Being as useless and undomesticated as most boys my age, I didn’t really have any idea how to rinse the gravy from my piny. Vincent probably spent more time helping me than if he’d done it himself. “Thanks.” I said as he hung it on the radiator to dry.
“You did most of it.” Vincent replied. “Will you unbutton me please?” he asked.
“Sure.” I said as he turned his back to me. I looked at the long zip that ran all the way up the back of his dress as I unfastened his pinafore’s three buttons. I imagined that too would be quite tricky to remove without someone to help. “At least my dress has a zip I can reach” I thought before cursing myself for putting the words ‘my’ and ‘dress’ together. I asked Vincent if Mother has to undo his dresses that have a back fasteneing.
He turned and glumly nodded as he pulled his pinafore off. “Mother says they put the zip on the back to make the front look nicer, but I reckon it’s so I can’t take it off.” he said.
“Wouldn’t surprise me.” I replied as I looked him up and down. “It does look nicer from the front though.”
Vincent looked down at himself and flattened the skirt against his black stockinged legs. “Yeah… it’d look daft with a zip down the front.”
I went through to the sitting room to watch TV and Vincent went up to his room to read. “Yeah.” I replied after Mother asked me if I’d hung my piny to dry. “Yeah.” I repeated when she asked if Sonia had gone to read. “Done it all.” I said when she asked if I had any homework to do. “Can I put Star Trek on?” I asked, noticing that the dreaded Songs of Praise was about to start.
“Sonia said it was nice that you’d paid her a visit today.” Mother said. I grunted one of those non-committal responses as I was more interested in to opening scene of this week’s Star Trek episode than Mother’s idle chatter. Predictably, as 7.00pm approached, Mother put down the newspaper and said she needed to get Sonia’s bath ready. “When did you last have one?” she asked.
“Er… Thursday I think.” I replied.
“Well maybe you should have one after Sonia’s done.” Mother suggested.
“Do I have to?”
“Seeing as you’re not sure when you last had one, yes… you do.” Mother replied. “Maybe I should start making you have a bath every night like Sonia does.” was her parting comment. Some twenty minutes later, Mother hollered down the stairs, “Andrew! Bath!!”
There was nothing much on TV so I made my way upstairs. From Vincent’s room I could hear Mother fussing over him. “What about this nice Barbie one?” she said. I heard Vincent’s whiny voice claiming that he didn’t like Barbie. “Of course you do. All girls like Barbie.” Mother’s voice replied, “Now come on, stop fussing and put it on.” she insisted. “Is that you Andrew?” she shouted.
“Yes.” I replied as I grabbed a clean towel from the airing cupboard.
Mother popped her head around Vincent’s bedroom door and said, “Jim jams on when you’ve finished… I’ve put some out for you.” before disappearing again.
It was only after I’d got in the bath did I properly register what Mother had said. “She doesn’t normally put my jim-jams out for me.” I said to myself as I plunged the sponge into the water. I rooted out my sole bottle of bath & shower gel from amongst all my brother’s bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and whatever else he had. As I bathed myself, I became increasingly worried about the pyjamas. Now I have a dress hanging in my wardrobe, I don’t think I’d be surprised if I found a pair of girlie PJs waiting on my bed.
Thankfully they were my own pyjamas. I looked at the clock and thought that a quarter-to-eight was a bit too early for getting ready for bed, but at least I’m not being told to wear a Barbie nightie, I figured. I pulled on my PJs and donned my bathrobe before making my way to the sitting room. “What are you doing?” I asked when I saw Vincent sat on the floor between Mother’s legs, with part of his hair wrapped up in numerous knotted rags.