A quick and relatively painless surgical procedure

I guess we all have had experiences which have been momentarily bizarre or alarming or both, which afterwards, becomes one of those funny stories to amuse people. My character Thomas Radwinter has more than his fair share of these – here is an extract from his latest adventure (which I’m trying my hardest to bring into the world) Thomas has gone to hospital for what is described as a minor surgical procedure. After a while of waiting, all prepped for his surgery, he begins to wonder where everyone is:

The silence was profound, where was everyone? With one hand behind me, clasping the gaping gown, I opened the door and peeped out into the corridor. Absolutely no-one about – so had the place been evacuated? Had they forgotten about me, an in-patient for minor surgery, a quick and relatively painless surgical procedure? Should I get dressed and go and look?
I dithered and then, grasping the gown firmly, went into the corridor and knocked on the next door, no reply. I peeped in, a typical consulting room, examination couch, desk, chair, computer. I walked to the end of the corridor, and honestly, I began to wonder if a catastrophe had happened and wiped all humans from the face of the earth – well, I didn’t really, but I did think I’d message Kylie and check all was well in the world.
I rounded the corner and came to a pair of swing doors. I pushed one open and had the shock of my life to find there was another pair of doors directly opposite, and through it came a bloke in a hospital gown who –
No wait, this had happened before, last year when I was staying in the posh house, I’d gone through a door and thought some big beefy threatening guy had stepped through another door opposite, only for me to realise it was a mirror, and somehow I was the big beefy guy and I hadn’t recognised myself.
This memory flashed through my mind in an instant as I realised what an idiot I was except… wait, what… why was my hair in such a terrible state, and my beard – wait – I’d had my beard shaved off by a Turkish barber called Deniz –
I gaped at the man opposite, even as he gaped at me. He was wearing an identical gown but he looked how I used to look when my hair was longer and I had a beard. He looked how I used to look when I got up in the morning. He was fatter than me by quite a margin and yet – and yet he could have been me. The way he gawped at me showed he was thinking exactly the same, as we stood in our gaping gowns and paper slippers.
What a shock! He was staring at me in  astonishment and then suddenly, he turned, flung open the doors and dashed off, leaving me with a fleeting image of a fat redhead with a flapping gown and a naked bum…

This is an excerpt from Radwinter VIII, which at present is titled ‘Spindrift’. If you haven’t yet read Thomas’s adventures,  then you will find him, through me, on Amazon. Here is the link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0753CSP7K?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi