The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3271 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 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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The tiredness persisted for two more days, almost like I was recovering from a major illness but the reports from Monica showed us Henry was still alive though still very unwell. I told her what had happened and what would happen if he didn't keep his word. I expected her to pooh-pooh it but she didn't. She told me she didn't know much about the goddess or anything of that sort but she had seen me perform enough healing to appreciate there had to be something in it and she would remind Henry of his covenant. Yes, covenant, just the word with sufficient ancientness around it to describe the contract Danni had brokered and right out of the Old Testament too.

I mused on this word as I picked up my Christmas present from Livvie, Erica McAlister's book, The Secret World of Flies. She is the curator of Diptera or flies at the Natural History Museum and delights in her eccentricity. I saw her participate in a recent series of documentaries about behind the scenes at the museum and she came over as pleasantly crazy and I'd love to hear her do a lecture, I'll bet it would be memorable. So apart from her knowledge of flies and mention of lots of Latin names she used the word depauperated, which I hadn't come across before and from its context it meant impoverished. I checked with Chambers dictionary and I was right but to depauperise meant to lift out of poverty, so it could be confusing to those who didn't know the difference between the two very similar words, quite how you would introduce either into a conversation, I'll leave for you to decide.

So as well as instructing me on various interesting facts about flies and her love of her studies, she taught me a new word to use to baffle people - nah, I do that with students too often already. She described walking about in Central America with a vacuum suction device for collecting specimens as looking like someone out of Ghostbusters, which made me smile, and one of her wonderful facts, did you know we owe our joy of eating chocolate to a tiny midge, it's what pollinates the flowers which causes the beans to be formed and from which they make chocolate, apparently, flies pollinate almost as many plants as bees and in places where bees can't survive, like high altitudes or in deserts. So before you swat the next one you see, think on this, without flies we could be up to our necks in dead things and also we wouldn't have chocolate to comfort us.

The lockdown was enough to depress anyone. David did most of the main food shopping for us and we ordered other items online, like toilet rolls and cleaning supplies, which we use in quite substantial quantities because we have quite a houseful, even without Phoebe and Julie or Sammi who spent much of her time in a bubble with Simon up in London. I spoke to all of them on Zoom as we could at least see each other that way but also aware that it wasn't necessarily safe in a confidential sense, but then neither are phone lines or mobiles.

Julie and Phoebe were stuck together as were the other children, Stella, David and I because the lockdown meant we couldn't mix with other households. Simon had come home before the new lockdown so he was still with us but Sammi was alone at the flat. We spoke most days and she was busy with work as the Covid crisis didn't stop nasty people trying to hack into the bank's systems. According to her most of them originated in Russia or places like North Korea but as the Russians use people who are all over the world, the attacks can come from anywhere but she reckons she can tell one or two of them by the methods they use. She even described them as like old friends, she'd been chasing them off for so long she felt she almost knew them. Pity, she can't stop them altogether but that's not her job, that falls to various police authorities around the world, some of whom are less than useful.

I asked her if she was still working at Cheltenham, meaning GCHQ, she shrugged so I suspect she is, probably over secure and encrypted links. I suspect she knows more about computers than I do about dormice but she's still single, so perhaps too clever for most men to fancy, despite her fabulous looks, which can also be a deterrent. I'm quite pretty, I accept that she is beautiful and that can bring its own problems. Before this epidemic, she was rarely short of men wanting to date her but usually, they bored her or they wanted to possess her and she is a free spirit.

Julie grumbles that being locked down again, their salon is losing them money. They can't see any clients but still have to pay overheads. They own the building and we've been trying to negotiate with the council over business rates and other expenses because they are earning nothing and the government grants were difficult for self-employed people to claim. They wouldn't starve, Simon and I wouldn't let that happen, but it was beginning to get her down and I suggested they both sign up to some online courses perhaps with a view to retrain or do an access course to university. I felt they were both clever enough to do so if they applied themselves. Phoebe seemed more agreeable to it than Julie.

The next day, we had a worrying call from Sammi, she'd been shopping for food and when she returned the flat had been burgled, items taken included her computer which was both valuable in money terms and for the programs on it. The CCTV saw the two men who took it and the van they drove, so the police had them in custody within a couple of hours. She got her stuff back and the locksmith who fixed the door and suggested an alarm system it seems liked her, though of course, he can't see her socially, he could work at the flat and he installed a bar which he screwed to the wall to which she could chain her laptop. She also had everything duplicated onto a second laptop which was well hidden.

Apparently, once Cheltenham were informed of her robbery, they insisted the police give recovery of her belongings, especially the computer, top priority. For once, the plod seemed to actually function. However, she said from then on she wasn't leaving the flat unless she absolutely had to and she'd order her food online. She was really frightened by the fact that her home had been violated by burglars and despite recovering her property, she no longer felt safe there. I wanted her home but she couldn't have come if she'd wanted to. Simon suggested she go and stay with Henry and Monica but then Henry got sick and they were self-isolating.

She suggested that the burglars were interviewed by the security services and warned that they may ask for a severe sentence to be handed down by the courts as it potentially involved national security. Somehow, I doubt they were clever enough to know what Sammi did for a living, they simply saw her leave home and broke into the empty flat, though they wouldn't have known it was empty, so again they were chancers not, espionage agents. Having said that, when Simon heard about the break-in, he wanted them killed and their heads impaled on pikestaffs outside in the square in which they live. I advised him that the smell would not be very nice for several weeks and his neighbours would complain. Mind you, if they'd harmed Sammi, I'd have provided their heads if he did the pikestaffs.

As my energy returned, I did a couple of bike rides sometimes on my own and occasionally with Danielle or Hannah, who borrowed Trish's bike. It wasn't a real work out when they came, though Danni could push me for a bit as she's pretty fit though unable to play much football at present. Portsmouth ladies were pleased to have her back and she has played a few times and even scored half a dozen goals, Scotland have expressed further interest but with the lockdown, we can't physically meet up with anyone. She doesn't seem too worried and has been working on her school studies, though she still says she wants to play against England and beat them before she stops playing. That means she has to sign for Scotland as she needs to play for an international side to play another one. I sincerely hope she manages to do so because the way they treated her was extremely shabby. At the same time, the logistics of travelling up for training and playing were horrendous but not insurmountable.

Then Daddy mentioned that the professor of Biological studies had retired at Edinburgh and maybe it was time for me to look to bigger things than Portsmouth. It was tempting but not really feasible given the other family down here. But he told me to at least try for it, so guess what landed on the mat with the rest of the post this morning and bearing an Edinburgh postmark? Yeah, an application pack for the chair of biology at Edinburgh. Maybe I'll just read it through one more time...