Before bed on Sunday night Joe’s mother complained that he wasn’t working hard enough on his schoolwork. “I read a suggestion somewhere that in order to ensure that a child focuses better on their home schooling they should be required to wear their school uniform”, his mother commented. “I can see the thinking behind that”, his granny agreed.
“Ha!” Joe responded instinctively. “Pity my school uniform is 80 miles away!” Although, looking down at his pretty Sunday dress and lacey tights, his grey uniform trousers seemed to go up a lot in his estimation all of a sudden.
“I think we still have your old convent uniform in the attic”, his granny recalled and she got up from the table. Joe winced. As he went to bed that night the green gymslip hung on the back of the door over its accompanying cream school blouse ready for him in the morning. A pair of bottle green tights were draped over the chair along with a belt, green ribbons and the green and cream striped tie.
He appeared for breakfast looking sheepish in his gymslip which was pleated from just below breast level with the cloth belt tied in a bow above his right hip. He ran his finger uncomfortably under the prettily curved collar of his cream blouse to try to loosen the tie a little. “Smooth your tights out dear. They’re sagging above your ankles”, his mother told him. Joe sighed and tugged his tights out more evenly above the knees before tugging the hem of his gymslip down reaching a few inches above his knees.
“Come here!” His mother insisted on retying the untidy green ribbons on his pigtails while he stood there grumpily. “You need more practice at this”, she giggled as she made the stiff bows.
His mother and granny actually supervised his school work much more closely so he had no choice but to focus on it. Then they proclaimed at the end of the school day that the uniform was clearly working.
“But now you can change into one of your pretty dresses for playing in the garden!” his mother announced happily as if he should be pleased with that. He looked down at his green pleated gymslip and thought he would actually prefer it to those stupid dresses.
But he went out into the garden in his yellow dress, white tights and yellow ribbons on his pigtails. Jenny and Barry noticed him clutching the skirt of his dress self-consciously. He was reluctant to practice his skipping but his mother was insistent that he needed the exercise.
He winced as he started to skip and despite his attempts to skip less energetically they were soon treated to glimpses of his yellow rumba panties. He grimaced as he thought that there must be a pair of rumba panties to go with every dress in his wardrobe.
On Saturday he was looking forward to some free time having been closely supervised with his school work all week. But after breakfast his mother insisted he had to help with housework and tied the apron over his dress. She handed him a feather duster and told him to dust in all the rooms.
Joe went around the rooms fluttering the ostrich feather duster. It seemed like a pointless exercise to him. The dust was just flicked up into the air but where was it going to go? It was obvious it was just going to settle again.
His mother passed the sitting room door as he was doing the bookshelves. “Right up into the corner of the room”, she instructed him. He could see a cobweb up in the corner so reached right up with the duster. His mother smiled at his lilac rumba panties before leaving him to it.
It was a sunny morning and his mother and granny decided to sit on the deckchairs in the garden. Around 11 am they could see Joe dusting around the window of the study. “Would you be a darling and bring us tea?” his mother asked.
Joe was actually relieved to get a break from the dusting. He went to the kitchen and put the kettle on. A few minutes later he appeared in the garden.
The ladies smiled from their reclined positions in the deckchairs as Joe approached in his pretty floral dress, protected by his full apron, clutching a tray with two cups and a tea pot. He placed it carefully on the garden table. His granny saw that he still needed lessons in decorum as he leaned forward without bending his knees. Still, that pack of rumba panties was a great buy, she was reminded.
“No biscuits dear?” Joe sighed and turned frustratedly to go back to the kitchen. His dress and apron twirled beautifully as he did so. A few moments later he appeared with a plate of biscuits.
“Thanks dear. You can go back to your dusting now. Almost done?” Joe frowned. “Still to do upstairs.” He turned and went back to the house. When he went back in the door, his mother and granny looked at each other in their deckchairs. “Cheers!” they tittered as they raised their cups.
Topic: Lockdown (Read 28217 times)
