(aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2202 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad
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The Dover sole was delicious though my appetite felt impaired by my recent contretemps with Danni. What is it about teenagers that make perfectly normal people desire to commit murder–slowly?
The object of my attention went off with the only person trained to understand her, and I didn’t give her much chance either. The others were taken up with fussing over Stephanie’s baby girl while I sat quietly with Lizzie feeding from me while Cate played with some little dolls at my feet.
In the hour Stephanie spent rearranging Danni’s brain cells I fed and changed Lizzie, gave Cate a little top up and changed her ready for bed. She was such a good baby, and an equally good toddler compared to Puddin’ and her psychopathic sister. The latter sought Cate out and pinched her; which I saw and separated them forcibly. The upshot was I had two greetin’ tots and that set Lizzie off. I was nearly overcome by the desire to sit in the car and read my book.
“Jeez, what have you done now, Cathy, it sounds like auditions for best cat’s choir?”
“I did nothing, our younger niece just pinched our youngest daughter on the face and giggled as she did it. I separated them, both started to cry and that caused Lizzie to join the decibels.”
“Why is my daughter crying?” demanded Stella.
“Because I pulled her off Cate, whom she pinched.”
“You hit my Fiona?”
“No I did not, that little monster attacked Cate, she has a red mark on her cheek where your darling little sociopath pinched her.”
“I’m sure she deserved it.”
“She did not, she was playing with her dolls when your tame tyrannosaurus attacked her.”
“How dare you?” snapped Stella, scooping up Fiona she turned abruptly and went off upstairs.
“How to make friends and influence people,” said Simon.
“Oh shut up.”
“Tame tyrannosaurus, I have to credit you–no one does invective like my wife.”
“Oh shut up,” I said and picked up Lizzie, adjusted her to one arm and then assisted Cate who held her arms up for me to collect her as well. With my two babies, I also went upstairs. At least the two wains stopped crying while I carried them, whereas Stella still had one bawling the place down.
Lizzie went off to sleep quite quickly and Cate, once I had her changed into her pyjamas, had a little cuddle with me and then went to bed and sleep. I returned to the kitchen where Simon and Stephanie were chatting and drinking coffee.
“Tea?” asked Si and I nodded and slumped into the chair he’d just vacated. “Thanks,” he noted.
“You’re welcome,” I retorted and then asked Stephanie, “Well, when does she pupate and emerge as a human being?”
Stephanie smirked, “I love your zoological allusions.”
“I don’t have illusions,” I replied deliberately mishearing what she said.
“That’s a matter of opinion,” said Simon placing the mug of tea on the table in front of me.
“Don’t their brains all turn to mush and reform as something useful–sometimes?”
“Not quite.”
“Oh, I wondered if we microwaved her brain it would speed things up?”
“Cathy, behave.”
“She described our younger niece as a tame tyrannosaurus earlier.”
“Nice one. Teenagers and toddlers are quite similar in some respects.”
“Being sociopaths, you mean?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m off to watch the telly,” Simon bent down and pecked me on the cheek then pecked Stephanie and sloped off scratching his groin as he went. We both looked at each other and laughed.
“He does it for effect, you know that?”
“I’m a psychiatrist, remember?”
“Yeah, so?”
“I know about these things.”
“Whoopee doo. I obviously missed out somewhere.”
“Quite, but I don’t need to counsel you about loss do I?”
“Eh? Oh very funny. Never mind me, I’m an adult, so outside your remit.”
“Allegedly,” she replied and took a sip of her coffee.
“What about our would-be runaway?”
“She says she went because you were giving her a hard time.”
“She says that when I ask her if she’s got any homework to finish.”
“Obviously, hard, is a word with idiosyncratic meaning in this place.”
“She is playing with fire and I don’t want her to get burnt.”
“I appreciate that fact, Cathy, but I’m not sure she does. Remember, teenagers are invincible, death and injury happen to other people–they are going to live forever unless boredom kills them first.”
“Never mind the sermon, how do I stop that little madam acting like she’s a bitch on heat?”
“You talk with her and remind her that she has responsibilities and to which there are consequences.”
“I tried that, I even had Julie try to explain the facts of life to her.”
“You’re the biologist why ask Julie?”
“I didn’t mean the birds and the bees, I meant about once a boy or man is running on testosterone, he’s hard to control; especially when he’s trying to impress you. If you remember, Julie has experience of men not being impressed with what she had down below and got well roughed up because of it.”
“That was a perceptive move on your part, Cathy.”
“Careful, that nearly resembled a compliment.”
“Damn, I need to be more careful.”
We talked for another twenty minutes and I told her what I understood of the situation and what had happened in my view.
“Reading between the lines, your stories have similarities, just the emphasis is different, she also knows you care about her.”
“Yes but if she cared about me, she wouldn’t behave like this, would she?”
“Cathy, didn’t you have boyfriends at thirteen?”
“No. Well there was my friend who got flooded, his parents thought I was a girl and treated me like one.”
“Oh, this sounds interesting.”
“Not really, I had long hair as I told you before and went to help a boy from school I knew when I heard his house got flooded.”
“Very caring of you.”
“I just wanted to help, but my wellies were leaking so I borrowed a pair from Siá¢n and they were a bit girly, with that and the hair, they thought I was a girl.”
“They were quite right too.”
“But he wasn’t a boyfriend, as in back row of the ABC.”
“Pity, you’ll never know what you missed.”
“I took enough beatings as it was, I didn’t need one from a disgruntled fumbler.”
Stephanie laughed and showed a perfect row of even, white teeth. “That is so visual, a disgruntled fumbler. You should write books, Cathy.”
“I did one for my PhD, and another based upon my dormouse notes, that’ll do for now.”
“I keep forgetting I’m in such elite company.”
“Ha ha.”
“No, honestly.”
“You’ve got more initials after your name, I’m sure–so why the insecurity.”
“Well Dr Watts, it’s like this, I used to sleep under the bed–d’you think I’m a little potty?” She said this as I took a mouthful of tea–I never did swallow it, it went everywhere including my lungs and I spent the next ten minutes coughing.
Stephanie, her of the detached compassion, nearly laughed herself to death.
Comments
Thanks Ang.
And thanks for the PM as well.
Bev.
xxx
Hiding under the bed
Well with teens sometimes they get a completely different personality if YOU take a deep breath. It was worth it just watching them grow up. They however can not adjust to the present state of affairs. Hopefully Danni will survive the beat down she is likely to get before she learns.
Gwendolyn
What's with Stella?
Acting like the spoiled moms who are sure their "baby" could never do any wrong.
Seems a while
since she had a breakdown, Could it be motherhood is getting to her? Stella is fragile at the best of times and would need very little to push her over the edge which i am sure no one really wants to see again, Perhaps a word with the people who treated her in the past might be needed..
Kirri
Thank you for another
excellent episode of our favorite serial
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
Do you have one or more teenagers at home?
You describe them and their antics so well!
Thirty-plus years ago, I did and I vividly remember the 'adventures' we had. And, of course, it was my job to deal with them.
Well, they survived and I survived and we're all great friends now so I guess I can say that it all worked out, eh?
x
Yours from the Great White North,
Jenny Grier (Mrs.)