On entering the room I saw Nanny Mitchels sitting in her usual chair, adjacent to the open fire, whilst cousin Karen was sitting in the chair that use to be occupied by Grandad.
Nanny Mitchel was knitting something, though I could not work out what.
In all truth, no one could ever work out what Nanny Mitchel was knitting.
If anyone ever asked her, what it was she was producing, she would never really give a straight reply.
“We will have to wait and see,” was her normal answer.
I do think that she did not so much knit for the end product, she just knitted as it was therapeutic and her form of escapism.
Naturally, it goes without saying that everything knitted was in pink
Cousin Karen’s chair was next to the black and white television set, which always appeared to be on, but at the same time never watched.
She was busying herself reading Nanny Mitchels Gratton catalog.
Nanny Mitchel briefly looked up from her knitting as I walked through the living room door.
“You look very nice Patricia” was all she said as if it was just another normal evening at Nanny Mitchel’s house.
However, everything seemed totally removed from anything normal.
It was as if I had become another female in the household.
I sat myself down on the settee which was towards the back of the living room by the door.
For a while, the evening went on as normal.
Nothing was said.
Nanny Mitchel and cousin Karen were emersed in doing their own thing, whilst I just sat on the settee puzzled by the events of the day, smelling of rose-scented soap.
All of a sudden Karen thrust the catalog at Nanny Mitchel and started to talk.
“Nanny Mitchel, do you think this would be a nice dress for Patricia to wear?” asked cousin Karen in her whiny tone.
Nanny Mitchel put down her knitting to look at the dress that it appeared cousin Karen was now choosing for me.
“Oh yes,” Nanny Mitchel replied in an approving tone, “Patricia would look simply adorable in that dress.”
It had now become obvious that I was not going to have any choice in what I was to wear, not that I ever had much choice anyway.
With the aid of cousin Karen, Nanny Mitchel was now choosing my new wardrobe.
“Stand up Patricia,” Nanny Mitchel ordered.
Duly, I did as I was told as if I was some kind of doll for them to dress up.
“Oh yes” that will suit her fine,” Nanny Mitchel said to Karen as if I was not there.
“Doesn’t Patricia look lovely in her new Pink nightdress Nanny Mitchel?” Cousin Karen said knowing that I would be embarrassed.
And embarrassed I was.
My face had turned a shade of pink as if to match the night dress I was wearing.
Karen knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew exactly which buttons to press to embarrass me.
However, Nanny Mitchel was oblivious to this embarrassment, and thus just carried on.
With cousin Karen now seated on the pouffee seat next to Nanny Mitchel’s chair, they busied themselves in their joyful task of choosing new clothing for me.
I dreaded to think of the styles they were actually choosing.
However, I was earwigging and hearing them chatting about Pink, frilly dresses, Green frilly dresses, Night dresses with flower prints on them, Frilly Panties and Green Knickers for school and so on.
I also heard cousin Karen speaking about how her brown t-bar sandals had not fitted me, and that maybe some new ones should be purchased.
However, Nanny Mitchel responded by telling cousin Karen that, we would be going shopping in the morning, where we would be purchasing some new shoes for me from “Clarks”.
This particular idea was to fill me with dread.
I hated clarks shoes.
The shoes they sold had no style to them whatsoever, they were just basic and bland.
I much prefer “Lilly@s and Skinners”, for at least their shoes were of a modern style.
As well as this the dreaded realization came over me that if we were going shopping in the morning, it was possible that I was to be paraded in the town as a girl.
What would happen if anyone saw me?
I was already suffering quite a substantial amount of bullying at school.
If I was seen along with Nanny Mitchel and Karen as a girl, the bullying I was suffering during my educational years was likely to get a lot worse.
However, even at this young age, I had come to the conclusion that I just had to get on with things.
The time was now eight thirty, which was thirty minutes later than the time Nanny Mitchel had said I was to go to bed that evening.
It was obvious that Nanny Mitchel along with cousin Karen had been so engrossed in choosing garments that she had forgotten about my bedtime.
When she finally said that it was time for me to go to bed, it came as some kind of relief.
Sitting in the living room with Nanny Mitchel and Karen had not been the most pleasant way of spending this evening, even if it had been for less than an hour.
“Say good night to your cousin Karen, Patricia,” came Nanny Mitchel’s command.
“I really did not want to wish Karen a goodnight, in fact on the contrary I would have wished her a horrible night with lots of nightmares.
However, I did as I was told and wished Cousin Karen a good night.
She on the other hand blanked me.
Up the creaky staircase me and Nanny Mitchel went, with me in my pink nighty.
Nanny Mitchel ordered me into the bathroom so I could do my bedtime ablutions.
“We do not want any bedtime accidents now, do we?” she had embarrassingly remarked, furthered by a reminder to flush the chain.
Thankfully, I was allowed the privilege of doing my ablutions in private.
Nanny Mitchel always viewed this kind of thing as completely private.
Once this task had been carried out, Nanny Mitchel joined me in the bathroom.
Although Nanny Mitchel wore glasses, like an action man doll she had what may have been known as eagle eyes.
The fact that I had screwed up my new polyester school uniform and thrown it in the corner did not go unnoticed.
As well as this the fact that it did not go unnoticed would not go unpunished either.
Nanny Mitchel grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the corner where my school uniform was screwed up in a bundle on the floor.
As anticipated three hard hand smacks were applied to the seat of my night dress.
These three smacks echoed around the bathroom
Nanny Mitchel then turned me to face her.
“You know what those smacks were for, don’t you Patricia,” Nanny Mitchel angrily questioned.
It had been a very long unexpectant day.
I was very tired and I now was starting to sob.
“If you cry Patricia, I will really smack you and give you something to cry for,” was Nanny Mitchels next verse.
“We do not leave our school dress or any other dress in that state in this house,” Nanny Mitchel continued.
“Fold it up, this instant.”
Without hesitation and without wishing to suffer further smacks, I picked up the Green school gingham dress and made a feeble attempt at folding it.
I say feeble because the way I folded it was obviously not to Nanny Mitchel’s high standards.
Five attempts were made at folding the green gingham dress, each time with me getting it wrong.
In the end Nanny, Mitchel gave up and angrily folded it up herself.
I was then marched to my bedroom which had earlier been the mock school room where me and cousin Karen had been.
Whilst I stood in the corner in my pink nighty, without any further words, Nanny Mitchel proceeded to open a fold-away bed that was in the corner.
This was obviously going to be my bed for the night, whilst cousin Karen would take the main bedroom which was adjacent to this one and had a proper bed.
Once again, without any words, Nanny Mitchel went to this other room and took out some bed linen from the wardrobe.
Nanny Mitchel knew that I was incapable of making my own bed, and this evening she was not going to waste any time teaching me to do so, thus she made it herself.
While doing so the silence was briefly broken by Nanny Mitchel.
“You are going to learn to make your bed your self Patricia,” Nanny Mitchel said in a tone designed to scold me.
“You are also going to learn to keep your bedroom tidy.”
“Fold your clothing up properly”.
“In fact come to think about it, whilst staying under this roof you are going to learn a lot about domestic chores,” Nanny Mitchel continued.
“You will learn your place, Patricia.”
With the lecture now complete, Nanny Mitchel ordered me into bed.
Roughly she tucked me in and surprisingly kissed me on the forehead.
This was the first sign of affection I had seen from Nanny Mitchel since arriving at her house that afternoon.
“Goodnight Patricia,” Nanny Mitchel said.
“Goodnight Nanny Mitchel,” I replied.
With this, she turned out the lights and left me to my own confused thoughts.
It had been a long day, and tomorrow was going to be a lot worse