The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3418 by Angharad Copyright© 2023 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.
~~~~~~~~~`

After a frantic last-minute dash around the shops to get bits that David had forgotten to order, like sprouts. Nobody except Daddy actually likes them or admits to it and after eating them he retires to his study so he can fart in peace. I did suggest a scented candle but then thought of the explosive qualities of methane and then changed my mind.

The decorations and cards were up and the tree was looking very pretty but only as long as we remembered to water it. It is a live one with roots and in the warmth of the lounge, especially with the fire lit, it needs a couple of gallons a day to keep it going. I suspect it enjoys the fuss we make of it but I have no proof. They can measure all sorts of things and listen to sap rising or falling. I know someone from the Open University got a PhD for the results they published. We tend to forget that trees are living organisms as well as us and that it has been proven that they communicate with each other sometimes using chemical messengers or things like fungal networks. It has even been postulated that the mycelia of woodland fungi constitute the world's largest living organism because we now know that most of the trees will be plugged into the fungal network. in fact, many of the higher plants won't germinate or grow without the fungi round the root tips as they probe into the soil. The fungi complement the bacteria in the same area and include acting as destructivores to deal with breaking down old vegetation or animal material.

Biology is fascinating as we are discovering new things every day, from gut bacteria being important to mental health, to realising that planets that have water will have carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so now they can probe with spectrometers for that. It may also be that such planets may have life forms on them. I nearly did astrobiology, but my then dad suggested I already had my head in the clouds and was star-struck enough with dormice. I began to get interested in them at Sussex but it took off at Pompey. Once I was employed by Prof Agnew I managed to wangle a weekend on the Isle of Wight, where they seem to have loads of them. I never looked back.

Right back to Christmas, all the halls had been decked with holly or words to that effect, with mistletoe in appropriate places for those with romantic or lustful urges. Before I got a headache I made Trish stop the Christmas tree lights flashing and just to leave them on, thus lighting the tree. She was proving she knew enough electronics to make it happen. I proved I had enough authority to make it unhappen.

The youngsters played happily under the care of Sarah who loves children and she took on the chore willingly. The important thing was keeping them occupied and from under our feet.

Christmas morning began with all the kids being excited from early on. I noticed real deer slots in the lawn near the back door and Sarah and Danni ran with my observation of the deer slots to show that Father Christmas and his reindeer had visited. They all came in covered in mud and two of them fell in it. Great start, next time I'll wait till summer, the mud will be warmer.

David had been up early to put the turkey in a low oven. I'm sure it was an ostrich and would require a crane or at least an A-Frame to lower it into the oven. we also had roast beef and a ham joint; for vegetarians we had veggie sausages and veggie gravy. After breakfast the kids were allowed to get their presents provided they ate a reasonable amount, chocolate not counting. I remember as a kid once eating half a box of Kitkats by mid-morning, and couldn't think why I didn't want any dinner.

Everyone enjoyed their presents and I liked, no loved the diamond stud ear rings that Simon gave me and he smiled when I gave him the Leatherman multi-tool. He threatened to use it to take Bramble's batteries out because she flew up the stairs as he was going up and he nearly fell. I thought it unlikely as long as he was sober, but the kids gave him so much grief, they love the cat, that he said he was only joking.

It was all hands to the pumps, no vegetables, that sounds better and everyone who could peel a spud was engaged to do some, also carrots, cauliflower, sprouts, mushrooms, broccoli and anything David had bought. I wondered who liked parsnips and decided I would invent a virus to eliminate them from Earth. I hate the bloody things.

First visitors were Jules and Phebes who came to help, mainly by eating mince pies and drinking tea, then we had Cindy and her mother who were on the way to see relatives but called by to deliver some chocs for the little ones. Then I sent Danni to collect Emily and her mum and while she was out our favourite shrink appeared with her now toddler, also called Emily. I slunk off to my study and had a cuppa, I was getting too old for this and despite the dishwasher, I worried about how much would be over in terms of dirties, when we'd all eaten. Then Maureen arrived, I'd forgotten I'd invited her. Trish kept David supplied with tea and complained when she discovered he only drank half of them and you can't warm them in a microwave because it makes the milk taste funny.

Julie and Mo renewed their acquaintance; they hadn't seen each other for ages. They laughed and joked as they remembered how they'd first met and how Maureen had mended Julie's MP3 player. In those days Maureen was a bit rough looking and Julie was afraid that being seen in her company would make others think that she was also a trannie, then she and Trish recalled how both thought the other was a bio female and gasped as they realised they weren't. It was when we first had Julie stay with us, and I recalled how my berating her for her laziness caused her to run off and hang herself. I found her just in time and we managed to revive her - the others mentioned the blue light and that I brought her back from the dead. which I doubted, though when Meems was hit by the young man falling into the pool, she had actually stopped breathing and my grief and anxiety caused the blue light to start her living again, I remember calling on the goddess to save her. On other occasions I managed to save the odd child at the QA and also I got Henry's life force to re-enter his body and also drew out some bullets from him as he lay in a hospital bed.

I hadn't used the healing light for some time nor had I called on the goddess to save someone's life. I slipped away to my study and shut the door. Then I sat quietly and tried to visualise the Golden Lady. After about ten minutes I heard her voice in my head demanding to know why I had summoned her, I told her that I wanted to say thank you for all the times her wisdom and powers had saved someone that I loved and I apologised for not showing enough gratitude for her interventions. She softened the voice that sounded in my head and told me that it was typical of humans to forget her when things were going well but to remember only when they weren't. She also told me that one day I would realise why things that happened had been used to show me what my purpose was to which I still pleaded ignorance. She told me, "One day you will know." She also told me that I still had the healing power and so did my daughters and their friend Cindy, but to use it wisely.

I thanked her again for saving Meems and Henry and she smiled and departed passing her blessings on me and mine. My dreamlike musings on the goddess were, however, disturbed when Trish and Meems came crashing into my study asking if I had seen the Golden Lady as she had appeared to them in the house as they had been talking to Cindy and she had seen her too. This time, instead of trying to deny or rationalise it away I just told them they were privileged to see her and not to tell anyone else because only her 'servants' could see her and in doing so she refreshed their special abilities to help others in dire straits. I also reminded them that only females could see her so to believe in her and themselves as deserving of her help.

They all were boosted by their experience and my explanation that they all had the essence of her in them and to call upon her guidance when they felt it was necessary and to follow the direction she gave them.

Trish, of course, said did that mean she could now have babies and I had to explain it didn't mean that, but they would have a new confidence in being female and that no one would ever question it. "They don't anyway," she replied and I told her, "But you do, and that won't happen again."

They all traipsed off back to the melee that my house was becoming and I shut the door of my study and once again thanked her Ladyship on behalf of my children even if they didn't quite understand or appreciate themselves, and I received a reply congratulating me for, 'taking the mote out of my own eye,' and her laughter resounding all through me. I suppose she had a point.

While everything was in preparation but under control, Daddy and I nipped out the back door in our waterproof coats, with Kiki, and I grabbed the flowers from my bike workshop and we walked up to the cemetery and presented them to the grave in which our late loved ones were interred. He stood and silently conferred with them and then called me to his side and we offered our greetings to them and I thought for a moment that I saw Billie, but it was only fleeting but the impression I got was one of happiness that we had remembered them during a time when all sorts of distractions were happening.

We said our goodbyes and walked back to our Christmas celebrations and I had a feeling that this year had been special and I said to Daddy, "This has been one of the best Christmases ever."

He looked at me and said, "Aye, sae ye feel it tae?" I nodded and thought previous Christmases were always filled with the mundanities of purely physical elements, worrying about gifts or food or whatever, this time for some reason there was something else. Now if that had been my evocation of the goddess or not I didn't know, but if it had been how did he sense it, as only women can? I puzzled over this as we strolled home and then he said, "There is something different about you, I don't know what but I think you have a sense of serenity about you, as if you have reconciled something that you couldn't before."

I smiled at him as we went back into the house and realised that he was a very sensitive man, why I'd never seen it before, I don't know. "You're quite right, Daddy, I sense a reconciliation with someone that has taken a little while." He smiled at me and the laughter of the goddess rang in my head. It was a good Christmas, yeah the best.

May 2024 be one of peace, prosperity and happiness,
I wish you all a Happy New Year.