Riddy woke to the sound of his window rattling. As he cracked open his eyes he was momentarily confused; the room looked and smelled different from what he was used to. It took a moment, with his half-awake brain, to remember he was at Grandma’s house. He lay there contentedly for a moment and then gave a stretch and he felt the bulk between his legs. Oh, that, he thought. He remembered the mix-ups and running out of DryJams, which led to him being put in a straight-up diaper last night. Strangely, the diaper didn’t feel much like it was wet; Riddy almost never woke up dry. He gave it a feel with his paw. It seemed like it might be a bit thicker than the night before. He peeked under his sheets and pulled back the waistband of his pajama pants. In the dim light that made it in, he could see the wetness indicator had partially turned blue. Speaking of wetness, Riddy was aware of the pressure in his bladder. For this, he simply laid back and released it into the diaper, something he usually did with his DryJam in the morning anyway. The familiar warmth spread through it, but the feeling of wetness seemed to fade rather quickly. He gave the diaper another press. It felt wet now, but not terribly so. Normally, by this point, Riddy’s DryJam would be thoroughly soaked and in need of changing. This diaper had a much higher capacity to go with its thickness.
Another rattling and roar from the window diverted Riddy’s attention. He got out of bed, waddling a bit from the bulk between his legs, and peeked between the curtains. The outside was a complete white-out. The house across the yard was barely visible as snow whipped by at speeds Riddy had not seen before. A small tree, though bare of leaves, bent under the force as another gust came. The house shook, and even with the window shut tight, Riddy swore he could feel the chill creep in. He stood there, mesmerized by the ferocity of the blizzard for some minutes. Before long, though, a grumbling from his stomach told him it was time to get breakfast. He considered changing before leaving the room. He pulled back the waistband on his pajama pants and gave one of the diaper tapes a small tug. It started to peel off a bit, but Riddy remembered he would need some instruction on how to put a new one on. He smoothed the tape back down and left his room.
He passed his grandmother, who was reading a book in the living room, and found his parents reading their tablets and drinking coffee in the kitchen. His dad, Mark, was the first to come to attention. “Hey bud, still in your PJs I see. Do you want some cereal?”
Riddy’s stomach grumbled again. “Yes, please.”
Mark opened the pantry “Sugar Flakes sound good?”
Riddy liked his lips. “Yes that sounds great.”
Mark poured the cereal and milk, and the kit quickly devoured it, drinking the last of the milk from his bowl. He sat for a moment contentedly rubbing his belly. Then he piped up. “Hey, do you think we could go sledding later?” he asked.
His dad looked at the window and said, “Sorry Riddy, the storm’s just too strong. We’ll have to stay in today.” As if on cue, another gust shook the house. “The forecast says it should die down by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Okay,” Riddy moaned, letting his head sink.
His mom, Liz, addressed him now. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find something to do. But I don’t want you playing that video game all day.” She took a final gulp of her coffee. “You should probably get out of those PJs and into a fresh diaper.”
At this, Riddy blushed and looked back to make sure his grandmother hadn’t overheard. Even though she was somewhat aware of his situation, he didn’t like talking about it so openly. “Okay mom,” he grumbled, and the two set off for his bedroom.
On his mom’s instructions, he took off his wet diaper and cleaned himself a bit. She showed him the way the diaper folded and the way the tapes lined up with the landing pad. He tried putting it on with her assistance, but it was too loose. He tried it again, but it went on crooked. He tried again several more times, but there was always something wrong; the tapes were misaligned, the tail tape wasn’t properly secured, or there were inexplicable gaps in the leak guards. Eventually, Liz gave a huff and snugly taped the diaper onto Riddy herself.
“Okay, I think we’ll have to help you with your diapers for now. If you want to use the bathroom, just get one of us and we’ll help you out, or we can change you when you need it.” She put up a finger. “You’re not allowed to take your diaper off without permission, understand?”
Riddy blushed and nodded. “Yes, mom.”
She stood up and looked him over. “Oh, don’t you look cute? Now,” she gave him a pat on his padded rear. “Go get in your day clothes and have a good time. I’m going to see if Grandma needs help with anything.” She left the room. Riddy looked through his clothes and started getting dressed. He found that the pair of jeans he had packed, which he was already close to growing out of, did not fit comfortably over his diaper. Instead, he opted for a pair of denim overalls. He looked at himself in the mirror. The overalls, with the slight bulge from his diaper, made him look like an oversized toddler. Figuring this was the best he could do, he moved to leave his room.
Just as he was leaving, he ran into his grandmother in the hall. She was carrying something that looked like a slender plastic garbage can. “Oh, Riddy.” She said “I found this in the basement. It’s a diaper genie from when you visited as a baby. Looks like it’s still got a bit more use in it.”
Riddy blushed as she put the diaper genie in the corner of his room. “Thanks, Grandma,” he said, not wanting to say anything that would hurt her feelings.
“And by the way, I found a chest that has some old toys that belonged to your mother and uncles. That might give you something fun to do.”
This was enough to lift the young fox’s spirits. “Thanks, Grandma!” he shouted, and dashed off for the basement, tail waving excitedly behind him. He stopped at the top of the steps, remembering that the basement here had always been a bit creepy. When he was younger, he worried that a monster might jump out and grab him if he went down there, which was probably why he never knew about the toy chest until now. He swallowed his fear and tentatively descended the steps. It still was a creepy basement. The gloomy lighting still gave the feeling that something might be hiding in the shadows, even though Riddy knew better. It was an unfinished basement, mostly used for storage. A few shelves and stacked boxes lined the walls. It smelled of mothballs and old cardboard.
Riddy looked around from the bottom of the steps, looking for something that might be a toy chest. In one corner was a wooden box painted with astronauts on one side and a princess in a castle on the other. He walked over and opened it to find an assortment of toys: baby dolls, Barbie dolls, plastic dinosaurs, toy guns, superhero action figures, cars, spaceships, and a partially disassembled dollhouse. After a moment’s thinking, Riddy grabbed some of the superhero toys, a space ship, and a Barbie doll and carried them up to his room in his arms. He returned a moment later for the dollhouse. Fortunately for him, it did not look all that girly, and would be suitable for a villainous lair.
He set up his scenario: Princess PrettyPants had been kidnapped by the evil Dr. Cyborg and it was up to the SuperSquad to rescue her. They had to fight of various villains including a giant space jellyfish (really a plastic bag), evil energy discs (some coins from Riddy’s allowance), and a floating crocodile head (a clothes pin). At one point, they got lost in a land of tall orange grass (the fur on Riddy’s tail). Finally, they defeated Dr. Cyborg and sent him off to be imprisoned in the wastebasket. But wait! The princess had already fallen under evil mind control. She was the real final boss. Eventually they defeated her and restored her mind. She asked them to marry her, but they all said “no” because marriage was icky.
By this point, Riddy was starting to feel the need to pee. He got up and went to the bathroom and got as far as undoing his overalls when he once again noticed the diaper. With a grumble, he redid the overalls and went to find someone to help with his diaper. He found his parents up on stepladders in the living room, arranging Christmas lights along the ceiling under Grandma’s direction.
“Oh, I haven’t had it decorated like this in years!” she said delightedly. “Since George passed I haven’t had an extra pair of hands, let alone someone able-bodied.” She turned “Oh, did you need something, Riddy?”
“Uh, Mom, Dad, I need some help…” he winced a little, “going to the bathroom.”
“We’re a bit busy with this right now. Do you think you can wait a while?”
“Uh, yeah.” He said with some uncertainty. His need was becoming urgent. Hoping to distract himself, he got a couple more toy spaceships from the basement and tried to set up an epic space battle for his next bout with the toys. He started coming up with something, but pretty soon he was just moving the toys around without thinking about what sort of imaginary scenario he might come up with. Feeling like his parents might not come in time anyway, he relaxed and let his pee flow into his diaper. It grew warm and a bit thicker, but the padding quickly wicked away the wetness. He didn’t feel particularly ashamed of this act, since accidents in his pullups were an almost daily occurrence, only this time he did not feel the wetness as much. Comfortable once more, he was able to focus on his space battle. Dr. Cyborg had built a space fortress and was threatening to blow up the sun, but the SuperSquad, after some disagreement and infighting, were able to team up and destroy the space fortress.
Riddy had, for the moment, come to the end of the story and was trying to figure out what to do next when his mom knocked on his door and entered. “We’ve got the first batch of Christmas lights up, so I have time to help you with your diaper before we start the next part. Do you still have to go?”
“Uh, no,” Riddy said a bit shyly. “I uh, went in my diaper.”
“Well, that’s okay. That’s what they’re there for.” She paused. “Do you need a change?”
“I don’t think so.” Riddy blushed at this.
“Well, let me check.” She unzipped his overalls and gave his diaper a prod with her finger. Riddy blushed at receiving this sort of toddler treatment. “Looks like you’re not that wet. I agree: a change can wait.” She zipped him back up. “Well,” she looked at the clock on the nightstand. “Looks like it’s about lunch time. You hungry?”
Riddy hadn’t noticed his growing hunger through the games he had been playing. “Sure.” Was his response. The two went to the kitchen where Liz microwaved some chicken nuggets and gave them to Riddy with some ketchup. Riddy ate in silence for a bit.
A few minutes later his grandmother walked in and asked. “So it seems like you found the old toys. Are you enjoying them?”
“Yes, Grandma, but I was hoping maybe there was something else to do around here, too.”
“Would you like to help decorate the Christmas tree when you’re finished lunch?”
Riddy remembered the fun of decorating the tree in previous years. “Yes!” He quickly finished his nuggets and followed them up with a cookie.
He hopped up out of his chair and followed Grandma into the living room. There, his dad was winding the lights, currently off, around the tree. A couple feet away were a couple cardboard boxes marked “X-mas.” Inside those were smaller red-and green boxes, a few with transparent lids revealing the decorations inside. Riddy began taking them out of the larger boxes and looking through them. There were, of course, the standard orbs: one set of red and green, another of silver and gold. Others were in the same colors, but glittery. He sorted through more of them. There were a couple boxes of snowflakes, angels, and glass crystals. At the bottom were some boxes of painted wooden ornaments; figurines of Santa Claus, elves, trains and nutcrackers
“We had those even when I was little.” Liz knelt next to him. “When your uncles and I were really little we weren’t allowed to touch the fragile ones, so we could only hang these ones up.”
“How old are these?” Riddy asked.
“Oh I must have gotten them about 40 years ago.” Grandma tapped her chin. “But even that was at an estate sale, so they might be a lot older than that.”
“Wow.”
“How about we hang these ones up first,” Liz suggested.
“Okay.” Riddy grabbed a few and started hanging them on the tree’s branches, enjoying its scent.“Hold on on there kiddo,” Mark said. “Try spreading them out a bit. The tree will look nicer if the decorations are evenly mixed.”
“Oh, okay.”
With a little direction, Riddy started distributing the wooden ornaments around the tree. After that, they moved onto the snowflakes, then the crystals, and finally the glass ones. Riddy was eager to help, though the adults still had to decorate the upper part of the tree, which was too high for him to safely secure the fragile ornaments. Eventually, the tree was fully decorated, well except for one thing: in place of a star, Grandma had a small poseable teddy bear angel that would hug the very top of the tree.
“What do ya say bud?” Mark asked. “You want to put the bear on top?”
“Yes!”
Mark handed Riddy the teddy bear and lifted him up by the underarms so he could put the bear at the top of the tree.
“Oof, you’re getting too heavy for this. Ooh, watch that tail!”
Riddy’s tail had reflexively moved in response to the shift in force and bumped his dad in the face.
“Almost got it.” Riddy wrapped the wire-framed arms and legs of the bear around the tip of the tree. “There!”
“And we’re coming in for a landing.” Mark guided Riddy down to the floor, making airplane noises.
Riddy giggled a bit but said, “Dad, I’m not a little kid.”
“Sorry, big guy. All right. Care to do the honors?” Mark gestured to the switch on the green wire leading to the lights.
“Yes please!”
Riddy rushed over to the switch, held it for a moment, and clicked it. The tree was illuminated in multicolored lights, all reflecting and refracting off the various hanging ornaments, sparkling in the glittered ones.
“Get the other lights,” Grandma said.
Mark and Liz flipped a few switches, turning off all lights in the room except the tree. Heavy curtains kept most of the light from outside, leaving tree was the main source of light. The nearby walls and ceiling were illuminated in a mottled rainbow. Patches of red, yellow, green, and blue faded into one another. The family stood there, mesmerized for a moment.
A fierce gust of wind rattled the windows, breaking them out of the trance. Riddy peeked behind the curtain and saw only white; even the houses across the street had disappeared from view. For a moment, Riddy imagined the house standing isolated; the world around it nothing but blowing snow that went on forever.
“Whoa, it’s really blowing out there.” Mark was standing next to Riddy at the window.
“I haven’t seen a storm like this in years.” Grandma commented.
She shivered a bit. Riddy also notice that, even with the house being heated, a bit of a chill was creeping in from the blizzard.
Grandma followed up: “This would be a good time to light the fireplace.”
“Oh, do you have firewood?” Mark asked.
“Oh no, it’s gas powered. Here, I’ll show you.”
They went over to the fireplace and fiddled with some mechanisms that Riddy couldn’t quite see. He heard Grandma say something about turning a knob and pushing a certain button. When they pulled away, a nice bright fire was burning in the fireplace, the flames licking around the fake logs.
“It’s not quite like a real wood fire, but that is pretty nice.” Mark looked down at the fire, his hands on his hips.
“Oh yes,” said Liz. “Just the light makes this place look warmer.”
Riddy moved over to the fireplace. It didn’t have the crackle or smell of a wood fire, but he could feel the warmth coming off of it. He recalled a vague memory of being here on Christmas before, with the fireplace going. Still, despite how nice the fire was, Riddy was itching for something to do.
“So what’s next?”
Liz replied, “well most of the decorating is done, and I’m going to help Grandma get the crock pot ready. You know what, when I was your age I used to like reading by the fireplace in the winter. I think the books your uncles and I had as kids are still downstairs.”
“Really?” Riddy was curious about what sort of books there were.
“Let’s go take a look.” Liz led Riddy back down to the basement where she pulled one of the boxes, labeled “Kids’ Books” off the shelf. “Oh here we go.”
She opened the box to reveal a mix of books, some hardcover, some paperback, all looking rather worn.
“Now, let’s see.”
She started taking the books out. Riddy saw one cover showing a girl in a frilly dress standing in what looked like a Victorian garden. Definitely to girly for Riddy. Another one showed four little girls at a small table, having a tea party.
“Ah, here we are. I think you’ll like this one.”
She showed him the book. The cover showed a teenage opossum clinging to a rope dangling high above the clouds, looking frightened. In gold letters, the title was Sky Wanderer: Book 1: Into the Sky. Now this looked like a fun adventure. He ran his hand over the cover and gave his mom a quick “thank you” before running upstairs to read it. He lay down by the fire, finding the right angle so that the pages were illuminated by the orange glow, and began to read.
The book was a little advanced for his age, but he was able to slowly push through. It told the story of an orphaned teenage opossum named Tim living on the streets of a steampunk city. After dealing with a number of struggles, including an encounter with a corrupt government office, he was found by his uncle Tiberius who took him aboard an airship, hoping to bring him into a better life. This plan took a detour when the uncle’s prototype power source was stolen by a mysterious thief.
Riddy was getting engrossed in the story; he didn’t know how much time had passed. But soon another matter came to his attention: once again there was a growing need to pee. He read a few more pages, but finally he decided to get up and ask for help. He saw his dad in the kitchen and walked up to him.
“Hey, dad, do you think you could help me out with the, uh, bathroom.”
“Is is it number one or number two?”
“Number one.”
“Well you’ve got a diaper on, kiddo.” Mark gave his son a pat on the rear, eliciting a slight crinkle. “If you already used it partway, might as well not waste the rest.”
Riddy felt a bit flustered at this suggestion. Sure, he wasn’t averse to using his DryJams before, but not when a bathroom was easily available. “Oh ok,” he said a bit weakly.
He took a moment to relax, reassuring himself in his head that this was little different from using his DryJams when a there wasn’t an easily reachable bathroom. Then he started wetting his diaper once again. It was definitely becoming thicker and heavier than before.
“O-okay, I’m done,” Riddy say shyly.
“Alright. How about we get you changed, then? You’ve been in that for a while.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Mark led Riddy back to his bedroom and had him take off his overalls and lay down on the bed, bringing out the pack of diapers. He was quick and efficient in cleaning Riddy and taping on the new diaper. It definitely was a relief to be in a fresh, clean diaper.
“Now, the diapers aren’t so bad, are they?” Mark asked.
“I guess not.”
“Well then, buddy that’s something I wanna talk to you about.”
“What about it?”
Mark sighed. “Your mom and I had a bit of a talk and, while we’re here, we thought that maybe you should just stick to using your diapers.”
“What?!” Riddy sat up.
“Shh, calm down.”
“I’m not a baby!”
“I know you’re not just, let me explain.” Mark put a hand on Riddy’s shoulder. “I think it could be a bit of a hassle, you having to keep asking us for help with the bathroom, especially if it comes at a bad time. But if you just your diapers, we can just change you when a better time comes. Plus, the tapes can rip if we keep taking a diaper on and off, so we’d be wasting diapers. So you might as well use them while you have them.”
“You’re just gonna make me do this?”
“Now, we won’t force you to if you don’t want to, but I don’t think it’ll be such a big deal, since you’re used to using your DryJams.”
Riddy hesitated for a moment as he considered the implications. But it would only be for a couple days. “Well, okay, but I’m not gonna poop in these.”
“That sounds like a fair deal.”
Mark offered his hand, which Riddy shook. The young fox stood up and looked down at his diaper with a bit of a sigh. That was going to be his toilet for the time being. Accepting the new status quo, he slipped his overalls back on.
Heading back out into the hall, he ran into his mom.
“Hi, Riddy. How are you liking the book?”
“It’s great! It says it’s Book One, so does that mean there are more like it?”
“Oh, yes there are, though we lost our copies that one time the basement flooded.”
“Maybe Santa can bring the other ones, then.”
“Hmm, I think it’s a bit late to add anything to the list for Santa. But if you get good grades, maybe we can get you the next one for your birthday.” She gave him a tap on the nose.
“Really?!”
“Yep!”
“Okay. I’m gonna get back to reading!”
“Alright then. Just remember it won’t be too long until dinner.”
“Okay mom,” Riddy replied, already halfway down the hall.
Riddy picked the book back up and continued to read about the plot of the stolen power source. The thief turned out to be a minion of an evil hyrax named Miles Rourke, who intended to use the power source as a weapon. He had just gotten to the part where they were trying to find Rourke when his mom called him.
“Riddy, it’s dinner time. Go wash your hands and get ready for dinner.”
Riddy was reluctant to leave the book, but he obeyed. “Okay, mom.”
He took the book back to his room and found a bookmark, then stopped at the bathroom on his way back to the dining room to wash his hands. Dinner was already being served: a pot roast cooked in the crock pot. He was given a serving of beef with egg noodles, gravy and, to his dismay, vegetables. Well, sure, the potatoes and carrots weren’t bad. The main problem was the green beans.
“I know that look, Riddy,” Liz chided. “Be a big boy and eat your veggies, then you can have dessert.”
“Okay,” Riddy groaned.
He went about it as of often did: eating the most objectionable part first to get it out of the way, and so its taste could be pushed out by the tastier parts of the meal. And the rest of the meal was good: it was the recipe Liz had gotten from Grandma. Most of the conversation at the dinner table was adult stuff that Riddy found boring, but he did get to chime in at one point talk about the book. After dinner, as a reward for Riddy finishing his veggies, came the promised ice cream.
Once this dishes and all were washed, Mark said “All right, let’s start bringing some presents out.”
“Riddy, would you like to help Grandma bring presents out?”
“Sure!”
Grandma guided him to her room, where she had a number of presents stacked up in a closet. Riddy eagerly grabbed a few, stacking them up on his arms.
“Oh, my, you’re getting strong,” she told her grandson. “But maybe you should just take one or two at a time. Some of those are fragile and you don’t want to drop anything.”
“Okay grandma.” Riddy carefully set the presents back down on the floor and picked two medium-sized boxes to carry.
With Riddy helping Grandma and Mark and Liz carrying presents from their own room, it took only a minute or so to arrange everything around the tree.
“And it looks like there’s room for Santa to bring some more,” Mark commented.
“Now it’s time for one present each,” Liz said.
“Oh, wait a moment,” Grandma interjected. “Let me get one thing before we get started.”
She went to the kitchen and came back with a glass bottle and three shot glasses. “I thought we could have some of this while we open them.”
“What is that? Can I have some?” Riddy asked.
“It’s Irish cream. Sorry, it has alcohol in it, so not for another 13 years.”
“Bleh, alcohol.”
Once the drinks had been poured, it was Riddy’s turn to open the first present, since he was the youngest.
“Now, how about we pick something boring to get out of the way.” Liz put her hand to her chin. “Hmm, how about this one.” She reached into the pile and pulled out a somewhat flat, roughly rectangular package.
Riddy felt it when she handed it to him. It was sort of soft and plush. From that, and the shape of it, it could only be clothes. Oh well, might as well get it done. He tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a set of fuzzy red footed pajamas. As he unfolded them he saw the zipper led down to a snap that would go around the base of his tail: a back zipper.
“These look like baby pajamas,” Riddy objected
“Oh no, they make these for big kids and even adults,” Liz said
Riddy grumbled.
“I even have them washed so you can wear them tonight.”
“Tonight?!”
“They’re nice and warm, and it’s going to be cold tonight. It might even get below zero.”
“I guess they do look warm.”
“Now,” Mark proclaimed, “It’s Mom’s turn.”
He grabbed another wrapped package and handed it to Liz. She opened it, revealing a pair of fuzzy slippers. Riddy was more focused on his new set of Pjs, so he paid little attention to what was said. He got to see that his dad got a set of drill bits and Grandma got some herbal tea. He was still not entirely sold on the pajamas: they seemed another babyish addition to his current garments. As if to remind him of this situation, a growing pressure in his bladder was starting to become uncomfortable. With nothing else to do about it, he relieved himself in his diaper. He had to admit to himself, at least it was convenient.
“Alright, kiddo,” Liz announced. “Head to your room and start getting ready for your bath. You gotta be in bed in time before Santa comes.”
“Right.” Riddy dashed off to his room, starting to feel excited.
He arrived and slipped off his overalls. But he wasn’t sure what to do next, since he wasn’t allowed to remove the diaper. He opened his door a crack and called out:
“Hey, Mom? Can you help me with something?”
“I’ll be there in a couple minutes, honey.”
While waiting for his mom to come, he grabbed his book and lay down on his belly to read, wearing just a shirt and diaper. He only made it about a page before his mom came in.
“What do you need, Riddy?”
“I wasn’t sure what to do about my diaper since you said I shouldn’t take it off myself.”
“Oh, sorry about that. Here, stand up.”
Riddy did as he was told and Liz knelt down to take off his diaper.
“Looks wet.” She looked at the now blue wetness indicator. “I guess we should get you a new one after you’re done.” She removed the diaper. “Now, off to the bath with you.”
Riddy took off his shirt, grabbed a towel, and headed to the bathroom. He drew himself a nice warm bath. He made sure to wash himself well, especially in his diaper area, but he made sure not to tarry so he could get to bed in time. He dried himself off and returned to his room, where Liz was waiting, a fresh diaper in her hand and the red Pjs laid out on the bed.
“All right, kiddo. Lay down.”
Riddy laid down on his back and his mom taped the new diaper onto him. Liz then held out the PJs.
“Now, step in.”
Riddy stepped into the PJs one leg at a time. Liz had him turn around so she could zip them up and snap the tail flap in place. One last snap could be heard at the back of Riddy’s neck. He reached back and felt another flap of cloth covering the top of the zipper, in an awkward place for him to reach.
“Mom, I don’t think I can take these off on my own.”
“Oh don’t worry. We’ll help you out of them in the morning. You won’t need to take them off until then anyway. It’s not like you’ll be using the bathroom, now is it?”
She gave him a friendly pat on his diapered bottom.
“Mom!” Riddy groaned.
“Now, I’m only teasing. But it is bedtime, so lights out.”
She headed toward the door.
“Goodnight, Riddy. And Merry Christmas.”
She shut it behind her.
Riddy looked at himself in the mirror for a moment. He looked even more like an oversized toddler than before. Though at least by now he was getting used to wearing a diaper. He turned off the light and got into bed.
The wind was still whistling outside, snow hitting the window, as his thoughts turned to Christmas. He smiled to himself as he thought of Christmas lights, candy canes, and snickerdoodles. With these pleasant thoughts, he drifted off to sleep.
