(aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2256 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad
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Episode 188 dozen for the dodecaphiles.
“You can ring him back then.”
“Ring who back?”
“The guy from social services.”
“The manager?”
I think he might have said he was the director,” he glanced at the pad, “John Warwick, is his name.” He handed me the pad.
I called the number feeling a mixture of emotions from anger to anxiety. A relatively educated voice with a definite north country accent answered.
“Is that John Warwick?”
“Yes, to whom am I speaking?”
“Catherine Cameron.”
“Ah, the famous Lady Cameron.”
“You asked me to call you.”
“I did. I spent an hour being dressed down by a judge this afternoon.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“Quite a lot, as you well know, and it appears I owe you an apology.”
“I think you owe me several and several of my children at least one.”
“Is that inflation?” he tried to joke.
“Why are you a windbag?”
“I’ve been called all sorts of things but never that before.”
“I should like you to come and see me.”
“If you’re the guilty party shouldn’t you be coming to me.”
“If that’s how you’d prefer it.”
“I think so.”
“Very well. When would be convenient?”
We set an appointment for the next Monday, the day after tomorrow. He didn’t even ask my address, so he presumably had my or Danni’s file in front of him. I would have taken the girls, except Danni to school and be back in time to deal with him. Not a job I anticipated with anything but disquiet. He had been very polite over the phone presumably to stop me suing him.
The following day I explained to everyone that I needed their help to make the house as clean and tidy as we could make it. To their credit, pretty well everyone set to, even Danni, who discovered she could dust and polish as well as anyone else. I had asked Stephanie to give me a letter from her saying how much Danielle’s ordeal had cost her.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked.
“I don’t have David here at the moment.”
“So you’re not eating tonight?”
“Of course we are, but I’m doing the cooking.”
“Just lay an extra place and I’ll pop over and see her.”
“Damn, I’ll have to get a calculator.”
“What for?”
“We’re having sausages, but now I’ll have to see how many each person will get.”
“How many have you got?”
“I think there’s eight in a pack.”
“How many packs have you got?”
“Just one, why?”
She arrived at six and ate her share of the roast beef and Yorkshire pud. She did the same with her share of potatoes, carrots, broccoli and peas then with an apple sponge and cream I made. I didn’t make the cream, I left that to a cow and a dairy to sort, but the Bramleys and some of the veg were grown here. I wondered if Danni would retain the interest in the garden she’d had as a boy.
After a cup of coffee, Stephanie borrowed my study and did a session with Danni who came out crying and ran upstairs. I went to follow her up but Steph stopped me. “Let her go, she needs to deal with some of this by herself.”
“Oh, is she okay to do that?”
“Of course, if she wasn’t I’d have said so.”
“Fine, I’ll put the kettle on.”
“So whose computer do I borrow to type my letter?”
“Use that one,” I pointed to my laptop.
She nodded and held up a memory stick. I left her to it and made some more coffee. When I returned she was printing off the letter which she then signed. “That should do.”
I read it and was horrified to see how much Danni had felt abused by the examination and at being forced to wear some boy’s clothes. “I think I need to go and see her,” I said handing Stephanie the coffee.
“Now you know what you’re dealing with,” she called after me.
I knocked and entered Danni’s room and she was lying on the bed. She seemed to be very still and for just a moment a sense of horror went through me, then she moved and I took a deep breath, at least she was still alive.
I sat beside her and she sat up to allow me to hug her, whereupon we both wept together. “You didn’t tell me about the examination,” I said suddenly remembering she had when I’d met her in her dream the night she stayed away.
“It was horrible, Mummy, they wouldn’t believe I was a girl.”
“Did they touch you?” I asked as my anger began to rise.
“No, they just insisted I take my clothes off.”
“You poor girl,” I hugged her again.
“The woman said, ‘Jesus, Jack, he’s growing breasts.’ I tried to tell them, Mummy.”
“What did they say when you took your panties down?”
“My god, she is a girl.”
“But they gave you boy’s clothing?”
“It was a boy’s home.”
Good grief she must have stood out like a sore thumb.
“They told me to stay in my room, to stop the other boys getting at me.”
“If I asked you tomorrow to tell this to the man who’s coming to see me, would you?”
“Will you be there?”
“Yes and I won’t let anyone humiliate you or touch you.”
“Can I see how I feel tomorrow, Mummy?”
“Of course you can.”
We hugged for quite a while, saying very little. Her body swung from shuddering and hiccups to soft sobbing, finally it went very quiet and I realised she’d fallen asleep holding on to me. I laid her down, still fully dressed, gave her her teddy bear to hug and pulled the bed clothes over her and switched off the light.
Downstairs, I was greeted by Simon saying, “I suspect your tea has gone cold by now. Stephanie went home an hour ago. She said to call her if you need some backup. Oh and what’s for dinner next Sunday?”
“Cheeky mare,” I said emptying my cup and rinsing it out before making myself a fresh cup, I offered one to Simon who took it.
“How’s she doing?” he asked indicating upstairs with his eyes.
“She’s quite traumatised but I hope she’ll describe what it was like to Mr Warwick tomorrow.”
“Is that a good idea? I thought the guy was coming to apologise.”
“Yes it is, the man can see what his thugs have done to my family and perhaps he’ll do something it about it so it doesn’t happen again.”
“Do you really think that will happen?”
“I’m trying to keep an open mind, I can always add the threat of suing them. It usually focuses the mind somewhat.”
“Would you do that?”
“Being a director of a bank, I’ve learned to delegate, so that means pointing Jason at them and saying, ‘get ’em, boy.’ He does enjoy his work, doesn’t he?”
“I think you might be getting into this management culture just a little too deeply.”
“A girl has got to get her fun somewhere.”
“That’s what worries me.”
My response was simply a beaming smile.
Comments
lawyer and recorder
Present please!
They told her ...
To stay in her room to stop the other boys getting at her!!!!!!
OTHER BOYS?? Obviously they were totally fixated on their own preconceptions.
Did she have a lock on her side of the door. That's the only way she could have even attempted to stop the boys getting at her and then it would have to have been a pretty strong lock and door.
She Has To Survive
And come out of this as a stronger young woman. I hope in the long run she won't be bitter. Danni is an intelligent young woman, and she has the chance to do great things for herself and others. Hang in there girl. Maybe Trish can give her some pointers.
Portia
Jason
So what is the fun of having a rottweiler if you don't get to see it have some fun once in a while?
^_^
Yes!
agree (but recognize that the situation is a bit more serious than this bit if frivolity)
I'm still worried...
One way or another it seems that Danni is getting abused. By strangers on trips, by the system... abuse can lead to some rather lasting effects and often it's in forms that you can't see.
I do hope...
I do hope that the Director actually LISTENS to Danni (and that Danni can tell him)... And Does something useful... (Without need of the threat of a rabid Jason...) What Danni said she went through... Terrible. Some people need to be severely chastised and educated (and if not correctable removed from where they can get to children and harm them further)!
Note - it's not necessarily the director/nurse at the "boy's home"... Though, they obviously did SOMETHING after things moved forward... The way I've read things - someone TOLD them that Danni was DANNY - a boy in girls clothing. Telling her to stay in her room - did protect her from the boys, but... *shudders* For some reason - they had "Danni is a boy" fixed in their heads... And couldn't get around to the idea "Danni is a Girl".
Annette
Danni is NOT a boy
My suspicions are that she never really was a boy, at least not completely, nor was she a girl, at least not completely. I seem to recall, at least in these comments that someone once said something about Daniel requesting Trish not to reveal her secret. Whose secret? Daniel's, or Trish's?. Danny (at that time) knew about Trish, but was there something else? Was Daniel already beginning to show female tendencies, and Trish saw and was aware of what Daniel's future might be, and confronted Daniel with it?
Regardless, Daniel (Danny) is now Danielle (Danni) and a member of the female portion of the Cameron Household.
Cathy should definately have the lawyer present when she meets with the SS Director, along with a couple of other disinterested parties, simply to serve as witnesses in court if it gets that far. This could very well be impossible, as anyone in the story up to this point could possibly be dismissed as a witness in a court of law. Perhaps the lawyer could find two or three disinterested parties?
Oh well, it is not my story, and even with my "ideas" it would not be anywhere as good as our three authors ( Ang, Bonzi, and Whizz) have proven to be, so I guess I am just rambling on for no good reason at all.
Keep up the good story line you three, and I rather impatiently await future episodes of the Simon and Cathy Cameron Assault on the Universe! And somehow, I think it is no longer 'As Easy As Falling Off a Bike" as it once was, but "The Daily Dormouse" lives on, even if Spike is not a current part of the story line.
I LOVE MY BIKE! PLEASE DO NOT DEPRIVE ME OF IT!
Don't let someone else talk you out of your dreams. How can we have dreams come true, if we have no dreams?
Katrina Gayle "Stormy" Storm
It would appear.
That we abuse children much the same way on both sides of the Atlantic. American culture is the child of English culture and we have not fallen far from our parental tree. I can never understand why we allow boys to be universally abused by older dominant men to create yet another childish ruined generation of men who act poorly like there progenitors. I do understand that being a boy when you reach puberty changes a lot from being a girl. But the idea I thought was to produce man and women not misbehaving boy children ,and victimizes women, gay, and transgendered people. This department head needs some education and I hope Catherin can Blue light his stupidity into reason. I would think giving him the emotional experiences Danny had during this ordeal. That may change his sensitivity level.
On a totally different note I watched a movie titled STARDUST in which Tristan the hero towards the end of the movie is changed into a Dormouse and an extremely cute on at that. My 9 year old asked me what that creature was and I told her that it was the same animal Catherin from bike studied. Immediately she answered Dormouse, then asked that it does not look like a mouse because its furry tail, No I continued it is a squirrel, She replied can I have one as a pet.
Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
A beaming smile
has teeth in it. I eagerly await the interview.
I was going to say maybe something good will come of it, but that's a daft question. Something will.
It's time to mix the culinary metaphors, and winkle out the bad apples.
"Reach for the sun."
I wonder
if Mr Warwick knows what he is walking into ?.... No doubt He will soon find out .... Hope he has a thick skin... He's gong to need it!
Kirri