Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1351

The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike)
Part 1351
by Angharad

Copyright © 2011 Angharad
All Rights Reserved.
  
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Later that evening, the firechief, Malcolm Crozier knocked the door–I was pleased he’d left his axe in the van. “Lady Cameron, how nice to meet you again.”

“To what to I ascribe this honour, Mr Crozier?”

“I came to bring you these,” he produced a lovely bunch of irises.

“Do come in,” I led him into the kitchen, “we have half a dozen rooms, but this is the one which will give us the greatest peace.”

I offered him tea or coffee and he opted for the latter, “The offer for your lad remains, bring him down to the station and we’ll show him over the place.”

“Thanks but if I bring him, the others will want to come as well or feel left out.”

“How many have you got–children, I mean?”

“From the top down–Julie, Danny–you saw, Billie, Trish, Livvie, Mima, Catherine and my niece, Puddin’.”

“Golly–they all yours, you don’t seem old enough?”

“Appearances can be deceptive, but yes they’re all mine by adoption, except Pud, she’s my niece.”

“Pud?”

“Short for Puddin’ her nick name, her real name is Desiree, but she doesn’t come to that. Fortunately, she and Catherine are in bed, the others will be going soon.” I made him some coffee and as I handed it to him Trish ambled in.

“I’ve done that search for you, Mummy, found it on Google with a bit of fiddling.”

“This, Mr Crozier, is Trish.”

She hadn’t noticed him. “Oh, sorry, how d’ya do,” she said holding out a tiny hand for the huge mitt of the fire chief to shake. “They’re nice, Mummy.”

“Yes, Mr Crozier brought them for me–would you like to put them in some water for me, you know where that tall vase is, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mummy,” she wandered into the pantry where there were some vases on the floor. We both watched as she selected one, filled it at the sink and began arranging the irises in it.

“She looks remarkably like you.”

“She has two arms, legs and one head, so yeah, we have similarities.”

“She has your magic as well, doesn’t she?”

“Does she–I don’t think there’s any such thing as magic.”

“Your healing gift.”

“Curse might be more appropriate, and it doesn’t always work.”

“No, the poor chap in the van and the woman in the BMW, neither made it I hear.”

“That’s what I heard.”

“What happened there, she jumped a red light?”

“She did that alright, but I suspect it was a deliberate attempt to injure one of us and she hit the van by mistake.”

“Why would she do that?”

“She was investigating the healing phenomenon and I refused to agree to anything. She sent all sorts of people here, including one with terminal lung cancer.”

“For you to heal?”

“She hoped I would, but I refused to play and the energy did the same. It’s funny, at the accident it was pouring into the chap in the van, but switched off as soon as we went near her body.”

“Maybe it was too late for her?”

“Could have been, or perhaps it can choose who it helps–not that it made much difference to the van driver.”

“It has to me, I’ve had no bother with my hernia thing ever since you sorted it–that’s what the flowers are for, to say thank you.”

“There we are, Mummy, all arranged. They’re called irises aren’t they?”

“Thank you, darling, yes they are.”

“Did you know there are over two hundred and fifty species of iris and that they’re named after the Greek rainbow goddess?”

“I didn’t know there were that many species, I did know about the Greek goddess.”

“I didn’t know any of that, Trish,” confessed Crozier, and Trish swelled with pride. “How old are you?”

“I’m seven, everyone seems to think that seven year old girls shouldn’t know anything except how many outfits there are for Barbie–I did know, of course, but I’ve forgotten t because there are more important things to know. Did you know they’ve proved Einstein was right about gravitational shift?”

“No I didn’t, but I’m somehow not surprised you know, young lady–are you going to do physics when you grow up?”

“I don’t know yet, I am only seven and I probably won’t have to decide before I’m eight. If I did physics–I’d like to go to Cambridge, but I don’t think they’d have me until I was at least ten.”

“I think it might be a bit later than that, sweetheart,” I tried to keep this on a relatively mundane level before Mr Crozier thought he’d wandered into the Addams Family.

“I might wait until I’m eleven, but if they won’t have me, I’ll contact Havard.”

“Can you tell the others, ten more minutes and then it’s bed time?”

“Okay, Mummy, bye Mr Crozier–that’s a bishop’s stick thing, isn’t it, a crozier?”

“Yes, it is, Trish, only they usually spell it with an S not a Z.”

“I think you’ll find you can spell it with either–I’ll go and tell the others, bye Mr Bishop,” she laughed and ran away.

“She is one bright cookie,” observed Mr Crozier, making the understatement of the century.

“She’s bright and she knows it, fortunately, one of her sisters is nearly as clever, otherwise she’d run roughshod over the others. She was showing off just now, but she has an IQ off the scale–at times it’s frightening.”

“I’ll bet.”

“She can already do more on computers than I ever learned, she’s not quite so clever with practical things–she could tell you the theory of fixing a puncture in a bike tyre, but she’d have no idea of how to actually turn that into practice.”

“Remind me not to go cycling with her.”

“It’s Mummy who’s the fastest, not me–Livvie asked if she could have some milk?” Trish came back to presumably astonish and astound the poor fire chief.

“Well you can pour her a glass, I’m talking with Mr Crozier.”

“Okay, Mummy, may I have one as well?”

“Yes, dear.”

“And Meems?”

“You know she can.”

“She didn’t ask for one, shall I pour her one anyway?”

“Might as well, she’ll want one as soon as she sees you with one.”

“What about Billie?” asked Trish.

“What about Billie?”

“Shall I pour her one, too? One too?” he laughed at her own joke and Crozier smirked–he was a definite fan.

“Hurry up, or you’ll be going to bed without it.”

“Oh yes, great slave driver,” she said sarcastically and bowed very low.

“I mean it, you cheeky little madam, get a move on.”

“Okay, Mummy.” Then as she sidled past Crozier she said, “She loves me really,” then walked down the hallway giggling.

“Little monster,” I sighed.

Mr Crozier chuckled, “I can appreciate she’s a bit of a challenge.”

“On a bad day we sometimes use worse descriptions than that.”

“Babes, have we got any–oh, hello–sorry, didn’t realise we had company.”

“Mr Crozier, this is my husband, Simon Cameron.”

They shook hands and seemed to get on very well, very quickly. Crozier repeated his offer of bringing Danny down to the fire station. Simon was quickly enthused–he’s just a boy in long trousers–unlike that kid wearing the skirt for his protest.

“I’ll definitely bring him down on Saturday, after his football match–it’s the last one of the season.”

They shook hands vigorously as if testing each other’s strength of grip. I was glad it wasn’t my little paw being squeezed to death.

“Seems a nice enough bloke,” commented Simon as we saw off our visitor.

“Very nice, I’ve met him two or three times.”

“Oh yes, said Simon trying to embarrass me–and it works every time, I blushed like mad and he tittered watching me–the sadist.

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