The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3326 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 Angharad

---

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.
####
Danni and Sarah helped me get the rest of my child labour force to bed. Debbie had gone after arranging her next tutorial with Sarah, who told me she was enjoying them. I just warned her to stay focused on the biology and not get too interested in asking about Debbie's experiences. "If I get a place with you at university, I'm not going to have the same problems that Debbie had, am I? I mean she said they followed her here, the TERFs that is, and it was what stirred up her confrontation with the press."

"Debbie was teaching here, so that gave the transphobes grounds, at least in their narrow minds, reasons to question if she should be allowed to influence students' minds. My answer was that if she wasn't making them think, I wouldn't employ her."

"I don't understand Auntie Cathy, weren't you agreeing with them?"

"No, I was very much disagreeing with them, university teachers are supposed to be expanding their student's minds, teaching them how to think more critically and use the scientific process to look at any or everything. Those who don't get the message fully, think that science is something they only do in class or their assignments; it isn't, it's a process that you use to help you understand things, answer questions. It isn't just about learning facts, that's basically knowledge, it's building on what you know by using that information to move your understanding forward by asking how, what, where and when and if you have answered those correctly, you might understand why something happens, but not always because why things happen sometimes isn't always understandable. At least not with the way we currently do science."

"Gosh, Auntie Cathy, I'd always thought science was about discovering why something happens, I'd never thought it might not be possible."

"It may be possible, but it may not be worth the effort or cost to explore the issue. Life is finite, although at your age it feels as if it goes on forever, it doesn't and it's important to try and use your time as usefully as you can when you're young because you'll never quite have the same level of energy and cognitive skills that you have when you're young.

"You're in your prime, it only lasts twenty years or so if you're lucky, and although there are compensations as we get older in terms of experience and knowledge base, we don't function as quickly or have the energy we did when younger. In fact I read a report in the paper earlier that sometimes older people, that is over 60s can have problems because their brains are cluttered with data that they can't sort through it as effectively as they when younger because the clutter was smaller."

"Well, Professor Agnew doesn't seem to have that problem, does he and I'm sure you don't either."

"He is a bit older than me, Sarah, like thirty-odd years."

"Oops," she said blushing, "Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out that way."

I smiled to show I wasn't offended, "Tom is a remarkable old fellow, like many academics, although he's well past retirement, he still has a very fine mind which is as sharp as a razor."

"Och, hen, waur did I put yon paper on thae university council meeting?"

I looked at Sarah and we both smiled, you can always rely on parents, children or animals to prove you wrong. "You had it in your hand when I gave you the socks I darned."

"Och, sae I did, whit wud I do wi'oot ye?" He went off to look for the missing document in his sock drawer, which wouldn't be the first time he'd done something similar and let's face it, we can all do it if we're thinking about two things at the same time.

"So he does forget things then?" observed Sarah.

"We all do, but if you talk to him about anything he's working on or on zoology in general, he'll quote you chapter and verse much more than I could. I could probably tell you which book or paper to look at, or what to search for in the library, but he pretty well knows it all. He's wonderful really and we all love him to bits at the way he copes with all the noise, mess and clutter we brought with us when we came to live with him."

"He told me that he was a miserable and lonely old man until you came into his life and enriched it and then you gave him grandchildren, which he said the daughter he lost would probably never have done. Did you know her?"

"No, he has told me bits about her, she was extremely clever and studied things like Anglo-Saxon literature and was killed by a drunk driver hitting her car as she was going back to Oxford where she was doing a PhD."

"That's so sad," Sarah looked all in, so I told her to go to bed. She nodded, pecked me on the cheek and wished me goodnight. She was certainly a lovely young woman.

After Sarah had gone up to her bed, I was pleased that Debbie and Danni had told her not to tell anyone who didn't need to know about her history of being transgendered as no one at the university would know except possibly student health in case something happened to her like her becoming ill or needing advice on some health-related matter, such as mental health which everyone seems to suffer from these days, made worse in many cases by Covid and the ensuing lockdowns and isolations that happened to so many.

However, It isn't nice to see how so many people seem to get angry and abusive or even violent since we started to get back into regular life, if we ever do because things have changed. We have notices up all over the campus advising students and everyone else that management of the university would not tolerate abuse of its staff and students by anyone and that they would take action against anyone who was deemed to be so. I'd had a message that one of our students had insulted and abused one of the lab technicians because she couldn't use one of our microscopes to catch up on some work she hadn't done. The technician told her that the lab was going to be in use by a class in an hour's time and that she'd have to use one of the prep rooms to work in. Normally, students who've got behind tend to be grateful for any chance to catch up, but this one lost it and called James all sorts of names and told him where to stick his microscope and offered to show him before leaving shouting abuse all the while. Apparently, James got quite upset. He's a large chap but soft as butter and he tries to help as much as he can.

Debbie was running the class in the lab and she was fuming when she found out what had happened. She left a message with Diane who sent it on to me. Thankfully, she'd calmed down before she came over tonight but it was why she didn't come to dinner as she usually would.

I would be investigating the case on Monday and told her to leave it to me, but unless the student has a very good reason for her behaviour, she will be suspended and the matter will be passed on to the university council to decide her fate. I usually only dismiss students for academic failure or things like failure to attend lectures on a regular basis. You'd be surprised how many do it, though we usually give them notice that we are aware of their absence. That is usually enough to get an improvement, for a while anyway.

We obviously get students who are struggling with the course for a variety of reasons and if they let us know we try to help them get back up to speed. If it's through illness or other circumstances beyond their control, we may give them a chance to re-sit some of the course, if it's because of poor commitment and effort, we will help them if they promise to change their behaviour but otherwise, we point out that we don't refund fees and the level of debt is bad enough if you get a good degree, at least it may seem worth it. If you don't get a degree, you've wasted time and money and have nothing useful to show for it. If they can't take that message on board, we wonder how and why they came to university in the first place.

Simon and I went to bed but we were both too tired waste energy on gymnastics and instead talked for a while as we cwtched, then fell asleep. He'd been full of the fact that after beating England at Murrayfield last weekend, they were favourites to win against Wales at Cardiff. I advised caution as Wales in Cardiff were difficult to beat.

The next morning after a later than usual breakfast, no one seemed that interested in getting up very early, I took a carload of daughters shopping making sure that we each had a facemask to wear in the shops. I read in the Guardian that the most likely people to die from complications were those with suppressed immunity, often from treatment for things like cancer, leukaemia or organ transplants and I feel that although restrictions are being relaxed we could continue to try and avoid passing on any symptomless virus we might be carrying.

We got back in time for lunch and for a change we had fish and chips. David makes his own breadcrumbs and the way he grills the fish tastes gorgeous, because I'm such a gannet for his fish, I try not to eat too many chips, not that I'm given much chance as they disappear very quickly to the locusts who make up my family.

Danni was playing soccer for Reading tomorrow at Bristol and rather than have her go to Reading to go on the coach to Bristol, I offered to take her and while I was there do a quick check on the house. We spoke to her manager and he agreed that he wanted her playing well not stressed out by needless travel so she was feeling quite good as she went with her dad to watch the rugby. David accompanied them as I agreed to sort out dinner - I must be mad, because I never seem to learn, but we have to keep David on board as he is a genius in the kitchen and Henry would offer him far more than we pay him to defect to the hotel. Thankfully, he seems happy with us.

Sarah had the afternoon off and had driven over to Peter's house to speak with her uncle about some matters that concerned her. She wanted to discuss them with me, but as I'm her employer that unless they related to her employment she'd be better talking them over with him.

"You're so much more than an employer, you really are like an auntie or substitute mother, sometimes you seem more interested in me than my mother does. She was so relieved that I stayed here for Christmas because she didn't have to look at me and be reminded what a disappointment I was."

"I'm sure she doesn't really feel that, but unfortunately not everyone seems able to deal with us when we transition, I know my dad had problems, though to be fair to him, he did eventually deal with his discomfort, although I accept that might have been because he was weakened by a stroke or that he played along by giving me the reactions he thought I wanted so I didn't abandon him."

"Why is life so unfair, Auntie Cathy, we can't help who we are anymore than anyone else can, but we seem to be open to all sorts of abuse because of it."

"It seems to be the way things are, but not everyone is abusive and some are even trying actively to improve things, I see the retiring bishop of Liverpool is calling for the Church of England to accept same-sex marriages and those of transgender people too."

"I thought you were married in a church? I saw the photos in your study when I dusted."

"I was but it involved in getting a number of permissions."

"But that's stupid, you're female by law and in every way I can think of, you should have a right to marry in a church."

"It takes time to change things sometimes but since a senior bishop is talking about bringing the church into the modern world, I hope things will eventually change. Remember that religion is something that people feel is part of their core system."

"I think I'm a non-believer like you, Auntie Cathy, so does my core system have spare capacity?"

I smiled at her joke, especially given the article I'd told her about older minds getting overfilled with data. "I'm sure your core system is as beautiful as the rest of you, now off you go and see Peter."

I was busy making a cheese filling to have on our jacket potatoes helped by Trish and Livvie, when Simon came scowling into the kitchen. "Bloody Welsh, they beat us by three bloody points thanks to Biggar's drop goal."

"I did tell you not to dismiss the Welsh in Cardiff."

"Okay, point taken, what's for tea, do you want a cup and where's Sarah, losing the cook for the afternoon is bad enough, much more of this and we'll have a fullscale mutiny on our hands."

"Just as David needs some time off, so does Sarah and yes I'd love a cuppa."

"We're having cheesy jackets, Daddy," piped Livvie.

"The only cheesy jacket I ever had your mother made me dispose of, not sure I wish to have her criticise my clothing again," he joked back at her.

"Silly Daddy, jacket potatoes, we've been helping Mummy add the death cap to the cheese mix."

"Death cap?" he said looking lost for words.

"Only joking, Mummy said it was hemlock, she calls this type of cheesy filling Socrates cheese, good innit, it rhymes."

"From what I remember from my Classics' studies hemlock is not a nice way to go, I'd much rather pop off after having made mad, passionate love to my beautiful wife. Now that would be much more my thing."

"I've got a headache so you'll have to make do with hemlock tonight," I said dismissively, "and what happened to my tea?"

"Just looking for the hemlock, babes, so it'll take a bit longer."