The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3338 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.
####
It was a weird half-term holiday, the girls were off for about eight days with the weekend in the middle, so they'd be back in school tomorrow, but I'd given Sarah some money to take them out to the beach or something if they behaved. I also told them to make sure any homework was done. Danni suddenly remembered she may have some.

"Good weekend?" asked Diane.

"Okay, I suppose, the next bank holiday is that weird one, isn't it?"

"Yeah, the Thursday Friday for the Queen's jubilee."

"If it's fine, the whole south coast will seize up."

"I know, we can't go anywhere really because the roads are clogged with tourists, Bournemouth will probably double its population."

"The beach there is nice if no one sets fire to the cliffs again, or the vegetation on them. It's been so dry, Daddy's been watering the garden."

"Hosepipe?" Diane asked plonking a mug of tea in front of me. The mug was one I got from a dormouse conference a few years ago that Nikki hadn't dropped.

"We've got a series of tanks which collects virtually all the rainwater from the house and the outbuildings. Holds quite a lot of water and he runs a hose from that before we use any mains water. When's the first meeting, oh keeper of the diary?"

"Ten minutes, heads of departments, papers are on the table," she was referring to the large table I have in the office which I kept here for the purpose of meetings, it saves having to organise a room and people can make teas or coffees as they wish, as it's pretty well all in the same room.

"You doing the minutes?" I asked her knowing how much she enjoyed doing them, joke.

"Yes, my tyrannical boss insists upon it."

"Is the boiler thing filled?"

"You have to ask?" she shot back at me.

"Well, yes, otherwise I have to go and check it and that takes extra energy and I need all I have to try and stay awake - I hate meetings."

"Why does there always have to be meetings?" she muttered as I refused to recognise it was her Indiana Jones impression and it should be snakes.

The others started to arrive and we transferred to the table and as they helped themselves to tea or coffee, small talk was engaged in until everyone was here. I asked if there were any apologies, meaning for absence and some wag answered that Gordon Wills was down with Covid and it had used up all his weekend trying to catch it.

The meeting used up the whole morning and when Daddy came by as we were clearing up, I jumped at the chance to get out of the office for an hour, he invited Diane as well, so she grasped at the same straw that I had.

"Guid, twa lovely ladies tae escort me tae lunch." I felt that I should pay as he always dose but he won't hear of it, 'His pleasure,' he always says. I noticed he could use some new underpants, so I'd get him some the next time I went to town or, I could even order them on line, Marks and Spencer deliver or will send them for a consideration unless you spend more than fifty pounds. I might just do that, I'm sure some of the others need things as well. I'll do that this evening when I get home.

At lunch we chatted about all sorts of nothing, Tom referring to how nice it had been to have Phoebe and Julie over for lunch. I commented that it had been like the feeding of the five thousand and Diane asked me to explain, so I did telling her that Stephanie had come so had Cindy and we'd had a sewing bee afterwards when I'd altered a dress for Steph and Julie had used my machine to repair some of the overalls they use at the salon. I also told her that Cindy was delighted to be asked to do Saturdays on a regular basis as Danielle was often playing football she thought it was wonderful.

"How much does she get for that?" asked Diane.

"Twenty quid in the hand."

"That's hard work for twenty," was her response which I suppose it was.

"Times are hard, and the salon finances tend to be a bit up and down."

"I'll gi' her ten more," said Tom which was very generous seeing as she was only a friend of the family, well of Danielle's really although all the girls attending St Claire's knew as well. If you recall, Trish rescued her from some bullies a year or two ago.

"What does Cindy want to do?" asked Diane continuing the conversation.

"I have no idea, her mother works in Tesco or Sainsbury's as a supervisor so there's no history of going to university there, but I expect the convent will have some advice to offer her when she needs to think of options. It's crazy that we expect sixteen or seventeen year olds to decide upon a career for the rest of their lives and then can't guarantee them a job at the end of school or further/higher education," was my take on things.

"At least with the Cameron millions, your lot won't be exactly destitute will they?" Diane threw back at me.

"I don't know, they won't be able to access their trust funds until twenty five, they could starve in that time."

Tom nearly choked on his Guinness, "They'll no sterve wi' Cathy as their mither."

"Or you as their grandfather," I shot back at him and he smiled. He loved that role, one which he'd almost given up on when he invited me to move into his house, so he told me and my fostering and then adopting all the children had, he reckoned enhanced his life and given him something to live for. I did seem to have an impact on the lives of others, intentional or otherwise and I was delighted to have enhanced his by simply being me and a sort of poor-man's good Samaritan, oh the expression is pound-shop not poor man's. I smirked and Diane picked up on it.

"What are you smirking at?" she asked.

"Oh nothing, just a silly notion that went through my head."

"Well, come on, spill," she instructed.

"Just the expression that we use to indicate what was once, 'poor man's' now it's pound shop, like Boris was described as a pound shop Trump." At this Daddy did choke on his Guinness and was red-eyed and blushing when he sorted himself.

I explained I had a short interview with every doctoral student we had and their supervisor this afternoon and Tom smiled in sympathy, he'd been there himself. For those who are pulling their weight it's a formality, for those who aren't, it's a wake-up call, though at that level they shouldn't need any incentives other than the entitlement to call themselves 'doctor' after they successfully complete the task, which is not an easy one.

We finished our lunch and I invited Tom for a cuppa when we returned to my office but he declined saying he would have a coffee and catch up on some paperwork. I was about finishing my own cuppa when the first of our pairs arrived. This was the one who was doing the freshwater invertebrate project and he was bemoaning the fact that the small amounts of rain we'd had for the past couple of months was affecting his streams and ponds. I suspect it would be affecting dormice too as it has an effect upon other plants and animals including the insects they eat at this time of the year, especially as spring was now about three weeks early these days.

After a tedious afternoon, but a necessary one, I drove home and found Trish and Sarah in deep debate about some scientific fact. My money, were I a betting woman, would have been on the younger one. She had a phenomenal memory as well as lightning quick brain and as she got older her thinking was much more organised. I was tempted to offer her a place at our university until she was old enough to go to Oxbridge or London. I'd talk to Daddy about that when we had five minutes.

Of course, I had to share some time with all of them, which I enjoy, but first I needed a cuppa and to change out of my work clothes. I was soon in jeans and top and sipping the live giving qualities of the drink of the gods when Sarah knocked and entered my study.

"Mummy," she said totally unaffected by the fact that I wasn't except in loco parentis "could you take a look at a couple of things I've encountered in my biology studies, they confuse me somewhat and even Trish couldn't quite understand them." What chance I would have was probably debatable if she couldn't understand it, but I am supposed to be a professor so I'd have to plug my brain back in.

Actually, it wasn't difficult just explaining one or two terms that neither of them had encountered before and explaining it to her. If she'd looked on the net, I'm sure she'd have found them, although she said she'd tried that as had Trish, or at least the definitions they'd found were contradictory - one of the major problems of the internet and even worse on social media, which she'd also tried.

Dinner was delicious and I felt quite sleepy afterwards. David had made a salmon and broccoli lattice of the most beautiful pastry and with new potatoes and watercress with tomatoes and other salad items, made me eat too much. I cleared up and with Sarah's help, we got the table cleaned and the dishes in the washer in ten or so minutes. She went back to her studies in her room and I knocked on Tom's study door.

"Daddy, I had a thought."

"Oh aye," he said ominously.

"I'm wondering if we should get Trish into the university and see how she does with older companions and how she copes with the stress of a higher level of learning. She already knows one or two of the physics and maths departments and if anything does go awry, you or I are there to rescue her."

"As she wuldnae be in yer department, it micht be a guid idea, even on a trial basis, are ye gang tae mak' her submit formally?"

"She has already got As in Physics and Maths and this year she's doing one in pure and applied maths, I can't see anyone turning her down unless they're frightened she'll be too clever for them."

"Aye, that's guid point, but Chris James, is pretty good himself."

"Yes, I'd heard that and he does know her a bit, he set her a couple of questions during lockdown which kept her busy for a couple of days. He was impressed with her answer when she emailed it back to him."

"Aye, so I ken. Why not, unless she does'nae want tae."

I thanked him and he smiled back before he settled down to finish his paperwork and eventually have a wee dram.

Ten minutes later I got Trish on her own, she was looking for some book in our library and I asked her. "Trish, what d'you think if instead of returning to the convent next year, you came to the university to study?"

"What Cambridge?" she beamed.

"Not yet, I thought Portsmouth, see how you get on and I'll be close enough at hand if you need me."

"What to help with maths?" she laughed.

"You know what I mean, you little madam." She giggled at that. "So what d'you think?"

"Yeah, okay except the school will lose me for the soccer team."

"I think that's a secondary consideration, don't you?"

"I s'pose. Yeah, what do we have to do?"

"I'll speak to Professor James and we'll sort it out."

"Will Daddy pay my fees?"

"One of us will, it won't be that much more than the school charges."

"Wow, didn't know it was that dear."

"You do now."

"Gosh, I'm not even at university yet and I'm learning new stuff all the time," she said and ambled out of the room. "Hey, Sarah, I'm gonna be at university with you."

"Wow, you doing biology, too?"

"No, I'm gonna do proper science - physics and stuff."