The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2950 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I went to collect the girls and was actually earlier than they were which impressed them enough to hesitate in their chatter for a millisecond. They seemed very excited and then Danielle handed me a letter.

Dear Parent,

We would ask you to exercise a little extra care when bringing or collecting your child(ren) as a strange man has been seen loitering near the school. While we aren’t at all sure there is any extra risk to the students and the police have been informed, we feel it appropriate to notify you of this occurrence.

Yours,

Sister Maria
Headmistress.

“Have any of you seen this man?” I asked firmly and of course they all burst out laughing.

“Load of rubbish, innit?” said Trish.

“It’s such a load of rubbish that Sister Maria saw fit to write to all the parents.”

“Well, she’d be liable, wouldn’t she?” responded my smart arse daughter.

“I want all of you to take extra care, just in case.”

“Yeah yeah,” came from the seat behind me.

“I mean it, you don’t know who is about these days...” I spotted Trish miming what I was saying and wagging her finger and I saw red. “Patricia Cameron, I don’t know what you think you’re doing but unless you behave yourself you’re going to find yourself in hotter water than they get in the geysers at Yellowstone.” She gave an embarrassed laugh and a very quiet ‘Sorry, Mummy,’ came over the seat. I watched her blushing in the rear view mirror and she was in the classic embarrassed pose of blushing and trying to neither cry nor laugh.

I said nothing more about it, they knew how I felt and while I’m sure they thought all adults are stupid, they knew I was serious. It must have played on my mind because that night—I was with the girls, or some of them and we were walking past the school grounds when we saw some man walking along. “That’s him,” exclaimed Trish and I immediately bristled, but when I looked more closely there was this awful sense of sadness about him. It was almost palpable, the sense of loss. We crossed over the road and I asked the girls to wait while I spoke to him.

“Are you all right, sir?”

His empty eyes looked at me, “I lost her, I’ll never get her back.”

“Lost who?” I asked politely.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” he suddenly snapped and I began to feel scared, his eyes were now full of anger or even hate. He suddenly thrust out his arm and grabbed me pulling me towards him and I saw the arm raised with the knife. My god, he was going to kill me...

I tried to pull away but he was so strong and I watched in slow motion as the knife dropped towards me and I screamed...

“It’s okay, Cathy—it’s just a dream.” I heard Simon’s voice in the distance and I relaxed and woke briefly. “You okay?” he asked having switched the light on.

“Yeah, sorry if I woke you—that was a horrible dream.”

“Okay, you’re quite safe, I’m here.”

“I know, darling.” I pecked him on the cheek and slipped out of bed for a wee thinking that he no longer tried to hold me if I have a bad dream after I gave him a black eye one night—well how was I to know he wasn’t the monster that grabbed me?

I got back into bed and let him spoon around me. He felt as warm as toast and I thought I’d be too warm but I soon fell back to sleep and slept through to the morning when of course he’d gone off to town with Sammi.

In the shower I reflected on the dream but shrugged it off as the product of an over active imagination, such things don’t happen in real life—I mean sensing someone’s sadness—nah not me, far too wrapped up in my own world for that.

Breakfast was the normal mixture of the chimps tea party and a custard pie contest and I had to raise my voice once to stop the two arguments which were growing louder and louder. “Trish give that book back to Livve, Livvie stop shouting. Cate stop poking Lizzie and Lizzie stop whining.” None of them took a blind bit of notice of me so I banged on the table and knocked a glass of milk over the cat who was sitting next to Trish’s chair waiting for titbits. By the time I’d cleared it up, we were running late and I had to make them hurry to get in the car or they’d be late for school and I needed to be in work on time as I was invigilating at nine and it was half eight already.

I dropped them off at the school gate momentarily forgetting the warning the school had given, started to drive off and then remembered, so reversed back to my parking space. On glancing down through the school gates I saw Trish talking to some strange man and my tummy flipped. What if he was the...? Before I could think I was out of the car and racing towards her.

“What’s going on?” I demanded loudly and they both jumped.

“Oh hi, Mummy, this man wanted to speak with Sister Maria, I said I’d show him where her office was.”

I felt a complete fool and apologised for over reacting and he said he understood.

Walking away, I suddenly recognised the voice as the same as the man in my dream. I quickly bleeped the lock on the car and hoped my bag was safe as well as my laptop and turned back towards the school.

Trish and the stranger were nearly at the door when he lunged forward and snatched at her, by this time I was running flat out towards them. She stepped back and kicked him hard between his legs and ran into the building. He straightened up just long enough for me to crash into him and knock him through the doorway, me landing on top of him. I rolled off him and grabbing his arm wrenched it as hard as I could behind him in a hammer lock, he squealed loudly. As I did so, Sister Maria and Trish came running down the corridor saying loudly, “The police are on their way.”

They were there minutes later until which time I held on to his arm and kept him pinned to the ground. Two burly constables arrived and he was cuffed and led away. I glanced at the clock—oh hell, I had five minutes to get to the university. I promised to give a statement later and raced back to the car only to find the police car blocking me in.

I called Diane and told her I was held up by the police and would be there as soon as I could, could she cover for me in the hall. She apparently did so when I eventually arrived with scuffed knees and tousled hair, looking like I’d been brawling in the corridor—which I suppose I had—she gave me a really funny look. “Shall I wait until you’ve had a chance to tidy yourself up, Professor?” Which is what I did, including having a quick cuppa. I made her one as well and covered it with a coaster to keep it warm. I told her it was there when I replaced her, feeling calmer but both my knees hurt and had grazed through my jeans. It would be interesting to find out who the creep was and what he was after, but that would keep until I’d—damn—I left my laptop in the office. It was obviously going to be—shit it was Friday and the thirteenth day of May...