****There was a time when i had read and reread the Sherlock Holmes collection so many times that i could recite my favourites from memory. This parody is a tribute. You won't get many references unless you are as mad as a fan as i was, but they are not designed to get in the way. Do give Conan Doyle collection a read, they will be memorable all your life****
People believe that Sherlock Holmes was defeated only four times in his career: once by a woman and thrice by daredevil men. In fact, he was defeated five times, twice by the same woman: Irene Adler. This second encounter is unknown to the general public, because I choose not to make it public. For the account would be considered vulgar in a Victorian society, and even in America, where people are great less hypocritical, it would be considered a great shame.
To Holmes, she is always THE woman.
On a cold winter evening, I stepped into Holmes' rooms at 122B, Baker Street. As usual, I had no patients that day and had had a fight with my wife. It was a terrible day for me and I decided to visit Holmes in hope of some intellectual company. Not that i had any intellect. I had been his sidekick for nearly 15 years and he had never ceased to amaze me throughout that time with his parlour tricks.
I opened the door and entered the room. My eyes met with the first shock: the room was devoid of tobacco smoke and was neatly arranged.
I saw him curled up on the sofa. He opened his eyes, took one look at me and uttered the second shock.
"You had no patients today and your wife declined to make love to you."
No one was more aware of Holmes' supreme observation powers than I was, and even then, it was too much for me. He was dead-on. The no-patients part was ab easy guess, but thr part about not-shtupping my wife..
"How on earth-", I managed to stammer.
"I've studied your body language over the years. I've observed that your shoulder slump lags a bit to the left on the days you have no patients. And the spot of wetness at the crotch of your trousers could only be pre cum." he droned in a bored voice.
"It could be sweat. It could be the mark of ejaculation after sex," I countered weakly, hazarding my honour as a gentleman. The rebuff was robust and elegant and scholarly.
"Haven't you perused Haddock's 'The Sexual life of the British Male'? You're a model Englishman. According to Haddock, a self-respecting Englishman always strips fully before intercourse. Besides, even the dirtiest American wouldn't walk around with such an ostentatious mark on his trousers. The fact that you hadn't noticed it suggests you were angry. And I notice that even your armpits aren't soaked. Oh, and did you wait for you wife without your underwear on? I happen to think that in your anger, you pulled on your trousers without the briefs, noticed the mistake and corrected it. Bu not before it left its mark. Am I right?" Holmes drawled.
I went red, for it was exactly how it happened. With any other man, I would have lost my temper pulled my army revolver, which i always kept in my pocket to compensate for my lack of intellect, and if my wife is to be believed, lack of manhood too. But never with Holmes. I was too much in awe of his intellect. And to a dumb bubbler like me, who could be greater than a great intellectual?
Since I'm revealing Holmes' most well kept secret, I'd better throw in some truths about myself, too.
Yes, I am dumb. I had scraped through the Medical school by the thinnest of margins. The story of passing the Anatomy finals is an unpleasant adventure. On the day before the exam, I couldn't get a word of anatomy into my head. Don't ask me why. It certainly wasn't due to exam panic. After hours of effort, I gave up and thought up a desperate plan.
I went to Mortimer Street, hired a streetwalker and asked her to exhibit her private parts so I could study it. She called me a pervert and demanded 10 pounds. I never had had more than five pounds on me in my entire life. I now had only three pounds and I'd need a pound for myself. I complained that intercourse cost 8 pounds less. She retorted that it at least gave her some pleasure. I knew that nobody I knew would have so much money at the end of the month. But I also knew that the whore was the last chance of passing my exams. I had to earn the money.
I borrowed the whore's costume, disguised myself, and stepped out into the cold. I squatted on the pavement and awaited my first customer. A burly factory worker approached me. Before he could pull me up and discover my sex, I quickly pulled him close and gave him what Americans call a 'blowjob'. It was not yet fashionable in England, and therefore a novelty. After 2 minutes, it was over. The less said about the experience, the better. He grinned at me and flung down a couple of pounds. I blew six more men, each meaner than the last and managed to make it to ten pounds. I hurried up to the whore with a salty taste lingering in my mouth.
I handed her the money and straddled her legs. I spent the next hour examining at the organ covered by the pubic hairs. The whore kept bitching, but I ignored her. To her credit, she was well endowed in that area. The parts were sharply defined and had been probably developed through some sort of exercise. (The author believes that the lady was the first recorded human to practise what is now called as Kegel's exercises). I made an awkward sketch of it. My organ was raging, but the whore, divining my intentions, quickly demanded another 5 pounds. After calculating the number of blowjobs required, I equally quickly decided against it and rushed to my room.
Next day, I sat in the exam hall with a thumping heart. I wrote some silly rubbish that would have made a village idiot look like Hippocrates and then took a deep breath. I was about to attempt something that would help me pass or get me banned from academics for life.
Yes, I now know the idea makes me look like a dork. But I had a kernel of low cunning in my nearly vacant cerebrum. I knew the action had shock value. So, for the rest of the time, I drew detailed diagrams and wrote lengthy descriptions. Then I left the hall.
Believe me, it worked. The examiner was a venerable old man called Pickett. They announced the results and Anatomy was the only subject in which I had respectable grades. I also heard that Pickett's wife had applied for divorce and that the old man was excluded from the high society because he kept staring at the ladies' midsection. Well, for one to rise, another must fall. The world is unfair. The last I heard of him, he was in an asylum.
I would never have made a penny as a GP if I had not served in the army. With some standard medals, I could embellish my certificates a little and set up a practice. I knew I was a quack, but I worked to the limits of my abilities. I was also helped by the fact that most English people are hypochondriacs. I limited myself to prescribing medicines for headaches and colds and referred the more serious cases to my colleagues.
Thus I was living, when I met Sherlock Holmes. I think it was before "The Sign of the Four." I stuck up a reluctant comradeship, but he was never too close, because he was miles ahead of me, intellectually. And, I never was smart enough to attract women and I would have probably died a virgin had Holmes not helped me.
You know I found my wife during "The Sign of the Four." I had written that won my wife through my gallantry. What I had not written is that I had begged Holmes to help me corner the innocent looking lass. Holmes refused coldly. After I grovelled and said how a few more days of celibacy would turn me insane, he reluctantly acquiesced. Who else would take on the dreary job of writing down his "adventures"?
His cold brain worked out the details and in the following days, he carefully set me up. Where my intellect didn't help me, my primal instinct did. I grabbed the chances; even a newborn baby cold have grabbed those opportunities for Holmes' skilful puppeteering had ensured that all I had to do was reach out my hand or foot or nod at the right time. Once, he even tripped me so that I could fall in the way of a bullet. That was dangerous, but it got me my girl. In a week, I was free of my celibacy. Holmes became my dearest friend. He responded with amused condescension, like a master's affection for a puppy. He needed some human company and I provided it. His attitude, as I have described in the published accounts, are fiction in non-fiction. He did care a little about me, however, as you'd have read in the "Case of Three Garridebs."
Enough digression. Let me return to the story.
Once I had recovered from my shock, the thought struck me. Holmes usually abhorred talks of such nature. Why today? And why was the room so clean? I caught a whiff of perfume and was even more surprised.
Holmes read my mind, which wasn't difficult because my face was scrunched up as if I had a rash in my crotch. "We have a visitor, Doctor," he said pointing to a letter on the table.
It was written by a beautiful, feminine hand. It indicated a sharp, decisive and acute personality. The letter read:
Dear Holmes,
You must remember me from that memorable case of "The Scandal in Bohemia." And whatever little harm you did to my house on that day was forgiven, for you were merely an agent. I am in England, and I would like to meet you and toast our rivalry. I'd like to see you at you rooms on Tuesday.
Yours,
Irene Adler.
I received my third shock as soon as I had seen the name. Holmes had a smile of satisfaction on his face. "Stop looking like a frog, Watson," he chided, "That bit about intelligence and rivalry is bollocks."
"What is the reason then?" I asked, puzzled.