The Bet - Chapter 57 (Saturday – week 8 Part 2 of 9)

The Bet

By Karen Singer

Chapter 57 (Saturday – week 8 Part 2 of 9)

     Mel opened her eyes again.  She was glad to realize that she had slept a bit more, but she was now anxious to finally call Sissy and have her serve her.  “Sissy!” she called.  “Are you out there?”

     Chad heard her as he was just finishing fastening his diaper.  With his dress still hiked up around his body, he ran to the counter where he quickly poured her coffee into her cup.  Then he hurried toward her bedroom, holding the cup with one hand while his other hand tried to tug down the skirt of his dress.  He pushed open her door with his foot.  He was having a problem getting his skirt down on the side where he was holding her coffee cup.  He was still having a problem straightening it as he hurried into her room.  She was there, in bed, sitting up, watching him.  He hurried to the side of her bed where he changed hands with her cup and finally pulled the skirt of his dress straight. Then he dropped her a curtsey before saying, “Good morning Mistress.”  As had become a habit now – thanks to Robin, he dropped another curtsey even though he didn’t really need to.

     Mel was somewhere between extremely happy, and slightly shocked.  “What on earth was wrong with your dress?”

     Chad handed her the coffee cup before curtseying again.  “I was just changing my leaky diaper when you called.”  Curtsey.

     Mel took a sip of her coffee.  So nice!  Sooo nice!  “You do have another diaper on right now, don’t you?” she asked, worried that he hadn’t had time to properly protect himself. 

     Curtsey.  “Yes Mistress.  I was just finishing when you called.”  Curtsey.

     Mel was much relieved.  “Okay Sissy.  Go make my breakfast now.  I’ll have it here in bed this morning… and bring me my laptop first.  I may as well get some work done while I’m waiting – which better not be too long!”

     Chad curtseyed and hurried out.

     Mel smiled as she sipped her coffee.  So good!  So good!  This was the way she wanted life to be.  This was her dream!  Well, almost.  But it was getting there.  She could almost touch it now – for real.  Just another week!  She hoped.

     Chad was rinsing dishes when he thought he heard the bathroom door closing.  He turned off the water and checked.  Yes, she was up!  He hurried into the bedroom and grabbed the tray holding her now empty breakfast dishes and carried it all out to the kitchen.  He would make the bed in there later after she had gotten dressed for the day.  He went back to cleaning up from breakfast. 

     He was nearly done when she came out – still wearing just a nightgown with a robe thrown over it. 

      “Have you eaten anything yet?” she asked.

     Curtsey.  “No Mistress.  Not yet.”  Curtsey.  Back to doing dishes.

      “Good,” she replied simply.  While he was doing dishes in the sink, she pulled out one of her pots from under the stove and a few minutes later was stirring baby cereal in it.  A short while later, Chad found himself locked in his highchair with a bib tied around his neck.

     Mel pulled his childish plastic bowl out of the cabinet and set it on the counter.  Then she picked up the pot and started dumping the infant cereal she had been cooking into the bowl.  But unlike every other morning, this time the amount of cereal all but overflowed what the bowl was capable of holding.  With a bit of a wicked smile, she found one of his tiny baby spoons and carried the spoon and the overly full bowl to his highchair where she set them on his tray. 

     Chad stared at the bowl of cereal in front of him, totally surprised.  Why so much?  And did he dare ask why?  He decided not to.  Not sure what was going on, he hesitantly picked up the tiny baby spoon in his left fist and got to work on the massive amount of cereal.  A moment later, she delivered another baby bottle full of her miserable green tea for him to finish as well.  In a way, the bottle of tea was good.  He was going to need it… and maybe at least another one just to get through that much bland tasting cereal. 

     With a smile still on her face, Mel said, “That should keep you busy for a little while.  And I need you to finish all of it before I let you up from there.  I’ll be back after I get dressed.”

     Chad watched her back as she departed.  Last night she had forced him to eat an overly large meal… including desert!  And now this morning she was forcing him to eat a much larger breakfast than usual.  Was she afraid he had somehow lost too much weight?  Would she give in and feed him something other than baby food?  But she had said that from now on, baby food was all she was going to permit him to eat – even out in the restaurants.  So was that why she was forcing him to eat so much more this morning?  He wasn’t sure if it exactly made sense, but then, not everything in his life made sense anymore.

     Slowly but surely, he continued to work his way through what was for him, a massive breakfast.  Since he had to eat it with only a tiny rubber coated baby spoon, eating it took a lot longer than if he had something better to use.  Mel had finished dressing and returned by the time he was little more than halfway done with it – and was seriously slowing down. 

      “You’re not done yet?” Mel asked as she came back from her bedroom, cleaned up and wearing just a pair of shorts and a colorful top. 

     Chad almost rolled his eyes at her question, but he refrained from doing so and didn’t bother answering. 

     Mel noticed that the baby bottle on his tray was nearly empty so she replaced it with a fresh one – which Chad knew he was going to need in order to help him finish his breakfast, yet at the same time he didn’t really want another bottle – he was already too full.

     Mel took a moment to check just how much he still needed to eat.  She shook her head.  “You don’t get up till it’s all gone,” she told him again.  “So keep eating.”   She heard her phone ringing and hurried off to answer it.

     Chad felt like such a child – not because of what he was eating, not because of where he was sitting, and not because of the bib tied around his neck – but because of the way she had said it.  Her words sounded all too much like an adult telling any young child to sit there till they ate all their vegetables!  His bigger problem now though, was that he was full!  Maybe the baby cereal expanded a bit after it got into his stomach… or his stomach wasn’t as big as it used to be… or both!  He had to struggle to continue eating – even eating slowly. 

      “Oh hi Sandy,” Mel said into her phone.  “Are you still coming over this morning?”

      “Absolutely!” Sandy replied.  “I just wanted to make sure you were ready for me before I stopped by.”

      “Well, I’m ready for you, but I’m afraid Sissy is still stuck in his highchair – and he’s going to stay there till he finishes all of his breakfast!”

     Sandy chuckled.  “You make him sound like such a child!”  She laughed.  “Which he most definitely is!  Can I come over and watch?  Maybe I can even feed him for you if he’s being stubborn.”

      “You’re more than welcome,” Mel replied with a smile.  “See you in a few.”

     Mel answered the knock on the door a few minutes later and let Sandy in.  Together, they headed into the kitchen where Sandy stopped and stared at Sissy for a moment.  “Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” she said sarcastically.  “A maid sitting in a highchair, with a bib around her neck, drinking from a baby bottle.”

     Chad felt his face turn a bit red at her comment, but as before, he didn’t say anything.  He was so full now that he was barely eating anything.  Unfortunately, trapped in his highchair, there was no way for him to get up… let alone the fact that Mel had said he couldn’t get up until he finished all his cereal.

     Sandy looked in his bowl.  “Goodness!  You must not be very hungry today.  It doesn’t look like you’ve eaten much at all!”

     Chad looked back down into his bowl.  What was left was probably a little less than the normal portion he usually got every morning. 

      “I gave him a bit more this morning,” Mel told her.  “But he still needs to eat it all!” she said sternly straight to him. 

     Chad stuck his tiny spoon back into the bowl, and carefully lifted it to his mouth.  At least the tiny amount he got with each bite didn’t make things seem as bad as they could be if he had a bigger spoon.  But it was still hard to take each tiny bite.

     Sandy watched him for a moment as he took another spoonful of cereal, then he took a swig from his almost empty baby bottle.  “This could take forever,” she complained.  She walked over to him and grabbed the spoon right out of his fist.  “Here, let me help.”  She stuck the spoon into his bowl and got as much on his tiny spoon as she could, then cupping her other hand under the spoon, she brought it straight up to his mouth.  Chad was forced to quickly open his mouth and let her shove the spoon inside.  A moment later, she was repeating the process – much faster than he was happy about.  “Just like feeding any other baby,” she muttered softly. 

     Mel grabbed his mostly empty baby bottle and replaced it with a fresh one again before refreshing the little bit of coffee still in her cup.  Then she sat back to enjoy watching Sissy getting fed like an infant.  Maybe he didn’t exactly look like a baby – especially in that maid’s uniform, but it was still fun to watch. 

     It took Sandy almost ten minutes to shovel the cereal into Sissy’s mouth with that tiny spoon, during which, he also drank a good bit of his latest bottle.  By the time that Sandy wiped him clean, removed his bib and released him from his highchair, he felt almost sick from eating so much.  And of course that was when Mel told him, “Okay Sissy, get undressed down to just your diaper.  It’s time for ballet practice again.”

     Once again, Chad was subjected to a long and intense ballet rehearsal.  And just like last night’s rehearsal, he was once again trying to dance while his stomach was overly full.  Dancing, or any kind of strenuous exercise, with that much food in his stomach was not a good thing, especially when Mel insisted that he keep drinking from his bottles on every little break.  It was quite a while before his stomach settled down enough before he no longer felt like he would barf every time he bent over.

     One thing he did notice though, once again Mel was insisting that he dance as properly as possible – despite the silly infantile music that was being played.  And he did try to be totally serious about it, but at the same time, while he was serious, Mel and Sandy seemed to find more and more to laugh about – although he had no idea what or why they were laughing.

     After his first diaper change during the practice, Mel added the new toe shoes for him to get used to, and the long practice continued.  His new diaper was getting fairly soggy by the time they decided to add the large flat tutu as well.  With that on he could no longer see his feet as he tried to dance and everything got much more difficult.  Also by that time, he was getting more and more interested in his bottle breaks – only because he was getting so exhausted from all the dance practice.

     He almost fainted with joy when he heard Mel finally announce an end to it all!  Sandy promised to be back shortly after lunch.  Mel helped him remove the tutu and toe shoes and he was sent to put his uniform back on and work on cleaning up whatever needed doing around her apartment – which he gladly did.  Anything was better than more ballet practice!

     For lunch, Mel had him make her just a sandwich and a cold drink.  Chad was “permitted” to stand on his perch while she ate in silence.  But after Mel ate, once again it was his turn to eat.  And he wasn’t the least bit hungry yet.  Like it or not, he soon found himself once again locked into his highchair.  And once again he was fed baby food.  And once again the amount was far more than normal.  Far more!

     As he sat there slowly trying to eat, he saw Mel carry his diaper bag into the kitchen where she replaced all the empty bottles in it with fresh ones.  He took that as a bad sign that she was doing that.  It meant that they were going out somewhere.  But then, he knew that he was supposed to “perform” his little ballet today… somewhere.  She just hadn’t been very forthcoming yet on any of the little details like that. 

     Mel carried his diaper bag from the kitchen back out to the living room again where she pulled all but two of his disposable diapers out of it.  She replaced them with a large stack of his thickest nighttime cloth diapers and made sure she had plenty of diaper pins for them.  As soon as his diaper bag was ready, she packed what she wanted to bring with her for his ballet costume and added the music disc that Sandy had put together.  She mentally went through the checklist for everything she would need in her head.  As far as she could tell, everything they would need was now ready.  It was then that her phone rang again.  “Hello?” she said as soon as she got to it.

      “Hey Mel.  It’s Andrea.”

      “Hi Andrea.  You are still going to help me today, aren’t you?”

      “Oh definitely!  But I’m calling about something else.  I got to thinking, since all the judges are getting together tomorrow, I’d kind of like to have a copy of your bet contract for us to refer to if we need it.  Can I get you to bring one with you?”

      “No problem,” Mel replied.  “I’ll give you mine.”

      “Thanks Mel.  See you in a little while.”

      “We’ll be there,” Mel confirmed happily.  Two minutes later, she had added her framed copy of the bet to the baggage she had already prepared.

     Chad knew he was eating slowly, but really, he was full!  Not just from what he had been eating for lunch, but also from the huge breakfast she had forced him to eat that morning.  Not to mention, he was probably still stuffed from the humongous amount of dinner she forced on him last night as well.  Why so much food all of a sudden?  And why was she making him eat it all when he couldn’t?  It made no sense!

     Mel walked into the kitchen.  “You’re still eating?  Honestly, you really are like a child just sitting there pushing his food around instead of eating it.”

     Chad realized she was probably right, but what was he supposed to do about it?  He was stuffed!

     Mel shook her head.  “You better get busy and finish that,” she told him, “cause like I said, you don’t get up till it’s all gone.  And if you don’t get busy with it, I’ll call Sandy to help you again.  Would you like that?”

     Chad quickly spooned another bit of greenish goo into his mouth.  But as he did, he realized that in a way, he would like Sandy to come feed him again.  She certainly had a way to make him feel totally like an infant when she did it.  He just didn’t want Mel to realize how much the idea interested him.  But the same problem still existed, Sandy or not, he was full!