The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1394 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Julie and I were eating our sandwiches in between rehearsals, she of course looked older than I did, she was as always made up and dressed in jeggings and little boots, the jeggings were so tight, I told her you could read the washing instructions on her thong through them. By comparison, I was casually dressed in polo shirt, jeans and trainers with no makeup, just a hint of perfume.

“See the tall bloke with the straggly beard?” I said to her.

“Yeah, bit of a creep in-’e?”

“I was in school with him.”

“Y’wot?”

“I was in school with him, his name’s Graham Dennis and he was a dreadful bully. He doesn’t recognise me, and I’m happy to keep it that way.”

“Did he beat you up?”

“Not exactly, but he tormented me and hit me a few times. See the scar in his eyebrow?”

“Yeah,” she nodded sneaking crafty glance.

“He did that trying to head butt me–he missed and hit a wall or something, can’t remember now.”

“He’s spent half the day looking at your bum or mine.”

“Yours is on display somewhat.”

“So? If ya got it flaunt it.”

“Just be careful you don’t show more than you intend.”

“Yes, granny.”

I slapped her playfully and we continued our lunch.

“Is everything alright, ladies?” It was the menace.

“Yes, thank you,” I replied.

“Yeah, s’okay,” Julie smiled at him, “That scar on your eyebrow, I’ll bet there’s an interesting story behind it?” She smiled some more while I went into a fully fledged cringe–talk about direct.

“What this?” he asked pointing at his eyebrow, she nodded. “We ’ad a right bloody pooftah in school, always comin’ on to the other boys. He come on to me one day, an’ I like told him to pee off, an’ he hit me wiv a brick or somefin’, don’t remember now.”

“If you don’t like gay men what are you doing in theatre, it’s full of them.”

“I deal wiv ‘em professionally, that’s all–don’t ’ave to like ’em, do I–nah prefer girls any day–like you two loverly ladies.”

I avoided his gaze, Julie batted her eyelashes and smiled. He didn’t see it but it was malign smile–she was planning something. I’d tell her not to bother, it wasn’t worth it.”

However, fate was to lend a hand in the payback business. Dennis was helping to adjust a light on stage and something went wrong and there was flash, he yelled and fell about ten or twelve feet on to the stage, yards from where I was standing. The lights went out–presumably from some sort of short circuit, so we only saw what happened by the lights of the auditorium–a sort of twilight.

I rushed over to him–not being aware of who had fallen–when I saw it was him, I wasn’t sure what to think. I went through my first aid training–and discovered he wasn’t breathing and there was no pulse. I shouted for someone to call the paramedics, then began CPR.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to actually put my mouth near his, then the irony of it made me smirk. I did sixty compressions and then two breaths. Julie came to help. She took over the compressions, which we did to, Nellie the elephant.

“You’re blue lighting him–after what he did to you?”

“Long time ago–doesn’t pay to hold grudges.” I gave two blows and she continued pumping his chest.

“Huh, I wouldn’t.” She couldn’t see that she was also giving him healing energy. The lights came back on and we had a small crowd about us. Another stage crew member took over the compressions, and I let the theatre manager take over my task–my knees were stiff from kneeling on the hard floor.
The paramedics came in and defibbed him, then he was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed off to Southampton General, a huge place as I remember from my visits there.

“Thank you, ladies, your prompt action might have saved his life,” offered Rex Lentill, the manager–yeah that was his name.

“Are we proceeding with the play?” asked Gordon.

“They stopped one in New York with Daniel Radcliff in it the other week, ’cos one of the stage crew died,” said the actor playing Banquo.

“He’s not dead, though is he?”

“Health and safety will be all over you like a rash on Monday,” commented Banquo.

“Yes, but we’ve already had to cancel one concert, to cancel tonight would be a real problem,” Mr Legume, I mean, Lentill pleaded.

“As Cathy seems to have been the one most involved with the rescue, how does she feel? Do we go on with the show or cancel?” Gordon threw the ball in my court.

“I came here to do a play, if we can still do it, then I suggest we do.” Everyone agreed and we did another rehearsal–only with a difference–one of the witches went sick and Julie had to fill in for her at rehearsal and then in the performance.

To say she revelled in it would be an understatement–she had great fun cackling with the best of them. The performance went quite well, the witches got a great hand from the audience especially when it was revealed at the end that Julie had stepped in at the last moment to save the play.

Iain, as always got loads of applause, and I didn’t do too badly, getting a bouquet of flowers at the curtain calls, and Julie got one as well for her quick study of the part. She was actually as good as the girl who’d gone home, so perhaps she’d missed her vocation.

Before we left, we heard that Dennis was critical but stabilised. Iain came up before Julie and I went through the stage door–“Whit did ye dae ta him?”

“What?” I asked wondering what he was on about.

“Thae laddie that fell, whit did ye dae tae him, an’ whit wis that blue light ye had?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Iain, I just did basic first aid and life support.”

“Aye, ma name’s Faither Christmas, he wis deid, wisna he?”

“I don’t know, I’m not qualified to say.”

“Ye saved his life, ye ken?”

“Nah, the paramedics did that with their defib machine, we only kept his heart primed to start again if it had stopped in the first place.”

“Weel, they widnae defib a beating heart, wid they?”

“I’m not paramedic, Iain, so I can’t answer it.”

“An’ yon blue light?”

“Must have been a reflection from the safety lights,” I fudged.

“Ye dinna expect me tae believe that, dae ye?”

I shrugged, “It’s been a real privilege working with you, Iain, thanks for being so supportive of my feeble efforts.”

“If that wis feeble, ye’d act me off thae stage if ye were on full strength.” His eyes were dancing as he spoke and I chuckled with him. We hugged and he kissed me on the cheek and did the same with Julie–after which we did leave. The others were going on to a party but I wanted to get home–it was late enough, and I was tired. Julie whinged a bit but she conceded an early night might be quite useful, especially as she could tell everyone at home how she saved the day.

“D’you think the blue light caused him to fall?” she asked as we headed along the M27.

“No, that was simple bad luck–moist hands or something–he was shocked and fell.”

“But there was a blue flash when he fell,” she persisted.

“The light doesn’t attempt to do retribution–that’s judgemental and beneath it, it should be beneath you too.”

“Oh it is,” she smirked, “I always sit on my retribution, looks cute in these–doncha think?”