I didn’t see the clothes again until Tuesday afternoon when I arrived home from school and found the dress hanging from my wardrobe door. Its presence stopped me in my tracks and I did nothing but gorp at it for moment. “I’ve run you bath John.” Mum chirped as she appeared behind me. Just as she’d done on Saturday, my mother scrubbed me from head to toe with a luffa before letting me sponge myself. I towelled myself dry, wrapped it around me and sauntered slowly to my room. Not only did the dress hang menacingly from my wardrobe door, but my new underwear lay in wait on my bed with my mother hovering over it. “Did you talc?” she asked.
“Sorry what?” I muttered, too preoccupied with the lacy undies on my bed to properly listen. Mum took me back to the bathroom, took my towel from me and made me apply a dusting of fragrant talcum powder with a big fluffy ‘puff’, as she called it. Back in my room, she sat me down and rolled the stockings up my legs. As the stretched over my legs, their pattern became apparent; just like the outer layer on my dress, they’re peppered with tiny white bows. She stands me up and pulls them all the way to the tops of my legs, before asking me to pass her my suspender belt.
When all these items were purchased, my head was spinning and I didn’t really pay heed when Mum told the assistant that ‘John will go for the embroidery option’. Now I understand as in sizeable ornate embroidery, in the middle of the large love heart on the front of my knickers is the word John. I gulped but said nothing as I picked up the suspender belt with trembling fingers and passed it to my mother. “Thank you.” she chirped before fastening it around my waist and clipping the four straps to the tops of my stockings, thus holding them in place. I suggested that maybe a pair of tights would have been easier than all this stockings and suspender faff. “You should have said if you wanted tights instead.” Mum replied as she fastened the final suspender clip. “I’m not a mind reader you know.” she added with a smile. With a heavy heart, I picked up the knickers and stepped in to them. They looked worse on me than they did on the bed, and with my name elegantly embroidered on the front, there’s no denying that they’re mine. The gap between the lace trimmed leg holes and the tops of my stockings is minimal and the satin bows on the suspender clips only add to just how prissy and sissy my underwear looks. These, along with the bow on the waistband of my knickers form the three corners of a triangle and seem to frame the big frilly love heart, which itself frames my very own name. I bet even girls don’t have their name on their knickers. I pull in the little vest and Mum steps back to admire me. “You look so nice in your new undies it’s a shame to cover them up.” she said as she took hold of my dress. To be honest, donning the dress and hiding my underwear came as a great relief. My mother told me how nice I look before turning me around and routing inside my dress for the straps so she could fasten it properly. Since it hangs from my shoulders, I can’t see the point of this additional internal fastening around my chest, and being an inquisitive type, I asked about it. “It’s to stop you from taking your dress off.” Mum told me.
“But I’ll have to take it off at bedtime!” I retort.
“You will.” Mum replied. “But without my help that won’t happen.” she added.
After slipping my feet into my shoes, my mother slipped the two hair slides into my hair and announced that I was almost ready. She removed an item from her pocket and looked me in the eye as she removed its lid and twisted it to reveal a glistening pale pink lipstick. “No… please Mum.. not lipstick too!” I begged.
