The Error, by LittleMatt

Chapter 12
Chapter 12

Chapter Description: By LittleMatt

Chapter 12

In the morning Tom was changed out of his soaked night-time diaper and helped into his third grade uniform again. He’d be getting a new preschool one today his mother promised. His mother got him to Kiddie Town early and began the process of officially enrolling him in preschool, specifically the class they referred to as The Little Ducklings. The Little Bunnies class was reserved for children who’d been successfully potty trained. “You’re both very lucky today” explained the secretary “We just had a new spot open up in Ducklings.”

While Tom waited for the adults to wrap up their business Johnny spotted him. “Hi Tommy” he chirped “Sorry about you getting lost like that. We just thought you’d be able to use the bus since you’re kind of a big kid and all.”

“That’s OK.” Tommy said “It was really my fault I guess. I should have just gone home.”

“Do you still wanna play with us? We’ve got some really fun ideas for recess today.” Johnny offered.

“I can’t.” Tom looked down and heaved a sigh as he made an admission “I have to stay here instead of going to school with you guys.”

A look of realization crossed Johnny’s face “Oh, so you’re going to be in preschool now.” He paused “You might be a little less confused than you are in our class. They teach really simple stuff like algebra. And the teachers are really nice. And you won’t have to keep going to the school nurse to get changed.”

Tom looked back up in shock “You know about that?”

Johnny shrugged “Sure, why else would you keep going to the nurse’s office like that. Especially since you always did it after you asked to go to the bathroom.”

Tom stammered.

“It’s OK” Johnny replied casually “Maybe we can play after school. That’s when they let you preschoolers out to play with us big kids.”

“Uh sure. I guess.” Tom said still stunned.

“OK then, see you later” Johnny said as he bounced off to the big kid’s room.

 Tom turned back around just as the adults finished with their business. “This is Mrs. Hansley” his mother said motioning towards a young blonde woman “She’ll show you around and help you get your new clothes on.”

“Hi” Tom offered as he tried to assess the new situation.

Mrs. Hansley knelt down “Hi Tommy, we have lots of fun things for you to do here. Just say bye to your mommy and I’ll show you your new classroom.”

He exchanged a good-bye hug with his mother “Be a good boy” she patted his bottom “And don’t worry about getting to the potty. Just let the ladies know when you need a change and we’ll see about getting you back into big boy pants later. OK?” Inside Tom winced, he wondered if it was too late to protest this change in status. He’d felt so scared and vulnerable on that park bench that he would have agreed to nearly anything. Now he wanted to ask her to reconsider, but before the words came out he was watching her walk out the door.

“Don’t worry hon” Mrs. Hansley said as she took his hand and led him through door that separated the preschool section from the regular daycare “She’ll be back to pick you up at the end of the day.”

Two doors where on opposite sides of the hallway. On the right was one decorated with a cartoon rabbit, and the left was a happy cartoon duckling. One small boy was being led from the duckling room to the other. “Good job getting potty trained Andy” Mrs. Hansley addressed him as they passed. Andy smiled back and followed his new teacher through the open door. On the other side of the Little Bunnies room Tom could see into a small bathroom. The door shut behind Andy and he turned to look into his new classroom. Several changing tables lined the wall.

Tom’s preschool teacher retrieved a pair of shortalls and a striped shirt from a nearby counter. On the bib of the shortalls was a picture of the same duckling that was on the classroom door, a comically large pin held its diaper in place as it smiled eagerly.

“Now let’s get you ready for school and I’ll show you all the fun things we have here and the other teachers.” She began untying his shoes and Tom took a moment to look around. He was surprised by how calm everything seemed to be. All the children were happily absorbed in toys or painting or being tended to by one of the other teachers. Something about it seemed welcoming. Once he was down to his diaper Mrs. Hansley casually slipped a finger just under the leg gather before moving to getting him into his shortalls. Tom looked around again, one group of children was watching a cartoon that seemed familiar. Once he was securely in his new preschool outfit Mrs. Hansley quickly took out a small pen-sized device and twisted it into the buttons on his shoulder straps and two other snaps on the front of his pants.

“What was that?” He inquired.

“Just a tool for grown-ups, don’t worry about it.” She answered patting his head.

She showed him around the various parts of the classroom. There was an area with a toy box, one with a TV, some tables setup for painting, and a playground outback where the preschoolers could play as long one of the teachers was supervising. “You can do whatever you want for now” she explained “But everybody has to be quiet for storytime, and then lay down for a nap.” Two other teachers Ms. Kelly and Mrs. Peterson moved about the room observing things and occasionally shuffling one of their charges off to the changing tables.

With a pat on the bottom Tom was dismissed to find something to do until storytime. He looked back to the TV, something about the cartoon was familiar. He walked over to the group of children gathered around and watched for a moment. Then it dawned on him, these were the Cartoonimals everybody had kept bringing up. They were currently involved in comical explanation of simplifying an algebraic expression. Tom recalled the subject from his old school. But this was different, somehow he was interested. Without giving it a second thought he sat down cross legged on brightly colored carpet. Soon he was laughing along with his preschool classmates and swaying to the simple songs.     

He never noticed the dire urgency of his bladder until it was already giving way. In a moment he realized he was sitting in a wet diaper in the middle of a preschool watching a kid’s show, but he couldn’t pull himself away. Mrs. Peterson, an experienced preschool teacher, somehow suspected. As she walked by she quickly reached beneath Tom’s shortalls. “Jessica” She said to Ms. Kelly “We have a wet little guy here. Would you mind?”

“Of course not” she replied.

Tom looked between them in shock.

Ms. Kelly knelt down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll just put you in a dry diaper and you can go right back to watching your cartoon.” She took his hand and led him to a changing table.

“Do we really have to do this out here?” Tom said.

“Where else would I change your diaper, silly?” She replied as as she set a disposable mat onto the table.

“It’s just that the school nurse before changed... I mean helped me out of my pull-ups in her office.”

Ms Kelly smiled “Don’t worry sweety, we have everything we need to change your diapers here too” She said motioning to a neatly stacked box of powder, wipes, and other supplies “Just let us grown-ups worry about stuff like that”

“No, I mean” Tom stammered as she hoisted him up onto the table. He could see his protests would go nowhere. Nobody would see him as any different than an everyday preschooler.

She gently pushed him back onto the padded surface. Then she unfastened his shortalls and quickly went to work. “So you really must like the Cartoonimals, you’ve been watching them all day.”

“Yeah they’re kind of interesting I guess” Tom replied.

“Do you want to try something else after we’re done. Maybe try some of the toys?”

Tom shrugged “Sure.”

With a fresh layer of baby powder applied and a new diaper in place his pants were snapped back up and he was taken to the opposite corner of the room where toys of every description filled shelves and boxes. Ms. Kelly gave him a pat on the bottom and left him to play among the other preschoolers.

Tom settled down next to a small toy train set. He looked around for the engine and found a pile gears, wheels, and parts. He scooped them up in his hand, he could almost see how they were supposed to go together. He began playing with the pieces, trying different arrangements. Finally he worked out a configuration that seemed to work. He flipped a switch and all four wheels began to turn. A smile grew across his face. He sat his new train down on the track and he watched with open delight as it ran around the track. Soon another boy sat down next to him and picked the train up. “This makes it faster” he said before taking out a few gears and rearranging them. He put the train back and it took off faster than before. Tom realized that there must be many more combinations. He couldn’t wait to try more. But before he could pick the train up again Mrs. Peterson was calling everybody for story time.

Tom reluctantly left his train behind and sat down on the edge of the group gathered around Mrs. Peterson’s chair. Today’s story, she announced, was Spaceman Simon and the Three Laws of Motion. The title reminded him of something and as he listened to Mrs. Peterson’s slow sing-song reading he remembered hearing about this once, something about the scientist who’d gotten hit by an apple. It never interested him, and he never understood it. But in the story of Spaceman Simon it was something he could understand. He leaned in closer to see the pictures and Mrs. Peterson turned the book around to show everyone. Mrs. Hansley began passing out sippy cups to all the children. Tom almost balked but decided to try it, it was warm and sweet. He drank some more while he sat and listened.

He finished his cup just as the story came to an end. The teachers began moving everybody into the nap room. Tom paused in the doorway and looked at the rows of cribs crisscrossing the room.

“Can’t I sleep on a mat or something” Tom asked Mrs. Hansley as she walked by.

“Oh these are lot more comfy than some old mat” she said before getting an idea. She grabbed a stuffed rabbit from a nearby shelf “Here you can have this stuffed bunny if you’re scared. And one of us teachers will always be in the room.” She smiled and handed him his stuffed rabbit before giving his diaper a quick check and hoisting him into a nearby crib.

“But I’m not scared, I just...”

“That’s good” she said giving his head a quick pat “Just lie down and try to sleep.”

Tom sank down to the mattress, rabbit still in hand. Mrs. Hansley pulled his blanket over him. “Good boy” she said softly “after all that playing and starting a new school you need some rest.” She slid the crib’s railing into place and moved on to other children. In a few moments the lights were dimmed and lullaby began to play over unseen speakers. Tom laid there and realized he was tired, very tired. The crib’s mattress seemed perfect. His blanket was soft and warm. And the music, the lulaby was simple but so deeply soothing.  He wondered why he’d wanted to take a nap anywhere else. He closed his eyes and fell alseep.

He awoke again to Mrs. Hansley standing over his crib. “Did you have a good nap?” She said not even waiting for an answer before she checked his diaper. “Let’s get you over to the changing tables.”

She helped him out of his crib and took him back to the main room where the other two teachers were busy changing the last of their student’s naptime diapers. Tom could only wait before Mrs. Peterson finally came to tend to him. 

Once he was in a dry diaper and back on his feet he scanned the room for something to do. His new favorite toy was already being played with. He sat down next to it anyway, just to observe. To his surprise his new new classmates, Mike and Sammy, welcomed him and he quickly joined them in building and playing with new trains. His new friends introduced him to other toys. There were toy robots, cars, and puzzles. Tom could hardly tear himself away from any of them. He barely noticed the hours slip by until he heard his mother’s voice from across the room.

He looked up from his toy car and she waved him over to where she was talking with Mrs. Hansley. Still enthralled with all the new toys he’d found he rushed over to her “Hi mom, I was just playing with this cool car thing.” he quickly began, enthusing “You can build the engine for it and everything. It’s really cool.”

She looked at him with bemused surprise “Well I’m glad you had such a good time. Mrs. Hansley was just telling me what a great addition you are to the class.”

Tom looked down in embarrassment at his display of enthusiasm and tried to shift into a more mature bearing. “Yeah I guess it was alright.”  But a peek back at his mother and teacher sharing a knowing look told him it was already too late.

Karen turned back to Mrs. Hansley “How did he do about letting you know when he needs a change?” The experienced preschool teacher dismissed the whole idea with a wave of her hand “We can work on that when he starts getting ready to train. Until then we’re happy to just let him play.”

“Oh, well I guess I won’t worry then either.” Karen said as she gave her son’s head a gentle stroke. “You said you had something for us to take home.”

“Yes” she retrieved a brightly colored book from her desk “This is a coloring book we give to all our students. We don’t really have lessons here but we do try to instill some of the basics. Tommy can go through this at his own pace, it has some puzzles and games that teach basic algebra, geometry, that sort of thing.”

“Thank you, seeing how he liked his day here I’m sure he’ll have fun with this too.”

She looked back at Tom “Say ’thank you’ to your teacher sweety.”

Tom accepted the book and took a moment to examine the picture of young children among giant algebraic equations. “Thank you, Mrs. Hansley” he added with more than a trace of genuineness. With that his mother took his hand, bid his teacher good-bye and led him out the door. He looked back as the door shut and couldn’t believe he wanted to go back.