For those of you who have not read 'Playing Dirty' a bit of a precis for you. Richard's wife, Zoe, tells him she is spending the weekend with her new boyfriend. Richard offers to fight for her. He does and wins, but still throws her out. Divorce is the only way forward for Richard.
This is the following Monday at work.
The UK, like many nations, has a strong Naval tradition and many sayings have transferred into normal everyday speech. I have taken that a small step further for this story. Many of the similes' I use in this story are naval from the days of Lord Nelson. For those not familiar with some of the rarer naval terms I have added notes at the end.
Sorry, longer than I like, I got carried away with these two, I like them.
All of a sudden, the company nurse, Miss Braithwaite, came marching across the hangar, I was chatting to the lads about our current task. She was retired from the NHS. She had been a nurse in the Royal Navy before that, probably where she got her attitude from. She did this job to keep busy. She was not one to cross. "Show me your hand Richard."
I gingerly held it out. She took it and was surprisingly gentle with it until she found the right spot. I screamed.
"Did you drive in with this?"
How else was I going to get to work? I thought, I did not say anything, just nodded. Anyway, I was on key duties, and it was my job this week to unlock the hangar.
"Foolish boy. You have broken a bone, off to A&E with you. You cannot drive with that. I will arrange for one of the security chaps to take you." And with that she was off like a Ship of the Line under full sail with the following wind. I thought it strange she never asked me how I did it, never mind.
"Well, that's you told, mate." Said one of the lads, they were all grinning at me. Most of them at some time or another had been on the receiving end of her wrath for doing something stupid. We finished our talk and I headed back to my desk to find one of the security guys waiting for me.
We chatted on the way to the hospital. He did ask how I did it. I fudged around the answer. Just said I caught it wrong hitting something.
If you have to go to A&E, Monday morning is one of the better times to do it. The Security chappie wandered off to get some coffee, whilst he was gone I thought back. How did Nurse Braithwaite know that I had hurt my hand?
The blokes in the office had mentioned it, but that was all, they would never have told Nurse Braithwaite, they tried to avoid her if at all possible. It must have been Klara. How much had she told her? I will have to have a word with her when I get back to work.
I had told Klara all about my weekend this morning. Probably not the best thing. I got to work early as I had to unlock, also I wanted to get ahead of the game as I would be needing time off later to sort the divorce. Klara was the hangar cleaner; she started really early and was waiting for me to unlock when I got there. She could get the offices done before the office staff got in.
She was about my age, probably a bit younger, she had a very pretty face, and I had heard the lads say they wondered what her body looked like under that cleaning smock she wore. She looked as if she made an effort she would be quite good looking. I must admit she looked pretty even with the red hair pulled back into a long functional ponytail. It looked like it would be a lot if she let it out. She was in the kitchen when I went for my first cup of tea. We had chatted in the past, you know passing the time of day, the weather, holidays, that sort of thing.
She was a nice lady and seemed a bit sad most of the time. When she smiled her face lit up. But that was such a rare occasion.
Klara went to pass me the milk. "What happened to your hand? That looks painful."
It was painful, it was swollen and had turned blue. I had taken a couple of painkillers at home that took the edge off the pain in my hand. But not my heart.
I don't know why, but it all came blurting out. The only person I had only spoken to since the incident was a few words to Zoe's father. I just told Klara that Zoe came home with a man and told me she was spending the weekend with him. I challenged him to fight for her. I won. But threw her out anyway and we were getting divorced.
"That was how I got this, during the fight." I said holding up my hand.
She took hold of it. I pulled it back and yelled. "I'm sorry." She said, "And I thought I had problems."
"You do seem a little sad."
It was her turn to bleat out. "I got divorced a year ago, and it still hurts."
"Sorry to hear that, that's rough."
"Not as rough as finding your husband in bed with your best friend and having a miscarriage with our baby from the shock."
Shit.
She burst into tears. I took hold of her and held her. She cried for a few minutes, and then she gathered herself and eased away from me. "Thank you, sorry, it just burst out."
"That's okay, misery loves company."
"True, secrets. No one at work knows, well one person."
"Absolutely."
She gave a small smile, her face did not light up this time. She took her tea and left. I thought that was the end of it. But it appears she did not keep the secret. She must have told Nurse Braithwaite.
It did not take long, The X-Ray confirmed I had broken a bone, and the doctor told me I had bruised my hand quite badly. You did not need a machine or to be a doctor for that diagnosis. That was probably from the punch to his nose or the backhander I gave the twat. They did tell me the name of the bone, it was just words. My hand was put in a lightweight cast. I asked if I could drive after what Nurse Braithwaite had said. I was advised against it until it had healed, which would take about four to six weeks or thereabouts.
Blast, I could not work from home. I could just ignore it and drive in. Anyway, who would know? That seemed the best approach. My car was an automatic, so changing gear was not going to be a problem.
A thought crossed my mind, as my sex life had just taken a dive I would have to learn to be left handed.
I got back to work and carried on from where I left off, typing was a tad awkward in the cast, but as I only used one finger at a time anyway, it was no great shakes. There was a note on my desk when I got back to it with a name and a number. 'I used these solicitors, they are good.
Kl
'.
I took time to make a few personal phone calls and I had an appointment for Thursday afternoon with the solicitor that Klara had given me the number for.
It was just after lunch when Nurse Braithwaite turned up next to my desk. She inspected my cast and found it satisfactory and told me I should book an appointment with her to have it replaced in a few days' time. Because when the swelling from the bruising went down it would become too loose to do any good.
She looked me straight in the eyes. "And no driving. You will invalidate your insurance. I know your car. If I see it in the car park I will report you to management." She turned and left me floundering in her wake.
