Later than morning having wondered the house carrying a piece of paper in her hand Tina found Leah in the nursery playing with a small collection of dolls and accessories on the little toddler princess bed.
So as not to embarrass her, Tina didn’t interrupt the play. It was amazing how well the suggestions seemed to be taking hold. Leah’s reaction to this note from her new school would be interesting.
Tina, went to her own bedroom and called out. “Leah could you come here for a moment?”
Tina could hear all sorts of things hitting the floor in the nursery, imagining the toys hastily being stashed under the bed. Then those little feet almost running till Leah came to her bedroom door.
“What?” The annoyed teenager asked
“Seems we have a bit of an issue with your schedule for school.”
“What kind of an issue?”
“Read this.”
“At the start of school Report to Ms Preston-Martin K3M in Room 103.” Leah read out loud with a kind of puzzled tone.
“That’s right” Tina responded, waiting for Leah to understand what all of that meant.
“Where’s my schedule? What is this?” Leah just let it sink in for a moment then realized.
Tina noticed the moment of realization. “Yep. There has been a mistake. Did you submit the transfer transcript request to your last school last June?”
“Of course” Leah actually left the form in an envelope on the desk in the admin office since no one was there, figuring it would be fine.
“Well. Something didn’t work. They signed you up for Kindergarten, just like you were a new student who had never been to their school.”
Leah was a bit embarrassed, thinking she might have screwed up the transcript request. Oh well, it will sort itself out soon enough. She thought. She was bored with her day. None of her friends were available this weekend. All she could do was messaging them and wait, that was wearing thin.
After a quick lunch, Leah looked exhausted. She had had a good night’s sleep, but the ever present stress and her recent sleep deficit had taking its toll.
At a loss for what to do, she went to her last resort for her boredom. Channel surfing on the tv, she thought of the past few days and realized her mouth was missing having something to chew on. A thought was just out of reach, when she recalled how nice it was when she was sucking on that thing in the store. Then she realized it was a pacifier. She started to argue with herself. So what if it was, no that is stupid, just babies suck on those. But it did feel nice to … She pushed that thought out of her head, but immediately recalled that she had it to settled down because she shit herself. She blush with embarrassment.
What was becoming of her. No wonder she had that dream this morning, wetting her bed. She shit he pants, she wet herself when she was put in a stroller and she was given a binkie. It was all playing on her mind. She just needed to find a way to relax. To center herself and all of this would work its way out. It had to just be stress.
At 2:30 Tina found Leah zoned out in front of the television and was sucking on a tuft of her wispy light brown hair. If she was even paying attention, she had had on an episode of the power puff girls.
“Leah….. Leah…… Earth to Leah” Tina called out to the entranced teen.
Walking over to where she was sitting Tina stooped over and waving her hand in front of her face “Leaaahhh” she said in kind of a sing song voice “maybe you should take a little nap to recharge yourself.”
All of a sudden like a petulant and overtired child not wanting to do as they are told Leah started to whine. “I no wanna nap. Nap for babies.”
“Well, how about instead of napping, we go upstairs and just read for a little bit. You still have your book to finish before school starts. Come I’ll read with you.”
It was like dragging the dead to get Leah up to her room. Once there Leah sat on her bed and allowed Tina to get her her book. It was actually just a book, neither Tina nor Leah had any idea what book Leah should read since neither had checked the website for the booklist.
Tina grabbed Anne of Green Gables. Thinking Leah might enjoy that book.
Leah looked at the book staring at it like there was a problem. Tina took another book and sat in the chair next to the bed.
“Is everything alright?” Tina asked
Leah just shrugged.
“Would you like to do something different?” Tina inquired
“Like what?”
“We could read together.” Tina asked in a very motherly tone as though she were speaking to a small child.
“What’s that?”
“Here” Tina picked up Leah and sat her on her lap grabbing her book and opened it “I’ll start reading and in a little bit you can take over. Tina paused looking at Leah for her to respond.
“Just when you want to, okay?” Tina thought Leah was needing a little extra time to get use to what was going on.
After a few more seconds, Leah nodded and leaned in as Tina wrapped her arm around her and she snuggled against Tina’s breast as Tina lean back in her chair. She was curled up just like a little girl being read to at bed time.
Not more than a page and a half into the book Leah was asleep. Tina tucked her into bed to finish her nap.
Tina finished tidying the house as Leah slept.
Tina got diner prepped and went to wake Leah before her nap destroyed her night’s sleep.
Tina sat on Leah’s bed the scent of urine was now rather evident. Poor little girl must have wet her bed again. This would be the perfect opportunity to out her.
Tina softly stroked the side of Leah’s face. “Leah, Leah, it’s dinner time, to get up.”
“Mmmmm” Leah softly moaned as she gently stirred to wake up. The sudden shock registering on her face.
“What is it dear?” Tina asked feigning ignorance
“Nofing” she commented the lisp surprising each of them.
“Come on then, dinner is on the table.” With one swift move, Tina pulled away the top quilt.
“I can splain” Leah just blurted out. It was the wrong thing to say. It was a guilty thing to say.
“I’m listening?”
“I mean, this is the first time. This no happen before”
“Seems to me you had an accident while sleeping in the stoller as well, hummm?”
“That was just, I mean. This, it was just coincident,”
“And going boom boom in your pants at the store, that was just another coincident?”
Leah was just a little red faced and struggling for words.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No.”
“Could you be sick?”
Ah an out Leah thought. “Maybe, I don’t know”
Tina moved over to the bedroom closet and reached in to grab Leah’s robe. Knowing full well what would happen, she was greeted with the pungent ammonia laced smell of urine. “What?”
Leah began to cry as Tina found her stained sheets and towel from her accident from the night before.
Tina took control standing Leah in the middle of the room.
“You stand right here.” She undressed her and wrapped her in her bathrobe.
Stripped the bed and cleaned it as best she could. Took all the soiled bedding and towels to the laundry area and came back and carried Leah to the table. She sat her in her booster seat. For once Leah put up no resistance.
Leah hardly stopped crying. She was distraught; fear, embarrassment and humiliation gripped her to a point where she was virtually paralyzed.
Once settled, Tina started the conversation.
“Leah, how long has this been going on?”
Leah didn’t answer.
“Well, I guess I have seen enough to know. So far, you have had at least 4 potty accidents in the last few days.”
“No” Leah mumbled
“No? well, let’s just count shall we. Did we wet our bed during our little nap this afternoon? That’s one.”
Leah stayed silent
“Did we have that little accident while in the stroller? Well, I guess that’s two.”
Leah stayed silent but her eyes teared up.
“I guess it’s not fair to point to those, is it? You were asleep for those, right?”
Leah timidly nodded her head.
“But didn’t my little girl go boom boom in her pants at the store?”
Leah started to cry “I…..I didn’t mean to”
“Of course you didn’t. After all how old are you?”
“15”
“That’s right 15. 15 year olds don’t go potty in their pants do they.”
“No.” Leah timidly answered though her tears.
“So there must be something else going on.”
Leah just nodded again.
“But we really need to do something till we can figure out what is going on. So how often is this happening? I guess I can’t be sure, you say only those times, but then again, you are clearly trying to hide this from me.”
Leah’s crying started up again.
“Leah. You are not a baby are you? Stop those tears.”
Leah tried to get a hold of herself and quickly settled down after being chided.
“For now I think we are going to need to do something about your accidents.”
Leah seemed to be getting a hold of the situation. “No, I think I can deal with this on my own.”
“Clearly that is not the case, or you would have done so.”
Leah was having a deer in headlights moment, no response was forthcoming.
“Let’s be practical.” Tina asserted.
Leah feared she knew where this was going.
“I think we need to diaper you till you get on top of this.”
“No way.”
“Then what do you suggest. Clearly your actions have not helped.”
Leah had to think of something. “How about, a bed pad?”
“That would be fine, except, your mattress is going to need to dry out for a while. It won’t help with the sheets either. Not to mentions your clothing.”
“But how can I make it to the bathroom if I am in a diaper?”
“Okay, now you have a point.”
“See.” Leah felt like she had dodged a bullet.
“I have an idea, we can ask around, see what some of my friends say or maybe what some of your friends say. How does that sound?”
A look of abject horror appeared on Leah’s face. It was just what Tina expected.
“I’ll make you a deal, No diapers during the day, but, I’ll give you three strikes for the daytime. You are a sound sleeper, so diapers at night. However, I want at least training pants during the day. They can be cloth. But if the accidents persist, we will need to revisit that as well.”
“Diapers, do they have to be diapers?”
“Only till this goes away. If you stay accident free for 7 days, we will stop, and that will be that.” (Tina did the math, 7 more days and if her body kept responding to the suggestions, it would be responding like toddler. She would never make it).
“7 days only.”
“7 days, accident free, we stop.”
“Leah wasn’t happy, but she felt she had no real choice.”
Dinner was done Tina cleaned up. Leah didn’t know what to do with herself.
She just sat there at the table pouting. Not the best look for this 15 year old. Sitting in her yellow bathrobe, pouting like a small child instead of taking any form of control over her life.