My phone rang. I woke up, panting and breathing heavily. My bed was all wet; I thought someone had turned the tap on me whilst I was asleep. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. Everything was still the same. I was in my own room. No gorilla. No Dr Braver. No Ruth Price and no Anna Guy. It was just me. Dr Chukwuemeka Azuibike Nwokolo. My bed looked like I had been fighting the heavyweight-wrestling champion. I closed the Red Book that I had held in my left hand as I reached for the phone.
“Hello!” I said with a croaky voice, my heart pounding.
“Hello!” It’s sister on Hillingdon Ward. Is that Dr Chuks?”
“Yes,” I said unenthusiastically, “How can I help?”
“Well, sorry to disturb you, doctor,” the nurse said with a shaky voice, “But Dr Braver has asked me to tell you to meet him on Hillingdon Ward.”
At the mention of Dr Braver, all the sleep cleared completely from my eyes. I had a resurgence of my energy.
“But I am not the doctor on-call,” I protested.
“Yes, I know. But he insisted on your coming to the ward.” She cleared her voice and added, “You know what Dr Braver is like. No one dare question his decision.”
I felt like saying, Well I am going to question this! But of course, I knew that was a wishful thinking. I couldn’t really do that.
“O.K., sister, I am on my way. Thanks,” I said, as I staggered to the bathroom to wash my face.
The night nurses had gathered round the nurses’ station when I arrived. I looked to see a familiar face among them but they were all strangers. I had never met them before. The night sister was giving her nurses instructions for the night.
“Hello, doctor. Sorry for dragging you out in this cold weather. I do appreciate you are not on call. But his Lordship insisted on calling you,” the sister said, as she welcomed me to the ward.
“It’s no problem, sister,” I replied, anxious to know the real reason for coming.
“I don’t know where he’s gone, but he said you should wait for him on the ward. You fancy a cuppa?”
“No. Thanks,” I replied. I felt like I might vomit if I had coffee the way my stomach felt.
As I sat on my own in the junior doctors’ room, I said to myself, “Dr Braver has dragged me out this time of the night and he is now no where to be found. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.”
I was in my own world, flashing my mind back, trying to remember the details of the nightmares that I had before the sister phoned me. I struggled to stop myself dosing off. I know myself more than anyone. Weak in the face of sleep. Put me in an easy chair or a bed and I am off before you blink. The time had just gone past midnight. I was just about to get up and walk round the ward when I had a knock on the door.
“Dr Braver is on the ward,” the sister announced, as she peeped through the door.
I nodded and followed her into the ward.