Mum’s Encouragement Part 16

I woke the next morning to rain lashing against my bedroom window. As I was struggling out of bed I felt the hair curlers in my hair and a pain in my earlobe. I had been lying on the pin of my right earring and it had made an indent on my lobe. Ugh the joys of being a woman.

I looked at the bedside clock and it read 9.42. Crikey I had slept well despite the curlers and earring.

The house was silent as I made my way to the bathroom, the lace edged satin nightdress I wore flipping about my knees

Walking down the hall landing I stopped to look at my reflection in the mirror. I looked quite a fright what with the hair curlers and my sleepy eyes. There was however no doubting that it appeared a girl was staring back at me in her cute purple nightdress. She had a shapely figure and slim legs.

“GOD that’s you you idiot. What am I thinking this has got to stop” I screamed at myself

Expecting mum to come running at my noisy outburst I was surprised that the house stayed silent. Where is mum I thought?

With my mind in turmoil I decided I could no longer be open to ridicule and starting pulling at the hairpins that held the curlers in my hair. After a few minutes I had removed all of the curlers and pins and my hair was left in a mass of unruly curls. As I picked up the curlers and pins from the floor my hair kept falling into my eyes. UGH!

In the bathroom I slipped of the nightdress and knickers and despite mums instructions I again jumped in the shower without covering my hair. As the hot water pounded down on me I used soap to remove the feminine smells that hung to my body from the previous day. I scrubbed at my face to remove any traces of make up and more than once caught the posts in my ears, which made my toes curl.

I would have to get the earrings out however mums words stopped me from doing so as she had said yesterday that my ears would go septic without proper care and regular turning of the posts. I decided to leave them in for now and would ask mum to take them out later.

As I dried off with the big towel I dried my hair and decided I would get it cut later that day as it was now too long and unmanageable what with the curls.

In my bedroom I pulled on my normal boys wear of pants, jeans and a tee shirt and went to mums bedroom to try and tackle my hair. By now my hair was drying into kinky curls, which despite my efforts made me look even girly. “Why didn’t I listen to mum?” I thought

As I was pulling mums hairbrush through my hair the phone starting ringing. “Mum can you get that” I shouted and was surprised when there was no reply, “where is she?” I thought. I didn’t have long to wait to find out

Running down the stairs to the phone I answered slightly breathless

“Hello”

“Oh hi honey” mum replied “ your up then?” Parents do say the most stupid of things at time

“What do you think mother. Where are you?”

“Your Nan is in hospital. She has being having chest pains and the doctors are checking her out now. I’m here with Auntie Heather”. Aunt Heather was mum’s older sister

“Aunt Heather called me and I need to be here to see what’s wrong with Nana. Are you ok?” she asked

“ Yes mum although I want to get my hair cut. I have just had a shower and my hairs gone all kinky an..

Before I could continue “What did I tell you about getting your hair wet? Why don’t you listen to me Joe? Well unfortunately you will have to put up with kinky hair until I find out how my mum is”

I felt terribly guilty at that moment worrying about my hair when my Nan was lying ill in hospital “sorry mum. Don’t worry I will sort my hair out. Give my love to Nan”

“I will honey. What are you going to do today? I doubt you will want to go out with frizzy hair?” Mum continued, “ I will call Auntie Julia and ask her to pop around and sort out your hair”

Before I had a chance to respond to mums suggestion she carried on speaking “anyway I better go as the Doctor is speaking to Auntie Heather, bye love”

That was a typical conversation with my mum on the phone. She often forgot that a telephone conversation involved two people

I decided to leave my hair. I wasn’t intending to go anywhere anyway although I thought yesterday that I might start my Christmas shopping. Oh well that can wait.

As I was making myself some toast there was a knock at the door. I panicked, as I didn’t want anyone to see my hair like this. I peered though the lounge window to the front door and saw aunt Julia standing there with a baby in her arms

“Joe let me in. I know you are in there. Quick is cold and wet out here”

As I opened the door looking at the baby before Aunt Julia I was brought to my senses by Aunt Julia’s laughter “oh my god look at your hair. You look like that guy out of Simply Red”

“Simply who?” I asked as Julia made her way past me into the kitchen

“Let’s see what we can do with that rats nest of yours,” she said thrusting the baby into my arms “ this is little Emily. Emily is my sister’s daughter. Isn’t she so cute? I have her for the day whilst her mums house hunting”

Emily looked at me as if to say who is the hell are you

Julia instructed me to sit on a chair. I did as I was told and in doing so I put Emily on my knee bouncing her up and down gently. This seemed to please Emily as she smiled and gurgled.

“She has taken to you Joe. Normally she is funny with strangers however she likes you. You have maternal instincts”

I let Julia’s comment pass as she pulled my hair this way and that

“Short of recurling it I think we need to straighten your hair out. You will need to come next door as I have my tongs (this was before everyone had straighteners) there. I don’t know where your mum keeps hers,” she instructed motioning me to get up and follow her.

She took hold off Emily whilst I locked up and Emily responded by bursting into tears and ear piercing screams

“Crikey she has taken to you Joe” Julia exclaimed whilst thrusting Emily into my arms after I had locked up as we made our way next door.

Once in my arms Emily more or less immediately stopped crying and screaming

“ Oh my god you have a natural talent Joe. She has taken to you” Julia jested as Emily smiled at me

I don’t know why but at that moment I had a warm feeling inside knowing that something as cute as Emily had taken a liking to me

“How old is she Aunt Julia,” I asked

“Seven months Joe. She likes you a lot. I can tell”

As Julia again started on my hair I played with Emily on my lap. She was so lovely and playful. I knew then that one day I wanted to have one of these little things

I was brought back to adult life when Julia started pulling her hot tongs through my hair making me wince when she pulled to hard. After about 30 minutes she said, “that will have to do Joe. You will need a bit of hairspray otherwise it will all drop out. Put Emily on the floor whilst I spray some on your hair”

As I put Emily on the floor she again started sobbing

“ She has taken to you Joe. Quick let’s spray your hair before we all get a headache” Julia joked

Julia covered my eyes with one had whilst she sprayed the lacquer on my hair. Emily continued to sob as Julia took me to a full length mirror to view her handiwork

Although my hair was less curly it was still most definitely feminine and could not be mistaken for a boys haircut. One saving grace was that in styling my hair Julia had managed to cover my earrings.

As I looked in the mirror with Julia advising how my hair could be made to look less feminine we both decided we had to give up and return to the sobbing Emily as by now our voices could hardly be heard over Emily’s screams.

“I think she needs changing Joe. Want to help?” Julia asked as Emily’s dirty nappy finally hit my senses

“I don’t think so” I embarrassingly replied

“Oh go on she will like you changing her. You may as well get some practice in before you have your own babies” Julia nudged me

There followed a lesson on how to change a baby’s nappy. I was surprised to find out that I really enjoyed it and Emily seemed pleased with my efforts.

Afterwards I continued playing with Emily as Julia made a coffee for both of us.

When returning with the coffee Julia asked “Joe do you want to come with me and Emily to the shops? I have a few things to do and a few things to return to Marks and Spencer’s. I don’t think I will get anything done without you with me as Emily has really taken to you”

“No thanks Aunt Julia” I replied, “I have a few things I need to do today also”

Despite Julia’s arguments I stood my ground as we drunk our coffee and both played with the lovely Emily. Although I really wanted to spend more time with Emily I didn’t want to be seen out with my hair in its obvious girly state.

As we played with Emily Julia asked me about my date with Martin and whether I was going to go to the cinema with him later that evening. I told Julia that I wouldn’t be going and that although I liked Martin it was as Joe and not Lucy.

Julia teased, “That’s a pity Lucy. You would make a great Daughter in law”

Even I thought that funny and responded “never mind I’m sure that Martin will find you a lovely daughter in law”

“Yes but not as pretty and caring as you” she exclaimed pushing a stray tendril away from my face as I tickled Emily

After spending all morning with Julia and Emily I made my excuses and went to leave. As I walked to the front door Emily started sobbing in heartbreaking screeches. Despite trying to make my escape I found myself feeling guilty that I was leaving Emily in such a distressed state.

I don’t know what came over me as I looked over to Julia and said ‘I will come with you Aunt Julia however I will stay in the car with Emily whilst you are shopping. Let me go and get my coat and I will be back”

As I made to open the door Julia smiled and said “you are such a godsend Joe. Let me find you a coat. I have one that has a hood and it can go over your hair. It’s raining out there and your hair will go frizzy again without you covering it up”

This seemed to make sense so I returned to the screaming Emily as Aunt Julia went to get the coats

On her return I noticed she was also carrying a salmon coloured sweater, which was obviously a woman’s sweater “here put this on carefully over your hair. It’s too cold for you to be just wearing a tee shirt today. Know one will see it under your coat”

It seemed Julia had answers for everything. I carefully pulled the tight sweater over my head and looked at myself in Julia’s hallway mirror. It was cashmere and had a slight flower pattern on the sleeves and neckline.

“Haven’t you got anything less girly Aunt Julia?” I asked

“It looks fine Joe. It won’t be seen under this coat” she exclaimed whilst helping me on with a black thigh length jacket. The winter jacket had black faux bands of fur on the sleeves and around the collar and on the hood of the jacket.

When I had it buttoned up you could not see the sweater underneath however even with the hood up I thought I looked slightly too girly for my liking. My skinny jeans poked out from under the thigh length jacket and they seemed to show of my thin legs to their maximum.

“You look great sweetheart. Let’s get Emily ready now,” Julia instructed

I bought my hand up to my face to sweep away a stray hair when I noticed my varnished fingernails “Aunt Julia what am I supposed to do with these?” I asked throwing my hands in the air

Julia laughed, “They look fine to me Lucy”

Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Why do I get myself into these predicaments?

End of part 16