Gaby Book 28 ~ Balancing Trick ~ Chapter *7*
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Balancing Trick by Maddy Bell
Copyright© 2023 Madeline Bell |
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But hark, is that a hint of normality creeping in? Don't bet on it, read on for more singing, dancing and bike riding with a twist here and there along the way.
Seven
"Do you want some coffee? Or tea?” I offered as Frank extricated my steed from the rear of the Mercedes.
Rather than opening the house I’d gone straight to the bike cave and the door was nearly open – Dad replaced the old door for this fancy electric thing last autumn after miriad complaints about the old up and over jamming. Well that and I had to jump to reach the handle to pull it down. Manda’s bike was still absent so pfennigs to marks, she’s not back from the Wupper yet.
"Best not, I told the wife I’d be home for dinner but thanks for offering, you got everything?”
I did a mental check, Handtasche, case, phone, bike, - I’ll not live that down, trophy?
"The trophy thing? I think its on the back seat.”
"Take your bags in and I’ll look for it.”
“’kay,” I agreed before trundling the case towards the garage.
It clearly didn’t take much finding as he almost followed me into the maw of the basement wheeling my steed and clutching the latest addition to the Bond spoils collection.
"Here you go, one trophy, where do you want the bike?”
I took the proffered item, a block of clear resin with ‘Fleche Wallonne’ apparently carved inside it – not the prettiest nor ugliest in the family collection.
"Erm, can you put it on the workstand, I’m under strict instructions to clean it tonight.”
"The glamour of bike racing,” Frank chuckled as he clamped the Pinarello in place.
"Yeah,” I sighed, "Sure you don’t want a drink?”
"Better not or my dinner will be in the dog.”
"Is it a Wűrsthund?”
"I wish, it’s a Bernese, never stops eating. How are you getting on with the Deco?”
"Okay I guess, not done any for a few weeks with being away, don’t think I’ll ever get to competition level.”
"Never say never Gaby,” he replied, was that a twinkle in his eye? "Anyway great ride today, I’ll be in touch about the other thing as soon as I have things confirmed.”
"Okay, have a safe journey.”
I watched as he turned around and gave a wave as he set off to complete his journey down to Frankfurt or wherever it is he actually lives. Bike cleaning, meh, my least favourite bit of riding bikes – well after punctures and crashes. Not that I do that much, Dad usually takes care of the race bikes, mine and Mand's, so my cleaning is usually confined to a quick wipe down of the training iron although the washer does come out most weeks through the winter to keep the road salt at bay.
First job though is to get my laundry going, I hit the close button for the door before dragging my bag to the ‘laundry’.
The house seemed strangely quiet, I’m not often here with no one else about, Dad’ll be doing bike stuff, Mand will be about somewhere as will Mum when she’s home. Today though, the rents are away with the senior team, de Vreen is, well not back yet so its just me, we don’t even have any pets. Yeah, cats and dogs don’t really fit with our lives, we did have rabbits and guinea pigs when me and Jules were younger, even a goldfish at one time but by secondary school other things demanded our attention.
There was still no sign of Manda by the time I’d changed, it was just gone six, I don’t suppose she’ll be much longer so I raided the freezer for some frozen bolognese sauce and rather than pasta, set a couple of big taters going in the microwave. I couldn’t put it off any longer, with a sigh I made a quick cuppa and headed downstairs to where my bike was patiently waiting for a bit of post race TLC. At least there wasn’t too much to do, Andreas had given everyone’s machines a wipe down after the finish so it was mostly doing the fiddly bits like inside the gears and brakes.
I know I said I hate this stuff but its strangely cathartic, sat on a bar stool feeding the cleaning rag through all the little nooks and crannies. Even wheels aren’t so bad when you are sat like this, I can get my small hands right into the hub and whilst Dad takes the cassette off to clean, I did it the old fashioned way dragging the rag between the sprockets. Last thing is to polish the frame, I’d just sprayed the creamy gunk on when the sound of the door motor announced the return of Manda to Bond Acres.
"Wotcha,” I greeted as she came into view.
"Geez, don’t do that, you made me jump.”
"Soz, good day?”
"Okay I guess,” she allowed setting the door to close behind her, "You?”
I nodded towards the trophy still stood on the workbench where Frank had placed it, "Not too shabby.”
"Well I’m pooped, you wanna clean mine?”
"In your dreams girl,” I snorted back.
"Nothing ventured,” she sighed.
"You eaten?”
"Maybe?”
"Baked spud with bolognese?”
"Might manage that, we had soup and sandwich’s at the Grönberg’s after but that was hours ago.”
"Angela and Marcus okay?”
"Yeah, you putting this stuff in the drier?” she asked dragging my clean gear into a laundry basket.
"It’ll wait for yours, I’ll just finish this then I’ll sort the food.”
“’kay, I’ll go change, the bike’ll have to wait.
"So?”
"Mm.mmm,” she swallowed, "Not bad.”
"I didn’t mean the food, how’d the race go?”
"I got the girls prize and Josh was third.”
"What about Daz?”
"Packed on the second lap after it all exploded, Josh said he’s been a bit rough for a few days.”
"Sounds like a usual Wupper GP.”
"Yeah, I ended up riding round with Barbie and Fran, I only beat Fran by half a wheel. So what about you?”
And so I regaled her with my exploits as we demolished the rest of our late tea.
"What you got there?” Mand enquired as I opened the envelope that Gret gave me earlier, this weeks Tatort was a bit lame, a terrible plot set during a Pride march so I thought I’d take a shufti at what Dieter had sent.
"Stuff for next weekend,” I told her as I shook the contents onto my lap.
"Oo, goody, lets see,” she demanded.
"Hang on!”
There was a veritable stack of paperwork, okay, it was half a dozen sheets which included a covering note pinned to the front.
"Looks like a full weekend, we’re doing an RTF on Saturday so we fly out on Friday,” I advised, passing her the papers.
"Friday? I wondered why your Dad wanted to know if I had classes.”
"You don’t do you?”
"Nothing that hurts to miss. So we aren’t staying in this Potsdamer?”
"I’m sure we went to some big palace place at Charlottenburg when we went from school.”
"That was some day trip.”
"We were there for like four days, didn’t you ever have school trips?”
"Sure, we went up the City, Kew Gardens, Tower of London, the usual but we just went on the bus from Croydon. Next you’ll be telling me you flew to Berlin.”
"Nothing so glamorous, cheap as chips night train.”
"Sounds very elegant, something out of an Agatha.”
"Hardly, four girls in a tiny compartment and Nena snores.”
"Its still more fun than the one nine six bus.”
"If you say so, I guess one of us had better ring Hennie to see what the crack is for the airport.”
Half an hour later and we were all set, Hennie Pinger, Kat’s dad, had already had the heads up about our needs from Dad so it was essentially fine tuning the details. Apparently he knows a man with a van who will pick us and the two big bike boxes up and transport us to the airport, all we have to do is be ready at the allotted time, an almost civilized nine thirty. We’ll have time to kill at the flughafen but we’ll have a bit of wriggle for traffic or any issues at check in.
Of course, I was on the phone to Hr Pinger when Dad himself rang – well I’m guessing that’s the case as I’d hardly put the receiver down when he called.
"Bond!”
"Heya kiddo.”
"Oh hi Dad, wassup?”
"Nothing here, thought I’d best call before I start the team brief for tomorrow, so how did you get on today?”
"Okay I suppose, we’ve just been sorting out transport for Friday.”
"So you’re all organised?”
"Yeah, we get picked up at half nine, just got to box the bikes up.”
"I’ve left you instructions taped to one of the boxes.”
"We saw,” I allowed with a sigh, "We’re not totally useless you know.”
"I do know Gaby but instructions are always useful.”
"Whatever.”
"So how did the race go?”
"Hasn’t Frank rung to tell you?”
"We did speak earlier but he wouldn’t say more than it was a good result, so?”
Guess I get to revel in the tale once more.
After a slightly abridged version of my heroic efforts I got to the end.
“… out of gears on the Mur, I thought I’d lost it when I heard the peloton behind.”
"But they still had to climb the steep ramp,” Dad pointed out.
"Yeah,” I agreed, "Was I glad it wasn’t further to the line though, they woulda been on me in another fifty.”
"Maybe we can get a family double tomorrow eh.”
"It would be pretty cool.”
Didn’t I mention before? Tomorrow they run the junior men and the womens version of the Fleche before the main event on Tuesday. Both of tomorrows events do the same run towards Huy but they get to do two laps of the circuit, two ascents of the Wall.
"I don’t think your tactics will work tomorrow,” Dad surmised, "But we have a plan.”
"Fingers crossed.”
"Indeed,” Pater replied.
So far his tenure as manager of the senior team has been bathed in also ran crème, their best result an eighth place at Brabant Pijl for Tina on Friday. Apparently they’ve been up there in the action but in the final accounting they’ve been left wanting. As Mum is keen to point out, you can’t win all the time but I’m sure Dad’s feeling the pressure all the same.
"You still there Gab?”
"Er yeah, sorry.”
"I said, can I have a word with Amanda?”
"Oh sure, give my love to Mum.”
"I will,” he confirmed.
"Mand! Dad want’s a word,” I bellowed toward the lounge.
"Coming!” she called back.
"She’s on her way.”
"I’ll call tea time tomorrow, we should be done by then.”
"Remember I’ve got cheer tomorrow.”
"Its in the diary.”
"Okay, tell everyone glűck for tomorrow.”
"I will.”
Mand arrived so with a last ‘bye Dad’, I handed off the phone to de Vreen.
Well you know the usual routine for Monday’s by now, I only have classes in the morning, in theory this gives me time for the library in the afternoon but usually I’ll head back to Dernau maybe via the shops. Today was unremarkable, the usual traffic on the way into Koblenz, a skein of clouds depositing liquid sunshine at regular intervals through the morning. I must admit that my mind was only half taking in the no doubt essential points in accounting and not a lot of the wisdom imparted by Lisbet in the seminar that followed. There was no summons to coffee so I made good my escape and headed for the train home.
No one thing had me distracted, I did wonder how Mum and the girls were doing over in Lűttich, it won’t be fun if Belgium has the same weather we’ve got. But that was mixed in with the coming weekends trip to the capital and this evenings Cheer session at the Tanzklub. Guess I’ll use my Mofa to go up unless Mand is coming.
You certainly get plenty of time for reading or whatever when you have a long commute, I spent the journey as far as Bad Bresig catching up on the accounting reading that I should’ve done over the weekend before my thoughts wandered off again.
I wasn’t the only one a bit stiff as the All Star Cheer finished up for the night, I guess I’m not the only one who has skipped things a bit.
"Okay everyone, before you all disappear I’ve got some dates for you,” Hannah announced over the hubbub. "We’ve got quite a full calendar for the next couple of months, the club committee are keen to see some return on their ‘investment’ and getting the All Stars out in the community is part of that. Lisse, can you pass these around,” she handed Analise a stack of photocopied sheets before going on.
"So if you take a look we are at Adenau Karneval a week Saturday, Ahrweiler the following week and then its the regionals in Bonn the week after and so on. Can you have a look at the dates and let either Gaby or myself know if there are dates you can’t make. We don’t expect everyone to make every event but the more the merrier.”
There was a bit of discussion about what we’d be doing at the Karneval type events but no one had immediately cried off.
"Thought we might have seen Amanda tonight,” Han suggested as she locked up a few minutes later.
"She’s got some exam stuff she needs to revise for.”
"So she’s not gone off the idea of joining then?”
"Don’t think so, its just very busy at school and racing at the moment.”
"Oh to be young,” she mock lamented.
"You’re hardly old,” I pointed out.
"I’m ten years older than the new girls.”
"Who are all of fourteen,” I pointed out.
"What about you, no exams or anything?”
"Not this year thank gott.”
"So you’re okay with the coaching still?”
"Yeah, not sure how much of the other stuff I can get to though, same for Mand of course.”
"It’d be nice if you can get to some of them.”
"No promises, I should be okay for Bonn at least. I should get going, Dad didn’t call earlier so he’ll probably try for when I get home.”
"Okay, you at Garde this week?”
"Nah, race near Berlin so we’re going on Friday.”
"Thats a long drive.”
"Which is why we’re flying.”
"Hark at her!”
"It’s a one off.”
"Well good luck with the race, I’ll see you next Monday then?”
"I’ll be here, I’ll work on the demo routines, they don’t need to be fancy or anything, tschuss!”
I did know about the upcoming cheer events, Han had emailed me the list last week, I just hadn’t realised how close they were!
Of course, it wouldn’t be Monday night without post cheer Pizza so I stopped at Mayschoß on the way back down the valley, pepperoni for me and a veggie special for Mand – we did only have egg toasties before I came out after all. Maybe I should get one of those thermal bags like they use for deliveries, our supper needed warming up a bit after its trip in the Mofa’s basket down the valley. Of course its sod’s law that the phone rang just as I sunk my teeth into the first slice.
Maddy Bell © 15.06.2023