My previous post was about my huge enjoyment in reading NANNY KNOWS BEST. I’ve also been interested in the role and influence of the nanny and have heard a number of intriguing hence this particular extract from ‘Recovered’.
Scott was sitting on the sofa still examining the old photograph. He looked at me but said nothing. I knelt on the floor with the bags and carefully took out the frames and lay them on the carpet. He looked at them from where he sat but made no comment. The first picture was a photograph of Scott leaning against the side of a boat out at sea. The sky and the sea were the brightest of blue and he was smiling the biggest of smiles. This was a smile I had never seen. The second picture was a long photograph of a whole line of individuals with ski gear and skis in the snow. Apart from Scott himself I had no idea as to who the others were in the picture. The third was of a very young Scott in a bar with what I presumed was gaggle of students. He was smoking a cigarette and looking so incredibly moody that he was almost unrecognisable. It was his eyes that gave him away, being narrowed just in that familiar way they often are now. The last of this little collection was a black and white photograph of a very young child who was unmistakably Scott with a huge rabbit lying backwards over his shoulder.
‘Is that your rabbit?’
‘No it belonged to some family friends. This is one of very few photographs of me as a child.’
‘How come?’
‘We always had nannies until I went away to school. One of them took all the photos of me when she left.’
‘What, she stole them?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Did your parents not try to track her down?’
‘I’ve no idea but the photos never materialised.’
‘That’s terrible. What was she like, the nanny?’
‘I don’t remember. They all sort of merged into one.’
‘What an awful thing to do.’
Harper Donohue 