It was 3:45 in the afternoon when the school bus pulled off the highway at the intersection of Mill Road. As Skyler stepped off he felt a chill in the air reminding him that fall was here and winter would soon be on its way. He buttoned up his coat because it would be a 15 minute walk before he would be home.

Things seemed quiet as he walked down Mill Road, the only signs of life were some cattle grazing at one of the nearby ranches. Skyler was glad he was living away from the city in Henifer. He really liked the rural areas that had a lot of open space to play and ride his bike. The State had found him a foster home in Lake City but Skyler hated all the traffic and people that were there. However, if there had not been an opening in his new foster home he probably would have gone to the Lake City home just to get out of the Boy's Ranch where he had been living for the past five years. Skyler hated "The Ranch". Many of the other boys referred there were not just foster children but kids who were sent there by the Juvenile Court System because their parents could no longer control them. Most of them were tough kids who liked to pick on Skyler because of his small size. The only thing Skyler liked about "The Ranch" was that he could go horseback riding on the weekends. But now that he was living in Henifer there were plenty of horses he could ride, so he felt as though he had the best of both worlds. What was even better was that Karen, his new foster mother, said that if she didn't have any problems with Skyler and he kept his grades up that she would buy him his own horse.

So for a nine year old things seem to be going very well for Skyler except for his little night time problem he had developed since moving into his new foster home.

While Skyler's thoughts were wandering as he was making his way home, his attention was caught by a truck coming down the road. At first Skyler thought it was someone from the ranch next to his home, but then he noticed that it wasn't a truck at all but a van. The top of the van was cream colored and the bottom was painted a pastel blue. As the van got closer he was able to make out a stork carrying a bundle in it's bill. However, instead of the bundle being a baby, the bundle was a stack of diapers, and the lettering on the van read, "Mommy's Little Helper Diaper Service and Supply". Skyler felt a sense of panic.

"She didn't really mean what she said, did she?", he thought to himself, "No. No way. Karen would never really do that, she's way too nice. That would be ridiculous. I'm nine years old for crying out loud. The driver is probably lost. Lot's of people get lost out here. Stupid lady driver!" Skyler didn't think about it anymore until he got home.

Skyler. came through the front door happy to be out of the cold. As he placed his back pack on the dinning room table and was about to yell out to Karen that he was home when he noticed a pink piece of paper on the table. When Skyler read it he went numb. It was a receipt from Mommy's Little Helper Diaper Service and Supply. It was marked "Paid in Full". He was too upset to read each item on the bill of sale, the only thing that seemed to stick out to him were the words "Preadolescent Pre-folded Diapers. (Pin Style). Skyler, trying not to panic, turned and walked slowly up the stairs without making a sound. It seemed that his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. When he got to the top of the stairs he gazed down the hallway and saw that the light in his room was on. He could hear Karen softly humming as her shadow moved thought the light. Skyler stepped quietly down the hall, his heart still racing. The first thing he saw as he neared the room was a cream colored diaper pail with a pink lamb on the side sitting against the wall next to the door. Skyler stopped for a moment thinking to himself that this can't be happening. As he came around the doorway he stood in complete shock. Karen was sitting on his bed with her back turned to him unaware that he was there. In the center of his bed was a pile of large cotton diapers. Karen was pulling each diaper off one at a time and folding it and then placing it on top of a stack.. As she worked she kept humming to herself contentedly.

The top drawer of Skyler's dresser was open revealing several pairs of plastic pants placed next to his underwear that were pushed to one side. On top of his dresser was a small clear plastic box that contained assorted colors of diaper pins. In place of Skyler's baseball trophy that he kept on his night stand were baby wipes, baby lotion, baby powder and a large tub of Destine diaper rash ointment along with two open ducky pins. Skyler just stood in the doorway unable to move.

The rubber sheet on Skyler's bed crinkled as Karen got up and opened the bottom drawer to Skyler's dresser. She walked over to his bed to retrieve the stack of freshly folded diapers. As she turned around to place them in the drawer she saw Skyler standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hello sweetheart, how was your day at school?"

Five months earlier. Utah Boys Ranch

The '67 Chevy pickup truck was rumbling up the dirt road as Skyler and several other of the guys from the ranch were just finishing their chore of digging and repairing some of the irrigation ditches. As the truck pulled up to the young work crew, Taylor, one of the older boys at the ranch, stuck his head out the window of the truck.

"Hey Skyler! Get you ass over here and get into the truck. Mr. Worley wants to talk to you!"

"Your ass in deep shit now," one of the other boys said.

"What does he want?", Skyler shouted nervously.

"How would I know. He just told me to drive out here and get you pronto!".

Skyler put down his shovel and ran over and got into the truck.

When Skyler got to the Ranch House he walked to the main office where Mr. Worley was standing with one of the state social workers.

"Hi Skyler", he said, "you remember Mrs. Jensen from social service."

"Yeah" Skyler replied, "Hi Mrs. Jensen".

"Hey Skyler it's good to see you. How have you been?"

"Alright I suppose," Skyler said discouragingly.

"Well I think I have some good news for you. Let's go into Mr. Worley's office and we can discuss it," she said.

Mr. Worley closed the door and sat behind his desk, while Skyler and Mrs. Jensen sat side by side facing the desk.

"Skyler," Mrs. Jensen started, "I know that you have been unhappy here at the ranch and we've been having a difficult time placing you for adoption. However I think I have a situation that might suit you a lot better. There is a woman that lives in Henifer that has just retired from nursing at Mercy Children's Hospital and wants to become a foster parent. She lives alone in a house she just inherited from her father who just recently passed away. She only wants to accept one child at this point and she said that if things workout well she might consider adoption."

"What about the other home in Lake City that was going to take me?" Skyler asked.

"Well, it's still full and there most likely won't be another opening for six months."

"Oh, well where's Henifer at?" he asked.

"Henifer is a small town not too far from Lake City. It's very similar to the area around here," Mrs. Jensen said. That sounded much better to Skyler than the Lake City home especially since he was going to be the only foster child in the house.

"Do you think you might be interested?" Mrs. Jensen asked.

"Yeah I think it sounds cool," Skyler replied.

"Good," she said, "The woman's name is Karen Shelly and if you want I could arrange for you to talk to her before we set everything up."

"Okay, do you think she wants to talk to me?" Skyler asked.

"Yes I think she would. She already knows a lot about you from the bio I gave her, and she even has a picture of you. She was very particular about the kind of foster child she would accept."

"What kind of things did she want?"

"Well first of all she wanted a boy, not a girl. She wanted someone of small stature between the ages of seven to ten, and someone who was very well behaved. You seem to fit the bill perfectly."

"OK, let's go for it," Skyler said with excitement.

Skyler and Karen met two days latter at the ranch. Skyler seem to like Karen right away. They both liked horses and neither one of them liked the city life. Karen told Skyler about herself, that she worked in the psychiatric unit at the children's hospital for twenty years and had become burned out by the work. She had divorced her husband seven years ago and that she felt that she would never marry again. After Karen's father died she inherited the house and some money that allowed her to retire. She decided to become a foster parent because even though she was sick of nursing, she still enjoyed caring for children. Skyler asked her why she hadn't had her own children and she told him that she was unable to have children because of medical reasons. To Skyler this was a dream come true, and by the time Karen left the ranch Skyler knew that he would be very happy living with Karen.

It was few days after Karen and Skyler met when the U.P.S. truck pulled up in front of the large ranch house in Henifer. The driver opened the back of the truck and wheeled out three large boxes on a hand cart. As he walked up to the door he was about to ring the doorbell when it opened.

"Hi there," Karen said.

"Hi, I have some packages for Karen Shelly."

"Yes, that would be me. Did you have a hard time finding this place?" she asked.

"Yeah, it wasn't easy," replied the driver. "Could you please sign here."

"Sure," Karen said. "You wouldn't mind wheeling those into my office, would you?"

"No problem," the driver said.

After the driver left, Karen looked at the packing slip. "PsychTech Industries". It looked as though everything was there as Karen got busy removing the electronic components from the boxes and carefully reading the instructions. It wasn't as though she had never worked with this equipment before, but she just wanted to make sure it was set up right because she had a lot of work to do before her youngster was to arrive.

It took her less than two hours to hook everything up. She was very careful to connect each wire so she wouldn't have to go back and troubleshoot everything. After making some final adjustments she was ready to test the system out.

Karen removed a small tape cartridge from a sack she had on her desk and placed it in a receiver marked "Loop Cassette". Checking to make sure the power was on, she pushed the button labeled "Record Loop". When she did, a red light came on and she picked up a microphone. Karen smiled as she spoke the words. "Sleep and pee my baby. Pee the bed." After which she pushed the stop button. She put a set of headphones on and pushed the "Play Loop" button. Through her headphone she heard the phrase, "Sleep and pee my baby. Pee the bed. Sleep and pee my baby. Pee the bed. Sleep and pee my baby Pee the bed." over and over. Karen then opened a cassette tape carrier that was sitting on her desk and removed a tape labeled "Ocean Sounds", and slipped it into a second recorder. After double checking the adjustments she pushed a button marked "Rec. Subliminal Trac." followed by the "Play Loop" button on the other component. Karen sat back and smiled as the components did their work.