Chapter 11
Suzanne was woken by the sounds of Olivia getting ready for work, a look at her watch told her it was six o’clock and she decided to score a few points with her employer by making her a cup of coffee. She checked her progress as she went to get out of bed, her pyjama bottoms felt positively damp, not wet but definitely as if she had suffered a few leaky dribbles. Suzanne was shocked, she never had accidents, never had any problems. She pealed back the sheets and was pleased to note that her bedding was perfectly clean and dry. However, she spotted a ridge that ran across her bed that was just discernible under her sheet. She looked under the sheet - nothing. She looked under the quilted mattress cover and there it was - an old fashioned rubber sheet. Her bed was already protected against infantile bed wetting.
She remade her bed somewhat shocked and put on a bathrobe, before making her way downstairs to make coffee.
She took a freshly made Nespresso coffee up to Olivia.
“Good morning” she said “can you manage a coffee”?
“Morning Suzanne, did you have a good sleep? Do you need a change?” She asked. Suzanne looked a bit shocked, how could she know about her near miss? Olivia laughed. “No not that, do you need a change from a duvet to sheets and blankets”?
“No all good” replied Suzanne with relief.
Olivia left for work and Suzanne started her chores by emptying the dish washer and tidying the kitchen. She collected up the nappies that seemed to be piled in the kitchen, dining room and lounge. How many nappies did Andy need? She counted 17, then there were the 20 from the big wash yesterday that she was tumbling in the drier to fluff them up. There were plastic baby pants on every radiator, most were clean and in good order but a couple were badly stained. She knew it was pointless trying to lift out those indelible marks.
She heard babbling from the nursery, her charge was waking up. She completed folding up the nappies, carefully to make sure all the labels were in the same position with all folds in the same orientation in the pile. She steadied the pile with her chin and slowly climbed the stairs. She went into the nursery and filled the shelves with her load. Andy looked sleepily at her while suc-king on his do-di. She cooed at him affectionately and he responded with happy gurgles.
Unlike her first sight of him, when he was dirty and soiled, today he was clean and smelt like a baby, warm wee and baby powder. She changed him out of his wet nappy and dressed him in one of his freshly laundered terries and sweet smelling baby pants. Today she picked out a pale blue bubble romper that gave him a huge nappy bum.
She fed him a wholesome breakfast and Andy was alert and seemed about to engage in a dialogue with her. By the time he had had his juice with the vitamin supplement he was back into a slump. He barely had the energy to soil his fresh nappy as he sat in his high chair. He strained and grunted, but hadn’t the strength to lift himself up from his seat to void in his nappies. His face went redder and redder until soiling could escape his body.
Suzanne changed him and put him down for his nap.
Olivia had left a list of chores to do on the kitchen table and they were not the work expected of a fully trained nanny from Norlands. Cleaning floors and bathrooms was not in her remit, nor was cutting the grass or looking at the lock on the gate. She did not want to set a precedent and decided to stick to the jobs that needed to be done for Andy. His clothes were a disgrace, some outfits were stained, buttons were loose, stitching had come undone. The nursery floor was dirty and all the units needed to be polished. So she set about her tasks as Andy slept. She hated the silence and turned on an MP3 player in the nursery that played through speakers on the wall. The music was a mixture of classical excerpts and very soothing, so would not disturb her sleeping charge.
She finally sat down as the floor dried and began her sewing tasks, her lack of sleep made her eyes heavy and she slowly nodded off. “You need nappies. You must suc-k your dummy. You love going in your nappies. A good baby wets his nappies”. She had put on a specially adapted piece of subliminal messaging designed for Andy, this is the diet of sound he was fed every night.