There’s activity all around them; people are shouting and laughing and buying ice cream. The roller coaster cars tick-tick-tack up the tracks to their right, and the organ music flows out of the open doorway to the carousel house on the left.
But all he can think is, *Oh no*, as he feels something warm and solid stretching his underwear under his shorts. *At least it’s happening now…and not when we’re about to sit down on a ride…*
He should tell her. He opens his mouth but the words won’t come out. This is so embarrassing. He didn’t even notice that he had to go at all.
“Do you want me to get you cotton candy?” She asks, humming and looking up at the ferris wheel. “Oh, that would be so romantic…No, we should do that in the evening when the sun is setting. Do you want to go on the swings? Oh, sweetheart, you have a little stain on your shorts. Did you sit in something?”
She very quickly and briefly rests her hand on the back of his shorts. “Oh. Ohhh.” She squeezes his hand tighter, dragging him to the bathrooms.
“Oh, shoot. There isn’t a gender neutral one,” she says when they arrive. People are everywhere, entering and leaving the bathrooms. It looks like every single stall inside is occupied. Someone is shouting about no toilet paper.
“I don’t want to do this,” he says quietly.
“Yeah, this isn’t good. Let’s keep looking, is that okay?” She rubs his back. The sun is getting hot on his face. “Do you need your sunglasses? You’re squinting.” She starts to rummage in her bag.
“Can we find somewhere, please? I don’t think I’m done.” He fidgets with the bottom of his shirt.
“You can’t tell?” She looks up at him, hand still in her bag. “Okay, I’m sorry, honey. We’ll go find somewhere.”
The only single-stall gender-neutral bathroom is out by the parking lot. And it’s OCCUPIED. He stands next to her right outside the door, looking out at the sea of cars. He starts to feel himself filling his pants again and tears sting his eyes. The pressure is doing so much to his bladder, too. He already leaked a little bit but it isn’t showing yet. He starts to squirm.
“Oh, baby. I’m sorry. I got you.” She wraps her arm around him and the door opens. She catches it as the person leaving holds it open and she pulls him in.
As soon as they’re inside, he starts to really wet himself. It soaks through his shorts quickly and dribbles down his legs to the floor. This is when he starts to cry a little.
“Oh, honey…Shh, shh, it’s going to be okay. I brought you extra pants. I just really wasn’t expecting…this.”
“You really didn’t know it was going to happen?” She unlaces his canvas shoes and he kicks them off.
He shakes his head as she undoes his shorts and strips them off. “You’re just getting worse and worse at this,” she tuts. “Oh, honeypie, I don’t think we can save these panties.”
He can’t answer. He doesn’t know what to say. Despite himself, he’s starting to feel really excited and it’s making him even more frustrated.
“Okay, let me give you a wipe-down. Here, can you help me? Hold this for me.” She sets the packet of wipes in his hands. “Oh, you’re so messy,” she sighs.
“I know, baby. You had a messy accident at night two nights ago, and now this. You really didn’t know you had to go at all?”
“No, I didn’t notice. I just felt it coming out when we were walking.”
“How come you didn’t tell me? Aw, honey. It’s okay.” She goes to throw away the wipes and wash her hands. She takes the wipes from him and stows them in her bag again. “Okay, I know you don’t like being changed away from a changing table, but the floor is reallyy dirty in here. I’m going to diaper you standing up, okay?” She takes out his spare diaper, the only one she brought, just in case, and fluffs it up.
As she straightens up, she notices his runny nose. “Blow your nose,” she says, unrolling a wad of toilet paper from the dispenser next to the toilet. “Here. There you go. Okay, diaper’s coming on. Help me out, okay?”
After he’s all taped up, she reaches in the bag one last time and gets his spare shorts out. “I thought you might have a little wet accident today and need these…” she says to herself quietly as he steps into them and she pulls them up. “Okay, you can get your fly yourself,” she says as he stands helplessly, hands twisting his shirt again. He zips it up and then his thumb slips into his mouth.
“Aw…Get that out now while we’re in here, okay? You can’t really get away with that in public. I know you want to, don’t worry. Save it for the ferris wheel, okay, honey?”
He nods and they leave the bathroom.
“Your diaper feels okay, right?” she whispers as they reenter the park.
“You were so good during that change, baby. Let’s go find something to eat, okay?”
“Yes, Mommy,” he says very quietly, so that only she can hear.
“Good boy.” She rests her hand on his back and guides him through the crowd.