Posted by Zorro Daddy on May 31, 2009 at 03:25 [71.225.64.7]
“Do you want to sleep in my bed?” he asked.
She nodded yes as he lifted her up into his arms. He carried her out of the room, and then carried her back into the room to pull the night light out of the wall so they could take it with them. He carried her into his bedroom, and placed her on the bed.
Walking over to the outlet and putting the night light in it, he said: “It’ll be dawn in a few hours. You’re gonna love what the sunrise looks like.”
He stood up and turned back to her on the bed. She was already on her back and asleep. Zeke smiled, and crawled into bed next to her. He covered them both, and closed his eyes. She rolled over on top of half of his body, curled up and went to sleep.
Dawn would soon be upon them.
To be concluded…
Concluding…
A short while passed, and the nighttime sky became a mixture of the first traces of dawn and fleeting moonlight. Lilly awoke. She always liked to fall asleep on her tummy, but always woke up on her back. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the ceiling which was also showing the first morning light.
She felt a diaper tape being fastened into place. She sat up slowly to see Zeke sitting on the side of the bed. He placed her pacifier back between her lips, and stood up, crossing to the bathroom.
She looked down at her waist and then over to Zeke. She smiled as she drew her knees up to her chest and sat on the bed in a ball. She began rocking herself back and forth, and marveling over how gentle Zeke was.
The words – compassionate, loving, caring and attentive – could be used to describe him. The one thing about him that she loved the most was how gentle he was with her. After all, he was a guy. The idea of being gentle wasn’t something on the forefront of his thoughts. So the fact that he was so gentle meant he cared enough to be so.
“…gentle enough to change my diaper without waking me up,” she thought to herself.
Lilly glanced over at the bay window and at the rocking chair he had set in front of it. She rocked herself a little more quickly at the thought of soon being on his lap in that rocking chair. Taking another look at the chair, she saw something on the seat. In the faint light she squinted her eyes and strained to make out what it was. Staring at it intently, she suddenly realized it was the teddy bear and blanket she left with Mr. Woody in the countryside.
Lilly quickly got off the bed and did her best diapered, waddling sprint over to the rocking chair. There was also a note on the chair. She picked it up and read it:
Lilly,
Thank you for the blanket and teddy bear. I slept soundly with them.
Around the teddy bear’s neck you will find a bracelet. Put this bracelet on your wrist when you go to bed and I will see you in your dreams whenever you want.
Take Care, Lilly Girl.
-Mr. Woody
She picked up the teddy bear and looked at the bracelet around its neck. It was made of grapevines that were braided together. She picked up the blanket, and diaper-waddled back to the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed, Indian-leg style. Zeke walked back out of the bathroom, and over to her. She threw her hands out to him, and he picked her up into his arms.
He walked over to rocking chair and sat down in it, putting her on his lap and facing her towards the window. Zeke stretched his legs out and propped his feet up on the window ledge. Lilly did the same, stretching her legs out on top of his and leaning back on his chest. He covered her with her blanket and picked up a baby bottle of apple juice. Lilly smiled behind her pacifier. Once again, she overlooked a bottle, put in plain sight, he had prepared for her. She let the pacifier fall from lips. (It was still attached to her nightie with a string.) She took the bottle nipple in her mouth, leaned her head back on his chest and began drinking from it. She looked up at him and he winked back at her. She smiled and snuggled in closely to him.
Zeke held her tightly and pointed out the window.
“In just a few minutes, you’re going to be able to see the very second the sun peeks out above the horizon,” he said.
While drinking, Lilly looked up at him in a manner as if to say, “I know how a sunrise comes up.”
She crossed her eyes at him. He smiled and traced her eyebrows with his fingers. They turned their attention back to the window, and at that moment, dawn broke.
“Here comes the sun,” he said as the first beams of light broke free from the horizon, cascading a warm orange glow on everything they touched.
Every dew drop on every blade of grass soaked in the rays of the new sunlight, from the edge of the house clear down to the forest. Lilly stopped drinking from her bottle and stared in amazement. Her eyes welled up with tears as she took in the sight of dawn. She looked up at him, and he playfully crossed his eyes at her. She smiled a little and returned to her bottle, but kept her eyes looking out that window.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Zeke was slowly rocking the chair. She finished her bottle at the same time that the sun was beginning to brighten the sky. He stood up with her in his arms to carry her into the living room. As he readjusted her on his hip, she let out a tiny little burp, followed by a giggle. Realizing there was more to come, she rested her head and body against his neck and chest.
He lightly patted her back and a barrage of tiny burps came out, followed by a sigh of relief when she had finished. He carried her into the living room and sat on the sofa. She remained on his chest for a moment, continuing to listen to his heartbeat. She reached up and touched his nose with her pointer finger, then stroked her fingers done over his face while taking time to trace his jaw line with her finger tips.
Suddenly a random thought came to her mind and she sat up while looking over at the nursery room door. She got off his lap and did another diapered, waddle-sprint into the nursery. A few moments later, she came sprinting back into the living room with a piece of yellow construction paper and a handful of crayons. She sat on the floor in front of him and began to draw a picture of him.
Zeke sat on the couch and struck several poses – flexing his arms like Hulk Hogan, the deep thinker’s pose, Nixon’s “not a crook” fingers, jazz hands. She laughed at every pose and kept drawing him. When she finished, she handed him the drawing and crawled up on the couch beside him. Zeke looked at the drawing. She had drawn a stick figure.
“You have to put this on the fridge, Lilly,” he said.
She took the drawing, sprinted out to the kitchen, and hung it on the fridge. From the living room, she heard music coming from the television. She paused for a moment, and then recognized it to be the theme song from the Gummie Bears cartoon. She sprinted back in and sat down on the floor next to the couch, Indian leg style.
Zeke got up and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. She could hear the coffeemaker and shortly after she smelled fresh coffee in the air. Zeke returned to the living room and set on the coffee table a bowl of cereal, a glass of milk and a plate of scrambled eggs. Oh my, she loved scrambled eggs! She crawled over to the table and began eating the eggs with a spoon as Zeke put a bib around her neck.
She heard him go into the kitchen for coffee. As if eggs were going out of style, she ate them quickly, licked the spoon, poured them milk into the cereal and continued breakfast. The cereal was Fruity Pebbles. She liked them because they each had different colors of the rainbow, and they also changed the color of the milk. She liked the Gummie Bears because they bounced a lot each episode. When they bounced, she bounced.
There she sat, in her own world, filled with simple joy, the kind of childhood fun that most adults have forgotten. She occasionally looked back at Zeke who was sitting on the couch enjoying the morning caffeine of his coffee. All she could do was smile. It wasn’t a perfect situation, and it never would be. A perfect situation wasn’t something she could believe in. Perfect situations only existed in her dreams. In reality, there were only perfect intentions, but she loved everything that her reality with him was and everything it was becoming.
Zeke left the room for a moment and now was her chance. She finished her cereal and lifted the bowl to her lips so she could slurp down the milk. She waited for him to return, and when he did, she faced him with milk all over her nose, cheeks, and chin. A big grin accompanied a most adorable look on her face. He took the bib off her neck and wiped her face with it.
Once again, he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the nursery, setting her on the changing table. Her arms went up in the air and he lifted the nightie off her. He rested her on the changing table, and began to change her. How he knew she had wet her diaper was still a mystery to Lilly, but it was no matter. Her thoughts went back to him. In reality, there were only perfect intentions, but she loved everything that her reality with him was and everything it was becoming.
He lifted her legs in the air to wipe her clean, and eased her down onto a new diaper, fastening it into place. She sat up and lifted her arms in the air as he brought a light summer dress down over her head and shoulders. She hopped off the table to the floor and put her sandals on. Then he slipped her into another button down shirt from his wardrobe.
“I guess this is it,” she said sadly.
“Not exactly,” he replied with a smile and a wink. They walked into the kitchen and she got a bottle of Turkey Hill Iced Tea from the fridge. Zeke was almost addicted to Turkey Hill Iced Tea and always had a stock of it on hand. Then they got in the elevator, and took it down and out of the building.
Wearing a diaper out and about was a new feeling for her. She usually wore a pull-up for discretion, but with him by her side, she was glad to be in a diaper. It felt right. He handed an envelope.
“When you get to work, I want you to open this letter, and read what it says,” he said.
“Can I open it now?” she asked eagerly.
“No, it would ruin the surprise,” he answered. “It’s worth the wait. You’ll see. Don’t open it until you are sitting at your cubicle at work.”
They got to her car and she unlocked the door, starting the engine to let it warm up. She stood back up and they embraced.
“Thank you so much, Zeke,” she said clinging tightly to him. “For all the trouble that the internet can bring you, it also gives you the ability to meet people you otherwise would never have met. We both live in Lancaster, but if I had seen you at the mall or at central market or over at the Amish tours, I might have passed right by you. I never would have known that you were looking for me.”
“It’s a funny thing how fate happens,” he said. “I wonder how many times we’ve actually been in the same place at the same time, just by chance. It will never be by chance again. Thank you, Lilly. Thank you, for being the same person now that you were the first time we instant messaged on Yahoo. Thank you for being sweet and loving and for allowing me to see who you are and who you want to be.”
She leaned up and kissed him. She got in her car and closed the door. It should have been a sad moment for her, but it wasn’t. Even though she was leaving, she knew she’d see him again. As she pulled away, she glanced up into the rearview mirror, and saw him standing there watching her drive away.
All the way to work, set kept looking down at that envelope. It was driving her crazy thinking of what was inside it. Curiosity got the best of her, and as she pulled up to a red light on Duke Street, she grabbed the envelope and started opening it. At that very moment, her cell phone chimed that she had a new text message.
She slipped her phone open and read the one word text message from Zeke. It said: “Wait.” She smiled and closed the phone as the light turned green.
At long last, she pulled into work, and she was in a very happy mood. This was an unusual mood for her when she got to work, but she had plenty of memories of the night prior to make her smile. And for the first time ever, she raced to get up to her cubicle with great intent on getting there as quickly as possible.
She entered the building and went to the elevator. Pushing the up button, she tried to wait patiently for it to come down, but gave in to the fact that the letter in her hand wouldn’t allow her to wait. She bolted to the stairs and began running up them. Her movements were waddled because of the diaper she was wearing, and she could hear the crinkle of her diaper with every step, but she didn’t care.
She got to her floor, and paused for a second to catch her breath and regain her composure before going in. She opened the door and walked in casually, going through her usual morning greetings to everyone.
“Heya Lilly,” said Greg, the office flirt. “Have fun.”
His words were confusing. What did “Have fun” mean?
She got to her cubicle and sat down. Immediately she opened the letter, and read it:
Lilly,
With any luck, you received my text in time and didn’t open that letter until you got to your cubicle.
I had a wonderful evening, and I will never forget it. You sleep like an angel, even though you steal the covers sometimes. I really can’t wait to see you again. So I decided I’m not going to wait very long…
How would you like to go on an adventure with me…an AB adventure? This adventure would begin with a plane ride from the Harrisburg Airport to Miami International Airport (with a stop off in Philly). From Miami we will take a four-night cruise to the Caribbean and to an island in the Bahamas. There we will spend four days at a resort. Then we will take a 4 day cruise back to Miami.
You will be back here in Lancaster 14 days after you left. You may be thinking that it sounds wonderful, but you’d never be able to get two weeks off at work. Well … what if I told you that I already set this up and that I called your boss and got you the two weeks off? Because that is what I did.
You will work until noon today, and then you’ll leave from work and head straight home where you’ll need to pack for 14 days of warm weather. Our plane leaves from Harrisburg at 4pm. So I’ll be swinging by your place to pick you up at 2pm.
If you’d like to take this trip with me, please send me an email.
Love,
Zeke
Quickly she logged on and emailed her response to Zeke, which read:
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
The End
Stay tuned for the forthcoming story “Zeke and Lilly: An AB Adventure”
Email: zorroabdaddy@yahoo.com
Home Page : Zorro's Lair