Gramps
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 19
Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nine bottles of beer. You take one down, pass it around,
ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.
Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety….
Okay, you all know the old song. It
would take an entire chapter just to write it all down. I didn’t have ninety-nine bottles of beer on
the wall, but I did have six bottles in the refrigerator. None of the bottles I had contained beer,
although I’d rather have the beer than what was in them.
When I discovered six bottles in my refrigerator on Monday
morning instead of the previous five, I noticed that three of them held white
stuff. Drinking them later confirmed my
worst fears. Baby formula. I think you can all agree that I should have
kept my big mouth shut in the supermarket the day before.
My life had been ruled by schedules before. Kimmie had relaxed that schedule by quite a
bit for me now, but it was still ruled by schedules. And yes, some of that schedule was of my own
doing because of my own habits.
I got up at seven o’clock every morning, which seemed to
work out well for Kimmie so she could get to work. Most of the time I went from my bed straight
into the bathroom where I shaved my face, shed my nasty bulk of night diaper,
and stepped into the shower to get my body as clean as possible. I usually spent more time in the shower than
I should, just because it felt so good. There
were a few days on the weekends when Kimmie kept me in my night diaper until
after breakfast, but those days didn’t happen often. In fact, on weekends, parts of my schedule
went out the window completely, but not all of it. Especially not Kimmie’s rules for my life.
When I got out of the shower every day, Kimmie was always
waiting for me. She made me smell
embarrassingly like a baby each time by putting an overly generous amount of
baby powder on me before pulling my first daytime diaper in place. Then she always seemed to take great delight
in dressing me according to whatever whim she had in mind. Lately, it was like a toddler. Uh…a girl toddler.
Monday morning, I was pleased again to realize she was
putting me in another little skirt to cover my diaper all day, along with the
little girl shoes. Oh, and of course
another pair of those sweet little socks.
At eight o'clock each day, I had to try and shit in my
nice clean and usually dry diaper, just before Kimmie went off to work, leaving
me alone with just her camera system all over the house to keep an eye on
me. At nine o’clock, I had to try and
shit again, followed by twenty minutes filming myself sucking my baby pacifier
with my cellphone. Ten o’clock, try to
shit again. Eleven o’clock, shit and
film. Twelve, shit again, then have
lunch. One o’clock, shit and film. Two o’clock, shit, then change my diaper
(finally!). Three o’clock, shit and film. Four, oh shit! Five, shit and film again. Kimmie usually came home around then, but the
schedule kept going no matter what else was going on.
Every evening, Kimmie and I walked the perimeter of my
big backyard. Sometimes before dinner,
sometimes after, but usually before dinner because the days were getting
shorter and it was pretty dark out there.
But Kimmie still forced me to get my exercise, even in the dark. We just carried flashlights if we needed
them.
At eight o’clock, right after my pooping exercise, Kimmie
cleaned me up, put me in my night diaper, and dressed me for bed. Instead of that lightweight pretty nightgown
thing that didn’t even cover my diaper, I was now dressed overly warmly in the
fleece footed pajama thing. Yeah, it was
certainly soft. But darn it was
warm. Especially with a wet diaper
underneath.
My schedule ended at eight-thirty every night when she
put me to bed. Being relieved of the
schedule was like a huge weight lifted from my life. Unfortunately, it came back every morning
when I woke up. The truth was, there was
no relief from it. Not as long as Kimmie
had me continuing to dance to her tune.
I remember it well, just like I’ll never forget the
things that happened afterwards. It was
the third week in November when it all started for me. For Kimmie it had started at the beginning of
November, I just hadn’t known about it. Remember
that last time, early in November when Kimmie sat herself down in my lap? (The pony conversation! Remember?
Ponies. Come on people, keep up
here). Well, it was the third week of
November, exactly one week before Thanksgiving, when Kimmie suddenly turned off
the TV on me and forced her way into my lap again.
She hugged my neck tightly, and kissed me on the cheek
probably harder than she ever had. “I
love you Gramps,” she told me. “I love
you so much.” Then she squeezed my neck
again.
I pulled the baby pacifier from my mouth so I could
talk. “I love you too Kimmie,” I told
her. “Very much, but I’m still not
buying you a pony.”
“Oh Gramps!” she whined
“Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top?”
“No!” I told her with finality.
“But Gramps. We
could go riding together every day. And
wouldn’t a couple of pretty ponies in the backyard be soooo cute?”
“No!”
She laughed. “I’m
going to wear you down one of these days, she teased.”
“No!” I said once again, and she laughed.
“Gramps,” she said, much more seriously. “I need to discuss something with you. Something important.”
I looked at her, so close to me. Her face was as serious as I’ve ever seen
it. I just sat there and listened.
“Remember, about two years ago when I got so sick?”
“Yeah Kimmie,” I replied softly. “I remember.
It took you a while to get better.
From what Grams told me, you had a lot of trouble for years with…your
body.”
She nodded. “Yeah,
I did. What we didn’t tell everyone, because
I didn’t want everyone to know, is that the last time I was in the hospital for
it, they went in and did a partial hysterectomy on me.”
I was shocked.
“Gramps,” she said.
“I can’t have babies.”
I stared at her, then hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry Kimmie. I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know,” she repeated. “Even Grams didn’t know. Mom knows, and I’m guessing that she
may have told all my aunts, but I’m not sure.
I didn’t want even them to know. But
the way they’re all acting over how I treat you…well, I have to wonder now.”
I wondered exactly what she meant by that. But she had told me before that the entire
family knew about me. But the family
knowing was something that couldn’t be undone.
“You didn’t ask her? You talk to
your mother all the time.”
She nodded. “I’ve
been too…I don’t know. I just didn’t
want everyone to know. Not being able to
have a baby, that’s like…letting the entire family down.”
“Kimmie! No it’s
not! Who would ever…”
“The women Gramps.
It’s a woman thing, okay? Trust
me. But it’s something I feel really bad
about. Women are supposed to have
babies, and I wanted one someday. Now, I
can’t. The only good thing about it all
is that since the operation I haven’t had any more problems. None.”
“That’s good,” I told her. “In fact, it’s great.”
She nodded again, but sadly. “But it’s not so great. I wanted to have a baby someday,” she said
again.
I hugged her. “I’m
so sorry for you,” I told her.
She hugged me and kissed my cheek. Then she took a big breath and sighed. “So Gramps, I think that’s why I seem to love
dressing you up so much every day.
That’s why I don’t mind changing your diapers every day, even when
they’re full of shit…which is almost always.
That’s why I like loving on you so much.
Gramps, I think you’re like the baby I can’t ever have. You’re becoming like the child I’ll never get
to raise. And Gramps, I not only love
you more than I ever have in my life…which was a lot to begin with…but I love
taking care of you too, just as if…you’re mine.
And you are mine,” she added a bit more brightly. “You’re my Gramps. I just want you to know how much I love you. You’ve always been important to me, but
now…Gramps, you’re more important to me than ever.”
What could I say to all that? I hugged her again. “I love you too Kimme. You know that. Very, very much.”
She hugged me again.
“Good!” she said before taking another big breath. “Because I need you to do something. In fact, I’m going to insist you do it. And Gramps, I’m so serious about this, that
I’ll go out of my way to make sure you do it, whether you like it or not, which
I’m already guessing you won’t.”
I looked at her suspiciously, trying to brace myself for
something horrible that I couldn’t imagine.
“Gramps,” she said.
“It’s all arranged. Everyone is
planning on it.”
“What?” I managed to get out of my mouth, although how I
said even that one word is beyond me.
“I’m taking you home for Thanksgiving, and I promised
everyone that you would be my baby girl the entire time.”
My mouth dropped as I looked at her in disbelief.
“And they’re all expecting to see you that way for
Christmas next month too,” she added.
I wanted to say something. Anything!
I think my mouth worked, but nothing came out. Too late, Kimmie kept going.
“So Gramps,” she said softly as she rested her forehead
against mine. “I need you to learn how
to act more like a baby than ever. I
need you to get used to it so you’ll have no trouble while you’re up
there. Especially around the entire
family. And Gramps, that’s going to have
to include everyone, even Uncle Mike and Aunt Marie’s kids.”
It was one unimaginable thing on top of another. The kids!
My son Michael’s two kids. I
think their names were Ben and Emily, but I wasn’t sure. It’s hard to remember so many names. But Ben had to be only about three years old,
and I was sure that Emily had turned one shortly before Ruthie died. The others well, they were all Kimmie’s age
or older. I thought anyway. As I said, it’s hard to remember the details
about so many people. At least it was
for me.
Could I go up there like I was? Could I go up and act like a total fool…I
mean baby, in front of all my kids and grandkids? The thought simply wouldn’t register in my
mind.
Kimmie kissed my cheek, then looked me straight in the
eyes. She held that position until I was
looking straight into her eyes. “Like I
said Gramps, this is important for me.
More than you’ll ever know. So
whether you like it or not, I’m ready to force you to do it, so get used to the
idea. Besides, just remember, everyone
up there already knows all about you.
And everyone up there is already expecting you to show up dressed and
acting like a baby girl. And I know some
of them up there are even looking forward to it.”
I shook my head.
“That’s hard to believe.”
“I know,” she said, “but it’s true. In fact, Mom decided she really is going to
hold a baby shower for you while we’re there.
Won’t that be fun?”
I was aghast.
“A….”
Sitting on my lap, could Kimmie feel that I was
wetting…soaking my diaper?