already could tell something was wrong. “Do you need a change now?” she asked.

“Maybe” Tom reluctantly admitted.

Without another word she pulled back the waistband of his pants and quickly checked his diaper. “Yep, you’re soaked.” She quickly found the basket of diapering supplies and began laying out the changing mat. She patted the mat with one hand looking directly at him “Just lie down and I’ll get you all ready, then you can pick out what game you want to play.”

Tom balked. Being changed by his mother was one thing, his teachers were something else. But being so dependent on this high school student made a certain point.

Kirsten put her hands to her hips “Remember how you promised your mommy you’d be good tonight?”

It was a point that couldn’t be denied. He looked at her eyes filled with patient authority and laid down in front of her.

“That’s better” she cooed as she took a fresh diaper from the basket. Effortlessly she undid his button and slid his pants to his knees. She was a bit more generous with the baby powder than his other caretakers and the smell lingered strongly even as she taped his new diaper into place.

“There we go” she said fastening his pants “That wasn’t so bad was it?” 

Tom just shook his head. It was always a relief to be out of a cold sodden diaper. It was a comfort he had to rely on others for. And he knew this was someone he could trust as much as any young child would.

“I thought so” she said while she reached for a large bag “Now do you want to pick out a game or do you want to play my favorite?”

“You can choose I guess” Tom shrugged.

She began setting out a board with a path running through a cartoonish forest. Along the way where various sites like a blue trimmed house labeled “Grandma’s Cottage” with smoke curling from a chimney or a beaver’s dam bearing the name “Bucky’s Den.”

“First you spin the spinner” she explained “Then you roll the dice and take a card. Each card has an equation written on it and you try to plug the numbers you got from the spinner and the dice into it so you can move the greatest number of spaces.”

Tom scratched his head as he turned over one of the cards and looked over it’s elaborate series of numbers, letters, and parentheses. “This looks kind of hard.”

Kirsten looked in her bag “The other preschool games I have are Calliope’s Chemistry Lab and Geometry Land.”

“This will be OK I guess” Tom said casting the card back into the pile.

Kirsten handed him a teddy bear shaped calculator with big bright buttons. “You can use this and I might give you some hints if you really get stuck.” 

Tom took the first turn and furrowed his brow as he looked between the numbers he’d gotten and the strange equation written on the card. He’d knew he’d seen this stuff, but he’d not yet mastered it. He pecked at the calculator for a while and moved his piece a few spaces before turning the dice over to Kirsten. She breezily worked out the problem and moved well ahead of Tom’s piece, giving him a quick explanation of how she’d figured out the best way to solve the problem.

The rest of the game continued in a similar fashion. Tom made a few mistakes which she quickly corrected and gave him some advice. Soon he was winning and while he suspected she was letting him win he found himself enjoying the special attention that was being paid to him. As he landed in the final square she gave him an enthusiastic round of applause.

“Good job” She said as she began to gather up the game.

“Thanks for helping me with some of the hard stuff. I think I kind of learned some stuff too” Tom said.

Kirsten smiled with a bit of pride “Well I do want to go into early childhood education” to which she quickly amended “That means teaching little kids like you stuff like basic algebra.” She glanced at her watch “Are you ready for dinner?”

“Sure”

“Alright, I’ll go get it ready. You can look in my bag and see if there’s any toys you want to play with.”

Tom reached into the bag as she walked off into the kitchen and pulled out a toy robot. He turned it over a few times and examined the panel of buttons across its chest. He pressed one and the robot sprang to life, its mechanical arms and legs swinging through the air. He sat it down and watched as it walked a short distance before coming to a halt. He tried some more buttons and discovered that he could make it turn, walk backwards, or even reach for things. Finally he found a switch that allowed multiple buttons to be pushed before letting the robot go to perform them in sequence. He watched in wide eyed delight as it ran a simple rectangle he’d planned out. He began trying to work out how to get it to pick up one of his crayons when Kirsten called from the kitchen.

“Tommy! Dinner’s ready.” she called.

Tom reluctantly left his robot and walked into the kitchen. He found his place set with one of the sippy cups his mother had offered him the day before. He may have protested but he knew there was no chance of convincing her he was too big for such a thing, and in truth he’d come to crave the beverage inside.

They both sat down and started their meal.

“Is Mrs. Peterson one of your teachers?” She asked between bites.

“Yeah, she’s nice. I like the way she reads stories.”

Kirsten nodded “She was a teacher there when I was in preschool. She’s been teaching there forever so she’s really really good at it. Mrs. Hansley must still be there too right?”

“Yeah. And Ms. Kelly too. She’s really nice and she helped me learn how to use an art pen.”

Kirsten looked over the the refrigerator “I saw that drawing of you and your mommy over there, that’s very sweet and you did a good job.”

Tom blushed a bit at the attention but he was genuinely proud of what he’d managed to do “Thanks”

After dinner Tom spent the rest of the evening happily engrossed with the toy robot while Kirsten sat and read one of her text books on the couch. Through trial and error he was able to create more and more complex routines. He’d just managed to run it in a circuit around the coffee table and behind the couch to pick up a crayon when Kirsten checked her watch.

“Five more minutes till bedtime big guy.” She said.

Tom groaned in disappointment.

“Don’t be like that. You have bedtime story to look forward to, I always read to kids who’ve been good.”

Tom perked up slightly “You’re going to say I was good?”

“As long as you don’t give me any trouble about putting you to bed, sure.” She said before going back to her book.

Tom returned to the robot and began dreaming of his upcoming visit to the toy store.

A few minutes later Kirsten stood up from the couch. “OK sweety, it’s time for bed.” she extended her hand and Tom took it without a second thought. She led him to his room and instructed him to lie down on his bed. She quickly found a neatly folded set of PJs topped with thick diaper and handwritten note reading “Tommy’s nighttime things” on his dresser. She quickly removed his shirt and pants before untaping his diaper and disposing of it in the pail. She added a fresh layer of baby powder and slid the extra thick nighttime diaper beneath him

“These have the cutest designs” she cooed as she taped it in place. Her voice had become soft and soothing like she was trying to coax him to sleep. After he’d stepped into his PJ bottoms she pulled back the covers and tucked him in.

She sat down at the side of the bed with a book. “Now this is one of my favorites” she said “It’s called Danny’s Adventure’s in Dreamland.”

As she began to read Tom realized that for once this had nothing to do with algebra or physics. It was just a kid’s book, but he was transfixed. Fanciful illustrations spilled across every page as he heard the story of a boy named Danny and his amazing adventures. As Kirsten closed the book and stood up he felt relaxed and cozy and ready for sleep. “Now don’t worry about anything, your mommy will be home soon. Good night.”

“Good night” Tom responded drowsily as she turned off the light and closed the door behind her.

Sometime during the night he came half awake. He smelled his mother’s perfume and felt a kiss on his forehead. He drifted happily back to sleep.