The Girl Who Wanted to Wear Diapers

Chapter 11: Running Dry

Mom's eyes went back and forth between the sleeping bag on the floor and the uncovered mattress still covered in baking soda.

Like yesterday, I had slept in much longer than intended because of how late I had finally fallen asleep after cleaning up after the fake bedwetting incident. Unlike yesterday, Mom had come to investigate why I hadn't gotten out of bed at a reasonable time.

I had woken up to the sight of her standing over me at the foot of the sleeping bag. The second night of waking up on the floor was less disorientating than the first. I knew right away both where I was and why I was there. I had intentionally peed on the bed, and Grace had helped me clean up.

I stretched my mouth open in a wide yawn and rubbed my eyes.

This was not how I had intended for my mom to find out about the bedwetting. I would have preferred a discreet conversation once I was fully awake rather than be wakened to her witnessing the aftermath of it. I had less control of my secrets than I thought I did.

"What happened?" Mom asked.

The question irked me. The answer seemed rather obvious. Why else would I be in a sleeping bag? And why else would all the sheets and blankets have been taken off of the mattress? Why was Mom insisting that I spell it out for her?

I didn't bother describing the elaborate dream I had made up for Grace last night. "Um," I said, my gaze fixed on Mom's slippers rather than her face. "It happened again."

Mom sighed. "I did tell you that you shouldn't have had so much to drink last night."

That was true. Mom had caught me in the middle of drinking one more glass of water before going to bed. I had worried that it would have caused problems with being able to pee on the bed, but I still had been hydrated enough to do so.

The last thing I needed was for Mom to be fixated on how much liquids I was drinking.

"I was thirsty. And it's not like that's caused problems before."

"And it's not like you've ever wet the bed before, much less two times in a row," Mom said. "I think it would be good if you drank a little bit less in the evening."

There wasn't anything I could say to argue back against that. From Mom's perspective, it was a completely reasonable request. From what I could recall, Grace had been under similar restrictions back when she was a bedwetter. I would just need to be more discreet when getting extra water to drink today.

There were footsteps in the hallway. Then Grace walked by, passing my open bedroom door on the way to her own bedroom. Mom turned around just in time to briefly make eye contact with Grace before my older sister scurried off.

Great. Now, Mom and Grace both knew that each other knew about my bedwetting.

Mom rushed over to close the door. "I'm sorry," Mom said. "I'll talk with your sister and make sure she respects your privacy. I should have closed the door behind me when I came to get you up."

"It's fine. She found out last night. She helped me get it cleaned."

"Oh," Mom said. "That was nice of her."

"Yeah," I said. Best to get the full truth out. "She knows that I know about her past bedwetting as well."

"I see," Mom said. "Still, I'll have a talk with her later this morning. Did you start the washing machine last night?"

"Yeah."

"Well, no one else has started on any laundry this morning, so it's still in there. Please move it over to the dryer before you get in the shower."