Chapter 6
Julia spent the night in a luxurious room that overlooked the river from its high vantage point. It was a part of a suite that contained a lounge, kitchenette and dining room. On the desk in the room stood a large screen computer that showed a mosaic of little screens each with a number in the corner. She tapped in â211â and immediately could see Archie in his cot lying on his back with his legs spread wide by his huge night time nappy. He suc-ked peacefully on his dummy dressed in a simple pale lavender bunny suit that had white lacy ruffles around the neck and waist. His head framed by the built-in hood that had little ears that poked up so sweetly. The original harness was no longer being used because his muscles were now so weak that he could barely stand any longer and needed to grab onto the bars in order to pull himself up to his knees these days.
She looked at the screen delighted that she had her new baby girl. Gone was the horrible male lout that flounced and strutted his superiority over her, who used his father as a weapon to drive a wedge between them. She brushed her long brown hair until it shone with its healthy lustre. She applied a small amount of lipstick and waited for the knock on her door.
Matron arrived on the dot of 8.00am, punctual, professional and polished in her dark blue uniform of top rank nursing. She was a matron, she was called Matron and she was feared and respected as a matron. The whole facility ran like clockwork, everybody from porter to consultant surgeon followed her instructions and knew their place in the complex facility.
âGood morning Matronâ welcomed Julia âhow lovely to see youâ
âMrs Robertsâ she said nodding in respect. âToday I would like to show you our latest facility which has been added since your last visit. It is the new laundry and cleansing department that we needed to install and was the first phase of the tunnel restoration project. We have been up and running for nearly nine months now and we are really thrilled with the work they do there. As you know we needed to be on the same level as the drains and sewerage outlets. We also needed to be able to easily connect with the two lower floors and luckily everything worked out perfectly. I would like to take you down to see it if I may?â
âBy all means Matron, please lead onâ said Julia
They dropped four floors down to the top level of the old dungeons. Almost immediately there was a large glass window showing the inside of a large and very well equipped room. Next to the window was a door labelled Napkin Sanitation Department. Inside a very large breasted woman sat at a long stainless-steel bench that had a conveyor running along its length. She seemed to sitting in a wheelchair that had a large bucket beneath it. On the back of the chair was a pole from which was suspended a huge bag of fluid that ran to a feeding dummy that she was continually nursing.
Nappies came along the conveyor. The wet ones were allowed to continue down the line and fell into a huge white collection bin at the far end of the table. The soiled ones she pulled off the belt and put in a sink where she sluiced them off. In the space next to that she had a high pressure hose that she used by laying the stained part of the cloth over a mesh in the table. The spray was forced through the fabric and vacuumed from the other side. The stain was almost taken out by this method.
Julia looked at the woman who must have weighed almost three hundred pounds or more. She looked vaguely familiar.
Matron spoke âWe call her Nappy Noraâ explained Matron and she is remarkably good at what she does. You may recognize her â she is your estranged husbandâs âlittle bit of stuffâ.
âBut she was thin, 34B at best in the breast department and best described as petite".
"We had to build her up a bit so the breast pump would stick properly to her."
âBreast pump?â Julia asked
âYes, we gave her medication to start her lactating and she supplies all of Archieâs breast milk. She makes about six full bottles a day and the rate seems to be increasing. We feed her a constant diet of nutrients, vitamins, hormones and of course roughage in a liquid paste. She loves it a bit too much and all the weight seems to have settled on her bottom and bust. The breast pumps come on every two hours and milk her, with the milk being collected in the bottles ready to feed Archie. You can see then by the side of her chair.â
âThe downside is that she needs to use the toilet at very regular intervals, so we designed her chair so that she can go while she is working. It just drops through the potty hole cut into the seat and falls straight into the bucket.â
âAre we going in?â asked Julia
âNo dear, the smell is a bit overpowering, so the room is sealed up most of the time. The two of them have a couple of beds on the other side of the washing machines, spin dryers and tumble driers. They have a shower unit and toilet at the back. Food is delivered to them every day. There is another door out in to the service area that is out of view from here where the clean nappies are taken out and put back into the system. Each nappy is numbered so the patient only uses their own linen. We have another person who does the sorting.â
A man came from behind the machines, he seemed long faced and Julia recognized him immediately.
âRobert Roberts, your husbandâ announced matron âbut we know him as Bob-a-Job. He was so abusive and verbal that we had to sort him out. The dentist took out eight of his teeth and built a stainless steel ring that would fit into his mouth and could be secured by the vacant sockets. Into this appliance fits a large rubber âOâ ring. He looks like a Betsy Wetsy dolly now and we just plug in bottles of juice or paste when he needs refreshment. He cannot chew of course, because his mouth is held open all the time. He tends to drool a bit but his pelican bib with the catcher pocket does a good job on that.
âWhy is he called Bob-a-Job?â queried Julia
âWell you might notice that the hole is the right size to feed him bananas (which he loves by the way), unfortunately some of the men saw it as an opportunity to âget in and come offâ (if you get my meaning) and would throw some coins into the pocket of his plastic bib as a thank you. They are so cruel.â She laughed.
âCan they see us?â asked Julia
âNo dear, for them this is a mirror. We donât want them to feel bad, nor do we want to spoil the excellent work that they do. They wear very little clothing as you can see, because the heat from the appliances is enough to keep them warm, plus they are next to the most eco friendly part of the castle which is the geothermal heat exchangers room. Nappy Nora is a bit embarrassed about her huge tits with the permanently attached breast pumps. Plus, donât forget she is naked from the waist down which is not nice for her. Oh bless him! Robert is changing her soiling bucket for her.â
They watched as Robert took bucket after bucket of nappies from the dumb waiter and loaded them on the conveyor for his mistress. He put one large trolley full of nappies into a huge machine that was going to give the cloths a thorough rinse. The rinsed nappies he took out of that machine, then went into a washing machine where they would be washed gently. From that machine he took out the freshly washed nappies that had been spun at 1500 rpm into another spinner that would spin them at 2500 rpm to almost dryness. Finally, all these nappies would go into the largest tumble drier every produced and be gently tumbled at no more than 40°C so as not to destroy the delicate fibres.
âWe are looking at hemp and bamboo nappiesâ explained Matron âwe have found some bamboo nappies that are unbelievable soft and hugely absorbent. The nannies tend not to like them because they are not as puffy as the terry toweling ones! Our problem is that they are far more sensitive to temperature. The biggest problem we have right now is staining. We keep staining to a minimum, but sun drying is by far and away the best way to keep nappies brilliant white. We are almost finished with our new wind tunnel, where we pump in air from outside and have ultraviolet lights running the entire length of the line which is on a carousel. We plan to pin the nappies on one end and by the time it has done the loop (about 2 hours we think) they will be dry and sanitized by the UV.â
"An excellent piece of work Matron" said Julia "My husband seems very happy in his work and it is so nice that we could keep him and his girlfriend together. They don't receive any mind numbing drug?"
"No Mrs Roberts, they are fully aware of their situation and also fully aware that an inplant in their most sensitive parts will be triggered the moment they cross the threshold into areas that are forbidden to them. They wouldn't have anywhere to go anyway because they have sold up and moved to warmer climbs. Robert sold his property and auctioned off his possessions and we use it to pay for their treatment and also help out with Archie. They don't know about Archie by the way. They have access to nothing, no phone, no media, no writing materials. The only thing they have in plenty is nappies by the hundreds. They can have sex, but for some reason Robert doesn't seem to be in the mood much these days. Besides, they are usually too tired to do much once they have finished their duties. Let's move on and go and see our latest innovation."