Chapter 6: See Chapter 1 disclaimer
Mark Mylow was a good driver, no doubt from his many years driving the police truck around Portwenn and its environs. Louisa sat between Mark and Martin. Martin had put a neck brace on Louisa to help her keep her head steady, whilst Mark had volunteered a folded towel to put behind her head to cushion the bruised spot from the pressure of the head rest. In this position, she was able to relax. The B3314 was marginally slick, but the A39 was just wet. Mark drove confidently but carefully.
"Louisa, how are you feeling?" Martin asked, with softness in his voice.
"Not that bad at this point. My stomach doesn't seem to be threatening to turn inside out anymore, and the darkness is good. I can close my eyes for oncoming headlamps. Still, I do have quite a headache." She paused. "You told the Ambulance Service I was confused. I don't feel confused."
"Good. Your current symptoms are consistent with mild concussion. You did ask twice in quick succession about the children, but you haven't seemed to have any confusion since."
"That's just a mother's concern, Martin. I don't suppose there is a chance that you might have been exaggerating things to get an ambulance quicker, huh?"
"No! Louisa, I don't exaggerate medical issues." he denied. Although, thinking about it…, perhaps? No. Even upon second thought, he distinctly remembered his concern when she asked a second time within a minute. Her question helped allay some of his concern, because it occurred to him belatedly that she was trying to wind him up a bit, showing humour that a seriously concussed person could not have marshalled.
Mark asked, "Louisa, do you need us to be silent or is it okay if we chat? It's just, it's been so long since I've seen you, and, well, I'm sure a lot has happened, and.."
"If I need it to be quiet, I'll let you know, how about that?" Louisa replied. "Just don't be surprised if I don't participate as much as I normally might."
Mark thought about this. If Louisa didn't chat much, that would mean this would be a conversation between him and the Doc. That always made for some awkwardness, even under the best of conditions, which these clearly were not. Still, Mark was not one to be discouraged.
"All right. You are doing child counseling now, yes? How is that going?"
"It's busy but rewarding, as you can imagine. I've cut back my hours some, with the arrival of Mary and the fact that Martin is the village GP again. How about you, Mark? Why don't you tell us about your news. I mean, we barely got to catch up when you were here about the tractor robbing syndicate." Louisa felt she could handle listening better than talking.
Mark cringed slightly, but Louisa didn't notice as she was somewhat compelled to face forward.
"A bit of a sore subject, that. Well, at least the policing part. But I can catch you up on my trip to Hawaii and Poland."
"Oh God," thought Martin, but Louisa made some encouraging sounds and Mark launched into his tale.
"So, of course, I was gutted with the situation with Julie, and I'm not going to talk about that. What's done is done. You have to move in, I mean on, right? But I'd bought the plane tickets to Hawaii and they were unrefundable, so I flew to Maui and checked into the K-something-or-other Falls. I was at least able to get a different room from the honeymoon suite, because, well, you know, heart shaped tub and all, and that suite is in high demand so the hotel was okay with that. They gave me a smaller room and comp'ed me all my food and beverages."
Martin had largely lost interest in this conversation, although he thought Mark's last comment explained the man's weight gain. He was watching the road, occasionally glancing at Louisa to ensure she was medically stable. Louisa gave an appropriate reply or two.
"Maui was nice. It was sunny and warm, which was good for the spirits, you know? But it was just swarming with couples and families with children, and so I found the whole thing more depressing than anything." Mark fell silent for a bit.
Louisa said, in a soft voice, "I understand. The things that might have been. And may very well still be, right?" It was clear to Mark that the Doc didn't discuss his patients' medical conditions, even with Louisa, which he found admirable. Confidentiality applied to police work and Mark believed he and the Doc were similar in their respect for professional integrity.
Mark replied, equally softly, "Sure, maybe, I suppose."
Martin had heard this exchange peripherally and felt a bit sad for Mark. He remembered giving Mark the unwelcome news that had so many ripple effects on the man's life. To rescue Mark, Martin actually chimed in. "Umm, did you engage in any manner of water sport whilst there?" Louisa figured Martin must have read that somewhere, because he surely had no interest in or knowledge of water sports.
Hearing Martin's voice broke Mark out of his dark mood, and he picked his tale back up. "I did try some boogie boarding whilst I was there, and a little snorkeling. The fish are brilliant, and the sea turtles! I met up with a man who rented out the snorkeling gear, and he was from Jastrzębia Góra in Poland. I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. He showed me some photos and it reminded me of Portwenn. So Chet, that's the man's name, he said he was thinking of going back for a visit and offered to let me stay with him at his uncle's house. And I thought, well, what do I really have to go back to, I mean, it's completely embarrassing that a policeman fell in love with a criminal, I mean how would anybody take me seriously? And so that's what I did."
"Bold move, that, Mark. Well done you!" Louisa tried to put some excitement into her voice, but Poland was a mystery to her and had never held any interest. Still, if it reminded Mark of Portwenn, maybe it was worth some attention.
Martin harrumphed. "Mark, you of all people should be careful of trusting complete strangers with large life changes."
Louisa couldn't turn her head to caution Martin, but she squeezed his leg in a way that she felt the meaning was clear. Unsurprisingly, Martin simply startled and missed the message. "Well, Louisa, there are so many unscrupulous people," Martin huffed.
"Uh, yeah, Doc, tell me about it," Mark moaned, but he didn't seem that put out by the Doc's insensitive comments.
Louisa tried to get things back on track. "So, Mark, what was this village like and how was it to stay with Chet's family?"
"Well, I hadn't given much thought to the language difference. It's not exactly a big place, so not many people spoke English, just enough to handle the summer tourist crowd. Chet's uncle Stash had been in the Navy though and had learned to speak English pretty well. Stash is a plumber and that's how I managed to learn. In exchange for letting me stay with him, I started being his helper. It ends up, not to sing my own praises, but I ended up being brillia.. well at least decent at it. I kept at it long enough to get my license. But then England was leaving the EU and I thought, well, I don't really want to live forever in Poland so I went back to Exeter. I wasn't ready to face Portwenn, so I applied back to the police force there, and worked my way up to sergeant."
Louisa said, "I remember that. I was so proud of you. You've always been a good policeman, so I can't say I was surprised that you got a promotion. Joe Penhale also bragged about how you sacrificed yourself to save someone from being run down."
"Yes, well, I always wanted to serve in some way. I tried to join the army but I didn't pass the physical. Policing was near enough, and it made me happy. I was crushed when they told me the cause of my failed military physical also made me fail the police physical requirements. Something about loose joints that could come out of their sockets easily. Never gave me a problem, but it seemed to give them the jitters. Once they saw that in my records whilst treating my injured arm, they didn't give me any choices. I didn't think they could force me out, but I guess I was wrong. At least they gave me a full pension even though I'm too young for that, plus a big bonus, or so they called it. "
Louisa asked Martin, "Had you heard that, Martin, that bad shoulders could keep a person from joining the police?"
"I've never done a police eligibility physical."
"Mark, is that something you would want Martin to look into?" Louisa asked. Martin cringed at the thought of having to research something so bespoke and likely complicated by bureaucracy.
Mark replied, as if it had been the doc that had offered, "No thanks, Doc, I'm okay with the plumber life. The village needs a plumber so it's just a different way to serve. And when I came to Portwenn on the tractor case, I realized how much I missed it. I couldn't be a sergeant and be the village constable. Plus I met Mike Pruddy, who had just gotten out of the Army, and he seemed like he could be a mate, so we started the business."
Louisa commented, "Well, that wasn't such a long story, Mark? You kept telling us it was a long story, whenever we asked about Poland."
"Ah, that wasn't the long story, Louisa. That's just how I became a plumber. Ah, it looks as if we're here. Time to get your head sorted." With that, Mark drove into the A and E area of Royal Cornwall Hospital.
As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Martin hopped out of the van and helped Louisa out. He removed the neck brace, as it was no longer necessary. She was ambulatory, so she walked into the entrance closely watched and assisted by Martin. In the meantime, Mark went to park the van.
They walked to the desk and Martin took charge. "I'm Doctor Martin Ellingham, GP of Portwenn. This is Louisa Ellingham, my patient and my wife. Approximately 75 minutes ago, she slipped on ice and fell onto the cobblestone road, hitting her head hard. I've assessed her to have a mild to moderate concussion but am recommending she have scans to ensure there is no internal bleeding of the brain."
The young man taking the report entered some information into the computer and then asked them to take a seat, as there were other more emergent cases to be seen first. Martin looked around and didn't see anyone who seemed more emergent than Louisa. Louisa could see him start to tense up, so she grabbed his hand and loudly whispered, "It's okay, Martin, let's just sit down. There aren't many people here so it can't take that long."
Martin started pointing at the different patients, "Drunk, high blood pressure, also drunk, needs maybe one suture."
Louisa hissed, "Martin, stop. You're making me upset and that makes my head hurt more. Please."
"Yes," Martin said, frustrated, but also cognizant that a spike in BP could cause a headache to become worse. They took a seat and waited to be seen. Mark came in after parking and offered to get them food or drink from the café. Louisa asked for a tea, which Martin insisted be decaffeinated. He asked for water. Mark left briefly and returned with those beverages, plus a coffee for himself. It wasn't long after that a technician came out with a wheelchair and said, "Ellingham? Louisa Ellingham?" Martin helped Louisa up, then helped her sit down in the wheelchair. "I'm going to take her for a CT scan and.."
Martin interrupted. "I'm her GP and I'm coming with you."
"It says here you're her husband."
"Yes. I'm both."
"Well, all right. You can't be in the room when I'm doing the CT scan but I'll tell Dr. Olafsky you're here. He's the neurologist on duty tonight and will be interpreting the result."
"Yes, good." With some trepidation, Martin let Louisa be wheeled out of his sight and returned to where Mark was sitting. It took about 30 minutes, at which point the technician returned with Louisa trailed by a man in a white coat who Martin assumed was this Dr. Orumsky.
"Dr. Ellingham?" Dr. Olafsky asked.
"Yes. Dr. Orumsky?" Martin inquired.
"Olafsky."
"Mm."
Dr. Olafsky spoke to both Martin and Louisa, explaining that there was no structural damage or bleeding, and that Louisa indeed did show the neurological symptoms of a mild concussion, confirming Martin's diagnosis. He felt she could be released immediately into what was clearly competent care.
"That's good news, isn't it Martin. I do want to get home to James and Mary. I'm sure Al and Morwenna and Mark all have things to do. It has been a long day, a long couple of days really."
"Yes."
After about 15 minutes of discharge procedure, during which Mark retrieved the van, Louisa was wheeled out to the door and Martin helped her into the van for the ride home. A few minutes into the ride, Mark asked what should have been a rather innocuous question.
"So, what have you folks planned for the rest of the week?"
Martin thought a minute but could think of nothing other than the usual household and parental things. "Mum. Oh my God, we have to bury my mother."