The Error, by LittleMatt

Chapter 4
Chapter 4

Chapter Description: By LittleMatt

Chapter 4

After returning from the school nurse’s office, Tom spent the rest of the day half eager and half dreading of the end of school. On one hand he’d be able to get away from this bizarre place, but on the other he’d have to explain to his mom why he’d wet his pants.

   Class ended promptly at 3 and he trudged his way to the parking lot, where he saw his mother was already there. Drawing a deep breath he climbed into the passenger prepared to defend himself.

   “Hey hon, had a rough day at school?” His mother inquired sympathetically.

   “Yeah sort of. But it’s not my fault...”

   “I know it’s not your fault, lots of kids have accidents. You just didn’t know they don’t give bathroom passes here.”

   Tom was amazed at the way his mother was taking this. It was as though he really was a child who couldn’t be fully expected to handle his toileting. He wasn’t sure whether he should accept the sympathy or insist on being treated like someone his own age.

   “I guess you’re kind of right.” Tom shrugged, feeling relieved to get the issue behind him. All he had to do was figure out how to work that odd little latch. For now he could live with the little kid treatment, and in a strange town where he had learn so many new things he was finding it to be something of a saving grace.

   Karen smiled at her son and ruffled his hair “That’s my boy.”

   At home Tom flopped down in front of the TV happy to have another day behind him. He knew the cable had been installed that day and was eager to watch MTV and forget about how he spent the day at elementary school. He cycled through the channels a few times but couldn’t find anything that looked anything like MTV.

   “Mom?” he called “Do you know what channel MTV is on?”

   “The cable company here doesn’t have it. Why don’t find something else to watch?”

   Tom sighed and figured he could easily find something else. But he found nothing at all that interested him. As far as he could tell almost all of them were for old people or least people who understood that boring financial talk, a few had weird movies he just didn’t understand. Finally he settled on the one thing he could understand, cartoons.

   He hadn’t seen this one before, and he had to admit, he was enjoying it. He’d known kids back

at home who still watched cartoons, some were even popular. But he always thought it was all too babyish for him. But here he was and after a long day it was relaxing to just sit and enjoy something.

   Before long he once again felt his bladder begin to call for emptying. He waited for a commercial and went into the bathroom determined to figure out that latch that had defeated him earlier. He’d seen the nurse open it so he thought he knew what to do but he still struggled with it. From Tom’s perspective it was rather complicated and required quite a bit of finesse. He fought for several minutes as the urge grew. Finally he decided he’d need help.

   “Uh... mom. I sort of need some help. Please.” He called from the door of the bathroom.

   “Yes hon?” She said walking up to the door and looking at him curiously.

   “It’s just this button, it’s weird. I don’t really know how to open it.” Tom blushed as asked like a toddler for help going to the bathroom.

   Without another word she reached down and effortlessly undid the button. “There you go, is this why you had that accident today?”

   Tom just nodded blushing a bit more.

   “Well that’s OK, you’ll get the hang of it, all the other children do.”

   Tom finished his business and went back to watching cartoons. He’d already been watching for some time and was becoming hooked. The evening wore on and eventually his mother came in to announce that it was time to get ready for bed.

   “Mom, it’s only 9 O’clock. I never go to bed this early.” He protested.

   “You’ve been staying up far too late, and your teacher say you have a lot of catching up to do so you’ll need your rest.”

   Tom sulked but decided not to argue that he was too old for this with the woman who had laundered his wet pants. He went upstairs to his room and began to undress. His mother wasn’t too far behind. “Still need help with those pants.”

   Tom again acquiesced to his mother helping him with his clothes. Shee unbuttoned his pants and helped him out of them thinking to herself about how cute he looked in the cartoon print underwear.

   “You need any more help hon?” she asked.

   “No I can do the rest.” Tom said feeling a bit embarrassed.

   “Alright, I put some pjs on your dresser if you want to wear them, it’s going to get pretty chilly tonight. Good night sweety.”

   “Good night, mom.” Tom said as she left the room. He’d given up wearing pajamas some time ago and preferred to sleep in his underwear. Not the kind of underwear he was currently wearing, of course, he had changed out of that, but pajamas were one of the many things he’d felt he’d outgrown.

   He turned out the light and climbed into bed. After a a few minutes of tossing and turning he realized that it wasn’t just chilly. It was freezing. No matter how he piled the covers he was still cold. He got out of bed and slipped on the pajamas his mother had left for him. Luckily they didn’t have any cartoon characters on them or anything like that. But they were warm and cozy. Tom climbed back into bed as comfy as he could be and quickly fell into a deep sleep.