Read 04 - Carnival of Criminals for Free Online Page B

at least, “Very pleased to see you
could make the appointment.”
    Dr Cutt held out his hand and Tommy shook it.
    “Your sister informed me of your problem, I hope I may be
of service.” Dr Cutt took the handles of the wheelchair Tommy sat in and pushed
him through the doorway and down a hall. They turned right into a back room
which served as the doctor’s surgery, “Now then, what appears to be the
matter?”
    Dr Cutt took a chair by a desk as Tommy stared at him
incredulously. The doctor raised an eyebrow indicating he was awaiting an
answer.
    “My legs, obviously.” Tommy almost spluttered. His sister
had clearly lost her marbles sending him here.
    “Yes, but what is the matter with them?” Persisted the
doctor.
    “They don’t work.”
    “Yes, but why?”
    Tommy found himself without an answer, or at least one
that was polite. What sort of a fool was this man? He had been shot and left
for dead, for goodness sake, of course his legs didn’t work after that! But the
doctor was still waiting for him to answer the question, smiling patiently.
Finally Tommy gave in.
    “I don’t know.”
    “And nor do your doctors, apparently.” Dr Cutt tapped a
finger on a grey cardboard folder at his elbow, “I requested your notes from
the military hospital, I know one of the doctors there. According to these
papers there is no reason for you to be crippled. There was a lot of tissue
damage for sure, but the nerves were intact. You can feel pain in your feet and
toes yes?”
    “Well, yes.”
    “There you are then. Nerves are the messenger boys of our
body. If they are disconnected or damaged the messages don’t get through. But
you, my lad, you have all your message routes intact. So the question remains,
why can’t you walk?”
    “I thought maybe something wasn’t connected properly?”
Tommy said weakly.
    “Your legs are made up of bones, muscles and nerves, oh
and blood vessels of course, but for our purposes bones, muscles and nerves
will do.” Dr Cutt stood and opened a cupboard, on the inside of which was a
chart of a human body showing its inside workings, “I keep this hidden as it
disturbs some of my old ladies.” Dr Cutt smiled, “Here is a drawing of the legs
with the muscles and nerves. So, the bones are your foundations, the scaffold.
Break one of those and it is painful, it may even heal wrong and leave you with
a twisted leg, but once it is mended you will be able to walk on it, right?”
    “I suppose.”
    “Of course, I even know of patients who have carried on
walking on a broken leg without realising. Now, as for the muscles,” Dr Cutt
pointed at the muscles coloured in pink on the drawing, “They can be damaged,
cut, withered, but they restore themselves. They might be weakened, but even
then they can be strengthened. Unless they are removed completely or reduced to
pulp they will heal and become functional once more. Do I make myself clear?”
    Tommy nodded.
    “So to the nerves. Nerves are the vital bit and quite
frankly we still need to know a lot more about them. What we do know is that if
you break the path from the nerves to the brain a person may think about
moving their limbs, but that message will never reach its destination. In
short, broken nerves are the cause of many cases of paralysis. Now, here is the
interesting part. Nerves also tell us about pain and other sensations. A good
indicator that nerves are damaged is when a person cannot feel pain in their
extremities.”
    “But I do feel pain.”
    “Precisely.”
    “So my nerves aren’t broken?”
    “Not physically, no.” Dr Cutt closed the cupboard door,
“Now we come to the delicate part. When all the body appears to be functioning
as it should physically then we naturally have to assume there a psychological
aspect to the problem.”
    “It’s in my head, you mean?” Tommy started to feel angry,
“Look I have tried to move my legs, tried and tried. You think I want to be
stuck in this chair? I lay in that hospital