The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1237 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Mention of ice cream mobilised the troops and we trotted into the house where they all had a small dish of ice cream. Despite his grumbles, Danny was actually pleased with his new school clothes and although he lived in a house full of women, he was actually quite content with his lot and certainly wouldn’t have wanted to go back to the children’s home.

I got on with organising tea when it suddenly got very dark and within moments was sheeting down with rain, followed a little while later with celestial fireworks as the sky crashed and flashed with a full blown thunderstorm–which hadn’t been forecast.

Livvie and Meems felt unsure about it and went off to hide in the cupboard under the stairs while Danny, Billie and Trish went to the window to watch it more closely. I wondered if this was the manifestation of some deep sex linked fear, though Jenny wasn’t at all worried and watched with the kids.

I wasn’t frightened but I was concerned in case the house was hit. However, I left my kitchen duties and went to see where the two girls were and sat with them. “What’re you doing in here in the dark?” I asked them in as jovial away as possible, “Playing hide and seek?”

“We don’t wike fa fundah an’ wightnin’, Mummy.”

“What don’t you like about it?”

“Fa bangs ‘n’ fwashes, it’s fwightenin’.”

“I see, but that’s no more frightening than a firework display, is it?”

“I doan wanna get stwiked by it.”

“How likely do you think it is that that will happen?” I asked trying to bring a modicum of logic to the proceedings.

“What d’ya mean, Mummy?” asked Meems.

“Do you honestly believe you will be hit by lightning?”

“I dunno, not takin’ any chances.”

“What about you, Livvie, do you think you could be hurt by it?”

“Maybe–but not in here.”

“How d’you know that–did the spiders tell you?”

“What spiders?” she asked.

“The ones in here.”

“Ugh, doan’ like spiders,” she squealed and ran out of the cupboard followed by Mima who wasn’t sure what she was squealing at or running from.

When I went to find them, they were hiding under a coat in my wardrobe. I didn’t bother to explain they were probably at greater risk being higher up in the house than they were before.

The thunder storm didn’t last that long although the torrential rain and poor light did for quite a bit longer. I was minded of my first encounter with Stella during such a storm. Perhaps that was why I had something of an affection for thunder storms–one changed my life, somewhat dramatically. I decided I might relate parts of the story to the two girls in the hope they might feel differently about such storms.

I sat on the floor of my bedroom with the wardrobe door open. “Do you know it might be because of a thunderstorm that we’re all in this house today?”

“Don’t be silly, Mummy,” said Livvie.

“I’m not it’s true, would you like me to tell you how?”

“Yes please, Mummy.”

“Come out and sit with me, the storm has gone over now anyway.” Reluctantly they came out and carefully sat cross legged on the carpet with me. Once they were settled, I began my narration.

“Three or four years ago, I was out on my bike for a training ride. I hadn’t checked the weather forecast but as it was a warm and sunny afternoon, I went off for my ride. I’d done about twenty miles, so I’d been out an hour or so when I became aware that it was feeling very humid and the sky was darkening. I was ten miles from home and tried to get there as quickly as I could, plus I had a headache starting, which I sometimes get in thunderstorms.

“I was belting down this country lane when the rain started, and it was huge blobs of water which hurt when they hit you and went straight through my clothes–I was only wearing a cycling shirt and shorts.

“In moments I was wringing wet, in fact my feet and shorts were squelching with each pedal stroke I made.” The two girls chuckled at this. “The road also disappeared and became like a shallow torrent of water.”

“There was nowhere to shelter and standing under a tree can be very dangerous, and I was concerned that a driver might not see me in such rain–it was coming down in stair rods.”

“Woss staiwwods, Mummy?”

“Stair rods are the metal rods across the stairs which hold the carpet in place. When it’s raining stair rods, it means it’s coming down so heavily, you can almost imagine the drops of rain look like stair rods. It’s what we call a metaphor because it doesn’t really happen, but it feels like it could.

“Anyway, I was worried that drivers might not see me because of the rain, the spray and the sudden darkness, and I didn’t have any lights on the bike because I didn’t think I’d need them in daytime.

“My worries became reality, when I suddenly found myself sailing through the air minus my bike, landing in a hedgerow and having the bike bounce along beside me and into a ditch.”

“What happened, Mummy, did you hit the kerb?”

“I could have done couldn’t I?” Livvie nodded. “But no, I was struck from behind by Auntie Stella’s car. She didn’t see me and knocked me flying.”

“Was you hurted?” asked Meems.

“I was severely scratched and my clothes were shredded and my back wheel was badly damaged.”

“Did she stop?” asked Livvie.

“She did, and asked me what I was doing riding without lights. I was so shaken I can’t remember what I said back, but she helped me get my bike into her car and then I got in and she took me home.”

“What, here?” asked Livvie now captivated by my story.

“No, to their cottage. I had a bath to warm me up–the shock and the wet meant I got very cold. Of course I couldn’t put my cycling clothes on again, so I had to borrow some of Auntie Stella’s. Then she trimmed my hair for me and loaned me some makeup and when Daddy came home a little later, she introduced us and he asked me out.”

“Did you fall in love?” asked Livvie, who’d obviously been reading the wrong sort of books.

“Not quite, I actually fell on top of him.”

“You fell on top of him?” she laughed and so did Mima.

“Yes, I was wearing some high heeled boots, which I wasn’t used to–they were loaned to me by Auntie Stella, and I caught the heel in my skirt or the carpet and fell over knocking him over too. I landed on top of him.”

“What did he say, Mummy?”

“He laughed and told me I was the first girl who’d fallen for him.”

“That is so funny, Mummy.”

“It’s true. I was living in a pokey bedsit with a load of spotty yoofs sharing the building, and they didn’t like me so they used to bang on my door at night and things like that.”

“Howwibew boys,” suggested Mima.

“Then one day Gramps suggested I might like to stay here, a while later Daddy came as well and so did Auntie Stella. So you see, if the thunderstorm hadn’t happened, none of us might be here today, nor might we be a family either.”

“So it was a nice thunderstorm?” clarified Livvie.

“Absolutely.”