00:00Now, on HistoryRadio.org, Michael Henrik Wynn reads his short story, The Doctor.
00:30The Doctor, written and narrated by Michael Henrik Wynn.
01:00This story begins in the gas-lit and fog-covered alleys of Victorian London.
01:05There are prostitutes in the night along the banks of the Thames, shouting young boys sell newspapers, and horses make their way across cobblestones.
01:14There is music from a gambling-hall, loud cheers, and the Doctor makes his bet.
01:19He is well-dressed compared to the others there, his dark suit and coat are clean, and unlike those creatures of the night around him, his grey beard has a healthy, well-kept glow.
01:31Dices are thrown, money is exchanged back and forth as the Doctor drinks.
01:36He becomes intoxicated, not only by the mild beer, but by the perpetual thrill of the game.
01:42His roaring laughter is often heard from a distance, even overwhelming the false notes of the piano and the hum of the anonymous throng.
01:50But then suddenly it is as if time runs out.
01:55The music stops, the crowds disperse, and he is left alone with a man holding a quarter of the Doctor's life-savings in his merciless hands.
02:03Being a medical man, the Doctor glances at the man's face, almost trying to analyse away the man's resolute features, his heavy-built and uncompromising stare.
02:14But moments later he is grabbed by men who have crept up on him unseen and drawn into an alley.
02:20One punch to the gut, and the Doctor falls over by a dustbin as the heavy wooden door slams shut behind him.
02:28There is total silence. He is removed from both streets and shop windows. He looks up and sees stars glisten as he gets to his feet.
02:38In the morning he wakes up with a throbbing headache in his bed next to his wife.
02:43His baby cries in another room. At first he is filled with joy, thinking how wonderful it is to wake up to such a spectacle.
02:50But then he remembers that it might all soon be gone.
02:53In the next few weeks the problem consumes him. He is unable to concentrate on his job.
02:59But being a very respected man, none of these patients have the audacity to complain.
03:04How would he find the funds to continue? What could he do to undo the damage?
03:10The Doctor was in luck. That winter a terrible pandemic hit London.
03:14Fever, running noses, coughing, crying babies in his crowded waiting room.
03:18It was all very lovely, he thought. But was it enough?
03:22He often worked into the night, and sat alone counting coins at his wooden desk by a solitary candle until dawn.
03:32Walking home as the early morning rays penetrate the smog, standing on Westminster Bridge, staring downstream just at the bending river as revealed by morning,
03:42he realizes that it was not enough.
03:44He sighs.
03:47But the Doctor is in luck again.
03:50One day a new patient enters his room.
03:52He notices him immediately because he is much taller and stronger than his usual patients.
03:58It has now been half a year since his disastrous gambling loss, but the Doctor immediately recognizes the man who ran the game in the gambling hall.
04:06He, of course, being a professional thug, does not recognize the Doctor.
04:12The Doctor soon realizes that he is a nobody, just another worthless victim.
04:17The man talks to him as if they have never met.
04:20Not being very strong or brave himself, the Doctor hides his fury behind a polite smile.
04:25He listens to the man's chest, makes the usual examinations.
04:28The man has a mild cough, nothing more.
04:32He walks over to scribble a prescription in a corner hidden behind a screen.
04:36But as his pen is about to hit the paper, he thinks,
04:39What a pity that the man doesn't have a more serious illness, something that could make him both suffer and helpless,
04:47the way he had been helpless in that alley where he had lost his financial security and perhaps even his well-purnished apartment.
04:55For a second he dismissed the idea, shook his head and resigned to his fate.
04:59But then he turned, glanced over the screen, and observed the unsympathetic countenance of the man.
05:06He was really very ugly in daylight.
05:08There were scars on his arm, as if he had been badly cut by a blunt edge years ago, perhaps a broken bottle,
05:16and then they had healed very, very slowly, leaving an unnecessary blemish on an already rugged appearance.
05:22The Doctor was suddenly filled with contempt.
05:25He grabs a piece of cloth still dripping with blood from the pregnant consumptive female who had visited his clinic before the thug.
05:33When he feels the moist on his fingers, he gets an idea.
05:37He grabs a bottle of cough syrup, opens it, places a funnel on top, and squeezes the cloth until blood drips down into the interior of the bottle.
05:46It is not much, he thinks, as dark a drops dilutes and vanish in the warm liquid.
05:51But if certain unverified theories about the transmission of disease were true, it might be enough.
05:58He shakes the bottle, cleans his hands, and returns to his patient.
06:02Sir, he begins politely, I have here a bottle of the most common cough syrup.
06:08This is what you require in order to regain your health quickly.
06:12But it is imperative that you follow my instructions to the letter.
06:16This medicine must be stored in a cold room, so every evening try to lower the temperature in your dwelling a little,
06:23perhaps by keeping a door ajar, or not putting as much kindling on your fire as normal.
06:29The man makes a grunt of dissatisfaction, knowing quite well how uncomfortable the evenings are when the chill of dusk descends.
06:37But, like most patients at the time, he also knows that all medicines require suffering.
06:43So it does not protest, but nods and stares to the floor.
06:47The doctor smiles as he realizes his power over the brute.
06:51This first bottle is not cheap, but it is essential that you take it every evening and morning.
06:57You see, there are some, very few, don't worry, who develop further symptoms.
07:02Then you must double your dose.
07:04I understand, the man says and gets up.
07:07What do I pay you?
07:09He says, as his height almost looms over his much smaller physician.
07:12When he hears the sum, he shall, but, dear Lord!
07:17The doctor is suddenly intimidated.
07:20What can he do if the man simply beats him to the floor, takes his medicine and departs?
07:25Well, then the thug reaches for coins from his pocket, wipes snot from his moustache, grabs his coat and pays what he is due.
07:33The doctor sighs with relief as the man shuts the door behind him.
07:36From his window, the doctor sees him walk down the street, stopping to cough by some derelict barrel and then vanish behind some horse.
07:45The doctor smiles and almost laughs.
07:49He draws the curtains and decides to leave work early that day.
07:53On his way home, however, he suddenly realized that the problem is not yet solved.
07:58He had inflicted pain on a very evil man, but the death was still there.
08:03Nothing had changed.
08:04The joy that he felt was completely gone as he greeted his wife.
08:09He had still betrayed her, and he could barely look at the baby.
08:13Three weeks later, there is a knock at the door of his clinic, and the brute appears once again.
08:19This time, his face is covered in sweat.
08:22But this was a man of immense strength, so he stood upright still, like some towering bronze pillar.
08:28The doctor let him in, examined him, and immediately recognized the early symptoms of consumption.
08:34At first, he was a little confused.
08:36Had to hide behind a screen in the corner again to think.
08:39He kept glancing at the man in secret, trying to make up his mind.
08:43Was he happy, or was he not happy about this?
08:46Then suddenly the force of the gut punch came back to him.
08:50He was happy.
08:50In fact, the doctor was thrilled.
08:53He once again looked up at the bottles from his previous patient.
08:58You remember that the patient he had bled that morning suffered from the worst case of syphilis he had ever seen.
09:04In fact, he had been frightened and thrown most of the rubbish away immediately.
09:07But there was one bloody rag left.
09:12The doctor meticulously repeats what he had done the first time.
09:18At first, he is uncertain about whether he would dare to up the price on his cough syrup.
09:23But then he thinks about his wife and child, how they would suffer because of this horrible giant.
09:28This is an extra strong mixture, the doctor says.
09:32I am afraid it is a little more expensive.
09:35The giant sighs, and the doctor turns to hide his smile as he is paid.
09:41Thank you, sir, the doctor says.
09:42Come back if you get any worse, Mr. Jones-Smith.
09:46The brute suddenly smiles, shakes his head, and says,
09:49Never mind about those fancy names.
09:51Most people just call me Bricklayer John.
09:54Bricklayer John?
09:55Yes, I am a Bricklayer, big by birth, but workers made me strong, you see.
10:01Perhaps I shouldn't complain.
10:02It gives me a few extra bob now again.
10:05I just stand by some door most of the time.
10:07Some weasel pays me five bob for this.
10:09But only once a month.
10:11I see, the doctor says, as the man leaves.
10:16The doctor then returns to his family in the evening,
10:19but now he is a little confused.
10:21Had he done the right thing?
10:22What did he really remember from the night he lost his money?
10:26So much time had passed that the facts were blurred.
10:29Who did what?
10:30And when?
10:31Was it Bricklayer John who had hit him?
10:34Looking at his baby and his wife, his worries settled.
10:37The man was still not a nice person.
10:39He was just as unsympathetic.
10:41Even if it was all part-time,
10:42part-time thug was just as bad as full-time thug.
10:45Now six months passed,
10:49and as if by a miracle,
10:50the doctor managed to get his budget in order.
10:53He reckoned that it would take him five years to recover his loss.
10:57But he was in charge,
10:58and his darling wife and baby would never know.
11:02Patients started coming in larger numbers that autumn.
11:04There was much to do for an important person.
11:07So much responsibility.
11:10One day,
11:11a pregnant woman entered his office,
11:13the most gorgeous creature put on this earth, he thought.
11:17The doctor, however,
11:18was a man completely devoted to his wife,
11:20both in spirit and in mind.
11:23He would recognize beauty wherever he saw it,
11:25but that would be as far as it would go.
11:27As he treated the woman,
11:30he recognized the symptoms of consumption.
11:33He almost had to look away
11:34as he informed her of his diagnosis.
11:37He heard a sob.
11:39He took his seat next to her.
11:40Will you manage, he said.
11:43I suppose I will have to, answered the woman,
11:45her long black hair,
11:46slightly lifted by a sudden gust of wind from an open window.
11:51I will shut the window, the doctor said, and got up.
11:54You see, my late husband was a hard-working man.
11:57He would work from morning till evening.
12:00He said work made him into a bull,
12:01but bricklayers meet a lot of people.
12:04Then he had an extra night job as well sometimes.
12:07I can forgive John for giving me this plague,
12:10but never for being unfaithful to me.
12:12The doctor suddenly turned towards his patient
12:15and stared at her in horror.
12:18John gave me syphilis as well, you see.
12:21Bricklayer John, what a monster he was.
12:24But at least he left me well cared for.
12:27You have just heard Michael Henrik when reading his short story,
12:48The Doctor.
12:53This is HistoryRadio.org, a free radio stream.
12:58Promoting knowledge of literature and history.
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