The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3399 by Angharad Copyright© 2023 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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Dinner was delightful, as nearly all David's cooking is and in order to maintain my figure, I don't eat half as much of them as I feel I want to. He understands this and when he eats with us, most days, he realises that my smaller portions are no reflection on the meal he has made us, they are delicious.

Simon enjoyed his as well and consumed half a bottle of red wine, I had one glass and David had one and so did Sarah, but Simon and Tom consumed most of it. Simon brought me up to date on life in London. I missed him but not all the intrigue and flak the banks were getting from a government who'd caused much of it with their stupid Brexit. I am sick and tired of all the moans of the people who voted for it and said they'd been deceived. I honestly laughed when I read a letter in the paper saying that 'Leavers', were nice people who'd believed the lies of Gove and Johnson and that horrible pile of shit answering to Farage. If I could see that all the things that Johnson and co were telling us were lies and it would cause great problems, why couldn't the others?

I suppose you can't avoid a certain amount of stupidity and it certainly applies to them. Having said that I had a very good friend who had wholeheartedly voted for Brexit, who had since died. She was very much against what she saw as a growth in federal power in the EU; mind you she also read many rather dubious websites and believed them but she was pretty clever, so perhaps we believe what we want to rather than what we should. Belief is an emotional thing and isn't necessarily based on intellectual argument, think religious belief which is entirely emotional and which doesn't stand up to critical thinking, but heigh-ho, we are much more emotional beings than rational ones.

Then I went to bed with my husband knowing that I was almost certainly going to be sore in a certain place in the morning. However, when we went to bed, we just kissed and cuddled and he fell asleep before I could entice him to make love to me. I wanted it as badly as he did and obviously had better stamina because I was ready to rock while all he did was roll onto his back and snore like lawnmower. It took me ages to get to sleep. The next morning while Trish and co were smirking at my yawns and thinking naughty thoughts, it was simply because I was tired from not sleeping.

I had ordered Trish and Sarah some waders, but basically they were just pairs of Wellington boots with PVC from the knee up to the thigh, and could be worn by anyone they fitted who needed them. I had ordered another pair for Danielle as I was sure she want to be involved as much as the others.

I had been slightly surprised that Trish was available as she had been helping a post-graduate researcher do something in physics but they had had a falling out when she declared his idea as statistically impossible; he didn't think so and called her a silly little girl. Boy did that piss her off; she may be young but she was light years in front of him and she submitted a paper to her professor saying why it wasn't going to work, because he left out one of the stages in the proof. The professor had agreed and after a very stormy review meeting the student had been forced to see the error of his ways and apologise to her. She had turned around slapped him in the face and stormed off refusing to ever work with such a moron again. This guy had a first class honours degree in physics, but he couldn't see what she was trying to tell him, because he thought he knew better. That would be like telling Stephen Hawkin he was wrong in his calculations.

Trish was verging on genius levels and he hadn't believed her just because she was younger and didn't have as many bits of paper as he did, but his professor told him the facts of life and I think mentioned that Trish was phenomena that flew past him and was always likely too. However, despite a huge brain, she still couldn't repair a puncture in her bicycle tyre, and following the meeting with Professor Gregory and Johnny Wilson the student, phoned me to collect her because of said puncture. Livvie found it hilarious, Trish did not and still fired up with the meeting accepting her proof, she got me to repair the puncture and she rode her bike home not wanting to sit in a car with Livvie mocking her, not that I think Livvie can mend one either.

On the Sunday, Simon as usual had a lie in but the girls got him up to watch the World Cup. England were playing a team about 25 places below them, but as both the USA and Germany discovered, these lesser teams hadn't read the script and the mighty were fallen. England's finest, The Lionesses, were unable to settle and every time one of their players seemed to be setting something up, they were swarmed all over by the opposition, who were marking them like they had been glued together. The Lionesses didn't seem to know how to deal with it, being used to European football where they seemed to have more space.

The first half was 0-0 apiece and the pundits were all saying that the England manager had a plan for everything, to me it looked like everything except winning. The disaster struck, the youngest player on the field was fouled and after getting up she retaliated at the woman who'd brought her down. The referee produced a yellow card then came over to the side to watch it on tv several times, that resulted in the girl being given a red card, which means being sent off.

As England had been struggling with eleven players, being down to ten was not likely to help their cause. Danni was sitting on the bench and like the other substitutes, hoping to get a crack at the game. I couldn't watch anymore, and went to do some ironing, of which we always have plenty in the house. I was told that ten minutes before full time, England sent her on with two other subs. I was called in by Simon. For a moment she seemed to be all at sea, then she picked up the pace of the game, which was frenzied, and lost her marker and shot up the touchline, her speed and guile making her a difficult opponent. She crossed the ball in front of the goal mouth and the centre forward volleyed it just over the net. Danni had arrived on the world stage.

She took a corner in the dying moments and the goal keeper had an awful job following the flight of the ball. She had made two opportunities for her colleagues to score and made one saving tackle when the whistle blew for full time. Then it was a quick break and swap ends for extra time. Well, it was just as exciting as before but England did everything except score, Danni was one of the few who could lose her marker at will, but even she couldn't pierce the defence or set one her team up to do so.

After a nail biting half hour the scores were still nil all, it was down to penalties. Now I know how Danni practiced her shooting skills, she had a car tyre hanging from the cross bar, which she moved about varying its position and height. Nine out of ten times she could kick the ball through the tyre from the penalty spot. I don't think anyone realised what a markswoman they had among their number. Two English girls scored with their efforts and the opponents answered with theirs. Then they missed and it was Danni's turn to take the penalty. The pressure was immense, if she scored they were through to the next round, if she didn't, it was all to do again.

Danni placed the ball on the spot, indicated that she was ready as did the goalkeeper, the referee peeped her whistle and Danni stepped up to the ball and hit so fast the goalkeeper didn't move as the ball smashed into the net in the top left hand corner. England were ahead. The opponents were now under even more pressure, they had to score to draw level. I felt quite sorry for the girl who took the kick which the England goalie saved. England had won by the skin of their teeth, a game they should have won easily, but sport is unpredictable as we just saw and a ten man side beat one who had a extra player. I didn't realise I had been holding my breath, but I gave a great sigh and went back to my ironing, relieved that my daughter had shown she deserved her place at the World Cup.

David had watched it with Simon and Tom and the girls, and they were all in heated discussion about how Danni could have won it if they had played her earlier. All I wanted was for my chef to remember where the kitchen was and get out here and cook my dinner. It took twenty minutes to prise him from the other armchair pundits and get him to do what we paid him for.

Lunch was excellent as David's cooking always is, but as soon as it was over and Trish helped me clean up, Simon was packed and ready to go back to London, this time he drove as train strikes made travelling unpredictable and almost certainly longer. We had a long and passionate kiss before he walked out to his car and I pouted and complained, "Sorry," he said, "I just needed to come home for a day or two to recharge, next time I'll shag you to death."

"Promises, promises," I said in return.

"It is a promise," he said and shut the door of the Jaguar before he went down the drive and out into the traffic. Although I don't feel what a biological female does upon penetration, I do get something from it and It's a means of bonding with my man. He has said I am all he needs, then he goes off without satisfying them. A thought flew through my mind but I dismissed it, Simon would never betray my trust, would he? I tried to think that was the case but maybe he wanted someone who could give him children, after all. He didn't do much with the girls this visit perhaps he is bored with us all? Oh god, I hope not. That would be the end of one of the things which stabilise my whole being. I don't know what I'd do without him, even though sometimes it's weeks between us seeing each other, we usually have fun in bed; we didn't this time, why?

"A penny for them?" Tom poked his head around the door of my study.

A tear ran down my face and he immediately came in and shut the door. "What's the problem?" he asked me.

"I'm probably being silly again, but this time we didn't make love, I hope he's not going off me."

"Och, there could be myriad reasons why, may be he's just too tired?"

"He largely ignored the girls, too."

"Aye, he might if he's tired, the banks are under a lot of pressure at the moment." He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me until I felt a little better.

What would I do without this lovely old man to steer me through life? That was another thought I didn't need to contemplate as the consequences would be catastrophic to all of us. I loved this old man who'd effectively taken me in when my own father was being less than supportive and who'd given me a job and helped me get into teaching until I actually replaced him as professor of biology. He unofficially adopted me and made me his next of kin and later told me that his own daughter was transgendered so he had no problem with me being so, or several daughters that I'd adopted because no one could deal with their gender situation.

I supported them as Tom and Simon had supported me and now some of them are achieving great things, they just needed love and support and we gave them both and they were able to deal with their demons and grow into lovely young women. Oh god, I hope Simon isn't tired of me? Fresh tears ran down my face and Tom held me close again.