The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3108 by Angharad Copyright© 2017 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.
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“You see, Cathy....”

The door burst open and in walked Danielle, “Gramps, Sammi’s on the phone, something about rushing bears...”

“Damn Putin, damn him to hell. Sorry, Cathy, I have to go.” He pecked me on the cheek and went briskly from the room. In the background I heard Simon calling to him, while Danni stayed with me.

“Why’s he worried about bears, you’re the wildlife expert?” she looked puzzled.

“I think you misheard Sammi, I suspect she said Russian Bears, a group of hackers who I think they said hacked the Democrat’s emails in the presidential election.”

“Is that why Hillary lost?”

“Not quite but it didn’t help. People have allegedly drawn conspiracies between Russia and the outcome of the election but I suspect after the FBI thing about her emails, which lost her ground, and Trump targeting states that were unsure who they’d support, she lost. One analysis said the Democrats fielded the wrong candidate against Trump and Bernie Sanders might have beaten him, but who knows.”

“I thought you wanted Hillary to win?”

“I did because a woman president might have done something different to a man, let alone one like the current incumbent.”

“You mean the orange one?”

I nodded and she giggled. I smiled back but I felt anything but happy about the way the popular vote was heading towards the right. The people who were voting were misled and not clever enough to see it, including the Bexit vote. HM government were desperately trying to culture trade deals with the US which would likely be entirely in favour of them, not us. Such things as employment and food protection are much higher in the UK, they won’t be if we do deals with Trump and there are loads of health care giants waiting to get contracts to provide NHS services, even though their system is failed and their efforts so far to do things over here have been rubbish. We’re not just different countries, we live in different universes and with our trade secretary hobnobbing with the Trump team, I suspect we’re in for some difficult times, especially as he had to resign before over conflict of interest and to my mind he shouldn’t even have been allowed to remain an MP or a doctor, let alone return as a cabinet minister, but then the woman who leads that party doesn’t inspire any confidence and I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her, or her bunch of criminal ministers. The only thing you could say about her is that she makes Cameron look almost honest and he’s a proven liar.

“Look Babes, I’ve got to head up to town, we have a situation.” Simon had put his head round the door.

“Will you be back tonight?”

“Doubt it, massive cyber attack, they had to call Sammi in and she’s called for Dad to go and see for himself.”

“Want to borrow Trish?” I joked.

“In a couple of years maybe.”

“Have you packed or d’you want me to do it?”

“I’ve done it, babes, if I found you in the bedroom bending over the bed my impulses might have taken over and...”

“You’d have been late for your meeting.”

“Just a bit,” he winked.

“Do I get a kiss?”

“You have to ask?” he walked in grabbed me and gave me a very passionate kiss. I gave him one back and he looked at me and said, “I wonder if I could get them to postpone the meeting...”

I sent him on his way and Danni and I waved him off as he sped down the drive. “Henry didn’t say anything about why he was bringing you back, did he?”

“Nah, he just said he wanted to speak to you about something. He did say I could have his Aston Martin when he died.”

“That could be forty years away and by that time gas guzzlers like that might be prohibited. Besides, unless you were about sixty-five, the insurance would cost more than the car.”

“You could pay for that for me for my birthday.”

“Look here my petrol-head daughter, start saving now and you might just be able to buy a tankful of petrol by the time he gives it to you, at the rate it’s increasing in price, you’ll need a fortune to pay for it.”

“Dad could buy me that for my birthday.”

“Which one, your seventieth?”

“No, seventeenth.”

If we’re all still alive and the US and China aren’t firing ballistic missiles at each other.

The world of dormice is so much simpler, they live or die and aren’t interested in world domination or painting themselves orange. Having said that the way that edible dormice, the ones Rothschild let escape from his menagerie, are expanding and making life difficult for our native hazel dormouse, perhaps there is an element of domination there as well. With that thought, I went back to the kitchen and to sort out the dirty dishes from our late diners only to find that Danni had sorted it earlier.

“What are you after?” I said to her in jest.

“Nothing, I could see you were busy with Grampa Henry and so I did it for you.”

“How was the weekend?”

“That was brill, Mummy, they had a guy there who showed me how to curl the ball even more and to have it curl in opposite directions from the same kick.”

“Presumably not at the same time?”

“Nooo, it curves one way and then the other, it drives goalkeepers crazy.”

“I should imagine it would make their job a bit more difficult.”

“Difficult—impossible. If I get spot-kick within thirty five yards of the goal, I’m likely to score half the time.”

“Isn’t that a bit unknowable due to so many variables?”

“Yeah, but you wait and see, every other one should go in at least, at best every one will.”

“That strikes me as being unlikely.”

“You wait and see, doubting Thomas.”

“I hope I am wrong, but if what you said were true wouldn’t the professionals be doing it?”

“They do but the goalies are better—remember they’re professionals.”

“I’m aware of that, darling, I just said that.”

“Did you—when?”

“Just now.”

“Oh, I didn’t hear it.”

“So are you in the squad for the next game?”

“Probably, no one’s place is certain, so we have to wait until the day.”

“Oh, okay. I’m sure Daddy will try to come and watch it.”

“Why can’t you?”

“I’ll have to see what work I have on, it’s been frantic lately.”

“I know, I see you come home tired—too tired to even let me have Cindy over to do some sewing.”

“She can come tonight if you like.”

Danielle glanced at her watch, “Hmm,” she said dialling her mobile. Five minutes later she announced her friend was on her way with her sewing pattern. No prizes for guessing what I’d be doing for the rest of the evening.