Chapter 12
SHARON MILES
11th March 1933
Medical textbooks piled onto my desk, the next one always longer than the last. I promised myself that I would be a doctor and no one could stop me.
Except one person.
“Sharon, put those darn books away! No good medical school will accept a woman like you. Work on learning to be a good wife.”
My mother. Her hair was slicked back perfectly into a bun, and her stern expression burning into me.
“I don’t care; it interests me. Even if I never become a doctor, I’ll be glad to have the knowledge.”
“Whatever. You’re wasting your time. I need to tell your father to stop encouraging this.”
I carried the heavy books back onto the shelves, then grabbed my green shoulder bag and coat.
“I’m going for a walk, Ma.”
“Good. Think about your future properly, Sharon.”
Shutting the door behind me, I walked down the cobblestone street to the large grass hill. I would prove her wrong. A burning began in my stomach. Determination, fear or food poisoning. Most likely not the last one.
A poor, young boy tried to climb up an apple tree, failing over and over, as his weak arms couldn’t pull him up. Walking towards him, I held out a sandwich. His cheeks were hollowed and his face slim, a large button up shirt hung from his shoulders, rolled up to his elbows and loosely tucked into a pair of brown shorts attached to suspenders.
“You look very hungry, don’t waste your energy on such a small fruit. It won’t help you much.” Giggling, I ruffled the younger boy’s hair, “My name’s Sharon. Please, eat up.”
The boy seemed cautious, but ate the sandwich with speed, “Thanks. Theo.” He held his hand out and bowed his head, I took it gently and he placed a kiss.
Shocked, I pulled my hand back, “Well aren’t you a gentleman?”
Looking at his cheek I noticed a small gash, filled with pus, “Ouch... Let me look at that.” I lifted his chin and inspected the wound, experimentally pressing it.
“Ah... Ger’off, you lunatic!” He quickly pulled away.
“Theo, that’s infected, let me see it.” I rummaged in my shoulder bag, taking out a handkerchief and a small bottle of alcohol, pressing it against the wound, “It’s going to hurt. This infection is bad.”
“Jeez, birdie...” Theo hissed under his breath, gripping onto my wrist.
I pulled back the handkerchief to inspect the wound again, “What’s this from?”
“I dunno, could be anything. Rats, knives, could even be that tree.”
“Rats? And why on earth would you be around rats?”
“Not like I can ask them nicely to leave my house, can I?”
I felt bile crawl up my throat, but I swallowed it down. I was going to be a doctor.
“R... ight... Okay. Well, we can’t have you around rats tonight. You’ll only make it worse.”
“Sure thing, Doc, where do you say I sleep then? A bush?” Theo rolled his eyes in sarcasm.
My heart fluttered at being called Doc, “No! No, of course not! Come with me, we have a bunch of guest rooms, I’ll let you pick your favourite.”
“You have guest rooms?” Theo stared in awe, his mouth hanging open.
I led him towards my house, where he held me back and pointed, “That entire place is yours?”
“Yes... Yes, Theo.”
I took his hand and guided him inside, taking him upstairs and presenting to him what he viewed as luxurious bedroom after luxurious bedroom.
“Which one, Theo?”
“Whichever, I don’t care. I dunno... Which one’s closest to the loo?”
I opened the door to the room furthest down the hall, “That would be this one! Do you need anything else? Anything at all?”
“A house just like this for myself?” Theo grinned, pinching my arm, “Only kidding. Unless you have that kind of money.”
I sat down on a chair in the room, as Theo jumped into the bed, admiring the feeling of the mattress.
“Well, my father owns a business, so he has a bit of money. We have 3 houses, I believe. One of them is for me when I’m married and the other is for holidays. I don’t think I’m ever getting the first one...”
Theo curiously stepped forward, crouching down on one knee, playfully, “What makes you say that?”
I chuckled, but gently pushed him away, “Not interested, sorry. It’s not you, although you are a little young, I’m just not interested in marriage at all...” Gripping onto my skirt, I glanced away nervously, “Well, it’s complicated. If I could marry a woman, I would.”
Theo’s eyes widened slightly, and he slowly got to his feet, “Oh, you...” He seemed to struggle to find the words to express himself, as he looked away dejectedly, “Okay...”
I tilted my head, holding my arms out, “I’ll still look after you. You can use my bath, you look like you need it...” I quickly covered my mouth, “Not in a rude way, of course!”
“It’s alright, I’ll go now, eh?”
“Right, yes. I’ll get you a towel and change of clothes. My si-brother’s clothes should fit you.”
Theo laughed, revealing his yellowed and browned teeth, “What a slip up. You wanted a sister, huh? God can be cruel that way.”
“It’s not that...”
“No worries, birdie.”
Theo brushed past me to the bathroom, just as my father walked in, horror in his eyes, “Who is that boy?”
“Theo, my first patient. If I want to be a doctor, I figure I should learn about healing infections. I most definitely can’t heal an infection if he lives in a pigsty.”
Theo winced at my words, closing the door.
“Uh... Not a pigsty... Just... poverty.”
“Alright, Sharon, I trust you. I’ll tell your mother before she kills us both...” He put on a faux expression of fear, “She’s already after me for buying you those books.”
He shut the door behind him, and I was left in an uncomfortable silence. Examining under the bed, I pulled out a towel and made my way to my brother’s room.
“Ethan?” Carefully, I knocked on the door, “Can I borrow something from you?”
The young boy opened the door, his eyes soft and his cheeks still full, “What exactly?”
“Just a few of your clothes, we have a guest. You’ll get it back, I promise.”
He cautiously nodded, walking to his wardrobe and pulling out an outfit for Theo, consisting mainly of blues.
*~*
Patiently, I waited by the bathroom door, holding both items.
“Theo? You okay for me to come in?”
A small laugh escaped the room, “Of course, if you can handle my glory.”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed the door open, instantly looking away from Theo’s bare form, holding out the towel and placing the clothes on top of a wooden counter.
“Once you’re dressed, I’ll put clean dressing on that wound.” I glanced into the bathroom cabinet, collecting some gauze, which I doused in alcohol. He stepped before me in the blue suit.
The white sheet of gauze was pressed against his cheek, where I taped it down with plasters.
“This’ll have to do. Don’t touch it, no matter how tempting it is.”
“Being rich must be amazing.”
“I wouldn’t call myself rich...” Theo instantly glared at me, “Okay... A little rich. But that doesn’t make it amazing.”
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The Meadow Mouse – Theodore Rothke
1
In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him in,
Cradled in my hand,
A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
His absurd whiskers sticking out like a cartoon-mouse,
His feet like small leaves,
Little lizard-feet,
Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle away,
Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.
Now he’s eaten his three kinds of cheese and drunk from his
Bottle-cap watering-trough—
So much he just lies in one corner,
His tail curled under him, his belly big
As his head; his bat-like ears
Twitching, tilting toward the least sound.
Do I imagine he no longer trembles
When I come close to him?
He seems no longer to tremble.
2
But this morning the shoe-box house on the back porch is empty.
Where has he gone, my meadow mouse,
My thumb of a child that nuzzled in my palm? —
To run under the hawk’s wing,
Under the eye of the great owl watching from the elm-tree,
To live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the tom-cat.
I think of the nestling fallen into the deep grass,
The turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the highway,
The paralytic stunned in the tub, and the water rising,—
All things innocent, hapless, forsaken.