Codebreakers

“The doctor’s smile froze as he walked over to me. He stopped directly in front of me so close I could smell his fresh minty breath. He raised his hand and I thought for a moment he might hit me. Instead, he pointed his finger at me. It shook as he spoke, his voice like a low growl, ‘Do you have any idea who I am? Do you realize who you are talking to?’”

“Jo, I was just so sick of the arrogance, I decided it was time to be honest. So I told him what I thought but I don’t think I’ll repeat it because you are such a lady. The best part was when his face turned purple – I watched spidery veins on his nose rise up.

“What happened?”. Jo asked.

“Oh not much. He left and I was disciplined and encouraged to resign.”

“You were disciplined. That doctor should have been disciplined.”

Martha smiled.

“Aw Jo – the world just doesn’t work that way. Nobody said it was fair, did they?”

“So that’s why you left?”

“Yes. I don’t want to be around people who look at their patients as things or diseases or fodder for their sick sense of so-called humor.”

Jo sat back in her chair and sipped her wine.

“His name wasn’t Gilson, was it?”

Martha poured herself some wine.

“No, it was McPherson. Why?”

“No reason – he just sounds like someone I once knew.”

Jo smiled. She was ninety-two, for God’s sake. The war was over, at least that war. It was time, past time. She’d kept quiet about what she, what they, had done. But she’d paid a price, never feeling she could reveal her true self to anyone.
As she watched Martha, she remembered and the syllables tumbled out.

“… dah dah – dit dah – dit dah dit – dah – dit dit dit dit – dit dah.”

“What the …?”

“Don’t worry dear – I just spelled out your name in Morse Code.”

“Thank God. For a minute there, I thought you were having a stroke.”

“Nope. I was just testing my old brain.”

Jo thought she might do a handstand. On second thought, she stayed in her chair.

“What’s with the Morse Code Jo?”

“Ah. That is the question, isn’t it? How would it be if I tell you all about it?”

Martha raised her glass.

“That would be awesome.”

They clinked glasses. The story would take awhile but it was time, finally, to tell it.