Regenesis

Samantha - Sunday breakfast

The high chairs had all been set in a line for the girls as they walked in prettily in their white dresses, accompanied by their nannies. It was only when the girls were turned to be helped into their respective chairs that they noticed Chloe, facing the far wall, in her Sunday dress, hair in ribbons, standing at fingertips. There was no time for the girls to stare at her before each nanny picked up the carefully folded and starched pinafore apron waiting on each chair and shook it to unfold it with a sharp crack. Once more each girl held out her arms obediently to have them inserted into the internal sleeves of the pinafore before the sash was fastened around their waists at the back. These pinnies seemed even more enveloping than the ones she was used to, perhaps to make doubly sure that nothing spilled on their pristine white Sunday dresses. Nanny Green turned her and guided her onto the high chair before sliding round and locking the table into position and placing a spoon and napkin onto it ready for the food to be brought. Once all the girls had been secured, Nanny Peters went up to Chloe and turned her so that she was facing the others. Around her neck had been placed a placard which read "Filthy Little Girl" She was crying still and looked to be most unhappy. The placard wasn't the only thing different about her. At the required position of fingertips, her arms appeared to have metal fittings at various points on them, with what looked like thick bicycle spokes extending from a brace at her shoulders along her arms to another bracket at the elbows and then up to her wrists which had metal bands around them. She had only seen this kind of contraption before, when she had visited a friend in hospital and she had her broken leg pinned with a cage around it. What looked even more curious was that her hands were encased in what looked like white boxing gloves, thick and padded, but with the fingers straight and fixed. She was marched across the room to the vacant highchair where Nanny Green appeared to make adjustments to the shoulder and elbow brackets loosening them so that her arms were free to be moved. Chloe's pinnie was shaken out like the rest and her arms inserted, before the same brackets were tightened securing her arms where they had been set. All the girls were bending round watching this spectacle for just enough time for them to take in the severity of it all, before one of the nannies clapped her hands and all the girls whipped their heads round to face the front as they had been taught. No one wanted to have a taste of what Chloe was going through, especially Samantha who had a shrewd idea why Chloe was being punished so severely.

Breakfast was eaten in silence, the only noise being the spoons on bowls and the occasional slurp which was not repeated by the same girl twice. After breakfast each girl was taken back to her bathroom to be checked before the Sunday service. Nappies were checked and, if necessary, changed. Ribbons were primped and petticoats fluffed out. Shoes were given an extra shine. No one wanted their little girl to be singled out for her shabby appearance. When each girl was deemed fit to be seen, she was led out into the corridor and stood at fingertips by the door of her bathroom, while her nanny disappeared into a side room. Not a word was uttered as the spaces filled. Finally the door opened and Matron led her nannies out, now resplendent in matching grey felt capes over their uniforms. They looked almost military and Samantha felt a burst of pride when she saw her own Nanny Peters stride down the corridor to collect her. Each nanny stood next to her charge until they had all arrived next to their girls, at which point each took the right hand of her girl and led her formally down the corridor towards the main room which had now been laid out with two benches next to each other and chairs behind. Each girl was assigned a place on the bench while her nanny stood in front of the chair directly behind it. "Hands clasped girls" and every girl immediately put one hand in the other in front of her. Samantha followed suit and waited, facing forward. She waited and listened to the sounds around her. Once everyone had settled, there was very little shuffling of feet or any of the usual fidgeting one might have expected in a room full of girls that age. There was the occasional rustling of a nanny's skirts as she leant forward to adjust her charge's position, to straighten a back or lower a girl's hunched shoulders, with the resulting rustling of the victim's clothing and especially her nappy cover in response. A door opened behind them, but not one girl turned, not even Samantha. Footsteps followed and Chloe was marched up the side of the room by Nanny Peters with a very stern looking Matron close behind. She stood in a spot silently dictated by her nanny, her arms fixed down at her sides and her head up straight, the placard around her neck announcing her sins for all to see. Each girl sitting on the benches was now straining to see what was going on, without moving a muscle of their heads, their eyes locked as far to the edges of their eyelids as humanly possible. They couldn't know it, but many of their nannies were also gripped by what was taking place to their right. Matron looked on with her steely expression as Nanny Peters began to undo the brackets which held Chloe's arms in place. She leaned in close to Chloe's head and whispered something in Chloe's ear, at which Chloe raised both arms out in front of her, elbows bent and placed both palms against each other. Nanny Peters pushed and pulled Chloe's limbs until she was satisfied with the position before relocking the brackets at wrist, elbow and shoulder. She paused to straighten Chloe's hair ribbons and appeared to adjust her dress collar too. It was then that Samantha noticed that her dress was slightly different from her own and those of her fellow Nursery girls. Instead of stopping at her neck, it continued right up to her chin, like a Tudor ruff, extending upwards still further under her chin and ears. Chloe stood immobile as her Nanny backed away from her and Matron replaced her to inspect her charge. Chloe stood, knees together under her short white dress, Samantha couldn't see Matron's face, but the reflected expression from Chloe told her everything. As Matron turned and marched away, at first a tear, and then another formed in each of Chloe's eyes before rolling slowly down her cheek. There was nothing she could do but stand there and accept her punishment.

When the piano started, every girl immediately stood facing forward and the other girls began to sing along with the hymn which they all seemed to know. The nannies behind them also joined in, and Samantha moved her mouth self-consciously in an approximation of the words she heard, and tried to sing along. At the end, they remained standing and Matron marched forward to the lectern at the front, and addressed them all.

"Good Morning, Girls"

"Good Morning, Matron" they all chimed, in a slightly sing-song voice, not too loudly, before performing a curtsy in unison, head slightly bowed, and right leg passing behind the left. Samantha looked to her left and her right before hurriedly following suit. She had a lot to learn, she said to herself.

"Those of you who can.... may sit." Matron pointedly glanced to her left at the immobile and still teary Chloe, her hands in their exaggerated prayer position and her head held rigidly still. Everyone sat as quietly as they could. The more recent entrants, Samantha among them, could be distinguished because their short skirts hung down the back of the bench, while the more senior girls remembered to tuck their skirts under them as best they could before sitting. The noise of crinkling nappy covers was no less diminished by this action, but the nannies of the compliant children could be seen smiling in admiration for their charges. One of those who did not smile was Nanny Green, whose charge, Tabitha would be reminded of her faults at some point later in the day.

Matron led the short service with readings from the Bible and two more hymns before walking solemnly out of the main door, leaving the nannies to attend to their charges. Just then the bell high up in the Catholic church began to chime, its clanging radiating across the town, signalling that all who professed the Catholic faith should be well on their way.

Samantha barely noticed the ringing, concentrating as she was on not getting on the wrong side of any of the nannies, many of whom had already left the dining room, she knew not where.