The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3459 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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None of us had slept well either in our house or in the central police station cells, where Joyce had been taken. I had engaged a defence counsel for her, Kit Mitten KC, and who had worked for me before. By the time, Tina and I had got there, Kit was already there looking to watch over statement taking and applying for bail. In his words it was a clear case of self defence, he was trying to kill me and had threatened to do similar to his daughter, just because was transgender, not something we can help any more than the colour of our eyes.

I had had a strange thing happen during the night. I have one of these multipeg things hanging over the bath on which I hang towels and laundered smalls to dry or air. Our bathroom has a bath /shower, wash basin and loo, it was the latter I was using in the middle of the night, the light from outside making it light enough for me to see well enough not to put the ceiling light on and dazzle myself. I glanced at me towel hanging from the pegs and suddenly it became Jesus on the cross. I blinked but the mirage or hallucination stayed there and he asked me in quiet voice why I persecuted him. It took me aback for a second, it's not every day that Jesus comes to your bathroom. I looked him in the eye and answered, "Why do so many of your followers persecute people like me?" He looked at me strangely and just faded away, the matter faded from my mind until I was in the interview being questioned about the night and its violent end.

I gave my take on things saying that I had tried to tell Howard that guns were both dangerous and illegal and asked him to put the gun down. He may have been used to shotguns but not handguns and fell for the oldest trick when I told him the safety catch was still on, enabling me to try and take the gun off him. It worked and I smashed his gun-holding-hand against the edge of the desk, breaking some bones in the process. He subsequently dropped the gun, then hit me, and was going attack me again when Joyce must have picked up the gun and shot him. Thereafter, I and some of my girls gave him first aid while an ambulance and police arrived.
Joyce was arrested and the rest of us gave statements, which I was doing again although I hadn't thought of anything different. I hadn't seen Joyce pick up the gun as I was too busy trying to defend myself. The shot concentrated my attention and I went into first aider role, trying to stop the bleeding there by protecting Howard and my Chinese carpet upon which he was lying.

I was allowed to leave as soon as I regave my statement by which time Kit had managed to get bail for Joyce and we all travelled back home in my car. The hospital informed us that Howard was critical but stable. Joyce told us what they had said and added, "That's the bloody problem, he was always hypercritical, especially of Tina."

"At least you weren't arrested for murder," I offered.

"If I had been, I'd have pleaded self-defence and guilty. I shot him with intention of killing him to protect all of us and especially Tina. He was going to kill you, you realise that?"

"Several have tried, looks like my fairy godmother, looks after me."

"Your Guardian Angel, surely?" she queried my statement.

"Whatever," I shrugged remembering my experience in the bathroom that night. Mind you, if Jesus had had a Guardian Angel, we may have all been practicing Mithraism, well not me, because it was largely a religion of soldiers and men only, never mind being resurrected, I'd have failed the medical in the first place.

My mind recalled my response to his question and I felt it was true, but also I had never persecuted him personally, I just didn't believe he was god incarnate and I decided as a young teen, I would never worship a man mad god, which is what the evidence suggests once you take the supernatural out of it. But what people believe is up to them, they just don't have the right to prescribe for everyone else and try to force their delusions down others' throats, which is the case in many places be they Christian, Islamic or anything else. So I despise organised religions and their self righteous followers.

I noticed that English law had been passed to stop anti-abortionists going within 150 yards of an abortion service, where complaints of intimidation of patients and staff had been levelled at the 'Life' campaigners. Personally, I think it's none of their business, it's a decision for the woman concerned and perhaps her family and the medical advice she gets. Abortions are a socio-medical issue, religion should butt-out. When the sanity goes out of it, as in the US, thanks to Trump, you have the ridiculous situation where women who have a medical need for abortion can't get them and things like pregnant mothers carrying dead foetuses to full term, because the law and its excitable enforcers, won't let the foetus be removed or aborted. But then the US is fast becoming a theocracy and all sorts of idiot things will happen under Trump ll. Thank goodness I don't live there.

Back to my story or that of Joyce, Howard was recovering from being shot, it was going to be a long job, but a murder charge was never needed and self-defence seemed the most obvious answer, but then, when has the law followed common sense? Kit represented her for a few more occasions before someone in the Crown Prosecution Service actually read the statements and threw out the charge, and Howard was to be charged with attempted murder with a firearm. We withdrew charges against him given that he would be charged with possession of an illegal firearm and guaranteed at least 5 or more years. We settled for that in the hope that when he recovered from his injuries and imprisonment he may have learned the folly of his actions. If not, then he may not survive his next attack upon me or his daughter.

Tina looks quite a bright child and was adapting to girlhood very quickly, she had two years before GCSEs and then two years of A/S-level before university by which time the hormone will have done their bit and hopefully, she will have become comfortable in the female role. I think she should do well, although she has to go abroad to get blockers and hormones, thanks to the government. It begins to look as if many governments are anti-transgender. I know some politicians are here, but it appears that lack of clinical proof of outcomes is being used by Parliament and Dr Cass. We all know how successful treatment can be we just have to be patient and let the doubters see it for themselves.

There are some vociferous elements on both sides who need to be muzzled and common sense be allowed to prevail. Unfortunately, neither side will shut up, slowing things down in the process. It seemed crazy that twenty years ago when I went through the process, things were easier than they are now, but I suppose they call that progress - don't think I agree but can't do much about it.

Tina and Joyce eventually went home and I was able to devote my attention to earn my salary. we were still having a bit of bother with TERFs. Once they were identified we pointed out that they had agreed the policies of the university when they applied. They were thus in possible breach of the terms of their admission. Once this was pointed out to them, most told us it was unintentional and their degrees became more important than the sex-politics, especially when we pointed out that the university would not tolerate any misogyny or persecution of minority groups.

I made an address to all first year students and made quite an issue of this latter point, stating that anyone found to be in breach of the rules of the university could find themselves suspended or worse, asked to leave, and their degree could be invalidated. They were left in no doubt about the university's support for sexual/ gender, ethnic or religious minorities provided those minorities didn't become breachers of the university's code themselves, if they did there would be consequences they wouldn't like. Sometimes I wondered why we couldn't all just live in peace and cooperation, but it seems hot-heads and disrupters will always be there and we will need to deal with them. I hope in a kindly way, because their can't be too much kindness in this world wherever you are.

Trish seemed to be keeping her distance from us. She was still occupied with astrophysics and calculations for all sorts odd scenarios that may be encountered in various space missions to other planets. In our brief conversation when she answered the phone, despite my frequent attempts to contact her, she said that the European Space Agency were interested in recruiting her. I jokingly said, " don't get sent to Mars will you because getting hold of you is hard enough now," to which she replied, "Yeah that's a one way trip, exciting isn't it?" She then rang off and I was quite unsettled by the conversation. Is suicide always exciting ? I wondered.