Downshire Diary – (17) Healing Hands

 

The village of Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills and the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club separates the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the combination of those two and Kingfisherbridge made up the parish of St Martins.

 

Among the residents of Highfinch was Marina Salem who was one of the practise nurses, at the Highfinch Doctors Surgery.

She was a tall and slender girl with jet black hair and alabaster complexion and part of her duties involved home visits, because the district nursing teams in Purplemere and Finchbottom wouldn’t go that far out into the Vale.

The Finchbottom Vale which nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, and those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.

The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.

But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of the famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair, the result of the reclamation of the Vale was a large and sparsely populated area.  

The Dancingdean Health Centre in Shallowfield covered much of the Southern Vale, Childean serviced the East and Purplemere and Finchbottom, the North.

But the Western end of the Vale was made up of sizable Villages with their own Doctors Surgeries so they fended for themselves.

Which was why Marina did home visits and on one seemingly normal day, her final call was in Kingfisherbridge at White Rose Cottage.

Marina was twenty seven years old but looked much younger but professionally she was a first class nurse despite her age.

Her patient that day was Paul Russell, a sergeant in the Downshire Light Infantry.

He had been severely wounded by an IED in Afghanistan his left leg had gone below the knee and his right just above and his physical wounds had all but healed, but that wasn’t where his real problems lay.

Marina’s job was to manage his medication and massage what remained of his legs or more accurately his stumps and to try and raise his spirits.

She knocked on the door and a moment or so later Mrs Russell, the patient’s mother answered the door.

“Hello dear” she said

“Hello Mrs Russell” Marina said “How’s the patient today?”

“The same” she said blankly “I don’t know how to help him”

“Just be supportive” She said

“It’s hard though dear” she said putting on her coat and going to the foot of the stairs.

“Paul! The nurse is here” she shouted up the stairs “the pretty one with the black hair”

Marina smiled and Mrs Russell said

“You can go up when you’re ready, I need to do some shopping”

 

The Taliban may have been responsible for taking his legs but Paul Russell’s other problems were of his own making.

It was no wonder his mother was so exasperated as his self-esteem had been blown away along with his legs in fact it was less than zero as he never ventured out of his room and he hid from the world.

He drove his fiancé Karen away because he thought she was only staying with him out of pity, which she wasn’t.

But over the six months she had been seeing him she had seen a small improvement.

Marina walked up the stairs and found Paul lying on his bed with his eyes closed as if he’d fallen asleep in front of the TV and he never stirred even when she knocked on the door.

She knew he was awake, it was a game he played on some of her visits, pretending to sleep and so as not having to engage in any kind of conversation.

“Hello Paul” she said but there was no response.

“So we’re playing that game again are we? Very well if that’s what you want”

It had been a long tedious shift so she was in no mood to take any shit from him.

Over the months she had been visiting him, twice a week, sometimes three times, she had got quite good at reading him and she thought she was making progress but then he started with the silent treatment again. 

She pulled back the covers roughly to expose his mutilations and she noticed his body tense.

As usual he was only wearing a t-shirt and a pair of army green boxer shorts.

She opened her bag and took out a tube of bio oil and began to massage it into the skin on his stumps and thighs.

She continued to chat to him all the while she was massaging him even though she got no response.

When she had finished she recovered the remains of his legs and said

“Ok Paul I’m all done, I won’t be coming again I’ll get Eileen to take over”

At this point, Paul vocalized for the first time

“No don’t do that”

“Oh he speaks” Marina taunted “but I’m afraid it’s too late”

“No please” he begged

“You’ll like Eileen she doesn’t do small talk either” she said “so you’ll get on like a house on fire”

“But I want you” he insisted

“Why?” he said “When you lie there pretending to be asleep all the time I’m here”

“Because…”

“Because what?” she pressed him

“Because I’ll miss you if you stop coming” he replied

“Well if you keep your eyes shut you can pretend it’s me” Marina said

“I’ll know” he said

“How?” she scoffed “How exactly would you know?”

“Because of your footfalls on the stairs, the sound of your breathing, your perfume and your gentle touch” he said “that’s how I’d know”

“Well that’s an eye opener” she thought

 

They spent the half an hour after his disclosure that he would miss her if she stopped seeing him, chatting it through and she said she wouldn’t go through with her threat to hand his case on to Eileen on condition that he engaged with her and started to wear his prosthetic’s.

He promised her that he would, and she took him at his word. 

By rights she should have reported Paul’s declaration to Lorraine Weaving, the practice manager, and taken herself off his case, but she didn’t, and at first she wasn’t sure why, any emotional attachment with patients was strictly a no no.   

 

As she walked down the path towards the lane Marina thought that was a job well done and she was feeling very pleased with herself as she made her way to the car, because she felt she had made real progress and that mattered to her a lot, and more than any other patient for some reason.

 

When she reached the bottom the car Mrs Russell was just coming up the lane.

“Hello Mrs Russell” Marina said

“Are you off dear?” she asked “How’s the boy?”

“You know, I think we may have turned a corner” she replied

“Oh I do hope so dear” Mrs Russell said with a sigh

“He has promised to start wearing his legs” Marina said

“Really?” his mum said “That is progress”

“A bit of gentle nagging may be required” Marina said

“Oh I think I can manage that dear” she said 

 

Over the following weeks Paul was good to his word and he engage fully with her and he had been wearing his legs more and the evidence of that was clear to see on his stumps.

He had also started going to the Downshire Light Infantry barracks in Nettlefield once a week.

So he was making tremendous progress and she knew that she would have to discharge him very soon and she should have been happy about that.

 

Throughout its history the Finchbottom Vale was largely dependent on agriculture and so it remained into the 21st century but many and varied occupations and endeavour’s thrived alongside the traditional rural livelihood’s but whichever path Paul chose in the future it was going to be a difficult one, but one thing was for certain his military career was over.

 

Marina’s job was to manage Paul’s medication and massage what remained of his legs or more accurately his stumps, but when she visited him her biggest challenge was to cure his near terminal case of self-pity and low self-esteem.

 

One day her schedule was lighter than usual so she was expecting a prolonged visit with Paul, as she walked along the path to white Rose Cottage a couple were just leaving the house next door and as was her habit she smiled and said

“Good morning”

And genuinely expected the customary response of echoing the greeting but instead got something quite different.

“I’ll give you good morning you skinny slut” she bawled

“You keep your eyes off my husband”

Marina was not, despite her slender stature, averse to the idea or indeed the execution of launching the gobby bitch over the hedge into the lupines but instead chose something that would enrage her even more.

She did think to say that if she wanted her husband she’d have him but thought that might be too inflammatory.

So instead, as she stood on the doorstep waiting for Mrs. Russell to answer the door.

She gave the husband another smile, this was accompanied by a long appraising stare followed by a wink and the man’s wife launched into a tirade of abuse which was made worse by the fact Marina smiled at the woman as she was raging.

The poor husband had to physically restrain her and manhandle her towards their car.

The last thing she was expecting when she said good morning to them was to be verbally abused and warned to stay away from her husband by her patient’s gobby neighbour

In truth Marina hadn’t really looked at her husband and when she did look him over after the event she didn’t think he was anything special, besides her interests lay elsewhere.

Mrs Russell opened the door.

“Hello dear” she said

“I see you’ve met the new neighbours”

“Yes” Marina said still smiling “she’s a colourful character”

“Well her language certainly is” Mrs R said and then added “He’s nice though”

 

After having done the usual massage treatment in the lounge they sat on the patio and she said

“You’re doing really well so I’m going to have to cut you down to one visit a week, but you need to build up the muscle in your right hip and thigh, so in addition to your sessions in Nettlefield I want you to see the physio at the surgery once a week”

“I’d rather go fishing” he said which Marina thought was encouraging but not as important to his recovery.

“You won’t get your muscles stronger sitting on a river bank” she said

“Lake” he corrected her

“What?”

“I prefer lakes to rivers” he said

“Well Sgt pedantic my answer is still the same” Marina said, looked at her watch and drained her cup and was about to leave when she had a thought

“I will do a deal with you” she said “If you do, let’s say 4 physio sessions I’ll take you fishing”

“Deal” he said and held out his hand to shake, which she took and the pair only released each other’s hands when Mrs Russell emerged from the house to collect the cups.

 

When she left the Russell’s after about forty minutes she saw the angry neighbour’s husband walking back towards her.

Despite her smiley response to the initial assault Marina was actually quite hurt.

She’d never thought of herself as a slut, in fact she had only had three sexual partners and she had never even kissed another woman’s man.

She was a bit angrier now the insults had sunk in and she was up for a fight so she braced herself.

“I’m sorry about earlier” he said completely disarming her. “My wife is very jealous and it makes her a bit crazy”

“Where is she now?” she asked

“At work” he replied

“Come in for a coffee, by way of an apology”

Although she had plenty of time she politely declined his offer because she had something on her mind.

 

It was on the 1st of July and although her schedule was very heavy in the morning she would make sure she got her full allotted time with Sgt Russell, but it was with a little sadness that she approached the Russell’s Cottage for the final time.

There was no confrontation with the neighbor’s on that occasion as she walked along the path, though she did notice the curtain twitch, so Marina turned and smiled.

There was no repeat of the verbal abused by the neighbour’s wife who had previously, and completely unprovoked, called her vile names and warned her to keep away from her husband.

 

“Good morning” she said when Mrs. Russell answered the door

“Hello dear” she said “my word its busy this morning”

“Yes?” Marina said

“Oh yes dear” she confirmed “We have a real house full”

“Well it’s my last visit today” Freya said

“I know dear” Mrs R said “We’ll miss you”

When Marina went inside she found the patio was full of soldiers and she got a very rousing welcome.

 

That afternoon she was back in the surgery running the clinic and she was walking towards reception with practice manager Lorraine Weaving, who was completely bald. 

But as she approached the seating area she spotted her wounded soldier, obviously waiting for his 4th physio appointment.

“Come on Lorraine I’ll introduce you to my soldier”

“Oh ok” Lorraine retorted, who actually had no interest whatsoever in meeting her soldier.

“Hello serge” Marina said and then realised he was not alone

“Hi Marina, this if my CO” Paul said “Captain Loosemore”

“Pleased to meet you Captain” Marina said “This is my colleague Lorraine Weaving”

“Peter” he said and shook Lorraine’s hand

Lorraine liked him, his handshake was firm, his handsome face was warm and open and his voice was like honey on her ears.

“Peter” she said

“I’ll take you through Paul” Marina said and left the Captain and Lorraine in reception still shaking hands.

 

As she walked with him to the Physio room he said

“You know this is session number 4”

“I do”

“So you know what that means then” he added

“Yes, I have to take you fishing” Marina said

“So?”

“So it’s my day off on Friday” she replied so I’ll pick you up at nine”

“Great” he said and put his hand on the doorknob

“Oh what should I wear?” she asked as an afterthought

“It doesn’t matter you’ll look great whatever you wear” Paul replied “But no heels”

 

There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale by the 21st Century, one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was in Purplemere.

And it was Purplemere that they headed for, it wasn’t his favourite of the Mere’s but it was the most accessible to him until he got better on his legs.

But although it wasn’t his favourite lake he did have a favourite pitch at Purplemere.

 

It was a warm sunny July day by the mere so he set up the folding chairs on the little peninsula where they could fish beneath the shade of his favourite old oak tree.

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”

Marina 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 she said

“Look what I caught”

In response Paul dropped his rod and wrapped his arms around her and returned her kiss.