(aka Bike) Part 1053 by Angharad Copyright © 2010 Angharad
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I carried on straightening the wheel from Trish’s bike, hoping that Henry wouldn’t use too much bribery and corruption. Of course he did, and for the most part succeeded, he ran into some trouble when he asked Trish.
She happened to be standing outside my workshop when he spoke to her so I heard the whole thing.
“Hello, Trish, how ya doing?”
“I’m fine, Gramps.”
“Good, how would you like a trip up to Scotland to the castle?”
“No thanks–we went there before and people were trying to hurt Mummy and me.”
“I promise there won’t be any this time.”
“I don’t want to, Gramps.”
“Why not, you’ll have a wonderful time.”
“I don’t like your castle, Gramps.”
“Look, Mummy is going to take the United Nations job and so we need to help her. If you come up to Scotland with the rest of the family, she’ll have time to do her job properly, won’t she?”
“She doesn’t want to do that job, she told me.”
“A girl can change her mind, can’t she?”
“Yes, Gramps, but Mummy doesn’t do things like that.”
“Oh, so when did you become an expert on your mother?”
“I’m not an expert on anything, Gramps. Are you?”
“Only banking, I’m afraid, why?”
“So you’re not an expert on Mummy?”
“No, but then neither are you.”
“I’m not, Gramps, but I didn’t say I was, an’ I know she doesn’t want to do this job. Dr Gareth asked her, and she likes him very much.”
“How do you know that?”
“I heard her tell Auntie Stella that she had the hots for him, but it was never going to work because she loved Daddy.”
“Who is Dr Gareth?”
“He’s a nice man who Auntie Stella also fancies.”
“What? Both of them like him?”
“Yes, he’s very good looking. Even Daddy said that.”
“What–Simon knows this man, too?”
“Oh yes they met and liked each other–Dr Gareth is really nice, you’d like him too.”
“Would I now?”
“Oh yes, everyone likes him.”
“So do you like him?”
“Not especially.”
“Why not?”
“Because he wanted Mummy to do that stupid job.”
“What stupid job?”
“The same one you want her to do.”
“How do you know that?”
“She discussed it with Daddy, and he thought she should do it and she said she didn’t want to because she had six children to look after who needed her more than the United Nations.”
“I see, but if she had some help about the house, you wouldn’t need her so much would you?”
“I don’t understand, Gramps.”
“If someone helped her with the housework and cooking, took you to school and so on, she’d have more time to do the job wouldn’t she?”
“I like my Mummy to take me to school and she’s a good cook.”
“I’m sure she is, but she’s a very special lady and the rest of the world needs her to help them to protect wild animals which are becoming extinct–do you know what I mean by extinct?”
“Is that the same as endangered as they mention in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red Data Book.”
“You what?” spluttered Henry, and I nearly wet myself eavesdropping inside my workshop. “How do you know about all that?”
“Mummy told me, and I read it in one of her books.”
“You read her books?”
“She gets all sorts of nice books–really magazines from the Mammal Society, and she has one all the time called, Nature, but it’s got too many hard words in it so I don’t see it too often. Grampa Tom reads that one, too.”
“You read Nature?”
“Only bits of it, it’s too hard really. I much prefer Gaby stories.”
“What are they?”
“About a boy who’s really a girl, but he doesn’t know it until about book seven, who’s very good at bike racing–his mum is the world champion bike racer–in the books of course.”
“I see, a boy who’s really a girl who’s world champion–maybe I can see why you read Nature.
“The book from the Department of the Environment was nicer. That was on dormice. Have you met Spike? She’s really nice–oh, she’s a dormouse–that’s dor with one ‘O’ not two, because it comes from the French, Dormier means to sleep, from the Latin, Dormio, because they sleep half their lives.”
“Goodness, child, you know an awful lot for your age.”
“Not really, I like to read a lot. Did you know Mummy played Lady Macbeth when she was in school and got a very nice review in the local paper?”
“No I didn’t.”
“They could tell she was really a girl because they thought her name was Charlotte.”
“Did they? How do you know?”
“Julie found it on the internet and printed it off. She had long red hair in those days–she dyed it of course.”
“When she was in school?”
“Yes.”
“I thought she went to a bo---never mind.”
“She did go to a boy’s school because they didn’t know she was a really a girl.”
“Like your Gaby character?”
“Yes, only Gaby is a better racer and she turns into a girl spontenously.”
“Do you mean spontaneously?”
“Probably, I sometimes get big words mixed up a bit but I know, Muscardinus avellanarius, because I practiced that one.”
“Mustard what?” asked an awestricken Henry.
“Muscardinus not mustard, Gramps. It’s a dormouse. If you come inside I can show you a picture of one in Mummy’s book.”
“That’s okay, Trish, I know what they look like, I just didn’t know their Latin name.”
“You do now.” I imagined she was beaming at him, she always does when she’s embarrassed you with her intellect. “I have to see if Mummy has mended my bike wheel–I crashed it. She says she’s going to buy me a racer like Billie’s–she’s such a lucky girl.”
“Doesn’t it worry you that a couple of weeks ago she was a boy?”
“No, I knew she would be more comfortable as a girl. Girls can tell, you know.”
“Ah, that would explain why it was such a surprise to me. It’s not going to happen to Danny as well is it?”
“Oh no, Gramps, he’s a proper boy–Mummy didn’t want Billie to be a girl, she liked him as a boy.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, Billie had to work really hard to convince her.”
“I don’t suppose you helped her, did you?”
“Only a little bit, she’s too girly for me.”
I snorted at this, and they realised I was possibly listening, so I walked out into the drive–“Goodness bending over that truing vice doesn’t half hurt your back,” I groaned, holding my lower back.
“Did you realise this child reads your professional journals?”
“Henry, nothing surprises me about Trish.”
“That’s a very lackadaisical attitude, young lady–if she’s reading those, what else could she be reading?”
“Like the annual report of your bank, you mean?”
“Ha bloody ha, no–like adult only material.”
“I wasn’t aware we had any of that here, why?”
“Well she hardly reads age appropriate stuff does she?”
“She does, Henry, but it bores her–she gets through a Famous Five book in a morning–my journals keep her going for a bit longer because she has to look words up.”
“Surely she doesn’t understand them, does she?”
“Not all of it, but she often gets the gist of it.”
“How d’you know?”
“She asks me questions if she gets stuck, or she’ll speak to Tom about it.”
“That’s not natural–is it?”
“It is for a kid with an IQ of above one sixty.”
“Oh!”
“Absolutely. So did you ask them?”
“Oh about the job–they all seemed happy with it.”
“I thought Trish said no?”
“So you could hear us?”
“I could hear her.”
“Well the majority wins anyway.”
“I thought it had to be unanimous to win.”
“I don’t recall saying that.”
“You implied it.”
“I think you misheard me, Cathy–or is it Charlotte Macbeth?”
“Oh she told you about that did she?”
“She did. Your hair was long in those days then?”
“Longer than it is now. I got it cut when I went to Sussex. Didn’t want to give them the wrong idea.”
“If you’d left it, they would have got the right idea a lot quicker.”
“Yeah, perhaps you’re right.”
“Invariably, my dear girl,” he said with an insufferable smugness.
Comments
Some Kid.
Cathy's gonna have to watch that girl. It get's trickier as they get older. Who's going to be her final 'answer-man'. Is there anybody in Cathy's circle who will be able to meet her half way?
Still Loving it Angharad.
Hope you had a good time up t'lakes!
OXOXOX
Beverly
Even Albert Einstein...
found people he could interact with. Children. Apparently he was a crack shot with his water gun.
Einstein's brain
I remember that on autopsy they found something strange about his brain and surmised that is what made him able to do what he did. He did have a horrible time with regular 'rithmatic, but shined in his field. I didn't learn multiplication tables unti I was 22, but unfortunately I just don't get Theoretical Physics. :)
K
Betr. Einsteins Gehirns (Brain)
What different with his Brain was he had Aspergers, so complicated mathematics was no problem for him but understanding people and emotions was much harder. And he COULD do sums pretty well, the story about him not comes from when he was playing violin with a famous musician, but slipped out of sinc with him, and said musician cried out "Albert, your problem is you cant count!".
Briar
Briar
Rent a teenager now
while they know it all. Okay, so Trish is only five - five going on fifteen.
I suppose that blessed cat's been at the keyboard again.
Susie
I have to wonder...
Will Trish decide to "hide" her intelligence some day? I know my older daughter did. She was carrying on - a bit like Trish - explaining genetics to one of her five (5) year old friends. (& getting it right)... Then, at one point, she stopped answering in class and such - her grades didn't suffer, but she also didn't share them with her friends. Luckily this only lasted about two years. By high school, she decided that it wasn't worth it to hide, and if guys were afraid of a smart girl, that was too bad. (She did end up having to "ask out" the guy that is still her boy friend, cause he couldn't get the courage up to ask someone so smart...) She doesn't appear to be quite Trish's level of intelligence, but she's danged smart. Having watched a girl go through that, I wonder if a girl like Trish might also go through a phase like that. Her extra "secret" might well add to general "angst" of being smart - once she gets to upper school.
Thank you for sneaking this interesting topic into the story. How society treats intelligent women IS an issue. I don't know if raising this issue was intentional or not, but, for me anyway, it raised it.
Thanks,
Anne
Really enjoying this!
You should have heard the laughter as I read through the conversation between Henry and Trish. The Camerons are certainly going to have their hands full when Trish is older—as if they don't now.
Thanks A+B: you've certainly managed to brighten up my day.
Oh, and that whole UN thing is certainly not yet resolved.
I wonder if there's some opportunity for Cathy to do a little matchmaking between Stella and Gareth... you know the idea: organise a dinner meeting at a restaurant and trick Stella into going in her place, type of thing; drop lots of hints in both directions... might work.
Precious Stuff
Bike Archive
Bike Resources
Looks Like Henry ran into a Jersey wall
Jersey Wall- Cement and re-bar about 4 feet high used to divide roads or cordon off lanes during roadwork. Trish+ Jersey Wall. Now if I can just figure out how to get Trish to represent me in court, If I could only find enough of the right kind of Currency, though I have a feeling she only accepts those kind of hugs from her mummy Cathy. Just wonderful as usual Dear One
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
Bike pt 1053
Out of the mouth of a child shall come utter confusion . Poor Henry finally met Cathy's little Einstien for one heck of a chat. But what about the position?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
truing vice
One of many British English spellings that causes no end of merriment for Americans. No wonder he was worried about "adult" reading material when she keeps different sorts of vice in the garage.
Cheers,
Puddin'
British Truing Vice
American Touring Vice
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
We English
often seem to have one word with one spelling and with at least two meanings. Nations divided by a common language? You betcha!
I have to wonder, though, if my friends across the Atlantic have a better language usage and spelling sometimes.
Susie
I seriously doubt it Susan.
[email protected] We Yanks can have one word with the same spelling, and it can have entirely different meanings; totally dependant on what part of the country you're in at the time.
Jonelle
[email protected]
You got it right the first time.
I just love seeing realise instead of realize. The former seems so much nicer to me. I hate the letter zed! My ancestors were from Worchestershire, do you think it's in me genes, or Jeans?
Jolly good then, carry on.
Khaduuj
better language usage?
Depends on what one means by it. Languages are languages, and are essentially a set of rules of etiquette by means of which one strives not to offend (or the reverse -- depending on one's mood) In many cases, American English retains features of the language that the British have moved beyond, but were still current in their common language in 1776.
McGuffey's Graded Readers, which were wildly popular in the former Colony, helped to regularise spellings which varied indifferently in the Mother Country, which is how the whole -ise / -ize thing started. Just so one doesn't imagine that the McGuffey Readers were an unmitigated blessing, they also helped to spread vicious anti-Semitism and racism throughout the USA, and were unabashedly "Christian" (Protestant) in outlook, openly reviling non-Protestant groups. One learned not only how to read and spell using the Readers, but how to think. They're still quite popular in many religious and conservative circles on the far Right, which one may take as one will.
The OED, arguably the most prestigious arbiter of "proper" usage, still insists on -ize in every word descended from Greek roots, where -ise is "supposed" to appear only in Greek (and other) words that entered English through French. The British were mad for the French (not at the French) for simply ages, so the "ignorant" -ise usage spilled over into a lot of words it really ought not to have done.
What can one say? People name their children after football players.
When one has a crush, any number of things can happen.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Trish v. Henry
Henry's manipulative disingenuousness is pretty shameful. This should mean war! And, I know just what to do...
Cathy should get Trish a book on securities trading and a brokerage account and see how long it takes Trish to own Henry's bank! For a little girl, or a big one, or even a quite grizzled Wall Street shark, she's remarkably confident and motivated, besides the whole brilliantly intelligent and intuitive thing. I've no doubt she'd be making billions in default credit swaps and sending Henry to the cleaners in no time at all. None.
I hope she paints the castle pink.
___________________
If a picture is worth 1000 words, this is at least part of my story.
I think she has that planned for her
10th birthday. Scary.
Sheesh, I did not understand that kinda stuff until I was 8 or 9, amazing. Then again, I was really enjoying reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica about that time.
Good times.
Kim
>> Henry's manipulative disingenuousness is pretty shameful...
Well, what if he's right? Countless people have commented on Cathy's perfect suitability for the job, and believe that she could make a real difference, the which a thousand other people might not.
We see quite clearly that the world is going to Hell in a hand basket (environmentally speaking) yet everyone still insists upon "growth," because that's the only way to dig ourselves out of the hole we're in without massive redistribution of wealth all around the world.
But growth is also suicide.
Should Cathy make sure that her children have nice hot meals growing up, or work to ensure they won't be eaten in food riots thirty years from now?
Decisions, decisions....
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Excellent update!
Oh, my!
I used to know someone who reminded me a lot of little Trish here. . . Me.
But Trish is twice as smart, or at least well informed, 'cause at that age I only had access to general reading. . . the only professional books in the house were really boring school administration stuff. I DID read the encyclopedia, however. . .
Of course, Trish is a lot more confident than I ever was. . . For that matter I still haven't managed to tell my parents I'm really a girl, and I'm 54. Of course if they live more than a couple more years I'll have to tell 'em, but maybe, if I just procrastinate long enough. . .
You mean that...
it's not "normal" to read the encyclopedia from cover to cover? (I'll not tell anyone you did, if you don't tell anyone I did. Okay?)
Anne
I can imagine...
...Trish routinely using Wikipedia when she gets her hands on a computer - and when she's a bit older, being an avid Wikipedian - both editing / enhancing nature-related articles, and probably salting dormouse-related articles with references to mummy...
But now Cathy's overheard directly Henry's manipulation, perhaps she can demand a rerun of the vote, this time with an election monitor in tow (e.g. Trish)
Given the various schemes and plots Trish seems to be either involved in or instigating, I can't help but wonder if she's the unofficial second in command of the household... or at least, the unofficial leader of the children...
EAFOAB Episode Summaries
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
guess that I've
got another thing to be UN'normal' about.
I'm not sure I read it ENTIRELY cover to cover, but, not by much, usually stuff I'd already read before or stuff I got bored with. This was the summer inbetween my 5th-6th grade yrs. Only cause I didnt have access to much else I hadnt read that summer. Ya read what's available I guess.
Loving Trish more and more
Maybe Henry needs to shift directions on hiring the biologist. Or maybe the UN needs to let Cathy have an assistant.
Memo to Henry
never get into an argument with Trish....You'll lose!!!
After that performance by Trish, I would imagine Gramps Henry is making all sorts of plans for his grand-daughter's future....Watch out Simon, Maybe even your job isn't safe!
Kirri
Henry
Came to teach and convince the kids something , and learned something about Trish in return.
He is a smart old bird himself, Trish will probably have a job waiting in 15-20 years.