The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3457 by Angharad Copyright© 2024 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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Danni seemed in better spirits the next day and I began to think I needed to take my own advice, except I hadn't really remembered of what we had spoken, except I reassured her which was probably all she needed. We had breakfast and I called the local police and said how much longer did we have to wait for them to prove they were losers and when would they enable us to go home. They knew our address as well as my university address so why couldn't we go. I did promise to come back if they really needed to talk to me, but seeing as their case was a nonsense I didn't really expect to do so.

We packed, thanked the hotel for their hospitality, signed the visitors book, packed and left to call at Trish's house and then head for home. Trish was in bed, Danni went up to her room and told her the facts of life, after which she came down looking like something the cat had brought in. She still seemed tired and I wondered if she was taking anything. She explained that she had been working on a theoretical problem about gravitational effects on a body on the surface of Mars, her body was one of the Mar's Rovers and keeping it working as long as possible. I mentioned the dust storms which happened every so often which tend to block the solar panels. It seemed she hadn't thought of that and asked where I had heard about it. I told her that Professor Brian Cox had mentioned in his current series about the solar system and she went off on one. "That bloody man, he's a particle physicist so why doesn't he stick to his own subject?"

I didn't know but because I'm so thick, I understood much better how things worked on the planets from his explanations. We left with her looking up his series on iPlayer and forgetting to say goodbye.

Danni and I left her to ponder the mysteries of the solar system as I did the vagaries of British traffic systems and drivers as we headed for Portsmouth. I was looking forward to seeing the rest of my family and Danni was looking to get back in training and playing for Bournemouth again. We were going round the M25, the world's first circular car park when I had an urge to pull off and drive down through Surrey.

Danni had been dozing and noticed the change in scenery and sat up and asked where we were. She looked at a signpost and asked me why were driving down this road. I couldn't answer her but felt a need to turn off into a track that led to Swandown Farm. I drove all the way to the farmhouse which looked as if the farm was quite prosperous. I drove past the house to a large barn where it looked as if a man was beating seven bells out of a young woman. I stopped the car and Danni was off and jumped on the man temporarily knocking him down while I ran up to the young woman who had severe bruising and bleeding to her face and upper body. I helped her sit down and then went to help Danni who had been thrown off the man who was walking towards her. I stepped in his way and asked him if he wanted to try someone closer to his size.

He rushed at me and I let him run past me and then tripped him as he went using his momentum to make him fall heavily. He got up and charged at me again and the same happened, he swore at me and told me to stand still while he hit me. He charged at me but stopped before I could trip him, he swung at me and I stepped back out of his reach and planted a flying drop kick to his chest, he dropped like a stone, then rose so I did it again. After the third kick he lay still, although he was still conscious. I asked him if he had had enough and he nodded, breathing heavily.

Danni was now with the young woman who was sobbing and had her head in her hands. She led her towards the house. The man got up and staggered towards us and I threw a ball of blue light at him and he fell down again and groaned.

Inside the house we found an older woman who had been assaulted too. The younger woman ran to her and they embraced. Danni went to the kitchen and found some glasses and brought each of them a drink of water. She then went to find a kettle and some tea bags and we had a cuppa and listened to their story.

The younger woman called herself Christine or Tina and her mother was called Joyce. It appeared that they thought the man, her father was away on a business trip and he came back early and found Tina and beat her up, after hitting her mother. It transpired that Tina was actually a boy called Timothy, but had felt himself to be a girl when he was quite small. His father had caught him several times in his sister's clothes and beaten him. He didn't want a pansy for a son. His mother had been much more understanding and let him change when his dad wasn't about. His sister Sally was off at Cambridge Uni reading for a microbiology degree and knew about her 'sister' and condoned it, even giving her, her old clothes.

I looked out the window and I noticed the father had moved and seemingly gone. I hadn't heard a car start so presumably he was somewhere on the property. I was listening for sounds of movement advising them to seek professional help against the violence and about Tina transitioning when the door burst open and the enraged father rushed in brandishing a shot gun. "Now let's see your clever stuff, bitch," he said loudly to me.

"Put the gun down or someone is going to get hurt," I said to him.

"Yeah, you and after that I'm gonna kill that fucking nancyboy." It called for something urgently as he drew back the triggers on the gun. I threw a ball of energy at him which knocked the gun out of his hands and followed it up with throwing my cup half full with tea at his face. He yelled and rushed at me, Danni having hit him in the face with an empty cup which caught him in the eye. He stopped and then went for the gun only I dived for it and rolled away and threw it across the room.

He jumped on me and began to try and strangle me, his weight pinning me to the floor, i struggled but to no avail. Just when I thought he was going to succeed Tina picked up the shotgun and smacked him across the head, he slumped on me and I needed help to get out from under him. He lay still. Danni was on the phone and was calling the police. Now that a firearm had become involved, the police had to be notified.

"I suppose I'd better go and change," said Tina half heartedly.

"No," said her mother and we both agreed. The police needed to see the evidence for themselves. They were quick as they can be when guns are mentioned and a firearms unit arrived in about ten minutes with a helicopter hovering above.

Father went off in an ambulance, but in handcuffs. The gun was removed and with another cuppa we talked for a couple of hours about what had happened.

"How did you become involved?" the inspector, a woman asked me.

"I don't know, it was as if something was calling me to come."

"Like a phone call."

"No, it was all in my mind, but just as real."

"Spooky," she said and when they had decided it safe for them to go and interview the father, she had taken my name and address, told us to be available if necessary for further discussions. We gave statements and I suggested that I had children at home who needed me. As we were saying goodbye, Tina thanked me, she had been checked over by a paramedic who recommended she saw her own doctor. "I called on the goddess when he had hit Mum and came for me, she summoned you, didn't she?"

"I don't know, but she must have heard you cry for help. Sometimes these things defy mundane explanations."

"Thank you, Lady Catherine," said Joyce, "from now on Tina's here to stay. How did you produce the blue stuff?"

"Watch Tina, because one day she will produce her own, the goddess is strong in her, just let her find her path, as she may now."

"I'm going to divorce him and get away from here, somewhere where Tina can exist safely."

"Well, think carefully where you go because even in big cities bigots exist and will try to mess with you. Even in my university we occasionally have problems, most recently with an ultra-feminist group who were trying to get a transgender student expelled for being themselves. It strikes me as absurd that a group of lesbians, who want acceptance and recognition of their right to be who they feel they are can't seem to give that same acceptance to trans women."

"Do you have lots of transwomen at your university?"

"No, just the odd one but we have policies which support them if they are serious in transitioning, just as we accept gay and lesbian groups and try to support them, because some people have very hard lives dealing with their own problems, they don't need us to add to them."

"Didn't you recently have a daughter abducted in Cambridge?"

"Yes, she's okay now and doing a PhD."

"I saw it in the paper, I'm glad she's safe, they are such a worry when they are away from home."

"Yes, but we have to let them go and support them as best we can."

"Such a clever lady," she remarked to Tina as we leaving.

"Huh, there were two of us you know," complained Danni as we drove off.

"I'm sure they notice Desperate Dan's assistance. How about we stop and get you a cow pie on the way home?" She hit me on the shoulder and we both laughed as I found my way back to the motorway.