The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3318 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 Angharad

---

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.
####
This episode is dedicated to the memory of my good friend Anne Galliver who died today and who was a regular reader and encouragement to keep writing it.
#####

The next morning Diane saw the letter I'd drafted and she said, "The dormice got her then?" as she made my first working day cup of tea. I do about three letters to the pot.

"Don't they always?" I replied trying to make sense of a letter I'd received from Sussex University. I handed it to her, "read this and see what you make of it?"

"Dear Professor Watts,
Your application has been accepted and we'd like you to attend for interview on Wednesday 15th at 10.00am, please be prepared to provide a short presentation and answer questions on the following topics..." She read through to the end of the letter, "It looks like a job interview letter, are you leaving us then?"

"It's news to me if I am, I haven't applied for anything at Sussex though working with Dave Goulson and Fiona Matthews could prove interesting."

"Who are they?"

"Dave Goulson is an entomologist an expert on bees, especially bumblebees and Fiona Matthews used to be chair of the Mammal Society."

"Bumblebees? I love them but I didn't know you were interested in them?"

"I have done a couple of course with the Field Studies Council on bees over the years. They're obviously not my primary interest but I enjoy watching them and identifying them. I did some work on them during my first year as an undergrad at Sussex, mainly with mining bees, got a small piece in the BENHS journal which chuffed me to bits."

"The NHS journal?" she said looking bemused.

"No the BENHS, the British Entomological and Natural History Society, a long establish society who are mainly entomologically based but they do have the odd article about other things. I have a whole shelf of their journals at home, they're very well regarded especially in entomological circles."

"Is there no limit to your interests?"

"Not to the range but alas, there is to the time I can spare to pursue them."

"If you were retired, you could spend all day doing so," she said blushing, "I mean you keep saying you don't need to work for the money."

"I don't, Simon would happily support me in quite a luxurious lifestyle if I wanted it, but I like to work and to use that work to try and improve our understanding of the natural world and to share that with my students and the world at large. I also believe I can make a small difference in conserving habitats and biodiversity and thus improving the lot of wildlife. It's an uphill battle and some days it seems we slide down the slope and then just occasionally, someone takes notice of what I am saying and it all helps."

"You're such a wise person that I hang on every word, professor." She managed to say this with a dead pan face.

"Really?" I said appearing surprised because I was.

At this she burst into laughter, "What d'you think?"

I nodded looking crestfallen, "Madam, you cut me to the quick." But that only set her off laughing even more.

"Oh, go and make some tea you minx." I snapped at her and she walked out still chuckling like a demented banshee - I assume they chuckle but I haven't knowingly met one, so it's a guess.

I picked up the letter and called Sussex connecting with their HR department. "It's Cathy Watts from Portsmouth, I've received a letter from you inviting me to attend for an interview next Wednesday."

"What's the address, Mrs Watts? I'll try and see which job that's for."

"Portsmouth University."

"Is that Mrs or Dr Watts?"

"Try Professor," I offered feeling irritated, it seems my notoriety was less than I was led to believe, unless it's just in select circles, such as mammal surveying and Hampshire Constabulary.

"Ah, got it?" she said triumphantly as if she'd just recovered it from some ancient text lying abandoned in an ancient vault, in an ancient museum of an ancient university somewhere in an ancient town...you know what I mean.

"Are you confirming that you will be able to attend?" she trilled back at me. She sounded younger than Trish but obviously wasn't, unless they had work experience people in that office, which is unlikely, too much sensitive and personal information floating around in HR.

"I wasn't even aware I had applied and exactly what is the job I'm supposed to have applied for?"

"Oh, that's unusual, most people know what job they're after unless they're sending off hundreds of applications. You should really be aware of what job you're chasing, they usually require to write something about that on the application form."

"I'm aware of that, young lady, I am just unaware that I actually applied for any job as I already have one I quite enjoy." I do about once a week, enjoy it that is.

"Oh, that is very unusual, did you apply by accident or something?"

"I don't think I applied at all."

"Oh, I'm sure if you filled in a form you'd have some recollection unless it was one of dozens you sent out."

"I haven't sent out a single application form because I haven't filled one in, not in living memory."

"Did you write to the wrong university, this is Sussex, you know we're in Brighton."

"I know where you are, I was an undergraduate there for three years."

"Yeah, it's a lovely university, isn't it? Can't wait to get back here? We get this all the time."

"What was the post I supposedly applied for?"

"Oh that's easy, Chair of Biological and Ecological Sciences."

"Could you send me a copy of the job description and so on as I seem to lost it."

"Of course, Professor Watts, I'll put it in the post today."

"Thank you." I rang off envisioning the girl saying to her colleagues, 'Had a right one earlier, some dozy professor not even sure which job she'd applied for," and them all having a good laugh about it.

"I sent out the letter to Sarah, you really going to give her a chance to enrol to do biology with just two A-levels?"

"Is that what the letter says?"

"Yeah, conditional to her passing an exam in three months time."

"So, does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, I s'pose so." She dumped the mug of tea on my desk and went back out to hers. Then I heard her chattering with Nikki, who is her support - I know, go figure. I told her I'd get her support but I meant a new bra - only joking, Nikki has only been with us since November and she does the basic stuff like typing letters and supposedly making the tea, but her typing is so bad and her tea making even worse, Diane still does most of it. She can, however, Nikki, that is, answer the phone, although we can't always read the notes she leaves after she has answered the phone. I now have an ansafone which we set if Diane is out of the office. It will also take messages after hours such as death threats and other malicious messages usually from Russian accented voices.

To make the morning more interesting, Peter rang. "Cathy, why didn't you just offer her the placement by itself, she really doesn't know what she wants to do after seeing those bloody dormice, which I suspect you knew would happen. Didn't you?"

"Not for certain, but it does tend to have a certain effect upon young women."

"So you set out to screw her up, why? Is it some revenge for something I said or did in school?"

"No of course not, Peter, I simply wanted to be sure she knew what the options were and then had a chance to take other ones if it was her wish."

"But it's like going to the supermarket and finding they have 85 types of toothpaste so you go out without any and buy one from the corner shop because you only have to choose one from six or seven."

"I think that's an over simplification and you know it; you seemed intent on keeping her in her current course which she isn't enjoying as much as she thought she would and which isn't stretching her intellectually at all. I asked her if she'd ever thought about doing something more challenging and she hadn't because like many young women, she lacked confidence which I believe is also an effect of being transgender. That she has coped so far is a testament to her ability to deal with something much more demanding but also equally rewarding than becoming a nursery nurse, without wishing to denigrate that honourable occupation, but she would be wasted in it."

Peter sounded slightly irked, "You know what it's like being trans and trying to get a job, but at least it's an established vocation and I'm sure she'd have managed to find one when she qualified."

"What did you fancy doing when you left school and went off to uni?"

"I hadn't thought beyond getting a degree, I was never as dedicated as you were Cathy, but then I had an active social life as a school kid and a student."

I felt myself blushing as if he was indirectly castigating me for not having an active social life because I was a nerd. Or was he doing so because I had been transgender and thus socially ill at ease because I didn't know quite what I was or supported to find myself either at school or university or by my family and friends.

Besides Siân I suppose I had no friends at school unless you consider Marc Absalom, the one whose house got flooded and I went to help clean up but because I borrowed some wellies from Siân, his parents thought I was a girl and he sent me a copy of the photo his dad took. Despite the day I spent helping them, and his parents thinking he had a girlfriend, we were never really friends though he was one of the boys who was bigger than me but never insulted, teased or hit me and after I helped that day, he would acknowledge me with a smile, but that was all. No, I tell a lie, he once intervened when another boy was intending to punch my lights out and I escaped in their confrontation.

I have no idea if Sarah has a good social life, I hope she does. She's transitioned younger than I did and I'm sure that makes a difference, but whether or not it did to her I don't know, I suspect her seeming need to tell people almost guarantees she won't have too many boys interested in her unless they're possibly leaning towards being gay or are just curious. Girls can also be curious not appreciating we feel very much the same way they do, though not hindered by periods, which we all regret and envy - or probably would once or twice.

"Anyway, it looks as if she wants to go for this exam thing you offered her, you said you'd write to her."

"I have, it will be going out in the post today."

"Mind if I collect it, to save time?"

"No, I'll ask Diane to hold it for you."

"You said something about having someone to give her the odd tutorial as well."

"I shall arrange that, but I'll have to ask them first, we do have one or two to choose from, including our other technician, Hilary, who does some teaching with first years who haven't done much biology."

"What you get students who want to do biology who didn't study it at A-level?"

"We get some who have never studied any but because they can do maths, their maths teachers tell them they can pick up the biology as they go along, it's so easy."

"They obviously haven't studied biology, have they?"

"The teachers no, or not beyond GCSE level. When they get to degree level, the only bit they would understand is the maths involved, which sadly, our A-level biologists often struggle with."

"It's only a few equations, Cathy."

"It's a bit more than that, Peter, we do quite a bit of statistics at different times, including things like population modelling, especially if they go on to do some ecology."

"But that's just number crunching."

"Yes it is, but if you struggle with numbers, crunching them is quite difficult. I know I struggled until I found someone who could help me."

"Do you still make microscope slides? If I recall you were a dab hand at that."

"I teach students how to do it occasionally, but yes, I did it through my undergrad days and got an A+ for it."

"Not surprised, and you had such small and neat girly handwriting, your diagrams were always so neat as were you slide labels."

"That's a long time ago, Peter, my handwriting is as bad as most other people's these days. Look I have to go, I'll speak to Diane about you picking up the letter and I'll sort her out a tutor for occasional help."

"Okay, thanks, Cathy - oh, when do you want her to start her placement?"

"Tell her to call me at home and we'll agree something."

He rang off and I made notes of things that I had to do including organise a tutor, I wonder if Hilary would be interested?