The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2162 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

I didn’t tell Danni what had happened with her PE teacher as it would have served little purpose. The next morning she dressed in her new clothes and I took her down to the salon a little after Julie and Phoebe had gone in the Smart car, which is only a two seater.

I asked Julie to go easy on her as this was going to be quite nerve racking for Danni and she just pooh-poohed me, saying she’d look after her sister. I did a small amount of shopping on the way home and was surprised to see a strange car in the driveway. I let myself in the back door where Jacquie was feeding Lizzie with a bottle of expressed milk.

“Whose car is that?” I indicated the Ford Focus in the drive.

“Um–a chap who’s come to see you.”

“Oh, about what?”

“About the children?”

My blood froze–social services? “What about them?”

“You’d best ask him that yourself.”

“Has he had a coffee?”

“Not yet, thought I’d wait until you got here.”

“How long has he been here then?”

“About ten minutes, Gramps is in there with him.”

I walked into the dining room and Tom and this man were talking. “Och here’s my dochter, noo. Cathy this is Mr Gordon Curry.”

He held out his hand but I ignored it despite the glower from Tom. I faced him and asked, “Please explain why you’re here, Mr Curry.”

“Cut to the chase, is this defensive behaviour, Mrs Cameron?”

“This man is with the HSPCC,The Hampshire society for prevention of cruelty to children. He’s come to ask you some questions aboot some family doon the road.” Tom tried to explain.

“Daddy, there is no family down the road, he’s here to investigate us. I once read an article about the ways they get people to relax and betray themselves. Thankfully, we have no betrayals to make.”

“Still defensive though, aren’t we Mrs Cameron?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Not if I didn’t have anything to hide.”

“Right, let’s get this over and done–d’you want to speak with the children?”

“If I might.”

“Daddy, would you ask the three girls to come down.”

“Fa’ whit?” he asked.

“So this nice man can ask them if they’ve been abused.”

“Whit–noo look here, this woman love her children...”

“I’m sure, but speaking with the children would clear up much of this.”

Tom went off and a few minutes later the three girls trooped in. I have to feed the baby, so call me if you need anything. Daddy could you please stay and observe?”

“Aye a’richt.”

I went out to the kitchen and Cate came out and hugged my leg. “Hello, poppet, what d’you want?”

“Mikky,” she said pointing at the fridge. I got her a cup of milk and handed it to her. She has one of the feeder cups with the lid on it. I then concentrated on Lizzie who was pawing at my breast–so it was obvious what she wanted.

I learned from Tom afterwards that Cate went in with her cup and sat on the lap of the HSPCC chap which made the other laugh and him blush. He’d never believe I hadn’t set him up.

About twenty minutes later I’d finished feeding Lizzie–she had had some milk before I came home–and was tidying myself up when Tom came and found me. “He wants tae see Danni.”

“That’s what all this is about, that bloody teacher set this up because Danni declined to play in his wretched football team. Damn him to hell and back.” I handed Lizzie over to Jacquie.

“You have another child here, a boy called Daniel Maiden, is that right.”

“I also have little Catherine, whom I hear you’ve met and Lizzie who’s the daughter of a colleague who’s in hospital at the present time, plus of course my sister in law has two children.”

“Yes, it was the boy, I’d like to see.”

“Is there a reason?”

“I don’t have to give you a reason.”

“Presumably someone called your office and reported me for something?”

“I don’t know, I was just asked to come and check upon the children here.”

“He’s not here.”

“Oh, might I ask where he is?”

“Yes, he’s at his sister’s beauty salon helping her because she was short handed and he wanted to.”

“A bit unusual for a boy, isn’t it?”

“Danni is an unusual boy.”

“I’m told this is an unusual household, Mrs Cameron.”

“Yes, unlike many households and families, the children here are all loved and very much wanted.”

He gave me an enigmatic smile. “You’ve had two gender divergent children, one of whom died in a bicycling accident.”

“Yes, it wasn’t the accident that killed her, she had a brain aneurysm and could have died at any time, or so they discovered on post mortem.”

“I see,” he made notes.

“The other, is he around somewhere?”

“You’ve been talking to her.”

“Oh, I had a Patrick Watts on my list.”

“Mr Curry, there is no Patrick Watts, I never met a Patrick Watts, only a delightful young woman calling herself Tricia, she’s since been reassigned surgically after attempting a DIY operation and legally she’s now registered as female. Your records are obviously out of date.”

“They could be. You yourself are...”

“According to my birth certificate, female.”

“But you weren’t always so?”

“I would argue that I was, but technically perhaps not.”

“Okay, I appreciate this is a little personal.”

“That’s okay, you can’t hurt me, Mr Curry, but I am concerned that you might hurt my children.”

“My job is child protection.”

“Might I suggest you speak with the transphobic games teacher at Danni’s old school then?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The man who might be responsible for wasting your time and my nervous energy.”

“I see, name calling isn’t very helpful Mrs Cameron.”

“Let me explain about Danni...” I told him chapter and verse about the assault in France and Danni’s involvement with Peter. I also told him categorically that Danni was seeing Stephanie and we were acting on her advice to allow Danni to explore gender roles. I also related how Alice’s death in Scotland had had a profound effect upon her and that it had somehow caused her to continue in the female role up until now. I wasn’t sure where it would end but we had acted responsibly and there was no coercion to be anything but herself. I also related the conversation I’d had with the games teacher the day before and why I suspected he’d caused this to happen.

“If you want I can get Danni to come back home for you to speak with her or you could call at the salon, I’ll come with you, if you wish?”

“This is a very unusual situation, three transgender people in one household with a fourth having sadly passed on. It does seem rather a high concentration.”

“And you’re wondering if it’s coincidence or if I influence others to become girls as well?”

“It had come to mind.”

“If you’d care to speak with Dr Stephanie Cauldwell and Dr Sam Rose and our own GP Dr Smith, I’m sure you could discount my changing boys into girls for some perverse fun. I’ve been very fortunate and quite successful and have tried to assist those who have had a harder time with their own gender confusion. So the concentration is even higher, if you include two further cases of Julie and Sammi and that of David my chef who’s a self-made man.”

“I see. Is that a healthy environment to bring up a boy?”

“What you mean with all us weirdos?”

“Yes–I mean no, in such an unbalanced household?”

“The experts seem to think we’re far from unbalanced except perhaps in there being a larger number of females here, but that happens in other households I’m sure and I don’t see you investigating them. There is Simon, my husband and Daddy, whom you’ve already met, so there are some men here too.”

“Could we go and see your son?”

“If you wish.”