(a candle) in at the deep end

by Liz

The TV at the end of the ward was silently playing to a distracted audience.

"Well of course, I shouldn't say but i can tell i can trust you...Mr Wainwright over there got a candle stuck up his bum after a rampant night with a younger man! Local primary school teacher and all! It all goes on I tell you!"

Nurse Hackett briskly tugged at the bandages, tucking the ends in so tightly they became a tourniquet to his nether regions. Oh, the humiliation of having this busybody absentmindedly exposing his scars to all and sundry as he lay helpless.

Matt stared at the TV. It was a re-run he knew so well. He had spent hours as a child sitting cross-legged and wide eyed in front of the family set dreaming of adventures of his own. It took seven long years of study but he had nearly made it, he would soon be just like his hero Captain Requin - explorer extraordinaire. This was the man who had unravelled the wonders on the deep blue oceans to a generation. Enchanting, enthralling and dashingly handsome, he was everything Matt wanted to be.

"Mind, you got yourself into some mischief eh?' Nurse Hackett continued, breaking Matts daydream.

"How on earth did this happen? Scorned lover get revenge?" She laughed with a complete lack of regard for her own insensitivity.

"The perils of being a deep sea diver actually.” Matt retorted with scorn "I was exploring new depths in the south pacific when I was savagely attacked.”

"Jees" Nurse Hackett uttered through a grimaced face as she began to imagine the aquatic beast that could do this sort of damage to a man. "You must be brave or mad! You wouldn't catch me doing that sort of thing.” The images she conjured up in her mind were going to fill in the gaps as she retold the story that evening to the girls at bingo. "What was it? I mean, it whipped 'em clean off! Nothing left of…...you know!"

Who the hell had given this woman a nursing degree? Bedside manners?

“Aren’t you meant to be a bit more tactful? Isn’t that part of the job?” Matt lashed out.

“Alright alright, I was just a bit curious is all. I mean it’s not every day you see someone with these injuries and such a cool story.”

Her attempts at flattery were pathetic and made Matt squirm even more. Since he was little, he had built himself up to anyone who would listen as the next Captain Requin. It’s who he was. How then could he live with himself knowing the truth? There was no aquatic monster or fierce battle, no extraordinary circumstances to add kudos to his dreams. Matt had slipped whilst getting out of his scented bubble bath and landed groin first on the electric heater that had been toasting his pyjamas ahead of an early night with the latest episode of Sex and the City and hot chocolate.

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