The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3466 by Angharad Copyright© 2024/2025 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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Tom continued to recover and they were baffled that his heart seemed to have healed itself, the consultant compared it to a scan they had done when he was first admitted. "His heart is almost normal, for a thirty-five year old, why is that? It should have large areas of fibrous tissue where it was damaged by the MI, why has that recovered, it doesn't usually?"

"Your treatment is obviously better than you thought," I offered and Danni was smirking behind him.

"Who is this woman?" he asked a nurse.

"His daughter," replied the nurse.

"How is the old lady?" I asked and Danni smirked some more.

"She's been sent to an ordinary non-surgical ward, we hope to discharge her later in the week, why she isn't dead I don't know, she had a massive MI, her kidneys were shot and I reckon she was hours away from meeting her maker, but there you go, she's about 200% better and going home instead of to a funeral director's. Why do you ask?"

"We prayed for all that were in ICU, that's all it seems our prayers were answered."

"Indeed, though I think those who have lots of people praying for them, statistically, do less well than those who don't."

"I suppose it depends to whom you pray."

"Obviously. Most people I know worship Mammon and pray when they're counting their money."

"Is that just doctors?" I asked and Danni had to cough to hide her chuckle.

"Got something against us?" as the cardiologist.

"No, I'm actually grateful that your clever treatment has saved my dad."

"You're not taking the piss are you?"

"Me!" I exclaimed, "Not at all."

"Why is your daughter smirking?"

"She does it all the time, teenagers do, I know I have loads of them at the university."

"What, at Pompey?"

" Yeah, about a thousand last time I counted 'em, trouble is they won't stand still for us."

"Now, I know you're taking the urine."

"Professor Watts, your father was asking you to see him again before you go."

"Professor eh? Of What?"

"Biological sciences."

"You're not that dormouse woman are you?"

"I've been called worse," I replied watching Danni nearly explode trying not to laugh.

"I think most of us have. You know I quite enjoyed my time teaching at medical school."

"Hopefully, most of your students wanted to learn."

"Most yes, but not all."

"At least you didn't have born-again morons questioning everything evolutionary even though what we are trying to teach them is evidence based through molecular biology."

"You can't inform the deliberately ignorant."

"Yes, I discovered that a few years ago and since then we have the occasional dissenter, most years."

"Can't you get them to fill out a form or something declaring that they accept evolution as fact?"

"Maybe, we get them to sign an acceptance of the university's policy on difference and diversity, but they still protest about certain aspects even though we send them the whole document."

"What are they complaining about?"

"Some racial issues, Palestine and Israel, gender issues, we had the TERFs protesting because we had a transwoman as post grad student."

"What are TERFs when they are at home?" he asked.

"Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, apparently if you don't bleed you don't have a right to call yourself a woman."

"Not all women menstruate, what about those post-menopausal ladies, or those whose equipment doesn't function for whatever reason?"

"Quite."

"I can't believe in this dangerous and uncertain world, with thousands in poverty, probably millions worldwide, there are people who protest about someone who sees herself as female even though they may be originally male, what does it matter in the greater scheme of things?"

"My thoughts exactly."

"Nice to have met you, professor, if you can manage a few more prayers, I'd be grateful."

"I'll see what I can do," I smiled and went back to Daddy who wanted me to ask something of his secretary.

"If that means her sending you work, no, I won't. You've just had a myocardial infarct, you have to rest, so you're not worrying about what the mice are doing while you're away."

He pleaded for several minutes but I was adamant, in terms of the greater picture, the university could go and fuck itself, my father was by far more important to me and I expressed that to him in simple terms, he's only a professor after all, and a man to boot. He eventually gave up and I watched him slip into sleep as we left exhausted by an argument he'd have won a few days ago. He needed rest and I threw a cover of blue light over him but only Danni saw it and she smiled again.

Back at uni we went down to the labs and I left my post grad student teaching her how to use keys, or one that on water beetles. It was one I got years ago, by Laurie Friday but it's still very usable. I watched for a few moments when I noticed that neither had a complete idea of what they were trying to do, so I intervened and I think within an hour they had both got the hang of it, it's not rocket science and the book is an AidGap Identification Guide, so it's written in simple terms for undergraduate and keen amateur use. They are excellent guides and I have several in my collection including one on Freshwater snails, Danni gave me for Christmas and with which I was very satisfied.

I told Diane I was taking Friday off to do something at home, she didn't query it assuming it was about Tom, but Sarah, Danni and I got together in my study and we identified all the snails they had found in their tree-root hole, so we had to use both the land snail and water snail keys and even then there were one or two we weren't sure about because some of the fauna we found were terrestrial that had fallen in to out newish hole, things like mites and the odd bloody snail. However, we had a useful day, both were far happier using keys and with just a minimal knowledge of invertebrate anatomy, much of which we were able to locate on the internet and print off some very useful diagrams, that way they didn't have to have to memorise so much. I told them if they did more of it, they'd soon learn their anatomy, which you don't if only using it now and again.

The other plus to our day was having David do a luxurious 'snack' meal for lunch, if I ate at home for lunch for long, I'd be well overweight, but it's so tempting and a pudding to follow, it was too much, no wonder we're all having heart attacks or becoming diabetic, we all overeat - well, most of us, I am aware of youngsters in this country who don't get enough food to eat, I suspect because their families don't have enough income, but often those who are on the breadline make poor judgements. I mulled about this while the two girls went back to their project and sent the local food-bank some extra money. I sent it anonymously so no one would know it's origins, I sent it through the bank who could just tell the food-bank people, that they received the money anonymously and were instructed to pay it to the Portsmouth food bank.

It was more fiddly than I had intended and I began to wonder why I bothered, but then I thought how much more my contribution would help especially in the cold spell we were having. Temperatures dropped to -18C in parts of the highlands last night, no wonder the bloody cat was so friendly when I was in bed last night, of course she hasn't got Trish to cuddle with now, I drifted off to sleep wondering how my daughter was doing up at Cambridge and was she missing Bramble at night. If Bramble missed her it was only until she got herself into my bedroom and cuddled up with my feet. They were actually warm with my feline over-blanket, so I may just allow it to happen again tonight.

Cats are quite adaptable when given a chance and while she does go out she essentially a house-cat, especially in the cold weather, and we treat her to prevent fleas and other ectoparasites and worm her to try and prevent endoparasites, like worms, so she's probably healthier than we are, she certainly has an easy life but then she is our pet, so we spoil her. If my door is shut she goes along the line and Danni is next, then Sarah and so on down to the children. Bramble finds herself a bed quite easily because she is quite innoccuous and tends to lie quietly once on a bed with a bit of human to keep her warm. Furcoat? Oh I see, yeah she's got one but she doesn't let her stop from keeping someone's feet warm, and once there she becomes comatose until they wake the next morning and she finds a willing slave to give her breakfast, usually me, but not always. Danni has been known to feed her and even Emily, you remember my housekeeper, who looks after all the loose ends if I have to leave early or am late getting up. When Simon is home, they all allows us the occasional late start because some of them know what it it's like to be separated from a loved one and the re-bonding rituals that occur when they come home.

We don't get as many jokes about me walking awkwardly, or bed spring jokes as we used to, perhaps they are growing up but I know they are pleased to see their dad, even if it is because he brings treasure or is it bribes for them if they comply, sweets it used to be, now it's good ol' money - well, he is a banker. I'm not sure how much I approve because it could be storing up trouble for later. I don't want children who will only do things for rewards, as it isn't the way I was raised, nor Simon for that matter. I like to think the older children, such as Sammi and Mima aren't like it otherwise. Sammi is still running the security for the bank and helping GCHQ when she has time, and Mima has a degree in English and a master's one in History and is teaching at Southampton Uni and researching for a PhD, it seems education is in our blood, not that she is a blood relative, being foisted on us our first foster child. We hear nothing about her real parents and assume if they are alive, that they are missing her, or her mother is, but she stopped writing very occasionally when Meems told her that it just upset her. Anyway the lies they told us and then we found they were con men, whose prey was mostly Arab or African states who were often dictatorships and who were added to the number chasing them to get their money back or retribution. I suppose it gives them something to do, if you don't mind a life built on paranoia. I know I prefer to earn an honest day's pay for one of work, we have the odd teacher who seems to think that attending during working hours is enough and to whom it hasn't occurred that they may be required to work as well. I haven't appointed any myself and the odd one has been getting away with it for years, doing just enough to hide their laziness, so now we have a procedure that requires every teacher form beginner to professor to do one lecture a year to the whole university which is scored by the students and if they don't rate highly enough, they have to do a retraining course and that is supervised by departmental professors. If they fail the course of refuse to attend, they face a disciplinary. If that's a written warning, one more strike and they are out. It's amazing how mention of termination leads to performance improvement, at least in the short term. People who have become permanently lazy tend to lapse and it is a bother to get rid of them but we tend to send them for counselling as well to try and determine why they are like it and how they can change. It can be pretty brutal but it does help them to focus and we occasionally rid ourselves of deadwood, including those who hide behind sick leave but that's another story.

Today Simon is home for the weekend and Tom is coming home from hospital, so things look pretty good at least for a few days and that seems to be the limitation life puts on these things, but I'm not complaining for once. Bless you all.