As John Deed drove hisw convertible along the city streets, a peculiarly strange feeling of shyness permeated his thoughts. This reality made him smile, that it could happen to a man who sat in his rich red robes on the throne of justice holding forth,who stood foremost at the barricades of justice, totally unawed by the rank of his enemies and who commanded wide respect. Still, the4re it was, he knew that his experience of children had faded with time and disuse as Charlie had grown up and had flown the nest years before. as the wind whipped past his windscreen and ruffled his hair, he recalled his friends' description iof Rose as a live wire who would keep him on his toes. He half suspected that he would encounter a mixture of incarnations of his friends and himself in the person of a little seven year old girl. Very well, he mouthed to himself, this was one of life's challenges he was destined to encounter just as years ago Nikki and Helen had combined to put him through changes in outlook to humanise him. All that was asked of him was that he should be ready for anything.
As he swung his car right into the expected destination, he felt as if he were revisiting an old friend. As he got out, he was mildly surprised as a dark-haired teenage lad, a quiet little girl and two women emerge from the house next door and approach him.
"Who are you?" the lad asked in a tone stopping short of rudeness.
"I'm John deed, an old friend of your neighbours, Nikki and Helen," John said with especial graciousness for the benefit of his friends' neighbours.
"And what are you?" came a second abrupt question.
"I'm a high court judge but this is my time off for good behaviour," a rejoinder that shut the lad up and made the girl grin. The taller dark-haired woman reacted immediately with an awestruck smile and moved forward to shake his hand.
"Helen and Nikki talk a so much about you. You've done such a lot for her and her friends."
"I've been into women all my life but you, John Deed, are a cool guy. It's typical that you drive a 's not for sissies. You give him respect, Michael," added the smaller blond haired woman shaking his hand with a pointed glance at the lad. She wanted to take Michael down a peg or two and also to honour someone she was unafraid to look up laughed easily at this sharp-witted observation which endeared him to its owner.
"Sorry. I should have thought," Michael said with a downcast gaze. He hadn't come across anyone who could squash his adolescent assertiveness so easily and this shook him.
As the conversation had started up, Rose's sharp ears picked up something worth investigating and she nipped off and opened the front door just as the group outside the houses were talking.
"You mean you're like st George killing dragons?" she interposed in a gap in the conversation. Her sharp eyes also spotted Michael on the edge of the group, trying to pretend not being impressed. The others smiled down approvingly on her apt remark and John laughed heartily.
"At the risk of being boaqstful, you're not far wrong, modern day dragons are bullies and sneaks who run the government and I use words, not swords, to fight for justice and fairness."
"A sword with the S taken off," Rose replied smartly.
"You must be Rose Stewart-Wade. It's a pleasure to meet you," John answered, his broad smile welcoming her into the group.
"We have to be going. we'd love to meet you again if we're passing by, sensing that Michael's restiveness could no longer be denied and stretching it out as the rest of them including Niamh were having a great time. To get consent for a family meal had been a large achievement not to be wasted.
"I'd be very pleased to meet you all again," John answered pleasantly, sensing that this might ease the tension whose cause he deduced with no problems at all. He waved them off in their car while Nikki emerged from the front door as the draught left by the open front door and sounds of conversation announced John's arrival as his voice was unmistakeable. .
"Enjoy yourself you guys. See you around," called out Nikki after the car as it started to move. She felt a little guilty that she and Helen hadn't seen much of their friends and neighbours recently.
" You can come with me John. You're our guest now," Rose commanded, her tiny hand taking his. Nikki's grin threatened to split her face in two as she followed up behind the other two. As John crossed the threshold and entered the hallway, intense feelings of nostalgia overtook him as if he were coming home so he was easy to lead. Helen's carrying voice from the kitchen area added to this kaleidoscope of memories which seeped in from the warm colours which had once helped comfort him when he was at his lowest ebb. Apart from the brief glimpse od Rose's bedroom, the flat was just has he remembered, especially when he arrived at the living room.
"Take the weight off your feet while I bring you a mug of tea," Helen called out cheerily."I take it you've met Rose."
Nikki laughed heartily while Rose innocently took her place. In came Helen, complete with a tray with three mugs of tea and a glass of orange with a madly coloured and shaped plastic straw.
"This feels like a second home to me," John said, his emotions overflowing. Even the tea he was drinking tasted better than anyone else's.
"And what's the reason John?" put in Rose, her curiosity aroused. She'd heard both her mothers talk fondly of the good old days, fighting legal battles in court but she'd never grasped the details.
"After I got out of prison, I still had a criminal record for taking out the man who threatened Trisha's life, you know, the blond-haired woman you played hopscotch with the other day. I had to go back to court to get my record clean. John was one of the judges who wiped my record clean. The three of us started to become friends after that as we discovered we had a lot in common," Nikki led off briskly with evident pleasure in recalling their shared past.
"I'd got intensely interested in your mother's first trial but I couldn't get my hands on it and the way it was run was totally unfair. You know how it is when something grabs your interest," John said, looking directly into Rose's eyes. The little girl nodded her head as this kind, interesting man made everything crystal clear and Nikki and Helen smiled approvingly at the way that John and Rose were on the same wavelength.
"A number of court trials came up and your mother and her friends were plunged into the thick of it and that brought us closer," continued John.
"Sometimes things happen to people. It happened in my case. I hadn't the faintest idea of the trouble we got into when I set out to pick up Trisha from the club we ran," Nikki added soothingly.
"They all made splendid witnesses in court and spoke their minds either defending themselves or standing up for others," John added, deliberately selecting his phrases carefully so as not to let jargon take over.
"But how did they all end up in trouble? Aren't the courts going to keep bothering them?" queried Rose who was worried that the dangers her mummies and friends had been exposed to hadn't gone away. John stepped forward, seeing his friends exchange worried glances.
"It's not courts who cause trouble, governments do that. There's a rule that once a court has says that someone's innocent, there's an end to it. Not only that but bullies hate looking foolish in public. you might have noticed that on the school playground," John said in reassuring tones which did the trick much to Nikki and Helen's relief. They gave him full marks in thinking himself into the world of a child where unnaccountable dangers could burst in out of nowhere and noone's explaining. A broad relieved smile of understanding spread across Rose's face.
"Don't worry mums, I know you both. Trisha and Sally-Anne are good fun and so are you, Joihn so the rest of your friends must be like of you could never do anything that's really wrong." The others smiled warmly and gratefully as the little girl flipped her way through her sequence of logic.
"I think that dinner's nearly ready," Helen announced cheerily which reminded the others of the spicy aroma that had been wafting their way. John grinned broadly at the prospect of sitting down to dinner surrounded by warmly affectionate female company.
"I'd guess from your imagination that you must be outstanding at English and Art," John said an hour or so later to Rose as he sat back in his armchair and slowly digested the meal.
"I'm OK at grammar and spelling as I need them to write stories which I really enjoy. I really get carried away when I'm writing. same as when I'm painting. My teacher likes what I do," Rose said, becoming very animated. She knew that this man understood her perfectly and she didn't need to explain her thoughts..
"And what about maths?"John asked without thinking. Immediately, all the light went out of Rose's expression and her forlorn expression got to John's sympathies while he waited for his friend to explain her problems.
"I keep trying my best but it's all about rules which make no sense," she complained."Mum got angry when she heard what was going on and complained about the maths teacher being horrible to me. He's OK now but I'm still struggling."
John didn't know what to say. He knew that Rose would see through vague platitudes. Nikki and Helen sensed a possible answer but were far too shy to make a move.
"What were you good at when you were at school John?" Rose asked, sensing a way out.
"Now you're talking," chuckled John as he sought out long neglected memories from his past." It was all a long ago. My adoptrive father taught me to question everything and never accept anything because someone says so and that's stuck with me. I was
particularly good at english, both written and spoken so that meant that I was passably fair at maths and science. Regrettably, I didn't take to art as I wasn't as creative as you."
"Is that what you need to be a judge?" pursued Rose, really interested in what this man had to say while Nikki and Helen listened sensed that John was getting somewhere.
"In my own way," grinned John to general laughter."You have barristers who are there to take sides and are paid to argue their side but I can't resist asking questions when no one else is dfoing it. You know how it is,Rose. You can't and shouldn't suppress that instinct to find out what's true and what are lies. In a way, my job is mathmatical but not completely so.I have to, as it were, know what the rules are but know where the gaps are to get justice."
As John spoke slowly and deliberately, Rose felt more tense and nervous at the same time that she felt that this man may be the answer to her problems. Go on, you've nothing, a voice whispered in her ear.
"This sounds kind of cheeky but I'm really nervous asking but I so want you to help me with my maths," she asked in a rush of words, her eyes downcast and reaching out for Helen's hand to cling onto. She felt like falling through the floor and couldn't believe her nerve in asking this of the judge. She wouldn't have if he wasn't so human.
"That's quite a task you've set me Rose," John said in his kindest tones. He'd hesitated a lot less than he might have expected faced with such an open ended request."You'll forgive me as I'm rusty. I haven't done this since I used to help my grown up daughter Charlie through her exams."
"Yes John," Rose murmured meekly. She could sense him weighing the matter as her mothers always did.
"If you're really serious about this, I need to see any homework or exercise books you have and we'll see where we go from there."
"That's really good of you, very kind. If you don't mind, mums, can John and I go to my bedroom. I'm really shy if you asre looking on," she said very meekly. Inside, she felt as if the moment of truth had arrived and she wanted to face it privately. Nikki and Helen understood it. So it was that the two of them disappeared into Rose's bedroom and only their two contrasting voices could be heard.
"What'll be do now?" Nikki asked Helen as they were somehow bereft of purpose.
""We'll leave them to it. John must know what he's doing," Helen answered. Everything now was in the lap of the gods.
An hour later after the two women had preiodically busied themselves, Rose suddenly burst back into the living room, a big grin over her face.
"I've got it, I've got it. It's so easy," she announced, dancing atround and pirouetting on the tips of her toes. John followed, blinking his eyes with a satisfied expression on his face. Somehow, he'd been able to get past the little girl's mental block where she got to understand it her way and not anyone else's. It was the only way she could understand it.
"Is this the first class out of many? Helen and I figured that you might need to come round regularly," Helen ventured cautiously, unfolding the scenario that she had expected and wondering if John could have the time and effort to give of himself such a committment.
"That's not needed. John's just taught me his way of understanding it, not anyone else's. Just wait this hits my enemies at school and the teacher," she said gleefully, her green eyes sparkling in the sun.
"And there we were John, thinking that you'd advise Rose to stick to the straight and narrow," Nikki observed with languid dry wit and a sparkle in her eyes.
"Impossible," John grinned. The others all laughed while the sublight smiled in on them through the window and the day passed on effortlessly with no thought of time.
As the evening drew in, Rose put the television on, choosing a channel at random and the Prime Minister's face filled the screen. To the little girl's ears his voice was impressively grave and serious voice but the words weren't making any sense so she turned to the others.
"What's he saying? Is this grown up talk that children can't understand?" she asked in bewilderment.
"You're not missing anything as the man can't tell the truth to save his life. Words pour out like a smokescreen so you don't see through him darling," Nikki said is her warmest, comfoerting voice.
"He looks kind of frightened," Rose said, squinting hard at the screen.
"He's scared of losing the next election so he and his gang can't go on strutting around, puffing himself up self-importantly," John added, putting on an exaggeratedly stern expression and distorting the shape of his body."That's what he's doing." This caused Rose to roll around with an attack of the giggles.
The news programme moved on and suddenly Neil Hauighton's face filled the screen.
"My god, it's him," exclaimed John in disgust as the man droned on about the need for increased security and surveillance in the war on terror. The man's egoism and dishonesty battled in John's mind for what he loathed most about him.
"You really dislike him John," said Rose.
"I've met him. He sounds like a dragon but deep down, he's too cowardly to be one. You don't get cowardly dragons, do you. As a government minister, he uses his position to bully the weak and defenceless by getting others to do his dirty work for him. He once tried to make a law so he could tell judges what to do and not make up our own minds so I got my friends to refuse to work for the day and dress in our red robes to display our protest right where he works. He tried to drive past me into his car park only I stopped him and told him what I thought of him. He was afraid of me and that's how I know what he is like," explained John carefully, hoping he'd explained things so a child could understand. Her wide open eyes showed that she drank in everything he said.
"And we were part of the crowd with Trisha and Sally-Anne and others. John was splendidly defiant," exclaimed Helwen gleefully.
Rose's face was a picture of astonishment mixed with sheer joy. Her mummies hadn't told her of this. The idea of grownups behaving badly in a good cause was a lesson in life that she would learn to treasure.
An hour or so later, Rose became tired out and sleepy after such a stimulating day. Regretfully, John had to take his leave which caused Rose's face to fall. She didn't like goodbyes as she so loved people around her.
"Are you coming back John? We've really enjoyed it or at least I have," Rose asked, drolly adopting him over her mummies. This was the best that Nikki and Helen could expect of the visit as deep down, they'd been a little worried by the prospect of the visit. John had handled the situation in impeccable style and had found time to chat to them both after the maths lesson. From his point of view, he felt a marvellous sense of peace in being temporarily brought into this family warmed by the solid love and committment between these two women that had obviously caused their daughter to be so remarkably centred.
"As your friend and your mothers' friends, I certainly will. I'll make time for it," John assured her, a feeling of great satisfaction spreadfing through his system..