The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3333 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 next day we all felt a bit jaded after Daphne Shears visit, she'd taken a great deal of our energy both in repressed anger and the frustration of not being able to say what we really felt to her, that she was mean spirited bigot who wanted to control her daughter and suppress her development.

I spoke with Stephanie after breakfast and she asked what was for dinner. I had no idea but said if she was inviting herself, I was sure I could persuade David to make something both tasty and nutritious. "What time?" she shot back at me.

I didn't know if Sarah would be happy to see her or not as she hadn't appeared for breakfast so I decided to pop and check she was all right. Danni had eaten and disappeared and I wondered if she'd just gone to apply her makeup and do her hair or if she'd gone to see Sarah. It turned out to be the latter. They were engaged in quite an animated conversation which I felt I needed to disturb.

"Hello, girls," I started, "How did you sleep, Sarah?"

"I was too angry to sleep easily when I thought how that woman showed you such disrespect in your own house, you showed her great self-control and acted like a lady, which you are. I was ashamed of her, Mummy," she said and I watched Danni's shaped eyebrows rise and fall.

"It wasn't worth the effort to answer her back except with politeness and calmly tell her the truth as we see them, which is supported by at least two experts, whereas her's appeared to be the ramblings of some Facebook group of ill-educated bigots." Both girls laughed at my reply.

"I wish I had your self-control and didn't let her get to me, Mummy." Sarah used the M-word again and once more Danielle's eyebrows went slightly up her forehead.

"It's something which comes with practice and experience but also in knowing that it's also part of the process of outmanoeuvring an opponent by refusing to engage them on an emotional level. They get frustrated because they want to turn it into a slanging or shouting match which no one wins. However, by remaining calm iy enables you to think more clearly and have some sort of strategy to use to beat them. Occasionally it goes wrong, usually when some oaf gets even more wound up and wants to thump you and doesn't have the control not to."

"What do you do then?" asked Danielle.

"Try and turn any onlookers against that sort of action, or run away if the coast is clear."

"But you usually clobber them first." Danni was enjoying this.

"No I don't, but I also don't like allowing people a chance to hit me, it hurts and I've taken my share of beatings over the years, so yes I do tend to be a bit more proactive and may make a pre-emptive strike. However, the man who taught me to defend myself gave me the following advice, never fight if you can run, but know where you're running so you don't trap yourself. Also always see what assistance there is if you have to fight. I f you think you're going to get hurt, use anything available that you can hit them with or stab them or throw at them. If you find a weapon to use like a club aim for elbows and knees, it hurts and it slows down any pursuit, but you have to be quick, like something out of the Bourne trilogy. If you can kick or punch someone ten times in as many seconds, one of them might put him down and you then can finish him off or deal with another attacker, they often work in small gangs and sadly these days, carry knives. If someone pulls one of those, you neutralise them at the first opportunity, because they are looking to hurt or kill you."

"Wow, Mummy, I'd never have thought you were so violent," gasped Sarah.

"I'm not but neither am I dead when several people have tried to make me so."

"What dead?" she really did gasp.

"Yeah, they've tried to kill her several times," offered Danni, "but she always gets the better of 'em."

"Some of it is having practiced moves, somersaults or dropkicks, or striking with elbows. I was once trapped by three men, two I kept in view but the third grabbed me from behind. When they thought they had me, I jumped up and kicked the nearest one pushing myself and the one behind me backwards and we fell. He let me go on landing on his back so I back somersaulted off him elbowing him in the throat as I went, jumped sideways as the third one came at me with a knife and threw a chair into his legs he fell over it and I hit him with another before he could get up. I then ran like hell and told the police what happened."

"How long ago was that, Mummy," asked Danni.

"Oh, years ago it was in Bristol, I was at Sussex and had gone home for a weekend and these three decided they wanted to do some queer-bashing. I looked an easy target."

"So they were wrong on a number of things, you're not gay and you weren't an easy target."

"One of them broke an arm the other I think hurt his knee falling over the chair. One of them did see me again and tried it on in a pub. He pulled a knife and..."

"Goodness, Mummy, what did you do?" Sarah looked quite shocked.

"I asked him if he had a fork to match then hit him with a fire extinguisher. I think I probably broke his wrist but I ran off double-quick while he was howling at the moon."

"I thought women were the gentler sex?" said Sarah.

"Not in many mammals, meerkats being one, the clan is ruled by a dominant female who is absolutely ruthless and she will kill the babies of any other females, drive out her sisters, who are then doomed to die. Hyenas are run by a dominant female and so are baboons and killer whales."

"Why don't they teach this in biology courses?" asked Sarah.

"Because you need to have basic biology before you can even start to understand what you see these groups of animals doing. Some of these facts are only known because ethologists spend lots of their time watching and recording these things and then try to work out what is happening. I'll loan you the book I'm reading when I've finished it. It's by Lucy Cooke who is a zoologist and writer and tv presenter. It's called Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal. It's full of interesting things they don't tell you on courses unless you have a feminist teacher, one who's done some research and shown that occasionally Darwin was wrong because he believed in passive females, so those that took the initiative in sex completely baffled him and he tended to skirt round them."

"What? Darwin was wrong? Isn't that a present for the creationists?" Danni asked showing a degree of maturity and understanding that she seemed to possess these days.

"Only in some areas, on the whole, his natural selection works really well but remember he was a prisoner of his time and Victorian culture, especially middle-class Victorian culture where women had babies and looked after supervising the maids. Most of them may have gone to finishing school but they didn't become educated there except in how to find a wealthy husband and hang on to him."

I was half waiting for one of them to say, "Is that what you did?" but they resisted the temptation.

"Are you coming down for breakfast, young lady?" I addressed Sarah.

"If it's not too late," she said jumping up from her bed, she was dressed.

"No, but don't eat too much or you won't want any lunch."

"I won't, Mummy." She came down with me and ate a small bowl of cereal and we had some tea sitting at the kitchen table. I like this house, Mummy, I feel loved here."

I nearly choked on my tea before answering, "It's not the house but the people who live here, they are very loving."

Of course, Trish had to spoil it, "Where's Livvie, I'm gonna kill her," she declared as she rushed through the kitchen.

"I see what you mean, Mummy," she said and we both laughed.

"They're both very bright and extremely competitive, so sometimes tempers flare but it's usually over quite quickly." In about two weeks it would be Easter, it seemed impossible that the time was moving so quickly, or was that a sign of old age?

Ten minutes later as David had come in to make lunch, I mentioned we had an extra for dinner, he nodded and he continued to prepare lunch. I'm surprised I'm not fatter than I actually am, especially with David's wonderful cooking. Trish came back into the kitchen after a drink followed by Livvie, they went off together as if nothing had happened. Sarah noticed this and gave me a meaningful look and understanding of what I'd said earlier.

I expect in the next day or two that she will ask me to show her how to maim and kill people while defending herself. They always do until they realise how hard the practice is. I can't teach them all-in fighting, because you need to have prepared spaces so they can see that everyday items can be weapons, but I can show her some basic kickboxing and some useful movements like somersaults to escape being held or hit. My overwhelming advice would always be see if you can talk your way out of it and run for it. Fast cowards tend to live longer than slow heroes.

Remembering the violence of the attack I described earlier reminded me of the men I killed in Scotland. I know they were trying to kill me but I still feel ashamed of having done it. I bore the mark of Cane and would remember it for the rest of my life.

I went to my study and looked at my emails, Diane had sent some after I'd left yesterday. Oh well, let's get stuck into them. I beavered away for just over an hour and the gong went for lunch. I think David was doing some tuna sandwiches on homemade bread, absolutely delicious and it fed my addiction beautifully. We had side salads and so forth, but the sandwiches were gorgeous, or I thought so and as I pay him...

Sarah did what I pay her for and looked after the youngsters while I read some more of my Lucy Cooke book. It really is very easy reading. The post arrived and I received the latest edition of the BENHS journal, which is the British Entomological and Natural History Society, which is 150 years old this year. It's quite a technical journal and often has pictures of dissected out genitalia of various insects, it being the only way to identify them, the Amateur Entomologist's Society one came yesterday and that had very similar types of articles and photos of dissected genitalia. I tend to lose track of just how many organisations I belong to, though we have a shelf full of journals in magazine holders as after reading them I store them away in order so I can find them. These sorts of organisations have a number of professionals in them, often running them and many of the amateur members are also pretty expert in their chosen field.

Part of my problem has always been a desire to try everything which means that I am foremost interested in dormice and similar mammals, but I also enjoy doing pond dipping or kick sampling for freshwater invertebrates, and as I've mentioned several times, I've been doing it since I was a kid. Sadly, not as often as I'd like but then that goes for most of the fieldwork I do. That's when I start to really enjoy myself and I hope I always will.