The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3033 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I could hardly believe we were boarding an aeroplane to come home, my holiday, such as it was, is over. Okay I did manage one more visit to the nature reserve and saw a few more birds but that was it for this holiday. I saw nothing much in the mammal line though I’ve heard that the numbers of the garden dormouse, Eliomys, are causing concern amongst fellow ecologists but that the EU only monitors the numbers of Muscardinus, the hazel dormouse, so that’s the only one the various governments insist my colleagues check, twice a year.

The numbers of those are falling abroad as well as here, as much as they can say because they don’t record things as often or as well as we do here. Having said that, it has long worried me that we may only be sampling the surface as far as numbers go, or we might be getting the whole iceberg and dormice really are that endangered and I suspect with the current bunch in power, they’ll stay that way. At least we’re not culling them like the poor badgers—yet.

Part of me wants to be back out in the field, checking nest boxes or tubes for dormice. I send in the return in December so at least I get to keep my licence whatever happens, but it’s what I do and really am, a field ecologist or biologist. One day, I might jack in the university bit and run an ecology practice as a consultant, but Tom would kill me if I suggested it and Henry would take my directorship away at the bank. In some ways I don’t really care about power and money but on the board, I can at least help Simon a little bit.

I couldn’t believe that it was Danielle’s earrings that set off the metal detector at the airport, they practically strip searched her before they noticed the large hoops dangling from her ears. They looked plastic and were fairly light, so even she didn’t think they were metal. However, the detecting machines are so much more sensitive and accurate. Some are so sensitive, they reckon that not only can they tell you’ve got a gun but read the serial number on it as well.

Once on the plane, we got airborne and once again Hannah grabbed my hand and said she didn’t like the takeoff bit. As they’re more likely to crash on landing than takeoff, I dislike the landings more. As soon as we levelled off she sighed and let go of my hand. I looked at her and she smiled back. She was okay and it was only about the second or third time she’d flown, I’ve lost count and a large jet feels more secure than one of those little helicopter things that look like a flying teaspoon. I know, I’ve been in a couple of them.

Back at the airport, we all climbed aboard the hotel minibus that Simon had arranged to collect us and within the hour we were having a cuppa before saying goodbye to Stephanie and Emily.

Everyone made a fuss of us and the girls almost ransacked my case getting the presents we’d bought everyone who’d stayed home. That had cost me a small fortune, buying something they’d all like for the girls to give them something. I know what Simon will be wanting and it has nothing to do with Menorca, rather more with me or should that be to me. I’ll leave you to ponder on it but I expect I’ll be walking funnily tomorrow, though it won’t be very funny for me.

I was absolutely spot on. Simon who’d been at a meeting with Sammi and the other senior managers, something to do with cyber security again, engulfed me in a hug and it was as much as I could do to fight him off until after dinner. I love his affection for me but his need for sex is far greater than mine—most of the time.

Eventually after getting the younger ones to bed, we went, leaving the older girls sitting and talking over a glass of wine. Sammi looked very tired, but then she’d been working quite long hours recently as some more attacks originating in Russia or China rained down on the bank. At home, if that happened, you could just switch off your machine until they stopped but a bank which has its computers in use 24/7 three hundred and sixty-five days a year, doesn’t have that option unless it wants to acquire opprobrium from its customers.

Simon was amorous and clumsy in his haste to ‘worship his wife’s beautiful body’ as he put it. I’ve seen worse chassis on other women, but I’d never describe myself as beautiful or elegant. He was so desperate that it was all over in ten minutes and two after that he was fast asleep as I slipped out of bed to clean up. I checked up on Lizzie and Cate and they were both deado. Actually, I looked in on all the children and they were all asleep except Danielle, who was listening to her iPod.

“C’mon, young lady, off to sleep with you,” I urged.

“Oh the bed has stopped rattling has it?” she smirked back at me.

“Cheeky maggot,” I said back to her.

“It’s all right for some,” she said, adding, “Some of us have unmet needs you know.”

“Don’t be in too much rush to get into relationships, you have another sixty or seventy years to go yet.”

“That all,” she said and dodged under the duvet.

I returned to our bed and thankfully Simon stopped his impression of a lawnmower with adenoids as I lifted up the covers. He rolled on his side and muttered something about ‘Cathy,’ which I hope related to me but I wasn’t going to check.

I lay there for quite a while feeling the heat coming of Simon’s body, it was like sleeping next to a kiln and thinking about where my own future lay. It hopefully involved dormice for many years to come, and I suppose I needed the university to keep at the cutting edge of things and to publish our results of research. Having got to the dizzy heights of a chair, could I see myself relinquishing it without leaving the university?

I know the consultancy was an option if things got too uncomfortable but I wanted to do more research. Tomorrow, I was going to do a dormouse check, to see what was happening in my nest boxes—yes mine, I put most of them up—and what was happening with dormouse numbers. Thinking about it made me feel much more relaxed and the next thing I knew it was morning and I was alone again. Simon and Sammi were off to the bank again and had gone before I even noticed, I’d slept that deeply.

With Jacquie agreeing to watch Lizzie and Cate, I took those who wanted to come nest boxing with me and we set off for the woodland. I felt great.