The CBB :: View topic - Adjusting One's Drawers!

#1: Adjusting One's Drawers! Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:19 pm

I wrote this the other day as a gift for the birthday of a member of the board and I thought it might give you a quiet chuckle , as some of you seem to think I'm being very kind about Matron in New Dreams. Laughing

I have had to change the main character's name in this drabble to post it, as the birthday girl herself uses a nom de plume for the board. Rolling Eyes

Adjusting One’s Drawers

“Claire Cassidy, Matron wants you – now!”

In fear and trembling she presents herself to Matron, who glares and points. “Your drawers are a disgrace, my dear. I will give you ten minutes.....”

Awed by the fierce glare, casting anxious looks at her watch as she works hard to make everything as meticulous as Matron expects, she finishes and then stands and waits, rather apprehensively, for approval.

Alas, alack! That approval will be slow in coming! More is to follow! Matron stalks into the room silently and pulls open the drawers one by one as Claire quakes in her shoes. With a tightening of Matron’s lips, as though cross at now finding nothing out of place, the drawers are closed equally silently.

She then turns and says ominously, “And the bathroom?”

Claire gawps, her knees knocking, and Matron smiles without humour. “Wet towels on the floor, hairs in the plughole, taps left dripping.” Each word drops separately and unpleasantly from her lips, then she lets the silence linger, increasing the tension. “You are not at home now, dear, and there are others to consider.”

Claire scurries off at a nod from Matron, berating herself for sleeping late and thus not leaving enough time to dash back to the bathroom before the breakfast bell. She winces when she sees the state in which she has left it and acknowledges dolefully that Matron has a right to her wrath.

Never has she worked so fast and soon she is back before Matron, whose eyes are on her nurse’s fob watch, foot tapping impatiently. She raises glacial eyes and then smiles and says with great relish, “If you are quick, no one will have noticed your absence.”

As Claire quickly turns to descend the stairs, she hears Matron’s voice behind her. “ I shall be keeping a watching brief, my dear. This really will not do, you know.”

Stumbling at these words, Claire manages to catch the banister and makes it safely to the bottom. Once there she hurries to her locker and pulls out her books, wondering, as she does so, why it is that Matron always manages to make her feel like a two year old. I’m a big girl now, she thinks resentfully to herself. Little does she know that even her calm and stately Headmistress trembles when she hears a certain note in Matron’s astringent voice!

Reaching the classroom, she stops to run her hand through her hair and compose herself before turning the handle and stalking through the silence to her desk.

“Good morning, girls,” says the teacher quietly.

Wondering why their Maths teacher is gasping for breath, the girls chorus back, “Good morning, Miss Cassidy.”

Last edited by MaryR on Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:59 am; edited 3 times in total

#2: Author: Squirrel, Location: St-Andrews or Dunfermline

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:32 pm

Brilliant Mary. Laughing

*wonders what the 'birthday girl' will think of it* Oh and hope you had a good birthday as well (no need to answer to that one)!

#3: Author: Sugarplum, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:39 pm

LOL
Thanks Mary!

#4: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:00 pm

I really enjoyed that drabble and I definitely wasn't expecting the twist at the end! Thank you so much for this, Mary.

#5: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:02 am

Great twist! Thanks Mary

#6: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:20 pm

If that's what she does to the staff, think about how the pupils feel!

#7: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:15 pm

Thank you Mary...a lovely funny piece. Laughing

#8: Author: Liane, Location: Manchester England

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:57 pm

Absoloutly fanatstic!!

#9: Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:05 am

Fun, fun fun...off to clean my bathroom right now! Laughing

#10: Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:26 am

Oops - proof yet again that staff and pupils alike would quail before Matey on the warpath over issues of tidiness and keeping bathrooms clean!!! Thanks, Mary - this is great fun!

#11: Author: Miss Di, Location: Newcastle, NSW

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:44 am

So glad I cleaned the bathroom yesterday.

Less said about the state of the drawers the better.

Brilliant twist Mary!

#12: Author: Nell, Location: London, England

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:30 am

Wonderful! Thank you Mary!

#13: Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:18 pm

I see Matey would make sure the staff were ready to make their doctors good wives!

#14: Author: Tiffany,

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:39 pm

*giggles* Thanks, Mary!

#15: Author: Josie, Location: London

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 1:19 pm

thanks Mary.

#16: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:01 am

Thanks Mary - wonder how many other members of staff got similar treatment!

Liz

#17: Author: Cath, Location: Cornwall

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:39 am

I definitely didn't see that coming - what a great twist at the end! ;) Thanks Mary!

#18: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:55 pm

Just read this (lots of catching up to do - holidays are great but.....)

and it's fab

but I'm now feeling really guilty about our bathroom, maybe I'll have to make a start on it Very Happy

#19: Author: Joey, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:45 am

This is fantastic, Mary! A great twist at the end.

I'm jealous of the birthday girl - what a brilliant present!

#20: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:50 pm

Thank goodness Matey is several thousand miles away!

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