Chapter 28
Uncle Lito and his friends had left early on Easter Monday morning, because they had arrived in a sailboat belonging to a northern fisherman which they had had to return by that evening. Jerome, who was travelling in the same direction, had decided to postpone his departure until the afternoon, at Alida’s request, so that he could take the girls (myself unknowingly included under that heading} trolling in the speedboat.
Fishing was indeed my favourite sport, but I had declined Alida’s last minute invitation as I had wanted to make up for spending so little time with Nigel on this trip due to our communal lifestyle on this occasion, and we were leaving early the following day.
This being their last day for fishing, Lloyd and Victor had left before dawn accompanying Mr. Oswald to “comb” the southern reef.
Alida had felt that Jewel had worked so hard and so willingly in preparing the meals and baking the treats for us that she deserved to have some fun learning to fish, hence the request to Jerome, so they had set out just after Uncle Lito had got under way.
From Alida’s account, it had been an exciting trip, returning with one catch only, a nine-pound kingfish, credited to Jewel with Jerome’s assistance; and she had explained the circumstances of her hooking such a prize on her first time out!
They had started towards the northern reef, with Jewel being given instructions to hold the line, made of sixteen thread twine rigged with steel wire between two metal swivels and hooked on to a #4 “Dronebait,” our favourite in those days, and told to throw it into the water when they had reached a certain distance from Caye, as they were aiming at a “decent” sized fish – not any “grassy,” so-called because they were the young ones found in the shallow water near the caye where the grass at the bottom of the sea was visible.
Not knowing any better, and not having received precise instructions, Jewel had put the line out too soon and was holding it with her finger in a loop, which Jerome had noticed and, showing her the danger of which, had corrected, at the same time suggesting that she pull the line out of the water as they were still too near to Caye anyway.
Jewel had pulled in the line, as instructed, then had put it back after a safe distance, remarking that it felt heavy as if something had been hooked onto it. Her fishing companions, however, had dismissed her reaction as the natural weight of the current against the line to which she was unused, until Alida, sitting on the hatch and facing in her direction, realized that the line was cutting into her palm while the extra effort to hold on to it was showing on her face. She had promptly called this to Jerome’s attention, who had instructed her to take over the steering while he relieved Jewel. Discovering that a fish was indeed hooked on to it, he had slowed down the motor and started to pull in the line, at the same time gesturing to Alida in which direction she should steer; and as soon as things were under control he had returned the line to Jewel and coached her on how to pull in and bring the catch aboard.
When the excitement had been all over, Alida, noticing blood on Jewel’s hand where the line had cut into her palm, had called this to Jerome’s attention; and he had cleaned the wound (tenderly, according to my romantic daughter; although I had restrained myself from asking how tender it could be to dip water from the sea and pour it over someone’s hand?); and teased Jewel by asking with a straight face whether he should paint it with iodine (which stung) or with mercurochrome!
Having caught such a good prize, there had been no need to continue fishing for food, as we were leaving the next morning, so they had decided to return to port; and after a boil-up with slices of the fresh catch, Jerome had soon been on his way up north.
The rest of us left on the Caye had taken a long sea bath, a shampoo and soapy wash-off, and started our packing; and when this was over we had invited Miss Mavis and Mr. Oswald to supper on the fried remains of the kingfish, played some card games, then bedded down for our farewell Easter sleep on the island for that year.
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The family wrap-up of the holidays had been full of revelations of our children’s new ideas and outlook, our unplanned guest’s abilities, strengths and maturity, and the deep friendship that had developed among them, influencing each other into new fields: Victor encouraging Jewel to begin studies in English Language Usage and Sociology at the University College’s continuing education evening classes; Lloyd emerging from his shell, venturing beyond his father’s shadow and acquiring a voice; Alida becoming interested in areas of study beyond the natural sciences; and my slightly opinionated Victor becoming more open to and tolerant of other people’s ideas.
After church on Sundays they often met at our house, when Jewel was not on duty, and held discussions on unusual happenings, civic matters, people’s behaviour, etc. with an attitude of taking action for influence or change, reminiscent of such elders as Matron, Nurse Pauline, Lucille, and Mama.
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From conversations with Alida as we went about household chores, which, following Jewel’s example, she no longer performed grudgingly, I learnt that she believed Jerome and Jewel to be attracted to each other, something that seemed to delight her.
In an attempt to find out her reasons for such a belief, and pretending only slight interest, I had warned her against talking about such matters in her father’s hearing, since he often discouraged me from match-making where Jerome was concerned, with the appeal to “please leave the man in peace to find a wife when he is ready, inviting Alida to talk to me instead.
Opening up, she had confided that Jewel was in awe of Jerome and had nothing but praise for him – how hardworking he was, how concerned and protective of all his patients, especially the poorer ones, the lengths to which he was willing to go to cater to their needs, and his strict oversight of nurses giving care to patients in the wards under his jurisdiction, etc. etc. Jewel had told Alida that she and the rest of the staff had had to walk a chalk line with him, as he was serious and exacting at work, although very courteous; remarking, as an aside, that seeing him at Caye had revealed a very different person from the one at the hospital – one who even joked and smiled and wore old clothes!
She had described an incident to Alida wherein she had got into hot water with him and had been afraid she might have lost her job, but he had surprised her with his lenience, letting her off with a slight penalty and a warning. She had been assigned to prepare an elderly patient from her home district for surgery and, on her way pushing him on the trolley towards the theatre, accompanied by two young orderlies, one of the senior sisters had called her away and sent her on an errand to the Dispensary. She had hurried off, leaving him with the orderlies, promising to be right back. As soon as she had left, however, they had increased the speed of the trolley to a joy-ride, callously ignoring the patient’s squeals of fright; and she had arrived back just in time to halt their entry to the outer room of the theatre where Sister Havers had been waiting to take custody of the patient.
Alarmed, she had told the orderlies to leave, and reversed the trolley to an area where she could calm him down before returning him to Sister Havers, then going back on duty in the male pre-surgical ward.
Sonia Duncan, her best friend, who worked in the theatre, had told her about what had transpired later. Mr. St. John had been given a report by Sister Havers after the operation and he had sent for the orderlies to explain their behaviour. As a result, the younger of the two had been given one week’s suspension without pay, while the other had been dismissed, and Sonia had passed on an account of the interview leaked by one of them.
Jerome had asked the younger of the two if he would have liked his father to be treated as they had the patient and, replying in the negative, he had apologized; while the other, when asked the same question, had replied that he couldn’t say, as he didn’t know those people (his mother and father). When asked who had brought him up, he had replied that his grandmother had raised him, adding, ironically, that if anybody “chanced” her he would finish them off.
The interview had ended with Jerome telling him that he did not consider him suited for continued employment in a hospital whose purpose was to foster life, not end it, given him two weeks’ pay in lieu of notice, and the offer to provide a recommendation, if he needed one, for some other line of work.
Jewel had been frightened at hearing the fate of the orderlies, and heeding Sonia’s warning that nothing the CSO hated as much as excuses and people dodging responsibility, had decided to give herself up. She had resolutely walked to his office with this intention, but, arriving there, had halted while she built up her courage to knock, when she had heard his voice behind her telling her to go inside and wait as he was on his way to see the Matron and would be back shortly.
True to his word, he had come back quickly and begun the interview with the remark that he was wondering when she would show up, followed by the question whether she had not been warned time and again that her patient’s welfare took precedence over everything else, even instructions from senior staff? She had answered respectfully that she had, and said nothing else; and he had eventually commented that he was glad she realized she had no defence at all and therefore had kept silent.
She had maintained a respectful silence for a few minutes and he had finally spoken, saying he was impressed by her willingness to accept responsibility for neglecting her duty; continuing that, fortunately, the damage done had not prevented the operation from going satisfactorily. There had been some loss of time, however, for which she would be penalized by the forfeit of her day off that week; and he had admonished her that there was always a good reason for every hospital rule and that she would be saved from grief by bearing that in mind.
While she waited in silence, he had taken the trouble to repeat that the purpose for assigning prep staff was, as the word implied, to prepare the patient as far as was possible for an unfamiliar and often traumatic experience; and that extra care was needed in the case of the elderly and those from the outdistricts, who tended to be terrified at the thought of the knife.
After pausing for a few seconds, he had remarked that she should know that Mr. Salam (the patient) had enquired whether it was true that Abelino Choc’s daughter worked at the hospital, observing for a while the effect on her of this piece of information.
Already feeling badly about what she had caused to happen, Jewel had told Alida, hearing this had made her feel even worse, and she had waited in shamefaced silence until he told her that she could go. As she had turned to do so, however, he had remarked forgetting the matter of an apology to Sister Havers for assaulting her. Startled at this, Jewel had said, she had opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything he had interrupted with the request that she please pass him a pencil. Raising her hand to comply, however, he had brushed it out of his way and taken hold of the pencil himself; while she, realizing then that she must have touched Sister Havers’ hand as she had stopped the trolley from entering the outer room of the theatre, had said nothing more. He had turned away from her and then waved her out of the office.
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Not quite convinced of what I was saying, I had told Alida that I thought Jewel’s feelings towards Jerome to be nothing more than hero worship, which was something peculiar to people from their district, who took a proprietary pride in both mother and son’s accomplishments. As to his feelings towards her, his unfailing courtesy to all women was often misread and, besides, was she aware that he was about twenty years older than she was? Her reply to this had been a pert: “Exactly – not about! Plus four months – his birthday is in March and her’s in August!” Alida, who never gives up, had said that that was nothing nowadays, anyhow, calling names of celebrities who had married women far more than twenty years their junior! All I could do was ask her to come down to earth and remember in what country we were living and to please, under no circumstances, let me hear any reference to that topic again in this house, her airy comment on which had been: “O.K. but time will tell!”
(Chapter 29 in Friday’s issue of Amandala.)