Ben There

Chapter 8
Almost April; Changing

Chapter Description: Just after his adventure in the creek, Ben has to get ready to go out with his family. (This is a short and unusual chapter because it was planed as the ending to the last one. However, it got so long it put me way beyond my self-imposed word limit But it doesn't fit well with the next chapter either, so I'm posting it alone.)

Almost April; Changing

The mud creatures walked towards the porch with heads drooping, and before they got to it their mom said, "Vicky, how could you let this happen!" But she didn’t wait for an answer before she said, "Shoes and socks off out here; wash your feet with the hose. We’re going to have to really hurry."

Two minutes later two towels landed on the steps and their mom said, "Dry your feet. Then stand on the towels I put down inside the back door. Take off everything that’s muddy right there."

Vicky said, "Me too, Mom?"

"Yes, Vicky. Your jeans at least. Don’t worry; there’s no one here but us chickens."

As Vicky and the other two were taking their pants off, she said, "Vicky, go use my bathroom, and wear a shower cap; at least one of you didn’t get mud in their hair. And Hurry. -- Kathy, even your panties are muddy! Take them off. And yours too, Ben."

"No!"

"Ben, I meant your boxers. Come on. We need to leave in a little over an hour; we don’t have time to play around."

"No!"

"Benji?!"

"I don’t want to!"

"Benji, we’ve never been that shy in our home, and this is an emergency. Muddy water got through your pants, and I want your underwear to start soaking."

"No!! You can’t see my pieces!"

Kathy said, "I already have. Lots."

"Hush, Kathy! Benji, you’ve always known there is nothing about your body that’s dirty. We need to get you cleaned up because you’re filthy, and we need to hurry. Now come on."

Ben said, "I don’t care. I don’t want you to see them now. I’m not." and there were tears on his cheeks.

"Kath, take these clothes into the laundry room and put them in the big sink and turn on the water until they’re all covered. OK, kitten? -- Ben, why are you acting like this?"

"I just don’t want you to see me down there, mama! I don’t!"

"But I’ve seen those parts before, and so has Kathy."

"A long time ago. Not now."

She sighed. "And what’s so different now."

Tears were now streamed from Ben. "’Cuz they shunk. They got no more hair; they’re tiny."

She sat on the floor by the back door, because she didn’t want Ben to go any further into the house, and she took him into her lap to hug, and he didn’t try to stop her.

"Benji, your whole body is smaller now, because of your shots, and just for a little while. You already know all that, honey. Of course those parts are smaller too, sweetie."

"But they shrunk a lot more even than the rest. A lot, lot. And don’t want anyone to see ’em."

"I don’t think it’s that small, sweetie. When you were sick last week, I saw your penis when you changed underpants before bed. To me it looked just the right size for someone the size you are now. In fact, honey, I’m pretty sure it was almost too big for your body now."

"Nuh-uh."

"Uh-huh. Boys just always worry about the size of those parts too much. Girls are as bad about their boobies."

Ben snickered through his tears at his mom’s use of that word, as she had hoped he would, and he said, "You really think it’s big?"

"I really, really do, puppy dog."

She really, really didn’t, but she saw no harm in a little lie to make her little man feel a little better. On Tuesday morning Ben’s doctor had told her that he was, physically, a normal boy just over ten years and five months old. So she was sure, if things were continuing to progress on schedule, the child she held, late Friday afternoon, was about nine years and eleven months - in every way.

Kathy came back from the laundry room, and sat cross legged on the towel next to them, not caring at all about what pieces anyone could see. "It’s all sunken," she said.

"Thank you, doll," her mom said and kissed the top of her muddy head.

"Did you tell Benji that we see his boy bits all the time yet? I can see it right now."

"What?" Benji cried and put his hands down on his shorts.

"I’m afraid so, sweetie," she said to Ben. "That’s the other reason this was all so silly. When you wear boxer underwear, and it’s a bit loose, and you listen to stories on the bed, people sometimes can see up the legs. So Kathy and I have seen that part already, but neither of us thought it mattered enough to embarrass you or make you worry about it and mess up story time. Probably Vicky and your daddy have seen it too, while watching TV or building with blocks, but didn’t care about that as much as they care about you."

Ben was still holding his boxers tight and said, "B-but what about when I was at Amber’s house!"

"Oh, honey, it’s different with family, and I knew at least Danny would be crawling around with you on the floor. I made sure you had tight boxers to go visit, and I would if visitors here were going to see you in them too. Now can we please get this show on the road! We have five minutes less time than we did five minutes ago."

It had been embarrassment rather than real modesty that had stopped Ben, and he hadn’t really gotten over it, not about the past nor for the future, but he surrendered.

As he climbed out of her lap, his mom held his shorts and pulled them down, and then as she stood she said, "Now you two scoot up to your bathroom and wait for me there. Don’t start the water until I get there though, OK? Oh. And don’t touch anything! Not even the walls as you go upstairs."

Kathy trotted off, but Ben just stood in the kitchen with nothing on while his Mom put his underwear into the sink with the other things. When she came back she took his hand from his mouth and said, "Honey, let’s wait till your thumb is a bit cleaner before you put it in your mouth."

Ben said, "Am I taking a bath with Kathy?"

"Sure. It will be a lot faster to do two at once."

"But why didn’t you do Vicky with her? They’re both girls."

She kept holding his hand and led him towards the stairs. "Vicky didn’t need her hair washed, and that would make for a very crowded tub, honey. For right now, you fit better. OK?"

Ben was quiet for a minute, and the thumb of the hand his mom wasn’t holding found its way to his mouth, but she decided to ignore the dirt this time.

"You’re not gonna give me a bath though; I’m too old."

"Tell you what, you wash while I do Kathy, and then, after I wash your hair, I’ll just look to see if you missed any mud globules, OK, sweetie?"

She made Kathy and Ben stand under the shower and knock off some of the mud first. Then she cleaned the tub before she filled it for their real bath. It had been a long time since Ben had taken a tub bath but, since he knew his mom was watching, he scrubbed real hard. Still she reminded him to do his feet better and made him do his neck twice, then she pointed between his legs and, in a whisper, said, "down there, and the back of there very last, honey."

Just after he and Kathy had changed places and his shampoo had started, Vicky came in wrapped in a towel and said, "I’m done with my shower. Do you want me to help, mom."

"Yes. Kathy’s done too. Can you take her out and then use your blow dryer on her hair and clean her finger nails?"

Vicky started drying off Kathy and said, "I’m sorry about this, mom. Can I still go to the mall tomorrow?"

"Yeah, Vick. I’m not mad, just annoyed that you didn’t see this could happen, and it wouldn’t be a problem at all if we had more time, sweetheart."

After the girls left Ben said, "Mom, don’t be ’noyed with Vicky. It was only because of that I wanted to go to the creek a lot that Vicky went."

His mom smiled at him and said, "You did just what I’d expect you to do, Benji. And you certainly had to go help Kathy, didn’t you? Vicky should have talked you out of it, but she just hasn’t had much experience with creeks, has she?"

She started cleaning his back and said, "But do you know what happened while you were mud swimming, puppy? Peter from your Spanish class had his mom call and ask you over tomorrow."

"But mom, I take Spanish with little kids. He’s like Kathy’s age, why would I want to go to his house?"

"He’s older than her, and he told his mom that you two always play together during recess, so you must find some things to do with him, sweetie."

"I don’t have recess. I’m in high school and have PE, and sometimes I help on the playground during it, is all."

"Oh, well, I think you should go anyway. He’s really looking forward to playing with you. And Vicky’s going to be being a mall rat, and Kathy’s spending the night and most of the day with Monique, and your daddy and I have some big projects to get done. So it will be real dull around here, and if you are as nice as you usually are, sweetie, I’ll bet you have as much fun with Peter as you’ve had with Danny."

"You’re not gonna plant stuff where I drive my trucks, are you?"

"Nope, they’re all inside projects tomorrow. And we’ll leave that flower bed empty just for you for a while. OK, hop out and let’s go to my bathroom to get your hair dry."

Once the blow drier had done its work, Ben was going back to his room with a towel around his waist (that he kept stepping on) but, as he passed Vicky’s door, his mom said, "Wait, Benji. Come here."

Kathy was standing under the canopy of the bed, wearing two pink ribbons to hold her pigtails and nothing else. Vicky was sitting on the same bed wearing a large T-shirt and panties and cleaning her own nails. Before today, Ben hadn’t seen her dressed like that for a couple of years but, before the last two weeks, he hadn’t gone into her room in a couple of years either.

His mom said, "If you’re finished with Kathy, I’ll trade you a puppy for a kitten, princess."

"That sounds like a fair deal. Do you want me to clean his fingernails?"

"Yes, and I’ll go find a cute outfit for the kitten."

Ben said, "I can do my own!"

His mom said, "Benji, we keep talking about your letting people be nice to you and help you, don’t we? And this is a job someone else can do better and faster for everybody, especially on your right hand, right?"

Vicky said, "Yeah, Benji, why don’t you finish up my right hand for me first. But we’re still in a hurry, right, Mom?"

"Thirty-three minutes to lift off, if we make it and your daddy gets home on time, like he promised."

Ben did the last two of Vicky’s fingers, and she started on his hands. But his towel kept slipping off, or open, in spite of, or maybe because of, the fact that it went nearly two times around his waist, and every time it slipped he’d pull his hand away from Vicky to fix it.

Finally Vicky said, "Benji, just take it off or something. We’re in a hurry, remember?"

Ben’s response to that was to stand up and try to get the towel even tighter around himself.

Vicky said, "Really. Don’t worry about it at home, Benji. Kathy sure doesn’t, and I just saw you in the tub a few minutes ago."

He sat back down on the bed still holding the towel shut and handed her a hand again. He held out hope that there had been too many suds in the tub for Vicky to have seen anything, and he had kept his hands down and legs together too, but he said, "And mom says maybe u’ve seen it because my boxers were too loose sometimes, huh?" He had had to let go of the towel so that he’d have a thumb available for his mouth when he asked that question.

"Yeah, you’ve flashed me a few times, but it’s no biggie."

Ben gulped and managed to look even more crestfallen then he already had.

Vicky giggled and reached over to tickle his ribs and said, "Ohhh! You know I meant it is no problem. Stop acting like that. You teenage boys can just be so silly about some things."

Ben did giggle and managed a smile (maybe it was being called a teenager for the first time in a long time, rather than the tickling, that did it.)

Vicky said, "So I’ve seen the front, and you can stop hiding that, but I haven’t seen your butt in forever though, and mom says that it is, like, super uber-cute."

Ben gave up. He had surrendered to his mom in the Battle of the Kitchen Door, but hadn’t ended the fight. But everyone had seen almost everything, and they also talked about it to each other, and no one made fun of him. So, he just quit the war and ripped off the towel and mooned his sister.

And she said, "Oh Wow, Mom was so right! That is one really cute bottom!" And then she grabbed him, turned him around, kissed him and yelled, "Gotcha right between the eyes again, Benji! OK, but now we better get busy, or mom’ll turn both our bottoms bright red."

A few minutes later Vicky had started on his second hand, and Ben was lying on his stomach on top of the towel, and Kathy came in wearing a blue skirt with white lace at the bottom and a pink top with little flowers all over and said, "Mama said don’t stop hurrying and she put your outfit on your bed, Benji, and she’s gotta go take another shower now." While Kathy was talking, she had climbed onto the bed and taken a seat on Ben’s back.

Ben said, "Boys don’t wear outfits, Kathy. That’s girl stuff."

Kathy giggled and said, "Then you go around like you are now all the time outside?"

"No, we just wear clothes."

Kathy had started playing with his hair and said, "Do you think Benji’s hair is as light as mine now, Vicky?"

"Yeah, or pretty close, and it’s really pretty too, isn’t it, Kath? And really soft. I wish my hair had stayed that color. I’m gonna try and talk mom into letting me dye mine to match both of you. Wouldn’t that be great, Benji?"

Ben rolled his eyes at all girls everywhere, and Kathy got a brush and started brushing the hair that his mom had brushed just a little while ago.

That was when their dad appearated right in Vicky’s doorway and said, "Ah, so this is the meeting place now."

"Dadddeeeeeee!" Kathy yelled and sprang into his arms.

Ben said, "Hi!!" and smiled, but he couldn’t get up because Vicky didn’t let go of his hand.

"So why is Ben getting the beauty shop treatment tonight?"

Vicky said, "Because I let them both get turned into mud creatures."

Kathy said, "Benji pulled me out of some quicksand!"

Ben said, "I got four salamanders, and Maggie said I was a bwana."

"Aha, an adventure! And that explains all the towels by the door too, but I think I’m glad I missed the return of the heroes. I want to hear all about it very soon, but aren’t we supposed to be leaving in about ten minutes? Don’t two of you want to get dressed first?"

"Just one more finger," Vicky said. "You can’t believe how much gunk can fit under their nails, daddy."

"Well, I can see why you need a bigger bed, Vick. We’ll get that done tomorrow, at last."

Ben asked, "Is that the project mom said you were doing."

"That and a bunch of surprises for everyone."

"What are they?" Kathy asked.

"If I told you they wouldn’t be surprises, but they will probably make everyone confused for a few days."

Vicky said, "Done at last!"

Their dad said, "OK, buddy, first a hug and then you better run and get ready, but can you say ’thank you’ to your sister before you go, big guy?"

Ben gave his dad the hug and said, "Sure I can. It’s easy. ’Thank you to your sister before you go, big guy.’"

Ben’s dad said, "Arrrrggh," then he picked Ben up and carried him over a shoulder into his room and dropped him right on top of his clean outfit.