Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 3000

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike, est. 2007)
Part 3000
by Angharad

Copyright© 2016 Angharad

  
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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.
*****

The first we knew something was wrong was Danielle’s scream of anguish. I don’t know how many of us raced to where we assumed the noise came from but I just followed my ears. She was standing in her bedroom holding her phone and tears were forming rivulets down her face.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” I asked wrapping my arms around her. She was incoherent with tears and took some time to tell me.

“I’m supposed to be in Reading, the match is in one hour’s time.”

“The England match?” I gasped.

Simon puffed up the stairs, “Wossgoin’on?” he asked.

I explained her plight. “How can you forget something like that?” he sighed and the child burst into tears again.

“Are they playing at Reading?” he asked still breathing heavily.

She nodded.

He looked at me. “Tell them you’ll be there and pack whatever kit she needs but be quick.” With that he rushed back down the stairs.

“How can I get there in time?” she whined.

“I think Daddy is taking care of that, get your bag ready and don’t forget your boots.” I almost pushed her into her room where she began rushing about opening doors and drawers and generally making a mess.

Two minutes later he was back up the stairs. “Have you told them?” I was busy replying to the text and nodded for her. He dragged her out of her room clutching her sports bag in his other hand. Danielle was trying to zip up her handbag as I handed her her phone.

A few minutes later the noise of a large machine filled the air and I watched as Simon ran across the road with Danielle and a helicopter, a relatively small one, like a flying teaspoon, hove into view and then landed in the field. Simon bundled her into the chopper where she was busy pulling on her helmet as the thing began to wind up again and Simon scuttled away. Moments later they were airborne and Simon trotted back across the road and up the drive looking red faced.

“How much will that cost?” I asked him as he entered the house.

“I’ve told her she can pay me back over the next two hundred years if she doesn’t score at least one goal.”

“I love you, Simon Cameron,” I said and hugged and kissed him.

“How could she forget?”

“She’s been a bit strange lately, I think she might just be in love or just lust.”

“She’s got a boyfriend?” he said loudly.

“Yeah, his name’s Bob or something, might be dog—woof woof,” offered Trish as she walked past and we both nearly fell over laughing.

“What time is the kick off?” I asked.

“Three why?”

“Who wants to see Danni play for England?” I yelled—a stupid thing to do. We had to take the people carrier thing, Shazam or whatever it’s called which Simon agreed to drive. With assorted bags of crisps, drinks and chocolate we dashed to the car and were on the road.

It was three o’clock as we parked at the stadium. Simon drove like a maniac—I know he does most of the time, but this was homicidal maniac type driving. The girls were cheering every time he shouted abuse at another road user while I was trying to slide down under the dashboard.

Carrying our bags of food and drink, we ran to the turnstiles and I paid two hundred pounds on my card to get us all in, then as the national anthems stopped, we rushed to our seats and breathlessly sat down. In moments we spotted her in the number seven shirt—if she wants tattoos like her hero—she can go and take a running jump.

The first ten minutes were full of mistakes as both sides tried to settle down and to my discomfort it seemed Germany were doing that quicker. Fifteen minutes later and they were one up. This did not look at all good—the English girls were playing like they all had cerebral palsy. Just on half time, Germany went two up and Simon groaned that it was all over.

Danni hadn’t played badly but neither had she sparkled like she usually did. In fact they all seemed leaden legged compared to the German girls. I imagined myself in the changing room and began sending in the blue light to all of them—abuse of my energy? Definitely not, they all seemed a bit sick. Simon and Trish worked out what I was doing and he kept the others from pestering me while Trish joined in my effort to boost our girls.

The first five minutes of the second half tended to indicate I’d been wasting my time as only a desperate tackle by Danni and the England fullback stopped the Germans going three goals up. I was feeling positive dread now, if it’s possible.

“Come on England,” I shrieked and the crowd, a largely partisan one, joined in my call. Then with Simon calling ‘England’ and clapping the crowd followed suit again and we actually attacked only to see the England forward splattered off the ball. The defender was yellow carded but Simon was in gear now and he began calling, “Off, off, off.” I just held my breath as we watched ‘Beckham Cameron’ line up the kick. Talk about pressure, the poor girl must have been twitching with it.

“Bloody hell, did you see that?” Gasped a delighted Simon as the ball swerved round the wall and into the top corner of the net, the goalkeeper didn’t even see it. The girls were bouncing up and down and crying with joy. I just felt this huge warmth diffusing from my heart all over my body. It was pride and love.

Taking heart from this England threw attack after attack at Germany and to be fair the German girls defended stoutly if not always fairly. Ten minutes from time, after an attack on the German goal and the ball was scrambled off the line, booted down field as far as Danielle Cameron, the number seven. She volleyed it back so hard it hit a German girl on the head and she dropped like she’d been pole-axed. The ball however, went for a corner. Danni took it but this time the goalie was up to it and spotted it dropping into the centre of her line and punched it away.

I saw Danni racing down the field to intercept any breakaways. It was booted up in the air and seemed to be bouncing past her when she, back to the ball, threw herself in the air and doing an overhead bicycle kick lobbed the ball back into the goal mouth. This time the goalie missed it and the ball bounded under her body to give the equaliser. Simon was almost hysterical with delight, I was just shocked—how could someone do what I’d just witnessed her do. It had to be an instinctual action, she couldn’t have seen the ball, just heard it land behind her. The crowd were ecstatic and the three quarters filled stadium yelled in renewed enthusiasm. They had just witnessed an act of supreme skill and athleticism, they may never see such a goal ever again.

With everything to play for the two teams threw everything at each other and then with four minutes to go, the Germans got a direct free kick. Their kicker was good but compared to Danni, not good enough and the English goalie managed to get fingers to it and flipped it over the bar. From the ensuing corner, they put the ball in the net but the flag was up for offside and it didn’t count.

In the dying moments, Danni and a girl called India Ink or something like that, did a one two through the German defence and on Danielle’s inch perfect pass the other girl slammed the ball into the net. The whistle blew and we’d won. I wasn’t sure if I could watch her play again, didn’t think my nerves could stand it. The teams shook hands and the England team walked to the centre of the pitch and then walking all round it, they clapped their supporters. Danielle spotted her dad who was jumping up and down and flapping like a chicken calling her name. She ran over towards us and shouted for us to wait for her—she’d be an hour or so.

The high eventually wore off and I ended up driving us all home, Simon was fast asleep in the front passenger seat while all the girls chattered like a flock of starlings in the back. “Thanks, Mum,” Danni said as she got out of the car.

I looked quizzically as her.

“We all felt the energy you sent us, it helped too, but don’t worry, none of them know about it.”

We hugged and I told her how much I loved her.

“You gonna leave Daddy in the car?” she asked as we finally noticed sleeping beauty was still snoring in the front seat.

“Go on, Princess Charming, better wake him up,” which she did with a smacker on the cheek.

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Comments

Wow # 3000

Pamreed's picture

Who would of thought back on Monday 07-16-2007 that we would be reading # 3000 on 8/1/2016!!
Angharad you are amazing!!

I was looking for

the like button. "Like"

An incredible number!

3000 - an incredible number of stories and an incredibly exciting one at that!!

Amazing!

Jeri Elaine

Homonyms, synonyms, heterographs, contractions, slang, colloquialisms, clichés, spoonerisms, and plain old misspellings are the bane of writers, but the art and magic of the story is in the telling not in the spelling.

Amazing, Amazing..

an amazing chapter for number 3000!!! Altogether an amazing story and this chapter takes the cake.

Thank you so very much for a wonderful story so full of excitement and wisdom about the world. Thank you again Angharad

Ruth

May the sun always shine on your parade

Bloody brilliant babes!

Eeh lass, it's been a grand tale- well actually a grand, grand, grand tale.

Well done girl, there's not much else I can say!

bev_1.jpg

Let's See

littlerocksilver's picture

At a reduced output of 3.5 a week it will take only 16.13 years to do another 3000 episodes. So much will happen in the next 16 years. All the girls will be grown and Cathy will probably be a grandmother. I will have trouble waiting for all the possibilities.

Portia

3000 episodes and still going strong!

Dormice the last couple of days, some bike rides, now Danni as a soccer heroine. Suspect she was the only team member delivered by helicopter. Glad the rest of the family could make it. Suspect in a future episode we'll be reading about some press attention over that goal. Hoping Danni has solidified her position on the team. (just make sure she remembers her schedule.

Great Episode

Lots of fun, excitement, and humor. Thanks so much Angharad for this episode and the other 2999.

Congratulations

Hear ye, hear ye, one and all!

Congratulations are in order on the occasion of Angharad's most singular achievement of posting the 150th score, that is 3000, episodes of Bike.

I hope that she plans many, many more future episodes.

Anam Chara

Way to go

jennifer breanna's picture

Great story and a real nail biter of a football match.

Gratitude

Dear Angharad: You have contributed some much to my state of well being. Unless I'm on a canoe trip you are the nightly tonic that helps me calm down & feel at peace with the world. Since I prefer to read your work from a printed version before lights out I estimate I have printed 12000 sheaves of paper (about 130 lbs). I'll bet you never imagined your creation would be so weighty. Though we are thousands of kilometres apart ; spiritually I feel a kinship. Thanks from Canada- Another Brian

3000 episodes!

3000 episodes!

There should be readings of Bike in the public squares, bands playing, and displays of fireworks booming and illuminating the heavens! Well done, Ang!

Kris

{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}

Congrats on 250 dozen episodes!

*Cheers loudly*

You are amazing hon!

With regard to the story, is it just me or is this the beginning of something ominous? I mean, the entire team was immersed in a collective ennui? Did somebody sic a witch doctor on them?

A special chapter for a

A special chapter for a special number 3000 !! Amazing Angie, just amazing. YOU have found a way to keep us interested in all of them.

A huge Hug,
Karen

Angharad, It is amazing to

Angharad, It is amazing to me that you have been able to keep all of us engrossed in a single story for 3000 chapters and still everyone wants more. I certainly know I do. This chapter had it all in my very humble opinion, sorrow because Danni missed her wakeup and believed she would miss her game, love from her father by getting her on a helicopter to get there; followed by total love of the family by all of them going to see her play, the the elation shown by Danni and her teammates for winning, plus the same from her own family.
Saying all this, I do wish to THANK YOU for a most wonderful story and family that you entrust to us each day/night (depending on where we all live) and allowing us for a few brief moments to become part of that family and see how they each grow and love each other.
You definitely make our day/night.

A Fairytale Episode

joannebarbarella's picture

For the 3000th outing. Even if I don't believe England could have beaten Germany (although Cathy did contribute a zap of blue energy).

Bravo! Encore! Angharad, you must have been zapped with your own blue light to achieve the output to date. The story seems to have been going as long as Coronation Street, and I hope it outlasts that venerable institution.

Thank you and congratulations

Thanks for writing all these 3000 episodes.

Anne Margarete

3000!!!!!!!!!!!

kristin's picture

I SOOO hoped you would get here! It is amazing that this quality of writing, continues from 2007 until now! I am SOO happy to congratulate you for doing so well, for so long! My daily mousecateer fix has entertained me for more years than I care to admit! I really hope to keep enjoying your talent and creativity for as long a you care to give it to us. :) Thank you again, we REALLY enjoy this!! :)

kristyn nichols

3000!!!!!!!!!!!

kristin's picture

I SOOO hoped you would get here! It is amazing that this quality of writing, continues from 2007 until now! I am SOO happy to congratulate you for doing so well, for so long! My daily mousecateer fix has entertained me for more years than I care to admit! I really hope to keep enjoying your talent and creativity for as long a you care to give it to us. :) Thank you again, we REALLY enjoy this!! :)

kristyn nichols

Excitement

Podracer's picture

Just the thing to wake up with early in the morning, and congratulations on that big number at the top. The daily dormouse is like the morning coffee, and sets brain cells and feelings in motion. Thanks Ang, here's hoping it energises you as well as us.

"Reach for the sun."

Congratulations on an amazing achievement.

You make our puny efforts look like molehills before Everest! Is there a section in the Guinness Book of Records? If not there should be.
Sorry I can't comment on the chapter although I'm sure it's great - I'm still catching up - it should only take me another year or so.

Best regards, Bronwen

What excitement!

Were you secretly keeping this episode, already written, to come as number 3K? Very suitable.

No, it occurred to me as I sat down to write.

Angharad's picture

What had been in mind would have been much more serious and required a number of episodes to deal with, but that will keep.

As most of you know already, I write this 'off the cuff' so to speak, which occasionally shows in contradictions from earlier episodes or changes to people because I simply forgot. Obviously if there's a longer story arc in operation I go along with it but often without much in the way of planning. In some ways I'm the epitome of how not to write, poor planning and editing before I post it. I'm fortunate that most of you are generous enough not to comment about my inadequacies.

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Angharad

Congrats

An amazing feat.

JIll

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

How nice must it

be to have a dad who can call up a helicopter as easy as you or i would call a taxi , Thankfully Danni rewarded her father in the best way possible way with a goal and a top quality performance.... So is Trish teasing her parents or does Danni really have a boyfriend ? if its true then maybe Cathys worries about Danni wanting to become a boy again can well and truly be put to bed , Cathy will no doubt be quizzing her daughter very soon ...

I can't go without congratulating Angharad on her wonderful ability to keep us all entertained over the past 3000 episodes , The mixture of comedy , suspense, and family life with all its trials and tribulations is not easy to bring together in the way Ang has managed, As i have said before it takes someone with real talent to pull it off... Angharad has certainly achieved that ..

Kirri