The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 2043 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

I needed to see what I could do to help Neal and Gloria. Could he have hit or pushed her? It seemed so out of character but he was tipsy, then he followed the ambulance in his car. I suppose the experience of thinking your wife was dead or dying would be somewhat sobering, but they might also do him for the motoring offence of drink driving.

I called the police head quarters and enquired about Neal. As I wasn’t a relative they wouldn’t tell me anything. I asked if they’d tell his sister and they agreed they would. I put Phoebe on the phone.

It appears he was charged with driving under the influence and because his wife’s injuries were suspicious, they were holding him pending further investigations. It appeared he hadn’t asked for a lawyer. That didn’t matter, I got Jason to send one of his best assistants to try and bail him.

What puzzled me most was his bewildered attitude the night before when he didn’t act like an ordinary person would, by calling an ambulance. And why didn’t he try CPR if he thought she’d stopped breathing? None of it made sense.

I asked Phoebe if she had a key to Neal’s house and she said she didn’t but she knew the code to the key safe as an emergency. She wrote it down for me and I went over to the house to make up a bag for Gloria to take to the hospital. I’d take it in later during visiting time–although if she had to go down to theatre, she’d be out of things for some while.

David was busy in the kitchen and Phoebe was looking after the baby, Stella and Jacquie were looking after my little one and her two, so I had a few minutes to myself. I held onto an item of her clothing and tried to tune into Gloria to see if I could send her some healing energy. It’s always a bit hit and miss, but when it works it does really help.

I felt I was swimming in some very deep, dark pool which had some sort of current that was trying to suck me down deeper. It was as much as I could do to resist it swimming upwards as strongly as I could. The current got stronger and I focused on trying to see what was going on and I imagined I was bathed in the blue white light. Although I was sinking, I felt the energy building up and suddenly my whole body seemed to be one scintillating light, like I was covered in very strong LED lights. That was when I saw it, some enormous monster like a cross between a squid and some sort of bivalve and the current was being created by it waving its tentacles around, drawing stuff into its mouth like a giant sea anemone. To my horror, Gloria appeared to be rather close to being sucked into that ravening mouth.

Now common sense would usually recommend that I swim as fast and as strongly as I could away from that awful thing, but as you’ll know only too well, I don’t do common in any shape or form, including sense. So instead of swimming away I struck out for the ugly creature and hoped that by the time I got there I’d have some idea of how to stop it eating my erstwhile colleague.

Thinking on ones feet is probably not an apposite aphorism while swimming but given the circumstances, it was the best I could do. I was hatching a plan but it depended upon several things, none of which were necessarily likely especially if squid-face ate my friend.

Why I didn’t need to breathe in the water didn’t occur to me until afterwards but it seemed I was able to either breathe in the water or whatever the fluid was, or hold my breath for an extremely long period of time, something like a whale.

I snatched at Gloria and managed to grab an ankle which I pulled towards me and away from the monster. Although there was quite a current lower down, once we got to the floor of the pond, I was able to lay her down and concentrate on working out how we might escape.

I didn’t particularly want to hurt the thing but if necessary I would, but apart from being extraordinarily ugly, it didn’t seem that nasty, just dangerous. It continued waving its tentacles to suck things into its gob, making my search for a suitable distraction more difficult and Gloria also floated off the bottom and towards the mouth again. I clearly had to do something and quickly.

I found a lump of what looked like coral and managed to lift it. I then walked round to the front of the monster and while dodging the tentacles I lobbed it towards that fearsome orifice. Of course it fell short and I spent some time swerving and ducking to enable me to grab it again.

A tentacle grabbed me as I reached to throw the rock again–it wasn’t going to plan–and I now had no option but to do whatever I needed to, to save myself first and then Gloria. I let it draw me closer to the mouth then hefted the stone for all I was worth. It went straight into the basket.

Nothing seemed to happen and I desperately tried to free myself, because it looked as if I was next on the menu followed by Gloria who was similarly held but wasn’t struggling.

Squid are reputed to be quite clever creatures, as are octopuses, sadly this one appeared to be the exception. I’d given up all hope of escaping but was reduced to trying to bite my way out of the tentacle–I wouldn’t recommend it, it was tough as old boots and tasted like fishy rubber.

Suddenly the tentacles started waving frantically and Gloria and I were flung away from the mouth, then the rock I’d chucked into its mouth was ejected like a bullet, fortunately we were some distance from it by then. Obviously, it took a few moments for its nerve cells to communicate with the rest of its body–a bit like some of our first year students.

I once again grabbed Gloria and this time we were far enough away to be able to make it to the surface and a short time later I dragged her free of the water and onto a warm sandy beach. Exhausted I sat down beside her and talked with her.

“C’mon, kiddo, you’re safe now so how about opening those peepers? The sky is a beautiful azure blue and the beach is golden–go on take a look.”

I watched her eyes move under the lids and I urged her to open them again. I saw them flutter and she looked around. “Cathy, what are you doing here?”

“Just passing through.”

“But you’re glowing.”

“Yes, of course I am, ladies glow, men perspire and horses sweat–didn’t you mother ever tell you that?”

“No, you’re glowing like a light, like some fancy star.”

“That’s me, I like to be the star of the show.”

“Am I dead?”

“Dead? Of course not, just temporarily incapacitated. What happened?”

“I don’t know, the light was flickering and Neal had gone to sleep in the spare room, he was drunk and therefore pretty useless. I stood up on the bed to see if the bulb was loose, it was but in sorting it I got a bit of a shock and fell of the bed, I think I may have bashed my head. I don’t remember anymore until now.”

“Rest now, I’ll be in to see you later.”

“Can I stay on this beach, it feels wonderful.”

“Sorry, kiddo, they want you back on earth.” With that I woke and found myself sitting in my study, exhausted and I had sand on my hands–weird or what?