The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2183 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

When Stephanie arrived for lunch, she took her coffee with her when she went into my study with Danni in tow. I had thought to speak with her first but then decided better of it. I’d leave her to make her own judgement about what Danni would say to her. I was still irritated that Cindy had obviously flaunted her small chest growths and encouraged Danni to get some too, probably saying that Pia had them as well.

I was on tenterhooks while they talked in my study and I lost my temper with Trish when she asked for her stuff back. She went off in a huff and I stood and watched the showers grow increasingly heavy as the time progressed. I couldn’t settle to do anything and my finger still pained a little from where I’d given myself a new piercing, albeit of a very temporary nature.

I was staring down the garden from the drawing room windows when Livvie came to find me. “Mummy?”

“Yes, darling.”

“Dr Stephanie wants to see you.”

“Oh it’s raining again.”

“Mummy,” she sounded irritated.

“Yes my darling.”

“Dr Stephanie wants to see you.”

“Oh–alright, I’d best go and see her then.”

“Yes, you had.”

Being berated by an eight year old doesn’t do much for me so I wasn’t in the best of moods when I knocked and entered my own study. Had I been in better mood, I might have joked with her, but today I simply nodded.

“Danni told me you’re happy for her to have hormones.”

Cut to the chase why don’t you? “Only if you considered it necessary.”

She consulted her notes–is that why they call them consultants, I wondered.

“She’s thirteen, I suppose most girls these days have something happening in their bras at that age.”

“Does she realise there could be consequences?” I asked.

“I think she’s hoping there will be.”

“I wasn’t sure if she really understood what that meant. I mean if her bum widens and her waist narrows...”

“Cathy, if she took them for a couple of years that might happen, but the dosage I was thinking about won’t do much at all.”

“Except she’ll see what Cindy’s on and complain.”

“She’d better not. I told her that if she did I’d stop them all together. She accepted that she’ll start on low dosage levels which if she continues to want to be a girl, I will then gradually increase.”

“I already said I’d support whatever decision you made.”

“Good, now this might move a little fat about, but seeing as she doesn’t have too much, it won’t do as much as she’d like. It will depress her libido, which may help me decide exactly what she is.”

“You don’t know then?”

“Do you?”

I shook my head.

“In some ways she seems like a typical teenage transsexual girl, but then she could be being coached by Cindy or even Pia.”

“Only in some?”

“Yeah, it presented very rapidly, there was no sign of it before, so did the assault do something or since then? It’s very interesting as it’s so atypical.”

“Compared to Trish or Julie?”

“Yes–they knew from an early age.”

“I thought it was a desire to avoid being male coupled with a belief that we loved girls more than boys.”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Love girls more than boys?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Stephanie.”

“I just wanted to be sure.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

The gong banged from the hall and Stephanie said, “Saved by the gong, oh here’s the prescription, private I’m sorry, so it’ll cost you a bit. What does Simon think?”

“He left it to me, but he did think she should have tits if she remains as a girl–his words.”

“For which I suspect he’ll still be traumatised.”

“Possibly. Tits are things that eat peanuts.”

“Good job you didn’t do medicine.”

“Why?”

“Your anatomy is worse than mine.”

“It’s a bit grey, yes.”

“Oh very good–what’s for din-dins?”

“Dead sheep–dead, Welsh sheep.”

“Oen marw.”

“What?” Something about a marrow?

“Welsh–dead lamb.”

“Since when did you speak Welsh?” I asked as we ambled to the kitchen.

“I picked up several phrases from a Dai Glyndywr, or Dai Another Day as we used to call him.”

“Psychiatrists are completely bonkers.”

“Course, now where’s this ’ere dead sheep?”

Lunch was delicious, the meat was done to perfection as was everything else.

“Even the mint sauce was so tasty,” declared Steph dabbing her mouth on her napkin.

“Yeah, well it has the magic ingredient,” said Simon his eyes twinkling and I just knew I was going to regret hearing whatever he said.

“What’s that?” asked the naíve shrink.

“Eau de Kiki.”

“What’s that?” she asked me.

“Dog pee,” I replied equally quietly.

“Ah–that would explain it then.”

“What the taste?” I asked.

“No–the level of humour.”

Stella nearly fell off her chair and I admit I did smirk though Simon ignored it.

After a cuppa, Stephanie left but not before Tom had gone into the garden and cut some dahlias which he gave to Danni to hand to Stephanie. I also had some though I left mine hanging over a bucket of water for any earwigs to emerge. Half an hour after she left Stephanie called to say she had all these creepy crawlies running round her car–I didn’t offer to come and collect them.

We had two practicing their forward crawl in the bucket which I emptied out on the garden to give them a fighting chance–earwigs do very little harm, so why kill unnecessarily?

It was quite windy when Stephanie left, as Sunday night progressed it got worse and we had a regular gale. During the night there was a tremendous crack which woke even Simon followed by a crashing noise. We dressed and went to look, an old beech tree had lost a large limb which had landed on David’s new car. My tummy went very cold for a moment.

David emerged a few moment later and was very distressed. I urged Simon to go and help him pull the branch off the car. It was still blowing a hoolie and the tree was making some groaning noises but it stayed upright. I think they were going to remove the branch and move the car.

I couldn’t stand to watch and decided to make some tea while the boys did their manly thing. I was standing by the kettle ready to warm the pot when I heard the car trying to start and voices as the two men shouted to each other against the wind. The car engine didn’t start or if it did I didn’t hear it, possibly the sound of the wind or the kettle boiling but I did hear an even louder crack and a very loud crash followed by a scream.

I quickly placed the kettle on the worktop and rushed to the back door only to catch my foot in a chair leg so instead of dashing outside I went sprawling headlong across the kitchen crashing into the back door. My head was splitting as I tried to stand up and I felt dizzy and sick. I also became aware of something warm running down the side of my face and felt rather than saw the blood I knew was there.