✅ Over Protected

2. Mum Takes Charge

"It's called the pubococcygitis virus," Mum said, repeating what she'd probably heard on the news. I'd heard the name a bunch of times myself, but never thought it was something that would be relevant to me. "There's been a huge outbreak of this particular virus, and it sounds like our neighbourhood hasn't been able to avoid it forever."

"Lyra's mum told me," I said. "She's going to be off school for two or three days, and then it'll all be better. She called us all so her mum could explain, so we're not worrying about her so much. And to remind us not to say anything she could get teased over."

I still hadn't slept the night before. Lyra had gone to the doctor as soon as all her friends left the sleepover, and had called us all in the evening. Everything the doctor said just confirmed that it wasn't going to be anything serious. But I'd still been worried about my friend. I had spent half the night either wondering how it would feel, or dreaming that I'd caught this weird disease that was supposed to feel like a normal head cold, except that it could sometimes make girls wet their beds.

"Why are you telling us?" Sarah asked, clearly frustrated at a two minute delay in going out to spend time with her friends. Since the middle of high school, it seemed like she had constantly been getting upset over all the little things, or angry with Mum for nothing. I hoped that I wouldn't end up like that in a couple of years. "Like... Alice's friend pissed herself. She looks like a baby anyway, it's only natural. Why should she care?" She sniffed, and pulled a tissue out of her sleeve. I could already see the redness around her eyes; maybe the hay fever season was striking early this year.

"Because I got you both those expensive memory foam mattresses you said you wanted, remember? And I know that the virus spreads like wildfire once it reaches an area. There's a good chance Alice caught it already, even if she's asymptomatic. I think they say it's something like one in three if you spend a whole evening in the same room as someone."

"Ohh, is Alice going back in diapers," she said with a wicked laugh, before I even had a chance to think about how that would make me feel. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she remembers to wear them. Have to watch out for my baby sister, after all." I found myself blushing crimson, and wondered if she could tell just how much that was embarrassing me.

"Actually, I think that in the circumstances we can't be sure if Alice is infectious. A one in three chance that she's caught the disease, and then there's a fifty-fifty chance on whether she would have the same problems as her friend, or remain asymptomatic. But that means that for the next week we'll all be in the same house as someone who may have the virus, touching the same door handles and breathing the same air. If she's got it, that's a one in three chance we already caught it. And then tomorrow, and the day after, those odds keep on building up. Even if she never has symptoms she could still pass it on, that's why it's spreading so fast across the country."

I nodded slowly. After hearing what was wrong with Lyra, I'd spent a lot of time reading all the information available on the internet. I thought that the odds Mum was quoting were a little exaggerated, but I couldn't deny that she was just taking sensible precautions. The thought of wearing diapers for bed was embarrassing, but I was sure we could put up with it for a week or so, just in case.

"No way!" Sarah yelled, stamping her foot. I was surprised; I'd never seen anybody actually do that before, and thought it was something that only happened in the cheap romance novels near the door in the library. "You want me to wear them too? I'm not a little kid, you know? What would my friends say if they found out?"

"It's okay," I told her, hoping that might make her argue a little bit less. "It's just for a couple of weeks, isn't it? We don't know if I've got that disease, and if I have then I might pass it on to you before I even know for sure. So it's just a good idea to keep the sheets safe."

After I said all that, I quickly left the room, as if I understood what Mum had said and thought I didn't need to hear any more. Of course, there was probably more to go over. Mum would want to go over the details with us, like when she was going to buy diapers, and when I was expected to put them on, or something. But I figured that Sarah was going to make too much fuss about wearing diapers, and she would be even more embarrassed about giving in with me in the room. Maybe Mum would have more luck persuading her without me there.

It was easier to think when I was standing in the hall, as well. With nobody else there, and the lights a little lower than in the lounge, I felt safe with my thoughts. I didn't need to worry what a hypothetical person might think if they knew what was going through my mind. And sometimes my thoughts weren't quite as wholesome as I might have wanted to pretend; because as soon as I was sure that they weren't following me out of the room, I turned around and rested my ear against the door. Not like I was listening in, just resting against it. And if I happened to hear their conversation, that was just a coincidence.

"Please, Sarah. Can you do this for me?"

"You don't know what it's like," she answered, sounding so angry already. I guessed that she was embarrassed too. "You don't know how horrible they'll be if they find out."

"Like you were horrible to that girl last year?" Mum asked. "Then don't tell anyone. It's not like you're going to be wetting the bed at a sleepover. I'm just asking you to wear some kind of protection at home. None of your friends will see that, and it's up to you if you want to risk being in the same situation as your friend if you're sleeping at someone else's house. I just want to keep the sheets clean."

"Madison? Mum, that was years ago. And I wasn't that mean. If I hadn't said anything, they would still have... Anyway, I don't want to be an outcast like her. Why should I have to wear them at all? It's like a one in three chance Alice got it at all, and I'm out at friends' houses half the time anyway. I'd barely see her if you didn't make us eat dinner together. So let me eat in my room, make sure I don't catch it, no more problem. Or stop making up stupid excuses why I can't do stuff with my friends. If I'm not here I can't catch it, right?"

"Well..." Mum said, and then paused. "Okay, I'll tell you the truth. I half suggested this earlier, and Alice was almost as embarrassed as you. At her age, she's at the highest risk for... little accidents. But it feels like bullying if I make her wear diapers just in case. But if we're all doing it, she can't really complain, can she?"

I thought about that for a moment. I didn't remember Mum saying anything at all to me; and I was sure that if she asked me to wear something, I would have thought about how embarrassing it was, but I would still do what Mum told me. It was only for a couple of weeks, anyway. But when I listened in to the conversation for a few minutes longer, and Sarah seemed to agree with that logic, I wondered if it was some kind of reverse psychology thing after all. If she was just doing it to make me do it, then Sarah didn't argue so much. And if it made life easier for Mum, I wasn't about to tell her anything different. My sister and I would be back in diapers at night for a couple of weeks, in case either of us caught the virus, and then everything would go back to normal.

No big deal, right?