The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2215 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

“Why did you go outside?” Simon eventually asked me.

“To speak with Danni.”

“I thought she went hours ago.”

“She had to mend a slow puncture.”

“An’ it took an hour?”

“Yes, I sometimes struggle to get the tyre off the rim.”

“I thought you had levers and all sorts of other gadgets?”

“I do, but it’s sometimes so stiff...”

“Yeah, I know.” He winked at me and I had to bite my tongue. At times he is so juvenile it drives me up the wall.

“I was talking about the wire round the rim of the tyre.”

“I wasn’t,” he smirked.

“Yes I know.” As I left the room I said loudly at him, “And those who can’t talk about it...”

“Bitch,” he called at my back. I ignored him and went to my study to open an email from Siá¢n.

‘Hi Cathy,

Siá¢n x’

I was glad they had settled their differences and that Siá¢n was going to accept the baby as hers as well as Kirsty’s, though I could understand why she had the problem in the beginning.

Simon came in to my study, “Are you going to give me the cold shoulder all morning?”

“I wasn’t aware I was giving you a cold shoulder at all.”

“What? You insult me and walk off without a by your leave...”

“You went all schoolboy on me.”

“It was a joke.”

“So was mine.”

“Yours was personal.”

“I didn’t think so. Perhaps you’re being oversensitive.”

“No I wasn’t, you implied I couldn’t make love to you.”

“As far as I’m concerned you’re a very good lover.”

“So why did you say, Those who can’t talk about it?”

“Same reason you went all schoolboy on me when I was telling you about Danni finding it difficult to get a tyre off the rim.”

“I was just joking, babes.”

“Sometimes it does anything but amuse me.”

“Okay, I get the message.”

“There wasn’t one, except to say I didn’t find your joke very funny and responded in kind which you didn’t like. I wasn’t trying to impugn your virility in anyway. In fact, I enjoy being the attention of it from time to time.”

His face lit up at this statement. “You wouldn’t enjoy some attention–sort of now, would you?”

“If I did, how would we prevent coitus interruptus?”

“Electrify the door handle?”

“Knowing you, you’d fuse the lights or something.”

“It’s good to know you have such confidence in me, babes.”

“Darling, I can always bank on you because you’re a banker, not an electrician.”

“See, you build me up and dash me down again.”

“Why don’t we wait until bedtime, it’s much less stressful,” and you always fall asleep after it anyway.

“Always jam tomorrow,” he said and went to walk away.

I glanced at his trousers, nothing was showing there so perhaps I had cooled his ardour. “No, not tomorrow, tonight, tiger.”

“We’ll see, you’ve got about ten hours to think of an excuse before then.” He went away leaving me feeling very guilty, but to be honest, I’m not in the mood anyway and I’m more likely to be so at night. Well if I tell myself that often enough, I might be by then. I sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with me, I love him and I do desire him, but nowhere as often as he does me–or so he says.

The day didn’t seem to get any better. David managed to blow the thermostat on the gas oven, so we had to cook the joint in the Aga. I left him to contact an engineer he knew the next day. I was also unconsciously worrying about Danni because whenever she gets together with Cindy and Pia she gets into trouble or they take advantage of her.

She rode in about half past three before it got dark and went straight up to her room. Not entirely unusual but a tad suspicious. A few minutes later the rest of the coven met up there, so I waited a minute before lurking outside her door.

“Mum’s gonna kill you,” was Trish’s opinion on whatever her big sister had done this time. I suspected I wasn’t going to like it, whatever it was.

“Yeah, she will,” agreed Livvie, who as a moderate was less likely to think that than Trish.

“We all did it,” I heard Danni offer as mitigation.

“She’ll still kill you,” insisted Trish.

“Why do I always get into these situations?”

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” said Trish.

“Only ’cos she’d kill you first.”

“What?” asked a bewildered Danni.

“She thinks it’s because you’re too...”

“Easy going,” interrupted Trish. I thought Livvie was going to say thick not that.

“Yeah, that’s right, too easy going.”

“I suppose I am.”

“Will that wash off?” asked Livvie possibly about something else.

“It’s not supposed to for a while.”

“Oh.”

“What have a done wrong now?”

“Mummy will soon tell you.”

“She can’t do nothing about it.”

When there was no reply to her question, Danni continued, “Can she?”

I slipped away as it sounded as if the meeting was adjourning. I wasn’t sure what to do. Obviously Danni had done something which I was unlikely to approve. I tried to think what was likely. Her hair was growing out of a pixie cut which suited her nicely, had she let one of them cut her hair? She was daft enough. Or was she? I’d have to wait and see. If it was a tattoo she’d got I’d be out to prosecute the person who did it. Surely she’s not that daft.

I was emerging from my study with a book I wanted to show Simon when I passed Danni who had a hoodie pulled up over her head. I knew it was cold, but not that cold.

“Darling, d’you have to wear that hood up indoors?”

“Hi, Mummy, yeah I got a bit cold on the bike.”

“It might be nice if you looked at me when you spoke to me.”

“Yeah, sorry, Mummy,” she said turning towards me but the hoodie was still up and she looked at the floor. I put my hand under her chin and lifted her face up to look at me. She blushed furiously.

“If that’s mascara it’s not as neat a job as you usually do.”

“Yeah, I was in a hurry if you remember.”

“I do remember and you weren’t wearing any then. It’s eyelash dye isn’t it?”

She shrugged and loosened the hood a little so a bit of her fringe showed. It wasn’t the brown it was when she went out. I pulled back the hood.

“At thirteen, you’re supposed to ask me before you do things like this, beside with two hairdressers and a third nearly qualified, why did you do this yourself?”

She shrugged again and a tear escaped the corner of her eye.

“Do you want me to forbid you seeing Cindy?”

She shook her head.

“Every time you see her she does something else to you. You’re not a life size Barbie doll. Go and see your father and see what he thinks.” I watched my now, platinum blonde daughter walk towards the sitting room and followed at a discreet distance.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hi, poppet–ooh, new hairstyle, yeah, I like it.”

What? It looks awful, she’s far too young for that colour and it makes her looked washed out–bloody men.