week 8 assignmen "Doctor on call"

Mixed method writing about a highly educated Doctor (Medicine) taking a sabbatical from her London Hospital, & living in the Cotswolds. Has to be UNDER 1,000 words - 998 words.

Her next patient was late. Rosa didn't mind, it was a chilly day and if she was honest with herself, she'd rather be home in front of a roaring fire reading the science fiction book she was enjoying so much. She stretched, nearly six-foot tall and fifty-four years old, sitting at a desk caused a bit of stiffness in her joints.

 

Having been told by Personnel that she must take some leave from the London hospital. Somewhat mortified to discover she hadn’t taken any holiday in over twelve-years. Rosa was really didn’t want to go away, so she’d decided to take a year’s sabbatical. This gave her time to really feel what retirement might be like, and also to take part in some local courses online and at the local college.

 

However, this week she was an acting locum GP, fortunately at one practice. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the wash hand basin as she washed her hands. Her grey-blue eyes had a touch of green, which almost matched the cardigan she was wearing, a jade/teal cotton knit. Her dirty blonde hair escaping from her hair clips, wildly curling around her head like Medusa’s snakes. If she didn't blow dry and brush it into a semi-straight manner, it did its own thing. She felt it made her more approachable, but immediately counteracted that thought with it made her look unprofessional, she found fault with herself as ever but never anyone else.

 

She dried her hands, went back to the desk and pressed the button under it to call for her next patient. The door opened to a stressed looking man she bade him enter and sit. Then her calm, gentle manner and soft voice she coaxed him to tell what was going on, as he spoke, she not only listened but heard what he was saying.

 

Three hours later her patients had all been seen and left the surgery, she said goodnight to the staff, it was a lovely practice she had thought. Rosa got into her car and drove home. As she opened the back door, and moved to switch off the alarm, one of the motion detecting lights came on. These were fitted in her London flat. Here there were no street lights nearby. Her very tall son had suggested them although he hadn’t needed to pat her on the head to emphasise it.  

 

She was greeted by two of her three cats, she was a cat down she thought, it's always been an even number of cats, all through her life. She turned, closed and locked the door and walked through her home. As she moved through from the kitchen to the living room, LED lights came on or switched off as she left or entered their zone. It saved electricity and made the house look lived in by programming their pattern when she was in London.

 

She opened a door that was also a bookcase and faced her safe. She inserted her middle finger into the slot, then entered an eight-digit code, along with her safe word. This always made her laugh, a ‘safe’, safe word. Dropped her medical bag into the specially created drawer that came out. She felt better knowing the tools of her trade were now safely locked away.

 

Her daughter agreed with this, her son thought it was over cautious. “Mum, you might need them” he’d commented. Regardless, she had several first aid kits in the house all of which contained everything she felt was needed for home emergencies. Her mind wandered to thinking of her children, now in their thirties. How time had passed. Both living very different lives, neither had followed her into medicine.

 

Eager to get out of her working clothes, went upstairs to the master bedroom where she removed her suit and the splash of colour cardigan, hung them up and changed into a swimsuit, and a pair of sweat trousers t-shirt and top. She had put on weight recently and wanted to lose it. Grabbing socks & trainers she checked she had what was needed into a small back pack, walked downstairs, stroked one of her cats making it purr, unlocked the door, set the alarm, and shut the door.

 

The drive to the private swimming pool was about thirty minutes. As she pulled onto the main road, another vehicle came up very speedily behind her with no lights on. Suddenly it put its blinding headlights on as it followed her. Rosa felt a slight twitch in her stomach. She thought all the cloak and daggers stuff had stopped. If this car WAS following her, why now? It had been thirty years since she had signed out of MI6. Surely the old adage of once you’re in, you’re never really out was not true. Not in this day and age.

 

Rosa switched to sport mode, she knew these roads like the back of her hand, thinking ‘let’s see how you like bends’ as she powered the Golf through a tight bend, this was what she had done for MI6 in her youth. Move diplomats from one location to another, at speed, securely, during the time of IRA bombings. The car was definitely following her, she’d turned down a very dark and bumpy road without signalling. The road was awful, potholes everywhere as if someone scattered grain out for the birds, it took most of her attention navigating around the worst ones.

 

She came up to a T junction and having checked both ways she hammered the car to the right heading back home. This was a much better road with some extreme bends. She’d got onto the road and was beyond a bend, with no sign of the other car. Was she being paranoid? She hadn’t closed the gates on the drive when she got home, had a tracker been placed on her car? Her heart hammering in her chest. Home as fast as possible was all she could think.

Author's Note

This is what I have given as my assignment no more than 1,000 words - it has 998 words.