Regenesis

Processing

Finally, as the taller buildings of the town centre receded, they approached a separate building set back from the main road and pavement, but surrounded by a high brick wall, with an imposing gate at the front. Built in a single story, the building had a pitched roof and wide but thin windows set high up each wall. A sign at the entrance announced a cheery "Welcome to Fresh Starts Nursery.... where the little things matter" Nanny raised her hand up against an electronic panel and a side gate magically began to open silently. When it was fully open, Nanny ushered Samantha ahead, and followed behind as the gate closed behind them. Only when the gate was fully closed did another gate open in front of them, and the process was repeated. Samantha managed a quick glance at her surroundings as she was whisked inside the building. Under a canopied roof in a sunlit courtyard was a line of 3 wooden rocking chairs and beyond them a baby's cot, but double the normal size. At the far end was a clothes line with what looked like identical small white towels, and another with strangely shaped transparent plastic bags swaying in the slight breeze. She felt her hand being tugged and she was inside. The smell was what she first noticed: a sweet and almost sickly odour which itself was masking the undeniable smell of disinfectant. The large entrance was double height with a huge mobile hanging from the roof and shafts of sunlight pouring through the glass roof. As she looked up, she had to shield her eyes from its glare. The sunlight was broken by a shadow across her, made by a much taller lady, whose calm but authoritative voice immediately gained her attention.

"Hello, Samantha. My name is Nanny Green and I am going to be looking after you here. Nanny Peters will be back later to see how you are getting on, so say goodbye nicely, please."

Nanny Green was a lady in her 40s, but also dressed in the same uniform as Nanny Peters, but with a starched white apron over it and a starched cap on her head. The apron was more of a pinafore and seemed to glow in its brilliance and lack of any creases. The cap sat atop her blond bob fixed in place with crossed white hairpins symmetrically positioned over each ear and at the back of her head. As she was introducing herself, Nanny Peters handed Samantha's wrist tether to Nanny Green, and in so doing, symbolically handed over control of her charge.

"Oh, bye then"

Nanny Green bent down so that her head was level with Samantha's and waited until she had complete eye contact, before quietly saying "I asked you to say goodbye nicely, Samantha. When we address an adult here, we always look them in the eye and address them formally. Shall we try again........?" There was a long pause for the fill effect to sink in.

"Say goodbye nicely, please, Samantha."

Samantha looked around her wondering who might be witnessing this humiliating piece of theatre. For a split second she even wondered who she could appeal to with a lift of the shoulders and raised hands, thinking "What the h..." but the recent memory of her departure from the solicitor's office put paid to that.

Realising that she had no allies here to help her, she meekly turned to her and said "Goodbye, Nanny Peters"

"Goodbye Samantha. I'll be back to see you before bedtime, so make sure you are a good little girl for Nanny Green. Remember what happens if you don't...." and she gave Samantha a smile tinged with just a hint of warning, then another smile at Nanny Green with a knowing professionalism, and walked away, leaving Samantha standing in the middle of this large entrance hall, her wrist still attached to this strange lady. Samantha caught herself feeling a tinge of loneliness and even longing for the matronly lady walking away from her. As much as she hated the humiliation she had endured, she couldn't help but feel somehow attracted to the sense of order that Nanny Peters had, in that instant in the solicitor's office, inserted in her life. No one had ever done that before, and there was something instinctively.....right, about it. She was lifted from her reverie by an overly cheery "Right, little girl" from Nanny Green. "It's high time we got you out of those clothes and into something more...suitable for your stay with us. Come with me please." It wasn't as if she was going to have any choice in the matter as she felt an insistent tug on her wrist as Nanny Green led her towards a glass door with yet another security panel to negotiate. Once they were through, the smell became even more powerful, and a background bustle became apparent from along the corridor they were entering. To each side Samantha saw doors with signs on them printed in a childlike font. "Dormitory" "Time out Room" "School Room" before they stopped at one marked "Introduction Room". Nanny Green again waved her special ring and a soft click signalled that the door had been unlocked and she opened the door and ushered Samantha in. nothing Samantha recognised from Disney or any other recent commercial production. There were pictures of characters from fairy tales Samantha remembered from books she once had read to her by her Grandmother on the occasions she had visited her. She remembered her Grandmother as being a kind but strict old lady who lived in a grand house and who was always punctilious about manners, both her own and those around her. She remembered that she always had to be perfectly turned out for those visits and that boisterous play was forbidden. She could never wait to leave that house and get back to her own clothes, her own games, her own normality.