The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3256 by Angharad Copyright© 2020 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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Thankfully, it wasn't Livvie's first period, then I'd sort of struggled through and Livvie was so good. "You don't have them, do you, Mummy?"

"No, sadly I don't."

"You can have mine if you like, it hurts and it's messy and I hate it." She looked at me, she was twelve and spoke as if she was twice that age.

"You may be glad of the process one day. Especially if you want to have children."

"Children, at age twelve, who d'ya think I am, the BVM?"

"They told you that Mary was about twelve or thirteen when she had Jesus, did they?"

"No, you did a couple of years ago, you also suggested that Joseph may have been quite a bit older."

"Did I?" I had forgotten.

"Jeez, Mummy..." then she burst into laughter, "She was too."

"You've lost me," I looked on aghast as she nearly fell about laughing.

"Jeez, Mummy, get it?"

"Sorry, I must have left my brain in the office, but no, I don't get it."

"Mary, she was Jesus' mother."

"Yes, I remembered that bit." I was still confused.

"I said, Jeez, Mummy."

"Yes, I know."

"Jeez is a way of saying Jesus without blaspheming."

"So is gee, or possibly instead of God."

"We were talking about the BVM."

"Yes, I know."

"And I said, Jeez, Mummy...now d'you get it?"

I sighed, "It's not very funny though is it?"

"I thought so, anyway, she was a child bride but no one tries to ban the New Testament because it documents child abuse, do they?"

I think this girl may be destined to be a lawyer. "Times were different then."

"They actually celebrate it, it was a miraculous conception - no it wasn't it was a case of child abuse. God, I hate this," she grabbed her tummy and ran off to the toilet. I followed and saw she was covered in blood. "No pads, Mummy, oh God..."

"Stay there, I'll get you some from Stella's room." I rushed off and felt grateful there were some in Stella's en suite, she was in work. I'd tell her later. I ran to my bathroom and grabbed a face cloth and towel. Then it was back down to Livvie and clean her up enough to run her up to the bathroom and help her into the shower. \then collect up her bloody clothes and pop them in the washer before anyone saw them. It wasn't a question of embarrassment, except possibly that I hadn't handled it very well, but I don't do anything that involves any of the girl's genital area - just in case. If they ask me to help that's different, but apart from the babies, they wash themselves and dry themselves.

I did once have to help Phoebe, she got thrush and was scratching herself raw. She begged me to do something, we tried plain yoghurt, which helped a bit - she thought I was joking - then later Stella got her some ointment but she couldn't see to do it, so asked me to do it for her. Once she understood what to do, she did for herself afterwards and it cleared up in a couple of days or so.

Once we got Livvie tidied up, she and I went down the supermarket and I bought two lots of towels for her, they just stick in your knickers and if it happens in bed, you hope the pad hasn't moved - they don't always stay where you put them, and Livvie was far too young for tampons, which Stella agreed when she came home.

So it seemed I was going to have to deal with periods after all, just not my own. Hannah, started about six months later being a bit younger than Livvie and slightly smaller, apparently, they start once a girl weighs so much, six stones if I recall correctly, that's 84lbs (38kg), or thereabouts.

Danni and Trish were still running every morning, though as the days began to shorten, I told them they would have to stop in a couple of weeks because it would be too dangerous, their response was by then they'd both be much fitter. As I said before Trish was already looking leaner and fitter and wasn't as distressed as she had been at the beginning. I was really proud of her, though they'd forgotten why they were doing it and it just became part of their routine, rain or shine - though it was me who had to wash and dry their clothes when it rained - usually while trying to organise breakfast for everyone else.

I spoke to Henry by phone when he went home, and before that, I sent him healing and a message to keep to his word. It was only when I actually spoke to him, rather than sent him healing, that he told me the healing was good and several others on his ward were helped as well, but the constant nagging wasn't so welcome, so if I was going to nag him some more, he'd rather talk to the girls. He didn't appreciate almost all of them were in on his secret and asked if he would keep his word.

"Who else did you tell, your blessed secretary?"

"Uh no, and I didn't tell the girls, they helped me send you healing and all witnessed what happened."

"You expect me to believe that," he said then had a coughing fit. I could hear Monica talking to him, she took the phone. "He's had it for today, Cathy, he needs to rest now." The phone call ended summarily.

"How is Grampa Henry?" asked Livvie.

"Not so well, he's coughing again, so he's had to rest."

"Okay, want me to get the troops to send him some healing." This girl is something else, but then they all seem to be. We did a group distant healing and hoped that Henry would feel easier soon.

"I heard that people can get strokes after Covid?" said Danni quietly to me.

"It seems to have that effect on some people, and to prevent it they sometimes give anticoagulants, which can cause brain haemorrhages." I'd read about a young woman doctor in Texas who died from one after Covid and its subsequent treatment. It was very sad.

"Gosh, Gramps isn't gonna have one of those is he?"

"I hope not."

"Can't we protect him, send him extra healing to stop it?"

"The energy does its own thing, you know that, so we can ask it to help protect him but not insist on it."

"What's the bloody use then, if the friggin' thing doesn't do what you tell it?"

"Please remember there are younger children about and moderate your language, young lady."

"Yeah, sorry, but I mean what's the use?"

"It's helped him so far, when he was very ill, so don't knock it. Oh, and thanks for your help."

The next day I was in my office when I had a visit from someone who wasn't scheduled. "I'll see if she has a moment to see you," I heard Diane's voice in the outer office. As I was reading over a draft for a funding proposal from one of my departmental heads, I wasn't much in the mood for unplanned meetings however urgent they may be to the plaintiff.

"Tell them no," Diane, this bloody thing is going to take me all day to correct."

"It's Dr Dawes from Biology."

"Who?" I'd never heard of Dr Dawes and the only Dawes I could recall from the recesses of my long term memory was a creep and a bully from my Sussex days, who still owed me a tenner for making his microscope slides. Nah, it couldn't be him, I'd have vetoed it - except I don't have much to do with appointing teaching staff below reader level.

"He said it would only take a minute."

"Oh very well, any chance of a cuppa after he's gone?"

"I should think so, Professor."

"What are you after, you don't usually call me by my title."

"Which one, Professor?"

"Send him in and make the tea or I'll send you back to the salt mines."

"Oh yes, great leader," she flung over her shoulder at me. That was more like her normal attitude, "don't forget you have a lunch appointment with the Vice Chancellor."

What did Daddy want now, why couldn't we discuss it over dinner when we'll both be there and more relaxed, but no, he refused to spend time at home talking shop, yet he'd spend all evening doing paperwork that he'd taken home. Looked like I'd be doing the same tonight.

"Dr Dawes, Professor," said Diane ushering in my visitor.

"Good of you to see me at such short notice," he said his eyes all around my office which was bigger than Tom's old one. One wall was now covered floor to ceiling books and journals, the latter in metal magazine holders. I'd discovered where Wilkinson's sourced them and got fifty of them for a very good price. Along the bottom of the shelves were a series of box files in five different colours which held copies of papers I'd printed off from the internet or copied from journals or even cut out of the paper, the largest ones were on the negative effects of climate change and loss of biodiversity.

He held out his hand but I waved it away, it wasn't done while Covid was still a worry. "Oh sorry, of course," he withdrew his hand and held it by his side.

I walked away from my desk after closing the file on the funding proposal, it was all very hush-hush until we either got it or tried another source of paying for it, research was expensive and I spent increasing amounts of my time trying to prise it from organisations or governments. Now that we'd left the EU, their billions of euros would no longer be available and trying to see research to other organisations on the continent was also much harder - stupid Brexit.

"How can I help you, Dr Dawes?" I indicated he could sit if he wanted the chairs were over two metres apart.

"So this is the eyrie of the super professor? Very nice."

"Thank you, but I'm sure you didn't come to comment on my office?"

"Uh no, of course not, I was just admiring the decor."

"It's one of the oldest parts of the university, one of the few buildings the Luftwaffe didn't turn to hardcore." I wondered if he'd recognise me, I certainly recognised him and the second question was, had he grown up or was he still a prat and a bully.

"Quite, look I wondered if we could run a course online for the general public to see if we could encourage a few more students since all the Chinese have pretty well left us. The Open University do some on a site called Open Learn."

"I'm familiar with the Open Learn site and we recommend students and others to it. They have funding from the BBC and government as well as various educational charities, they've been doing it a long time."

"Yes I know, Professor Watts - you didn't have a brother who went to Sussex did you?" He digressed and looked harder at me but I doubt he'd recognise me, dressed in an expensive skirt suit and boots for the scruffy waif I'd presented as at Sussex.

"I'm an only child."

"Oh, only I knew someone at Sussex, a bit of an oddity was never sure if Charlie was a boy or a girl, he or she made very good slides, probably working as a teacher or technician somewhere in a school science department."

"I see, so what is this proposal, Dr Dawes."

"Oh that, yeah, seeing as we're having to put the first term online for students or while this crisis lasts, I wondered why we couldn't do something for the general public, see if it would generate interest in studying here."

"You mean a promotional video?"

"No, not directly, I thought we could use some of our teaching material, which wasn't too technical, and put it on our website. Didn't someone do a film on dormice which I'm told brought in a few students?"

"I did one on the dormouse and harvest mouse."

"I thought it was you, perhaps you could do the narration for a new one or series of short films."

"I don't think so, Dr Dawes."

"What about somebody else doing it?"

"Have you any costings for any or all of this?" I asked wanting to be rid of his presence.

"Uh not yet, but as we're making these videos for students anyway, I just thought we could use the off-cuts for something else rather than waste them."

"Put together a proposal and cost it and I'll put it on the agenda for the Bio-science's next meeting."

"From which it will never be heard of again, I know..."

"Actually, I quite like the idea, but I'd need to see a lot more, especially in what it would cost us. Documentary films are expensive to make, the only reason we did the two we did was High Street Banks gave us a grant."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do." He nodded and as he was leaving he spotted my degree certificate which Diane had insisted I have hanging on the wall. "You went to Sussex and got a first?"

"So did lots of people."

"Not the same year I went there. There was only one person who was bright enough to get a first, that was Charlie, what was his surname. Watts, of course, it was. C.Watts - that was you, wasn't it?"

"Except my name is Catherine."

"With all due respect, Professor, it's easy enough to change your name and if you stick to the same initial, the degree wouldn't need changing. Besides if someone as beautiful as you was at Sussex the same time as me, I'd have remembered, so would lots of men."

"Not necessarily."

He looked at me as if appraising me for the first time. "You couldn't be Charlie Watts. not with that figure and I'm pretty sure he wasn't anything like as beautiful as you."

"Unless it was she not, he." I offered and tried to look enigmatic.

"Even so, that scruffy little urchin, even if she was a girl, I'm sure she wouldn't have been able to look as lovely as you do."

"Oh well, so I'm glad we settled that one."

"Not quite, I can't believe you were at Sussex the same time as me, or why I don't remember you."

"I have changed a bit so you probably don't recognise me and I wasn't one for parties and things which is why I got a first."

"Well, you've done better than me full stop, I'm just a lowly lecturer and you're a super professor."

"Life takes its own course and we have to grab the opportunities when they present themselves. Right, I have things to do so let me have that paper when you can and I'll share it with the rest of the Bioscience group board."

"Okay, and thanks again, though you nearly frightened me to death to think you might have been Charlie Watts." He left still shaking his head and talking to himself.

"That was cruel, boss and you weren't exactly honest with him, were you," said Diane plonking the mug of tea on my desk.

"I told no lies, just let him misinterpret what I said."

"Isn't that deception?"

"Look, I don't have to explain my life choices to anyone or defend them. I'm going to take those certificates and diplomas down if you remember, I didn't want them up there in the first place."

"Fine, I'll take them down for you before I go home tonight, when you go to collect your girls. Meanwhile, drink your tea and don't forget lunch with the VC."

"All right, I haven't forgotten, he'll be along shortly as we always take my car anyway."

"Well, you'd better tidy yourself, then hadn't you?"

"Why, what's wrong with me?" I picked up the mirror I kept in the drawer of my desk and saw I hadn't put any makeup on. "Oh, okay."

"And he still couldn't recognise you - too busy looking at your boobs I expect," she offered before she strode out of my office sniggering.