by Paul Kelly
As expected, life went on and Emily asked me what should be done with Alfie now that he had left school and would be looking for some kind of a job, but we both knew the character of our son and it could never be said that he was a mathematician or a scholar of any distinction and that university was OUT. Besides that, Alfie’s mind was full of horses... There was no female in his vision... there was no thought of marriage, as humans regarded the sacrament of marriage nor anything of that nature, but one evening when I was sitting alone in the lounge and Emily was cooking some cakes in the kitchen, Alfie told me that he had been in touch with Umar, the brother of Assim who owned a stable in Paris and had enquired how he could go about getting involved with horses and Umar had replied that Alfie could come to Paris if he wanted to do stable work and Umar would guarantee him a place in his own stables where Alfie could become an apprentice. This news seemed to Emily and I to be the only answer that would bring any sort of happiness and furtherance to Alfie and we made plans for him to visit Paris and see Umar, hoping that this might be the answer to our young son’s life for the future and in the next seven days he was flying off to Paris where we knew he would be made very welcome by Assim’s family. As for our part, we just hoped he would behave myself without giving someone or other in Paris a black eye.
Sylvie was a different child altogether and her fifteen years of life were filled with dancing, with ballet in particular. She would dance everywhere and anywhere and like Alfie she had a dream, but nothing else. There was no boyfriend; no particular friend either by teacher or pupil. She had her dream and she was content.
It was when I was in the office one morning that Milly came in to tell me that she had a message on her desk and she couldn’t understand what it was, but that it looked threatening and I took the note from her and read what she had been afraid of.
“Nobody gets anything for nothing. Everybody has to pay in some way or another. Watch out... Big Brother is about.” It was signed with only the letter ‘A’
Milly thought it might be some sort of laugh as it sounded so daft but I felt sure that the letter ‘A’ was for Angus, but how the hell had he managed to get into the office and leave a note like this? It was at that moment that an idea crossed my mind and I asked Milly if she could remember the young lady who came for the secretarial job and who had been refused the post and she told me that the girl had left her name and address in the log book on her desk. Milly brought me the log book and I read the girl’s name and address. It read Anna Anderson of 37 MillwAll Terrace, Glasgow and I immediately wondered if this Anna Anderseon was the initial ‘A’ on the note that was left on Milly’s desk. She had access to the office and could very easily have left such a note when I remembered how I had thought at the time of the interview that this girl hated me for some reason or another.
Could this letter ‘A’ be Anna Anderson and not Angus as I had imagined it to be? I told Milly to forget that anything in the note had any significance and she left my office with my assurance.
That afternoon when I left the office to go home, I was sure that a figure followed me as I went. It was getting dark in the evenings and I could have been mistaken but in the lonely lane that I had to walk to get home, this figure followed me. I waited until I got to a corner and then I turned round quickly to see who this mysterious person could be, but as quick as a flash, it had gone. It could have been a man or a woman. I had no idea, but I would take care when next I had to make that way home on any other evening afterwards.
I went home to a nice hot supper and a quiet evening by the television with Emily knitting something that looked like a man’s sock, but she told me she was knitting something for Steven and Celine’s baby, hoping that he would be alright when he came from the hospital in another few days time and I remembered how the little boy Syd had some heart trouble.
Three days later in the early hours of the morning, Celine rang to say that Syd was home with them and that they were told by the doctor that he should be well in the future, but that they had to take special care with the medicine they had given him, but Emily and I could feel the joy and happiness that Celine and Steven felt and the first thing Emily did the following morning was to finish that little pair of socks that she was knitting for Syd.
Steven was thrilled to think that Alfie had gone to Paris to join Umar in his horse stables and wished him every success as he knew what it was to have a dream when he went to university to study accountancy and the knightmare that followed when he was accused of raping Anna when that dream had been destroyed. He thanked us for our care and little present for Syd.
Meanwhile Sylvie progressed with her dancing and applied to the Royal College for an apprenticeship where she hoped in time to dance in the Royal Ballet in London.
Everything was working out wonderfully well for Emily and I when we thought the children were well established and happy and content in the life they had chosen when we got some very sad news from Gerard. He asked if he could come and stay with us for a while as he had problems again in the surgery where thieves had broken in one night in the early mornings and had raided the drugs cabinet. They had taken all but a couple of aspirins and the police had to be called in to investigate. Gerard knew there was nothing he could do and that is why he needed some place to stay until the matter was resolved. Of course he was welcome to stay with us at any time and he knew that, but Gerard was the type of young man who could not accept anything for nothing... not even from his relatives and we had a job persuading him to forget about payments, but just to come and stay with us for as long as he needed and he also had to accept that the surgery would need to be closed until the police had done their work.
It was nearly a week before the police came to our house to speak to Gerard and they had found the thieves. The robbery had been done by two young boys, one aged thirteen and the other twelve. They were both on drugs as were both of their parents and other brothers and sisters too, but the two culprits were sent to an approved school for boys for a period of one year each. This meant that Gerard could return to the surgery, but there was so much work to be done there with broken windows and furniture that it took him nearly three weeks before he could open the surgery again, but as with all bad or sad news, you can invariably see some good, if you look far enough and Gerard did have some very good news. A young doctor who had just graduated in the Glasgow university was looking for a post somewhere and he came to ask Gerard if he could come and work with him at his surgery and Gerard was pleased as his patients had increased in numbers and he was finding the work very hard, but to ask for a doctor to help or try to advertise to get one yourself seemed an impossible task to him. Doctor Eric Summers commenced work at the surgery the following day. He was only twenty-six and was engaged to be married that year if he could have found a job.
Assim was distressed when he heard the news, but delighted when Gerard told him that he was getting the help of another doctor as he already knew the work Gerard had to do on his own and how there were times when he regretted leaving his job in the hospital in Paris.
The police called again later on that week to make sure that everything was alright and when they saw that there were two doctors at the surgery, they too felt that it was the best thing to happen. In this way, the doctors could share the work and it also gave them time to work in shifts, so that there was always one doctor in the surgery at all times. Gerard had managed to employ a woman Receptionist in this time also. Her name was Mrs. Rebecca Solomon, a Jewish lady who was employed to look after the office outside the room that was used as a surgery and she kept all the records of the patients with their names and addresses etc, so that the doctors would know what was happening as soon as the patient came from Mrs, Solomon to either one of the doctors. She insisted on being called Becks which we imagined must have been her abbreviation for her name being Rebecca and she made regular cups of tea and coffee during her stay at the surgery and she always k
ept a box of ginger snaps under her desk which were shared all round with the drinks and she became very popular indeed.
I met Becks one morning as I called in at the surgery just out of pure nosiness as I wanted to see for myself what sort of a life my brother-in- law was living in his new ‘abode’ and I was pleasantly surprised to find her so obliging, especially when she said she was sure that she had seen me before... (and I wondered what she had been to prison for... ) but then she said that I looked like her ex- husband and that he too was very distinguished looking... and of course I immediately could understand why Gerard and Eric had taken her on as staff... but getting back to Gerard’s visit to us, he only stayed with us for a week and although we were glad that his surgery was open and working again and that the staff he had employed were excellent, we were sorry when he went. Alfie had gone to Paris and as we were left with only Sylvie and she was so quiet and reserve, the house seemed empty at times. Perhaps I should get a dog or a cat or even a goat for company?
Chapter Twenty-Six
The friendship of the two young doctors was wonderful to see and Eric made a great fuss over his fiancée Linda. It was obvious that Eric and Linda were very much in love and they came to visit us with Gerard on several occasions... even inviting us to the forthcoming wedding and of course we were delighted to accept. Assim too was pleased that Gerard had some help and he could see a change in him when he knew he would not have to do all his work alone and he had more than four hundred patients since he had taken over the surgery which was what Beck took care of as ‘mistress of the house’ as she was named by us all in appreciation, but some patients even called one or other of the doctors out in the middle of the night with a toothache or a headache... but now with Eric’s help, Gerard was better able to cope.
Alfie had only been gone a week when we got a letter from him to say that he was already riding a horse and that the life in Paris was wonderful and what surprised Emily and myself more than that was the added P.S. that the ‘dames’ in Paris were great... and he and Umar had spent many happy hours in the nightclubs, but he didn’t forget to add with capital letters that the HORSES WERE MAGNIFICENT where the women were average and we laughed at that.
Sylvie got news from the ballet school that she was accepted and we were delighted with that news also, but as the house was going to be so empty with the kids having ‘flown the nest’, we decided to get ourselves a wee dog for company. Sylvie travelled to London the day after we got ourselves a wee white boxer dog and Sylvie loved it immediately it came into the house, so much so that when we saw her off on the train to London, she had a little cry because of her leaving home and I thought it was more the fact that she had to leave our new wee pet as she had become very close to him and would have taken him with her to London, if she could. It was Emily who had decided, just before Sylvie left home to go to London for the ballet school that when we found the house so empty that we should get a little pet and I feel sure we would have been content just to be with each other without any other person or animal coming into the house for company, if the thought was left entirely to me alone, but I always preferred to allow Emily to have the last say in anything we decided we would do. She was my ‘boss’ my love and my everything...
It was the week before Sylvie had to go to the ballet school that we went to the animal home for strays and were surprised to find so many little puppies that had been thrown out of their homes for various reasons. Most of them were barking too much or couldn’t get enough to eat or made a lot of mess in the garden or on the carpet, but we knew of all these difficulties and were prepared to put up with this, knowing that it would only be a for a short time as if you love an animal and that animal loves you, it will only be a very short time before you will both blend and life could be very pleasant for yourself and your pet. When we got to the dog’s home, I was completely bowled over by a wee white boxer puppy who followed me everywhere and kept whining for me to take notice that he was constantly at my feet wherever I went and as I looked at Emily, I could see that she felt the same as I did and we bought the wee chap. We called him ‘Shindig’ as he kept making a row as he walked home with us. It was like a moan of happiness telling us that he was content that we had bought him and nobody else had even noticed him and we renamed him ‘Shindigger’ The reason why we chose the unusual name of Shindigger was because our pet was a noisy bugger and I thought Shindig or Shindigger was the best name for him. He seemed to know everything we said to him and when Emily took him for a walk and had to post a letter when she was out with him, she would tell him that she had to go to the post office and Shindigger would cross the road without being told to do so. Of course he always knew when there was food on the table and he had his own little contraption that held his food and his water, in a corner of the kitchen floor so that he was always catered for and he would let us know if we had forgotten him in anyway. What made us both smile was when I went to kiss or hug Emily and wherever Shindigger was, he would rush up to us and get between us as if to complain that HE was to be loved and him alone, but no-one else... NOT EVER...
When Assim and Gerard came to see us again, Eric was looking after the surgery and they could spend a good few hours with us without interruption or fear that someone would break into the surgery when no-one was there and we knew that Linda would most likely be with Eric when he wasn’t attending to the patients. Linda’s parents lived not far away from the surgery and they knew where she would be when she was not at home with them.
What was very impressive we thought was that Linda’s older brother Jonathon Kershaw was a chief inspector in the police and he was married with two children, both little girls.
Eric came from Dundee where his parents lived and he had a sister named Naomi. Naomi was a member of the Salvation Army, but Eric’s parents were Methodists and from one or two things that Eric had said, Gerard thought that his parents did not get along too well together, which surprised him as they were both of the same religious persuasion, nevertheless Gerard told us that when Eric had come to him applying for the job, he was very pleased as he knew he could well do with some help, but he had to be sure that Eric was who and what he said he was and therefore he had to get references and further information before he would have been able to take him on, but fortunately the references were in perfect order and the fact that Eric’s fiance’s brother was a senior member of the police was an added bonus. Gerard also told us that he had perfect faith and trust in Eric as a doctor and he had on occasions watched him as he was attending to a patient and he was sure he would not have done better himself if he had been examining the patient and there was one occasion when Gerard told us that Eric had to suture a man’s knee after he had cut himself very badly at a football match and the suturing was perfect. There had been nine stitches and although Gerard could not mention the patients’ name, Assim had arrived at the surgery to visit Gerard and had seen the patient with the cut knee just before he was allowed to leave the surgery and he could also vouchsafe for the perfection of the work that Eric had done.
There were other facts too with Eric being at the surgery. It meant that Gerard could come and see Emily and myself more often and if he wanted to spend some time with Assim at the hospital, he was free to do so. Assim stayed with us that evening for a little less time that usual as he had to get back to the hospital where there was a lecture being given by a Professor McAuley and he didn’t want to miss it. The lecture was on brain surgery and Although Assim had done this operation himself before, there was always some different aspects as to how it was best done and Assim was a perfectionist in his field and wanted to know what there was to be learnt from the Professor, who was only at the hospital for another few days and he only gave his lecture once each day that he was visiting there. Strangely enough, when Assim left us that evening, we noticed that Shindigger looked very quiet when he was usually barking his head off and we could only assume that he was ‘taking in’ all the infor
mation that Assim had spoken about as he was that sort of intelligent puppy and we persuaded Gerard to stay the night with us as we had plenty of spare rooms now that the ‘bairns’ had gone as he looked rather tired and even as we were asking him to stay with us, his eyes were dropping with sleep. Emily helped him upstairs and he collapsed on Alfie’s bed as Shindigger made his way to the kitchen to check that there was nothing left there for him to eat. We never realized how we would miss the children until they had gone. We knew they would be happy as they chose their careers themselves and we didn’t interfere in any way but the house was so quiet and we were delighted that we had brought Shindigger home with us, rowdy though he was most of the time, but when he lay fast asleep on our best carpet in the lounge and snored his head off, Emily and I would have a quiet little cuddle on the settee, hoping that our wee pet would continue to sleep, or we knew he would be up on the settee between us to tell us that HE was the one to be loved and only HE and that Emily and I should separate immediately or there would be a row in the lounge.
The next time we had a visit from Assim, I was at the office and Emily was at home alone, but she telephoned me as she suspected there was something sadly amiss as she knew that Assim never drank alcohol and yet the first thing he asked her for when he sat down on our settee was a glass of brandy which made her rush into the kitchen where we kept a supply of the stuff, (mainly for medicinal purposes as most people would say) and Assim drank the stuff eagerly before he spoke to Emily in a tired voice.
“I have had a letter from my brother Umar and he tells me that mother has had a stroke where she has been admitted to hospital and Although he is assured by the doctors that the stroke is only a minor one, he is afraid as she had been enjoying excellent health recently and had only a few days ago planned a weekend break with her sister Charlotte.”
