Maximum Effort by Vincent Formosa

Author:Vincent Formosa [Formosa, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

“And move your head for me.”

Carter swung his head right and left, back and forth like a pendulum. The doctor pressed on his neck with two stiff fingers, feeling the muscles move.

“How’s that?”

“Fine.”

The doctor uncapped his fountain pen and made a note on his clipboard. He looked up and down his observations, tapping the pen off his teeth.

“How have the painkiller’s been?”

“All right,” Carter said warily, keeping his answers short.

“Not making you drowsy?”

Cater shook his head. The doctors voice was a dull monotone as he went through his list of things to check. It was his way, he was a cold fish who pronounced on whether they were fit to fly but he kept himself to himself. Even in the Mess he was this aloof figure who kept his own counsel and said little.

“Relax, Mr Carter. I’m not trying to trap you into an answer.”

Carter sat on a padded examination table, his legs dangling over the side as he looked around the room. A ten foot square box, the lino was grey and the walls were painted in a chalky white colour, a perfect accompaniment to the tang of antiseptic in his nose. A yellowed skeleton grinned at him from one corner. A garish poster on the wall extolled the virtues of abstinence ands saying no to prostitutes to avoid spills and gonorrhoea; charming.

Carter kicked his legs back and forth while his hands gripped the padded bed. He glanced at the clock on the table. He had been in here for nearly an hour and was starting to get browned off.

The doctor had done his bet to poke and prod all over the place. He’d hit knees with a hammer, scraped soles with a thin wooden stick and peered down his throat and ears.

“Sleeping okay?” Carter shrugged. What could he say to that? Oh yes, I get nightmares. Do you know what? Funny story. I woke up screaming next to my girlfriend a few days ago, scared the living daylights out of her.

“I suppose so. Sleeping in the daytimes always a bit rough with all the noise going on. I’m always chasing the clock on days off to get back to normal.”

Of course he lied. He’d lied about his neck as well. Of course it had bloody hurt when the bloody man had pressed on it with his bloody fingers but he kept his mouth shut and controlled himself. If he was a fighter pilot it would have mattered, but he was a bomber pilot, he had gunners to do his looking for him.

“Hmmmm.” The doctor nodded. He did that often, a nasal hum as he listened to what you said and wrote on his clipboard. He rarely made eye contact, masking his thoughts behind an almost blank visage.

“Your reactions seem to be normal.” He gestured vaguely towards Carter with his pen. “Your muscle tone etc. Your bodyweights a bit low, you need feeding up a bit.”

He glanced up from his clipboard, suddenly fixing Carter with a stern look.

“Movement on your neck all right?” He moved his face left and right, regarding him from different angles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.