Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the prompts are supplied by Elephant's Child and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are:

1. mild
2. uncertainty
3. haircut
4. consultation
5. mystery
6. movie

and/or:

1. joy
2. surface
3. agreement
4. freckle
5. fixture
6. solo

Here is my story:


“Dear me Jessie, is that Kathleen O’Connell in my waiting room again? She has become quite a fixture hasn’t she. She’s had a consultation almost every week, she shows a lot of uncertainty, I’m guessing she has no family or friends that she trusts enough to help out.  Or maybe she is just one of those people who insist on seeing a doctor for every little thing. First babies can be a big worry for some. Send her in and we’ll see what’s wrong this time.” 


Jessie called to Kathleen O’Connell, “you can go through now.” “Thank you so much Jessie. Doctor Spiers, nice to see you again.” “What’s the trouble this time Kathy?” “Jason has a running nose, I’m sure he’s caught something dreadful from that Day Care place and he was only there for a few hours, please look at him. He needs to be well, I was planning to have his haircut on Friday, his very first haircut and he has a mystery mark on his hand, right here, this thing that looks like a freckle.”


Doctor Spiers took Jason and sat him on his knee. “Hey there you, how’s my little buddy today?” The joy on the baby’s face was lovely to see. So many babies cried when seeing a doctor. Alan Spiers wished he could bottle whatever Jason had and dose several other babies with it. He took a tissue and wiped Jason’s nose while observing the clearness of his eyes and feeling his forehead for fever. There was none. “Kath, I think he’s just got a mild sniffle, if he gets hot and cranky, bring him back, but this is most likely nothing at all.” He held Jason carefully as the baby wriggled to get his feet on the floor. “What’s this now? Are you ready to go solo already?” Alan let go of Jason once he was steady and they both watched in case Jason was about to take his first steps. 


Instead Jason plopped down on his bum and clapped his hands. “What about that freckle thing Doctor?” asked Kathleen. “It’s gone,” said Alan. “I wiped it off right before I wiped his little nose. It looks like it might have been chocolate. Just a surface speck, nothing embedded or growing in his skin, nothing at all to worry about. “Oh,” said Kathleen. “I must have dropped a crumb of icing from the chocolate doughnut I had. I should remember now and try to wash off anything before I come running in here again, but I’m so worried about things like melanoma from the sun. This is Australia you know.”


“Yes it is, but melanoma in a baby just a year old is rare and I know how careful you are with his sun exposure.” Kathleen gave a half smile. “It’s the one thing my neighbor and I are in agreement about. Everything else I do, she criticizes. She thinks I should let loose the apron strings a little. Leave him with me while you go out and see a movie or something, she says, but I just don’t know. Her house seems to have far too many children and two dogs besides. How will she manage to care for Jason with all those others around?”


“Sara Patterson does have a lot of children,” said Alan Spiers, “but they are all well, all healthy and cared for. I’d say Sara is very experienced in managing a houseful. Maybe you think a movie is too long for you to leave Jason, but he survived a couple of hours at the Day Care, remember?” “You’re right,” said Kathleen. “Maybe I’ll go and have afternoon tea with Sara like she has asked, and see how Jason manages being around all of her children and the dogs. I could watch to be sure he is okay before I start going out without him.”