Chapter Ten

Doctor Huisman sat looking at the watch in his hands. It was a metallic Tag watch. He was overcome by feelings of grief. How much longer could this sort of thing go on for? Why could he not stop it from repeatedly happening? He was a Doctor. Surely he could do something. He opened his top draw. He stared into the draw, then carefully placed the Tag watch along side the Mickey Mouse watch with the pink wristband. How would he ever explain it? How could he? He was forever having to explain. It came with the territory, he surmised. It was something he wished he could avoid, but it kept occurring, over and over again. It was the same at the last hospital. He could not stop it. He could not control it. He was not some sort of god who had power over this sort of thing. He just had to let it happen and hope that one day there would be a cure. Hope that one day, it all would stop. He stared into the draw some more. He looked at the clock. He counted sixty seconds as it slowly ticked. The seconds seemed to go past so slow. Yet, life could be so quick. Life had a way of being so unpredictable, yet the clock, the clock was predictable. Every second was the same as the last on the clock. It lasted the same amount of time, and each time the second hand went around the clock, it would count off the same seconds in the same order. It was predictable. It was safe. Life though, life wasn't safe. There were things that just could not be controlled. Things that you would think a man could control, but he could not. There were things you could touch. Things you could feel. Emotions were things you could feel too, but you could not touch them. Not in the same way as things. He took the Tag out of the draw again. He stared at it. It gave him a great sadness. He played with it in his hands. He moved his fingers along the wristband. He liked clocks and watches. He liked the fact that they had a predictability about them. They were complex, yet they did something simple. Life was complex. Too complex at times. Why could life not be as easy and predictable as a watch? He rotated the watch along its wristband till he came back to the face. He starred at the face. The face of a watch that belonged to a little boy. A watch which brought the Doctor great pain and great sadness. How could he explain? What would he tell the parents? How could they possibly understand? He stopped staring at the watch and placed it in the draw again. He shut the draw. He held the draw shut, and went to lock it. Then he opened the draw again and stared at the two watches. The sadness in his heart was there in those two watches. He shut the draw again, and locked it. He looked at the coffee mug on his desk. Next to the one he was using, was the one he had bought to replace Nurse Jane's mug. Like her other one, this one had Garfield on it. He had bought it at one of the novelty stores. He seldom went into novelty stores. For some reason, he could never find their merchandise that funny. Sometimes, they would have clocks or watches. He liked watches and clocks, but did not like seeing them in novelty stores. He looked through his in tray. He was trying to find Edmond McCarty's file. He found it and pulled it out of the pile. He opened it, looked at it, and felt the sadness come over him again. He wrote some notes in the file and closed it leaving it on his desk. He walked to a side cabinet which had numerous x-rays sitting on top. He took one of Edmond's skull and placed it on the viewer mounted on the side of the wall. He looked at it intensely. There was the fracture. A fracture in Edmond's skull. It was nasty. It had happened when Eddie had hit the road. Hansen pulled the X-ray out of the viewer and looked at it. He placed it back down on the pile of X-Rays, and switched the viewer off. He needed a coffee. He took the mug and went to the kitchen area. Sister Agnes was in there. 'Hi, have you seen Jane?' he asked. Agnes was not sure if it was sadness or fatigue that she saw in Hansen's face. 'She's gone home already,' replied Agnes. 'You look a little under the weather Doctor.' 'I broke Jane's mug earlier. i bought a new one for her.' 'Oh, that's not a reason to get upset. I'm sure Jane will forgive you.' 'Ja, I guess so,' Hansen managed a half hearted smile. 'A little coffee will bring a smile back to your face. I bet you've just been working a little too hard. Try not to take the job so personally Doctor.' Agnes babbling normally annoyed Hansen, but in this case, it made him feel a little more secure. If she just thought it was the job that was bothering him, then maybe he could hope no one would notice the real reason. It was more than the job. It was more than most things. Life got him down, and there were things he just could not discuss with his work colleagues. Things he could not even discuss with his wife. Sometimes, however, it was everything. 'If you see Jane, tell her I bought the new mug for her. Tell her it's in my office on my desk.' 'No worries Doctor Huisman.' Agnes had finished making her coffee and returned to the nurses station. As Hansen walked out of the kitchen area, she gave him a little smile and a wave in the hope that her good spirits might rub off on the Doctor. She was sure he was just too serious. He somehow took everything too personally. She put it down to the fact that he was Dutch. She was very wrong.