Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 594.

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Wandering Dromedaries
(aka Bike)
Part 594
by Angharad
       
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“What about baby Desi? Don’t you love her too?” asked Dr Rose.

Trish blushed, a real fire engine red. “Oops, I forgot her, didn’t I?”

“Well she is a bit new on the scene,” I offered in mitigation.

“I love her too, she’s one of our family, even if she is a very little one.” Trish added, still blushing, but it had subsided to basic pillar box red.

“Talking of whom, I suppose we’d better get over and see her, and then pop and see Auntie Stella.” I gave Trish her coat to put on.

As she was doing so, Sam Rose leant across and whispered, “Is taking Trish into see Stella, really a good idea?”

“She’ll cope, it’ll also help her to understand if I end up taking in another waif and stray.”

“A new baby? That’s a hell of a lot of extra work. Think carefully before you commit to anything.”

“Thanks for caring, Sam, but if it needs to be done, it will be. Don’t worry, I’ll get some help in, the family can afford it.”

“Make sure they do. I don’t want to see you compromise the two you’ve already got as a consequence.”

“Do I take that as a verbal or written warning?”

“It’s concern from one who knows, and who is a great admirer of yours.”

Now it was my turn to blush. “Admirer in the sense of what you’ve done with these two children, and carrying the rest of the family. Don’t overdo it.”

“Yes, doc,” I teased.

“It’s what the doctor ordered.”

“Okay, I heard it loud and clear.” We shook hands and he left to do his next clinic. Trish and I went up to the prem baby unit.

“Hello, Cathy, come to blue light the baby?”

“I’m hoping to come to feed her, is that possible?”

“Can I help, Mummy,” Trish asked, jumping up and down.

The nurse winked and said, “I think she’s already been fed, had a bacon sandwich half an hour ago.”

“Oh well,” I sighed and shrugged.

Trish however, looked puzzled. “She had a bacon sandwich? I thought babies had bottles, my dollies do.”

“How big are your dollies?” asked the nurse.

“This big,” said Trish indicating the size between her hands.

“That explains it, if you gave ‘em bacon sarnies, they be this big,” the nurse held her hands quite a distance apart.

Trish now looked really perplexed, one could almost hear the wheels whirring inside her little head. I was desperately trying not to laugh. “You are telling lies, my dollies don’t have any teeth.”

“Oh dear,” said the nurse, “well babies can be born with teeth.”

This was obviously beyond Trish’s ability and knowledge base. She cuddled into me and asked, “Do babies have teeth?”

“Sometimes, but I think the nurse is pulling your leg.”

“Are you pulling my leg?” she asked the nurse.

“Yes, and yes you can feed the baby.”

Trish’s expression went from floundering to joy and she danced around me. “Come on, calm down, there are some very sick babies in here, so don’t bounce about the place and keep your voice down.”

“Yes, Mummy,” she replied very dejectedly. I don’t like telling her off but she needs to learn to stay calm.

A bleep went on another incubator, and the nurse called to a colleague, “Warm a bottle for Baby Cameron, and give it to her auntie, I’ll see to Baby White.”

Trish and I went up to see Desi, who was starting to grumble a little. I put my hands through the glove things and stroked her cheek, she seemed to calm immediately and reached for my finger, which I gave her.

“Yep, she’s plugged in,” said Trish.

“What?” I asked.

“The blue stuff is showing.”

“Shush, or they’ll make us leave,” I cautioned.

“Oh it’s you again, where did you go last night?” said the nurse as she placed the bottle in the incubator, where I could pick it up.

“Sorry?”

“You were here last night.”

“You must be mistaken, I wasn’t here; I was home looking after this one and her sister.”

“You’re takin’ the pi..mickey, in ya?”

“No, I am not. I wasn’t here yesterday.”

“Well you got a dead ringer, didn’t hear her come nor go. She just disappeared. Poof, just like that.”

“Sorry, I can’t do that, I have to use conventional doors.”

“Well she looked juss like ya, only she ’ad a sweat shirt thingy on. A red one, wiv a bike on the front of it.”

“You have one like that, Mummy, you wore it last night when you read us our story.”

One of these days, Trish is not going to drop me in it with her honesty and unnecessary comments. “I wasn’t here.”

“I thought I saw some funny blue light while you was ‘ere, too.”

“It wasn’t me.”

“Mummy does this thing with blue light, she’s doing it now.”

Talk about wanting to disappear, if I could do it last night, why not now. I couldn’t see this stupid light, so how come everyone else can?

“See?” said Trish pointing into the incubator.

“Dunno, maybe I can, maybe I can’t,” said the nurse.

I shut my eyes to try and hide and became aware that I could see it with my eyes shut. Okay, I wasn’t seeing it with my eyes but sort of with my mind’s eye. Now is that purely a subjective response, or simply imagination–wishful thinking variety?

“Charging her up, Cathy?” said the other nurse on her way back.

“Can you see this blue light thing?” asked the younger nurse.

“Sort of, sometimes, but you just look at that baby, she is lapping it up.” Puddin’ was gurgling and waving her arms and legs about. “That baby is happy and active, and it always happens when her auntie comes to see her.”

“Yeah, she was like that last night. You sure it weren’t you?”

“Absolutely positive.”

“Were you thinking about her?”

“Off and on, I suppose.”

“There you go then, one of them spectral people things,” said the senior nurse, “you projected yourself to be with her.”

“Look, I’m a biologist and I don’t believe in any of this stuff.”

I held the bottle with one hand while Trish steered it into Puddin’s mouth. She fed a bit more actively today.

“Does that matter?” asked the older nurse, “if it makes her better?”

“I suppose not. I won’t be running a controlled experiment, that’s for sure.”

“She’s still surrounded by a blue light, Mummy.” One of these days, I shall… No I won’t, she just has to learn when to keep her mouth shut, I still haven’t and I’m twenty four.

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