Your Move

Chapter 18 - Baptism of Fire

Luckily for her, the rustling cacophony of the congregation flipping through their Bibles came just in time to mask Izzy pooping herself. Since I was sitting right beside her, I of course picked up both the sound and the slight smell, but we were sitting far enough away from anyone else for them to have noticed.

"Do you want to go get changed now?" I whispered into Izzy's ear once the rude noises coming from her diaper stopped.

She winced and nodded, so I picked her up, painstakingly avoiding squishing the bulge in her diapers, and headed outside with her. She'd stood up just before going, so thankfully the change shouldn't be too bad. However, since there were no changing tables in the church washrooms, I had to bring her to the car to change her.

"Why aren't we doing this in the restroom?" She asked as I gently laid her down in the trunk of my SUV.

"The ones here don't have changing tables. The sinks don't have countertops either."

I pulled her sweatpants off and gingerly untaped her diaper, but not before grabbing a handful of baby wipes.

"Isn't that illegal?"

I wiped off Izzy's bottom front-to-back, first with the clean front of her used diaper to get most of the mess off, then with a couple baby wipes.

"It's a private building, so federal laws don't apply. Besides, most of our congregation is too young to have kids!"

I taped the new diaper on her snugly, and flared it out by running a finger around the leg guards. I finished off her change by handing Izzy her pants, leaving her to put them on by herself while I bagged up her old diaper and disposed of it in a nearby garbage bin.

After cleaning my hands with an extra wipe, I picked up a pants-on Izzy, I shut the trunk, and jogged back inside with her, just in time for the congregation to laugh at another of Pastor Daryl's jokes. I love how funny he is. I think his humor is the main motivation for a lot of people here to come to church!

"...Moral of the story is: treat everyone with respect, no matter how old or tall someone is. Respect Littles and your children just as Jesus respected Zacchaeus. As Matthew chapter eighteen tells us, unless we become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Pastor Daryl paused for a moment to let his words sink in, then said a quick prayer for the congregation.

"That brings us to the end of the meeting today. Don't leave just yet, though, join us for our quarterly game of Laser Tag out back first! Today's match is a three-way battle. Left versus middle versus right!" He gestured at the three sections of the congregation, separated by two aisles.

Several people started cheering, and almost everyone made their way towards the back exit. I picked up Izzy, so she wouldn't get trampled, and joined the throng. Outside, Pastor Daryl's wife Lucia handed out laser rifles, vests, and safety goggles to everyone. I put Izzy down to grab both a Big-sized set of gear for myself and a Little-sized set for her. Equipment in hand, I walked her a few paces over to a less crowded spot, before helping her don her vest and teaching her how to use the rifle.

"Here's the safety. When it's up, it's safe; flip it down to disengage it and unlock the trigger. NEVER aim above shoulder-level. If you shoot into someone's eyes and their goggles aren't on and working correctly, they WILL go blind, temporarily at best and permanently at worst."

I demonstrated the safety to Izzy and she nodded. Next, I pointed to the trigger assembly and battery mag.

"Here's the trigger, pull it to fire. The battery magazine is here. You can get around fifty shots off on every battery before you'll need to reload, so you have two more spare mags on your vest there. Pull the mag release here to switch batteries, and just swap it for one on your vest like this. As long as you're within our team's spawn point, all your mags will simultaneously recharge wirelessly."