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Chapter Eleven
Doctors
Esmerelda wanted to believe that everything was going to be perfect now that they were away from their parents, but the girl was not stupid and knew that was not the reality. Ethel had anger problems and Sybil was terrified of her own shadow. The damage done to the girls was not something that would just go away, and Esmerelda knew she had to take action.
When the Great Wizard contacted them to check up on them Esmerelda asked him about the doctors appointment, he agreed to arrange one and Esmerelda gratefully thanked him, but she didn't tell him the other reason she wanted to take the girls to the doctors and she hoped he didn't find out.
The doctors was a ten minute walk away and the girls walked in the bitter cold for their appointment. Esmerelda was nervous to say the least, that the burns would be worse than she thought and that they wouldn't be able to do anything but she tried to hide her worry. If she was going to look after her sisters she had to get used to taking them to the doctors, it was going to be a place she visited more often than not with two youngsters, so she had to learn not to worry so much.
They walked up to the white building and through the door. The doctors was a welcoming place to try and soothe the worries of their patients. It had white painted walls and sofas either side as well as a bunch of magazines and kids toys for young young children. Esmie smiled at her sisters and walked to the desk.
"Hi there I have an appointment for my sisters" Esmerelda told the woman behind the desk. She looked at Esmerelda and nodded.
"What are their names please?" she asked her needing to look up their appointment details.
"Ethel and Sybil Hallow" Esmerelda told the woman. The woman typed it in on the computer and then looked at the eldest blonde with a smile.
"Please take a seat, you will be called soon" she told Esmerelda finding their appointments and booking them in.
"Thank you very much" Esmerelda told the woman gratefully and then led her sisters to sit down. There was only one other patient there, an elderly man who seemed to have a bad cough and had a walking stick by his side, Esmerelda smiled at him in a friendly way.
They sat and waited for a good ten minutes before a woman came out and called them. Esmerelda went in with them, because of the fact they were so young, and the three blondes took a seat, opposite a doctor who introduced herself as Doctor Gloria.
"Hello there, how may I help you today?" the doctor asked. Esmerelda had asked for a woman, thinking a male might still make the girls nervous. The Great Wizard had accepted that and booked this doctor especially.
"My sisters were attacked with the burning curse, they both have a lot of curse burns on their back and I was wondering if you could take a look at them, I tried to heal them as best as I could but I am not a professional" Esmerelda explained and the woman nodded sympathetically.
"Any pain?" Doctor Gloria asked trying to access the situation properly.
"Yes, they have very severe back pain at times" Esmerelda told her remembering times when they had both being in to much pain to even move properly and they had just tried to get comfortable but nothing had worked. They still bothered the girls a lot.
"Oh dear, let me take a look" the woman told them as Ethel and Sybil removed their tops so the doctor could take a look at the burns on their backs.
"Have you put anything on them?" the doctor asked as she inspected the burns.
"No I didn't want to make them worse, I used a simple healing spell to close them a little bit" Esmie explained, hoping she had done the right thing.
"Good, some things can irritate the burns more" the woman told the eldst as she inspected the burns for a bit longer before she told the girls they could get dressed now and sat them down.
"The burns are bad, I am not going to lie about it, curse burns are nasty things but there is a special cream I can give you to help soothe them for when they are particularity bad, another option is surgery" Doctor Gloria told Esmerelda frankly.
"Oh I didn't realise you could remove them with surgery" Esmerelda said, scared of the thought.
"Skin grafts can help, although it will not fully remove the burns, curse burns are set into the skin a lot deeper than regular burns, skin grafts can help the appearance of the burns but there will still be a lot of scarring" the woman explained to Esmerelda.
"Would it help them with the pain?" Esmerelda asked caring more about that then how they looked.
"I have not done many of the operations, but the answer from my experience is no, it helps with appearance but the pain factor doesn't really get better, all it really does is cover the burns" Doctor Gloria told Esmerelda.
Esmie looked at her sisters. She wasn't prepared to put them through surgery for something that would just make their back prettier, if the woman told her she could guarantee their pain would be gone she would in a heartbeat but she didn't think there was a point anywise. The girls were old enough to make their own decisions so she looked at them.
"Would you like to go through with this?" Esmerelda asked her sisters.
Ethel shook her head looking ill at the thought of back surgery and Sybil looked close to tears from fear.
"No I am scared" Sybil said and Esmie nodded, glad they had made that decision. She would have found it so hard to let them go through with it.
"I don't think we will go through with that right now" Esmerelda told the woman and she nodded, having expected that.
"That might be wise as it might not help anyway, you can change your mind at anytime" she told Esmerelda who smiled and nodded.
"Thank you, I would like to try the cream though if that's alright?" Esmerelda asked and the doctor smiled.
"Of course I will give you a prescription" she told Esmerelda who was grateful for that. Esmerelda saw her tying away on her keyboard as she looked at the computer with their information on it. Esmie was surprised witches had started using them gadgets but she supposed they were helpful to store information. As she typed Esmerelda kept talking, saying the other reason she had come here.
"My sisters have had a lot to deal with….they sometimes get upset or angry...I was wondering if there was any chance of them having counselling at all?" Esmerelda asked trying not to look at her sisters faces. She knew they were looking at her, hurt and angry, she had kept this from them.
"I just think they would benefit from it" Esmerelda went on, turning to her sisters and mouthing 'sorry' to them.
"There is a long waiting list for counselling, what kind of problems are you experiencing?" Doctor Gloria asked.
Esmerelda went to speak but Ethel interrupted her, talking louder and over her voice so Esmie couldn't speak.
"I get angry at times because I feel depressed" Ethel said with a sigh. Esmerelda was shocked but grateful Ethel was taking this well. She expected her to lash out and tell her to mind her own business.
"How about you Sybil?" Doctor Gloria asked her nicely
"I get anxious" Sybil replied looking at the floor.
The doctor looked at them and understood what Esmerelda meant. They could do with some sort of thearpy.
"Well as I said there is a long waiting list, but I think they will benefit from having some sort of counselling, I am going to refer you to a mental health clinic, nothing to worry about they will just access you to see if there is anything that can be done to help" the doctor told them. Esmerelda was happy someone was willing to take this seriously. Her sisters mental health was not a joke, and people always brushed it off.
"Thank you, thank you so much" the blonde said doing the classic witches greeting in thanks.
"No problem, do come back if there is any problems, here is your prescription" she told Esmerelda and the girl smiled and took the slip with the prescription on it before she left with the girls.
"I am sorry but I was worried" Esmerelda said as they left the room and she apologised for not telling them about what she told the doctor.
"It is okay, you are right" Sybil said and Esmie smiled
"We wouldn't of come anywise, if we knew you were going to say that" Ethel told her sister and Esmerelda nodded in agreement.
"I love you both, I just want you to be healthy, I know sometimes your mind upsets you so I just want to make sure you are okay" Esmerelda told them. Needing them to know it was purely out of love she did it and not because she found them to hard to deal with.
"We know Esmie, thank you" Ethel said, not really understanding herself why she was grateful.
"Yes thanks sis, we love you too" Sybil said smiling.
"I know, well let's get this cream to see if it helps and then we can go home and have lunch" Esmerelda told them as she put her arm around them lovingly.