The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 2076 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

The morning rushed by, its start delayed by the extra time I’d spent at the school, so before I was ready, lunch time was upon me and Tom was inviting me to dine with him. I didn’t really feel like it, but I couldn’t think of a genuine excuse to say no. Of course we took my car and I drove him to his usual restaurant where he had his usual–a pint of Guinness and a chicken curry. For a change I had tuna salad and an orange juice and lemonade.

The weather had turned warmer and was going to remain warm for at least another week. Quite how they can say this when they can’t get it right for the next day always confuses me, but we all needed a bit of good news and sunshine was some of that.

Mind you, on the roads the sunshine tends to bring out every lunatic with a car and we had several little contretemps on the way to the restaurant, the most dangerous being someone who decided they’d waited long enough and turned out of a side road across the front of me when I had right of way and was wanting to turn down the side road. I was livid but Tom seemed to think it was par for the course these days. Like everything else, the standard of driving is worse than ever, the average car having a higher IQ and bigger cognitive capacity than the driver.

He commented upon how tired I looked. I shrugged but had to agree after seeing dark circles under my eyes when I went to the loo. It seemed my tiredness was beginning to show. Of course he blamed everyone else but himself for imposing on me but seemed oblivious to the loading he added. I told him I was taking the same holidays as the children had off school and if he didn’t like it, he could find someone else to be his slave.

To my astonishment he told me to take the rest of the summer off and finish my film. I told him Alan was visiting the next day and he nodded reinforcing it by suggesting it was a good idea. I decided to work on the script for the remainder of the afternoon. I did get some stuff sorted out, most of it cribbed from journals–it’s not a species I’ve studied, so I have to rely on other people’s descriptions and research. Of course, observations made during filming or research for sites to film would also be used, but I’m no expert on harvest mice, so this whole thing was going to be a challenge which I wasn’t sure I needed at this time.

It was soon time to collect three girls who’d be like bottles of pop. They were absolutely fizzing when I got there and Trish collared me and asked if Cindy could come home with us from school. I was so taken aback I couldn’t think of a reason to say no.

When I agreed she rushed off to get her while Livvie went off to find Meems and ten minutes later we were stowing loads of stuff in the boot of my car. Just as well it was quite capacious. “This is a lovely car,” observed Cindy, sitting in the front passenger seat. “Real leather seats, too.”

I just smiled at her, not wanting to encourage discussion of our relative opulence and agreed it was a nice car.

“Daddy’s got a Jag, too,” offered Mima, “it’s a sports one, vewy fast.”

“I’ve never been in a sports car,” said Cindy sadly, “this is the first Jaguar I’ve been in. You don’t live in a castle here as well, do you?”

“No,” I said smiling at her.

“We live with Gramps, he’s got an old farmhouse but Mummy and Daddy made it bigger last year. We’ve got eight bedrooms,” Livvie said almost bragging.

“We’ve got two bedrooms–ours is a council house.”

“As long as it feels like a home, it doesn’t matter if it’s a castle or a one room studio flat,” I tried to cast platitudes on troubled water–well, oil would be environmentally damaging, ask BP if you don’t believe me.

Arriving home, as we entered the drive Cindy looked at the house and said, “Wow, you live here?”

“Fraid so,” I replied before the others could do any further damage to the relationship with their new friend. I introduced her to David and they shook hands, David gave me a knowing look–so he’d rumbled her within seconds.

I got the girls, Cindy included, a biscuit and a drink of fruit juice. “Your kitchen is nearly as big as our house,” she said when my three monsters went off to change.

“It’s an old farmhouse kitchen, they tended to be quite big." Trish appeared in jeans and tee shirt and opted to show Cindy round. Of course she had to show her the pictures of the castle and then went on about us being attacked by nasty men there and how the army rescued us. I glared at her and she went on to talk about other things. Finally they went out to see if Bramble the psycho kitten was in the conservatory. She was, and more importantly, ready to play.

I was flitting about preparing stuff for tomorrow but the more I saw of Cindy the more I liked her. She was unsophisticated and honest, which for a thirteen year old was quite refreshing. Eventually they ended up in the dining room and Trish started showing her some schoolwork.

I think I’ve mentioned that Trish is like a genius at mathematics, she’s already done GCSE level and is currently doing A/S level, which is above what Cindy is doing. I pay specially for her to have a tutor come into the school to teach her–I have to in order to help her realise her potential–no one in the school is capable of teaching a child of her ability so young, so we get someone in. Having a bit of disposable income is useful at times.

I eavesdropped on Trish and Cindy and from what I heard, Trish was explaining things quite well and Cindy seemed to be understanding it. Whether she retains it is the proof of the pudding, but she seemed to be enjoying it, though not as much as Trish, who was in her element. Perhaps she should become a teacher, though probably at university level.

I got Cindy to call her mum and say we’d take her home by nine o’clock, and of course I asked Simon to run her home in his Jag so she could say she’d been in a sports car. Naturally she had dinner with us and had a healthy appetite though she did eat quite delicately as opposed to say, Danny, who might just as well use a pick and shovel as a knife and fork. He seemed to take a shine to her, and of course, after dinner, Julie and Sammi whisked her off for a makeover, though their clothes were too big for Cindy and the smaller girl’s things were too small, so she had to stay in her uniform which I felt made her stand out rather a lot. So while Julie was playing with her, I got her to get some sizes and nipped down to Asda and grabbed her a pair of jeans and tee shirt and a pair of ballet pumps and asked Trish to give them to her. She was overwhelmed and burst into tears.

Julie calmed her down and then redid her makeup, showed her a few tricks with cosmetics and gave her some to take home and practice with. By the time nine o’clock came, Simon had had two glasses of wine and I forbade him to drive. I’d had none, so got the keys of his car handed to me and Trish and I took Cindy home.

As she got out from the car she thanked me for a lovely evening and asked if she could come again soon. I nodded–well Danny liked her, or seemed to, and she had such fun with the older girls who enjoyed playing with a human Barbie doll–that and the fact she was polite and said thank you.

I watched her go in and then drove off waving to her mum as we left. I had a feeling she would visit as often as she could if only to play with the older girls.