The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2708 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 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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“Do you have shares in dirty energy?” I asked Simon as we relaxed over a glass of wine.

“What d’you by dirty energy?”

“Coal or oil.”

“Not sure about coal but yes we have shares in BP, cost us quite a bit when that explosion occurred in the gulf.”

“Did it?”

“Yeah, shares lost millions overnight and pension funds were big losers, so we lost out too.”

“That was an environmental disaster that could happen anywhere caused by negligence and stupidity.”

“What about fracking, then?”

“A different disaster in waiting.”

“They say it’s safe.”

“They said that about shale mining in Canada, it’s destroyed the landscape there and polluted it for miles around.”

“But that’s different to fracking.”

“Yes, in that they inject water and chemicals under pressure into shale rocks to force out the gas and any oil.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Our water comes from the ground, our rivers mostly emerge from subterranean sources. If oil or dirty water runs into either aquifers or rivers we may never get them clean. Shattering the rock may cause faulting or landslips or even collapse, like a sink hole or old mine workings just collapsing.”

“You think so?”

“I do, because it’s happened elsewhere.”

“But if we have natural resources, shouldn’t we exploit them rather than import things. Let’s face it, if we get involved in another major war, we may need to frack to keep industry running.”

“Who should we get involved in another major war, we haven’t got the resources to fight in a minor one since this government has been in power.”

“We’ll soon have one of the most up-to-date carriers in the world.”

“With no planes on it for ten years and they’re obsolete American things. If we ever go up against Russia, we’ll find out how obsolete they are.”

“I try not to think about the R word, too many bad memories.”

“Just think about it as a potential enemy, not of the cold war type, but a regular full on hot blooded one. They reckon Russian technology has come on in leaps and bounds, unlike their human rights record.”

“They stole much of it from us and the Yanks, and we stole it off each other. Remember how the US government got the jet engine, they stole it from the Miles aircraft company after reneging on a joint project, just after the war.”

“Didn’t the Germans invent the jet engine?”

“They invented one but Whittle invented another type which we developed into the Gloster Meteor. One of them blows and the other sucks, can’t remember which was which.”

“One of them sucks? Honestly, Cathy.”

“Yes the way it works—it’s a long time since I did all this stuff.”

“Amazing what they teach young women these days.”

I was about to correct him when I decided it wasn’t worth it. If he thinks I went to a girl’s school, that’s fine except it would be wrong. However, I’m tired of living in fear of the past, so I try to ignore it as much as possible and if people want to think I was a girl as a child let them. Years ago everyone wore dresses until they went to school and the word girl was synonymous with child, it didn’t distinguish the child as female. There was no word for a female child until Victorian times. Since then the dichotomy has become exaggerated beyond all sense.

“I see George Cole died today,” said Simon.

“Who’s he?” I asked.

“The wheeler dealer boss in ‘Minder’.”

“What’s that?”

“It was a television series years ago.”

“Was it?”

“Yeah, Dennis Waterman was in it.”

“Who’s he?”

“You must know Dennis Waterman.”

“I don’t, I’ve never watched much television.”

“Gee whizz, never let me pick you for a pub quiz team or we’d be suffed”

“I’d be good on dormice.”

“Save it for mastermind then.”

“I will,” I huffed.

“Don’t be like that,” he grumbled.

“It’s seventy years since the bombing of Hiroshima.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t appreciate that the bomb was exploded in the air above the city.”

“Neither did I,” he said.

“It killed a hundred and eighty thousand people.”

“Yeah, but it got the Japanese to surrender.”

“I’d heard they were looking to surrender anyway and that the bomb was to show the Russians that the Americans had the bomb and were prepared to use it.”

“Does it matter anymore? It might be a dreadful thing but it’s kept the peace for seventy years.”

“Has it? So Korea was just propaganda was it, what about our adventures in Africa, in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Rhodesia? Vietnam didn’t happen either, did it or the troubles in the Middle East. There hasn’t been any peace on this planet since World War two, nuclear weapons have at most persuaded super powers not to use them unless they want mutually assured destruction.”

“That’s the way of the world, babes; as long as there are two men on this planet, one will always be prepared to take what he wants from the other by force.”

“But it’s so stupid.”

“Yeah, I know that but it seems some people don’t.”

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t getting at Simon, he wasn’t a problem, he was in touch with reality or I’d smack him round the head with it. I told him about my conversation with Trish and cycling.

“Were you bullying her?”

“I don’t think so, though I do dmit I was trying to get her to do something she didn’t seem all that keen on.”

“She could be coming up to puberty, don’t they do all sorts of strange things then?”

That hadn’t occurred to me possibly because at ten, I thought she was too young and besides any puberty she had would be triggered by drugs not happen naturally, would she really undergo a proper puberty? I wasn’t sure. My case was so different so I have nothing to compare it with, all I can do is wait and see what happens. In the end I shrugged and gave a non-committal answer.

“So what are you going to do with her?”

“Try and encourage her to come with us without pressuring her to do so. She’s quite competitive and her lack of it against Hannah surprised me.”

“Yeah, I suppose it does, but you can’t compete in everything, can you?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t stop her before and she met her match in Danielle with her football, but that doesn’t seem to faze her one bit, so why would a natural girl beating her one element of her life?” It didn’t make much sense to me, but then I’m looking at it with adult eyes, she’s still a kid so her perspective will be different.

“Just keep her riding with you, she’ll get fitter anyway and she might decide she likes it again.”

“That’s what I thought to do and see what happens.”

“Sounds like a plan. We going to bed or what?”

“Did you see that article in the Guardian about the majority of Brits are unsatisfied with their sex lives?”

“Really?” he said adding, “seems like we’re in the trend then...”

“Apparently, more than half claimed they hadn’t had sex for over a month,” I said enjoying teasing him.

“Yep, we’re definitely in the majority.”

“Rubbish, it’s only twenty seven days.”

“Yeah, near enough isn’t it?”

“So if I borrowed ten million and only paid back nine, as it’s close enough, it wouldn’t really matter?”

“Money’s different.”

“So it would seem.”

“So we going to join the minority tonight?” he asked with a sparkle in his eye.

“What those who are completely celibate?”