Wednesday was St Nicholas Day, also called the Feast of Saint Nicholas, is typically celebrated on December 6, the anniversary of Saint Nicholas of Myra’s death (December 6, 343 AD), those who celebrate the holiday leave a shoe out on the night of December 5 in the hope of finding chocolate coins, nuts or an orange tucked in it the next morning.
This is a tradition Sepp Lohr
and his partner Peta Hoffman were brought with in Germany and now they were
living on Beaumont Island they were keeping up the tradition alive in their new
homeland with their son Sebastian.
Danny had been persuaded to
play Santa at the village school Christmas Bazaar and as his predecessor was a
bigger man then he was, some adjustment to the suit and the padding was
necessary.
So, the Vicar and a small
team of ladies were on hand to affect alterations, well the team of ladies
obviously did the work and Arielle looked on with a worried frown.
Danny tried on the suit and
measurements were taken by women muttering to one another with their mouths
full of pins.
It was agreed it would be
ready by Friday without fail and he returned home to more teasing from Molly.
Conrad Watts’s leg wasn’t
much better by Wednesday so he decided to phone the Doctor to make an
appointment, but he couldn’t get one until Friday.
But they suggested he go to
Bellevue as a walk in, if he needed to see someone sooner.
So, he retrieved his old
walking stick from the back of the wardrobe to assist him on his walk to the
bus stop.
He didn’t have an
appointment, so he booked in at reception and was pleasantly surprised to see
that there weren’t many other patients waiting, which he thought surprising
considering that there was still snow and ice on the ground.
After about two hours his
name was called and he was delighted to see it was Elke Offord, she was the
nurse who was on duty when he was rushed into hospital after being injured
aboard his boat in rough weather, which in turn led to an operation.
He smiled at her but she
turned away from him and went towards the cubicles so he hobbled after her as
fast as he could.
When he caught up with her,
he was a little surprised to find her somewhat standoffish and not the warm and
flirty Nurse he remembered.
It was the first time he’d
seen her professionally since he was discharged, although they did run into
each other on the previous New Year’s Eve, so he tried some light conversation,
but she was completely unresponsive, and when she spoke it was flat and
emotionless and when she smiled it was clearly forced.
After examining the knee, she
said
“I think you need a cortisone
injection; I’ll speak with the Doctor”
And then she was gone.
When she returned, she was
accompanied by a Doctor Woodward, who he had never seen before, who was Chief
of Medicine, according to the badge displayed on her ample chest.
She was much warmer and
chattier than Nurse Offord, and soon got the job done.
After she had administered
the injection, which hurt like hell, he put his trousers back on.
“You will need to rest it,”
she instructed, “so stay off your feet and definitely no work”
“But I need to take the boat
out at the weekend” he said
“I certainly wouldn’t
recommend that” the Doctor said “Rest is what you need”
“Are you ok” he asked Elke
with concern, After the doctor had gone
“You don’t seem yourself”
“I’m fine” she replied flatly
“it’s just been a long day”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, yes” she said
impatiently and forced another smile before leaving the cubicle.
She returned about 10 minutes
later with a prescription
“Take these as directed” she
said and turned on her heels
“Ok” he said “bye then nurse”
Conrad stopped at the
pharmacy on the way home and picked up his painkillers and on that journey home
he replayed the interaction with Elke in his head.
He concluded that it was
obvious that everything was not ok with Elke, but he was at a loss to know what
was amiss, and if he didn’t know what the problem was, he wouldn’t be able to
fix it.
He really liked her and was
actually going to ask her out a year earlier, but he lost his bottle at the
crucial moment when they ran into each other on New Years Eve.
But he didn’t know what had
happened since then, what he did know was that his knee hurt as much on the
walk home as it did on the one to the Hospital.
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