While playing with some other toddlers, Laura suddenly feels someone stick their finger down the back of her diaper.
“Hmm. Wet,” says the person checking Laura’s diaper. Laura turns red. She had no idea she’d wet herself! “But not wet enough to need a change right now. You can wait until we get back.” Laura’s eyes widen in panic. Get back? What does that mean? She feels the person who checked her diaper pick her up. “I’ll buckle her up, Clyde, if you want to check the others?”
“You got it,” a man’s voice says. To Laura’s increasing horror, she is carried outside and over to a van with the words “Happy Times Daycare” painted on the side. Still in shock, she doesn’t try to tell her kidnapper of the mistake, she merely attempts to break free, failing to do so. She is promptly buckled into a car seat. The person who kidnapped her, a young woman, smiles.
“You must be new. What’s your name, sweetie?”
“Lowa,” Laura squeaks. She stifles a groan at the realization that her speaking skills decreased with the latest regression.
“What a pretty name! Hello, Laura, I’m Trisha. It’s nice to meet you!” Laura opens her mouth, about to explain that she’s not a daycare attendee, when a Trisha’s coworker Clyde, a young man about her age, walks over. He’s carrying two toddlers about Laura’s age and leading a third a few years older. “Is that all of them?”
“Yep.” Clyde sighs when he sees Laura. “I hate it when parents drop their kids off with us somewhere other than the actual daycare.”
“Me, too. But it happens,” Trisha says with a shrug. Laura scowls. There goes the chance that she might be set free right now. The employees didn’t even bat an eye at picking up an extra toddler. The other toddlers are buckled into car seats, Trisha gets in the passenger seat, Clyde gets in the driver’s seat, and the van pulls out of the parking lot.
As they drive away from the restaurant, Laura tries to make herself feel better. She might not have her other items, but at least she has the dice, which she dropped into the front of her romper for safekeeping. The attempt to cheer herself up is mildly successful, but ruined as Laura lets out a loud fart and messes her already wet diaper.
Finally driven to despair, Laura bursts into tears.