Snow Days and More

Chapter 5
Part Five

Mom woke me the next day, telling me she was heading to the A&P. I remembered all too well what that meant. Tiffany Ambrose, the girl down the road, a girl just one year older than me, would be ’baby-sitting’ me. I begged and pleaded with her to take me along, but she told me it would be fine. She would only be gone an hour or so, and that it would be no different that if Jay or Frankie came over to play. She even eased off on my grounding, so that Tiff and I could play. Inside, of course, I was grounded from snow play, but I didn’t want to go out anyway. I just trudged into the bathroom with clean boxers and clothes. Thankfully, Mom had done laundry after I went to bed. I didn’t want to have to wear GoodNites during the day.

After taking the dry GoodNites off, I dressed and headed to the kitchen for breakfast after tossing the unused GoodNites on my bed. Mom was just waiting for Tiffany to show up so she could leave. I pushed my food around my plate, not hungry at all. I was upset that Tiffany was going to be watching me, that Mom didn’t trust me to stay home alone for an hour. And I was still upset about the nightmare I’d had the afternoon before. I just couldn’t get the image out of my head.

Tiffany showed up at 9:00 that Saturday, and came into the kitchen. "Hi Nick," she said to me.

"Hey," I replied with a dead voice. Mom got her things together, and handed Tiff the standard index card she had from when I actually needed babysitters. It had her cell phone on it, Jay’s Mom’s phone number in case Mom couldn’t be reached, my Dad’s numbers, and instructions on what I was allowed and not allowed to do. She gave mea kiss, and told me to behave. I nodded, and she was gone.

"So, Nick, what did you do?" Tiffany asked after Mom left, sitting at the table with me.

"Huh?" I asked. "What makes you think I did something?"

"Well, I’m twelve. I babysit all the time, but I’ve never had to sit for a kid who’s only a grade behind me in school, you know? I figure you did something bad."

"Yea, I guess. I lied to my Mom about something, and she’s mad about it. Okay?" I tried not to sound testy, but it came out kind of mad-sounding anyway.

"Hey, whatever, man," she said. "I was just saying is all. So, what do you want to do? Your Mom says we can’t go play in the snow, and that your video games are off-limits. But we can play, like, Monopoly or something."

"Sure, I guess. Hey, sorry I snapped at you, Tiff. It’s not your fault my Mom grounded me. It’s mine."

"Apology accepted." She asked where the Monopoly set was, and I told her, in the coat closet in the downstairs hall, on the top shelf. Mom had put it up there when I was younger and thought I needed to crayon all over the board. It just never found a new home. Tiffany easily snagged the box off the shelf to my dismay. I needed a chair to do what she had done.

"Right, let’s play in your room, Nick. We can listen to music. I brought my Slipknot CD with me."

"Sure. Sounds cool." So we headed up to my bedroom, me forgetting one small detail. The unused but obviously worn GoodNites on the bed. I saw it as soon as I was through the door, and gasped. I ran to the bed, jumping up on it, trying to hide it with my body, but my gasp had made Tiff curious.

"What? What are you hiding, Nick?" she said.

"Nothing," I said. "Give me the CD, I’ll put it in and you set up the game. I want the car piece."

"Nick, I’ve been babysitting for a year now. I know when someone’s hiding something. Now, your Mom put me in charge, and right now, I’m telling you to get off the bed and show me what it is your hiding."

"Nothing, I said. Why are you being so, like, mean all of a sudden."

"I’m not being mean yet, Nick. I was put in charge. Your Mom trusts me to do the right things. And right now, the right thing would be to find out what you’re hiding. Get. Off. The. Bed. Unless you want me to tell your Mom your didn’t listen to me. Nick, I don’t want to do that. I don’t. We’re friends. But my babysitting coach told all of us that when your babysitting people you know, they can’t be friends when you do it. You have to stay professional. Now, are you going to show me what’s underneath you, or do you want me to tell your Mom you didn’t listen?"

"Fine," I said "You want to know? I was hiding this." I pulled the GoodNites out from under me and tossed it on the floor at her feet. "That’s what I was hiding, Tiffany, that’s what I didn’t want you to see. Because babysitter or not, it’s none of your business."

She stared at the GoodNites for a moment, then at me. I dared her with her eyes to say something cruel or to tease me, but she didn’t. Her mean, ’I’m the boss, do what I say’ attitude went away, and was replaced with one of knowing.

"You wear these to bed?" She asked, not cruel sounding, but in a normal conversational tone.

"Yea, so?" I said back, snapping a little at her. She looked a little hurt, then a little ashamed.

"So do I," she said softly. "I have my whole life...well, not when I was a baby, but since I was like five. I’m sorry I yelled at you to show me. I promise to never tell anyone, Nick. Okay?"

"Yea, I guess. Do you really wear them to bed?" I’d never heard of a kid her age wetting the bed, forgetting for a moment I was only a year younger.

"Yep. I hate it, but my bed pants keep me dry. I even go to sleepovers and stuff. You’re only the second person outside my family who knows I wear them. And you better not tell anyone, Nick Dunlap."

"I won’t. I mean, I can’t. If I do, you can just tell on me, right?"

She nodded, and sat down on the floor, setting the board game box down. "Still want to play?"

And so we did, until Mom got home at 10:30. I asked Tiffany to stay until the end of the game at least, but she said we’d finish it another day, that she had dance class at 11:00. Mom paid her, and asked her how I was.

"Perfect, Ms. D. Not a problem at all. We played Monopoly, and that’s about all."

After Tiff left, I carefully moved the Monopoly board to the side of my room where it wouldn’t get messed up, and flopped on my bed. I turned the TV on, and tried to get into a movie, but I just couldn’t. It didn’t help that during every commercial break it seemed, there was an ad for Pampers or Huggies. Every time I saw one of the diaper ads, I recalled the nightmare. The mental image of me being held by Mom, dressed like a baby wouldn’t leave my mind.

After lunch, Mom and I played some Yahtzee. That got boring after a while, and so Mom went to her office to do some work on a design (she works for a major architectural firm, and is allowed to work at home mostly. She mostly does houses, but some office buildings too. She’s really good, and has won awards and everything) and I went to my room to watch some more TV. I fell asleep watching Spongebob.

Again I woke up screaming for my Mom, two hours later. Mom was in my room, again rocking me, soothing me, trying to calm me down. I wasn’t having it though. I cried and cried, never wanting to sleep again.

I did finally calm down, of course, and once again, Mom took care of the wet bed while I showered and changed my clothes. The rest of the day was subdued. I clung to Mom a little more than I had in a long time, not wanting to be left alone in my room, but not wanting to talk either. I just kind of sat on her lap, in a daze, as she watched the news, and then some sitcoms.

"Nick, honey, are you okay," Mom asked at one point. I just nodded, not in the mood to speak.

Are you sure?" Another nod. "Well, why are you sucking your thumb then?"

I jumped, startled. I was sucking my thumb, and from how wet it was, I’d say I’d had it in my mouth for some time. I felt tears well up in my eyes as I wiped my soggy thumb off on my jeans. I leaned my head back on Mom, afraid I’d lose it if I spoke. She just stroked my head, letting me work out my issues in my head.

Bedtime came, and I got kind of agitated. I was whining that I didn’t want to go to bed, that I wasn’t tired, sounding all the while like a little kid who was tired. I didn’t want to go to bed because I didn’t want to have the horrid nightmare. Mom laid with me as I cried in bed for an hour, before I drifted off into a fitful sleep.

At about midnight, I awoke cuddled up with Mr. Wumpus, my thumb firmly in my mouth, and the GoodNites I had on under my pajamas soaked. I got out of bed, and after wiping my thumb off on the sheets, I walked to Mom’s room, crawling into bed with her. I had carried Mr. Wumpus with me.

"Nick?" Mom whispered. "Are you okay, honey?"

"Uh-huh," I said, almost asleep again. "Am now..." I never felt Mom change the wet GoodNites at all. I just slept cuddled up with her and my monkey, and slept dreamlessly.

To Be Continued...