Frank Georgalis – Writer

An Eye for a Tooth: (Book; Part III)

The reason for living can be the prize for
dying

By Frank Georgalis

It was left off, after the hanging of the girl the doctor came to the door.

“What is it, doctor?” asked McCord, drawing back as he spoke.

The doctor became startled by the sudden abrupt manner and firmness in McCord’s face and hearing it in the sound of his voice and seeing that his visit affected McCord, he chose to lighten up a bit and show himself in a better spirit

“I am sorry I came unexpectedly. There is nothing earth shaking about what I wanted to tell you. I suppose it can wait,” said the doctor, turning to leave.

“No, doctor, say what you came here to say, please,” said McCord, laying his hand on the doctor’s arm to make him feel more comfortable.

The doctor, seeing McCord’s change of manner, walked away and sat himself on misplaced bar stool, and remained silent for some time. At length he said in a steady voice.

“Being a doctor and British, I sometimes go out of my way to perform all my duties. I find sometimes that performing my duties, even in a case where I must announce some bad news, I find it necessary to project a healthy external appearance, even cheerful. I had a visit from Miss Chiolis, Angela. I examined her and I found out that she is pregnant. She told me that you are the father of the expected human life,” stated the doctor.

In order to proceed the doctor found it compelling to study McCord’s face.

McCord looked as though he had fallen beneath his despondent thoughts and had given way to some grief. Suppressing his own emotions, the doctor ventured to explain his thoughts.

“The reason I used the word “human life” is to enlighten you in the seriousness of it all.

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say to me, doctor,” exclaimed the man.

“Let me hurry to the point and if I sound blunt and straight forward, let it be at that. Human life doesn’t spell abortion because of the inconvenience.”

McCord gave him the signal to proceed.

“Angela said that she was pregnant once before; she wanted to have the baby but you made her to terminate the pregnancy. This time she wants to have the baby. I thought she was already here, because she called early and told me that she was on her way here to see you.”

“Well, I haven’t seen her,” interrupted McCord.

The doctor thought for while gazing at the floor.

“She called me from the pay phone from the restaurant and told me she was on her way here. She said that you weren’t here but she had a key to get in and she was going to wait for you.”
“ Well, I said I haven’t seen her,” replied the man angrily.

“Any way she is going to tell you that she was leaving you, without giving you a reason because she was afraid of you. She said that she wanted to go to Greece to have the baby. Her father has real estate in Greece and all she was going to ask you for little money to get there,” the doctor went on, completely disregarding McCord’s expressed anger the.

“Well, she never came.”

“May be she has changed he mind about the money from you. She is not looking for a lot of money; just her airfare. You see, Angela speaks Greek fluently and she could get a job as interpreter for some company or government. The most interesting thing she said to me was that she was going to build her life the honest way. She told me in an almost poetic style; it takes a strong person to build something and human to let it fall. She said that she regrets she faulted most of her life. So, Don, give her something to go on with her life. She loves you, she told me that much, but she feels that she has been misused. You kept and she kept your relationship a secrete, obviously because of your marriage.”

“Is that why she was, I mean she is misused, you said or she said?” McCord went on angrily.

“I know how you feel,” returned the doctor after a brief pause.

“You know how I feel? Tell me how do I feel, doctor!”

“You feel that you have given her everything she needed.”

“Yes, you are right. I have tried to make her proper. If there is a justice in this world,…”

“Justice to you at this point is that she should do what you want her. Be careful of one thing, Don, sometimes when the gravity of justice is disturbed by some feeble cries, we end up smothering the crier,” said the doctor, “She is not crying for a lot, her wishes are as feeble as her cries, so be patient with her. Let her go. She is only your toy, you can easily find another toy.”

Pretending to be persuaded in part, by the doctor’s representations, McCord at length consented, with a very bad grace, to follow the doctor’s advice.

The fair-minded doctor smiled and went away with a feeling of some accomplishment.

Locking the door after the doctor left, McCord rushed to the phone in the front room and hurriedly called out.

“I want you to come to my office right now,” said McCord on the phone and listened for a split second, “Right now!”

“I want you to help me to remove a package to someplace,” there he stopped for a split second, he then shouted, “I don’t have the goddam time to explain anything else you idiot, but our plans must be put on hold for the time being. I just killed Angela and we must get rid of Mattie.” Saying this he nailed his eyes on the floor and listened for a split second, “Not, too,” his hands hung the phone.