Stranger than Fiction. Pt.2.

Stranger than Fiction. Pt 2.

            When I next ran into Tom walking along a corridor in the hospital, he exuded an air of insouciance

            “How are things?” I asked him

            “I’ve just been to see my lawyer.  Did you know that they're trying to get rid of me as department head?” he said.

            “No, I hope things work out all right,” I replied.
            "We'll have a coffee sometime soon and I'll tell you all about it and we both continued on our separate ways.

            My encounter with Tom continued to play on my mind throughout the day and when I got home that night I told Maureen  about it.

            Why don’t we invite them over for dinner?” Maureen said.  It will give us an opportunity to see if there is anything we can do to help.”

            “I think that's a great idea,"  I said.  “Now, what’s for our supper tonight?   Whatever it is, it sure smells good.”

            Two weeks later Tom and Ann and the two children Kenny and Elizabeth, neither of whom looked like their father arrived for dinner. They looked like a typical happy family.  Kenny, a mischievous little five year old and Elizabeth a couple of years older with a quiet, reserved manner, smiled as they walked in into the warmth  from the outside. 

            Tom handed me a bottle of wine and Ann looked for somewhere to put down the cake she had brought for desert.

            They introduced the children and greetings were exchanged all around.

            “Have a drink before dinner,” I said.

            Having filled our glasses and provided the children with soft drinks, we chatted for a while.  I don't know if it was just my imagination, but throughout the evening I couldn’t help noticing Tom’s distance from the children.  It was as though they were someone else's mildly irritating kids.  Which I guess is what they were.  After dinner Tom and I sat down in the den.  He told me that he had been summoned to a hearing by the College to determine whether they were going to renew the provisional license to practice he had been issued under the aegis of the University.
"If they don't I don't know what I am going to do," he said miserably. "I'm worried sick."
             "What will you do  if they don't renew your license?" I asked.
              "Well, I would just have to go back  to England.  I kept up my license there, thank God,"  he said.
              We joined the ladies and children and most of the evening he managed to put on a sociable front,

           “We really find the winters here are hard to take,” Ann said, as we sat chatting over coffee.  “I really think we should be looking for something in Vancouver.”

            No word about Tom's plight and the fact that he might soon not be licensable in Saskatchewan let alone Vancouver.  Frequently, Canadian graduates couldn't get a billing number that would allow them to practice in Vancouver. Tom said nothing.

            “My brother in Vancouver keeps begging us to move there,” she added. 

            Again Tom said nothing.

            “But first,” Ann said, “I think we will go back to the U.K. for a while.  Tom has some business to complete there.” 

            I knew that the business he had to complete was related to maintaining his license to practice medicine hoping that there was no communications between the licensing authorities here in Canada and in the U.K.

            “Oh, you really must be looking forward to a reunion with your family and friends,” Maureen said enthusiastically.

            “Yes we are.” Ann answered.

            We continued chatting for a little while and then we bid them farewell and they left.   We only saw them once more after that..

              
           Three or four months later that I received a call from Randy Stern, a young English neurosurgeon who came to Saskatoon at the same time as Tom and had been a friend of his for many years dating back  to  their student days in the old country..  He dropped a bombshell;  Tom had returned to the UK and had committed suicide there a few days later.

            Randy told us the following story, learned from Ann.

            Randy had seen Tom and his family just before they left because Tom wanted someone to talk things over with.  He had gone to a meeting of the Provincial licensing body with his lawyer and came home worried and very depressed.

            “It looks as though there is nothing I can do,” he said.  “The Canadian licensing authority won't renew my license and worse still they sent a transcript of the whole hearing to the licensing authority back home in the U.K-- and now they are going to hold their own hearing there to see whether they're going to revoke my license.”

            “Oh Tom,” Ann said, “surely they wouldn't do that.”

            “I'm going to have to go back to England to defend myself before the licensing committee.  Ever since I lost the medical malpractice case they are out to get me.  Now after that, I really won't have a chance.  I don't help much left to live for.”

            Ann went to put her arms around him but he shrugged her off.

            “Darling, you everything to live for,” she said, “We’ll get this sorted out and you have me and two lovely children to stand by your side whatever happens”

            He raised his voice angrily, “those children aren't really mine who are you trying to fool?”.

“What?” she said, taken aback,speechless.  then,after a few moments, “you really are crazy.  How can you say something like that?”

              With a look of anguish on his face, Tom said hoarsly, “I had a vasectomy when I was 28, before we were married.  I was afraid to tell you in case you’d have called the whole thing off.  I had arranged to try to have it reversed and came home one night to tell you about it.  It was that very same night that you told me you were pregnant.”

             She looked at him in amazement.  “You bloody fool,” she shouted.  “You're accusing me of having our two children by someone else.  All these years you’ve lived with us, harboring a grudge and never having the guts to say a thing about it.  I’m not putting up this for another minute. Tomorrow I’ll phone my brother in Vancouver and the children and I will go and spend some time with him. In the meantime you can go home and get yourself out of this mess.” 

            “You bitch,” Tom yelled furiously, you know you had those two children by your lover.”

“Listen to me, you lousy bastard, “Ann screamed back,” we’re going to resolve this once and for all by DNA testing.  Meanwhile you go back there and you get yourself out of this mess.  I’ll need some time to think if I ever want to see you again.”

            A few days later, she and the children left for Vancouver, but not before she had dragged  Tom for a DNA test.  She never saw Tom again.

            Tom went back to the U.K..  He pleaded his case to the Medical Board and lost his license to practice medicine.  Soon after he overdosed and died of some unspecified medication. 

            The DNA results proved beyond any reasonable doubt that both the children were Tom's.