Snippets 10

Doctor Tony Rourke had finished his hospital experience and early general practice experience in Ireland and had decided to come over to England to work in the health service in 1960. He succeeded in finding a suitable assistantship with a view to partnership after a year if he proved agreeable to his employer, a man of approximately thirty years of age. He found accommodation near the surgery and soon settled into the routine of general practice and became quite friendly with Dr Davis with whom he worked and who did his best to find suitable friends for him by entertaining him in his home and introducing him to he local golf course. He particularly liked Tom and Maria Sessions, a local solicitor and his wife whom he met first with Dr Davis, and who entertained him in their home and took him out to meals. After a few weeks they were meeting every week and the two men played golf together, and when he was formally offered a partnership they were the first people he told. It was now necessary for him to find a house to live in and it furthered his hopes to marry a lovely girl who had agreed to wait for him until he got established in practice. It was now nearing Christmas and the usual parties were starting and everyone wanted to meet the new doctor who consequently got plenty of invitations, mostly in company with the Sessions. At the New Year’s Eve party everyone drank more than usual and as he didn’t know many ladies Tony danced almost every second dance with Maria Sessions and found he was dancing with her when the midnight chimes rang, so he reached over to give her a token kiss, and to his amazement she kissed him passionately and clung to him. As he didn’t respond she apologised and they rejoined the group. Next day she made a point of seeking him out, and explained that she had consumed far too much drink and hoped he would forget the incident of the previous evening. He told her to forget it and put it completely out of his mind and their relationship continued as before, except that both she and Tom were even more helpful to him. Some weeks later he found a lovely house and set about furnishing it with his friends help, and when it was finally finished he organised a party to celebrate during which he told his friends that he hoped to marry later in the year. Everyone congratulated him and wished him well in his new home, particularly his close friends Maria and Tom, who said they were looking forward to meeting his fiancé. It snowed a few days later, followed by a heavy frost, which made the roads very dangerous, and unfortunately Tony skidded into another car causing considerable damage. The other driver was a large man who got very annoyed and abusive, using very bad language while he meticulously took down name and address and details of insurance. Tony tried to put it completely out of his mind and leave it to his insurance company. A couple of days after that one of his patients got very irate at the fact that he delayed a couple of hours in visiting his wife who was ill, and wouldn’t accept the excuse that Tony was busy delivering a baby, and threatened to report him to the family practitioner health authority. Everything seemed to happen in threes, as during the night a few days later Tony’s car was tarred and feathered, the repair of which cost quite a lot of money. The police were involved and promised to keep an eye on the house, but there was nothing further for a week and then in the middle of the night a large brick was thrown through a downstairs window. This time Tony related the story of the accident and that of the abusive patient, thinking that it had to be one or other of them who was responsible. There was an obvious police watch on the property for the next few weeks, but when they grew less attentive one night the four tyres were slashed on his car, which he had left out, being on night call. Over the next few months there was a repetition of damage of one kind or another to either the house or the car. Shrubs in the garden were damaged, garage doors were broken, windows were smashed, and he was getting tired replacing tyres on his car. The police came up with absolutely nothing, and Tony felt he would be absolutely distraught if it hadn’t been for the support of Maria and Tom. After the three of them talked it over one night they decided to stay up and watch every night in turns, either all three of them or at least two at a time, and they would carry golf clubs in case of violence. They saw and heard nothing even though they repeated this many times over the next few months, and the damage continued. In the end Tony wrote to his fiancé postponing the wedding and shortly afterwards decided to leave the area. His partner understood the situation and realised that there was no real alternative so he reluctantly accepted Tony’s two month’s notice. Tony decided to return to Ireland and put his house on the market and started applying for dispensary practices and was pleased to be called for interview almost immediately, and even more so when he got a very suitable position. He had also succeeded in finding a purchaser for the house, as there were no further attempts to damage it, although his car was still a very definite target, having suffered four different severe scratches during a ten-day period. During his last week in the area he made up his mind to make a last attempt to catch the culprit and stayed up all night two consecutive nights and at around two o’clock in the morning he saw a figure dressed in a rain jacket with a hood approach the car, which he had conveniently left out. He waited until the figure was beside the car and saw that there was a large knife in the upraised hand, but he didn’t let this deter him and sprang suddenly from his hiding place and tackled the person from behind. A sharp struggle ensued during which he sustained a knife wound to his arm but he knocked the offender down and managed to wrestle the knife away and then got a firm arm lock making. At this moment the person shouted in pain and Tony realised that it was a woman, and shortly afterwards he recognised her as Maria, much to his astonishment. She scratched at him and bit his arm and swore softly, saying that he had treated her badly, making her think that he cared for and then discarded her for a woman from Ireland that he hardly knew. Tony dragged her down to her own home which was only a short distance down the road and woke up her husband who was equally astonished. Maria had to alternative but to admit everything, and in trying to justify her actions it emerged that she resented the fact that they had no children and that she blamed her husband for that. Tony proceeded to put three stitches into his arm rather than involve another doctor, and as he was doing this he agreed to take no action on condition that Maria would consult a psychiatrist, simply because he rather liked Tom. They accepted Tony’s offer without question and Tony returned to Ireland and a few months later heard from Tom that his wife was a schizophrenic with the potential of violence if circumstances didn’t go exactly her way