The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2272 by Angharad Copyright © 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

I had much to think about that night. Simon had apologised for his inane comment especially after Stella had laid into him, giving him the tongue lashing of the century. He sloped off to bed and pretended to be asleep when I got there ten minutes later. I simply told him that at times he disappointed me and tonight was one of them.

He was apologetic to me once again and promised to try harder. He looked so forlorn that I had to accept his apology and his manner improved immediately. Had he been a puppy his tail would have been wagging.

I gave him a brief synopsis of what Stella and I had discussed and he seemed impressed by Stella’s insight, suggesting it was like the old Stella he’d known and loved. I hoped she was regaining that part of her that had been lost with illness and trauma and pregnancy.

“So will Stephanie go along with Danni saying goodbye to his boyhood?” he asked.

“I don’t know, she might have tried it already for all we know.”

“It’s got to be worth a try, hasn’t it?”

“I suppose so, assuming she is actually mature enough to cope with the concepts.”

“You were.”

“Si, I was ten years older and therefore much more mature.”

“Yeah but girls mature earlier than boys, so she should be all right.”

“Si, she was a boy until a few months ago. Occasionally she seems older than a thirteen year old boy, but at others she certainly doesn’t seem to be like a teenaged girl.”

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed.”

“You wouldn’t, it’s a girl thing.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, it’s mainly noticed by mothers.”

“That would be a girl thing then.”

See, some days he does understand things like an adult that don’t relate to banks.

“Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do my best to do it,” he said before pecking me on the cheek and going off to sleep. He does try most of the time. I know it doesn’t excuse his, at times, juvenile behaviour but he is a very loving husband and father and I suspect much of it goes back to patterns from his childhood when he’d be wary of appearing vulnerable to his peers.

I tossed and turned before finally drifting off to sleep. I was sitting on a train when someone came and sat beside me. I was busy with the book I was reading and didn’t notice who it was. I became aware of a strange energy alongside me and realised when I looked that Charlie was sitting there grinning at me. I could say I felt beside myself, but I didn’t, I felt bewildered.

“No of course I don’t, now push off and let me sleep.”

“Cathy, you’re talking in your sleep,” said Simon’s voice from a long way away.

“Good job I have a husband and a lover with the same name, isn’t it?” I muttered back.

“What?” he gasped.

It was a line I’d always wanted to use but my smirking gave away the fact that I was awake and he shoved me not too gently. “Cow,” he spat at me.

I went for a wee and while sitting on the throne wondered about the dream I’d had of which I remembered much. Had I told my earlier self to push off? I suppose I might have done–I’ve done the integration thing, I haven’t got time for any regrets about past incarnations, I’m too busy with real problems to deal with imagined ones. I dismissed it all as just a dream showing I was worried about Danni. However, just to be safe I threw a covering of blue light around myself and Danni to help us sleep. It worked for me until nearly eight o’clock the following morning when I woke to rain lashing against the windows and was reminded of the predominant element of the weather this winter.

The radio came on and the news was all about the flooding in the south west, especially Somerset, where houses and farms were being evacuated. Interestingly, the experts didn’t know if it was related to climate change or not. I knew for certain it wasn’t as one UKIP member suggested, that it was a punishment for the gay marriage bill. That was too much even for UKIP–a very strange group of people who want out of the European Union–being as deluded as the Tea Party in the US–the member was suspended by his party, hopefully by his balls.

It’s hard to believe that there are actually people who think like that, they should be sent to Afghanistan because they’d probably fit in quite well with the Taliban and their medieval philosophy on life. I’ve mentioned my opinion of the way they treat women before, I was disgusted then I’m even more so now when they appear to have enshrined in law the right for a man to beat the women in his care, presumably meaning his wife, daughters and so on. I’ll bet it doesn’t allow the women to stab him to death while he’s sleeping if he does beat them, which would be my response to anyone to beat me. They wouldn’t do it twice.

I got up and washed and dressed and went to start the breakfast. Danni came down just after me and asked if she could have Cindy over, or could she go to Cindy’s? I said I wasn’t entirely happy with either idea but the former was easier to cope with. I rationalised that once she goes to the same school, they were likely to see each other anyway, so why bother. Besides it might help Danni to have a friend who wasn’t toxic, before she went to school. That Danni was post op and Cindy wasn’t had an irony about it which almost amused me unless I find out Cindy was in on it and then I will be just, everso slightly homicidal.

I saw the car pull up and disgorge its contents while I was preparing dinner. It would mean another face to feed but it might lift Danni’s spirits a little and I noticed she was wearing makeup and nicer clothes than she had worn recently–Danni, that is. I’d just have to wait and see.