Chapter 2

Sister Wallace, you remember Dr Marshall, don’t you? He is a consultant now. Probably knows everything there is to know.’

Dr Harris was a master of understatement. He was addressing Sister Lisa Wallace, Charge Nurse of the Neurology Ward and introducing her to Dr Andrew Marshall, newly appointed Consultant Neurologist, while knowing full well that the same Lisa Wallace and the same Dr Marshall had lived together for over two years and it had at one stage been strongly rumoured that they would marry.

‘Hello Dr Marshall. Welcome back. You are looking very well.’

‘Hello Sister Wallace,’ replied Andrew. ‘It has been a long time. There have been some changes here I see.’

‘Yes, we have grown a bit since you were here last. Although I suppose we are not still as big as your London hospitals.’

Lisa Wallace could only be described as stunning. She was tall, somewhere between 175 and 178cm, although she never disclosed her exact height to anyone. Her hair was blonde, coming straight down over her shoulders when she would let it down, although on duty it was always neatly tucked into a bun at the crown of her head. Her eyes were blue. A light, yet deep blue which one could not fail to notice immediately. It was what Andrew had noticed first when they had met. She was a staff nurse at that time and he was a junior resident on the ward. They did not exactly meet. They confronted each other over a patient. Andrew could no longer recall the exact details but it had something to do with him wanting to perform a lumbar puncture during the junior nurse’s lunch break and Sister Wallace refusing his request point blank. Lisa Wallace had been strong minded as a junior nurse, as a staff nurse and even more so as a charge nurse. She had an obvious intelligence which, while not flaunting it, she made no attempt to hide. She was demanding but fair and although respectful of the doctors who came into her ward, always considered them to be her equals and not her masters.

It was only natural that she and Andrew would clash and clash they did time and time again, until finally he called a truce, asked her out for dinner and within six months she had moved in with him into his one bedroom flat over a second-hand clothes store. They lived together there for two years and three months when Andrew flew to London to take up his position at Queen Square and Lisa moved into a flat with another nurse.

And now he was back. Andrew had known that this first meeting would be difficult but he was sure that Lisa Wallace’s professionalism would not allow any unpleasantness to take place.

At that point Dr Harris chimed in with:

“You two will have plenty of time to renew your acquaintance. There is a lot I have got to show Dr Marshall.’

‘I will see you later, Sister Wallace,’ Andrew said as he started to follow Dr Harris out of the ward. There was no reply, Sister Wallace had already turned away to attend to her duties.

The next port of call was the research wing. This occupied the area that had once housed thirty-five beds and was a large, newly renovated series of research laboratories, buzzing with activity with serious looking young men and women clad in white lab coats, all busily attending to their labours.

‘This is where it’s all happening Andrew,’ said Dr Harris. ‘I will introduce you to the laboratory manager tomorrow and he can go over the details with you. I’m keen to have your input in the research area. That’s where our future lies.’

They moved into the administration area and stopped at a door marked “Dr Andrew Marshall.”

‘This is your office, my boy. It used to be Brian Love’s. We only changed the sign last week. His secretary refused to believe he had actually retired. You know she had been here as long as he had.’

Andrew remembered Lorraine Stewart well. She was a kindly soul who had never married and who had fussed over Dr Love like a mother hen. Andrew always assumed that she had a crush on Brian Love although he was a happily married man with a brood of children, five or six, Andrew was not exactly sure. He hadn’t realised that Lorraine had also left and before he could ask, Dr Harris anticipated his question and said:

‘Lorraine only left three weeks ago and we don’t have replacement yet. But don’t worry, we have advertised and I’m sure you will have a secretary quite soon enough.’

He then added, ‘Go on, and open the door. It’s your office now. Go ahead and make yourself at home. I’ve got a meeting to go to. See you at lunch.’

Dr Harris left Andrew standing in front of the door to his office. Looking around and seeing no one, Andrew opened the door and went in. It was pretty much as he remembered. All Dr Love’s books and personal things were gone but otherwise the room was the same. In the centre stood a rather tired teak desk behind which was an office chair covered in brown vinyl. To one side was a cupboard-cum bookshelf, now empty and on the other side the interconnecting door to the secretary’s office. The carpet was nondescript beige with a pattern of small brown flowers and completing the furniture, a cane waste paper basket stood in the corner. Not much, but it’s mine, thought Andrew. I can spruce it up one day.

Andrew walked in, closed the door and sat in the chair behind the empty desk, a fine layer of dust covering its top. He had a sudden urge to ring someone but there was no secretary to get him the number and no telephone to do it himself. That was one thing he would have to remedy as soon as possible. It was ten in the morning, three hours before he was due to meet Dr Harris for lunch and he realised that there was actually nothing for him to do. He had no patients in the ward under his care. He assumed outpatients was not on that morning or he would have been told. He had no private practice to go to. There was, in fact, not a single thing expected of him that morning.

After a few minutes deliberation he decided to go back to the ward to see what patients were in and to meet the registrar and residents. It would also give him the opportunity to talk to Lisa on a less formal level. When he arrived in the ward there were no doctors to be seen and the ward clerk did not know where they were. Andrew did not feel it appropriate to have them paged just so he could introduce himself. They were probably busy somewhere. He also realised that Sister Wallace was not around and he was a little relieved. He started to leave the ward when he passed the door marked “Sister Wallace.” Without thinking, he knocked twice and a sharp voice commanded him to come in. Lisa Wallace was sitting at her desk, a cup of tea over the right in front of her. She was reading through a sheaf of papers which she put down when he entered.

‘Hello Lisa. Got a minute?’

‘Nothing to do Andrew? Haven’t you been given any work yet?’ she asked.

Andrew replied a little sheepishly, ‘Actually no. I’ve got nothing on until I meet Dr Harris for lunch at one.’

‘This is not like the Dr Marshall of old. Oh no. The Dr Marshall I once knew always had something to do. Always busy. Always learning. There was so much to learn that he even had to go to England to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.’ Lisa’s voice was now cold, the words spilling out quickly, one after the other.

‘Come on Lisa. Give me a break. I know you must feel bad about me but can’t we leave that for another time. This is my first day.’

‘Feel bad about you? I don’t feel bad about you. I’ve forgotten you even existed, if you must know. Why did you come back? The work in England was so interesting, so challenging, you used to write. Why didn’t you stay? I’m sure you would have got a consultancy there. You are bloody good enough. And why come back? You’ve got no one here, at least no one that cares about you.’

Andrew could see the tears in her eyes now. She wiped them with the back of her hand and reached for the cup of tea, taking a quick mouthful.

Andrew was orphaned when he was seven. His parents were killed in a car accident. His father, a country doctor, always overworked, was taking his mother away for a rare holiday when, due to tiredness from all the long hours and sleepless nights, he fell asleep at the wheel and ploughed the car into a large oak tree killing them both instantly. Andrew was an only child and was looked after for ten years by a great aunt who doted on him and helped him through a childhood which was for him filled with sadness and an enormous sense of loss which he never overcame. He was bright at school and after completing high school with excellent results, he was accepted into Melbourne University Medical School. He left his aunt’s home in the country and moved to Trinity College where he lived until graduation six years later. His aunt had died some years before and to his knowledge, he had no other family, at least no one who had ever bothered to seek him out.

He was a bit of a loner. He had difficulty making close friends and although he would get on easily with people, somehow never became close to anyone, male or female, until he met Lisa. They had sized each other up first professionally and then personally and then they clicked and for the first time in his life Andrew found himself with a person to whom he could confide his innermost thoughts, seek advice and share the happy moments. It had its difficulties, a professional relationship during working hours and then the intensely personal one outside of work. The two never became confused and there had not been an occasion when either of them allowed personal considerations to influence their professional behaviour or judgement. Others, fellow doctors and nurses, were naturally aware of their relationship and although no doubt they must have for a time been a source of gossip, this soon died down and everyone accepted the situation quite naturally.

Their personal relationship was intense. Although deeply in love with one another, neither had ever said so. It was not in their nature. They shared everything. They liked the same music, read the same authors and enjoyed the same films. Strangely, both were virgins when they met and the first coupling on the night Lisa moved into his flat was as clumsy and as awkward as it was brief. After that, they took time to learn about each other’s bodies, explore each other physically and mentally so that in time their love-making became mutually satisfying and always rewarding. They grew together as human beings and while it was never spelled out by either of them, the logical assumption was that they would marry. They were in fact married in everything but name. Both were pursuing careers and marriage just never came up.

And then Andrew got his job at Queen Square and it all came to a sudden halt. Lisa had long been aware of his desire to further his training overseas. The two choices were England and the United States and Andrew chose England because he wanted to work at the famous Queen Square and because living in England would give him the opportunity to see Europe, something he had always wanted to do. He was following a long line of Australian neurologists who had headed overseas for part of their training. While it was no longer compulsory, it was still desirable and in some circles expected of anyone aspiring to become a neurologist. Where Andrew went wrong was in assuming that Lisa would, as a matter of course, come with him. It had never been openly discussed. He never actually asked her but assumed that she would go wherever he would need to go to further his career. But Lisa had different ideas. She also had career aspirations and could see no good reason why she would have to give up her career for his. On this matter she was immovable. So once again they clashed but this time it did not lead to a dinner date but to them going their separate ways. He went to England to a job where he excelled himself and she was promoted to Charge Sister and moved into a flat in Carlton which she shared with an old friend from school who was nursing at the nearby Royal Melbourne Hospital.

At first Andrew wrote her weekly from England. She never replied and after three months he stopped writing altogether and there had been no further communication between them until today.

They sat in silence, each with their own thoughts. Andrew had had a number of relationships in England, mostly nurses or physiotherapists with whom he worked. He had little opportunity for contact outside the hospital environment. The girls were all pleasant and he enjoyed their company and their bodies but none had amounted to anything serious and with none could he ever experience what he had once experienced with Lisa. Andrew did not know it, but for the three years that he was away, Lisa did not go out with even one man. There was no lack of offers but she always politely declined. Also unknown to Andrew was that for the first six months after his departure, Lisa sank into a deep depression from which she only emerged through sheer willpower and the determination not to be beaten by anything, let alone a man. She emerged from the experience a harder person. She thought she was over him until she heard of his appointment six months earlier when she realised the deep hurt was still there, added to which was a deep resentment and a feeling of betrayal but when she saw him, she realised, much to her dismay, that there was another feeling also. She still loved him with all her being and she had she not been at work, would probably have thrown herself into his arms. She maintained her self-control and to Andrew all that appeared was hostility.

‘Lisa, how about a truce for now? This is not the place for personal grievances. We have always said that. What about we go out for dinner? Let’s go to Sergio’s. It’s quiet and we can talk.’

‘Dr Marshall. Let me make this perfectly clear. I’m the Charge Sister and you are now the Consultant. I can assure you that our relationship will be cordial, at all times professional and you will have no cause for grievance from me. And as for Sergio’s, forget it. I won’t go there with you or anywhere else. Our relationship starts and stops at Prince Charles. There is nothing else.’

Lisa stood up and it was clear to Andrew that she expected him to leave and that he did.