Don't Pass Me By by Julie McGowan

Author:Julie McGowan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-909278-13-4
Publisher: Sunpenny Publishing Group

15.

The doctor’s house looked a bit grand close up, but Arfur wasn’t going to be put off. Rhian and Amy had been here, with Mrs. Dawson, so he could come here too, couldn’t he? Besides, he was here for a proper reason, not just to pull soppy faces at Mrs. Dawson’s baby. He needed to see the doctor.

He hesitated on the gravel drive in front of the house. Should he go into the door at the side marked ‘Surgery’? Or should he go round the back instead of knocking on the front door? The woman who lived in the biggest house near them in London always shouted at delivery boys who went to the front door, refusing to have anything to do with them until they went round the back.

He could see from the glass that there was no-one else in the room, but then he noticed a bell to the side of the surgery door. Probably Mrs. Dawson would answer it anyway, and she was nice, so it wouldn’t matter too much. He pressed it quickly before he could change his mind.

It wasn’t Mrs. Dawson who came to the door but a woman in a gleaming white overall. He thought he’d seen her in the village with her children, although she didn’t look as efficient without the white coat. She had a concerned smile on her face as she opened the door, though, so he took a deep breath.

“Is he in? The doctor?” he asked.

“Yes, he’s just finished surgery. Have you got a message for him? Is somebody poorly?”

“I need to see him,” Arfur said.

The fixed expression on his face gave nothing away.

“Children usually have to be seen with their parents – or a grown-up who’s in charge of them,” Rita said, recognising him at once. Her own boys had mentioned Arfur on numerous occasions, with the sort of hero worship reserved for lads who constantly got into trouble but didn’t seem to care.

“I just want to talk to him – ask him something. Don’t need no grown-ups for that,” Arfur said, one foot already over the step so that she couldn’t close the door on him.

“Sit down by there,” Rita told him, indicating a bench, “and I’ll just find out if he can see you.”

She was back in a moment, her overall rustling as she came in the door. “You’re in luck, just going out on his calls he was, but he’ll see you now. Don’t you keep him long, mind,” her voice held a warning note, “because he’s a very busy man. So no messing.”

She showed him into a room that held a heavy wooden desk with lots of forms and important-looking pieces of paper on it, a brass lamp, a large blotter, and an inkwell. A tall glass-fronted bookcase stood against one wall, and on another was an eye chart.

Arfur moved to the end of the room, closed one eye tightly, and began to read down the chart when a door on the opposite side of the room opened and in walked the doctor.

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