Chapter 4

When Manning and Hudson arrived at the hospital, Hudson wasted no time in meeting his patient. Manning, having no emergency calls, decided to check up on his patients. Before he had gotten far, however, a nurse ran up to him and requested for assistance in the out-patient ward.

“Why isn’t there enough staff in the out-patient quarter?” Manning asked with a slight frown.

“It’s just one section of the ward that we’re a little short of staff,” the nurse explained. “I’m sorry, Dr. Manning, I know it isn’t your usual job, but the group of patients we have tonight are getting rowdy and restless and…”

“Okay, okay,” Manning chuckled, raising his hands to admit defeat. “You have my sympathy, Sylvie. Lead the way.”

As it turned out, the visitors in the out-patient ward were indeed very edgy and impatient. People of all ages were snapping at each other and younger kids were running around, making the atmosphere in the room quite unpleasant.

Manning took a deep breath and entered one of the examination rooms. A patient walked in almost immediately – a plump woman with an unfriendly face and a bandaged arm.

“You’re not Dr. Jacobs. Who are you?” she asked Manning. “I want my usual doctor.”

“I’m Dr. Manning, ma’am,” Manning said politely. “Dr. Jacobs is currently unavailable, but I assure you that I’m just as reliable as she is.”

“I’m not letting a strange guy touch me, man,” the woman said, sounding incredibly offensive.

Manning looked strangely at her. “According to Dr. Jacobs’s report, all I need to do is remove your bandages. I’d hardly call that touching.”

“Whoa, you don’t know for sure whether it’s really time to take these bandages off,” the patient said, stepping back. “Dr. Jacobs had put it on again twice before when
she said it was time for them to come off.”

“Ma’am, I’m a trained doctor, I know what I’m doing.”

“No way,” she shook her head. “I’m coming back some other day. And stop putting on that stupid, fake Australian accent. Why can’t you be proud to be an American?”

With that, she left. Manning stared after her, taken aback by her attitude. If this is what people like Dr. Jacobs have to go through, I’m glad I professionalized in surgery. At least my patients stay quiet during treatment.

His next patient was a young boy, who walked in sulking with his mother. While Manning talked to the mother about some cold symptoms her son, Justin had, the boy suddenly used all the strength he had to stamp on Manning’s foot. Manning release a cry, more of surprise than pain, and pulled his foot away. The boy’s mother grabbed her son and told him off.

“I don’t care, I hate doctors, I hate them!” the kid wailed.

“I am so sorry, Dr. Manning, my son has never been fond of doctors since he could feel pain from injections,” the mother apologised.

With his toes aching a little, Manning forced a smile and said, “That’s okay, at least he aimed for my foot and not a more… sensitive place.”

At the sound of Manning’s words, Justin squirmed out of his mother’s grip and directed a punch at Manning’s crotch.

“Whoa, whoa, fella,” Manning said, grabbing the kid and easily lifting him into the air. He stood Justin on the examination bed and evaded the kid’s little fists. He took the boy by his wrists, firmly but not too roughly as so not to hurt him, and looked at him straight in the eye.

“Listen, Justin, you can relax because I won’t be giving you any shots,” Manning reasoned. He could feel Justin’s muscles relax a little. “Now, if I let you go, you need to promise me you won’t punch me in the face, or anywhere else for that matter. Can you do that?”

Justin hesitated, then he nodded. So Manning let go of his wrists and asked him to sit down on the bed. To his relief, the boy obliged. Manning did a short check-up on him before returning him to his mother and prescribing some medicine for Justin. The thankful mother apologised to Manning once again before leaving the room. Embracing the short-termed solitude, Manning sighed and began writing the prescription he had mentioned on a notepad for the nurses. Just as he was done doing that, another patient walked in.

When Manning looked up, his eyes widened and he could feel the colour drain right out of his face.

“Hello, Doctor Manning,” his patient greeted scornfully.

When Bobby was first enrolled into school, he was completely unprepared and clueless. But he was a bright student, gifted with a quick-learning brain and a terrific memory. In spite of the fact that he had never studied before, he enjoyed learning how to read, write and count. It did not take him long to catch up, academically, with students of his age. In fact, he excelled so quickly that he was often called the “record-breaker” for the brightest student in the school.

For the first few weeks, he was the school bullies’ favourite target, but all methods of irritating and humiliating him did not seem to work, for Bobby somehow always kept a cool, emotionless composure. The bullies just did not understand that their petty tricks and pranks could not faze him as he had endured so much more before. He fought back, in fact, and often won the fight. He was perfectly capable of becoming a bully himself, yet he chose not to. After acknowledging a whole new perspective of life and the people around him, he came to choose God, morals, studies and love over the dirty, intimidating hatred similar to that from the slums. Mr and Mrs Harrison were a very good influence on Bobby. They saw the potential in him and encouraged him to go for every opportunity that came by. They loved him and soon, he learned to love them back.

The same could not be said for his younger sibling, unfortunately. Bobby’s brother was rebellious and hated change. He often ran off from “home” to reunite with his buddies down at the slums. Mr and Mrs Harrison tired ever so hard to change him, Bobby noticed. As much as Bobby loved the elderly couple and hated the way his brother rebelled against them. He went to the extent of attempting to teach his kid brother a few morality lessons, but he gave up not long later.

It was hopeless.

“Cody,” Robert greeted.

Cody Manning, Robert Manning’s younger brother, stood before him. “I see you’ve become very successful, big bro.”

“The result of hard work, Cody, nothing more, nothing less,” Robert answered.

Cody scoffed. “Don’t tell me that. You were always favoured – favoured by Mr and Mrs Harrison, favoured by that God they claim is up there…”

“Favour had nothing to do with it,” Robert cut in. “I endured just as much as you did. It’s just that I decided to change and you didn’t.”

Cody’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve always been smarter than me, too. You caught up a lot faster. Don’t you think I tried, Bobby? Don’t you think I tried to be smart like you?”

Dr. Manning could hear the hostility building up in Cody’s voice. “Cody, I have patients to attend to. I suggest that, if you don’t need my services, we talk about this some other time.”

Cody grunted. “Fine. Some other time then… now that I know you’re back.”