IMPORTANT Author's Note: In case anybody supports me on Patreon but didn't see my post there, I've got a new poll up. Basically, there are less chapters than I'd like available there but not yet posted here. And I've got a poll about how low the number of "early access" chapters can get before I skip charging people for next month. If you've supported me, please let me know if you're okay with being charged when there's only 5⅙ extra chapters for you. (For obvious reasons, I'll need answers before the May billing cycle starts)
"I got a coupon for free delivery, I'm going to do shopping online this week."
I just nodded, glad that Mum could have a little more free time this week. I'd only started noticing recently just how much she did to try making our lives run smoothly. Even if I complained about the chores she asked me to do, it was only a tiny fraction; and I was sure that she did a lot more at work than I ever had at school. That was the downside of being an adult. She didn't even get weeks of break in the summer, but she spent as much time with us as she could.
"Can we get pizzas?" Lindy asked, grinning hugely. There was one brand of part-baked pizza that she really loved, but the packaging wasn't the best and it was almost impossible to carry them out to the car without them getting folded against one side of the box somehow. We'd all tried it, with our own theories about how best to transport them from the supermarket; and never been able to preserve them intact. We had no idea how the home delivery people managed to get them here in one piece, but it meant that Lindy would ask for one every single time Mum was ordering.
"Of course. Red onion and blue cheese?"
"Ewww, no! carny diablo."
"That okay with you, Sally?"
"Are we sharing one? If we get the mini ones I'll have the five cheese feast."
"Whatever you want, dear. We can have a treat at least once this week. So, blue cheese for me, five cheese for Sally, and carne e diavolo for Lindy."
"I don't know how you eat those things," I said, imagining the bright red sauce that would make Lindy's choice like biting into lava. Of course, I would have been happy enough sharing one if Mum didn't want the hassle of fitting three small pizzas into the oven; but it still seemed weird to have a pizza where most of the flavour was drowned out by spiciness.
"Aww, you can't take a couple of chilies?" Lindy laughed. "Little baby scared of a pizza?" I blushed then, and lowered my head. But I didn't feel like I had to argue. There was something about the way she said it that didn't bother me, and it was almost fun being put down like that. I didn't know why, but the lack of any response from Mum probably meant that she could guess how I was feeling.
"Maybe," I mumbled, looking down at my hands. It was hard not to laugh, and I was kind of enjoying the way she talked to me, even though that made no sense.
"Well, you are a little baby," she smirked, and when I realised what was coming I wished I'd thought to stop her sooner. "Clues are all there. Can't eat grown-up food, all the stuffies in your bed, I bet you even wet the bed last night, didn't you?"
It had almost slipped my mind, but she was right. I'd woken up wet in the morning, for the second time this summer. I knew it had to be Lindy now. Both times it had happened had been after she brought me a drink the night before, although last night I'd thought I was smarter by accepting a bottle of lemonade but not using the glass she gave me. And both times she had mentioned it in front of Mum, as if she already knew. How could she have managed that? I knew there must be something I should watch out for, but after Harper had assured me herbs weren't involved I didn't know what else I could be looking out for. And the sealed bottle surely couldn't have been contaminated. What could it have been?
"I didn't!" I protested. "I'm a big girl!" Hearing those words come out of my mouth felt even more humiliating, but also somehow right. I wished I could feel that same mix of emotions somehow without having to worry about what she'd done, or without Mum finding out that Lindy had somehow managed to outwit me. I didn't see how that was even possible.
"Of course you are, Princess," Mum ruffled my hair, and I couldn't help smiling for a second before I realised what I must look like and the blushes returned with a vengeance. I didn't know what to say, and she just kept on rubbing my head, making me out to be a little kid while Lindy laughed. She must think that Mum was just going along with her insults to cheer her up, which suited me fine. I didn't mind her mocking me, but I drew the line at letting her figure out the truth. "I know you would never wet the bed. You're way too mature for that, aren't you. You can remember things like not drinking before bed."
"Yeah," I answered. "I'm always good." I knew it wasn't technically true, but maybe she thought it would be a good way to remind Lindy without being confrontational. After all, Mum didn't know I'd started wetting the bed again. So from her point of view, unless she guessed about whatever mysterious super-drug my sister had discovered, she would think that Lindy's accusation was an attempt to deflect suspicion because she'd been wet. Of course, I knew that wasn't the case; but to Mum it would probably be a good idea to give Lindy some hints about how to stop the problem. And hints that were dressed up as advice to me meant that the little one could feel proud of working out how to solve her own problems. Elementary reverse psychology, but she had made it seem so natural, and I could only respect that.
"So..." Mum continued. "Do you need any more pull-ups? No deals this week, so it's your choice what brand we get."
"I don't need them," Lindy answered right away. "I've been dry all week, it's only the baby that's having accidents."
"I think you must be close to running out."
"Can we get the SleepSafe ones?" I asked, knowing that I was already embarrassed and it couldn't get any worse. I wanted to wear them, even if I didn't need them. Mum would probably be torn between realising that I was giving her an excuse to get some for Lindy, and realising that I actually wanted to wear the things. Still, it wasn't that bad. I could cope with that. "They're really soft, I like them. The ones with butterflies?"
"Aww, such a baby," Lindy laughed, and I buried my face in my hands and tried to avoid smiling. Why did it feel so good for my little sister to bully me like this? It didn't make any kind of sense.
"Okay. Butterflies for you too, Lindy?"
"I don't need them. I told you, I'm too grown up for them. If she still needs them I shouldn't have to wear them too."
"It's just a precaution. But if you're really determined, would you like me to check in the morning, so I can see who's still having accidents?"
"Yeah," and this time she was properly smirking. She was so sure that she would win; and I didn't begrudge her that. She deserved a chance to feel like the adult. But I knew that now it would be a problem if I woke up wet again. If Mum was actually checking, she might find out. And there was no explanation I could give that would satisfy her; not without coming clean about the drugs and really getting Lindy in trouble. The only way out of this was for Mum not to check; and the only way I could think of to make that happen was convincing Lindy that she shouldn't keep arguing.
It didn't make any sense; I knew that. But I didn't have much of an option. As the conversation moved back onto more mundane shopping choices, like what kind of air freshener Mum should order because the one in the lounge had run out, I looked at my phone and quickly changed one setting.
I felt guilty, of course. But I needed to know that Mum wasn't going to get the wrong idea from Lindy's attempts at humiliation.
* * *
I woke up and stretched groggily, the watch vibrating on my wrist. It was the best way to get me up, timing the alarm to my sleep cycle, but it still struggled to get me out of bed at two in the morning. I sat up and shook my head, hoping that a little movement would help me to wake up. Even if I would be back in bed in twenty minutes.
I checked the app that controlled my watch first. It had woken me a little earlier than the time I had set, because that was the best synchronisation with my natural sleep cycle. I was grateful for that. But when I checked on Lindy's sleep state, I realised that I was more worried than I had realised. I mustn't have been paying attention when I changed the alarm last night, glancing furtively around to make sure nobody would ask why I wanted to be awake in the middle of the night. Somehow I'd managed to set Lindy's alarm to the same time, and it was only luck that mine had woken me first. But she was still in a theta sleep state, a deep green bar on the graph, and it wouldn't start vibrating until she was in beta again, which was likely to be another five or ten minutes.
I dismissed the alarm. Unfortunately I couldn't delete it once it was already within its time window, but I figured that when she was using the app, she was unlikely to notice an old alarm in the events log. So, she was still asleep. And there was still time for me to make sure that I wouldn't have to tell Mum the truth about what my sister had been doing to me.
I went to the bathroom first, and then carefully filled my little bowl with warm water. I didn't take quite so much care as I had in the past, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't need it. Water was only a backup now; repetition might have conditioned her to respond to the sound of water as much as the sensation, and now I'd found out for myself how intense that kind of thing could be, I had less doubts about it.
I felt guilty as I thought about what I was about to do. But I reminded myself that she had somehow made me wet myself. I was just returning the favour, and in the circumstances the only alternative was to risk Mum finding out what she had done. Between the two options, I was sure that she would prefer this one if she could look at them logically.
I left the bowl beside the sink in the bathroom, and stepped out into Lindy's room. Then I turned up the volume on my phone, which was playing the sound of a waterfall. It was a gentle roar, the kind of thing that would easily slip into the background. Lindy was in beta sleep now, so she didn't quite keep still. She would be taking in details from the outside world on a subconscious level, at least. And then, at the same time my phone told me that she was dropping back into the theta state, I saw her foot twitch just a little. I'd come to recognise that motion now; she did it every time she wet in her sleep.
I discarded the bowl of water, knowing for sure now that I wouldn't need it again. And once it was dried and back in its place, I could get back to sleep. Lindy would sleep better than I did, of course. After looking at all the graphs of her sleep cycle, I knew now that she always slept more deeply when she was already wet. In fact, the same had happened to me. On the times she'd done something to me, as well as when I'd listened to that relaxation thing. So I didn't need to feel too bad about ensuring she got a really good night's sleep. She would wake up completely refreshed in the morning, and more able to enjoy the day ahead. Knowing that she'd be too embarrassed to say anything if Mum mentioned the diaper checks she'd suggested was just an added bonus.
Perfect.