Here’s a more extended excerpt from my next Thomas Radwinter book – I’ve shared part of it previously but here is the whole episode. Our hero, Thomas is in hospital for some day surgery when the unexpected happens:
I was sure that the alarm which was trying its best to pierce my ears and into my brain, wasn’t merely signalling that some piece of medical equipment needed attention. It sounded more like a fire alarm, but no-one was rushing around shouting ‘Fire! Fire!’ or ‘Evacuate! Evacuate!’
I’d worked myself up into a bit of a tizz to be honest, even though the staff and nurses were friendly and pleasant, and this racket added to my tizziness. As suddenly as it had started, the noise stopped and now there seemed such an intense silence I wondered if I’d been temporarily deafened.
I was wearing one of those back to front hospital gowns, and paper slippers given to me by a kind nurse because I’d forgotten to put any in my bag. I was awaiting directions to the operating theatre, or wherever this ‘small procedure’ would take place. Yes, this was the day for the snip. I’d been directed to a distant department in a small wing at the back of the hospital. I’d had all my details checked, including the fact I hadn’t eaten since last night and boy was my tummy rumbling – maybe in fear … Fear? I wasn’t afraid, of course I wasn’t! I was having minor surgery on my private bits, ‘a quick and relatively painless surgical procedure’ one leaflet had said, ‘under local anaesthetic.’
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 behind me, 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 stared at me in astonishment showed he was thinking exactly the same, as we stood in our gaping gowns and paper slippers.
What a shock! 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…
My heart was racing and I felt – well, I don’t know what I felt. I guess it was as if I had met myself when I was younger, or met myself as I could’ve been. I felt almost dizzy with the weirdness of it all and then someone was calling my name – and no, I didn’t wake up and it was all a dream! A rather attractive nurse was speaking to me, asking if I was alright as I gathered my scattered senses and grasped the back of my gaping gown.
In case you haven’t come across my Radwinter books, you can find them on Amazon as e-books or paperbacks:
Here is a link to my most recent Radwinter book in which Thomas has the mirror incident he refers to:
Lois Elsden 