Chapter 24
Magda arrived the next day at breakfast time. She was clearly a well-dressed no-nonsense woman who had made her way in the world by being in control and expecting those around her to do as she commanded. The years had been kind to her and she had clearly looked after her body, her make-up was faultless, her skin dewy fresh despite her age which was in the late 40’s. Her dark raven hair showed not a strand of grey and her dark red lipstick was applied with a laser precision. All her make-up was immaculate as were her clothes that were smart but not extravagant. The black skirt was from Marks & Spencer, the blouse from Beal’s in Bournemouth and her shoes from a shop found in most city high streets.
Tom and Sarah were in their high chairs eating their eggy bread fingers with bibs already messy from a rather messy chocolate cereal that they had eaten with their fingers. Julia and the team had been warned that an extra visitor was coming and had said nothing to the babies. A spare place had been laid at the table but nothing had been said. Julia answered the door and brought down the visitor.
Tommy looked up from his plastic plate and was just about to put some eggy bread in his mouth when he spotted his mother. His jaw dropped in total surprise; his clean nappy that had been put on before breakfast warmed as he wet himself. He struggled in his high chair but the tough blue webbing straps held him firm. There was no love between him and his mother and the one thing he wanted was to escape and put distance between him and her.
“Mama!” was the only word that would escape his lips. He had not called her that since he had been a toddler. His head was flooded with historical images and memories. He remembered things that he though he had managed to forget by denying they ever happened. He remembered the cruelty, the humiliation he was put through and the barbaric acts she performed on him. It had started with the rows with his father and when he had left, the direction of her angst was focussed squarely on him.
Any small deviation to her will was met with retribution. He would cry but she would belittle him, call him a cry baby and put him back in nappies and plastic pants, then stuff him under the stairs in a small cupboard under the stairs for hours at a time. It was inevitable that he would have to use his nappies, and when he was eventually released, he would be berated for not having any control. Life was about as miserable as it could be. Many times, she would go out and leave him alone, turning off the electricity so that he could not hurt himself; locking him in his old cot with leather walking reins that were bashed and battered from their long history of use.
Magda looked at Tom with an expression that was best described as evil, it was a smirk that harboured pure malevolence. Tom shrank into his high chair almost trying to hide beneath the tray (which of course was impossible). He was in total fear and Sarah who had a huge empathy for Tom started to cry. Susan and Mary at the same time wondered if this had been a dreadful mistake. Julia and Mrs Bowling had gone to Tom and were releasing him from his high chair. They hugged and reassured him, while Magda appeared to change persona and came over as a gushing mother.
“Oh look at you Tom! Aren’t you the sweetest thing?” she said coming to Tom and ruffling his hair. The tray was swung back and Tom lowered to the floor, his wet nappy sagging, the stained towelling showing through his transparent plastic pants. Julia and Mrs Bowling edged away as Magda moved in to hug Tom to her. Tom was shaking with fear and with all the stress felt himself soiling his nappy as his mother’s hand wandered to the back of his pants to pat his bottom. “You haven’t changed at all darling” she said patting and rubbing at the seat of his dirty nappy “do you remember when you were being punished for being naughty and making mummy a messy nappy?” She did not seem at all phased by what Tom was doing but Sarah was now wailing feeling the distress being suffered by Tom.
Susan stepped in and let Sarah out of her high chair having given her a big reassuring hug. “You take Tom and give him his bottle Sarah, then make him nice and clean”. Mary parted Tom from his mother.
“Let us get him cleaned up Mrs Bigley, and after that we can all sit down and have a nice chat and get to know each other” said Mary.
Magda did not seem at all willing to part with her son. “I can do it” she said fixing each of them with a steely glare. “I will do it” she said determinedly.
“You’ve just arrived Magda!” said Susan “you are my mum-in-law and I have never met you. Let us sit down, have some breakfast and let me introduce everybody to you and let’s get to know each other”. The murmur of assent from the women put paid to holding back Tom and he was prised away and put in the hands of Sarah who rushed him back to the nursery.
Mrs Bowling put on the kettle and started cooking toast. Julia washed her hands and took out pastries and a selection of jams and preserves. A small breakfast feast was prepared with fruit salad and the offer to cook a full English if Mrs Bigley preferred. She refused and the tensions evaporated as breakfast preparations took over.
Magda and Susan chatted while the big babies were being cleaned up and it was agreed that a guided tour of the facility would be one way of spending the day. As it was the weekend there were no clients and there was plenty of time to linger at the various stops as they went round. Magda was particularly interested in the ECT Treatment Room and Susan should have realised that her interest was a little too intense to be healthy. Mary was flashing signals to her, in an attempt to shut her up and was more than upset when Magda was invited to see the process in process on Monday morning when they had a naughty boy regression session booked in. Magda was fawning all over Susan like she was the long-lost daughter she had never had. She went on and on about the wonderful job she had done with her little Tommy and how he was just the way he should always have been.
By the time they sat down for lunch Mary was really cross with Susan, because all her instincts said that this was a really bad situation. Magda was all over Tom like a rash, petting him and molly-coddling him as if he were a real toddler. Sarah was incandescent and never more so when Magda said “Sarah sweetheart, you may think you are Tommy’s mummy, but that is not true is it? You are Tommy’s caught-out lover, who has been reduced to a nappy-dependant nanny, there is only one mummy here and that is me darling! You are no longer his lover, because Tommy can’t do loving anymore can he? No he only gets sexy when he is filling his nappy, and on top of that his little man is only good for wetting like a baby”.
Sarah started to cry and Julia tried to comfort her. Tommy had never felt so close to his mother as she drew him ever deeper into her malicious web. “Mummy’s here darling” she whispered in his ear “you go in your nappy like a good baby and I will change you, would you like that?! We should have done this years ago shouldn’t we sweetheart?”
Susan and Mary looked at Julia as she calmed Sarah, Mrs Bowling was looking uncomfortable. Magda took Tom for a clean nappy. The atmosphere improved somewhat.
“What?” asked Susan as they all looked at her “she is starting to warm to us. Okay, she had a bad start but she has made a real effort to be nice to Tommy and she is certainly trying to bond with me.”
“I don’t trust her” said Mary
“Me neither” agreed Julia
“Hate her” whimpered Sarah
Mrs Bowling said nothing but started to clear the table.
“She is going home on Wednesday, so let’s give her the benefit of doubt, shall we?” asked Susan. Nobody wanted a row and decided to let the issue drop. Tommy came back hand in hand with his mother. He was suc-king on a pink dummy and Magda had tied a clean bib around his neck. He was wearing a simple baby vest and she had put a clear pair of plastic pants over his nappy that showed the pink tipped nappy pins holding the sides of his nappy together. On his feet were pink booties that belonged to Sarah and she had fitted him in Sarah’s walking reins.
“I am going to take Tommy for a walk” she explained. This news made Tom very nervous for some reason he could not understand.
“My do-do” said Sarah
Topic: It Never Rains but it Pours (Read 48209 times)
