Chapter 30 In the name of Art
Accompanied by the usual chaos and cacophony of people dismissed from a seminar, class or other gathering, the attendants of the seminar left the meeting room for the last time. Only the small group on the podium and their invitees remained behind.
Mateo stood up from his chair and went to see Martin.
'Caramba Martin, you were very courageous over there', he said while shaking Martin's hand. Then addressing to the presenter he asked
'Isn't it possible to set up something we are all comfortable with and that can help us all at the same time?'
Markos did an oar in by saying 'Yes, that would be a good idea!'.
Martin and Martinus frowned, they were a bit sceptical about the idea. Doing honour to his Dutch descent, Martinus approached the subject pragmatically, by saying
'Let's first collect each other's coordinates, name, address, email and then leave it to Mr…. What's your name? .. to organize it.
The presenter reminded them of his name. 'Matthijs Krijgersveld, I know, it's terrible for foreigners to pronounce'.
'It starts with an M though, so you're accepted to the group. We might help you to get rid of your phagophobia, Martin Helling joked.
Martine went to see all of the doctors individually to collect the information they needed and sat together with Peter to formalize the information in a small spreadsheet. Within fifteen minutes, all members of the small group were provided with the contact addresses of the others.
None of them wished to mingle with the other doctors, but they all agreed on having a last dinner together that evening. Lisa suggested to go to a typical Dutch restaurant called Haesje Claes, located in the centre of the city and situated in a very old Dutch building. As soon as everybody agreed with the suggestion, Lisa went to make the reservation, which wasn't an easy job on such short notice. She managed to get a table at the far end of the restaurant where they could be a bit more private.
'Hmm…, I want to do something else first', Martin announced. 'Martinus, can you accompany to the hospital where they took Yeroon too? I want to check on the patient. He should be out of the theatre by now'.
Martinus wasn't too eager and reluctantly asked Matthijs about the name of the hospital.
'Uhm.. the best one, so your old hospital Martinus.. ', Matthijs answered.
'Oh no..', Martinus moaned, but then pulled himself together and guided Martin to the garage to fetch his car.
'Lisa, I guess you don't mind?', he inquired, but he knew it was just a formality, since his beautiful wife was obviously much enjoying the company of her new friend Louisa.
'Guess they will make a lot of plans together', he said to Martin when starting the car.
'Mmm, yes, probably'.
They continued their walk to the elevator and suddenly heard steps behind them.
'Martin, Martinus, can I have a word?'
Matthijs had followed them with one of the hostesses in his wake.
Both men turned on their heels and stood still, waiting for the two persons to arrive.
'Gentlemen, Matthijs said, we, that is the event organization and I feel guilty of what happened this afternoon. So we decided to give you some compensation for it'.
Surprised, Martin and Martinus looked at each other but remained silent, awaiting what was to come next.
The hostess completed the words of Matthijs, and said
'Of course we will pay for the damage done to your clothes and shoes. I already contacted your respective tailors for that. New suits and shoes for both of you have been ordered. They appeared to know exactly what to do. In addition to that, we judge that we owe you a lot. You saved the seminar and we can't thank you enough for that. So..'
Matthijs took over again
'We will reimburse you the complete subscription cost of the seminar, including all of your hotel costs, Martin. You really saved me you know. My seminar, my reputation, my future probably.'
'The event organisation can be held responsible for the bad preparation of the practical test, not you!', Martin replied with a scowl.
'Please Martin, it was my responsibility to check on it before, which I failed to do… I feel responsible myself too'.
'Don't let it ruin your career, mate', Martinus added.
Martin agreed with the proposition, but not after stipulating
'OK, if you insist… I'll give you a special bank account on which you can put the money. It will be added to the special fund I raised to help young potentials that can't afford to pay an expensive study or otherwise need financial help to succeed in their dreams. You, nor the beneficiary will ever know who's the person behind this fund. This means no publicity on this whatsoever! Is that understood?'
With a tiny voice, the hostess said
'Dr. Ellingham, you do understand that with today's social media, it is very hard to prevent pictures of today's event showing up on internet, don't you?
'Hmm, let's hope that the doctors present at the seminar remember enough from the Hippocrates oath the swore then… More in particularly the part on patient's confidentiality… Come on Martinus, we need to go now', Martin added and he paced towards the door leading to the garage.
The two men drove silently through the busy streets of Amsterdam. After a while, Martinus asked
'Not that it's any of my business, but are you going back to the UK immediately?'
'No, no, we have still about ten days of holidays ahead of us. We will see Morwenna off to the airport tomorrow night. The next day, I'll take Louisa to some of the museums and we'll do some sightseeing here in Amsterdam. After that we will go to the North of the country, via Enkhuizen and maybe Zaanstad and using the Afsluitdijk to go from Noord-Holland to Friesland. We did already go to Neeltje Jans and Louisa was so impressed by the way you Dutch take care of water management here. So I think she must see the Afsluitdijk too, don't you think?'
'Yes' absolutely. Not going to Volendam then?'
'No, I prefer Enkhuizen. Volendam is too much a tourist trap for me'.
'You're right I suppose. Although I haven't been there for ages. It's not something you do much in your own country.. make touristic trips. Maybe we should do it more often. Do you have some spare days to come and visit our region? The fruit trees are about to flourish. If the nice weather stays on, they will just be at their best at the second week of your stay. Lisa and I would be very glad to have you over in our village Wourkem. I would be able to give you your suit back too, but that's not the main reason of course. I really would appreciate it to see you and Louisa soon again. Maybe we could alse have a look at some of the more complex medical cases we come across in a small village.'
'Thank you, I would be glad to see your home base. It wouldn't surprise me if our wives already worked that idea out at this very moment. They seem to go pretty well along.'
'That's settled then', Martinus concluded.
They arrived at the hospital and Martinus didn't bother to find a place for visitors. He parked the car in the parking lot of one of the staff members.
'Same bad habit as I have!', Martin even chuckled shortly at the memory of the receptionist in Truro asking him "Is it me or don't you understand plain English". He shared the moment with his new friend.
'The poor woman remained flabbergasted when I answered "It is you!", I scared the hell out of her probably'.
Martinus was immediately recognized by the elderly receptionist at the hospital lobby. At a very unpleasant, sarcastic tone, she said
'Dokter Tinus! Wat brengt u hier? Komt u hier de boel weer opjutten en iedereen schrik aanjagen? En moeten de zusters binnenkort weer natte lapjes op uw voorhoofdleggen als u onderuit gegaan bent na een bloedprikje?'*)
Martin looked puzzled, since he didn't understand a word. Noticing that Martinus wasn't too eager to explain the wordings, he understood that his friend was being bullied by this woman or at least reminded of his weakness. He stood up for his friend and after having checked her name on the nameplate in front of her he said,
'Listen Mrs Jansen, we don't have enough time to waste our precious moments here, in front of you!…. Just do you job and tell us where we can find Yeroon what's his name who has been brought in, to have an operation on an arterial bleeding!'
'Bakker, his name is Bakker', Martinus added.
The receptionist put some oil on Martin's already flashing fire of frustration by saying
'Sorry gentlemen, visiting time is over!'
Saying that, she already started to hand the car keys back to Martinus.
'You ignorant stupid little twit, GIVE US THOSE DIRECTIONS NOW! Martin shouted.
'Two of a kind..', the receptionist mumbled, but finally conceded in giving them the information they needed.
The two men stormed off, not wishing to loose anymore of their time. Much to their relief, they didn't come across other former colleagues of Martinus and the latter calmed down. They entered the room where the boy was recovering from his operation, still in a post procedural slumber.
Both doctors grabbed for the patient's chart at the same time, Martin being just a second quicker than Martinus. When he discovered that most of the notes were in Dutch, he handed it over to Martinus.
'He is doing fine'.
Martinus tried to whisper very softly, but Jeroen appeared to be wakening up anyway.
'Who are you? What are you doing here?', the boy said in Dutch.
'Martinus explained that Martin has saved his life. Jeroen then reached out to shake Martin's hand.
'Thank you so much, Dr. Ellingham. I made a fool of myself again…'
'Nonsense, it's not your fault. And by the way, Dr. Elzenbosch here helped me a lot'.
'U ook bedankt, dokter', Jeroen said to Martinus.
'Sorry you missed the rest of the afternoon, Yeroon. Are you suffering from haemophobia since a long time?' Martin asked.
The boy shrugged and remained silent.
'You can tell us, you know. We are both suffering from the same phobia as well' Martinus added.
'Yes, in fact there appeared to be six brilliant doctors at the conference that suffer from it too.'
'The whole table of M's?', Jeroen asked as soon as Martinus had explained who were the doctors concerned.
'Yes, indeed, except for the young ones, Peter and Martine'.
'I bet I ruined the afternoon for all of you. Obviously, I won't get the fee they promised me for doing this'.
'We will see to that personally, don't worry about that. Besides, the afternoon wasn't ruined, the haemophobic doctors stood in for you. Quite an exciting afternoon actually', Martinus told him.
Martin enquired : 'Were you saving money for some special occasion?'
'No.. uhm.. yes… I am an artist and they usually don't have much to spend … during their lives that is.'
'Hmm don't you get any support form you family? Like most of the students ?'
'Just the minimum… My father doesn't like what I am doing. He is a surgical dentist, well known all over the country and respected everywhere. He can't stand it that I don't want to follow his career path. My mother is a phlebotomist. She doesn't understand at all why people get sick of blood.. And she benefits well of my father's wealth as well I guess. Always wears Prada..'
'Where are they anyway?', Martinus asked. Jeroen shrugged again
'No time, I guess… Suppose they are annoyed with me, because I got myself in trouble again. I got a text message though..'
'But they will come and get you when you are released?'
'Not likely, this is what they wrote', Jeroen said handing his smartphone to Martinus. Martinus read out loud
'We zien de ziekenhuisfactuur wel komen. Verder zoek je het zelf maar uit. Je moeder en ik zijn op vakantie in de Algarve, onze handicap aan het bij sleutelen' **)
He explained the essential part of the text to Martin
'They will take care of the hospital bill but apart from that he has to sort it out himself. The parents prefer to stay in Portugal and play golf. The handicap is more important than their son's welfare'.
'Miserable bugger' Martin mumbled between his teeth.
Martinus, let's go and see his doctor. I want to have a word with him. The two men said goodbye to Jeroen and went to look for the doctor, who appeared to be a young, but very professional surgeon.
'Thank you gentlemen, for saving this lad's life. You did a nice job. The boy is recovering nicely, can go home tomorrow or the day after. He lost quite some blood, so we'll have to get some colour on his cheeks first.'
'That's what we wanted to speak you about. Can you keep him a day extra? His parents are on holidays and their son's health doesn't seem to bother them much. Doesn't seem wise to let the boy go back to his dirty, probably cold and old student's room. And don't hesitate to make these awful parents pay for it!'
'We owe you that, dr. Ellingham, consider it done'.
'And after that, buy him a ticket to Wourkem', Martinus added, giving the man a fifty euro bill.
'I'll arrange for him to stay some days in a healthy environment, at the farm of my Aunt Martha.'
Martin was very pleased with this solution. He shook his new friend's hand vigorously to underline his appreciation. After that, they went back to Jeroen, to keep him company for a little while and then bade him goodbye.
The two men immediately went to Haesje Claesje. Matthijs Krijgersveld had taken five of the M's and Peter Cronk in his big Peugeot 5008 seven seater and Louisa had organized Edwin de Vries to take her, Lisa, Morwenna and James Henry to the restaurant. When the two men arrived, a loud applause was to be heard.
They all enjoyed a very pleasant evening. Matthijs, Martine, Martinus and Lisa made all the people from abroad taste the most typical Dutch things, from garnalen kroketten (shrimp croquettes), erwtensoep met rookworst (pea soup with smoked sausage) as starters, to calf's liver with onions, bacon and apple or a famous "stamppot", a traditional dish of mashed potato with a vegetable and either a Dutch meatball or a sausage as main course. For dessert, there were a lot of typical Dutch choices too. Apple pie with cinnamon sauce, Grandma's semolina pudding with red berry sauce and of course a selection of Dutch cheeses.
'Bon dieu, I hope you don't eat this stuff every day!, Martin Lefoll exclaimed. 'I prefer the French "haute cuisine"!
'Of course not', Martinus said, 'I hardly ever eat things like this, too much calories, too much fat. But you can't visit a country without having tasted some of the local food, can you?'
They all agreed on that and after a very animated evening, where the doctors evaluated the events of the days and the luck they had had to be all seated at the same table on the first day.
Matthijs, relieved that Martin and Martinus had accepted the indemnisation, was recovered from his mishap in the meantime. He joked
'Yes, the table of M's caused us a headache every day, but we wouldn't have wanted to miss your presence and participation during this three days event. I wish to drink to that, CHEERS to you all!'.
At the table in the back of restaurant Haesje Claes, twelve glasses of water and a toddler's tumbling cup were lifted. In unison they said
'Cheers to all the M's!'
Enjoy the new chapter. I kept you waiting again, sorry for that. I hope it was worth waiting for.
It is very hard to make a one to one translation, but I hope this will give you an idea:
*) Dokter Tinus! What brings you here? Are you here to put pressure on us again and to terrify us all? And most certainly, the nurses will need to dab your moist forehead with a wash cloth when you pass out after a little jab?
*) We'll see the hospital bill coming. Apart from that sort it out yourself. Your mother and I are on holidays in the Algarve, working at our golf handicap.