December 18, 2008 :: 7 days to go!

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Doctor Williams had been looking after the people of Nintendo City for more than 45 years. He was well over seventy now and could have retired, but he didn't want to and nobody else wanted to either. Nobody feared him. He was especially gentle with children and everyone adored him.

"Which ankle?" he asked.

"The left," Mario replied.

Doc Williams knelt on the floor and took a large pair of scissors from his bag. He cut the cloth of Mario's left trouserleg The foot seemed to be bent sideways and a huge swelling below the ankle bone.

"That's nasty, that one," Doc Williams said. "We'd better get you to hospital right away. May I use your phone?"

He called the hospital and asked for an ambulance. Then he spoke to someone else about taking X-rays, operations and other medical things Link didn't know about or particularly want to know about.

"How on earth did it happen, Mario?" Doc Williams asked. "Did you fall down the stairs or something?"

"I was mooching around Jarvis Woods..." Mario let his voice trail off.

"Ah," the doctor said. "I see. What's it like up there these days? Plenty of pheasants? It's a great game. I only wish I was a little bit younger. You didn't know I used to do a bit of poaching myself, did you, Link? Many's a night after evening surgery was over. Sometimes it was pheasants ad sometimes it was trout. Plety of big brown trout in the stream in those times."

"What method did you use for pheasants?" Mario questioned.

"Gin and raisins. Soak the raisins in gin for a week, and scatter them in the woods. It doesn't work, but it was enormous fun. I was hot stuff with trout though. Know how to catch one, without a rod?" Doc Williams laughed. "You tickle them. Trout like to lie close to the river bank. They like being tickled so much they sort of doze off, and you can just grab them. And by the way, Mario. What happened up in those woods? Step in a rabbit hole?"

"Slightly bigger hole than that."

Mario began to explain how he had fallen into the pit.

"Great heavens alive!" Doc Williams cried. "He can't do that! Old Jarvis can't go digging traps in his woods for humans! I've never heard such a disgusting monstrous thing in my life! It's diabolical! You know what this means? It means that decent folk like you and me can't even go out and have a little fun at night without risking a broken leg or arm. I never did like that Jarvis. I saw him do a filthy thing once."

"What?" Mario asked.

"He had an appointment with me at my surgery. He needed an injection of some sort. Just by chance I was looking out of the window when he drove up in that socking great car. I saw him get out and I also saw my old dog Bailey on the doorstep. Instead of stepping over old Bailey, he actually kicked him out the way with his riding boot! So I left him sitting in the waiting room while I found the oldest, bluntest needle I could find. I rubbed it with a nail-file to make it blunter still. I called him in and told him to lower his pants and bend over, and when I rammed that needle into his backside he screamed like a pig."

"Hooray."

"He's never been back since, for which I am truly thankful. Ah, here's the ambulance."

Two men in uniform got out of the ambulance and brought in a leg splint. A wooden plank was eased under Mario's leg and it was strapped firmly to it. The ambulance men brought in a stretcher, and Mario got on it himself.

"Will he be home today?" Link asked.

"I'll be back this evening," Mario said. "Link, you look after everyone. You'll probably just sleep most of the day anyway. Get Luigi to keep everyone sane, okay?"

The marvellous little doctor got into his car and drove away down the road in the same direction as the ambulance.