Downshire is
a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, the may not have been
the biggest but they were in no doubt that it was the best, and that belief was no truer than in the southern town off
Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the
Downshire government.
It was also a place of learning thanks to the Downshire University, it
could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford Town football club and benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital.
Of all the
many amenities and attractions the town had to offer, it was the hospital that
had brought Mark Weston to town, in order to visit his sister who was waiting
to undergo major heart surgery, in fact it had brought back to the country,
from sunnier climes where he had been filming his TV Show.
But when he got to the hospital he went straight upstairs to the private
room he had arranged for her, he not only found her lying in bed with wires and
tubes coming out of her, he also found someone who would figure in both their
futures, in the form of Elaine’s Doctor, Rita.
Because later that night they met for the first time outside the
hospital and spent a pleasant couple of hours in the Hotel bar of the
Abbottsford Regents and they made an unlikely connection, considering that she
was a Doctor and he was a TV Fisherman.
The next day however they were unable to build on that connection as it
was a busy shift for Rita and Elaine went into surgery, the following day
however was a different matter, although when they were on the ward they
maintained their roles, conscious and sensitive to their surroundings, but when
they met downstairs it was different.
“Hello Mark” she said as he stepped out of the lift
“Hello yourself Doctor Rita”
“Very funny” she said laughing “have you got time for
a coffee?”
“I do” he replied so they went to the coffee shop
where they spent a pleasant hour, helping him to escape his worries.
Because she knew that although he put on a brave face
for his sister and her husband that he was worried sick, and she also knew that
no matter how she tried to reassure him as a Doctor she wasn’t going succeed
but as Rita she could divert him, even if only for the briefest time.
The following day they repeated the process, twice, and the day after,
and when Elaine was out of the woods and on the road to recovery the day after
that, and she improved with each day that passed they went out for dinner.
Elaine had made such a good recovery that Doctor Gardner was happy to
allow Elaine to be transferred to a nursing home to complete her convalescence.
As they
loaded Elaine into an ambulance Rita said
“You know what
this means”
“Yes, I have
to take you fishing” He said
“So it’s my
day off on Thursday” she replied
“Ok text me
the address and I’ll pick you up at nine”
“Great” she
said “what should I wear?”
“You’ll look
great in whatever you wear” he replied “But I would recommend no heels”
There were
only three small bodies of water left in the Finchbottom Vale by the 21st
Century, one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was in
Purplemere.
But as Rita
lived in Shallowfield he had booked a room at the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel
which meant they could fish in Teardrop Lake, which was actually somewhere he
had never fished before.
It was an unseasonably warm sunny March day when he picked her up and
drove her up to the Lake and he set up the folding chairs on the jetty and once they had set up he showed her the basic
principle of casting and then he said
“Come and stand in front of me and look
towards the water”
Rita did as she was told and he was stood
behind her holding the rod in his right hand but before he could show her any
more she turned around and kissed him and after a full minute he said
“You didn’t come
for the fishing did you?”
“Not really” she
admitted and they kissed again.
An early lunch was
settled on so after he’d packed his tackle away they walked back to the car and
he stowed it in the boot and as they walked up the steps to the Hotel she
announced
“I like fishing, I
think we should do it again soon”
“I’m afraid that
today is the last day of the season” he retorted
“When does it
start again?”
“The middle of June”
“Oh dear, what are
we going to do until June?”
“I’m sure we’ll
think of something” he said and kissed her
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