Bend Over Jessica

We had the lovely Emma Jane staying with us last week for the weekend and my, what fun we had. On the Sunday, the day after Lowewood, He Who Must Be Obeyed organised a reformatory for four of us, Jessica, Emma Jane, Bex and Felicity. It was Emma Jane and Felicity’s first time at the Lowewood Institute for Debauched and Delinquent Girls so Bex and I found ourselves as the experienced ones.

Given that Bex and I are working-class, we had both picked Victorian working-class characters to be – me a brothel madam and she, a stowaway. Emma has also picked a poor-but-respectable character. Felicity meanwhile, was actually rather posh. She was – shock horror – Upper-Class! She was called Cecily for goodness sake! I thought I summed it up rather nicely when Dr Grimace (otherwise known as Dr Grimface or Dr Grimarse) was booking us all in, when Lily, my character, summarised the traditional British contempt for toffs.

Poor Cecily has just announced her name. There were sniggers from the commoners and Lily vented her feelings.

“Cor. We ‘ave a bleedin’ Duchess in our midst!” she said clearly. “La-di-da!”

We all watched with interest as the back of Cecily’s neck went red.

“That’s enough!” shouted Dr Grimace.

It was clear to both Bex and I that our characters – Lily and Mollie respectively, were going to give the posh bird a hard time. Until we had our cold showers and then lined up, naked, for our medicals. I went first and Cecily managed to be last. What was going on behind the door was obviously traumatising her. The other two were being a little mean to her. This was not what she was used to!

As Lily, I went to say something sarcastic. But the real me, Jessica, noted that Cecily was slightly damp about the eyes with anticipation and embarrassment. Lily bit her tongue.

“Cheer up darling.” she said. “It’s not that bad.” She put a comforting hand on Cecily’s arm and gave her a little cuddle.

So there you have it. The class divide, broken by adversity. Trauma crosses all backgrounds.