The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1481 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

The next morning before I could do more than shower, Trish came running into the bedroom and bounced on top of Simon. he screamed out in agony and said some very unkind things, which caused her to run out even more quickly than she came in. I nearly did a double take because Simon was out of the bed and running after her muttering, “I’ll kill her.”

I called him back to heel and he stopped. “Your back’s better then?”

“Yes–good grief, it is too.”

“Perhaps you’d better go and thank her rather than kill her.” He sheepishly went off to do as I suggested. I’d find out more about all this when I took them to school.

I finished drying myself and did my hair, then dressed in my normal uniform of top and jeans–I have a wardrobe full of lovely clothes and I tend to wear these most of the time. I half expect Simon to ask why I bothered changing over to wear trousers, but I didn’t do it to wear pretty clothes, I did it because I feel better about me, and besides they’re women’s jeans–men’s would be too small in the arse and too big in the waist–my shape is decidedly female these days. Hopefully, my three transgendered children will be the same–assuming they actually remain transgendered. Not all kids who express apparent gender dysphoria are, so I hope that Trish doesn’t change her mind–it could cause her a few problems if she does.

By the time I got downstairs, Danny was down and eating his breakfast–he had some homework to finish when he got to school, so was going early. Simon came down with the girls and they were all giggling about something. I asked him to take Danny to school which he agreed to do. Danny was delighted until he realised not many of his contemporaries would see the car he arrived in.

Simon checked his mobile and told me his lawyers had received no reply from Miss Alcott. “If we go to court, it will look badly for her.”

“Why? What will happen?”

“Nothing initially, we’ll probably have to go to court two or three times, when we’ll apply for an authority to seize goods to the value of the amount outstanding and we could also apply for costs.”

“Will you or I have to go to any of those?”

“Nope, we’ll let the bank’s legal team sort it out and before we proceed we’ll actually have someone call and see her, see if they can talk some sense into her. It’ll be recorded on video to show a judge and then we start ramping it up and going for wipe out.”

“I don’t want to kill her, just make her see the error of her ways.”

“I suspect she might be of the leopard persuasion.”

“That sounds like Frank Schleck meets Jane Austen.”

“Who’s he when he’s at home?”

“Andy Schleck’s brother.”

“That does me a power of good.”

“I’m so glad.” I smiled smugly, it was obvious he had no idea.

“That doesn’t actually help–are they lawyers or something?”

“No–TdF riders. They rode for a team called Leopard Trek.”

“Its significance is becoming clearer if not its relevance–no don’t enlighten me, sometimes ignorance is bliss.”

“Tis folly to be wise,” piped Danny. “We done it in poetry.”

“Did it.”

“You done it too, cor, did they have poetry when you was little?”

I glared at him and Simon roared with laughter.

“Where’s Julie?” asked Stella emerging from her bedroom with Puddin’ in attendance and carrying Fiona.”

“Oh she left hours ago–she had to take Phoebe to the station to get back to Salisbury in time for school.” I’d almost forgotten she was staying with us it had been so quiet–mind you two days of bike racing on telly did sort of provide a modicum of distraction.

I finally managed to get the girls in the car. “What was that about jumping on your dad?” I asked Trish after she’d got settled into her seat.

“The energy told me I needed to make him move quickly.”

“What d’you mean the energy told you?”

“I just got this idea in my head, so I jumped on him.”

“Next time exercise a bit of restraint, will you? Sometimes ideas like that can be wrong and you might have made him worse.”

“But I didn’t, I healed him didn’t I, an’ I did it all myself–you weren’t there were you, so what d’ya know about it. I fixed him by myself.”

I wasn’t going to argue with her before she went to school because the way she seemed to be acting, she’d have wiped out a whole class by mid morning break.

“You always tell me off–only ‘cos you’re jealous, ‘cos I’m cleverer than you.”

“You have the potential to be cleverer than I am, but you have a long way to go yet, Trish. Life doesn’t always seem to favour very clever people, so I’d be careful who you tell.”

“What d’you mean, Mummy?”

“Just because you’re clever and some things come easily to you doesn’t mean you need to work less hard. Some people who are clever sit back and get very lazy and then their cleverness gets them nowhere. The other thing is some people are scared of cleverness or don’t like people who seem much cleverer than they are, so it could lose you friends.” I began to wish I hadn’t said anything.

“I won’t have any friends?” she said in voice full of emotion.

“I didn’t say that, you could have lots of friends, but you must stop showing off. Yes be bright and answer questions and do problems, but don’t rub people’s noses in it or you won’t have many friends.”

“I don’t do that, do I?”

“I’ve seen you do with Julie and it isn’t very nice. She isn’t as academically clever as you, but she’s good at what she does.”

“She’s very good with makeup and hair, Mummy,” offered Livvie.

“Well I hope I do better than a hairdresser,” said Trish dismissively.

“That’s a very unkind thing to say, we need good hairdressers and always will but we may not always want rocket scientists.”

Trish humphed and sat with her arms folded until we got to school–oh well she’ll have to work off her sulk by herself. She is only seven, I tend to forget because she acts about ten years older much of the time.

When we got to school she refused to hold my hand, which she usually does, although Mima and Livvie took advantage of that and grabbed a hand each; Trish walked by herself which I hoped wasn’t an indication of things to come.

In some ways she reminds me of myself–misunderstood and cleverer than many of my contemporaries who seemed to just poke fun. At least she doesn’t have the difficulties I faced in being a feminine boy, or she’s dealt with it sooner than I did, so maybe she’ll make it relatively unscathed.

I waved them all into school although little miss sulk ignored me, the others kissed me goodbye and seemed much happier with me.