The day when my world shed a different light

                   A Day When My World Shed a Different Light

I am a middle-aged bachelor. I live alone. Some years ago I was stood up at the altar by a young woman whom I loved and believed was my soulmate. It was definitely the most embarrassing and painful moment of my life. I had invited all my family. That period, I hope, is now deeply buried in the past. Today I am a doctor with my own practice in a town on the southern English coast. As I am single, my patients, bless their hearts, seem to believe I have all the time in the world to devote to their problems. Many nights they can see the surgery light well into the evening. I have few interests other than medicine. My life is centered around my surgery. This state of affairs, no doubt, had something to do with my failed marriage. 

The morning dawned with bright sunlight. I heard the alarm clock and turned over to switch it off. As I did so, I saw suspended from the ceiling a large spider. I lay there looking at it. I had never seen a spider that large. I tried to imagine the size of the web it was capable of weaving. I suddenly had the horrifying thought that it might fall on me and start capturing me by spinning a web. I leaped out of bed. The sudden movement made the giant spider scuttle up toward the ceiling. He stopped and looked down on me with his multiple eyes. I had decidedly escaped a rather unpleasant meeting. In my pajamas, I went into the kitchen. There on the kitchen table were two large cockroaches copulating. What was happening this morning? I detest killing insects. I shut the door on the kitchen—no morning coffee today. I would leave a note for my domestic to deal with these intruders. She was a stout woman with a strong arm. My immediate desire was to leave the house and find sanctuary in my surgery. First, I had to shave and change. I had some clothes in the bathroom; this meant I did not have to go back into the bedroom. Before I dressed, I took a quiet look at myself in the bathroom's full-length mirror. The image I saw was not entirely me. I had grown three or four inches taller and my head had sunk slightly. There were flecks of white hair. This was alarming. I had to get to my surgery as quickly as possible and check a few vital signs. Suddenly the Kafka story came to mind. I shuddered.

In my office, I checked my blood pressure and my heart rate. Both seemed normal. I sat there in a slight daze, looking at the ceiling while I thought about what had happened earlier this morning. I suddenly saw two bats hanging in one corner of the room. What were bats doing in my surgery? This was totally unacceptable. I looked at my watch. Penelope, my assistant, would be here in five minutes. I would get her to ask our handyman, Harold, to remove them. I then went back to my ruminations over what had happened this morning. A huge spider, cockroaches, a change in my appearance, and now bats in my office. Something strange was happening. At that moment Penelope burst into the room with a cheery hello.

“Morning, Doctor. You're early.” Before she said another word, she looked at me as if I was not the doctor she knew. She then said, “Doctor, you look different. Your head with distinctive grey hairs makes your face seem smaller.”

I thought to myself that when I stood up, she would really have a shock.

“Penelope, don't worry, it's me. I just didn’t sleep very well last night, and this morning while showering I used a different shampoo. Now let's start the day. First, ask Harold to come and immediately remove two bats you can see hanging there in the corner. How they got into my office is a mystery. When you have called Harold, please bring me my schedule for the day.”

The morning progressed normally, with me seeing patients every half hour. Every time Penelope entered my office, I made sure I was sitting behind my desk. Although, I did hear some older patients remark to her that they thought in some strange way the doctor's physical appearance had changed. It must have been mid-morning, just as I was saying goodbye to a patient, when Penelope and my part-time domestic, Maria, barged into my study. They both seemed in an excited state. Before anybody spoke, Penelope casually remarked, “Doctor, you seem to have grown taller since yesterday.”

“Penelope, I am trying out a new pair of shoes with higher heels. Now what is all the fuss about? Both of you sit down and calm yourselves.”

“Doctor,” Penelope said, “Maria’s husband, Ben, is lying on your bed in great pain.”

At this point, Maria took over. “Doctor, I got the message you left me this morning. I dealt with the cockroaches. But the spider is another matter. My husband collects spiders, so I immediately called him. He came with a glass cage. Once he saw the spider, he told me it was a rare species. He had never seen one so large. He thought it odd to find it in your bedroom. He told me there is a story amongst country people that these spiders have magic powers and are occasionally employed as scare elements against people who have done them harm.

“So that he could capture the spider, he needed a ladder. It was in the process of weaving a web across your ceiling. While on the ladder, he had difficulty getting this huge spider into his cage. In doing so, the spider bit his forearm. He fell off the ladder onto your bed, with the caged spider coming down with him. The bite was extremely painful and started to swell up. He asked me to get the doctor.”

“Maria, I will come immediately. I do find it curious that your husband collects spiders. Penelope, be a dear and cancel the next two hours of appointments, as I have an emergency.”

I found Ben in a great deal of pain, lying on my bed with the spider in a glass cage beside him. I quickly gave Ben two injections: one for his pain and the other to counter the swelling. They had an instant effect. Ben sensed the relief and thanked me.

“Doctor,” said Ben, “it was very fortunate you asked my wife to deal with the spider and she immediately called me. In my opinion, somebody placed it there to do you harm.”

I looked at him a little bewildered. I looked at the spider, who was looking at me with his multiple eyes as if to say he had failed in his mission. These glances triggered a memory of an event that had occurred two days ago.

It was late evening, and I was in the process of closing up my surgery when I heard a loud banging on the front door. I opened it to see two travelers. The man spoke first. “We have a son that is ill and we do not know what to do. Come to the campsite tomorrow.”

“I don’t appreciate being ordered about, so please have some more respect. Does he have a high temperature?”

This time it was the woman who spoke. “Yes, he is very hot.”

“Alright, I will come tomorrow. In the meantime, stand there while I go to get some pills that will lower his temperature overnight.” Armed with the pills, I told them, “He is to take one every two hours with a glass of water.”

Then the man said something that disturbed me. “Doctor, we expect you tomorrow. We live in the campsite just outside the village. If you don’t come, our folk have ways of making our requests honored.” He was an ugly, brutal man—no doubt from years of experience dealing with the realities of a hard life. I closed the door.

Shameful. So unlike me—I had completely forgotten about the child in the camp. I turned to Maria. “Your husband will be fine. I will give you a couple of pills he can take tonight. I assume he is taking the spider, now safely enclosed in its cage? I give it to him with relief and pleasure. Now I must be going, as I have an urgent appointment.”

I easily found the camp. It amazed me, as it was quite large. I didn’t even know the name of the parents of the ill child. But finding them was no problem; the whole camp seemed to know I would be coming. I was immediately directed to their caravan. When I knocked, the door was opened by the husband. In his surly voice, he said, “You are a day late. We sent a message to remind you.”

I ignored him and went over to examine the boy lying on his bed. His mother told me that after taking the pills I gave them, her child said he felt a little better. A quick examination soon detected that he was having an attack of measles. I wrote out a prescription with detailed instructions. I was just about to leave when the brute of a husband asked me if he owed me any money. There was no thank-you. I said no, but I asked him to think about what he owed me.

After the emotional moments of the morning and the afternoon in the camp, I had no desire to return to my office. I called Penelope and told her I would see her in the morning. That night I went out to my local restaurant and finished the meal with a large whisky. I slept well, and when I got up the next morning, I felt refreshed. I went to the bathroom to examine my profile. I was delighted to find my hair, height, and the size of my head were back to normal. I waited for Maria to see how her husband was. She told me he was fine and the swelling had nearly disappeared. But he was very upset, as somebody had stolen into his shed where he keeps his collection of spiders. They had cut off the head of the big spider I had given him yesterday.