The car stops outside a playground. Leah knows it well. She used to go there all the time when she was little. As if reading her mind, Tina speaks.
“It’ll be just like when you used to play here,” she says. She giggles. “Down to the training pants!” Leah blushes. Tina comes around and gets a stroller out of the trunk of the car. She then removes Leah from the car seat and buckles her into the stroller instead. “Perfect! In the stroller, you look like you belong in diapers, not pull-ups,” she remarks.
“No diapy,” Leah says, remembering just in time to talk like a little kid. “Me big girl.”
“You sure are!” Tina gushes, pushing the stroller over to the playground. She stops by a bench and sets down a bag. To her horror, Leah recognizes it as a diaper bag. Tina must have one in the car for emergencies, like the car seat and stroller. “But if you change your mind…” Tina takes a thick, fluffy diaper out of the bag. Leah swallows nervously. “Don’t worry, I’ve got extra pull-ups, too, in case you have an accident.” Tina winks.
“Anyways, what do you want to do?” Tina asks. “You could play with the other kids, I could play with you, or you could even stay in the stroller the whole time we’re here. Though that last option wouldn’t really give you much of a chance to practice acting.”
Leah weighs her options. At first glance, staying in the stroller is the most attractive idea. But the comment about it not challenging her acting skills gives her pause. If she chooses that, Tina might insist on the diaper as a way to make her “acting” more difficult.
The other options aren’t much better. Playing with children sounds boring and annoying, and it would be humiliating to play with Tina like a little kid. Leah just has to decide which choice will be the least bad.