The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3132 by Angharad Copyright© 2017 Angharad

261 dozen in case anyone is counting

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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.

They say boys are harder on their clothes than girls—I think I’d like to examine the evidence because this lot of vagabonds are always damaging their school uniforms. I keep telling them that they’re supposed to be young ladies and all they do is laugh. I know two of them had different starts but the biggest clothes damager is Livvie, closely followed by Meems and then Hannah. Danni and Trish are relatively light on their school togs, possibly because I threatened to make them do the repairs themselves.

I re-sewed the lining back into Hannah’s blazer, how it got torn I have no idea but I had to oversew it and then attach some bias binding before sewing back into the seam. The last bit had to done by hand and took me nearly two hours.

It was now ten o’clock and I tried Danielle’s phone again. I left another message saying I was calling the police and for her to let me know immediately she got the message. I also said I was very worried about her.

Unbeknownst to me, Simon and Julie had both gone to town and wandered around the areas the youngsters tend to gather and had shown photos of her to any they saw. No one had apparently seen her. They drove back just after I finished sewing. I stopped because I’d finished the biggest job and quite frankly could no longer ignore through distraction, the tide of anxiety which was surging into my mind.

When they reported what they’d done, I thanked them and said I’d try and see if the blue light worked and if not I was going to call the police. I made us all a cuppa and then went to sit in my study in near darkness to try and tune into her, first of all to see if I could tell if she was alive, or hurt and possibly which direction.

Ten minutes later I was convinced she was alive and as far as I could tell, she was unhurt. I hoped I was correct. I asked Simon to come out with me to see if I could link to her regarding her whereabouts. He wasn’t exactly pleased but after going for a wee, he acquiesced.

We took my car in the hope that we may need another seat for the return journey. He drove quietly towards the town centre and I asked him to stop. I closed my eyes and imagined being attached to Danni by a rope of blue light. All I was getting was she was alive and unhurt. To my mind it was obvious that she wasn’t in the main part of the town centre because people are walking about all day and half the night, so she’d be seen but she was unlikely to be anywhere else wasn’t she? Or was she?

I asked him to drive in a large circle around the centre and suddenly I felt some connection. Don’t ask me how I knew, but I did and Simon, bless him, did exactly as I asked. He stopped and I got out of the car. This was more commercial but downtown sort of commercial, with lots of storage facilities and garages. Not quite warehouses but certainly heading that way. Offices that were staffed but rarely had visitors. What was she doing down here, if she actually was here?

My sense of her being near felt stronger and Simon asked me to wait while he parked my car. I glanced up at the sky and clouds were gathering, we weren’t too far from a shower by the way wind was freshening. I waited shivering despite my thick hooded jacket and pulled it tightly around me.

We were half a mile from the town centre but it was a very different environment, that of quiet dereliction compared to the bright lights and bustle of the town centre. It gave me mixed feelings, it was quieter so I could possibly pick up her signal but also darker and more lonely. As a woman on my own I wouldn’t be down here on my own after dark if I could help it.

“Hello, darlin’, got lost have we?” I didn’t see him approach and nearly jumped out of my skin.

“No, I’m just waiting for my husband, thank you,” so just piss off and we’ll get along fine.

“A likely story,” he said and stepped closer. Just then I saw Simon trotting up towards me and my unwanted company slunk off presumably back under the stone from whence he emerged.

“Who was that?” asked Simon, puffing a bit from his exertions.

“Just some creep who fancied himself.”

“Want me to sort him out?” asked Si puffing his chest out, or perhaps he was just puffing still.

“No, we have more important things to do. Where did you park my car?”

“About two hundred yards down the road by some lorries.” He pointed in the direction I’d seen him come from.

I closed my eyes and nodded, “This way,” I said and he walked along beside me.

We walked down an alleyway which gave into another, even more full the detritus of commerce, bins, bales of cardboard and piles of litter and discarded food. I was half sure if we waited quietly we’d see a fox eventually, but I had other things on my mind.

I stopped half way down the alley and turned in a full circle. It was dark here and I was glad I had the physical presence of a big chap like Simon. What the hell was she doing down here or had I got it all wrong?

In my mind’s eye I could see her squeezing through a half closed door and hiding because she thought she was being pursued. But where? The image in my head was too vague and it was too dark to see much anyway.

I began walking down the alley banging on doors and shouting her name. Simon called her phone and to our astonishment the ringtone came from close by under some litter. We stopped and picked it up. It was hers all right. It would explain why she hadn’t answered it. I now began to feel scared at the same time knew were in the right area.

After pocketing the phone, he copied my banging on doors and shouting her name. Five minutes later, we got a banging back from one of the doors. We’d found her. Now all we had to do was get her out.

I shone my torch as the building, it was non-descript, brick built, probably close to a hundred years old, with shutters on windows and a steel door. Short of some semtex or a bulldozer, we weren’t going to obtain access without help.

Speaking to her through a steel door was difficult but at least she knew we were there and I thought I heard her crying. Simon took my torch and walked around the building to see if he could find another way in. He returned a few moments later shaking his head.

“I’m going to call the police,” he said and walked a few yards away. I hear him talking but not what he was saying and then the peep of his phone as he ended the call. “They’re on their way. All we have to do now is learn why she ended up in there.”

“I’m quite looking forward to that myself,” I said as the shower cloud which had been threatening began to deliver its load.