Long Story #4: Mummy Madness (4. That's a Wrap!)

IV. That's a Wrap (Content Tags: Slice-of-life, humiliation, messing, wetting) "Why do I gotta be the mummy? I wanna be the woof boy!" Liam whined, stomping a bandaged foot. "Kyle is the wolf, Chance is the vampire, Ian is the zombie, and Mandy is the ghost." Terry, his big brother, sighed. "Whatta bout Fwankenstein?" "It's Frankenstein's monster, and that's going to be Philip. He's just not done getting into his costume yet." The midday sun hid behind a sea of clouds, and a whoosh of wind sent a chill up Liam's spine; it was a colder October than usual, and out of everyone's costumes, his mummy wraps were the least insulated. He'd already spent the last hour out in the backyard, running takes for his role as one of the monsters in his brother's little movie, and he was beginning to become more irritable. "Why do I gotta be a baby mummy, though?" Liam huffed, suddenly tugging gently at a particular garment that was protruding quite obviously against the gauze he'd been tangled up tightly in. "That's the character, short-stuff. A mummy in need of a mummy, get it? Just like Mandy is a ghost that's easily scared, or Ian is a zombie vegetarian, or Chance is a vampire that's really full of himself and wants to look in the mirror. It's a comedy. You're the youngest, so..." "I am not! M'older than Mandy is!" "Fine, then you're the smallest. Your butt is the only one that could fit in the diaper, and you're a whiny wuss, so the character fits too." Liam puffed out his cheeks and narrowed his eyes at Terry. "That's not funny." His brother reached over and gave the little boy a playful pinch on the cheek, "Stop being such a sourpuss. You wanted to be in my movie, so you're in my movie. You don't always get the role that you want, that's just show business." Liam groaned and tried to shy away from Terry's hand, "But what if I gotta go potty?" It was a legitimate question to ask; the wrappings had taken a while to get on him, and to use the toilet, it would mean having to undo a lot of work. Aside from the labor end of things, which was indeed a consideration in need of making, it was shaky as to whether or not he would be able to hold it long enough to get it all off of him. In a way, it almost felt as though the diaper might serve more than one purpose, as humiliating as that might be. "Then just hold it, Liam. You're a big boy now, remember? That means being able to hold it for a while. You'll just have to wait until we're done shooting footage for today. Now, pick up your binky and your baby bottle, and go get ready for the next shot." The tyke grumbled and toddled away, his padded bottom rustling with every awkward step he took in the dying grass. It was only when he started to trample upon the amber layers of fallen leaves, that the crinkling was overridden by the sound of crunching. When making his costume, they had run out of gauze a lot more quickly than expected, and their parents weren't willing to entertain giving a bigger 'budget' for the production, so Liam was a mummy that'd already been partially unraveled; that meant a lot of visible skin seen in between the undulating bandages, and it also meant that the white of the diaper was bared in multiple spots, but he wasn't sure if it would have been that way regardless or not. Most of the other kids in the production were older, closer to his brother's age of eleven; Mandy was an exception to that, being Kyle's little sister in Kindergarten. Liam himself was nearly seven, but he was a bit on the small side, being a few inches shorter than the younger girl, which is how he'd been the one to end up the 'baby' in the first place. He didn't have a ton of lines either, not that he would be able to read much of them, but he did have a large amount of screen time. Conceptually, the story of the movie was that all the classic monsters were a part of the same family, and it was intended to be a silly comedy about the idiosyncrasies that came along with that idea. Chance played the daddy vampire, Alana played the mommy witch, Philip played uncle Frankenstein, Kyle played the pet wolf-man, and then the three children were the ghost, the mummy, and the zombie, played by Mandy, Liam, and Ian respectively, all of whom were the youngest of the cast. It was pretty ambitious to have such a mottled group of actors being herded, but Terry had always been good at convincing people to play in his little movies; this one in particular had been alluring, because it would be getting shown at the neighborhood block party before Halloween, and it had so many of the neighborhood's kids involved. Liam himself had begged to be included, and to his surprise, his brother had given in pretty quickly, which was a stark difference than usual, where he would typically have to go whine to their parents about inclusion. It was fairly obvious now why Terry had given in so quickly; Liam was the only one who could fill these shoes, and the only one who could be convinced to play a role where his character so embarrassingly was known for filling his pants. Going over to the 'costume table', where the different props were put between scenes, he picked up the pacifier and the bottle full of juice that his brother had previously mentioned. From what he remembered during the rehearsal, his next scene would involve him toddling around after the 'wolfman', like a tot chasing a dog. It was a background event to the real meat of the scene, where the two parent characters would be discussing their eldest child's poor grades. He had a lot of scenes like that, where he was a background character; likely because it meant less lines or actions to remember. Mandy's role was similar, but she was in a lot less shots, as she was more difficult to keep attentive for very long. The scene would hit a delay, as one of the actors pulled Terry aside to complain about the script, and so Liam found himself standing around next to the older boy in the furry duds. "You're so lucky, I wanted to be the woof." Liam pouted, tossing the bottle up and down. "Oh, yeah? Too bad that Terry didn't find puppy pads before Pampers." Kyle snickered, as if to make the claim that the mummy role had been specifically crafted for Liam, rather than it being an unhappy coincidence that it was all that was left for him. The little boy glowered, "Don't make funna me, I din't wanna be the baby." "I'm sure. Made Mandy happy though; she probably would have gotten saddled with it, if you hadn't stepped up. Guess that's just what happens when you're such a little pipsqueak." Kyle grinned, reaching his hand down to pat Liam on the head. He'd already heard plenty from Mandy, more-so than any of the other cast members; being so close in age, their dynamic had always been strained, since she wanted to be a playmate, and he thought girls were yucky, as well as thought he was too good to hang out with a younger kid. Her growth spurt had made things worse, as now the younger girl was a good few inches taller than him. It wasn't easy defending his costume, least of all to a little girl who couldn't be reasoned with in any way. He could keep reminding her that this was all pretend, and that it was for the movie, but that didn't stop her from calling him 'baby Liam' the whole time; it was doubtful she'd stop whenever they wrapped this whole thing up. Over the course of the next couple of hours, Liam would wander between inside and outside their house, depending on what scene they were filming at the time. He was glad to go inside, since it gave him a chance to warm up, at least before having to trot back into the frigid grass of the yard. The 'gag' that defined his character as the mummy, was revolved around how revolting his diaper was supposed to be. The joke was that a mummy was sealed away for a really long time, and thus his diaper went a long time without being changed; the supposed ripeness, the foul funk, was described as 'the curse of Stinkumbabu's tomb'. Liam had thought it was a funny joke in the abstract, whenever his brother had mentioned it, but it definitely felt a lot less funny now that he was Stinkumbabu. So, from scene to scene, it was always the same joke. Liam would wander by, and the other characters would give their reactions to his alleged stench, while making all manner of puns and wise-cracks. The most embarrassing of which was when the witch 'mother' character actually picked him up like a toddler, and gave the seat of his Pamper a loud sniff, before turning her head and holding him out as far as possible. And he was just supposed to look innocently cute, as if completely unaware of his stinky state. In half the scenes he was in, he was supposed to carry a tiny remote in his hand, so that he could produce a litany of artificial farting sounds; that was his favorite part for sure, the silliness of pretending to poop, though mostly for the sound effects. As the day was growing long though, Liam was finding himself in a precarious position; when they have taken ten for lunch, he'd eaten a little more than he should have, and now that he had time to digest, he was beginning to feel the call of nature coming on. He'd gently asked Terry about how much longer this would stretch on, but the director had waved him away. Too much pop had also meant that he was working with a full bladder. Things were dire, and he was too shy to make a big deal out of it, especially after his big brother had told him he was perfectly capable of holding it. Things would come to a head in the next scene, one that focused much more on him, where he was building a pyramid in the sandbox. Ian, the zombie brother, was talking to him about his problems, while the baby mummy was supposed to be barely listening. The comedy of the scene was supposed to come from the older brother really pouring his anxieties out in hopes of a solution, and in turn, the baby brother was supposed to look really thoughtful about it, but instead of diving deep for wisdom, it was just him loudly messing himself again. As that part got closer, the cramping in Liam's belly became too much to muster; in what looked like amazing acting, he really did appear strained, and then... BRAAAAAP! That hadn't been the soundboard device in his hand, it'd been completely real; keeping it real didn't end with the fart though, because the follow-through was a large sticky mass in his Pampers. Hot, mushy, huge, and on a strict timer before it started to really stink. The involuntary deposit had also resulted in some tinkle for his trousers, but that was far less alarming. Terry praised Liam's acting in that scene, completely oblivious to how little of it had been acting, and things continued to move along. This left Liam awkwardly getting up, with what felt like a warm baked potato pressed against his rump; he wasn't sure what to do or say, so he just quietly waddled back to the prop table and stood there like a statue, with his legs more bowed than before. He didn't want anyone, not even Terry, to find out about his accident; on the flip-side, he also couldn't just walk around with a dump in his pants for the rest of the day. Besides his own discomfort, it would only be a matter of time before it became obvious to anyone with a nose what exactly he was hauling. For the first time since they started shooting, he was sucking on his binky for genuine soothing comfort, instead of just for the camera. “Hey BABY Liam, you gotta go!” Came the giggling voice of the resident ghost, which broke Liam out of his own dour thoughts. Was it already time for his next scene? And having without come up with a plan? He frowned behind the pacifier and quietly followed Mandy back into the house where the next part of the movie took place. He was trying to remember which scene this was even supposed to be, since he’d stopped paying attention since the sandbox incident, but as he heard the clunky dialogue of the ‘vampire’, it suddenly dawned on him what the scene was supposed to be. It was the diaper check. Escaping shame was a matter of now or never, and those scant moments were quickly running out. If he didn’t flee the shoot in the next few seconds, then Alana would undoubtedly get a whiff of something very real, and it’d be her whose acting was being praised by Terry. Anxiously looking around for an out, Liam’s legs felt paralyzed; every part of him was screaming to run away, but then he felt the rest of his bladder giving away, and running suddenly became even less of an option. The boy recoiled from the shame, but his shoulders slumped from the relief; the front of the diaper swelled with warmth, and combining that with the soothing sucking of the Nuk in his mouth, his nerves temporarily melted away. Such relief in release was liberating, but only because the ensuing reality had yet to manifest; the emptying of his bladder, being so freeing, also caused his bowels to believe that it was time for a full potty break. Unfortunately for Liam, just as he was feeling that something was about to come out, he felt Alana’s hands slipping under his armpits to launch him from the ground. “What IS that smell! Has anyone checked the baby?” She questioned, which was the culmination of the joke throughout the movie, as all the characters had complained or at least reacted to the stink, but none had ever deigned to check his diaper. Liftoff was all that was needed for the second steamer to crash into his yucky seat, propelled by a sloppy toot, which Alana likely thought was coming from his soundboard. It was officially far too late to do anything about this. Liam tensed himself, knowing what would come next; the ‘witch’ leaned in and gave a very dramatic and powerful sniff, and then she nearly dropped him on the spot. “That really, really STINKS! I think he actually pooped in the diaper!” While that was paraphrasing her actual line, it wasn’t said in-character. No, Alana was announcing her suspicion to the rest of the cast, that their little mummy had taken his acting too seriously. Nobody else seemed to understand her intention though, and the last few lines of the scene went as normal, which ended with the mother shoving the baby into the daddy’s hand, out of exasperation. Chance cringed shortly after he’d been handed the ‘baby’, because now he was catching a whiff of the funk too. He held Liam out as far as possible and turned his attention to their beaming director, “Uh, dude? She wasn’t running the scene back there. I’m pretty sure your brother actually crapped his pants.” Liam got gently set back on the ground, just in time for Terry to come up and grab him by the shoulder. “Liam, you didn’t… Did you?” Terry didn’t wait for an answer, instead turning the younger boy around so that he could pull back on the part of the waistband that was exposed. “Oh...Eww…” “Did baby Liam really go in his diapee?” Mandy gasped from the sidelines, which left Liam’s face as red as a tomato. “I-I tried to hold it, but…” Terry just shook his head, “Geez… Should’ve known something like this would happen. Doesn’t matter, we only have a few more shots to do today, and we don’t have time to get you in and out of your costume. You’re just going to have to sit in it for about another thirty or forty minutes. Congrats on the method acting, I guess… Makes sense why you were doing such a good job earlier.” The show had to go on, regardless of the poopy in his pants, and on it went. There would be no reshoots of any of the offending scenes either, so by the last few shots, the brown discoloration and sag of his exposed diaper wouldn’t just be movie magic for the big screen. After about another hour of squelching around like that, Terry would put the cap back on his camera and give a tired smile to his crew. “We did it, guys! After a good week of editing, it’ll be ready to show at the block party; I want to thank everyone for helping out, and for uh, persevering through the ‘obstacles’ we had at the end. My mom made us some cupcakes to celebrate, so umm, that’s a wrap!” Terry looked down at Liam, “And for you, my stinkpot of a brother, it’s past time for an unwrap!”