Against All Odds

by Marian L. Jasper

  Many people were milling around in the school grounds after the meeting even though the evening was growing quite cold. Liza and Patrick set off home with Gabriel, Kathy and Joe. Dr Steele ran after them saying that he would like a word with them, so they all went into Liza and Patrick’s house, only to be assailed by tumultuous noise coming from the boy’s bedroom. Si was staying the night and all their high spirits and the excitement of the forthcoming Christmas festivities was getting out of hand. Zelma looked slightly harassed as she normally had complete control over the boys; she just shook her head as they arrived.

  Liza was about to go up and try to sort them out, but Patrick stopped her and bounded up the stairs, followed by Gabriel and everyone could hear both of them telling their sons, in no uncertain terms, to calm down or the consequences would be dire, Gabriel told them that he was in agreement with what had been said and this was now adult time and it was a treat that they were being allowed to sleep together. There was silence as Patrick and Gabriel came down to join everyone in the sitting room.

  Kathy, Joe and Dr Steele had smiles on their faces as Patrick and Gabriel joined them. Dr Steele said, “I have to say that it has given me a great deal of pleasure to hear the noises of a happy family home.” Kathy and Joe nodded in agreement.

  “You wouldn’t say that if you were here every day,” said Liza. “Where’s Zelma?”

  “I think she’s getting coffee for us all,” said Kathy, “I’ll go and help her.”

  “I’ll come too; she should come and join us. I have tried to convince her that she is just as much part of this town as we are,” said Liza. Everyone agreed.

  “Liza, will you please sit down,” said Dr Steele sternly. “I never seem to see you off your feet.”

  “I’m pleased you said that,” said Patrick, “as she seems to take no notice of me.”

  “Oh, I do, Patrick; it’s just that whenever I seem to sit, something happens that I have to get up to. I’m not trying to be difficult. I just feel sometimes that I am on call all the time,” said Liza.

  There was a knock at the door and Angela and George were on the door step, Patrick welcomed them in and coffee was brought for them also. Liza frowned realising that this seemed to be a town meeting without the town. Another knock came and the lawman was standing there. He had the unlikely name of Jake Smith and as Danny had said to Liza many years ago, the law was sometimes governed by ex-criminals as they were the ones most likely to catch the criminals, which was something that she had taken to heart when she had advocated the employment of Walter Anderson in New York.

  “I gather that we are having a meeting about the town in private,” said Liza. “Is that appropriate?”

  Joe said, “Yes, it is appropriate, Liza. We have, in this room, those of the town who have had to make the decisions for everyone in the town. Before you came here, Liza, this town just about functioned. The fort gave it some credibility but it was nothing more than a rundown place with everybody pulling in every direction and achieving absolutely nothing. When you came here and stood up at that first meeting at the school and told everyone how stupid they were, it was the first time that any of the townsfolk had pulled together and achieved a common goal. We all now feel that we are part of one unit and we want the town to grow and become a place to be proud of. We want to make sure that any decisions mean that nobody suffers and everybody gains.”

  “Firstly,” said Liza, “I didn’t tell everyone that they were stupid and secondly, I thought that we had made the town’s decisions earlier tonight and don’t know why there is the need to talk further this evening.”

  “Liza,” Kathy said. “With all due respect to your memory, you did tell them that they were stupid, but you did it in such a charming way that they thought that they had made their own clever decisions to help with the school and to take English lessons.”

  “I’m afraid I wasn’t around at that time,” said Patrick, “but I bet it was something to witness.”

  “It most certainly was,” said George and laughed.

  “The second part of your query is quite relevant. If your doctor from New York is serious about moving to a small town and is available then that is one problem solved, apart from making sure that he is as qualified as you believe him to be, but I can advise on that and just need to know what his qualifications are and where he was trained. If he isn’t interested, then we obviously have quite a problem but I will do my best to contact whoever I feel is right and get a replacement for Dr Bridges as soon as I can,” said Dr Steele.

  “Yes, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed about Liza’s contact. It would be an easy solution to our problem,” said Angela.

  “I believe our main problem is Dr Bridges himself,” said Dr Steele. “As far as the colonel and everyone else in town are concerned, the problem has been solved. But Liza is right; do we have the right to dictate his life to him? Will he willingly give up his home and go to live with Mrs Henshaw, kindly as she is and I know she would make his last years as comfortable as possible? What do we do if she is unable to cope with him? Do we lock him up or do we permanently sedate him?”

  “We have seen that he has perfectly lucid moments,” said Liza. “Is it not possible to monitor him and when one of those moments comes to the fore, talk to him about his future? I know that he realises what is happening to him and I’m sure that he would be able to decide his own future at that time. We can always give him the options for him to choose.”

  “They are getting few and far between now, but we could perhaps try to get some sense out of him,” said Dr Steele.

  “Has anyone thought about the fact that the doctor may own his own house? Obviously all his equipment would be his own, although any new doctor would probably have his own equipment, and of course, times have changed and I dare say that a great deal of Dr Bridges’ equipment could be out of date now. We can ask him if it is his house or if he rents it from somebody, but failing getting a sensible answer from him, perhaps you could check your old records Gabriel and see if there are any documents regarding his premises,” said Liza.

  “I don’t think anybody has thought about that,” said Jake Smith. “What if nothing can be found?”

  “Mr Smith, there are always solutions to seemingly unfathomable problems and I wouldn’t let Dr Bridges lose out on any deal regarding his home. Does anyone know when he moved here, so that Gabriel could have some guideline for his search?” said Liza.

  “He came around the same time as us,” said Kathy. “That was some thirty years ago.”

  “That’s a good place to start,” said Gabriel. “Do you think you would be able to give me some help, Liza, I know that you sorted out some of the old documents soon after you came here. You may have an idea where to start.”

  “Yes, that doesn’t sound too onerous. But you never know, he may well just tell us,” said Liza. “Who’s going to try asking him? Please don’t say me, you know that he seems to have a problem with me still breathing, it seems to set his temper off.”

  “I’ll do it,” said Joe. “I have known him for so many years, if he can talk I know he will tell me what we want to know and also I’m sure he’ll make the decision to go to Mrs Henshaw’s as he’ll realise that he needs to be cared for. Inside, he’s not a stupid man and he has diagnosed many with the problem that he now has. I’ll obviously have to choose my moment. If I can’t get any sense out of him, then we will just have to forcibly remove him from his surgery.”

  “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary. There is an alternative and that is for us to set the new doctor up somewhere else, but at this moment, I have no idea where. It would, however, solve the situation easily to have the new doctor move into Dr Bridges house,” said Liza.

  “Are you saying that no matter what the outcome of Dr Bridges owning or not owning his house, or even his wanting to stay where he is, there will be somewhere for the new doctor to practice?” asked Patrick.

  “I don’t think that finding somewhere for
him to practice is the problem. Any of us could find a spare room for him to use and he would also visit patients in their homes. The real problem is housing him and his family. I don’t know of any vacant properties which would be large enough. Does anybody else?” asked Liza.

  Everybody shook their heads.

  “Well, Joe,” said Liza. “You’ll just have to do a good job getting through to Dr Bridges.”

  “How many children does he have?” asked George.

  “Two, I believe,” said Liza, “a boy and a girl. They would need at least three bedrooms.”

  Patrick looked at her questioningly, but knew better than to query what Liza was saying as obviously there was some mystery. He knew of Dr Marsden and had been told that he had no children so he wondered at Liza’s motives behind her claiming that there were children. He’d ask her when they were alone.

  Suddenly, Zelma butted in. “Liza, you look very tired, you must go to bed.”

  “Yes,” said Kathy, “we must go and let you get some rest.”

  “Before you all go, can I ask if what we have just done is form a non-elected Town Council? Because if that is the case then we could have a great deal of criticism levelled at us from the townspeople and rightly so,” said Liza. “I know that the people of Benson agreed what was to be the best course of action with the doctor, but I’m not sure that they would be happy with us taking over the way we have without having some form of mandate from them. It is just my opinion but I really don’t want us to be seen to be taking complete control of the town.”

  “You’re right, Liza. All of us here have assumed control of this situation and we could be in danger of being seen to assume control of other major decisions without, as you say, a mandate to do so. I would suggest that we carry on with what we decided tonight as it is imperative that we get a competent doctor for the town, but after Christmas I believe we should call another town meeting and ask the townspeople to agree who should be on such a committee,” said Gabriel.

  So the meeting closed with everyone agreeing that Gabriel and Liza were right and another meeting of the townspeople would be in order after Christmas.

  Patrick, Liza and Zelma looked at one another when everyone had left with Zelma saying that it had gone on too long and why hadn’t it finished when they left the school. “I don’t know, Zelma. I didn’t know that everyone was coming back here. I’m going to bed, I’ll write my letters tomorrow morning.”

  “Letters, Liza, how many do you have to write?” asked Patrick.

  “I’ve got to write to Henry and Myra as I don’t know Dr Marsden’s address. I’ll have to write a letter to him and ask them to pass it on to him,” said Liza yawning. “I feel a little bit like I did just before we got together, Patrick. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, Zelma. Good night.”

  Liza was lying in bed staring up at the ceiling thinking about what had to be done when Patrick came in. He was curious about Dr Marsden and asked what she had meant by saying that he had children as to the best of his knowledge they were a childless couple.

  “They are in the process of adopting two children and I really didn’t want anyone to think of them as anything other than their own children. It would be up to them to say whether or not they are adopted and not us,” said Liza.

  “Liza, you are so very tactful. I don’t expect you to answer but I presume they are getting them through your charity and therefore they will need a great deal of support. It is better if nobody knows and then they won’t be set apart from others. I know that is how we decided to deal with our John and it seems to have worked well with him. He is treated the same as Matthew which may not have been the case if anyone had known his difficult start in life,” said Patrick.

  He climbed into bed. “Tell me Liza, did you really tell some of the townspeople that they were stupid because if you did, I would have loved to have seen it.”

  “No, I didn’t say they were stupid, I just asked them a few questions and they realised that they had no idea whether they owned their properties or not and various other things which were important to them,” smiled Liza.

  “You did the same with the O’Rourke’s and the Cavanaugh’s and they didn’t realise that you were telling them that they were stupid. You really did the same with Charles Enderby and it was an education to hear you complimenting him on his stupidity. You heard him say that he would like to cross swords with you again, I would like to hear you doing that and when you are elected onto the new Town Council, I hope I’ll have the pleasure of seeing you in action,” said Patrick.

  “I don’t think many women are elected onto town councils, although Angela should be as she is teaching the towns children,” said Liza. “I’m not really in a position to be on the committee, I’ve got a wonderful husband to think of and two lovely children with another on the way to look after. I’m going to be rather busy with all that. Also, there are decisions that I have to make with Wendell and Peter, so my time is taken up quite considerably,” said Liza.

  “Even if you don’t put yourself forward for the Town Council, they are going to elect you, after all you’ve been running this town since you arrived here,” said Patrick.

  Liza sat up and turned to look at him, “I have not. You’re joking, of course.”

  “Yes, of course I am,” said Patrick without much conviction. “I made a very big mistake when I truly believed that I was taking you away from the industrious life you enjoyed in both Belfast and New York and bringing you back to a sleepy town like Benson. I really felt that it was cruel of me to allow you to give up all that you had and all that you were doing in those places, but Liza, I think that you are more in demand here than you ever were back there. You are most certainly not bored, are you?”

  “No, I’m finding that there aren’t enough hours in the day, and once I’ve sorted out this problem with the doctor and got Christmas out of the way, I really must put my feet up and take it easy until our baby arrives. It would be useful if the new doctor gets here before I have our child, although Dr Steele has been very good, but as he says, if he is needed by the army then that is his first duty,” said Liza.

  Liza was up early the next morning and already writing her letters before Patrick woke. “I’m going to ask that these letters get delivered by the army. I know that they often send riders from army post to army post with correspondence, it’s been done for me before and letters can reach their destination more quickly than by the usual way by stagecoach. As the colonel wants a new doctor in town just as much as we do, I hope he’ll agree to organise this for me.”

  “The army doesn’t normally undertake delivery of private correspondence,” said Patrick. “But no doubt you’ll be able to persuade the colonel to do it; especially as you say he’s done that for you before, when was that?”

  “A long time ago when I first arrived in Benson and I had to get in touch with Wendell. The colonel and the captain jumped and got all sorts of messages to various people for me,” said Liza.

  Patrick had to leave before Liza had finished her letters and she said that it would probably be better if she took them to the colonel herself in any case and that she may see Patrick at the fort and if not she would see him later.

  ***

  Liza had not seen Bea since the Christmas party at the fort. Neither she nor the captain had attended the town meeting the previous evening and Liza wondered whether she was well. She would take her letters to the colonel and then take the opportunity to call on Bea; she may see Ada and Brigeta also.

  The colonel agreed to send Liza’s letters by a rider as he knew the importance of them. Dr Steele had also written to his medical college to see if they knew of any doctors looking for employment and the colonel was also sending his letters with a rider.

  Liza called at Bea’s quarters but there was no reply so she assumed that she would be with Ada and called on her, but Bea was not there.

  “I haven’t seen Bea since the party, is she all right?” asked Liza of Ada.

&nbs
p; “She is a little off colour at present,” said Ada.

  Liza looked at Ada and was aware that there was a problem and it wasn’t that Bea was unwell and in the back of her mind she recalled Dr Bridges shouting something at Bea as she had come out of the party to see what all the commotion was about. “Did Dr Bridges upset Bea the other night?”

  “I didn’t think you were in a position to hear what was going on after they led the doctor away,” said Ada.

  “He gave away a confidence then. Oh dear, did many people hear? Is Bea hiding away, she mustn’t do that. Tell her that I don’t know what was said, but even if I did, she is still my good friend and godmother to my son and there’s nothing that would make me feel differently,” said Liza.

  On her way to pick up her buggy Liza passed Captain Graves and she had never seen him look so upset and hurt. She gave him a cheery greeting and he acknowledged that she was there and went on into his office. She wondered what the doctor could have said that could have created what appeared to be a rift between Bea and her husband.

  Back in town Joe called to Liza saying that he had been to see Dr Bridges and he had been quite coherent that morning.

  “Did you broach the subject of his living with Mrs Henshaw?” asked Liza.

  “Yes, I did Liza and first of all he couldn’t see the benefit of it, but his medical logic seemed to come to the fore and he said that he would agree before he had another bout of what he called ‘madness’. He said that he realised that he was no longer capable of consistently looking after people and knew that the town had to get another doctor. He went off on a tangent for a while, but came back into the real world and asked to see you. I told him that you were not at home but I’d get you to call on him shortly. I will go with you Liza because I know that when he’s not in his right mind he seems to have a problem with you,” said Joe.

  “I’ll come with you after lunch,” said Liza. “I’ve got to tactfully ask him if he owns his house. It would save a lot of time if we can get that answer. The thought of having to rummage through mountains of old papers in Gabriel’s office fills me with horror. I had only managed to sort back to nearly twenty years before Gabriel came and I believe he has packed all documents prior to that time and put them to one side.”