The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3327 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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On Monday morning, the student who had abused James, our technician came to my office. I hadn't had time to send for her, so this was under her own volition probably in the hope that she might mitigate the consequences of her abusive behaviour.

"Professor, there's a Mandy Philpotts asking to speak with you?"

"When's my next meeting?" I asked Diane.

"Not for an hour."

"What does she want to talk about?"

"I think she may be the one who had the run in with James last week."

"Oh, I've got better things to do that deal with petulant children, I've got enough of them at home. Send her in and as soon as she goes, bring in a cuppa will you, I hate disciplinary meetings."

"She has come to you, we didn't send for her."

"She's had a weekend to manufacture an excuse, let's see how creative she is." Diane left me and after a tap on the door, in walked a young woman of about twenty. She was short and dumpy, with long dark greasy hair, spectacles and less dress sense than Kiki. It didn't exactly endear her to me, but if she was trying to give the impression of someone who was under some sort of stress it was working. She hadn't put her bra on over her top, but the university sweatshirt she wore and the jeans accompanying it looked as if they were due their annual visit to the washing machine soon. I've seen male students who look as scruffy but we tend to excuse it in them, in women, we expect something better thereby proving we have yet to eliminate all forms of sexist values and behaviours in the administration and personal ones.

But then my girls tend to be rather more clothes oriented. Julie won't wear a pair of jeans unless they have been ironed even if she was going to work in the garden or do some decorating, but she's probably hypersensitive about how she looks compared to most of us. I hang mine up after wearing them if they don't need washing and that tends to keep them reasonably tidy and if I'm going somewhere I need to look a bit more presentable, I don't wear jeans anyway.

"What did you need to discuss with me, Mandy?" I asked to check what Diane had suggested.

"I came to apologise, Professor." She stood blushing and looking at the carpet and I suspect was irrigating it with tears, crocodile or otherwise. Like many women, I'm not always moved by them, it's men they have the most effect on.

"For what have you come to apologise?" I pushed some tissues across the desk but stayed seated.

"I let fly at James on Friday."

"What, you hit him?" I hadn't heard that bit before.

"No, professor, I swore at him."

"Why did you feel a need to swear at him?"

"I was upset."

"I see. Perhaps you'd better start from the beginning. What made you upset?"

She paused to take a couple of tissues and wiped her eyes and nose. I sat waiting to hear how inventive her reason might be. Some of them are very good actors and liars, some are just plain stupid and most are somewhere between.

"On Friday I got kicked out of my digs."

"Okay, why was that?"

"The week before I lost my purse with most of my money in it and my cards. A day later, some nice person cleared out my account and my direct debit to my landlord wasn't paid. I'd cancelled my cards as soon as I discovered they were lost, but not quickly enough.

"I told my landlord about my loss and he gave me a few more days to come up with the rent. I asked my parents, but we're a bit estranged these days and my dad refused to bale me out telling me I should be more careful. I went to the local High Street bank and explained what happened but they weren't much help.

"So where are you living?"

"In my car," she said in a very quiet voice before beginning to sob. She was either a very good actress or very upset.

"Have you spoken to student welfare?"

"I made an appointment to see them this afternoon."

"Good, so what happened with James?"

"I'd slept in the car and was very tired, it was cold and I'd had no breakfast except a cup of coffee. I was hungry and behind with my work, I can't use my laptop in the car and I had some microscopy to finish and wanted to try and catch up. James told me I couldn't in the lab because they had a class due, I suggested I could work at the back and not affect the class. He refused and told me I could work in the prep room but I can't, it's too small and they had boxes everywhere. He offered to move them but I just saw red and swore at him. I have since apologised to him."

"What did he say to that?"

"He accepted my apology."

"When's your next class?"

"This afternoon."

"Right, this what we're going to do. Have you eaten this morning?"

She looked at the carpet again and shook her head.
"I can't condone your behaviour however difficult your life was on Friday, it wasn't James' fault, so I am going to issue you with a verbal warning and a note of your abuse will be made on your record. If it happens again, you will be asked to leave the university. Is that clear?"

"Yes, professor."

"Here's ten pounds, you can pay me back when you sort out your finances, go and get something to eat at the cafeteria. I'll give you half an hour, then go and see student welfare."

"But I have an appointment this aft..."

"Do as I tell you, you will go and see them in half an hour."

"Yes, professor."

"You will do what they advise, and after you've done that, you will come back and see me. Do you understand."

She sniffed, took some more tissues and wiped her nose again. "Yes, thank you professor." She dumped a pile of soggy tissues in my wastepaper basket and left.

Diane appeared with a cuppa while I was on the phone, I nodded at her but continued with my call. "Hi Sammi, look I need you to break all the rules on confidentiality."

"I can't, Mummy."

"Please just listen, I need to know if an Amanda Philpotts, who's one of my students cancelled her cards and if her account was emptied and where and how much was taken. Also if there's any record of a meeting with the bank."

"Do you know how many Amanda Philpotts there are?" She said after I heard a keyboard being used.

"Oh, here we go, she had about a thousand removed in five separate goes from the same branch, a week ago Wednesday, hang about, it was withdrawn by a man, he looks Asian or middle eastern. Yeah, same bloke each time, he's captured on the cameras. She saw the bank who apparently refused her an overdraught as she had no collateral and there's half a dozen direct debits that were unpaid. A letter was sent to her current address. She was definitely one of our clients."

"Okay, thanks, Sammi. She had her purse taken lost her accommodation because she couldn't pay the rent and is currently living in her car."

"Oh, poor kid, see you at the weekend, Mummy."

"Look forward to it, sweetheart, bye."

I called student welfare and told them they were going to see my student in twenty minutes, when they told me they couldn't and besides she had an appointment after lunch, I said I would possibly reconsider my department funding them as they weren't doing much for my students. They decided they would see her but under duress. I told them I was also under duress, it was called life.

I next phoned the bank and asked to speak to the manager. "Who's calling?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Lady Catherine Cameron," I said crisply.

"Do you have an account with us, Lady Cameron."

"I hope so as I'm a director of the bank."

"Of course, I'm sorry Lady Catherine, putting you through to Mister Wedgewood now."

"Wedgewood," said an irritated male voice.

"Good morning, Mr Wedgewood, I'd like some help with one of my students who has an account with your branch."

"Sorry, I don't deal with those sort of issues directly, can't you speak to one of my under managers?"

"Mr Wedgewood, as a director of High Street Banks plc, if I can be bothered then I'm sure you could be."

"I'm sorry, who did you say you were?"

I could see the receptionist getting a bollocking as soon as rang off. "I'm Catherine Cameron."

"Cameron? As in Lady Catherine Cameron?"

"The same, now please check your records for an Amanda Philpotts who had her purse taken and her card used fraudulently to empty her account. I expect it's on the camera at the ATM that was used. She lost about a thousand pounds, as these withdrawals were not authorised by her, I believe the bank is liable to reimburse the money and issue her with new cards."

"I'll see what I can do, Lady Cameron."

"Good man, now she's currently using temporary accommodation, so could the new cards be sent to my office at the university, care of Professor Watts, department of biological sciences."

"It's somewhat irregular, Lady Cameron."

"I'll accept responsibility for their safety once they're received."

"Okay, I'll get someone on it straight away."

"Thank you, Mr Wedgewood, I'm pleased at your efforts to maintain good relations with your younger clients."

"Of course, Lady Cameron, glad to help."

I sipped my tea wondering how many rules I'd broken and encouraged others to do so as well. Simon will probably kill me if he finds out. Oh well. I wandered down to student welfare informing Diane where I was going. "Bit old for their help, aren't you?" she cheerily called as I left. I could always sack her when I got back.

"Oh, Professor," gasped Mandy who was sitting in the waiting area.

"Mind if I come in with you?"

"Uh, no," she said looking a bit bewildered.

"You did inform the police about the theft of your purse and cards."

"Oh yeah, they gave, me an incident number, lotta help that was."

"Keep it, the bank may require it."

"Oh, okay."

She was called in and I wandered in behind her. "Excuse me, who are you?" challenged the woman in the room.

"I'm a representative of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Science. I've come to support Mandy."

"Uh," said the middle-aged woman in dark trouser suit, "these are usually private and confidential with just the student."

"Tell me, do we still have emergency accommodation for students, on a temporary basis?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Good, could you please make sure this young lady gets some by this evening, she's currently living in her car which is unacceptable, I'm sure you'll agree. She has also been robbed of all her money, so I'm sure some sort of loan would be possible, wouldn't it?"

"I shall see if we can help, um, who are you, exactly?" said the older woman.

"That's my professor," piped up Mandy, "Professor Watts, an' she's brill," she said beaming at me."

"Let me know how it goes," I winked at Mandy and left.

"I will, prof," she called back as I exited.

I wasn't there when she came back to report that she was staying in a bedsit in one of the university's accommodation buildings. They're not cheap, but they won't bill her for a month or so giving her a chance to sort herself out.

On the Friday of that week, a rather tidier version of Mandy arrived at my office to collect a letter from her bank and new card, she asked Diane to see if she could speak to me. Diane told her to knock my door.

"Hello, Mandy how are things?"

"Much better, thanks to you, Professor. I'm in a much better room than I had before and I can wash my clothes and things, and the bank has reimbursed what was stolen, yet before they told me it was my own fault. So I'm back in credit, I dunno why they changed their minds but, I don't care. I'm gonna buy James a little prezzie to say sorry."

"I'd just send him a card," I said knowing that when James understood the pressure Mandy had been under he asked me to remove the complaint from the record. I told him I couldn't because there was no excuse for abuse, there was always another way to deal with things and as long as she knew she would be expelled if it happened again, it would remind her not to do so. He'd protested but I held firm.

I'd also got Diane to make sure that Mandy understood that the university had ways to help students who were in dire straits and that I would ask the council to flag it up to the student support elements to make sure students knew where to get help if they needed it. There were leaflets and so on about the place, but we obviously needed to make sure students read them. If they're working hard on their modules, they don't need the extra stress of being robbed or dumped on the street, their lives are stressful enough and we had an obligation to help them.

I suspect, that had Mandy presented at student support and had known what they could do for her, she wouldn't have needed my help and Sammi told me she'd removed the trace of her accessing Mandy's records. It was also unlikely that Mr Wedgewood would complain about my direct approach to him to reimburse the stolen money, so I didn't bother to tell Simon anything about any of it.

It didn't quite work out that way, however, when he asked how my week had been I shrugged and mentioned we'd had a student who'd had her purse taken but as far as I understood they'd refunded it.

"Probably, babes, the branches usually do, costs us a small fortune but it's what we're required to do and hopefully afterwards they stay with us as lifelong customers."

"Do they ever catch the perpetrators of these nasty little crimes?"

"I have no idea, we leave that to the police, naturally we give them anything we have, video clips, bits of paper and so on and any of the stolen cards that are kept by any machines they use, so possible finger prints. How about, I pinch one of these?" he said gently squeezing my nipple between his fingers making me think of things other than banks or universities and I kissed him with some passion.