(aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2266 by Angharad Copyright © 2014 Angharad
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“...an’ Mummy cleared her blockage from the ovary and her periods started.” Danni was extolling my virtues to Stella.
“Her periods wouldn’t have stopped by a blockage from the ovary unless it was caused by something which affected her uterus and her ovaries–that would be pretty obvious even to the average doctor, as she was too young to be menopausal...” Stella cogitated.
“Well I don’t bloody know, do I?” confessed a bewildered teenager.
Nurse Cameron then asserted, “If she wasn’t a prem menopausal, and didn’t have anything else serious, the menses must have been just some form of symbolism by the healing energy to let her know something had happened.”
“Why didn’t it just send her a text message?” suggested Danni escaping while Stella was still engrossed with the physiological conundrum which her niece had presented.
I found it fascinating to watch her wheels turning. That she was considering going back to work was of itself good for her. It would enable her to meet people and who knows, maybe find a partner. I’d love to see her settled with someone, although the fact she already had two children would not assist in her quest. Mind you, I recall a joke from when I was in school which I didn’t understand at the time, it went something like–Two women were comparing how lazy their respective brothers were. ‘My brother is so lazy, he puts jam on envelopes so the kids will lick them for him.’ ‘Huh,’ said the other, ‘my brother is so lazy he married a woman with two children.’ Perhaps you can see how someone aged about thirteen had to have it explained to them, by which time it wasn’t funny anymore–if it was in the first place.
I asked her how she’d got on speaking to the director of nursing and she explained she’d have to do several weeks of updating, work under the supervision of a urologist–i.e. Mr O’Rourke for so long and then apply to get her specialist status back. The good news was that they’d pay her once she was working again. Personally, I think urology is a load of bladders, which may be taking the piss or not.
Simon made a huge fuss of Danni having her sit on his lap while he hugged her. He asked her to explain to him why she did it and before long she was in tears–at least he couldn’t blame it on me–the tears, that is. If you remember he’s always accusing me of making the kids cry–I don’t, it’s just that they tend to do it in front of me or with me and okay, sometimes because of me. I don’t use torture unless they really need it, and then we stick to water boarding in the garden pond.
I saw Danni off to bed and sitting on the side of the bed had a bit of a déjá vu experience, this was where I was sitting when she slipped into unconsciousness. This time after a nice hug and a little chat, she slipped into a natural sleep and I left her after kissing her on the forehead and telling her I loved her. I then threw a blanket of blue light over her and hoped it would protect and comfort her if she woke with bad dreams or feeling down.
Later in bed with Simon he asked me what it was all about by which he meant Danni’s attempted suicide. “Was she serious, or was it a cry for help?”
“Sadly, I think it was a serious attempt. She didn’t know I’d be up to see her before she went off, when she presumed I’d think she was asleep.”
“Any long lasting effects–from the pills, I mean?”
“They seemed to think not because we’d caught her early. You’d have been proud of Stella the way she helped me get her in a wheel chair and she belted along the corridor to A&E.”
“She didn’t run anyone down, then?”
“Not as far as I know, why?”
“She did when she was a student nurse.”
“Oh,” was my reply.
“So, why did Danni try to top herself?”
“You’re the one who spent half an hour talking to her.”
“Yeah, but she was so garbled, I thought I’d come to you for the translation.”
“Stephanie thinks she may just be overwhelmed by the finality of what she did or was done to her.”
“Explain in simple words or phrases.”
“I thought I had–okay, she’s a teenager so she sees things in black and white. There are no shades of grey, just a pair of absolutes.”
“Right.” At least he was still awake listening to my exposition.
“...and that’s why she did it.” I completed my story some twenty minutes later.
“So does she want to revert back to being a boy?”
“I don’t know, for the moment she doesn’t seem to. She’s back painting her nails and so on, but who knows long term.”
“That is going to be so hard if she does.”
“Which is why they make them wait before they do anything which might be considered irrevocable.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“The thing I don’t understand is why Pia did it to her.” I had my theories but no hard facts and I didn’t know where I’d be able to glean any others unless I spoke to her parents–and I didn’t fancy that.
“Yeah, you’d have thought she’d have just cut everything off same as she was.”
“I don’t know, I suspect she was conducting some sort of experiment.”
“What for?”
“That’s what I don’t understand myself, but then the assault in France seemed to change her character completely, before then she was a nice, polite young man.”
“Didn’t she have a sister?”
“Yes, Danny as a boy was quite attracted to her.”
“So how come up in Scotland he was sucking the face off a boy?”
“I have no idea.”
“Do the hormones change your sexuality?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think they did for Alan Turing.”
“Who?”
“The guy who broke the Enigma code.”
“When was that?”
“World War Two.”
“Oh, back then.”
“Yeah, Turing was a genius, he developed the concept which led to the development of computers. He was also gay in a time when it was illegal to have same sex relations.”
“What uncles and fathers?”
Sometimes I could murder him.
“He was convicted but because he was rather famous he was given the option of chemical castration by taking female hormones.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“It appears it messed up his mind a bit, he was never the same again and he is presumed to have committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide, which is why Steve Jobs chose the apple with the bite out of it as the logo for his company. He saw Turing as the founder of computer science.”
“Ah, so that’s where it came from.”
“I thought everyone knew that?”
“Apparently not, but then while you academics are having orgasms over titbits of information, us working in the real world...”
“Real world, ha. Since when did million pound bonuses appear in the real world?”
“Lots of people get bonuses.”
“Not measured in millions, they don’t.” I could almost feel the heat from his blushes.
“Okay, I work in cloud cuckoo land–but when you’re not in your ivory tower, you seem happy to spend it.”
“Well of course, I’m in the real world then and your Monopoly money is accepted by all leading shops and stores.”
Comments
Simon
I think he spends a lot of time in a land of his own head.
The treatment of Alan Turing ...
was criminal in my view but back then it was pretty shit for anybody with the slightest whiff of any sexual variation or deviancy. It only goes to show how monotheist men are so tied up with sex and sexuality. It's lamentable really.
Thanks for the chapter Ang.
Hugs,
Bev.
"It only goes to show how
"It only goes to show how monotheist's are so tied up with sex and sexuality."
There, Fixed that for you! :)
Doesn't seem to matter what ones gender is when it comes to hate and intolerance.
Turing's 'suicide' may have been trumped up...
There are also those who believe that he may have been murdered by one or another "intelligence" agency. The conventional wisdom of the day was that homosexuals were inherently vulnerable to blackmail, so were supposed "security risks" by definition.
In any event, as the article points out, thousands of (mostly) men persecuted under the same law, whose lives were ruined, whose freedom was stolen, have received no pardons, much less apologies or monetary redress for the wicked injustices practised upon them.
There's an old saying in many English-speaking countries, "Put your money where your mouth is..."
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
One could speculate endlessly
about the circumstances of his death and it's doubtful a certain outcome would be possible, except that the cause of death was cyanide poisoning.
As to the redress from various governments for the persecution of minorities. It's a nice idea but it will never happen and if it did would an apology mean anything from a politician who you know is lying because his lips move.
Angharad
Money, mouth...
That's why sincere apologies are always followed by the words, "Let me pay for that..."
If love means never having to say, you're sorry, being a government means you never have to pay for your misdeeds.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Politicians and Other Parasites
Well written Angharad ! That is why I am trying to get people to join in with a movement to replace politicians, their parties, and their fraudulent elections, with something much more Democratic - we instead have a Lottery every month, that Everybody is automatically included in, and about 250 individuals who "win" receive official notification that they must attend the Commons to be sworn in as Members of the Legislature for the next month.
It should be seen as a Duty, not a privilege, they can either propose a change in a law or a new law or the deletion of an old one, or take part in the discussion that is called the "committee stage", or take part in the final vote, approving it or voting against it and thus ruling it out, but as nobody would be there to see a Bill all the way through, nobody would have to feel they "owned" their suggestion(s). Power being so corrupting, the power anyone had would be so small and temporary as to not corrupt.
As with Jury Service, they cannot decline the Duty. Jobs will be kept open for them, they would receive their usual monthly pay, but from the State instead, and employers would be compensated so that they could hire another person for the month. They would also get their expenses refunded, but only against presentation of a proper receipt, and no four star restuarants or posh hotels or first class flights ! Their final reward, apart from the honour of serving in the Legislature, would be exemption from ever being called upon to serve again. Being randomly selected their opinions about matters would tend to reflect the frequency and range of the opinions amongst the entire population, so this would be far more Democratic than what we have now !
Another lovely episode Angaharad - your skill as a writer and your imagination, humour and wit is just amazing. Bless you, and thanks again. I am sometimes jealous, like I wish I had married a nice rich and noble Banker like Simon ! Oops, that is Cathy not you - it is just so convincing I get reality and fantasy mixed up. Must go now, have to feed the pet woodlice....
Briar
Well ...
... Manchester has named blinking big road after him - it goes right past the velodrome which is the only reason I know it's there. Then again, Derby and Nottingham have named the road that joins them Brian Clough Way after a football team manager.
It's good that Turing has been pardoned but sad that the same courtesy hasn't been extended to all men who were similarly jailed, fined, lives ruined etc for the same supposed crime. I don't think women were ever mistreated by the law for similar offences. In fact in my own experience people in general seemed to be quite tolerant of female homosexuality; one of the local milk 'men' when I was growing was a woman who cross-dressed (though she didn't look very male) and was known universally as Bertie. No-one bothered.
Robi
Female Homosexuality Was Never Illegal In UK !
Robi,
it was never made illegal for women to have intimate relations with eachother in Britain.
This is because the young Queen Victoria, when presented with the documents from her government to sign for her Royal Assent that this Act of Parliament became the Law, crossed out all the lines that mentioned women having lesbian relationships, saying "This is unnecessary, women do NOT behave like that !"
I understand that this was the very last time that the Monarch was allowed to refuse to sign the Assent, but they were unable to get her to change her mind and could not reintroduce it against her decision.
Briar
I am glad to see
That Danni has settled down for now and also that Stella is thinking of going back into nursing. You have a wonderful way of keeping this story interesting Abby. *hugs*
I see others have commented on the Alan Turing and Apple logo connection. I had never heard of that before and did some quick research. http://atkinsbookshelf.wordpress.com/tag/meaning-of-apple-logo/
According to that site it is false. dunno
Hadn't heard of the connection either
and evidently not actually true. But Jobs was a very brilliant and complex person. Maybe there is some truth there.
Not according to Janoff
He's pretty clear: 'But the really funny thing was the only direction we got from Steve Jobs is: "don't make it cute".' He did, however, design the apple both with the bite and without, and was happy when Jobs didn't think the bite too cute.
So the sory is a retcon at best, and likely not even that - I think Jobs said at some point that it was so cool he wished it had been true, thereby making the actual events canon. ;)
Impressed by the
urology wit.
I thought ...
... it was piss poor ;)
Robi
be nice if monopoly money
was accepted by my local merchants only have about 200 collectible versions of the Game.
Great Story Ang
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
The Apple bit(e)
is an urban legend, at least according to the designer of the logo (there's an interview on the net, with a picture of the original 1970’s logo that features Sir Isaac and another apple).
A touch of human
Good to see that these story parents don't fully understand their daughter. It's real. We don't always understand each other. I've never understood "people", I'm missing a gene perhaps, or it is not unusual to lack this understanding. Like and get along with them, yes, but know how their head is working? Nope.
I hope there are enough other working parts to their relationship to make up for this missing bit in Danni, Cathy and Simon's family life.
"Reach for the sun."
Truly I Will Never Understand Humans
As a famous Treen said, many times (in the Eagle Comic, that was popular about 65 Earth Years ago).
Being myself an alien being from the planet Zogg, or so I was told, I also find human behaviour peculier and impossible to understand most of the time. I actually studied animal behaviour, and once successfully ran a whole sales force by following the rules of the Conditioned Reflex that Pavlov worked out with his dog experiments, and for the most part it all worked just like it was supposed to. The same stimulus induced the same response, nine times in a row, but then the human somehow ignored the conditioning and did something so unexpected and often to his or her disadvantage, it just left me perplexed. Got my fourteen legs in a right tangle it did.
Briar
Thanks
Thanks Ang, for keeping your story going. Please give Danni a settled few months ahead, I believe she both needs and deserves it after all the vagaries over the past few weeks.
Thanks again for keeping your saga going, how it remains so fresh after all these years I find amazing.
Love to All
Anne G.
Poor Simon
he tries, But the female psych will always be a mystery to him, In Simons ideal world it will always be easier to act on what he sees, Delving into someones mind is an area he is not comfortable with, But at least the big man tries and that alone is worth so much...
Kirri
Urban myths
Dr Karl says Steve Jobs told Stephen Fry that the Apple logo story was a myth. Another myth is the existence of the 'empathy' Simon is lampooned for not having, which is spread by those that imagine somebody experiencing something feels the same as the 'empathiser' imagines they would feel upon that experience.
Just so long as nobody tries to tell us that Cathy and her family aren't real we can believe everything else on the Internet…
Rhona McCloud