✅ My Sister's Problem

9. The Beginning

This chapter is dedicated to Uwigi. Thank you for your support, and I hope you're enjoying it!

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and held it. Then I exhaled, and held that breath for a count of five. When I resumed normal respiration I was calm again; at least calm enough to think about what was going on.

Fine, I had leaked a little. I still needed to pee; I might have drunk a little too much water while I was up an hour before. Maybe I'd let out one little spurt when I woke with a start. But that had been enough to leave a wet patch larger than my hand on the sheets, and my shorts would need washing as well. I just hoped I could somehow dry them out before laundry day, so nobody else would know. That conversation about being younger had been too recent; if I wet the bed now Mum would think it was deliberate, send me to a therapist or something. Or even ground me. I had to keep this my little secret, and work out how to stop thinking about it, in case that had made some kind of difference.

Then I realised that a wet patch wasn't the only sensation giving me a feeling of continuity to my dream. I could hear a resonant whistling in the background, and a voice as well. Now that I was awake, I could easily identify the source of the sounds. The whistling came from the taps in our little bathroom, shaking when they were turned on hard. And the voice could only be Lindy's. I could see light coming from behind the curtain, and around the bathroom door too.

"No, no, no," I could make out the whimpering as I came closer. The sounds that had woken me up, possibly, and intruded on the end of that weird dream. "No, this can't be..."

"Lindy?" The words immediately stopped. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine!" she snapped, and then "Why are you awake? It's the middle of the night."

"I need to pee," I answered. I could tell something was bothering her, and I would only upset her more if I said that she'd woken me. "That green tea stuff went right through me."

"Well wait your turn. I'll be out in a minute!"

I didn't say anything else. But I quickly pulled my shorts off and got out a new pair. I had like a dozen almost the same that I wore for bed. Then I saw the pacifier on the floor beside my bed, and tucked it back into a drawer before my sister could catch a glimpse of it. I needed to be more careful with that. I picked up the bear, Lincoln, from my bed as well. I had a great explanation for why I had him, but it would be so much easier if I didn't need to give it. I walked back over to Lindy's room, and wondered if there was somewhere in there I could leave him so that she wouldn't suspect. I poked my head through the curtain, and saw instantly why she was in such a panic.

The damp patch on my sheets was relatively small. My sister hadn't been so lucky. I'd say that 'wet' was a more appropriate word than 'damp', and it was probably too large to be thought of as a 'patch' either. In fact, the first word that came to my mind was 'puddle'. Could it be that my experiment had caused a response, but after some kind of delay? Or, more likely now I thought about it, I could imagine that her bladder had emptied while I was holding her hand in warm water, and I just hadn't realised what was happening under the covers. Either way, my sister wasn't feeling so confident right now, it was probably my fault, and I didn't want to make it any worse for her. I wouldn't even have considered this plan if I had any other options, and I wanted to minimise any problems it might cause for her.

I backed quickly out of her room when I heard the lock on the bathroom door rattling. I didn't want her to see any sign that I might have looked past the curtain. On impulse I bent over, right outside the door. Lindy almost walked into me when she opened the door, and then backed off again.