The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1612 by Angharad Copyright © 2012 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

I dressed very quickly and left a note for Stella and Tom, then I threw a coat round Julie and led her down to the car. She was out of breath and looking very ill. Thankfully at that time of night the traffic was light and drove quickly to the hospital and got them to bring a wheelchair out to the car.

Then it was sit in the waiting room while they examined her. I did explain to the doctor that she’d recently had gender reassignment surgery and had been dilating before this happened. I thought it might stop him trying to shove something even worse up her vagina.

They had her scanned, by which time it was three in the morning and I was starting to feel spaced out. I watched drunks and unfortunates come in and out. The young doctor came to see me. “She’s acting as if she has some sort of infection, so we’ve hit her with a massive injection of antibiotics. I think she has an abscess or something in her vagina but I can’t quite see from the scan. We’ll get Mr O’Rourke to see her first thing tomorrow–why don’t you go home and get some sleep.”

“You’ve sent her up to the ward, have you?”

“Yes, she’s up on the gynae ward, she should start to stabilise soon–we’ll let you know if anything changes.” I gave him my mobile number and the house number and collected the car and drove home. It was now four o’clock and I was punchy with tiredness. I struggled up the stairs and lay on the bed.

I think I must have crashed out as soon as I lay down because I was still lying on the bed when the girls came to wake me up–I’d slept through the radio alarm.

“Why are you dressed, Mummy?” asked Livvie.

It took me a moment or two to work out what was happening. I told them about rushing Julie to hospital and they were horrified. Trish was especially horrified and asked if the same would happen to her. I told her I didn’t think so, that Julie had been unfortunate and somehow an infection had got in and she’d become ill.

“Why didn’t you blue light her, Mummy?” she asked me.

“I didn’t feel it was with me, so I did the next best thing and took her to hospital.”

“You should have called me, Mummy, I’d have saved her.” I hugged her and kissed her.

“I didn’t think of it, kiddo. Anyway, she’ll be seeing the surgeon in an hour or two and he’ll know what to do.”

“That nice Mr Rourke.” She smiled, so he’d obviously made an impression on her, even if she couldn’t quite get his name right.

I phoned the ward and they said she was comfortable but still quite poorly; they were expecting Mr O’Rourke during the morning and would be sure to call me if I was needed.

The girls had to be cajoled into eating and through tiredness I wasn’t at my most patient. Thankfully, Tom appeared and calmed things down and I went and sat with a cuppa and tried to get my head back in order.

Danny helped me make the sandwiches and then Tom took him off to school, while I drove our querulous trio to their place of education. Next week was half term, I hoped Julie would be better by then because I was beginning to feel I couldn’t cope any more. I’d check with the paper when I got home, see if we had any takers for my housekeeper job. If we had any more Russians turn up, I’d scream.

Back at the ranch, Stella had finally surfaced with Puddin and I got Catherine up and fed her while Stella sorted Fiona. As we dealt with the youngest members of the clan I brought Stella up to date on Julie’s predicament, as I understood it.

“I didn’t hear you, and I’m quite a light sleeper,” she remarked. I thought she slept like someone in a coma and had lost track of the times I’d gone in to deal with Pud or Fi while their mother stayed somnolent. She had no knowledge of my intervention the next morning except to deny it. One night I swapped the girls beds and she still had no idea that I’d been in to see to them. Sometimes I did wonder which planet she was from, it certainly wasn’t earth. However, the girls were well and seemed to be meeting all the criteria for development as was my own little bundle of joy when I took her for assessment.

I admit I had some run ins with the health visitor from our practice. To start with she couldn’t understand how I’d acquired so many children nor how I’d somehow managed to feed one of them spontaneously. I had to demonstrate it to her before she’d believe me. So we weren’t on good terms. When she found out I was a recycled female, she got very distant and in the end I went directly to the doctor for child assessments. He seemed to understand and calmed me down when I wanted her disciplined for lack of professionalism in dealing with me. I found out later she was a member of a fundamentalist church, all happy clappy and bullshit.

I’d just finished feeding Catherine when the phone rang, it was O’Rourke and we spoke for several minutes. He suggested the antibiotics were working but he was going to keep her in for a day or two to make sure she was healing. He decided she had a small ulcer at the end of her vagina which had perforated and become infected. He hoped it would heal by itself, if not he’d have to operate again and repair it. They’d know in a day or two, and for me to feel free to come in and do my magic if it saved another operation.

After lunch, I asked Tom to collect the girls and I went to see Julie. I’d sent Simon a text to say she was in hospital and he’d phoned to learn why. When I got the hospital, there was a large vase of flowers and basket of fruit on her bedside locker and all I’d taken was toiletries and spare nightdresses.

Julie still looked quite poorly and she had a drip presumably through which they administered antibiotics. She was lying in bed dozing when I arrived, and she was thrilled that I’d brought her iPod with all her other stuff.

We chatted and I sat and tried to heal her but nothing was happening, as if the light had left me or something had switched it off. I had no explanation and she was disappointed then became quite down.

“It isn’t my time to die is it, Mummy?”

“Of course not, perhaps it’s just me, I’m very tired and it has failed before through fatigue.”

“I hope so.”

“C’mon, sweetheart, you’re going to get better. Mr O’Rourke is such a clever chap he’ll sort you out.”

“I think it’s so unfair, Mummy, I just get to be who I really am, and this happens. With my luck, I’m going to die a virgin.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Her priorities were a bit different to my own and I told her that I was sure she’d be okay and when the time was right she’d find a suitable partner and be able to road test her new equipment.

I reminded her that Simon had sent the flowers and fruit and that he loved her as did we all.

“You’re just so lucky, Mummy, Daddy is one in a million. I wish I could find someone like him.”

“Yes, darling, he is a bit of a one off,” which has its blessings and drawbacks.