Easy As Handling A Spike.
by >^^<
part:335

Having showered the evening before, I washed down, not needing to wet my hair again. I tied it in a ponytail, and dressed very casually. I had no idea what Des would want to do–I mean with regard to the film.

In a couple of hours, I’d doubtless find out. I finished my breakfast and drove off to work. I sat in my office, but work was not entirely the only thing on my mind, it was the wandering hands from Bristol that occupied me.

I recognised what I was doing and wondered if I would like him to try it on? It would certainly boost my ego, which was feeling a bit below par after the weekend. However, it wasn’t really the kind of attention I wanted. I just wanted Simon to revert to the charming gentleman he’d been when I first met him. Maybe he wanted a return of the shy and gauche little girl he’d first dated. Was that what was wrong with us, we wanted the other to stand still and not change? If so, it was impossible–everything changes.

A knock on the door was followed by Pippa ushering in Des. “Hi Cathy, how are you?” he embraced me and I pecked him on the cheek.

“I’m okay, didn’t sleep too well, Simon snores like a turbo charged Flymo, but otherwise fine. Tea or coffee?”

“Either, I’m sure you make an excellent cup whichever it is.”

“You flatterer, I’ve seen enough of you in action not to be taken in Des Lane.”

“It’s always the same, give a dog a bad name…” he pretended to look distraught, all I could do was laugh as I switched on the kettle. We chatted a little more as we waited for the wretched thing to boil, then I made us each a drink.

Once we sat at my desk, it was pure business. “I liked the narrative you’re working on, but I’ve made a few suggestions how I think it might sound better.”

I looked them over, and he had improved things quite a bit. I was most impressed. “Yeah, that’s fine,” I agreed.

“Good, now we’re going to look at the captive animals and possibly try and get a birth on camera.”

“Always happens at night, bloody things!” I complained, but they were nocturnal animals.

“They’re still hibernating?”

“Yes, we keep the cages cool to let them sleep. Except Spike, she’s got a litter at the moment.”

“Oh, you have to show them to me.”

“They’re ugly little things, very little fur and eyes closed, but sure, we can look. Spike is the one you already know.”

“The erm, bra diver,” he said smiling broadly.

“The same.” I blushed though it wasn’t through the Youtube clip, I was pretty well beyond embarrassment from that.

We walked along to the lab and after a few moments, I had Spike in my hands munching on a hazelnut. Des was taking still photos of the nest and the babies. Of course he had to have a little hold of Spike and gave her a nut.

“She is so gorgeous, she tickles your hands,” he said laughing quietly as he gave her back to me.

“If she catches you touching her babies, she bites and hard, ask Neal, he still has the scars.”

“You’re joking, a carnivorous dormouse?”

“They eat insects as well as nuts and shoots.”

“Yes, I know that, but humans are a bit big aren’t they?”

“Yeah, I doubt even you could eat a whole one.” I laughed back at him.

“I can think of one, I’d like to try it with and she’s not a million miles from here.”

“Des, let’s keep our attention on the work in hand shall we?” I put Spike back and we discussed how he might film the dormice. He viewed several of the hibernating ones and took the odd picture.

“So we have a couple of months before they hatch?” he asked.

“In the wild they wake when the temperatures rise. The babies are born around May.”

“Crikey, that’s three months away.”

“Des, it’s March next week, and Easter a few days after that. May will be here before we’re ready.”

“Yeah okay.”

“I suggest we get some lunch and head out to the nesting sites in daylight, so you can get some idea of the terrain and what equipment you’re gong to need to bring with you. I have an endoscope we can use to look into the boxes.”

“So biology goes high-tech?”

“Sort of, we have a couple of image intensifiers and the endoscope, but no electron microscope or any such really big technological equipment. We link with Cambridge and their department of microbiology.”

“If you managed an electron microscope I’d have been well impressed, but the endoscope is good enough for now.”

“Have you used one before?”

“Sort of, when I was filming puffins off the West Wales coast.”

“I’ll bet that was fun?”

“When it didn’t rain, yes, but we got damp a few times.”

“We?”

“Yeah, I had a sound recordist with me and erm, wotisname?”

“Wotisname?” I repeated, “Who?”

“Oh yeah, David Attenborough.”

“You had Sir David Attenborough with you?”

“Yeah, he did the narrative, he’s a dream to work with and very fit for an old man.”

“I’m impressed, he was one of my heroes and one of the reasons I wanted to study zoology.” I was practically drooling.

“We’ll have a party to launch the film, I’ll see if I can persuade him to come, if you want?”

“If I want? Omigod, I’ve got nothing to wear, look at my hair….”

“Cathy, we won’t have finished filming until the autumn, then we have to edit and dub the soundtrack and so on. That can take months, so it may be this time next year before we complete it. All I know is that the BBC have agreed to show it and have coughed up half in advance, so has the bank.”

“I’m glad you have some capital to work with,” I said naively.

“You get paid too.”

“I do?” I wondered what for.

“Of course you do, you get three fees.”

“Three?” I squeaked.

“Yes, one for fronting it and doing the narrative; a second for writing the script and the third for acting as consultant adviser.”

“If I’m doing the first two, do I need the third?”

“Yes, because that’s how we do base the costings, the fact that you are doing several things means you get several fees.”

“Sounds like a scam to me.”

“No, we have to cost on the basis that a different individual fills each role, just in case we need to do that.”

“There is so much I don’t know anything about.”

“Isn’t that why you’re a scientist.”

“I suppose it is, silly me.” With that we went off to lunch