The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 2080 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Once Trish calmed down and ate some breakfast, I asked them what they wanted to do. She wanted to ride her bike. I knew Danny would be up for it, and I assumed Cindy could borrow either his mountain bike or Billie’s road bike.

Talking of Danny, he appeared as Trish went off for a shower and I left Cindy and he talking while he ate his breakfast. They seemed to be getting on very well together and I wondered if his experience in France had mellowed him somewhat–having said that he was always a great defender of Billie, so perhaps I’m doing him an injustice–but a ‘sister’ and an outsider are different. Perhaps he’s just being friendly knowing some of the problems from watching Trish, Billie, Julie and Sammi not to mention Maureen. Gosh, have we had all those transgender women here as well as Tom’s original daughter and me? It does seem to be a local hotspot, doesn’t it?

I went to have a wash and change being still in my own pyjamas, and also to wake Simon up. He managed to find his way up to bed last night–eventually. He missed the bed the first time and nearly slept on the floor. I refused to get upset with him because it would have woken me up more than his thump on the floor did. I just lay there and he somehow scrambled up and into bed and was asleep in minutes, whereas I took just a bit longer–like half an hour.

Alan had gone back out to the greenhouse and his captive harvest mice, making sure the cat didn’t follow him this time. I saw her with Meems who stayed in bed reading her book, but got up once she saw we were going out on the bikes, and dashed downstairs to get some breakfast. Simon had also gone down while I was in the bathroom, I hoped it wasn’t in his underpants. Nah he wouldn’t do that, would he? I checked in the bedroom, they were on the floor by the bed. I picked them up and threw them angrily in the dirty laundry basket. How many times do I have to ask him?

Julie came down with Phoebe and they breakfasted and asked Cindy if she wanted to play makeovers some more? I happened in on the conversation and said that Cindy was coming out on the bikes with us, but she could play with them later. Julie gave me a look of scornful indignation and Phoebe, seeing it, collapsed in a fit of giggles which set Cindy off. Meems somehow missed the joke looking bemused at the giggling pair.

Cindy had a pair of shorts with her so clad in trainers, shorts and tee shirt, with her hair tied back, she looked gangly but slightly more attractive than in her school uniform–not that it takes much, school uniforms being designed to make the wearer a non-indivdual, unless you’re one of these weird Japanese types who get excited by girls in school uniforms–smacks of paedophilia to me.

By half past nine, everyone who was coming out with me on a bike was ready and we spent another twenty minutes checking tyres–Trish had a puncture, which took me a few minutes to fix, while Danny pumped up tyres on the other bikes.

“That’s a lovely bike, Dr Watts,” she considered as I got the Specialized out of the bike shed attached to my workshop. “You changed Trish’s tube so quickly, will you show me how to do it?”

I don’t know if she was trying to butter me up but I was loving it. I asked if her mother had phoned but she said she hadn’t. That worried me a bit, primarily because it could mean her gran was very poorly; but also because I was worried that I wasn’t having someone else dumped on me.

I left Jacquie to deal with Cate and Lizzie until I got home, which she was happy to do having had most of the day before off. I was pleased for her that she seemed to find somewhere to go. She suggested she might want future Saturdays off and I asked her why.

“I–um–I’m doing a course.”

“Oh, on a Saturday? What is it, adult education people?”

“Sort of.”

“What is it?”

She blushed and said, “The Alpha Course–though I know you won’t approve.”

I didn’t but that wasn’t for me to say. If she’d suddenly found religion as a comforter, providing they didn’t attempt to brainwash her too much, I’d let her carry on–not that I could stop her, she was an adult in her own right. I’d been led to believe it was an evangelical thing, this Alpha course designed to minimise rejection of fundy ideas about Jesus and the Christian church. It would be okay as long as she didn’t start spouting platitudes to the children–if that happened, I would take swift and decisive action, and it probably wouldn’t be too pleasant.

I told her I didn’t approve, but providing she didn’t become too big a zealot and try proselytising with the children, I would tolerate it. She blushed and thanked me, “They’re really nice people, you know?”

“Some people said that about Hitler and Stalin, who I believe could be quite charming before signing your death warrant.”

“Oh they’re not like that, really they’re not.”

“Let’s just say if they teach creationism over evolution, you’ll know they’re a bunch of crackpots.” I wondered if I should send Trish with her, they’d all be crazy or atheists by the end of the first session–nah, some of them are crazy in the first place and worshiping a dead man from two thousand years ago seems pretty stupid to me, but each to his own.

The bike ride required me to stay alert so I forgot the conversation with Jacquie. We had a good time and Cindy and Danny seemed to enjoy racing each other–he let her win a couple of times, which made her laugh. Had Trish been her opponent, no mercy would have been shown, she is very competitive.

It cost me a fortune in ice creams–twenty quid, would you believe? Then again it was part of the children’s holiday and for once the weather was wonderful. By eleven o’clock, I was urging them not to dawdle because the sun was getting very hot.

I took Alan a coffee, he was filming behind a screen, the mice becoming used to the sound of the camera. I looked at the tubs of corn he had ready to replace any they ate, to keep them healthy and happy in a relatively confined space–and a very warm one at that. He was reduced to a vest and shorts and we’d whitewashed the windows and roof when he first discussed the idea. The greenhouse did have a temperature regulation system which opened windows in the roof to let air escape and cooler air to enter. However, the little electric motors which controlled it frightened the mice. He did think to switch them off but realised he’d cook then, and possibly his tiny subjects would as well.

In the evening, there was a sprinkler type system which sprayed the corn to keep it growing and also cooled things down a little. It was still uncomfortably hot even after that.

David made us salad for lunch which I thought was excellent–some of the others didn’t and grumbled but he appeased them by saying he’d do a roast dinner for the evening. It was to be my favourite, roast lamb.

I went off to feed Lizzie in my study while Simon supervised anyone who needed it, mainly Meems and Cate who were playing quite happily together while the three mouseketeers were with the big girls being turned into exotic creatures who looked more at home in a house of ill repute than my home. I made them change it all to a more normal version and they grumbled but complied. At times I felt like I was running a holiday camp rather than a home.