Celebrations at Thrush Green by Miss Read

Author:Miss Read [Read, Miss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780618884438
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 1992-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

From her hospital bed Winnie watched the snowstorm spreading a carpet of white and shaking the trees in the grounds.

It made a strange contrast with the over-heated room, heavy with the mingled scent of flowers, floor polish and disinfectant.

On her locker stood the bouquet from Dorothy and Agnes, and another from Jenny. More flowers lined the windowsills and a side table, and Winnie thought how lucky she was to have so many loving friends.

Among other things on the locker top stood a glass screw-top jar containing a number of dark objects ranging in size from walnuts to peppercorns. Winnie had screened this from her own gaze by propping up a large 'get-well' card in front of it, for it was a gruesome reminder of Mr Philip Paterson's (St Thomas's) successful surgery a few days earlier, and Winnie felt she could not face its presence much longer.

Winnie's first impulse had been to beg her nurse to throw the lot in the hospital dustbin, but when several colleagues burst in to look at the jar with awe and delight, she felt unequal to the effort. When the surgeon visited her that evening she hoped that he would remove the revolting jar, but he was even more delighted than the nurses at the result of his skills.

'Do you think,' said Winnie faintly, 'that they could be thrown away now that I've seen them?'

Mr Paterson clutched the jar to him, as a mother might clutch her baby. 'But surely you want to take them home?'

The very thought sent a wave of nausea through poor Winnie, but as a doctor's wife she did her duty. 'I think you did a wonderful job,' she said, 'and I shall always be grateful. But I cannot have those ghastly things here any longer.'

Mr Paterson appeared astounded. 'Well,' he said, looking deeply hurt, 'I'll leave them where they were on the locker, in case you change your mind, and you can have a look later. After supper, say. I believe you are having a little fish soup tonight.'

He gave his usual comforting smile and departed.

Really a charming fellow, thought Winnie, and so conscientious with his night and morning visits.

Nevertheless, she resolved to get one of the nurses to dispose of the jar, and if she and the other girls complained of such ruthlessness it was just too bad.

As for Philip Paterson, he would have to endure the loss of his handiwork with all the fortitude of a true St Thomas's man.

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