The French Exchange

Chapter 6

Will had always been the type who took the front seats on the coach. Rather than fighting for the back seats like everyone else, Will and Simon were content to just get a seat and get settled.

After the early start, both boys were tired and after a brief period of talking, they took an opportunity to have a brief nap. When they woke up, the coach had arrived in Calais and was boarding the ferry. The actual boat trip from Dover to Calais was about 90 minutes so by the time they had got off the boat and grabbed a drink, it was time to return to the bus for the next leg of the journey which was a seven hour drive to their final destination.

As the bus drove off the ferry, Mr Anderson stood at the front of the bus to inform the group that the next scheduled stop would be in two hours time.

"The ferry was late departing so we're behind schedule and need to make up some time. As I told you all earlier, we will only be stopping at schedule points. The next stop is about two hours away. There is no toilet on board the coach so hopefully everyone has been to the bathroom on the ferry. Right, let's get on the road"

Will's heart sank as he winced at the announcement. He realised that he must have been asleep earlier when Mr Anderson briefed the group. He was instantly regretting his decision to drink about three glasses of coke after buying a bottomless soda. While he did pop to the bathroom when he first got on to the ferry, he didn't have time before they got off.

While Will's bathroom troubles had primarily been at night, he had also had several accidents over the years when he couldn't get to a bathroom in time. He hadn't had an accident in the day for a few years but he was also very aware that his bladder was not the best and certainly wouldn't be able to hold on for two hours. This was the sort of situation that Will had dreaded.

He shut his eyes and scrunched his lips against his nose as he sat in his seat paralysed with fear that he was about to have an accident. When he opened his eyes, he saw his teacher, Mr Anderson, walking up the aisle of the coach. Simon had taken the window seat and again fallen asleep so Will took the opportunity to quietly whisper his issue to the young teacher who was very nice and had always been supportive of Will in his studies.

"Sir, I drank quite a lot of coke on the ferry and didn't have the chance to use the bathroom. Is there any chance we could stop quickly?"

Unbeknown to Will, Jacqui had briefed his teacher on his bed wetting challenges. As a result, Mr Anderson was sympathetic to the situation and asked the driver to stop at the next service station. Will might not have been aware of his Mum's interference but on this occasion, it had been a very valuable intervention.

"On this occasion, I will ask the driver to stop at the next available point". Will clearly wanted to jump in but before he had the chance, Mr Anderson anticipated what he was going to ask, "And no Will, we can't stop on the side of the road to let you go. It's an offence here to pee in public and I don't want to end up using my French vocabulary with the local police", he joked

To avoid drawing attention to Will, he made an excuse for stopping and told everyone on the coach that they would have 5 minutes to run to the toilet and then they would be straight back on the road.

It was a relief that the coach would be stopping but his bladder was struggling to hold on and every minute seemed like an hour. Mr Anderson looked back down the coach and could see the panic on Will's face and that his legs were doing the dance that is normally associated with little children who have only recently been potty trained.

He walked down the coach and discreetly told Will that the bus was very close to the stop point and it should only be a few minutes longer. The news gave Will some welcome encouragement as he was increasingly worried that he was about to lose his battle - if that happened then he was in real trouble and it would be the worst possible start to the trip. He would never live it down and would have to spend a month with a bus full of people who would know that he wet his pants at the age of 18.

As his legs jumped around and he tried to hold on, he started to wonder if his Mum was right after all and if he should have taken some of his old protection just in case. After last night and now this, he was not as confident about his ability to stay dry as he previously had been.

The main advantage of being at the front of the coach is that you can get off quickly. Before it had even stopped, Will was up and ready to get off and run towards the toilet. As the door opened, he desperately ran off the coach in search of the toilet. He looked for signs to the toilet - they were all in French which made it more difficult but he could see them in the distance so ran as fast as he could while holding his bladder with his hand in the hope that it would help him hold on for a bit longer.

As he finally approached the mens toilet, his heart sank as he saw a queue outside. It was a small queue but any queue at this point was disastrous. Just like when he woke up after wetting the bed, he was talking under his breath airing his inner thoughts. These reflected the desperate situation that he find himself in.

"I can't hold on much longer. Why didn't they have urinals? Surely everywhere has urinals? Bloody France - I hate this place already. Can't they hurry up. What's taking them so long?".

He could feel pee starting to trickle into his pants - at any moment, he was going to lose control as he grabbed his pants even tighter with his hand. The man in front seemed to have noticed Will's desperate need and kindly signalled for him to go in front.

He was very grateful but also embarrassed that it was obvious that he was so close to wetting his pants that a grown man had stepped aside to let him use the toilet first. Will was now first in the queue and could now feel a small trickle of pee leaking out. As the door opened, he ran towards it, almost knocking over the man who was exiting the cubicle. The man shouted something in French at Will but he really didn't care at this point.

As he locked the cubicle door, the small trickle turned into a constant flow of pee as he lost the battle with his bladder. His Mum had to insisted that he wore a belt to keep his jeans up but at this moment, that belt was not what Will needed, especially as it always got stuck which made it difficult to get off as pee continued to flow into his pants. As this happened, he cursed his Mum for making him wear the belt while also lamenting the fact that he hadn't removed his belt while he had the chance in the queue or on the bus.

He finally got it off and was able to pull his pants back and direct the stream of pee towards the toilet. He felt a sense of relief as he had averted a total crisis and wouldn't have urine dripping down the legs. He was however still not sure how much he had soaked his pants so he needed to assess the severity of the situation once he finished peeing in the toilet.

He pulled a large number of toilet sheets from the holder ready to try and minimise the damage. His underwear was clearly wet so Will did his best to dry the pants with the toilet paper but it was to little avail.

Will's bigger concern at this point was the clear wet patch on the crotch of his trousers. He had stupidly decided to wear a pair of light beige coloured chinos. In hindsight, a pair of dark jeans would have been a much better choice as it would have concealed the problem more effectively.

As he contemplated his options, he heard Mr Anderson calling his name which was not a good sign. He looked at his watch and realised that he had already taken five minutes. When Mr Anderson knocked on the cubical door, Will sheepishly confirmed his location.

"I'm in here Sir''....