During her morning change, Keeley was hoping for a better day. Dominika was changing her this morning. It was nice to shed the over-wet nighttime diaper. She wouldn’t need the extra padding except that they kept putting her to bed early. Last night had been eight o’clock. No way she could make it to morning without having to go.
“Do I have to be a baby today?” Keeley asked Dominika.
“You were pretty darn good yesterday.” Dominika said. “I think we can give it a try.”
“Then can I have a smaller diaper?” Keeley asked, internally shaking her head that she was asking for that, instead of no diaper at all.
“You went through a lot of diapers yesterday.” Dominika said, taping up the bulky pink diaper she’d chosen. “They were bulky like this too.”
“But that’s because I had to eat baby food. It’s all watery.” Keeley grumped.
“You didn’t just eat baby food. We went out for lunch, remember? It was a really big shake though. I wonder if they messed up and gave you the adult size.”
Keeley blushed and squirmed. She had been trying to forget the intensely humiliating trip to the drive-in restaurant from yesterday. Dominika took advantage of her silence to dress Keeley in a Duck Tales blouse and a little girl’s dress with an overall-esque top.
“There, you’ve got big girl clothes on!” Dominika said.
“So, I can eat at the table?” Keeley asked hopefully.
“Nope, but you can be trusted with a fork and a knife.” Dominika scooted Keeley off the changing table.
Keeley took the win. Breakfast was pancakes and eggs. She cleaned her plate without getting a single drop of syrup or yolk on her clothes.
“Look, nana!” Keeley said excitedly. “I didn’t spill!”
“What a good girl!” Vidette said, kissing Keeley on the head. She wiped Keeley’s face off with a washcloth. “I’m proud of you.”
Too late, Keeley realized she shouldn’t have been so proud of her accomplishment. Vidette sounded sincere when she said she was proud, though. It felt good even if it was embarrassing to be praised for something so dumb.
“What are we doing today?” Keeley asked.
Vidette helped Keeley out of the chair and lowered her to the floor. After a whole day of crawling, it felt natural enough to sit down there and look up at her nannies.
“We can go back to the beach today if you want.” Dominika said.
“Yeah!” Keeley said, genuinely excited. “Do you think my sandcastle is still there?”
“Maybe.” Dominika said. “It was right up at the high tide line.”
“I hope so.” Keeley said.
With her nannies busy cleaning up breakfast, Keeley crawled to the living room and investigated the toy shelves. Nobody had put her in those hateful locking mittens today either, so it was a good opportunity to get into the coloring books. She selected one on faeries and flopped down on her stomach to color.
Just as she had on the first day, Keeley embellished the big open sections of the pictures. The faeries took on a distinctly nautical theme with kelp strands in their skirts and coral growing out of the pillars and walls of their homes. Along the way she felt the far-too-intrusive feeling of pressure in her bladder.
It was annoying how much of her day had been revolving around that feeling. Keeley relaxed and let herself go right away. Wetting was inevitable anyway; she might as well not dwell on it.
“Can I see what you’re drawing?” Vidette asked, sitting with her back against the couch.
“This one isn’t done.” Keeley said, turning the page back from the drawing she was working on, to one already completed. “You can see this one.”
“Show me what you like about it.” Vidette said.
When she approached, Vidette pulled Keeley into her lap and wrapped her arms around the diapered girl. Not one to turn down a snuggle, Keeley settled in and went over the additions she’d made to the coloring book page.
“And this spot was boring and empty, so I put in a lobster.” Keeley said as she finished her explanation.
“That looks a lot like your new toy. Do we need to go back to the Sea Witch today?” Vidette asked.
“No! No that’s okay.” Keeley said. “I uh – wanna have a picnic on the beach.”
“Okay, we can do that.” Vidette said gently.
Keeley felt an absurd pang of disappointment at how easily Vidette caved on that request. She’d expected her nanny to insist on going out again. Now she’d never get that whale. It was a crazy thing to be disappointed about, even if she was dressed as a bigger girl this time and it wouldn’t be so embarrassing.
Dominika came in from the porch, putting her phone away. “You two having fun?”
“Keeley was showing me her drawings.” Vidette said. “And we just decided on a picnic on the beach instead of going out for lunch.”
“Sounds fun.” Dominika said. “I guess I better get the picnic stuff together.”
“I can do it if you want.” Vidette said.
“I don’t mind.” Dominika said. “I was taking a call while you were watching her anyway.”
Keeley sighed. Vidette wasn’t paying attention to the next picture she’d turned to. This one was really good, the best one of the morning. She’d managed to add a bunch of detail and totally transform a woodland scene into the bottom of the sea.
“Nanny Vi, you’re not looking.” Keeley said.
“Oh, I’m sorry sweetie, go ahead and show me.” Vidette squeezed Keeley gently.
Pleased to have Vi’s attention back, plus a hug, Keeley described each of her upgrades to the picture as she pointed them out. She was still showing off her pictures, to Dominika this time, while her nannies got her dressed for the beach. Dominika gently pried the coloring book out of Keeley’s hand before putting a coat on her.
“We can look at the rest of it later, it’s beach time hon.” Dominika said.
“But you didn’t say if you liked that one.” Keeley said, annoyed.
“I liked all of them.” Dominika said. “You are super creative. I really liked how you put seaweed all over the deer antlers in the last one.”
Keeley beamed. The last hour had been non-stop encouragement and compliments. Genuine ones too, that mentioned specific stuff about her pictures. She hardly noticed Vidette strapping her into the leash harness before she bolted out the door with the sand toys.
Down on the beach, Keeley assessed the damage to her sandcastle. It had survived a day and two nights pretty well. The water-side of the castle was a big smushed, but she was able to recover pretty much all of her splinter people.
Since the little people were the time-consuming part, Keeley had her castle back in shape after a mere half-hour. That left her plenty of time to hunt the beach for shells. Anything was fair game. Unbroken shells were great, sure, but even small bits of shells or crab-carapace could be carefully pressed into the sides of the sandcastle. Little by little Keeley built mosaic walls worthy of Byzantium.
“Keeley!” Dominika’s voice was soft against the roaring waves. “Keeley!”
“What?” Keeley yelled. There was no response.
She shrugged. Dominika could tell her whatever it was later. She was sitting on a motherload of shell shards that were going into her makeshift skirt-basket along with a lot of sand.
“Keeley!” Dominika’s voice was louder now.
Keeley looked over and saw Dominika walking over to her. She waved and went back to shell harvesting.
“Keeley, you can’t just wander way out here.” Dominika said. “What are you doing?”
“Nana Nika, there are so many shells!” Keeley said eagerly. “Look!” Proudly, she held up her skirt full of pretty multicolored shards. She was showing her diaper off to the whole beach in the process, but it was still empty so that didn’t matter.
“That’s a lot of shells for sure.” Dominika said, giving Keeley a funny look. She cast a glance at something behind Keeley’s shoulder and then focused back.
“I think that’s plenty of shells for whatever you’re doing, come on back to our area, okay?”
“Okay!” Keeley nodded. “I’m almost done anyway. Wait until you see it!”
“I’m sure it’s going to be very cool.” Dominika said. She put a hand on Keeley’s back, leading her back to the blanket with a couple of looks behind them.
“You’re covered in sand, little girl.” Dominika said.
Keeley looked down. She was, actually. Her arms were sandy to her elbows, and her legs were speckled with sand right up to her diaper. The dress was a lighter, sandier color.
Keeley giggled. “Yeah, good day at the beach!”
Unfortunately, it was lunchtime. Vidette took the job of brushing the sand off of Keeley with a towel while Dominika set up the food. It looked great and all, charcuterie, veggies, delicious bread, and even fancy cookies. The problem was, it was keeping Keely from her art.
She ate quickly, ignoring her nannies as much as possible when they told her to slow down. They insisted on her eating certain amounts of things, her plan to fill up on cookies was foiled at the outset. At least she managed to hold off on drinking on the condition that she take a bottle with her to the sandcastle. They handed her a baby-bottle filled with juice and Keeley didn’t give it a second thought.
Finally back at her sandcastle, Keeley sat down to finish her masterpiece. All distractions had to go. She tuned out her nannies’ voices and quickly emptied her bladder. With the warm, squishy padding cradling her rear, she stuck shell after shell to the castle walls.
At last, Keeley was able to sit back and admire her work. She sucked idly on the bottle’s nipple while she looked for any changes she might need to make. Overall, it looked good, she’d balanced the small pieces against the larger ones. The colors flowed well too.
“Nana!” Keeley shouted. “Nanny Vidette! Nanny Dominika! Come look, come look!”
It took a couple more shouts before she was able to roust them from their blanket and books, but Keeley was persistent. When they arrived, their surprised exclamations made it all worth it.
“Woah.” Dominika said.
“Wow, this is really pretty!” Vidette added.
“Look!” Keeley said, overjoyed. “Here’s the main entrance, with the grand plaza. That’s mostly sand dollars on there. And up here is where the royals live. They get all the pearly shells. There’s a market over here, oh and a stable over here, and this tower is all snail shells.”
“This is really impressive hon.” Dominika said. “I think it’s the best sandcastle I’ve ever seen. Can I take pictures?”
“Yeah!”
Keeley posed in front of her castle and behind it, while each of her nannies took pictures. Her skirt was more than a little damp from the wet sand. It was a pain to pull it straight every time, so after the first few pictures, Keeley didn’t bother.
Both her nannies were really excited about the castle. She could see it in their faces, they weren’t faking. They had big smiles on and kept looking at the little details. Keeley felt like she could fly to the moon.
“I’m glad we got pictures.” Vidette said. “We have to head back up in a few minutes.”
“We can’t leave without going down to the water!” Keeley said, alarmed.
“Well then we better get down there fast.” Dominika replied.
“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Keeley said, hopping up and running flat out for the waves.
Dominika and Vidette shouted in alarm and followed her. Good luck to them, Keeley thought. Even with a diaper on she was faster. She hit the waves and ran down the edge of the water and back again, splashing in the ankle-deep surf.
“What did we say,” Dominika said, panting as she caught up, “about – huff – going into the water by yourself?”
“You never made a rule about that!” Keeley said. “Plus, I waited at the edge.”
Vidette laughed, holding her side. “Alright, say hi to the ocean. We really do have to go up soon.”
Keeley spun in a circle and forged out deeper into the waves. They hadn’t had a chance to put the leash on her this time. It let her go a little further into the water, though she obediently pulled back whenever they called for her to stop.
Finally, it seemed like beach time was really over. Keeley wasn’t sure why. There was plenty of afternoon left. Despite the cold in her legs, Keeley was feeling reckless and giddy. In the calf-deep surf she waited until the waves went out and dropped to the sand.
“Keeley, get up from there!” Dominika said.
She was too late! Keeley giggled as the waves flowed back over her, soaking her from head to toe. It was so cold! It also blasted the sand off of her. She hopped to her feet, now only sandy on her feet and hands. Well, and the whole back of her dress. Sure, she was freezing, but it was worth it.
“What’s gotten into you?” Vidette asked, chuckling. “I hope that was worth it, your diaper is hanging down past your skirt.”
Keeley giggled and shrugged. It was a little weird walking around with a diaper full of salt water. She had a solution for that too, though. Another burst of energy carried her running past her nannies back to the blanket. This time they didn’t chase, which she’d expected.
As soon as she was around the big driftwood log, Keeley shucked off her sopping wet dress. She lost the diaper and her shirt as well. When her nannies made it back to the blanket, they were confronted by a naked girl rolling around in the warm dry sand.
“Keeley!” Dominika looked so surprised that she didn’t even seem to be mad.
Vidette didn’t even manage to say anything, she just laughed until she doubled over. Keeley laughed with her, giggling like a fool when Dominika joined in.
“I guess we can get you fixed up at the beach house.” Dominika said. “You’d better not have an accident in the elevator, baby girl.”
“I already went plenty.” Keeley said, hopping up and grabbing her sand toys. She left the clothes and diaper where she’d flung them. That was nanny stuff.
It was a bemused pair of nannies that lead their naked, sandy girl to the private elevator. Dominika declared that Vidette had to de-sand Keeley since she’s the one that had laughed first. Keeley ended up sitting in the tub while Vidette used the detachable shower head to wash rivers of sand off of her.
“You got so much in your hair!” Vidette said in exasperation. “You almost managed to make us late, little girl.”
“Late for what?” Keeley said, sitting passively under the water. “Why’d we have to leave the beach so soon?”
“Nanny Nika has a meeting. I’m going to be able to go too.” Vidette said.
“Okay, I’ll watch TV or something while you go.” Keeley said. Whatever the meeting was, it was probably work related.
“Don’t worry, we have you covered.” Vidette said.
Keeley was barely in a new diaper and into another t-shirt and dress when the doorbell rang. Curiously, she hopped off the changing table and followed Vidette out to the living room.
“Babysitter’s here.” Dominika said, checking the makeup she’d just applied in her compact.
“Baby – WHAT?” Keeley froze in the living room. They weren’t really going to bring someone else in, were they?
“Can you get the door Nika? I’ll deal with Keeley.” Vidette took Keeley’s arm and pulled her into the hall.
“Nanny Vi, please, no.” Keeley whimpered. “I’ll be such a good girl, please nana. You – you can even lock me in the crib. With the mittens on!”
“Sweetie, you’re okay!” Vidette said. “You’ve already met your babysitter, it’s Trish from the Sea Witch. She already likes you and knows you’re a little girl.”
“But that was just at lunch, please Vi, no.” Keeley was trembling all over, she felt like she was going to throw up.
“Keeley, you were having so much fun being a little girl today at the beach. You didn’t care if anybody saw your diaper and you even got naked in the sand.” Vidette hugged Keeley gently. “It’s only for a few hours, and you’ll have a great time with Trish, okay?”
“But… but…” Keeley whimpered.
“Just be a little girl. She already thinks you’re like that. You can have more fun with her, and she won’t judge you or be mean at all.” Vidette smiled. “Just be a good girl for her and we’ll be right back.”
Reluctant, blushing, and hiding her face, Keeley stumbled along behind Vidette as her nanny pulled her by the hand into the living room.
“Hi Keeley!” That was Trish all right.
She wasn’t in her Sea Witch uniform, of course. She had ripped jeans on, with a gray loose top. A cute leather jacket went over that. She looked all cool and fashionable, while Keeley was in a green baby dress and a diaper.
“Somebody’s feeling a little shy.” Vidette said. “But I’m sure she’ll come around. We didn’t get a chance to warn her that we were going out.”
“Let me show you around while Vidette talks to her.” Dominika said to Trish.
While Dominika showed Trish where things were in the kitchen, Vidette sat Keeley on the couch. Keeley couldn’t make herself sit still. Her legs were shaking restlessly. There was heat behind her eyes that meant tears were just around the corner.
“You’re going to be okay, baby girl.” Vidette said softly, stroking Keeley’s cheek.
“Nana Vi, please.” Keeley whispered. “I don’t want a babysitter. She’s way younger than me. Is she even eighteen?”
“Dominika checked. She’s nineteen, going to college in the fall. She’s been out of high school for almost a year. We encouraged her to apply to ABDU.”
“But I’m dressed like a baby. Nana, it’s so embarrassing!” Keeley was finding it hard to keep her voice at a whisper. Luckily, Dominika’s tour had taken Trish down the hall.
“She’s already seen you as a baby. You even wet yourself in front of her.” Vidette kissed Keeley on the forehead.
“Don’t remind me.” Keeley whimpered.
“I think you’re going to have a lot of fun with her.” Vidette said. “She really wants you to like her too. You know what that means. A babysitter who wants to be liked is always a little loose with the rules.”
Keeley smiled a little, then pouted away the smile. She didn’t want to have fun with this. It wasn’t fair that she’d been diapered, treated like a baby, and now she had a babysitter. Still, she had to wonder what Trish was planning to do that would be fun.
“Remember when I told you at the beginning that you could go with the game and have fun, or you could make it no fun for you?” Vidette said.
“Yes.” Keeley said grumpily.
“Well, you didn’t have a lot of fun the first day. How much fun did you have today when you went all out on the game?”
“Shut up.” Keeley said, looking down at her lap.
“I had a lot of fun too. You were such a cute little baby girl. And your sandcastle was really amazing.”
Keeley squirmed, looking anywhere but Vidette. “I don’t wanna babysitter.”
“Uh oh, fussy baby alert.” Vidette said. With a grunt of effort, she pulled Keeley into her lap and held her close. “Trish is going to have to pull out all the stops to cheer up this grumpy pants.”
Keeley wiggled in Vidette’s lap, though not hard enough to get loose. She’d never have admitted it to her nanny, but her struggles were just a way to get some extra snuggles in before Vidette left.
“And that’s everything.” Dominika said, returning to the living room with Trish. “I don’t think you’ll have to change her or put her down for a nap, in the short time we’re gone. If you do, you know where things are.”
“I’ve got it.” Trish said eagerly. “Hi there Keeley, are you feeling better?”
“I don’ wanna babysitter.” Keeley said. She tried to glare at Trish. It didn’t seem to phase the younger girl. She wasn’t sure why she was baby-talking but that was making her a lot less intimidating.
“Oh no, are you sure? I’ve got some pretty fun games planned. But if you don’t want a babysitter, I guess we won’t play those.” Trish sighed and shook her head. She looked at Dominika. “I better not give her the present I brought then ether.”
“You brought me a present?” Keeley asked. The words were out before she realized she’d responded to obvious manipulation.
“Well, I brought a present for the cutie that I was going to babysit.” Trish said. “But if I’m not going to babysit, I don’t know what I’ll do with it. Probably just throw it away.”
Keeley pouted. This whole conversation was dumb. Dominika and Vidette weren’t going to let her not be babysat anyway. She knew that, they knew that, Trish knew that. This was just a dumb game.
Giving in and playing would mean giving her friends another victory. Not that Keeley had had any victories yet. Plus, there was a present. It had to be okay to play along for a present.
“You – don’t have to do that.” Keeley said, blushing. “You can give me the present.”
“Keeley.” Vidette said, squeezing her. “That’s not a very polite way to ask for a present.”
Keeley blew a raspberry. Kicking her feet and looking away from Trish, she mumbled. “Can I please have a present?”
“Of course you can sweetie!” Trish said. She hurried to the door to open her bag and returned with something behind her back. “I’m not supposed give these out except when I’m at work, but it’ll be our secret, okay?”
Trish held out the plush whale from the Sea Witch. It was just as absurdly cute as it had been on the signs, with its derpy grin and weird goggles. Keeley took it and cuddled it to her chest. She’d gotten the whale without having to go to a super embarrassing lunch. Trish had paid attention to what she’d said and remembered.
Maybe it would be okay to be babysat by Trish. Just for a game. Keeley was not going to wet herself while Trish was babysitting though. If Trish didn’t change her, then it would be okay to have her as a babysitter. Since she’d been so nice.
Keeley smiled slowly. “Thanks Trish. I really like it. It’s so cute – and derpy.” She giggled.
“Yeah, I think it’s the best one.” Trish said.
“Your nannies have got to go to their thing though.” Trish said, offering Keeley her hand. “You want to hop up and hug them goodbye? Then you can show me your toys.”
After being ordered around by her nannies all weekend, it was easy to take Trish’s hand and obediently stand up. She got a tight hug from Dominika and a frantic one from Vidette. Vi was freaking out about not being ready. Nika insisted she could just do her makeup in the car. The two of them were rushing around grabbing last minute stuff.
Keeley giggled, watching the frenzy. In short order, Vidette had changed her clothes and waved a quick goodbye on her way out the door.
“Be a good baby Keeley. We’ll be right back.” Dominika said. “Trish, you have our phone numbers, text or call us if you need to.”
“I will if I need to. I think we’ll be fine though, have a good meeting.” Trish said.
Keeley waved and clutched her whale tight with her other arm. Watching them go out the door made her suddenly anxious. It was more than just being left alone with a stranger, though that was part of it. She really missed her nannies.
The beach house felt suddenly very empty, even slightly scary. Keeley stood pigeon-toed, clutching her whale and staring at the window as Dominika’s SUV rumbled away.