Lockdown

[DaraJaney]

Joe’s mother was very concerned about his granny since the coronavirus problem started.  She was a fairly healthy 70 years of age but the advice was for people of that age to shield by staying at home because they were at high-risk.

But how was she to shop for vital supplies?  People were reporting shortages in the shops due to stockpiling.  She used to have a very supportive community around her but she’d outlived most her neighbourhood friends and others moved away.  There were new families in the houses either side of her.  She didn’t know them well and if you asked them to shop for you, how could you be sure they were being careful enough?

His granny didn’t seem too concerned but his mother was worried that she was just putting a brave face on it.  She decided she should visit and see the situation for herself.

It was a three hour drive but his mother didn’t mind driving there and back in the same day.  It was probably better if they didn’t stay over in case a stricter lockdown was imposed and they were stuck there.

So they drove there noticing little traffic on the motorways.  There was definitely a growing sense of unease.  They had taken every precaution – using hand sanitisers, washing for the recommended two ‘Happy Birthday’s.  Everything was still open but people were starting to avoid pubs, restaurants, theatres and public transport. 

Some other countries seemed to be taking it more seriously.  All St Patrick’s Day parades were called off in Ireland.  An international conference in Spain she was due to go to for work had been cancelled.

When they arrived his granny insisted she was ok.  She had plenty of food and supplies.  She could order deliveries online.  But his mother, as ever, continued to worry.  She had heard that the wait times for deliveries were increasing.

She made his granny go through an online order for groceries and they found that the queue was two weeks!  Now his mother was really worried.  She couldn’t see how his granny was going to fend for herself alone.

Joe eyed the clock anxiously as his mother fretted into the evening.  She couldn’t bring herself to leave his granny, not knowing when they would be able to see each other again.

She decided that they should stay the night.  Maybe they could do a big shop for her tomorrow.  Joe sighed but couldn’t really complain.  He hated staying over at granny’s though.  He always had to sleep in his mother’s old room.   His granny hadn’t touched it since his mother moved out when she went to college.

She’d always been the nostalgic sort and had kept lots of his mother’s nicest clothes long after she’d grown out of them.  The bed linen was embarrassingly feminine and old fashioned for Joe.  Lacey trimmings on the pillow cases, flowery duvet cover.

His mother was always amused at his unease having to stay in the room.  “It’s just for one night”, she emphasised but still giggled on glancing at the bed he was going to have to sleep in.

He started to unbutton his shirt.  “There are nice frilly nighties in the drawer there if you like”, she tittered as she closed the door.  He glared at the closed door and stripped down to his underwear.

He always slept badly there.  Everything was so soft and fluffy.  He sank into the mattress.  He had a really firm one at home.  In the morning it always seemed a struggle to extract himself from the bed.  It was like it was swallowing him up.

In the morning he had to dress in the same clothes after his shower.  His mother decided to do a big shop.  There was a huge queue to get into the store which only added to the sense of fore-boding.

When they got back to his granny’s house, she was watching the news.  The government had announced a lockdown.  Everyone was to stay at home, work from home where possible.  They were not to travel any further than absolutely necessary to buy their supplies.

They unloaded the car.  His mother stood with her hands firmly on her hips, thinking.  “We’re going to have to stay”, she decided.  “What?  No!”  Joe protested.  “I don’t have anything here.”  His mother ignored him.  She had bigger concerns.

“We can’t leave mum here on her own to fend for herself.  We’re staying.”  “But .. we don’t have any clothes here.  I don’t have my laptop or Playstation!”   She frowned at him.  “You and your computer games, that’s the least of our problems.  No!  We’re staying.  We’ll figure it all out.”

[Sissy Little Girl]

DaraJaney, Nice start to your story.  The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many inconveniences in our lives.  Joe is about to find out about those hardships.  The biggest one will be "not" having any clothes with him now that there has been a lockdown.  That is, unless he wears what is in the wardrobe.

Can't wait for the next installment.  8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[SissyBraelyn]

Nice story using the situation going on now as inspiration for a story, poor Joe stuck at his grandmas house without any change of clothes except his mother’s old clothes in his room which would amuse his mother greatly

[Andlat]

I think some of this might be premeditated on mom's part. Joe could feel the foreboding, so why didn't she think to get him at least a few things? Very curious

[DaraJaney]

The next morning Joe extracted himself from the soft fluffy lacey bed and went to have his shower.  When he returned his clothes were all gone.  His mother entered the room.  He clutched his wet towel.  “Where are my clothes?”

“You couldn’t wear those another day.  I’ve put them in the washing machine.”  He could hear the water gushing into the machine in the utility room.  “So what am I going to wear?” he asked nervously.

His mother opened the wardrobe revealing a dozen or so of her best dresses from when she was a girl.  “Which would you prefer?”  Joe frowned.  “You must be joking!”  His mother remained calm.  “It’s your choice.  Mum never kept any trousers or shorts just my old dresses.  You won’t be leaving the house anyway”, she assured him.

Joe just stood clutching the wet towel which appeared to be his only alternative to a dress.  His mother pulled out a drawer.  Joe watched.  There was a pile of panties.  His mother held a pair up.  They had rows of lace across the bum.  Joe felt sick but she tried the next pair.  They had a floral pattern with lace trim.  She worked her way down.

“Oh these are plain white”, she held them up.  “Just a lace trim around the legs.”  She placed them on the bed.  Joe looked at them in horror but he was starting to feel the chill of his wet towel.  He looked again at the flowery frilly panties and had to accept she had given him the best option.

He quickly dropped the towel and stepped into the white lace-trimmed panties.  They were quite tight on him but did the job.  He waited for his mother to chuckle at him or tease him but she just went to the wardrobe.

She took out a royal blue dress which had white cuffs on the sleeves and a white collar.  The sleeves were slightly puffed and the skirt was pleated.  Joe surveyed the other dresses.  He saw pink and various pastel colours he couldn’t describe, floral patterns, layers of lace, full skirts, frilly hems.

He supposed the blue dress was the least embarrassing.  He couldn’t believe he was doing this but what choice did he have?  There wasn’t a dressing gown in sight.

His mother threw the dress over his head and when his arms were in the sleeves, zipped him up.  She tugged at his skirt until the pleats were all straight.  He looked in the mirror.  It came to a couple of inches above his knee.  He didn’t like the way the pleated skirt stood out or the puffed sleeves but one look at the alternatives in the wardrobe was enough to convince him this was the least worst option.

His mother was already looking in the drawers for socks.  She held up a series of pairs of ankle socks.  “They all have frilly lace.”  Then she started rummaging through the tights.  Joe felt sick again.  He spotted a pair of silver slippers in the bottom of the wardrobe.  “I can wear these”, he suggested.  His mother shrugged.  “OK.  You won’t be going out anyway I suppose.”  Joe felt a bit reassured.

He tried not to think of the following days and didn’t look again at the range of dresses in the wardrobe.  He went to the kitchen for breakfast.  His granny smiled when he walked in.  “Oh I did love that dress”, she sighed, tugging at the puffed sleeves.  Joe tried not to look too embarrassed as he sat at the table.

He was relieved that his mum and granny didn’t make much of it.  He hung around the house looking for something to do.  His mother’s room was full of old girl’s comics and magazines and typical girly books like “Little Women”.  His granny’s choice of movies wasn’t any better.  He saw “Beaches”, “Steel Magnolias” and didn’t look any further.

He heard laughing outside.  He went to look out the window into the garden but remembered he was a boy wearing a dress so stayed to one side.  He could see a girl playing in the back garden next door.  She looked about 8 or 9 maybe.  She was skipping.  He looked enviously at the trousers she was wearing.

Then he heard a football against a wall.  He carefully switched sides of the window and saw a boy about his own age kicking a ball around the garden on the other side.  Joe looked down at his dress.  There was no way he could go out in front of that boy dressed like this.

He searched the house for something to do.  Was that a board game on the top shelf?  He took it down.  It was a girl’s play make-up kit.  He found a box of clothes in the corner of the wardrobe but when he examined them, they proved to be fancy dress costumes and wigs like for a princess or Dorothy.

He sighed and sat on the bed.  He fiddled with the pleats on his dress, looked at the make-up kit momentarily and then shook his head.  He wasn’t that desperate!

The next morning his mother gave him a yellow dress to wear.  It was probably the next least embarrassing but had lace frills over the shoulder and was a little shorter.  She had found a yellow pair of panties too.  They had two lines of lace across the bottom but there wasn’t anything less embarrassing in the selection.

After breakfast his mother caught him looking longingly out the window at the children playing in the neighbouring gardens.  It was bright and sunny.  “You could go out, you know.”  He looked down at his yellow dress and shook his head disconsolately.  “Well, we could be here for a couple of weeks.  Are you going to mope around the house all that time?”

“Can’t we borrow clothes from a neighbour?” he pleaded.  “No.  We can’t call in to other people, we are supposed to be isolating.  These are new neighbours, mum doesn’t know either of them well enough.  And the department stores are all closed.”

He sighed again.  “I could make you look like a girl so it wouldn’t be so embarrassing”, she suggested.  He thought about it.  His short hair was a definite giveaway.  “There are those wigs in the dress-up box.”  He looked out at the children again.  He was going mad with boredom but could he walk out there in front of that boy in a pretty dress?  The thought turned his stomach.

[Sandra B]

Great scenario.  And lockdown lasts a nice long time....

[DaraJaney]

By lunchtime, he couldn’t take the boredom and looking out at the other children playing any longer.  “Mum I want to go out in the garden.”  He was looking down at the floor as he said it.  He realised the implications.  He would need to look convincingly like a girl.  His stomach was churning at the idea.

His mother decided that the princess wigs were too fancy but the Dorothy one was reasonably plausible.  She tied yellow ribbons to the ends of the pig tails to match his dress.  He had to decide did he want to wear frilly ankle socks or white tights.  He stood looking gloomily at both unable to decide which were least mortifying.  In the end his mother convinced him that it was still a bit chilly in March so he should wear the tights.  She also insisted that the yellow panties with the frills had to be worn over the tights.  A pair of black Mary Janes were found that fit him.

His mother stood back and studied her son in the yellow dress with lacey frills over the shoulders, the wig with pigtails tied with yellow ribbons, the white tights and Mary Janes.  The flared dress fell about four inches above his knees.

“I know you are sixteen but it might be better to say that you’re ….”, she thought about it.  A sixteen year old girl wouldn’t be seen dead dressed like that these days, she knew.  What was the youngest age he could get away with?  “… thirteen?”  Joe looked wounded but a glance in the mirror was enough to convince him she was right.

“Come along then.”  He really had a sick feeling in his stomach now.  He was about to walk out into the back garden in a sissy dress, tights and pigtails!  He could hear the football against the wall and the girl chanting a skipping rhyme.  But he couldn’t stay indoors any longer with nothing boyish to do anyway.

His mother opened the back door and stood back for him to walk out.  He swallowed hard and went out the door to the top of the steps down to the garden.  The wind fluttered his short dress.  He clutched the skirt nervously.  “If you look panicked like that, they will be suspicious”, his mother warned him.  “Try to look more confident and happy.”  She was right.  He gave a wan smile and went down the steps.

The boy next door saw him.  “Hey!”  Joe forced a smile.  “Hey!”  He could see the boy looking him up and down unimpressed, no doubt thinking what a sissy girl.  If he knew!  “I’m Barry.”  “Joe … sephine.”  Joe nearly choked on the name.

“There’s a ball of mine went over the wall earlier.  Could you kick it back please?”  Joe saw it at the foot of the fence on the other side.  “Sure.”  He walked over trying to look as convincing as possible, bent over and picked it up.  He turned to see a wide smirk on the boy’s face.  “No kicking a ball in that pretty dress and tights!” his mother warned from the door.  Joe cringed.  He went to throw the ball over the fence but in his awkwardness in the short dress made a pathetic throw which bounced off the fence and back behind him.  Barry threw his eyes up.  What a typically pathetic girl!  Can’t even throw a ball properly.

Joe bent over and picked up the ball again.  Barry’s unimpressed look had been replaced by a grin again.  This time Joe managed to throw the ball over.  His mother walked behind him.  “You need to be more careful about bending over in that dress”, she whispered.  Joe stood there mortified.  Those frilly panties!

“Hello!” his mother called to the girl on the other side.  “What’s your name?”  “Hi I’m Jenny.”  Barry had gone back to kicking his ball against the wall, clearly having decided that this sissy girl was going to be no fun.

“This is Josephine”, his mother introduced him.  “Hi.”  The girl waved.  “Do you like skipping?” she asked.  Joe shook his head.  The girl was disappointed.  His mother went back into the house.  “How old are you?” the girl asked, looking pointedly at his frilly dress, tights and pigtails.  “Thirteen.”  That seemed to satisfy her though she undoubtedly still thought the clothes looked childish for that age.  “I’m staying with my granny”, Joe added for something to fill the silence.  “Oh”, the girl nodded.  She reckoned that probably explained the sissy clothes.  Joe couldn’t help eyeing her jeans enviously.

His mother came out again carrying two boxes, one on top of the other.  She placed them on the patio.  One was filled with dolls and the other with dolls’ clothes.  “Why don’t you show Jenny your dolls?”  Joe’s jaw dropped.  His mother gave him an insistent look.  “Maybe she can choose outfits for you to dress them in?”  Joe was speechless.

“OK” Jenny responded, not particularly enthusiastically.  It was clear that she thought dolls were silly but it was something to do if this girl wanted to.  His mother handed him the largest doll which was in a pink gingham dress.  “What’s her name?” Jenny asked.  Joe wanted to die but had to think of something.  “Jill.”  “I think she’d look nice in that green dress”, Jenny suggested but it sounded like she was just humouring him.

Joe tried to smile and glare at his mother at the same time while starting to undress his doll.  She smirked and went back to the house leaving them with the large selection of dolls and outfits which she reckoned would probably keep them amused for hours.

He bent over and picked up the green dress from the box.  There was a snigger behind him.  He froze and winced.  He really was going to have to remember not to bend over!