"Mom!" I was munching Vegemite on toast when I heard Lindy's yell from upstairs. Not our usual choice for breakfast; but we'd had to change plans a little. When we needed a lot of groceries, Mum would order online to have things delivered early in the morning; but this time she hadn't noticed that bottles of milk were missing until the driver had gone away. So we had an unorthodox breakfast, and I was drinking green tea with juniper and honey.
I was pretty sure I knew what my sister was yelling about, but I didn't say anything. I was enjoying my breakfast, and a little calm first thing in the morning. Mum got up from the kitchen table, but without any real sense of urgency. She had lived with us for long enough to instantly know the difference between a distressed scream and an angry yell. I glanced at her, and wondered how I could learn to be so calm in the face of a rage tantrum.
"Mooooom!" Lindy burst into the room like a tiny typhoon of irritation, and slammed a pack of overnight diapers on the table. "What's this?"
"Looks like a bag of Underjams," Mum answered calmly. "I got a bunch while I was getting stuff delivered. Oh, did you want the SleepSafe ones again? I'll get some later in the week if you prefer the designs. I didn't know if it was important, and these ones had a promotion. If it's important, I can nip out and get a couple of packs from Drügstør."
"No, Mom!" Lindy pouted. "You said I don't have to wear them anymore. You promised!"
"Not quite," Mum answered, sitting down again. "I said you can stop wearing them if you can go a whole week without any little accidents."
"I did! It's been way more than a week, and you told me I didn't need to... to..."
"Well, that's what I thought. Tomorrow would have been your last night, I think, so you'd have a couple of days to get used to normal clothes again before your trip. But when I took out the trash yesterday, I noticed the weight of your bin. I didn't mention it, because I don't want to draw attention to your little accidents in front of your sister. I felt you might be a too embarrassed, but if you want to lie to me–"
"I didn't!" Lindy kept protesting, and I felt a little bad for her because I knew it was true. I'd tried putting her hand in water half a dozen times now, more than I originally intended, but it hadn't always worked. Four wet nights over a month didn't add up to a lot, and it was certainly more than a week since the last time. I wanted to step in and defend her, but I didn't know what I could say. This situation was of her own making, and perhaps having to explain to Mum would make her think a bit more carefully in future.
"I really didn't," Lindy protested again, cutting off Mum's calm and measured response. There had been a wet diaper in the bin; so we had to keep on wearing them. "It was Sally! She wet herself Thursday night. You should check before you punish me."
"I don't think that's too likely," Mum said, raising an eyebrow. I lowered my head slightly, staring at my now-empty plate as she continued. Mum knew that one of us had wet, and that Lindy was the one having accidents. She didn't need to know that Lindy had forced me to wet myself before bed a couple of nights ago, and I wasn't going to tell her. Lindy would get in so much trouble for that if Mum found out, and I didn't think she deserved it. It wasn't as if it had really felt bad; once I got over the feelings of disgust, I realised that I'd woken feeling even more refreshed and alert than usual yesterday, and the sleep quality score from my watch's sensors confirmed that I had slept much more deeply than on an average night. Whether that was sheer coincidence or was somehow connected to going to bed in a warm, wet diaper, I still didn't know. But I could tell that it didn't cause any major problems.
"She did! Tell her, Sally."
"It's true," I said, nonchalantly. "I drank a lot and I was too tired to get up and use the bathroom." That was an embarrassing confession; but it was close enough to the truth. And I didn't know if this issue would be enough to make Lindy think about sending that photograph again. She obviously couldn't make the threat with Mum here, but she might have thought it was implied when she told me to confess. I couldn't stop blushing after I'd said those words, but I was sure Lindy couldn't be mad at me now.
"Okay," Mum said, and I almost did a double take as my brain processed the word. Why would she believe something like that? I'd been expecting her to think that I was covering for Lindy or something; but she just accepted it like it was nothing had happened. If Mum had said she didn't believe me, that would have been fine and Lindy couldn't blame me for her problems, so she wouldn't consider sharing that photo. But why would Mum believe something so ludicrous? Lindy was staring at me, grinning like a cheshire cat at my discomfort as Mum continued; but the smile slowly vanished as she took in the words.
"Anyway, you've got two more packs each. If you can both stay dry for a week, then we won't need to buy any more. Of course, Lindy, I won't make you take them to the campground, I know that it's hard to keep something like that secret when there's more people around. But if you're at all worried you might not be able to hold it, I do still think it would be a very good idea."
"But she admitted it," she whined. "Why do I still have to–"
"You agreed weeks ago that if you have to wear them, then your sister does too. Just to make it fair. In fact, I think you were the one who insisted on that, after Sally's been trying so hard to make you feel comfortable?" And just when Lindy looked like she was going to ask me something else, Mum continued: "No. You don't ask Sally to speak on your behalf. I'm talking to you. I'm the one who ends up washing your sheets more than usual. I'm the one who has to clean up whenever one of you has an accident. Sally's only involved because that's what you wanted. She's been trying to help you so much, and you're not going to take advantage of her kindness to get around the rules that you wanted. You're both wearing some kind of protection whenever you're at home, until I see a week with no accidents. Understand? I don't care who it was; I know Sally would lie for you if you asked her to, because you two get along so well. So regardless of what you say, either of you, I'm going to insist you keep your promises. Understand?"
Lindy stood there with her mouth open, shocked by the admonishment. But as strict as it was, there was nothing there that she could argue with. Mum hadn't actually said she thought she was lying; just that she couldn't know for sure. And after a second Lindy seemed to deflate, nodding. That was when Mum stepped closer to give her a hug, and whispered something that I didn't quite catch. Lindy joined us for breakfast, just as I left the table to get myself ready for school.
"Is Lindy okay?" Mum asked, appearing unexpectedly as I came out of my room. "I take it there's something going on there. She said you wet the bed, but if that were the case I'd be extremely surprised if you told her. But on the other hand, I remember her coming downstairs regularly to make tea, and in the morning it was you bringing down a dozen cups. So was that some kind of prank on her part?"
"She kept bringing me tea," I shrugged. "I didn't think anything about it at the time. Then she said I've got to prove I'm bigger than her by not using the bathroom before bed. Guess she was hoping she wouldn't be the only one... with that problem. Might have made her feel better."
"Or maybe she was hoping that you'd cover for her. Or if I saw her making all that tea, I might believe that it was you. Make me less certain."
"I don't know. But if she feels better trying to do tricksy stuff like this..." I shrugged. "Well, I'm glad to see her smiling even if it's a gloating villain's grin. Easier to let her think she's won, until this problem blows over."
"Yeah. Thanks for being so supportive. If I'd had a sibling try something like that, I'd be too mad to stay calm."
Before long Mum and Lindy had finished breakfast and were going out, and it was almost time for me to get my skates on. But there was something else on my mind; something that I'd been meaning to check on. Because when I looked at my sleep stats on my phone, I noticed that Thursday night had included wider green bars on the graph, and the sleep quality percentage had been pretty high. And when I thought about it, it felt like the best night's sleep I'd had in a long time. That had gotten me thinking about idle observations when I was looking atLindy's graph. Now I was actually paying attention, comparing two sets of numbers, the chart was clear to see. The few times I'd made my sister wet the bed, she'd slept deeper and more effectively than her average. That was enough times that I could consider it a pattern. Even the first two times, when she hadn't been protected, she'd slept deeper than normal for an hour until she woke up.
The Internet might have some answers for me. I just wanted to know if this was normal. Wasn't bedwetting supposed to result in disturbed sleep and restless nights? But if it was somehow relaxing, that felt like something worth knowing. Maybe it was just because I didn't need to keep some part of my subconscious on alert, to wake me if I needed to go. Or maybe there was something deeper. But it was something I was interested in knowing more about. And when I finally found an interesting article, it came with something that I'd never even suspected could exist. Something had to believe, even moreso than that sidebar on the Japanese sleep cycle research.
The only question now was whether this was an experiment worth trying; and whether I could find a way to test it without leaving some record that Mum might find.