The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1609 by Angharad Copyright © 2012 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

As we got in the car, I looked at Trish–it was like that kid from The Sixth Sense “I see dead people,” but said in a matter of fact manner. This child was amazing. I caught sight of myself in the rear view mirror, I’d done some strange things too. Perhaps the strangest was when I rescued Julie from her dad, who’d gone a bit strange and threatened to kill her. He actually tried and somehow I caught her, stopped the bleeding and healed the wound. Perhaps Trish and I were suited to each other in the strangeness stakes. The rest of the family were relatively normal when graded on the Addam’s Family scale.

“You actually saw Celia, did you?” I asked Trish.

“Oh yes, she was looking at you saying that she wished she’d got to know you while she was alive.”

“Did you see Billie?”

“No, she wasn’t there, but she comes to the house now and again.”

“She comes to the house–you’ve seen her there?”

“Once or twice, Mummy, she comes to see you because she knows you worry about her.”

I nodded and felt my eyes growing moist.

“I think she’d love to be able to tell you she’s okay–she said they did try in a dream–but you seem unable to believe it.”

I felt tears run down my face.

“She’s here now, Mummy.”

“Where?” I gasped. I glanced behind me and Trish was sitting with her eyes closed as if she was in some sort of trance.

“I’m alright, Mummy, really I am. Granny and Grampa Watts and Granny Celia and Auntie Catherine look after me very well...”

I felt tears running down my face as the voice of my deceased daughter spoke to me while Trish remained in a trance, immobile and eyes closed.

“I have to go now, Mummy. I love you and thank you for the best time of my life. Please don’t worry about me. Goodbye–I love you, Mummy.”

“Billie,” I shouted in my grief and Trish seemed to jerk out of her stupor.

“Oh has she gone? I was going to ask her about Schrodinger’s cat.”

I sat and wept for several minutes while Trish attempted to console me finally when I regained control I asked her what she’d experienced.

“I was just sitting her while she was sitting next to you wanting to cuddle you but she couldn’t, so I sat back and let her talk to you. Then she said she had to go and she just disappeared. I heard you call and it was like I’d been asleep, but I hadn’t–had I?”

“I don’t know what to think, darling, I heard her voice–I’m sure it was her voice–and it was lovely and yet it brought back how much I miss her.”

“But she said she was alright, didn’t she, Mummy.”

“Yes she did, sweetheart.”

“An’ she said not to worry about her, didn’t she?”

“She did, my darling.”

“So you mustn’t get upset again or she won’t come to visit you.”

“How will I know she’s there?”

“She said you’d know.”

“Does that mean I’ll see her?”

“I don’t know, Mummy; she just said you’ll know.”

“Thank you, darling. I think we’d better keep this between ourselves don’t you, in case it frightens the others.”

“Oh Livvie and Mima have seen her several times.”

“At the house?”

“Yeah.”

“And said nothing?”

She shrugged, “They thought it would upset you.”

“She came to see them?” I wasn’t sure what I felt about that.

“No, she came to see you, she was always with you when they saw her.”

“So why can’t I see her? It’s like this blue light stuff–I’m the only one who can’t see it.”

“You try too hard, Mummy. It’s easy, just relax and it happens–can you see it now?”

I glanced behind me and Trish was engulfed in a beautiful peach coloured light. I nodded, “Yes, darling, I can see it.”

She undid her seat belt and leant over my seat and we hugged, then after she secured herself. “Do I have to wait a whole month for some ice cream, Mummy?”

It was mid afternoon, “Don’t you dare tell anyone about this either,” I said and we drove off to a little cafe and she had ice cream while I drank a pot of tea and tried to understand what had happened a little while before.

Had anything happened? Did I just imagine it? Was it just tiredness or grief brought on by my argument with Trish? I didn’t understand any of it, especially having a child who appeared not only to be able to heal but was also mediumistic–something I found so difficult to understand.

Obviously I must have had some sort of hallucination caused by stress and grief and imagined Trish had seen or done all that stuff. Yeah that was it, I hallucinated. I’d go to bed earlier tonight, that would help–yeah an early night.

When we got home, we saw the Porsche Boxster parked in the drive, James was here. Perhaps we’d have some info on that woman who came to the house. Trish and I walked back to the house holding hands. James was talking to Stella and Simon.

“Ah here she is, we wondered where you were. Everything alright now?” asked Si meaning between Trish and I.

“You mean the ice cream embargo?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he nodded and smiled.

“It’s been lifted for the moment pending further discussions.”

Trish ran and hugged Simon and then Stella. “We went for a walk.”

“Where did you go?”

“We went up to the cemetery, Daddy, and put some flowers on the grave.”

“That was nice,” observed Stella.

“It was Mummy’s idea, but she let me do it.”

“What sort of flowers did you take?” Stella was just making conversation with Trish.

“Daffy-dils, in a pot.”

“Oh that was nice, they’ll last for a little while, won’t they?”

“Yes, that’s what we thought–unless some bar-steward pinches them.” I blushed and the others nearly died laughing. Trish simply walked away having delivered her knockout punch-line. Sometimes I wonder if she’s some sort of alien.

I made us all a fresh pot of tea and prompted James to tell us all.

“I’ve been to Latvia, Moscow and the Ukraine–no one has any idea who this woman was. None of the agencies have been using her, including covert stuff. She is a total mystery.”

“What about the real Irena or whatever her name was?”

“She’s in the US at the moment, working for her master’s degree in electronic engineering. She hasn’t been anywhere, she’s been seen every day by her teachers there.”

“This gets sillier and sillier, Jim–just what is going on?”

“I can only assume that the guys who hit you were from the Argentine, possibly to do with the ones who stiffed you over the bank deal. It was thought they were in Buenos Aires or thereabouts.”

“Could we find them and ask them?”

“They disappeared just after the attacks failed, it appears the secret service there are not too happy with their visitors on account of there being several of their operatives in British custody. The ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing down. Mr Hague will enjoy himself no end.