The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3239 by Angharad Copyright© 2018 Angharad

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The dinner at the school went down well enough but I was very glad to get home to bed and disappointed Simon as I zonked as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next day was Saturday, which meant at least we were all home for the weekend and it was nice waking up with his smiling face next to mine.

Actually the smile soon turned to a grimace as he leapt out of bed shouting about cramp in his f*%$ing leg. I couldn't lie there and watch suppressing a laugh made me need to go for a wee. By the time I was back, he'd regained control of his temper and leg and we had a cuddle. It was only seven o'clock and who knows what may have happened had the phone not rung.

"Who the hell is that?" grumbled my hubby back in grumpy mode.

"I'll know when I answer it, won't I? Hello?"

It was my dad's old neighbour from Bristol, Margaret Soames. "Hello, Cathy, sorry to call so early, but I saw blue lights flashing and when I looked out, there's a police car parked outside your house and two coppers are walking round the garden."

"Oh," was all my huge vocabulary could muster.

"If Gregg was here I could have sent him over to find out what's happening, but since he died, I feel safer staying indoors and watching from afar."

"No that's fine, Margaret, I'll come straight up and see what's happening. If they come into you tell them to ring me."

"I will. If you do come up, pop in and see me, won't you?"

"Of course." We finished the call.

"So what's all that about?"

"The police are outside my dad's old house."

"Outside as in parked in the road or outside as in walking about the garden?"

"The latter."

"Oh, not so good, can't you try ringing them rather than driving all the way up there?"

"I need to check on the place anyway, it's been months since I last went there."

"Want me to come?"

"I'd love you to but I think the girls need to spend time with one of us, so d'you mind spoiling them a little?"

"Providing they don't take too much advantage of me."

"Give Julie ring and see if she has time to give them a haircut."

"Won't she be busy on a Saturday?"

"Probably, if not get her to come home and do it, David's cooking usually attracts her."

"Okay--where you going?"

"Shower, sorry, darling." I pecked him on the cheek and avoided his attempts to grab me, running into the shower.

"I've woken Trish," said Simon's voice as I towelled myself down in the shower.

"What for?"

"Thought you may need some back up."

I didn't discuss it any further partly because he left the bathroom and when I returned to dress, he wasn't in the bedroom either. I found him a few minutes later in the kitchen making a pot of tea, Sherlock Watts was sitting at the table eating her breakfast.

"This is exciting, isn't it, Mummy?"

"It will probably be a false alarm and we'll end up sorting through two tons of circulars if we can open the front door."

"I don't know why you don't get the mail transferred here," said Simon passing me a mug of the magical fluid.

"All the bills are done by direct debit, so there isn't anything much to send on here."

"Oh well, have something to eat before you go, or I won't let you go out to play with Trish again."

Trish giggled and nearly choked on her cereal. I gave him a glower and he retreated back upstairs.

"Woss goin' on?" yawned Livvie as she came into the kitchen.

"Me an' Mum's goin' up t' Bristol, the police are at her house."

"Wow, canicometoo?"

"Go and get washed and dressed quickly then," I said firmly as Livvie is prone to dither. I told Trish to pour her some cereal while I made myself some toast.

It was half an hour before we managed to leave and we had quite a party waving us off, as if we were going for weeks not a few hours. In a short time, we were on the motorway and I suspected the Jaguar was going to enjoy the drive more than I was as I'd only done short journeys for the past couple of months and this jaunt up the motorway would clean the moisture out of the engine.

In the back of the car the two girls were winding themselves up to catching public enemy number one, who they were sure was hiding in the house and would need their combined genius to apprehend. I did try to point out that it was more likely an alarm malfunction due to the excessive heat of the past two months.

The house alarm is a silent one but it links into the local police headquarters which is probably why they came out to look at the house. They do have a code to reset it which they can do via the telephone--yeah all very clever stuff.

I listened to Classic fm on the drive, finding the music more soothing than the idiotic conversation of the two tweenies on the back seat and despite the odd bit of traffic congestion, we were in Bristol by ten and the house shortly after that. I noticed Margaret watching from the window and waved to her, she waved back.

The two girls trotted round the rear of the house to check for signs of where their fantasy villain had achieved entry. I opened the front door, switched off the alarm and began picking up enough waste paper to fill the recycling bin. When I'd picked up the tenth flyer for Abdul's kebab house I began to wonder if the postman just shoves a handful through everyone's letterbox instead of one per household. There were a few letters which were actually addressed to me and one to my dad, which was handwritten, or the envelope was.

The girls returned disappointed that Jack the Ripper hadn't forced any of the windows. However, they helped me pick up the junk mail and dump it in the recycling bin.

While we were doing a quick check of the rest of the house, the doorbell rang and Trish dashed down to answer it. I heard voices and moments later she ran back up to us to say the Margaret had invited us over for a cuppa when we were finished.

Nothing seemed amiss and all the windows were properly closed and so on as we shut up the house and headed down to Margaret's. Her house had practically been rebuilt after the fire which if you recall involved Simon and me working with some other neighbours to rescue Margaret and Gregg. It was certainly looking well cared for, as was her garden, compared to mine which was tidy but shrivelled. I pay someone to cut the grass and keep the garden tidy but he doesn't come to water it and we're in the middle of a two-month drought.

Margaret made a fuss of the girls and she and I chatted over a cuppa and slice of cake. She told me about how Gregg had developed Alzheimer's after the fire and had spent the last two years in a home as she could no longer manage him. He kept wandering off, sometimes half-dressed, sometimes undressed. She considered his death a merciful release, I didn't disagree.

During the chat my mobile rang, it was the Avon and Somerset Police telling me that they'd responded to my house alarm but had found nothing remiss so just reset it. I told them that a neighbour had told me of their visit and I'd been up to check the house myself and could agree with them. I thanked them for their assistance and finished my cake and cuppa.

"If I go to Bristol uni, can I stay at your house, Mummy?" asked Livvie out of the blue and right in the middle of Vaughan-Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, a particular favourite of mine.

"We'll have to see nearer the time, young lady," I said avoiding a direct answer.

"Maybe, I'll go to Bristol too," suggested Trish. I didn't remind her that she'd already spoken about Cambridge, Oxford and London universities and that Oxford and Cambridge were particularly interested in her.

I turned up the radio and avoided dealing with the matter now especially as the traffic was increasing and its driving skills inversely proportioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6sWqfrnTs Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis.