THOMAS DEAN IMPRINT Part 4 Hot and Cold
I jumped when heard the screeching sound of the nurse slipping on rubber gloves. I took a deep breath the ordeal was about to begin: the assumption of power over the person and the loss of personal autonomy. For the second time this week I found myself dethroned in this predicament in this clammy sub -- basement at the entry point to a fertility experiment. In these cinderblock rooms, I reduced. I was no God. I was a subject. This time the fault in my demotion could be traced back to my doing.
How did I trap myself into a group physical -- with Dr Regina Windham, the hospital president, no less? Pilus (Hair) knotted in a bun atop her cranium (head) like a crown, Dr Windham was amiably chatting with the nurse. As noticeable hidrosis (beads of sweat) sprouted on Dr Windham's sinciput (forehead), I began to feel hidrosis (driblets of sweat) moisten my axilla (arm pits), pubes and rectum.
"For a sub -- basement in this bitter cold Northern climate, this sub -- basement level," I blurted out, "is unbelievably clammy."
Turning to me, Dr Windham gave me a hug, "We're ignoring poor Dr Rebecca Barton." Dr Windham lauded me, once again, "I'm so proud of her. Not only did she volunteer to donate eggs to our Fertility Program, her able assistant joined her in making this personal sacrifice to an important study. And now," Dr Windham hand clutching my back, "Dr Barton supports not only an important study undertaken in this Hospital, but also shows her support for her subordinate. In this study, through the efforts of Dr Rebecca Barton and other dedicated physicians, the Hospital will leave its imprint."
I smiled. What had Erica my nemesis, former roommate and friend said of a woman's smile? "Be guided by this portent. Nothing conceals stealth and guile // no poison more potent // than what lies behind a woman's smile.
It was wise to say nothing. I came down here because I was using my promise to drop off my secretary's change of clothes to dart out of work early. At the barrier, I ran into Dr Windham chatting with the guard. Turning to me, Dr Windham declared, she was looking at me. "Oh, Dr Barton, it's so good of you to drop by. Oh, yes, your girl -- your secretary -- is going through an extraction this afternoon. It's is nice of you to drop by to wish her well. Naturally, you'll want to hold her hand through the procedure." With the accolades, Dr Windham heaped on me, I couldn't slink away. How could I back out? β The Hospital President was my boss.
Leveling her glance at me, Dr Windham add, "you'd hold her hand like I did for you." She pronounced me, "A true leader makes her imprint!"
Without much further ado I found myself with Dr Windham inside the cinderblock chamber which acted as the portal which opened onto The Fertility Study.
Casually conversing with the nurse, Dr Windham, with a puzzled fogging her face, strove to recall my secretary's name. "What's her name?" Snapping her fingers, Dr Windham went through common girl's names, "Susan, Sharon, Shelly, Shannon, Shawna..."
I interjected, "Sherry. We had discussed her at lunch, You no doubt recall, Dr Windham., you wanted to use Sherry's talent to translate medical -- ese in constructing a Remedial English program for incoming Medical students lest popular vulgar anatomical terms become embedded in the Medical lexicon."
Sherry left quite an impression, even if Dr Windham forgot her name. Though my subordinate, Sherry had a great deal of influence over me, particularly in writing reports. "Dr Barton, you're 100% doctor. The rest are not; they're just placeholders, more politicians than real doctors. When you address your colleagues, you must translate medical -- ese or they won't understand."
"Do they even kiss babies on command?" I chided Sherry.
In the anteroom to the Fertility Experiment, Dr Windham declared, "Little Sherry, indeed!" Brushing up to me to kiss my cheek, Dr Windham reminded me, "Down here we're very informal, on a first name basis, like kissing cousins. What nickname do you go by? I'll bet it's Reba!"
I sighed. This was the fourth time Dr Windham embraced me that day. What had cute little Sherry said of Dr Windham only a few hours earlier when Sherry informed me of a luncheon engagement in the Executive Lounge. "Dr Windham likes to project a -- motherly aura, but I think she runs hot and cold."
"Ladies," the duty nurse stretching the gloves on her hands, "I think we're finished with the salutations. Aren't we? Let`s get down to business."
I gulped. In administering group physicals, I love playing god, experiencing that quiver of corpora in an unclothed condition (naked bodies) reacting to palpation (my touch), reflexively drawing back like the reaction to the sting of a bee, setting into operation the autonomic nervous system causing tumescence in the male and vaginal lubrication in the female. I enjoy the embarrassed reaction of many men to the appearance of pre-seminal fluid (pre -- ejaculate) at the tip of the glans (head of the) penis. Women tend to be more subtle. In defense of my gender, I prefer to say "subtle" rather than "more docile."
But with either sex, the certain pleasure drawn from sexual contact is far exceeded by the surge of power. I am God. People submit, crying, `yes Doctor.' Now today, I would be once again the subject, but as one accompanying Dr Windham treated with greater gentility.