I stared out at the rain, its not let up all morning which hasn’t exactly been good for business.

“Could do without this,” Con suggested.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “at this rate we’ll have to eat your dad’s Currywürst pies ourselves.”
“What was he thinking.”
“Well I suppose its not a bad idea,” I allowed.

Indeed Herr Thesing, although sceptical at the outset, has now embraced the idea of pies with both hands, this weeks variety came as a bit of a curve ball mind. Steak with peppercorn sauce was a bit intense but chicken and asparagus wasn’t bad and the Labskaus was surprisingly eatable. They’ve actually gained a bit of a following both here and through the bakery, maybe I should introduce him to some sweet delicacies like Bakewell tarts?

“Don’t encourage him too much Gab,” she sighed.

Yesterday, Sunday, was much busier and drier, it felt like half the country were out and queuing for Pommes at one point. First there was the scooter club, then a flock of trekkers descended, a bunch of roadies stopped for coffee and later on some sort of old timer car run stopped too. Today has been the total antithesis.

“Max coming today?” Nen asked.
“Not if he’s got any sense,” Con put in.
“Hey!” I complained.
“I meant with the weather,” she hurriedly added.
“The horses still need feeding an that,” I pointed out.
“I guess,” she agreed.

Lingring, lingring… Lingring, lingring!

I wasn’t the only one jumping out of their skin. Therese hadn’t wasted time over getting a phone installed, it was installed on Friday and some guy is supposed to come during the week to set up the till stuff.

“Well answer it then,” I suggested.

Lingring, lingring… Lingring, lingring!

“Er Connie’s Kabin? Oh hi mum….hardly a soul….no….not yet….yeah okay, see you later, bye.”
“So?” I enquired as Con replaced the handset.
“Just checking to see if the till guy had been.”
“Well that killed like two minutes,” Nen noted.

It was barely five minutes later that my Handy chirped.

“Bond, oh hi Dad….what now?….i guess, hang on,” I turned to Con, “I need to go to Frankfurt, that alright?”
“I guess,” she agreed.
“yeah, that's okay,” I told Pater, “er okay….twenty minutes, fine, tschuss.”
“Frankfurt?” Nena probed.
“Yeah, the cycling Federation, sorry guys, its like mega important that I go.”
“This to do with you not racing yesterday?” Con suggested.
“Yeah sort of,” I agreed.
“What’re you doing for lunch?” Nen asked.
“Dunno,” I admitted.
“Go change,” Con ordered.

“Heya Babes,” Max offered when he picked up my call.
“Babes?”
“Erm, so whats up, I was just about to leave.”
“I’ve got to go to the Federation with Dad so I won’t be here.”
“Won’t be where?”
“Here, the kiosk, you can still get lunch I guess but I won’t be there, I mean here.”
“I think I followed that, you okay Gab?”
“Not really,” I admitted.
“You want some moral support?”

I gave it a moments thought, it would be nice, to have a hand to hold but at the same time I really shouldn’t get distracted.

“Nah, I’ll be okay, look have to go, talk later.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “good luck Liebchen.

“Here you go,” Nen plonked a bag into my hand.
“What's this?”
“Lunch,” Con told me, “can’t have you starving can we?”
“Thanks guys, there’s Dad, look thanks and all that, have to go.”
“Ring us later,” Con requested.
“Will do, tschuss.”

I ducked out and sprinted across to the waiting camper and clambered aboard.

“Alright?” Dad asked.
“I guess, wasn’t expecting it to be today,” I mentioned doing up my seatbelt.
“Well Frank did say they were keen to get it sorted out one way or the other, what's in the bag?”
“Lunch apparently,” I supplied opening it up, “surprise pie and chips?”
“One of Tomas’s?”
“Uh huh,” I agreed.
“We can stop at the Mosel services, you need to change anyhow, we’ll kill two birds.”
“Change? What into?”
“I grabbed you some stuff, its on the sofa.”
“Er right,” I allowed.

That doesn’t sound good, I mean really, Dad picking out my clothes?

It might not be obvious but the quickest way from Altenahr to the autobahn is to actually head towards Bonn then go south, barely ten minutes even in the Hymer otherwise its best bit of an hour out through Adenau and you aren’t even on the right motorway!

“So is Natalie coming?”
“We’re meeting her there with our lawyer.”
“Lawyer, since when do we have a lawyer?”
“Well its actually the firm that the team uses, the Boss was insistent that your legally represented.”
“Er okay, so what happens at this hearing then?”
“Not sure kiddo, I’ve never been to one before.”

Of course he hasn’t, what a dumb question.

“Well its interesting,” Dad allowed wiping Currysoß from his chin.
“Don’t get it on your shirt.”
“Get us a cloth luv.”
“Yes Dad,” I sighed, “you want coffee?”
“I’ll get some from the services, get yourself changed,” he instructed taking the cloth from me.
“Okay,” guess its time to see what clowns outfit he’s found for me to wear.

Okay, I take it all back, Dad’s actually picked out an alright outfit, even down to hose and shoes. Well okay not undies but that would’ve been too weird. By the time he got back with the coffee I was doing a less is less job of makeup, well Dad didn’t bring my makeup bag and I don’t usually have much in my handbag so its just a bit of eyeliner, massy and lippy. Well it sort of all works, the heels are maybe a bit much but I reckon I look quite smart.

“Everything alright?” Dad asked plonking the drinks on the table.
“Pretty good, so just when did you learn about women's fashion?”
“You don’t have a wife and three daughters and not pick up something.”
“Three daughters?”
“Well we seem have pretty much adopted Amanda,” he observed.
“Er I guess.”
“Well come on, we can drink on the go, we have to be at the venue for three and its gone one now.”

“Dave,” Natalie greeted, “hello again Gaby, you look very nice.”
“Erm thanks, so what happens inside?”
“Perhaps I’d best answer that,” a tall, smartly dressed woman suggested, “Judit Kelsterman, I’ll be representing you at the hearing. Nice to meet you Gaby.”
“Er and you, so um how does this work then?”

A few minutes later we were installed in the ‘courtroom’ well really just a meeting room with a big table, defendant, that's me, on one side, accusers, aka the Federation on the other. After the introductions it was down to business.

“So Gabrielle Bond, the Federation charges that on June 5th 2006 a sample you gave to anti doping officials tested positive for…..” Herr Obermayer started things off with the charge sheet.

I sort of tuned out the proceedings, concentrating on remaining calm and not too anxious.

“I assume Fraulein Kelsterman that the B sample returned negative?” Frank Obermayer suggestive.
“On the contrary,” she started, “it confirmed the findings of the Federations lab.”
“So we are here to negotiate sanctions against your client?”
“Far from it Herr Obermayer, our laboratory were somewhat concerned about the high levels of Testosterone shown and with my clients consent and assistance ran some further tests with a ‘clean’ sample to act as a baseline.”

She passed the ‘jury’ as well as me and Dad copies of Natalie’s test results.

“The first column is the B sample, the second the control or shall we call it C sample?”
“Thats fine, continue please,” Frank as Federation spokesman agreed.
“I’d like to pass over to Fraulein Bruns of Sportlab who can explain the findings for you.”

I’ll skip all of Natalie’s lengthy and in depth explanations, even I could see by the figures that there was something deeply awry with the original sample. The coup de gras as they say was at the bottom, the failed sample was type B but me, well I’m boring O. Yup the failed sample wasn’t mine!

“Thank you Fraulein Bruns,” Judit picked up after Natalie dropped that bombshell, “we therefore move that given the failed sample cannot possibly belong to my client that all charges and sanctions against her be dropped with immediate effect.”

The Federation ‘bench’ exchanged a few mumbled words before a slightly flustered Frank replied.

“I suggest we take a thirty minute recess, if you’d please wait here I’ll have coffee sent in.”
“Thank you,” my legal team allowed.

“So whats going on now?” I asked, a little perplexed that my innocence hadn’t immediately been confirmed by my accusers.
“They’ll be consulting their own legal team,” Judit told us, “we could claim against the Federation for defamation and so on.”
“We could?”
“You’ve been falsely accused, they’ve failed to ensure due diligence with the testing, there are quite wide implications here. However I would in this instance advise against doing so, it hasn’t been done with intent and it could delay your return to competition, not only that but it will bring it into the public domain.”
“So that's it?” Dad queried.
“Well I suggest we see what they offer, they’ll be keen to keep it quiet too, as it is they’ll have to launch an investigation and re-examine other results, put in safeguards etc.”
“What are they likely to offer?” I asked, little € signs in my eyes.
“Well I’m expecting expenses and token compensation.”
“You’re the expert Judit,” Dad told her.

Maddy Bell © 03.02.2018