Chapter 28: Dave

When we left Joe and Judy's, Bob came with us to help carry in the presents. That was good, I didn't think I'd be able to carry the cookware he'd gotten me. I grabbed what I could in one hand and went to unlock the door. Sarah and Bob grabbed more and followed me.

I clicked on the light and walked into my living room. I saw three Christmas presents sitting under my little tree. When Bob and Sarah came in I asked them about the presents. They both denied having put them there. We brought the rest of the presents in and took Sarah's into her house.

With all of the presents where they belonged I looked at the new three. They were all addressed to me, from Santa. I glanced over at Sarah and she had a surprised look on her face. I picked up the smallest and opened it. Unwrapped there was a small jewelry box, inside it was a necklace with an 'S' pendant.

"Sarah are you sure you didn't put these here. Look at this I showed her."

She took the box and looked at the necklace, "This is a lovely necklace Dave, but I didn't put it here." Then she handed it over to Bob.

"It's very pretty Dave, but I didn't buy it either."

I opened the other two presents. One was a video game I didn't own, and the other was a book on aircraft that I also didn't own. I showed them the other presents and asked them if they had put them there. They both denied it. I wasn't sure about Bob, but based on how Sarah had reacted with the bears I figured that she didn't do it.

After giving Bob a present for Thor, I hadn't forgotten him, I went to bed wondering who had been in my home without my knowledge. I didn't sleep well at all.

The next morning I got up and went on my normal walk with Thor. I surprised him because when we got to the big open field that the kids played in, I pulled a ball out of my pocket and threw it. We played fetch for a little while before finishing the walk. Thor took off when I got home and I went in to clean up. I hadn't realized that throwing a ball for a dog to go get could be fun.

Once I cleaned up and had eaten breakfast I began unpacking my presents, I wasn't going over to Judy's until that afternoon. I had opened and washed the cookware that Bob had gotten me. As I was getting ready to put it away I compared it my 'old' stuff. I could see the difference in quality, but wondered how much difference it would make in my cooking. My old pots and pans still looked to be in good shape, so I decided that I would give them to Goodwill, there was probably someone out there that needed them.

I finished with my presents and got rid of all the garbage. Then I turned my attention to the mysterious book. The necklace and game were pretty generic, but the book, while not rare, would be easier to track. Opening it up I discovered that it was used, but had no name in it. I thumbed through it and found some writing; one number crossed off and replaced with another. The addition of a name or place. I found nothing that would identify where it came from though.

Then I went to the Internet; a check on E-bay, Amazon, and a couple of other places told me that there were plenty out there for sale, but they were not cheap. Someone had gotten me a couple of hundred dollar book. With everything else I had gotten, I felt a little bad. I hadn't spent anywhere near that much on anyone.

I ate lunch and got ready to go over to Judy's. As I was changing, I realized that I should wear a diaper. I needed to make sure that the clothes would fit over the diaper. Also, Ashley could probably help if I was wearing a diaper, but it wouldn't be appropriate for her to see me in my regular underwear. The more I thought about that, the odder I found it.

I finished dressing and headed over. There I asked Judy if she had given me the gifts, she denied it and denied that Joe did it. I'm not sure that I believed her, but there was no reason for her to lie. She did give me a suggestion though, to ask Deputy Wildler.

I tried on lots of Ashley's old clothes, with their help. I noticed that Ashley kept pushing me towards her frilliest dresses and such. I resisted most of them. I had a lot fun, even if it was trying on girl's clothes. The two of them fussed over me for several hours. It was funny six months ago, I wouldn't have believed that anyone would care that much about me. It made me feel good about myself.

When we had finished and I had a pile of clothes, Judy asked me to watch Ashley New Year's Eve. I was surprised and a little shocked that she would trust me to watch her child all night. Admittedly we would probably spend it with Sarah, but she said that even if it was just me that I could watch her.

We picked up the clothes and carried them out to my car, and I headed home. On the way I decided to see if Deputy Wildler was home. I went past the trailer I had sold him and saw his car sitting out front. I stopped and went up to his door.

He answered the door in his uniform, "Hi Dave, Merry Christmas a day late."

"Hello Deputy Wildler, Merry Christmas."

"Call me Steve, I'm not working at the moment."

"Okay, Steve. I have a problem and I was hoping that maybe you could give me some help."

"What kind of help? If I can, I'll help you."

"Well someone broke into my house and left me presents."

He started laughing, hard. "You're want me to investigate someone giving you presents."

"I, ummm... I know it sounds silly, but yes." I was laughing, though not nearly as hard as he was.

He got most of his control back, and asked me in. I went in and we sat down. I explained what had happened, when I said that the presents were from Santa. He lost it again. "Dave, you want me to check out presents from Santa?"

While he was laughing, I started looking around. He had furnished the trailer nicely. I was surprised by the number of books that he had. He had two full floor to ceiling bookshelves. I couldn't read the titles, but there were hardcover and paperbacks that looked like fiction, plus quite a few textbooks, and some oversized books.

When he stopped laughing, I went on with the story. When I finished it, I explained that I was more worried about someone breaking into my trailer than I was about them leaving presents. He got serious then, and asked me about the locks. I told him what I knew, he nodded and suggested we go look at it.

I agreed and offered him a ride. I had forgotten that my backseat was full of girl's clothes. We went and got into the car, as I was starting it, he commented about the clothes. I blushed, and tried to stammer out an excuse.

"Dave, it's okay. When I moved out here Sarah explained to me what you two were doing. That way if I saw something odd or if there was some trouble, I would already know what was going on, and could settle things down quicker."

"Oh, I uh... You don't think it's weird?"

"Yeah, I think it's a little weird, but you aren't doing anything illegal, so it's none of my business. Besides if you want to see weird, you should see some of the stuff that goes on in town."

"Yeah, I know about some of that stuff. I went to school there."

"But if you do anything to hurt Ashley, or any other child, I'll shoot you."

"Okaaaaaay, but I think that if tried to do anything to Ashley she might beat me up. So far she's knocked me down and nearly suffocated me, and that's because she was happy with me."

I pulled up and we went up to check out the door. He looked at it, and said, "It doesn't look like anyone broke in, did you see anything else out of place?"

"No and I didn't see that anything was missing. What does worry me, is that two of the presents were a reference book and a video game, both of which I previously didn't own. That means that whoever did it has been in here before."

"Huh, that would make sense. Do you know who's been in here?"

"Sarah and Judy both have keys, I changed the lock when I got the title so no one else should. Bob, you know Bob?" He nodded. "I know he's been inside and I imagine that Sarah would let him in if he needed to get in."

"Anyone else? Parents? Friends?" He was looking around.

"A lawyer knows where I live. One friend from school, but he hasn't been out here. My parents don't even know what state I live in."

"Your parents don't know where you live? Why not?" He was over looking by the tree.

"They were horrible parents, abusive and neglectful. You'd probably shoot them. So I, well the only contact I've had is sending them a couple of photos this year. I used Wrigley Field as a return address."

He kept looking around and stopped. He was staring at one of the portraits of Sissy on the wall. "Who's the little girl?"

I stared at him, "That's a copy of the picture I sent to my parents."

He spun around and looked at me, "That's you?" Then he looked at the picture and back to me.

"Yeah, the day before those kids attacked me."

"You know, you make a pretty little girl." He paused for a moment, "For some reason that sounds wrong. Hey, wait a minute, that was you Christmas Eve. Leaving with Sarah."

"It was. Ashley and I went to the mall. We got our pictures taken for Christmas."

"Did you go see Santa, too?" He said with a slightly cruel tone.

I recognized that particular tone, my father had used it a lot. I stepped over to him and stood fully upright. "You may think it's funny, but I gave up believing in Santa when I was five. That was the same age I was when I started to making my all my own meals. I was doing everything a parent should do for a child by the time I was eight, except shop. I got my first real Christmas present this year. I found out that people really do care for each other this year too. So if you're not going to help, get the hell out and don't come back."

His mouth dropped open, and he stood there still for what seemed to be a minute. The he closed his mouth, and started say something, but I cut him off. "Out, just get out."

He walked over and went out the door, I followed him over. He paused outside and turned back; I slammed the door shut and locked it.

I ran over, lay down on the couch and let out the tears that I had been holding back. A few minutes later there was a knock at my door, I ignored it. And a few seconds after the first, and again, and again. Finally they stopped and I just lay there wondering why everyone had to be mean.

I'm not sure how long I laid there, I think I fell asleep. A knock at my door caught my attention, but I ignored it just like I had the earlier one. Who ever it was knocked a couple more times, which I continued to ignore. When I heard the lock unlock, I figured it was Sarah.

The door opened and Sarah stuck her head in, "Dave, can I come in?"

I thought for a moment, "Yes, come on in." I sat up on the couch.

She walked over, "Are you okay, because you look pretty bad?"

"I'm fine," I said a bit sullenly.

She sat down next to me and put her arm around me, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I said. Then I started talking about what had happened. I talked and talked, complaining about how people were cruel and that people didn't like me.

She sat there and listened to me. She murmured agreements and held me. When I stopped, she continued to hold me for a moment before she started to talk.

"You know, a while ago Steve knocked on my door. He looked a bit like someone had hit him in the head with a baseball bat."

My first thought was good, then I realized that was a little petty.

Sarah continued talking, "He came in and tried telling me what happened. He was probably fairly accurate about what was said, but he was completely perplexed by your reaction. I did my best to explain why what he said upset you, and I think he understands it now."

"What did you tell him?"

"Well I explained why that kind of teasing isn't something that you react well to. That took a bit of doing. Now before you say anything, I'm going to explain it to you."

She spent quite a while talking about teasing. I sat and listened, being teased was nothing new. I had been teased my whole life. What was new was that people could tease without being cruel. Sarah even pointed a couple of times that she had teased me. I hadn't recognized it, because at the time she was being so friendly.

We kept talking about nothing in particular, before she mentioned that Steve wanted to apologize. I let her know that I would take care of that. We also made arrangements for Ashley and I to come over New Years Eve.

The next morning when I went on my walk, after playing fetch with Thor, I went by Steve's, but he must have been working. I finished my walk and Thor took off to play. I worked all morning, waiting for a time to see if Steve had finished work yet.

That evening there was a knock at my door. I found Steve standing there in uniform. When I opened the door, he started to speak, but I cut him off. "Steve, before you say anything. I want to apologize. I shouldn't have yelled at you and kicked you out. I was rude; you were over here helping me and..."

"No Dave, I shouldn't have said what I did. I knew that you had had problems growing up and I shouldn't have you teased about something that almost all children get to do."

"Come on in."

We talked for a while, and he looked around some more. He wasn't going to find anything, I had cleaned fairly thoroughly. The problem with being a neat freak.

Before he left, he told me that whomever had left the presents, either had a key or used magic. I figured that it was Bob.

New Year's Eve came up and I started my day the same as every other day. It was strange, but unless I needed to go to the library or something, Holidays didn't or rather hadn't meant much to me. Until this year I had generally ignored them. Now though I had real friends to spend them with.

Just after lunch there was a knock at my door. I answered it and was puzzled to find Ashley standing there. "What are you doing here?"

"I was bored, my friends are doing stuff, but I didn't want to go and hang out with them only to have to leave later."

"Oh, uh come on in. How come you're not spending tonight with your friends?"

"I am spending it with my friends, silly."

"You know what I mean."

"They are all going to John's house, and my parents don't think I should be spending the night at a mixed sleepover. They can be so lame."

"Oh, uh, okay. Ummm have you had lunch?" I asked a little confused at her attitude towards her parents.

"Yeah, we had lunch before mom went to work. So is it okay if I stay over here 'til we go over to Sarah's?"

"Absolutely, take off your coat, set your bag down and I'll give you the fifty cent tour."

She did so, and I gave her the tour. She giggled when she saw my bedroom. I had put the Power Puff Girls sheets back on while I washed the airplane ones, a fairly large teddy bear sat on the bed, and there was a diaper stacker hanging there. I guess it did look a little silly for a grown man.

She walked over to the bear and looked at him, "So what's his name?"

"His name?"

"Yeah, you always have to name your teddy bear."

"Oh, I hadn't realized that," I said and then thought for a minute. "His name is Ernie."

"Ernie?"

"Yes, Ernie 'cuz he isn't a bear, he's a cub."

She looked over at me, "I don't get it."

"Ernie, after Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub. The Chicago Cubs greatest player and fan. The bear, he's over at Sarah's is Walter, after Walter Payton, the Chicago Bears greatest player."

"Oh." That was all she said.

I showed her my computer and the article I was working on, she made some yeah that's nice comments. I noticed that she looked at my diapers several times. I wondered if she would say anything.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked her.

She challenged me to a video game and we played them for a couple of hours. The whole time she was chattering about nothing and everything. I paid close attention to what she was talking about, and even asked her some questions about the newest 'Boyband' that was popular.

After getting trounced for the second time, I was paying too much attention to her talking and not enough to the game, I suggested a break.

We got something to drink and continued talking. She finally brought up what I was expecting, "Dave, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"What's it like to wear a diaper?"

"Hmmm, it's like other underwear, except thicker and noisier. Why?"

"I was just wondering," she wasn't looking at me and might have been blushing a little.

We watched TV for a little while before Ashley said something. "Dave, do you think I could wear a diaper?"

I had been expecting this, I wasn't sure why, but I was and I already had decided upon what to answer. "Sure Ashley," her face lit up a little until I finished. "All you have to do is ask your mom to get you some."

"What, why did you say that?"

"Because, I'm not your parent and I can't make that decision. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to let you wear them any more than I could let you wear a bikini or get you any kind of underwear. If you really want to wear a diaper ask your mom."

"But..."

"But you didn't want your mom or dad to know. That in itself is enough reason for me to say no. Ashley, if you think about it you'll agree with me. I know that you just were kind of hoping that I would say yes without thinking about it, but if I did let you and your parents found out. I would probably never be able to see you anymore."

"Yeah, I was just wondering. I guess I'll just keep wondering."

She was sitting there moping a bit, so I decided to cheer her up, or so I thought. I started tickling her. She didn't react quite as I expected, since she began tickling me back. I discovered two things; one she is stronger than me, and two I am much more ticklish than her.

I did cheer her up though, just not in the way I had hoped too. We finally stopped and recovered from laughing. Checking the time we agreed to head over to Sarah's.

We grabbed our coats and bags, I locked up and we walked over. Sarah let us in and Ashley jumped into her arms for a hug, even before she had taken off her coat. Sarah grabbed her and lifted her up into the air. Ashley must have said something to Sarah, because as soon as she put Ashley down she grabbed me and carried me off to the nursery.

"Hey what's going on?"

"Ashley told me that you told her that you've been waiting for this all day."

"Ashley fibbed," I told her.

"Hmmm, I'll have to decide what to do about that. But since I've been waiting all day too, you're out of luck."

I sighed as she quickly stripped me and lifted me up to the changing table. She powdered me, and placed a diaper under my bottom. As she pulled it up between my legs I started to get into it a bit and gurgled a little. Sarah smiled as she taped up the diaper.

She set me down and pulled a pink T-shirt over my head. It seemed a little long until she pulled the tail through and snapped it to the front. I was wearing a pink onesie. I looked down and could see that while it covered the top of my diaper; my diaper peeked out everywhere else. For some reason this made me feel even more like a baby than just wearing the diaper and a regular T-shirt.

She picked me up and carried me into the kitchen where she placed me into the high chair. As she fastened a bib around my neck, Ashley walked in. The very beginnings of a giggle slipped out before she stopped herself. We sat down to a small meal of chicken nuggets and french fries.

Thanks to dinner being finger food, I managed not to make a mess. After cleaning up we went to the living room. Sarah brought in a plate with veggies and dip, and we had chips, so we were set for a while. Once we were settled in, they decided that I should have my nails painted. So I sat there and chatted while all my nails were painted a pale pink. When mine were done Ashley had hers painted.

When all of the nails were dry, Ashley and Sarah began to braid my hair. It had grown out just enough for them to braid, but there wasn't much of a tail hanging back. Then I tried to braid Ashley's hair, it took a couple of tries but I finally got it done.

We turned on the New Year's coverage, and Ashley began to talk about some of performers. I recognized some of the names from the radio, but Ashley seemed to know everything about them. When some of the older performers played, Sarah talked about them like Ashley had about the younger ones.

We spent the night watching TV, playing games, and munching on snacks. Ashley and Sarah both seemed to be pushing the chips and pretzels at me, which made me thirsty. Every time I said I was thirsty, one of them would get me a bottle of juice or something to drink. It also made me wet my diaper more often, Sarah changed me several times that night.

Sarah and I managed to keep Ashley up 'til midnight, then we all went to our various beds. Ashley got the air mattress in the living room; I had, what I began to think of as, my crib; and Sarah had her own bed. I fell asleep quickly, but woke up needing to go to the bathroom. I wet my diaper and went back to sleep.

When I woke up, my diaper was dry, but that didn't last long. Sarah must have come in and changed me without waking me. I was surprised at that, I didn't think I would be able to sleep through that. Sarah got me out of the crib and changed me into a clean diaper. She told me to stay quiet because Ashley was still asleep.

We sat and talked while Ashley slept. I asked and she confirmed that she had changed my wet diaper about an hour ago. She also asked me about my plans for the new year.

I told her that I didn't have any plans. I was just going to keep going on with what I did; working, going on my walks, playing with her and Ashley, watching games with Joe and Bob. And reacting to whatever else happened.

She gave me a look, that said she was planning something. I resigned myself to go along with whatever it would turn out to be. While we were sitting there; there came a barking from outside. Since I was only wearing a diaper, Sarah went and looked. She started laughing and yelled for Thor.

When he didn't come right away and didn't stop barking, I stuck my head out the door and called him, he came right over. While I was looking out the door, something swatted the back of my diaper. I turned and a grinning Ashley stood there. I was about to say something to her, but her grin opened up into a big yawn. While she was yawning, I poked her in her side and she jumped.

Sarah looked at her and told her to go eat breakfast. Thor came in then and I tried to explain that I wasn't going for a walk today. He seemed a little confused, so I sat down next him and petted him for a while. He eventually licked my face and nosed the door. I opened it and he ran off.

I turned to Sarah, "How does Thor get out all of the time?"

"Bob rebuilt part of his trailer, Thor has a big room that has a doggy door to the outside, and a regular door to the inside. Bob keeps that door locked and Thor can come and go as he likes. It's heated and cooled so it's like Thor is inside. Overall it works out pretty well."

"Wow that seems like it would be a lot of work to build."

"Bob took his time building it over the summer one year, besides he figures Thor is worth it," she answered.

"I do too."

"Me too," came from the kitchen.

Ashley went and got dressed, and so did I, we spent the rest of the morning playing and watching the parades. Judy showed up eventually, she had had a long night. Shortly after lunch Ashley started to yawn and the two of them left. When they did Sarah got up and went into the kitchen. I heard the microwave going. I couldn't smell anything, but shortly after it dinged, Sarah returned with a bottle.

She sat me on her lap and fed me the bottle. I don't think I finished it, because at some point I fell asleep.