Chapter 4: Growth Spurt

I was glad it was all over. Mama had told me that I slept for two whole days after the surgery. I don't know why they called it surgery since they didn't cut into me or anything, but they did. And she told me not to be scared. I wasn't.

But the other predictions the doctor made were also true. I couldn't move anything, not a muscle. I couldn't talk, I couldn't cry, I couldn't even scratch my nose, and it really needed scratching more than once. I couldn't do anything. I understood this, but understanding it is a lot different than feeling it.

After a week, they sent me home and boy was it good to be back home again. My own bed felt so much better that the hospital bed with those plastic sheets that made you hot and sweaty. The doctors and nurses told mama that she and my sisters would have to exercise me and gave us a lot of papers that explained what to do.

I just lied there and took it like a man, well like a little boy actualy ... mainly because there was nothing else I could do. Still it felt good to be back in my own bed again. Mr. Owens brought over a portable TV, and set it up in our room. It had a big pair of rabbit ears on the top of it, but it actually got a pretty good picture. That really helped to pass the time away until Aimee got out of school.

By the time I got home there was only a week of school left, and during the last week the kids in school made me a big 'get well' card and they all drew pictures in it and signed it. I laughed, or would have if I could when I looked at Billy's picture. It was a set of monkey bars with a girl climbing on it and you could just see her bare butt sticking out below her dress. I wondered if Debbie recognized herself in the picture, probably not.

The high point of my day was when Aimee got home. She would spend the first hour telling me all about school and everything I missed. She was actually the one who told me that Miss. Fletchings, our teacher, had told everyone that I would be passing on to the third grade with the rest of them, that I had enough points to pass, even with missing the last month of school. That was a big relief for me. I know my mom had told me not to worry about it, but those things can worry a guy ... I mean who wants to flunk out anyways?

Mom was the one who took care of me all day long, and then in the evenings, my sisters stepped in and helped where they could. Aimee was the real champ however as she spent nearly all her free time talking to me and holding and reading my comic books for me. I liked the way she would read, because she always interjected her own personal thoughts. For instance, one time Superboy was looking through a steel safe to find a lost kid, and Aimee out of the blue said, "I'm wonder if he looks through girl's clothes to see them naked." That same thought had occured to me many times.

Anyways, when school finally ended for all of us, Kim and Denise started to do the things that mama used to do. Mama had taken up a part time job as an operator, filling in for the girls at the Bell Telephone office. She used to do that before she met dad, and I guess my hospital expenses put us a little behind in some things, so she went back to work for the summer.

"Ewww," Aimee said, "I think your diaper needs changing."

This was the part I hated most of all. Normally, in the morning, after the girls had gone to school, mama would come in with a bowl with warm water and a wash rag and towel. She would give me a sponge bath, and then dry me off. She would also change my diaper from the night. It was often soiled and it embarassed me, but there was nothing I could do about it. After she cleaned me up, she would slip a new T-shirt over me, turn on the TV, and then spoon feed me my breakfast.

Luckily I could chew and swallow without any problem. And I could drink with a straw too. I remember the first day I was awake the doctor had said that I was lucky, because I wouldn't have to have a feeding tube stuck down my nose.

So mama would clean me up, feed me, and turn on the TV so I could watch Captain Kangaroo and then later the Channel 3 Clubhouse. After that it was soap operas until the afternoon matinee started at one in the afternoon. I liked it when they showed Tarzan or Bomba movies. That normally held me over until Aimee came home.

I knew that I was getting better, because the headaches had stopped. But I still couldn't move anything, and that drove me nuts.

Anyways, it was after school ended that Denise and Kim started taking over those duties. I hated the fact that my sisters changed my diaper. God how I hated it. And then they washed me, and they weren't quite as careful as mama was. More than once I felt cold water hit me or they squeezed me a little too roughly when cleaning my butt. And to make it worse, they always made remarks about my diapers, like it was my fault.

"Holy crap," Denise said, "Look at the load in this one."

"Don't get it on you, you will smell just like him if you do," added Kimberly.

"I'm not kidding Mikey," Denise said, "Smell this!"

Denise took my old diaper that was obviously filled with what diapers are meant to collect and held it under my nose. It did stink, it stunk badly. I would have gagged if I could. I was sorry for them, but I was angry too. Mama never did that.

Aimee must have caught the tail end of the conversation, because she ran into the room and yanked the diaper away from my face, and kicked Denise so hard that she fell to the floor. Good thing she didn't drop the diaper.

"STOP TEASING HIM!" she screamed, "He can't help it."

Kimberly just looked at her and then started to walk out. Aimee had tears in her eyes, and Denise was still on the floor trying to get up. I guess Aimee's foot struck her in the groin dead center.

"You crazy little shit," Denise started, "I'm going to kill you."

"Yeah, you try it," said Aimee, "And I'll just tell mom how you were making Mikey smell his own diaper!"

"Fine, whatever," Denise said as she got up off the floor, "Forget it, you clean him up this morning." She and Kimberly just walked out muttering.

And that is just what Aimee did. She very carefully, with kindness in her voice, talked to me as she finished my morning bedbath. I loved Aimee.

It was the next morning when Denise and Kimberly came back in again to perform my morning care. They were both being very nice this day, and being very careful. I had been in this state for almost a month now, and still couldn't move anything. Mama had taken me back to the hospital for checks, and they said that the tumor was shrinking and the swelling was going down, but it still had a way to go.

Anyway, Kimberly had just removed my diaper. It was clean and dry this morning.

"Well that's a nice surprise," she said.

Denise had a soft wash cloth and had Kimberly hold my legs up as she reached down to clean my bottomside.

"Aw, look," she said, "His little pee-pee is so cute." She smiled at me, but I knew she was teasing me.

"And it's so tiny," said Kim, "It's just like a little babie's pee-pee."

I was so humiliated. I couldn't say a thing or do a thing, and had no chioce but to lie there and suffer their teasing.